Fifteen Coffins

by Tony J. Forder

  She had already come to terms with that. ‘The people of Moon Falls will curse my name at first, but when the truth comes out they won’t be a problem. They might even end up being grateful to me. Some of them, at least. I guess I’d better make sure I check my tail lights and stick to all speed limits around here for a while, because there’s bound to be some in the PD who will resent me for whatever happens. I worry most of all about my job.’

  Her bosses had ordered Sydney to steer clear, and instead she had plunged in deeper still. She had ended up in over her head, all the while knowing the consequences for doing so were going to be severe. SAC Doman would make an official complaint, though for a while he’d be too busy eating humble pie over this case. But he’d get there, and so would her own field office ASAC eventually. It was a daunting prospect.

  ‘You think they’ll fire you?’ Benton asked.

  ‘Maybe not, but there will be some form of heavy punishment.’

  ‘Even though you cracked this thing wide open?’

  ‘I failed to follow orders, Ben. I disobeyed them. Moreover, I used the badge to do so. Me, I think the ends justify the means in this particular case, but the FBI won’t see it that way. The Bureau do not like to encourage such behaviour, and they especially don’t like being shown up the way things ended here.’

  ‘I’m so sorry about that, Syd.’

  ‘Don’t be. It was my choice.’

  ‘If I’d done my own job better, you’d never have got involved in the first place.’

  ‘Water under the bridge, Doc. I’m a big girl, I can accept my part in what went down here. I knew all along what I was doing. And for what it’s worth, I’d do it again if I had to.’

  Benton sighed and turned his attention to Muller. ‘For what it’s worth, Chris Tabbert involved your son because of Kevin’s sweet nature. He saw Kevin as the sort of kid who wouldn’t question anything he was told. Your son trusted other people, Dexter, and despite how things ended up, that’s no bad thing in my book.’

  Muller accepted this with a grateful nod. He rose unsteadily to his feet and held out his hand towards Sydney. He looked as if he had shed one load only to take on another. As the two shook, he said, ‘I can only apologise if you do end up losing your job over this. I will speak up on your behalf, believe me. I’ll make sure the media are aware of who turned this on its head. Perhaps that will help you with your employers, make any punishment less severe.’

  ‘I don’t know about that, but thanks all the same. And there’s no need for an apology, nor should you carry any guilt around with you. Nobody forced me to take up your case. You were compelling, Dexter, but it was my decision to put myself at odds with my own people.’

  ‘Nonetheless, everyone with an interest in this case will come to know about the part you played in clearing Kevin’s name, Sydney. I promise you.’

  When it was the two of them once again, Benton asked Sydney how confident she was of facing down her colleagues.

  ‘Truth is,’ she said, ‘I’ve been sitting here contemplating jumping before I’m pushed.’

  ‘Is that so? But what would you do instead?’

  ‘I’m not sure. You know of a PI business in need of running?’

  He laughed. ‘I’ll ask around on your behalf. But what about your guy, Jordan?’

  ‘He’s coming up at the weekend. I have a lot to tell him before he does. If he and I are still together when I’m done, then I guess we’ll have even more to discuss afterwards.’

  Benton took a pull from his tumbler, rattling the ice cubes against the glass. ‘Syd, I realise we still have an awful lot of rooting around to do as we slowly build our case, but if there’s influence for all this coming out of the mayor’s office, I’m not convinced we’re going to be able to find it. So far, there’s not been a single mention of either Jubb or Ebben.’

  Sydney had already given the matter some consideration, and she agreed. ‘If they are involved in this, perhaps even at the tip of the spear, I’m sure they covered their asses. Doesn’t mean we won’t nail the bastards eventually, though.’

  He grinned. ‘You always were as stubborn as a mule.’

  ‘You used to like that about me.’

  ‘I still do.’

  ‘So what happens next?’

