Fifteen Coffins

by Tony J. Forder

  Though she had prepared herself all evening for this moment, his admission wrenched her heart in two. ‘Oh, Hank. Damn you. I’ve been thinking the worst for hours, so please tell me it isn’t so. I don’t want to believe it, but what choice do I have? What is all this? What have you done?’

  Hank moistened his lips, his scowl becoming a thin, humourless smile. He set his stance once again. ‘Let me put you out of your misery. I knew about Baxter because that burner I gave you has a listening and tracking device in its battery.’

  ‘But… but you’re the one who told me about bugs being inside batteries. You even swapped mine out on my own cell.’

  He nodded and stretched his smile wider. ‘Yeah. You bought it all, Syd. The whole damned thing. It was obvious to me you’d eventually realise you were under surveillance of some kind or another, so I preempted it and made sure I stayed on top of everything. They were my bugs you found. I had you replace them with one you carried around with you everywhere you went and which was always transmitting and receiving, even when you thought it was switched off. I had it lined up ready for you, because even though you didn’t want to involve me, I figured you’d still come to me about being surveilled. Helping you out in any way he was able to was something good old Hank Stevensen would do for his favourite girl. But I had to help myself out at the same time.’

  Sydney’s wide open stare became a tight glare, eyes squeezed together. ‘That night on the porch, and your scuffle with my intruder. There was no intruder, was there?’

  ‘Nope. Don’t get me wrong, some heavy-duty people in this town took a real interest in you, so we’ve all been sniffing around in one way or another. But yeah, that was all me. I had to be convincing. Earning more trust with the right folk never hurts.’

  Hank laughed softly as he said it, and Sydney wanted to slap his face. Instead she said, ‘These other people, they include Chase Ebben and Mayor Jubb?’

  He stopped to consider that. Eventually he hunched forward and shrugged. ‘Well, the way I figure it, that would be their business. They’re not the only major players in town, as you’ve already discovered, but you ask them if you want to know about them. You ask me about me and I’ll give you some answers.’

  ‘There is one thing I can’t figure. Why didn’t you warn Tabbert and the others. Get them out of there before I showed up?’

  ‘I would’ve, but I can’t monitor everything you say and do twenty-four hours a day. By the time I heard, you and Deputy Solomon had already arrested them.’

  Sydney’s glare tightened. ‘You’re a gun for hire, is that it, Hank? Highest bidder? A mercenary with no loyalties or conscience?’ She held up a finger and shook it from side to side. ‘No, don’t bother answering that. I can imagine, and it disgusts me. Makes me feel sick to my stomach knowing how I was taken in by you. Chauncey Jubb already has Ebben doing all his dirty work, but you’re his Plan B is my guess.’

  ‘And like I told you, Syd, you ask them about them.’

  ‘Don’t call me, Syd! You don’t get to call me that anymore.’ She clenched her fists and moved onto the balls of her feet.

  ‘Oh, come on, darlin’. Don’t break old Hank’s heart.’ He smirked crookedly as he spoke. ‘Listen, there has to be a way out of this, one we can both live with. I only need to ensure your silence. If we put our heads together, we can figure something out. We can both walk away from this, Sydney. There’s still time to come up with a plan.’

  But she was too distraught to listen. ‘You utter bastard! You suckered me in. Just like you did my father, I suppose. If you won’t talk about Jubb, tell me more about you, Hank. Was it you who killed him?’

  A look of surprise replaced the wide grin on his face. His eyes gleamed at her with renewed interest. ‘Why would you go and ask me a question like that?’

  ‘I’d considered everyone else. Those I never had complete trust in, anyway. But it seems to me that my father never shared his suspicions regarding the school shootings with anyone. Except perhaps for you. If he didn’t, then the only place I know those suspicions appear are in a document among his files. Files you could easily have discovered. That’s motive right there.’

  Hank uttered a low whistle. ‘Your pretty little head is filled with fairy tales tonight, Sydney. You want to take care it doesn’t explode.’

