Fifteen Coffins

by Tony J. Forder

  ‘Such as?’ Isaac asked. The expression on his face gave away nothing, but Sydney assumed he feared where this was heading.

  ‘He was anxious about more than providing a misleading statement. To me, Dave Tabbert looked frightened. I have a feeling he stepped out of line. Or, more like got his part all wrong. I think he was supposed to be outside that art supplies room at the time the shooter hit, not stuck all the way out on the other side of the school. In my opinion, his role in this was to confirm Kevin Muller as the gunman, in exactly the way he did to you. Only he was never actually in a position to do so, which is where he screwed up and got caught out. And when I saw the look that passed between the two of them when we reached that point in our conversation, it dawned on me that the real killer might be his son, Chris.’

  ‘Chris?!’ Ben cried out, barely stifling it at the last moment. He stared at her as if she were insane. ‘You think Chris Tabbert is our shooter?’

  ‘He virtually told me so, Doc. To my mind he clearly indicated it, and I got the impression he was proud of it, too, in the way he told me he had a big-time offence to boast about. His father was protecting him, and he was protecting his father right back. That’s why I pushed him so hard, looking to trigger a reaction. And I got one. I made a play and he fell for it. I mentioned the card in the holdall, told them a note had been written on it. He corrected me, insisting it was only a “Thank You” card.’

  Ben stared at her, his mouth hanging open. He licked his lips and composed himself before saying, ‘Only he couldn’t possibly have known what it was unless he put it there, or at least knew who did.’

  ‘Exactly. His response afterwards told me it was him. I could see it written all over his face. What’s more, I think he wanted to tell me all about it. If it weren’t for Dylan Cole stepping in when he did, I’m pretty sure Chris was going to spill his guts before fetching his rifle.’

  Benton turned to his deputy. ‘You get there in time to catch any of this, Isaac?’

  The big man shook his head, his features impassive. ‘No. I arrived about the time Cole was threatening Sydney and reaching for his piece. Said he knew where she lived. Told her he’d find her anytime he liked. Never clearly heard anything said before that while I was approaching.’

  Puffing out his cheeks, Benton blinked rapidly as his mind turned it all over. He ran a hand over his chin and mouth. Sydney waited for him to slot all the pieces together as she had. Finally he looked back up at her and said, ‘So the way you see it, Chris went on that shooting spree, during which time his father was supposed to be close by so that he could confirm seeing Kevin Muller hanging around in the supplies room. Only Dave messed up, got his timing all out of whack for some reason, and was in the wrong part of the building when it went down.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’re also suggesting Dylan Cole was involved.’

  Sydney nodded. ‘I am. What’s more, I also believe that when you look at the list of the fourteen kids who were shot dead, some of them are going to be students who were specific targets. Chris Tabbert murdered them. And I’m willing to bet he did so for a specific reason. I’ve been wrong about a number of things lately, but I’m certain of this.’

  Without another word, Benton turned to his computer. He began tapping keys.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Isaac asked him. Sydney was also curious.

  ‘I’m looking to see if any of those students had records, or any affiliations to the Tabbert kid or Dylan Cole. If they were targeted, then there are only so many reasons why that would be. Especially if we’re saying their murders were covered up by the killing of others. One way or another, criminal activity is at the bottom of it.’

  Sydney watched him closely. The more time passed, the more his facial expressions changed. She noticed him flex his jaw at one point, clamping his teeth together. And when she saw a specific look pass across his eyes, it was as if something had died there. When he eventually looked up from the screen, even his skin tone had lost colour.

  ‘Eight boys,’ he said without inflection. ‘Each of them interviewed by Sonora PD about a house fire over at Chinese Camp. No charges were brought against any of them, though warnings were issued. Report says the fire gutted the house and two people lost their lives. Suggests here it was drug related, and that doesn’t come as a big surprise. We’ve had our notions about that place for quite some time. The family whose home got burnt down were well known to the PD, and we’ve long suspected ties to a meth factory somewhere in the area. Some of these boys also have connections to the same kind of people the Coles, Tabberts and Coppings hang around with. Those so-called survivalist types.’

  ‘There’s more,’ Sydney said. ‘I can see it in your face.’

