‘Okay, let’s start right there. You provided me with a list of possible alternatives. We spoke to Mitchell Copping. I can’t say we drew any firm conclusions from that meeting, but we cannot rule him out. Thing is, with me being warned off by my own agency, and Benton lacking a way in to have words with either Cole or DeVeer, there’s still an angle we have yet to pursue. Only, I don’t have a clue how to go about it.’
‘Neither will speak to me directly, I’m sure,’ Muller said.
Baxter nodded. ‘Same goes for me.’
Benton ran a hand across his face, palm rasping on the fine stubble the day had left him with. ‘I’ve not been entirely out of the loop since Syd and I last spoke. I managed to finesse a conversation with Dylan Cole’s father. Caught up with him in a breakfast diner I know he and his cop buddies hang out in. I didn’t get much out of the guy, but I did find out that while their sons are pals, the fathers are not. Quite the opposite, what with Michael Copping’s far-right tendencies and suspicion concerning illegal activities up there on his land. The two are more like natural enemies.’
‘Yeah, because of course cops don’t like guns,’ Baxter said with a sneer.
‘There’s a difference. You don’t have your mind open enough to see it, but it’s there all the same. For what it’s worth, I heard genuine animosity from Cole towards Copping and his whole movement.’
‘Which doesn’t rule out their kids in any way,’ Sydney pointed out.
Benton acknowledged her with a dip of the head. ‘I agree. But I think it suggests there’s no conspiracy in respect of our sergeant Cole covering up for one of his son’s buddies. It’s thin, I realise that. But I got the feeling he steers his son away from that sort of relationship as much as he can, so I’m not sure Dylan Cole is our shooter.’
‘You’re right, it’s hardly concrete, but all we have at the moment is speculation and gut instinct based on our experience. So how about DeVeer?’
‘Sneaky sonofabitch,’ Baxter opined with a grimace of disgust. ‘A real nasty piece of work, too. If I had to point a finger at any of them, it would be aimed in his direction. Least obvious on the surface, sure, but beneath it he’s all piss and poison.’
‘So how do we get to him?’ Sydney asked, glancing around at each of her companions in turn. ‘In individual conversations we have all discussed this aspect. We’re agreed that the best way to clear Kevin’s name is to find the real shooter. We don’t know if it involves any of these boys, but at the moment we’ve hit a brick wall with the DeVeer kid.’
‘I may be able to try something,’ Benton volunteered. When he had their attention he went on, ‘If you’re okay with it, Dexter, I’ll pay them a visit in an official capacity, tell them you’ve provided the sheriff’s office with Luke’s name and that as a matter of pure formality I require an unofficial discussion with the boy. I’ll play it right. I’ll convince them I’m doing my duty and that I’m not taking your word seriously. I think it’ll get me in the door at the very least.’
‘Fine with me,’ Muller said, shaking a hand dismissively. ‘You say whatever you need to say to whomever you need to say it, Sheriff Lowe. My reputation in this town can’t sink any lower. The only thing keeping me here is clearing my son’s name.’
‘At least we have a specific aim,’ Sydney said eagerly. ‘So, I think it’s time for me to let you all know what I’ve been up to. And before I start, Ben, I’d ask you to please keep your complaints to yourself until I’m done.’
‘Complaints?’
‘Yeah. Believe me when I say you’ll have some. Duncan, you may also want to think twice once you’ve heard what I have to say.’
‘I can’t say I like the sound of that at all.’
‘I didn’t expect you to, but there’s been some shit going down which I’ve reacted to. I’m not sure what my response will provoke from them, but I know what I got out of it.’
‘Which was?’ Benton asked. He regarded her with both suspicion and concern.
‘Some satisfaction. That and the kind of rush you get when you disturb a hornet’s nest.’
‘And who are we talking about here, Syd?’ Benton’s voice was cold beneath the calm. ‘Who are these hornets of yours?’
Sydney took a deep breath before telling them.