  She stared back at him. Kept their eyes locked together for several seconds. ‘Tell me,’ she said in a hushed voice. ‘Please tell me. Let’s not pretend you came here to talk, because I think you realised the time for that was over. Even if you didn’t have something bad in mind for me when you left home, I’m guessing you do now. It’s obvious there’s only one way out of this for both of us, so what harm can it do?’

  ‘What good can it do?’

  ‘I can be at peace. Knowing what happened to him and why will give me closure before you do whatever it is you’re going to do with me. Don’t I deserve at least that, Hank? If I ever meant anything to you, you’ll tell me and put me out of my misery.’

  He gave a sigh and hung his head, a hand combing through his beard. ‘Sydney, whether you believe it or not, having to kill your father was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life,’ he said.

  ‘My heart bleeds for you, Hank.’

  ‘You want to hear it or not!?’ He put some flint into his eyes.

  ‘Sorry. Yes, I do. Go on.’

  ‘It’s like you say. I didn’t need to see his file. He talked it over with me before he ever got around to writing it up. Syd, you’re as stubborn as they come, but your daddy had you beat. He wouldn’t let it go, as much as I tried to dissuade him. I even thought of telling him everything and persuading him to drop it, but in the end I realised that wouldn’t work, either. No way was Sidney Merlot going to stand aside quietly, not for something that big.’

  ‘Who else knew he’d figured it out?’

  ‘Nobody, as far as I’m aware. But he was chewing over whether to go to Dexter Muller with his suspicions. I didn’t want your father feeding that man’s fire. He also mentioned the sheriff, and that was impossible for me to overlook.’

  ‘So you killed him, but made it look like an accident.’

  Hank nodded. ‘Had to be that way. I couldn’t have anyone digging around and exposing what we had going on. By that time I had no idea what your father had obtained in the way of evidence, nor how much he’d made his thoughts clear on the matter. I was certain he’d written up some notes, but I couldn’t rely on any single file being the only mention of it. I did my damnedest to figure out another way to keep him quiet, but I couldn’t. He had to go, or we were all screwed.’

  ‘Did he know it was you?’ Sydney asked, tentatively. Her rage boiled beneath the surface, but she needed more from Hank before she allowed it to erupt out of her. ‘When you shoved his car off the road and down that embankment, did he see you? Did he know you’d betrayed him when he died?’

  Hank Stevensen shook his head, lips puckering before he spoke. ‘I honestly couldn’t tell you. I didn’t use my own vehicle, but who knows what he saw?’

  Sydney controlled her breathing. ‘One last question.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Why? Why are you involved in any of it? You’re supposed to be one of the white hats, Hank.’

  He huffed through his nose and turned his gaze inward. ‘And so I was. For a long time. To a certain degree. I guess I always kinda walked a fine line. But I got myself in over my head up there at the Black Rock casino, and when you owe a lot of money and someone comes along and offers you a way out together with some influence in your twilight years, it’s kinda hard to resist. After a while, you find the hole you dug for yourself is too deep to climb back out of. Then you wake up one day to find all the leverage is going against you. Some people enjoy having a go-to man at their right hand, because then people don’t notice what their left hand is doing.’

  ‘That left hand being you.’

  He nodded.

  ‘We’re talking about either
Jubb or Ebben, right? More likely the pair of them. We’ve come this far, Hank. What more do you have to lose by telling me the rest?’

  ‘Nothing. Nothing to gain, either. Way I hear it, Michael Copping is claiming to be the head honcho who ran the show around here. I see no reason to dispute that. What happened with your father is between you and me, and I’m not going to discuss anybody else.’

  Fifty-One

  The night began to intrude, darkness encroaching despite the lighting inside the airport outer fence enveloping the two of them, throwing a spotlight on the pair as Sydney sought to extract information from Hank Stevensen.

  ‘So you won’t tell me who you’re working for?’ she asked, unable to mask her disappointment this time.

  ‘I will not. Don’t ask me again.’

  ‘I thought as much. So, Hank, what end do you have in mind for me?’

  ‘I’ve been giving that some thought. You say you’re not armed, and I believe you. But I don’t see Sydney Merlot coming out here with such intentions and not bringing a gun with her. I reckon your pistol is inside your truck. If that’s the case, I’m thinking my staging a suicide would be neat and tidy.’