  ‘We have arrest warrants out and being served as we speak. I got SAC Doman coming down from the state capital tomorrow. Together with the Sonora PD Chief of Police we’ll take a look at everything we have at the time, see where else it takes us.’

  ‘No barriers?’

  ‘You mean if it leads to Jubb will we ignore it? No. That’s one promise I can make to you.’

  Sydney nodded. On the surface, what the various investigation agencies had available to them was pretty clear: a drug operation involving the Copping family and other like-minded folk who claimed to be survivalists. In addition to a host of local people caught up in the same net, they all existed within the Moon Falls boundary lines. Whoever was running things had smelled trouble brewing with a bunch of their dealers and mules, and so decided to act. To remove them from the equation before they did any harm. But these people were not inclined to behave like a bunch of inner-city gang-bangers, shooting it up like the Wild West on their own streets, endorsing drive-by solutions. Instead they put some real thought into it and came up with a plan, a way of getting what they wanted while keeping the focus elsewhere. With the same twisted and depraved outlook of drug dealers everywhere, to them it didn’t matter if a number of innocents happened to be hurt or killed at the same time. Collateral damage was acceptable in their eyes, provided somebody silenced their potentially troublesome crew members. In covering it up they came close to getting away with it by laying blame at Kevin Muller’s doorstep. But not quite close enough. Catching breaks often came down to human frailty, and Sydney believed that was the case here.

  ‘That and having a bloodhound on their trail,’ Benton said after she had outlined her train of thought for him.

  She winked at him. He winked back and Sydney smiled because they were okay again. He’d forgiven her for doubting him. She’d forgiven him for resisting.

  ‘It won’t be nearly enough if we can’t sweep up Jubb as well,’ she said, the realisation taking the edge off her excitement at having achieved what she’d set out to do. ‘Him and his damned fixer.’

  ‘You genuinely believe those two are behind all this?’ Benton asked, a deep frown causing his face to appear stern.

  ‘Let me put it this way,’ Sydney said, ‘do you believe Michael Copping is the kingpin of this entire organisation?’

  Benton drank some soda, used the back of his hand to wipe his lips, and said, ‘I hear you. Copping is a man for most occasions, but definitely not all. Still, my betting is that Ebben works damned hard at putting out fires. Even making sure as few as possible start in the first place. Someone like him is bound to be careful, but has he been cautious enough? If there’s more to this than meets the eye, then hopefully he left us some tracks to follow. I wouldn’t bet on it, though.’

  Sydney’s mind turned to Duncan Baxter. She couldn’t help wondering where he fitted in with the overall plan. At what point had Ebben sunk his claws into the retired teacher? If Duncan had been Ebben’s man all along, why would he have fed her the three names? Giving her Cole and Copping in particular couldn’t have been part of a long game. That made no sense at all to her. Vexed by the conundrum, she sought Benton’s opinion.

  He listened closely and gave it some thought before responding. ‘My best guess is they turned him late in the game. Soon after they learned of his involvement with you and Dexter. Threatened him in some way. Got him to spy on you, gain your trust, and then feed it all back to them.’

  Sydney bit down on her lip and shook her head. ‘I’m still not convinced we have everything,’ she said with some reluctance. ‘I’m so confused, Ben. I’m beyond thrilled at how far we’ve come, but I can’t help feeling I’ve overlooked something. Something staring me right i
n the face.’

  Benton drained his glass and set it back down on the table. ‘I don’t have all the answers for you, Syd. But I do know this: if anyone can figure it all out, it’s you.’

  Forty-Nine

  Nightfall came and went. Sydney grew more restless the harder she tried to empty her mind. Her brain wasn’t playing along, continuing its assault with an avalanche of information and images randomly snatched from the past week. Seven days in which her life had been turned upside down. Time enough for emotions to wring her out beyond the limits of her endurance.