  Benton nodded. ‘There’s only one name when it comes to an interviewing officer.’

  ‘Brian Cole, right?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Sweet Jesus, Sydney. What do we have going on here?’

  ‘And how wide does it stretch?’ she said. ‘At first I thought the mayor’s office was all over me because they didn’t want the town turned upside down again, but I can’t help wondering if there are deeper, darker reasons behind their interest.’

  ‘Do I have this right?’ Isaac said, removing his peaked cap and scratching his head. ‘You think eight of the fourteen students shot dead were deliberately murdered because of their involvement in either drugs, the house fire, or both. That they were… what, silenced? That Chris Tabbert was chosen to do the job, his father to provide witness evidence.’

  ‘That’s where my head is taking me,’ Sydney said. ‘I think somebody at the higher end of the scale within the organisation looked at the house fire and assumed that because of the two related deaths, it wasn’t going to end there. That at some point the eight boys would inevitably be picked up, re-interviewed and then charged. That happens, there’s a risk somebody talks in return for a shorter sentence or maybe walking altogether. Whoever’s running the show gets busy, and either finds some volunteers or delivers their orders. If you think about it, Dave and Chris Tabbert are a perfect pairing. Having an adult witness Kevin Muller’s role would have been ideal, and Dave Tabbert was one man who had every right to be there at the time. Using Chris to do the dirty work buys Dave’s full cooperation and subsequent silence. Anything to protect his son.’

  Isaac pulled at the same loose thread. ‘Murdering those eight boys individually would have drawn a lot of unwanted attention on them. If we had gone digging into their lives and found this report into the arson, then we’d have started looking further afield and asking questions of our own. So they couldn’t be taken out individually and they couldn’t go missing, either. Getting rid of them meant they had to be part of something bigger altogether. Something that made us look only at the shooter and not at any of his victims.’

  ‘Lord God Almighty,’ Benton said, his voice no more than a whisper. He stood and walked across to the closest window, put his hands on the wall either side and touched his forehead to the glass. ‘How high does this thing go? More cops? The mayor’s office? Other town officials?’

  ‘Weekes is as thick as… thieves with Shane Jennings and Chase Ebben,’ Isaac remarked.

  ‘You think this goes all the way up to Jubb himself?’

  ‘I certainly do,’ Sydney said. ‘The way he and Ebben behaved towards me the other day, it was as if they thought of themselves as untouchable. And they clearly have something they want to keep hidden.’

  ‘Even so, without evidence we can’t go anywhere near them,’ Benton reminded her, turning away from the view. He appeared distraught, having finally accepted what Dexter Muller had known all along. ‘We’ve got nothing on Jubb, nor any of them at the moment for that matter. Beyond Cole going for his weapon and Tabbert threatening to do the same, everything else is pure conjecture.’

  ‘Other than Chris knowing about the card.’

  ‘Yeah, something which he can easily deny saying.’

  ‘So we o
btain our evidence,’ she said flatly.

  ‘Sure. Sounds easy enough.’

  ‘I’m not saying it’ll be easy, Ben. And while we’re at it, there’s something else you need to know.’

  Sydney told them about her call to Baxter earlier in the day, and her subsequent conversation with Ebben.

  ‘That bastard!’ Benton said sharply. He clenched both hands into fists. ‘And fat chance you’ve got of tying either Ebben or Jubb to any of it. Look at what you have – a conversation on a cellphone. These duplicitous bastards know how to cover their tracks.’

  ‘I could always call him again, try recording the conversation next time.’

  Benton nodded, still enraged and puffed up. Then he held up a finger, his forehead corrugated. ‘Wait up a second. I can’t dispute anything you’ve suggested, Syd, but how do you explain the Rains kid. His name is not on that list, so why’d he take three bullets?’

  Sydney hitched her shoulders. ‘I honestly don’t know the answer to that. But I think we’ll find that Chris was happy enough for anyone he shot to die, provided he made sure of those he was there to kill. Could be Rains was unlucky. On the other hand, it’s possible Chris spotted him and enjoyed the thought of taking out an opponent to the second amendment. I’m glad Nate Rains is clean, though. He came across as a decent kid.’