Forty-Two
‘Chauncey Jubb?’ Benton said, his voice climbing, shrill and loud in the stillness of their surroundings. ‘You went to see the mayor of Moon Falls on your own?’
‘No.’ Sydney shook her head defiantly. ‘I went there to confront his attack dog, Chase Ebben. Jubb happened to overhear us and got involved.’
‘What on earth did you want with Ebben?’
In the fading light it was hard to tell, but he looked to have turned pale. Certainly the break in Benton’s voice told Sydney he was anxious.
‘I think I was being followed yesterday. Not casually, either. To me it was much more like surveillance. It got me thinking about recent events, the kind of people who have reason to get in my way, and last night I discovered listening devices inside my home.’
‘Jeez,’ Baxter said, uttering a soft whistle to punctuate his surprise. ‘Even I didn’t think they’d stoop so low.’
Sydney nodded. ‘What’s more, whoever put them there returned in the early hours of the morning to replace the batteries. They got involved in a scuffle with Hank Stevensen. Poor old Hank came off worse, and my trespasser managed to get away. But Hank recognised him as one of Ebben’s hired hands.’
‘What the heck was Hank doing there?’ Benton demanded to know. His voice grew louder still, and he was clearly furious with her. ‘Why didn’t you call for me?’
Taken aback by his quick and fiery anger, Sydney responded coolly. ‘First of all, I had no idea Hank was even going to be there. I asked him for one of those bug detectors, told him why I needed it, but I also warned him to stay out of it. I didn’t want to drag him into this mess.’
‘And second of all?’
‘What?’
‘You said there was a first of all, so I assumed there had to be more.’
Fixing him with a hard stare, Sydney said, ‘Yeah, there is. Even if I’d not called Hank, I wouldn’t have called you, either. Ben, you were forthright about needing to stay in the background on this. Avoiding being put in the position where you have to confront the likes of Mayor Jubb and other influential people, is precisely why you made that stipulation, right?’
‘Sure. But you had no idea where it would lead or who would turn up at your door, Syd. What if they’d not come to replace batteries? What if they’d decided you’d become too much of a nuisance? You thought you were on your own. You went head-to-head with the unknown. That’s not smart. That’s not being the cop or agent I know you to be. These people are– ’
‘They’re what, Ben?’ Sydney asked, hearing her own voice grow loud and indignant but unable to help herself. ‘Unscrupulous people? Thugs? Murderers? What are you saying here, Ben? More to the point, what aren’t you telling us?’
His eyes narrowed and he grew rigid. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
Defiant in the face of his anger, Sydney returned his glare. ‘You flit in and out of this, Ben. You flip sides, too. First you pull away as if I’m toxic, then you come back saying you want to help.’
‘Which I did.’
‘Sure. You helped by going a certain distance, but then you also backed off again. You get annoyed when I turn to Hank for support, but then start warning me off when it comes to the people who seem to hold the reins of power in Moon Falls these days. You asked what I meant. Well, okay then. What do you know that you’re not telling us, Ben? That’s what I mean.’
‘You think… what? That I’m playing you somehow? Hiding things from you?’
‘Well, are you?’
There was a different look in his eyes. Any residue of anger appeared to have gone, replaced by a deep sorrow. He was hurt, and Sydney realised her words had wounded him. She was aware of both Muller a
nd Baxter watching them closely, but it was Benton who continued to speak.
‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Sydney, but I’m the sheriff of this county. It may not be as fancy as the FBI, but it still means something around here. Still means something to me, too. But despite that, I’m here for some covert meeting with a man who I still believe to be the father of the boy who carried out the high school massacre, a boy I helped shoot dead. Alongside him is a teacher who also believes we shot an innocent boy that day. Then there’s you, all puffed up and storming around the town as if none of it will ever stick, and taking on the guy who runs the entire show here. And you have the… the damned nerve to question me and my motives?’
Sydney stood her ground and refused to buckle. ‘You said it all there for me, Ben. You have every reason not to be here. Yet there you stand. I have to wonder why that is.’