  It was 10.40pm when she made a call, and she left the bungalow precisely twenty minutes later. Keeping a watchful eye out for drunk drivers and cops, Sydney drove to Columbia and took the turning by the airport. South Airport Road first ran parallel to the main paved airstrip, and as it curved left it stretched out alongside a shorter turfed runway. A chain-link alarmed fence separated the airport from the road, which at its wider section contained five steel storage sheds. Parking up by an older shack, whose exterior was part aluminium and part rusted corrugated steel, with a heavy air-con unit affixed to the roof, Sydney could tell the structure had been abandoned.

  The airport perimeter security system provided a soft amber glow, producing overlapping puddles of light along the entire length of road. For a few minutes she looked out over the airfield, though by this time of night it was no longer in use. Then a set of headlights caught her attention and Sydney drew in a lungful of air. It seemed to take an age for the vehicle to reach her, but eventually she recognised the chrome grille and iconic logo of Hank’s Mercedes SUV. Settling herself, she stepped down out of her truck and stood waiting by a darkened, scabbed steel section protruding from the main building. The weather still hadn’t caught up with the season, so the air was warm even with the light breeze. Sydney wore a thin cardigan over her T-shirt, and her shorts and hiking boots gave her the look of someone preparing for a trail walk rather than a clandestine meeting.

  Hank rolled the SUV to a stop. Its engine wasn’t loud, but when he killed it the night became still and silent, as if in switching it off he had also removed all sound and air around them, creating a vacuum. Sydney swallowed with some discomfort, her throat becoming more constricted the closer his footsteps came crunching across the gravel towards her.

  ‘Thanks for coming, Hank,’ she called out, offering a warm smile of greeting. ‘I realise it’s late, but I didn’t know who else to call.’

  He threw her an amiable wave. ‘I’m just glad to be off the benches at long last.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I guess I needed your help more than I realised.’

  Hank reached out and gave her hand a squeeze, concern written all over his face. ‘I take it the reason we’re out here is because you think your place might still be bugged?’

  Sydney wrinkled her nose and said, ‘Let me put it this way, I’m not taking any chances. This business isn’t over, not entirely, and I don’t know who or what to trust anymore. Except for you. You badgered me to let you in and all I did was push you away.’

  He flapped a hand. ‘I worry about you, darlin’, that’s all. Your daddy ain’t around to do it no more. Benton Lowe ain’t the friend he once was to you. Duncan Baxter has skipped town and left you in the lurch as well. I figured the onus was on me to act as your guardian angel and protector, and if I can help then I’ll be glad to.’

  Sydney was about to respond by following the flow of conversation, but instead said what had been on her mind ever since the notion popped into her head back at the bar on Washington Street earlier in the day.

  ‘I’m pleased you said that, Hank, because I’m hoping you can help me out with something that’s been bothering me. I’ve been turning myself in circles and tying myself up in knots about it, and I think it’s time I had some answers. See, we came a long way today, but I couldn’t help asking myself if I had the whole story. I broke this thing wide open when I got a boy to admit to knowing something he should not have known about. Later on, I spent a long time thinking about exactly who did what and when, who knew what and when, and who said what and when.’

  ‘Yeah, that’ll get you turned around, for sure.’

  ‘And it did, until I came around to wondering how you knew about Duncan turning his back on me at the time you mentioned it? It didn’t occur to me right away when you brought it up on the phone earlier. It only came to me later when I was ticking things off inside my mind, because I couldn’t quite figure out what I’d missed. So I went back over everything and when I reached that part of our conversation, it hit me right between the eyes. You somehow knew Duncan had quit and run out on me, yet I’d neither seen nor spoken to you since I first found out. How was that possible?’

  Hank grinned and shrugged in that familiar disarming way of his. ‘I don’t have a clue, Syd. I must’ve picked it up someplace, from somebody. How else would I know?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m asking you, Hank. How did you know?’

  ‘Hey, what are you saying here?’ he said, squinting at her.