  Closing his eyes, Benton Lowe kept silent for several seconds. He rubbed the back of his neck, nails raking across the flesh. Eventually he exhaled, a long, tortuous sigh of frustration. ‘You know something, Syd, you may well be right about that, too. Kinda makes sense if you’re as warped a human being as Chris Tabbert appears to be. All the same, I wish we had more definite answers.’

  ‘And we’ll get them. We’ve got the Tabberts and Dylan Cole to work on,’ Sydney continued. ‘And soon enough we’re going to have his father in here. We work with what we’ve got. And we start with the weakest link.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Either Dave Tabbert or his son. In many ways, whoever came up with the whole idea had themselves a perfect plan. Only, Dave Tabbert screwed up and failed to verify seeing Muller in that supplies room. The pair of them are fragile, but in different ways. The boy is hot tempered, embarrassed by his father’s failure, and he’s likely to say more than he should if you get him heated. You can do that by talking shit about Dave, who is not as quick witted as he needs to be with all the weight bearing down on him. Either of them is close to opening up. Maybe even both of them.’

  ‘You think they’re going to break?’

  Sydney gave a firm nod. ‘I know so, Ben. They’re not hardened villains. They’ll go. What’s more, my bet is that you get one, the other will cave soon afterwards.’

  Forty-Eight

  Sydney and Benton were due to meet in a bar on Washington Street in Sonora after the early skirmishes had been completed. While she waited, she took a call from Hank on the burner phone he’d given her.

  ‘How are you doing, darlin’?’ he asked her right away. ‘I’ve been concerned since Duncan Baxter left you twisting in the wind. Thought you’d be needing an extra pair of hands after all.’

  Smiling throughout, Sydney brought him up to date on all that had happened during the day. He blew out a loud whistle. ‘That’s some chain reaction you got going there, Sydney. Your father would’ve been proud of you.’

  ‘I like to think so.’

  ‘No question about it, Syd. You did good. Better than good. You did right.’

  His praise was still reverberating inside her head when Benton walked into the bar. She had not been able to attend the interviews, nor even observe them, and he’d persuaded her it would be better all round if she was nowhere near the sheriff’s office at all when Brian Cole came looking for his son. But he had called ahead to update her before walking over, which explained her upbeat demeanour.

  It had taken less than an hour to break Dave Tabbert. He lawyered up, but under casual prompting with no questions asked prior to the arrival of legal counsel, Benton and Isaac sowed seeds of self-destruction inside the man’s confused mind. The moment they opened up on him fully, with a local public defender sitting alongside him, the high school janitor started to lose his way.

  ‘You nailed it, Syd,’ Benton confirmed as he took the chair Sydney kicked out for him. He was still on duty, so he sipped at the soda she had ordered once she knew he was on his way over, though she was working on her second glass of Chardonnay. ‘Dave gave up plenty enough for us to take a run at his son. You were right about that boy’s temper getting the better of him. And he sure wanted us to know what he did, just like you predicted. I got the impression it’s been gnawing at him this whole time that somebody else got the credit for the shootings.’

  ‘So he confessed?’

  Nodding, Benton said, ‘He got most of the way there on his own. Isaac and I brought him to the finish line.’

  Sydney closed her eyes for a moment and let the feeling wash over her. Every nerve end tingled. ‘I can’t wait to let Dexter know,’ she said.

  ‘I thought you’d say that, only I have a favour to ask you.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yeah. I reckon I did a rotten job on that man’s behalf. I’d like to be the one to tell him he was right about his boy’s innocence.’

  Sydney understood. Then she grinned at him. ‘That’s cool. But we can do it together.’

  Benton followed her gaze and chuckled as Dexter Muller picked his way past the tables towards them. As was so often the case, he gripped his ball cap hard. If the bone white knuckles of his fingers were anything to go by, it wouldn’t be long before the hat crumbled to pieces and blew away in the canyon wind. He pulled out a chair and pretty much fell onto it, as if he’d used up his final reserves of strength.

  ‘You have news for me?’ he managed to ask. His voice broke on the penultimate word.