‘So you do think I’m playing you?’
‘The truth?’
‘Always.’
‘I don’t know. You may be here because you’re willing to listen, to be open-minded, even to help where and when you can. If so, then I am genuinely sorry for doubting you. But you can’t blame me for wondering if you’re here to find out what we’re doing, what we’ve discovered so far, and what our plans are.’
‘Plans?’ he scoffed, barking a humourless laugh. ‘Is that what you call them? You don’t have any plans worth a damn. All you have is a grieving father, a conspiracy nutjob, and you. You who are also still in mourning and trying too hard to live up to your father’s name.’
Without pausing to consider her actions or their consequences, Sydney put both hands on Benton’s chest and shoved him. He took a faltering step backwards.
‘Take that back!’ she screamed in his face. ‘You take that back, Benton Lowe.’
He stared at her in astonishment. ‘Have you gone crazy? One minute we’re talking calmly about how to proceed to the next phase, the next you’re shouting at me and pushing me around. What’s got into you?’
Sydney would not allow the emergent tears to spill out. Regaining control of both her voice and emotions, she said, ‘I heard you reason with me, Benton. I heard you react with surprise. I also heard you lashing out against two fine and decent people, mocking us, and then stabbing me where it hurts most. But you know the one thing I haven’t yet heard from you?’
‘No. But I guess you’re going to tell me.’
‘I haven’t heard your denial.’
Benton leaned forward and raised a finger, aiming it in her direction. ‘No, you haven’t. You want to know why? Because it’s beneath me. You have no right to make wild accusations about my motivation here, and I sure as shit don’t have to respond to them.’
‘So how do you know so much about these people? And I don’t mean about them being the mayor and his fixer. I’d never heard of this Chase Ebben until Hank told me about him. Jubb is nothing more than a second-hand car salesman with an even greasier handshake. Yet you’re talking about them like they’re the Mafia or something.’
‘That’s not an unreasonable comparison in this county.’
For the first time in several minutes, Benton looked down and away. Sydney noticed and latched upon it immediately.
‘What is it you know about them, Ben?’
When he pulled his head back up again she saw that regret had broken his spirit.
‘You go first. Tell us about your encounter.’
Sydney walked them through it. Her anger in the chief of staff’s office, Jubb’s jovial dominance, Ebben’s cold aloofness and barely contained anger. She made no commentary, laying out the facts as she remembered them.
It was Dexter Muller who spoke next. ‘If they are the ones who bugged your home, and it certainly looks that way from what you tell us, then obviously they are worried and keen to gather information. Their focus is on you, Sydney. So, unlike the indiscreet warning show from the police department the other evening, this time they are keen to know more about what you are doing and how much you know. That can only be because they have something to hide.’
‘Not necessarily.’ Benton shook his head. ‘You had it right, Dexter. The sheriff’s office does not want to rake up what happened at the high school that day. Neither does Sonora PD, nor the Bureau. None of us do, because for my office and local PD especially it would be our worst nightmare to think that we had shot dead your son when he was innocent of any crime. That would be both intolerable and unbearable. It would tear us all apart, and so none of us wants to go there. I realise how awful that must sound to a man who believes in his son’s innocence and is still dealing with his loss, but it is how things are.
‘And if we feel like that on a personal and professional level, try putting yourself in the shoes of the people working in the mayor’s office. They not only have to consider the fallout in relation to local and county law-enforcement, they have the students and teachers and governing bodies at the school, and the citizens of Moon Falls to appease. The media coverage alone would ruin them. You think come election time that anyone is going to vote for the mayor who presided over such a catastrophic failure?’
That hit home. Sydney’s mind had focussed on how she was coping, on her reaction, on Jubb and his cronies waging a war of negativity against her. But if Benton was right, then Jubb had everything to lose. And if Jubb lost everything, then so too would Chase Ebben. The dominoes would start to tumble, and once they began to fall they would not stop until the final one toppled over.