  ‘You didn’t hear it from me. No way you heard it from Duncan, either. I first learned about him leaving town when I called his cell and Chase Ebben answered instead. So I don’t see how you could possibly have known about it. I tried that number again afterwards, but it was unobtainable, so I guess Ebben destroyed the SIM card or tossed the battery.’

  ‘And? I’m still not sure what you’re getting at here, darlin’. Sydney, what’s going on?’

  Ignoring his question, she continued as if he had not spoken. ‘As you can imagine, Hank, by this time my head was reeling. All along I’ve had a hard job knowing who to put my trust in, so I spent the entire evening trying real hard to figure it out. Irritated by all the back and forth and in need of a distraction, I went online for the first time today. That was when I noticed I’d received an email. You want to take a guess who it was from?’

  ‘Go ahead and tell me, since you seem to want to get something off your chest.’

  The email message had been sent by Duncan Baxter. Chase Ebben had paid him a visit at home, catching him completely unawares. The mayor’s lackey had then threatened him, told him if he didn’t walk away and stay away until everything was back on an even keel in Moon Falls, certain allegations would be made against him. Accusations from young men, claiming Duncan had abused them at school. He denied everything to Sydney, stridently insisting it was all nonsense, but she was well aware that when people smell smoke they also see the flames even when they’re not there. Duncan went on to tell her how sorry he was for allowing Ebben to overcome him so easily, but that once on the plane he gathered up all his pride and realised he had to take a stand against the man and his bullying tactics. If not for himself, then for her. He had borrowed a fellow passenger’s cell to send a mail, not wanting to text or call in case her phone had been compromised. He finished by telling her he’d decided he couldn’t up and leave without letting her know what had happened, and begged for her forgiveness.

  ‘I won’t offer it to him, because it’s unnecessary,’ she said. ‘Duncan was threatened in the worst way possible for a man of his calibre. You don’t come back from allegations of child abuse, certainly not when those children have been your responsibility in the classroom. That he buckled beneath the threat is not, to my mind, a sign of weakness. The way I see it, he accepted the reality of exchanging his entire future reputation for what little further help he’d be to me and Dexter Muller in the coming days. Yet in reaching out to me, putting at risk the very thing he fears most, Duncan has shown what kind of man he truly is.’

  Hank spread his hands wide after Sydney had revealed the contents of the email and elaborated upon her reaction to it. ‘This is fascinating and all, but I still don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me here, Syd.’

  She shook her head dismissively. ‘Don’t you, Hank? Then let me fill in a few of the blanks. Somebody has been surveilling me, leaking details of my actions a
nd other things, like private conversations. I had it in my head that Chase Ebben was responsible for it all, but only after you pointed me in his direction following your altercation with someone on my front porch. Even so, it occurred to me that interest in my activities might not necessarily be restricted to him alone. That perhaps a second party was also monitoring me closely. Ben was acting strangely, so I had my doubts about him, and then of course I was led to believe it was Duncan. So when I read his mail and realised for sure he had nothing to do with it, it got me thinking about who that left to consider. Round and round it went, circling the drain, but as much as I didn’t want to go there, all I kept coming back to was what you said to me. You couldn’t possibly have known about Duncan, and yet you did. That’s when I finally accepted the truth, Hank. It was you who had betrayed me all along.’

  Fifty

  Their eyes locked. ‘I’m not armed, Hank,’ Sydney said. ‘My FBI credentials are back home, too. We’re here to talk, that’s all.’

  They were close enough to each other for her to see the uncertainty in his wavering gaze. She had caught him on the back foot, and that was something he was unused to.

  ‘No point denying it,’ she said, more softly this time, the words feeling harsh in her mouth. ‘We’re way beyond that.’

  Hank’s shoulders slumped as tension left his body. He kicked out at the gravel beneath his feet, and bit into his bottom lip before spitting out, ‘Damn you, Sydney! You’re too smart for your own good sometimes, you know that? And something else you need to know right off the bat: you may not be armed, but I sure as heck am.’