  Barely able to cope with the misery in the man’s eyes, Sydney reached out to lay her own hand over his. ‘Dexter, the sheriff here has something he would like to say to you.’

  ‘I do. And please let me begin by saying how sorry I am, Mr Muller,’ Benton said, thanking Sydney with a grateful nod. ‘Sorry for not taking you seriously, and sorry for any additional anguish my attitude may have caused you. I wish I had more to offer you than words, but please know they are heartfelt. Sir, a short while ago, a young man by the name of Chris Tabbert confessed to the high school massacre. He confirmed to us and his own lawyer that he used your son as a patsy, and would probably have got away with it if it weren’t for your persistence. I guess you did know your son after all, Mr Muller. Kevin is innocent, and I’m going to have to find a way to live with my part in his death.’

  A single tear slid from Benton’s left eye. He swallowed hard. Sydney gave him an encouraging nod, but he was hurting. Muller hung his head, his shoulders slumping as if relieved of a weight too burdensome to imagine. As they began jerking and the man’s sobbing emerged low and heavy from his chest, Sydney squeezed his hand tighter still. After a long moment, Muller looked up again.

  ‘I’ll never be able to repay you, Sydney,’ he said. ‘Not if I live a hundred lifetimes. I’m grateful for everything you did and for believing in me and Kevin. And somewhere out there, my son thanks you, too.’

  ‘You’re very welcome, Dexter. Kevin deserved to have his voice heard and his name cleared.’

  Muller turned to Benton, more tears staining Lowe’s cheeks. ‘I want to thank you, too, Sheriff. It took a while, but eventually you saw reason. Whatever you did to help clear my son’s name, we are both in your debt.’

  Benton attempted to respond, but his mouth flapped open uselessly. Eventually he closed his eyes and nodded.

  ‘Did the Tabbert boy say why he did it?’ Muller asked, looking from one to the other. ‘Why he involved my son?’

  Sydney picked up on that. ‘There’s a whole lot more to it than a rampage shooting, Dexter. Basically, it was a cover up. Some of those who died were deliberately targeted.’ She turned
to Benton, looking to involve him so’s he could clear his head. ‘Tell us what else you got out of the Tabberts, Ben?’

  He took a couple of deep breaths before he was able to speak. ‘More about how they came to be involved in meth production and distribution, much of which was taking place on the Copping property inside that compound they have up there for the so-called survivalists. Turns out most of them are either dealers or manufacturers. But the real surprise was how far Dylan Cole took us?’

  ‘Dylan? The way he took charge at the Tabbert place, I didn’t think you’d get a thing out of him.’

  ‘And we probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for his father,’ Benton admitted. ‘I figure I read Brian all wrong. He can be a hot head as a cop and a gun freak like many of those out at the Copping ranch, and he clearly has sympathies that extend to offering a helping hand along the way to people he knows. Like he did after the Chinese Camp blaze, not knowing he was becoming part of the cover up. But at his core he’s still a police officer, and not a bought and paid for cop, either. Once he’d cooled down and listened to what we had, learned what his son had said and done, he got Dylan to fess up to everything he knew.’

  ‘Which was? I’m keen to understand why those kids had to die that day.’

  ‘Cole and Copping were involved in the drugs business, along with Chris Tabbert and a bunch of other boys. Not Luke DeVeer, though. Baxter got that one wrong. When it comes to adult governance, Dylan put Michael Copping and his band of merry men firmly in the frame. Dave Tabbert only became wrapped up in it when the instruction came down to take those eight kids off the board and his own son stepped up to be the triggerman. The Tabberts were looking to move up inside the organisation, and they figured taking on the job would help them do that.’

  ‘So who gave that order?’

  ‘Mitchell Copping’s father, Michael.’ He paused for a moment, looking between her and Muller. ‘Thing is, until today it’s been a handful of us working in the background, trying to figure out what was going on. Now this entire thing opens up wide again. My office, Sonora PD, and the FBI are back on it. On the one hand, that’s going to result in some deep drilling, and with all kinds of deals being offered I’m sure we’ll have more people flushed out within a couple of days. But as you always assumed would be the case, neither the police department nor your own people at the Bureau are going to thank you for this, Sydney.’