Still something worried at her. ‘There may also be another explanation,’ she said. ‘Something that perhaps confirms how far these men will go to keep their secrets.’
Baxter hung his head and gave a long sigh of exasperation. ‘More? There’s more? I kept my tongue even when the sheriff here called me a conspiracy nutjob, yet I’m hearing all this and asking myself who the crazy people actually are in this scenario.’
‘I’m sorry about that remark,’ Benton said, eyeing the retiree. ‘I let anger get the better of me.’
But Baxter wasn’t having any of it. He shook his head and curled his lips. ‘No, you meant it all right. I know what you people think of me. I was the first to raise my concerns after the shooting, and I got shut down.’
‘Guys, guys! Can we focus here?’
Sydney’s plea killed the chatter.
‘There was another reason why I decided to hang around in the Falls. I wanted to track down the vehicle that caused my father’s death. I had no choice but to find the driver and ask him why he didn’t stop that night after the accident. Only then I got it into my head that the collision had more to it, so I got sidetracked. I later discovered files on my father’s computer that suggested he had doubts about what happened on the day of the shootings. Same doubts some of us have expressed, especially surrounding the uneven distribution of the shots fired. I asked myself if he had gone further than writing his concerns down and actually begun an investigation of his own. That led me to wonder if he was killed because of what he’d learned. Or whether he had poked his head out too far and got noticed.’
‘Heck, Sydney. I had no idea.’ Benton stared open-mouthed at her. He was genuinely shocked by her admission.
‘It makes a lot more sense than my first theory.’
‘Which was?’
‘His very last meeting with a potential client was with a married woman, split from her husband and looking to find out if he was seeing someone else. Real low end stuff, and I don’t even know if my father was going to do anything with it. But for some reason I got it into my head that her husband had seen my father at her house out in Twain Harte, had concluded that the two of them were an item, and in some drunken rage had forced my father off the road as he drove home. I even confronted the guy while I was checking out his tow truck.’
At this, Benton jerked his head up abruptly. ‘Did you say tow truck?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘And the woman lived up in Twain Harte?’
‘Yes. What ab
out it?’
‘Sydney, was her name Sonia Kasper, wife of Gerry Kasper?’
‘Yeah. How in the world did you happen to know that?’
He closed his eyes for a moment as if to blot out the horror of what he was about to tell them. ‘Because I spent all morning in Twain Harte investigating an apparent murder-suicide. Husband shot his wife and then himself after what looks to have been one heck of a fight between the two of them.’
‘Oh, my God!’ Sydney clapped a hand to her mouth.
Benton nodded dismally. ‘I’m sorry, Syd. But Sonia and Gerry Kasper are both dead.’
Forty-Three
At the far end of Chauncey Jubb’s spread, on its western tip where only a narrow dirt track separated it from mile after mile of barren desert, stood an array of barns and feed stores, together with a wooden hut once used by ranch hands as occasional overnight accommodation. Some barns contained motorised farming equipment, others offered dry storage for tools, lumber and logs. In its current condition, the shack only provided shelter from the elements or, as was the case this evening, a venue for clandestine meetings. As the sun slipped towards the distant horizon and shadows grew longer, around a single battered and scarred table sat four men whose emotions ran high.
Earlier in the day, after Sydney Merlot had blown into and stormed back out of the mayor’s suite of offices, Jubb had quizzed his chief of staff for more than thirty minutes about the alleged surveillance techniques. Ebben pleaded innocence, claiming he had adhered to their agreement in keeping an eye out and ear open, but he fervently denied having broken into Merlot’s home to plant listening devices. Jubb demanded to know who had if Ebben hadn’t, but his right-hand man had been unable to come up with an answer.
Which was precisely where they were again, some eight hours later. This time he put the question to both Weekes and Shane Jennings.
‘You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with it,’ Jennings protested, putting a hand to his chest as if horrified by the suggestion.
‘Actually, I don’t,’ Jubb replied, his eyes firmly fixed on Weekes who sat directly opposite.
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