  ‘I won’t write a note.’

  ‘That’s cool. I can take care of that. The sudden death of a father ain’t easy to get over.’

  Sydney slowly nodded and started walking back to the Dodge.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Hank asked, staring at her in astonishment.

  ‘You were right. I’m going to get my weapon.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Sydney, though I prefer your death to look like suicide, murder will do just as well if it falls that way. You better stop right there, or I draw my gun before you get within feet of yours.’

  She carried on walking away.

  ‘Hey, I mean it! Are you crazy, woman?’

  Another step, her hand outstretched towards the Dodge’s door. ‘I’m not stopping, Hank.’

  He flipped open the lightweight jacket he was wearing and reached inside it. ‘One more step and you’re done,’ he told her.

  ‘No, you’re the one who is done,’ Benton Lowe said, as he jammed the barrel of his own sidearm into the back of Hank Stevensen’s neck. Isaac appeared out of the gloom beside him, stepping up to grab hold of Hank’s hands.

  Sydney closed her eyes and breathed more easily, turning back to face them. The pair had arrived long before she had, making sure their cruiser was parked way back in the wooded area behind the storage sheds. As arranged, they took up positions around the side of the rusted-out shack, listening to the conversation, recording it, and waiting for Hank to make an obvious threat to Sydney’s life.

  Still reeling from shock, she stood to one side and watched as Isaac took Hank’s firearm away from the startled man staring at her with round eyes and a gaping mouth. Then without warning she took several steps closer and slapped Hank’s face as hard as she could. The sound echoed in the warm air like the sharp crack of a gunshot, but nobody said a word or did anything to prevent her from striking him again.

  ‘Like I told you,’ she said to him, shaking so hard the flesh on her cheeks quivered. ‘I didn’t want it to be true, but it all came down to who else could have known about what my father was looking into. After I’d convinced myself he was murdered, all I had to do was settle on a motive. I could see it was all wrapped up in the high school shooting, the meth production, the criminal activity, but I’d never have put it together with you were it not for the error you made over Duncan Baxter. You’re the last person on this earth that I would ever have suspected.’

  While his hands were being bound together by cuffs, Hank looked across at her without guile. His eyes were sorrowful and moist. ‘I wish things had gone a different way,’ he said. ‘I thought the world of your father, Sydney. You, too, for that matter. It cut me up inside, but I couldn’t see any other way of dealing with it. If... if only he’d never figured it out.’

  ‘We all make our own choices, Hank,’ Sydney murmured. ‘At least you’ll live to regret yours.’

  ‘I already do. I ain’t about to complain or try to pretend I didn’t know what I was doing. I lived a pretty decent life until a couple of years ago. When the work from your father started to dry up, I made it seem like I had many other clients. In truth I had a handful, but I started to spend most of my spare time up at the casino. For a while I was good for my debts, and then all at once I wasn’t. Opportunities came my way, and I took them. Found myself doing things I would never have dreamed myself capable of. It became a matter of do or die, and I chose to do. Nothing excuses what I did to your daddy, though. I know that.’

  ‘Nor what you were about to do to me,’ Sydney pointed out. ‘I guess when you have one murder on your conscience, another one doesn’t matter a great deal.’

  Hank looked sickened by the thought of it. ‘I don’t know that I’d have pulled that trigger. To be honest with you, I’d just as likely have stuck the barrel against my own head rather than yours.’

  ‘I wish I could believe that.’

  ‘Your father was my dear friend, and what I did has been eating away at me. I loved the old guy, and I love you too, darlin’. More than you’ll ever know. So no… I don’t think I was ever going to shoot you.’

  ‘I guess we’ll never know for sure. But you murdered my father, and for that I hope you rot in hell for the rest of your miserable life.’

  He looked up, parted his lips as if to say something, but then closed them again and turned to nod at Deputy Solomon. As Isaac none too gently led him away, Benton waited for a moment before turning back to Sydney. This time his face was twisted with both relief and ill-concealed anger.

  ‘You didn’t have your gun on you? What kind of rookie mistake was that, leaving it out of reach inside your truck?’

  She laughed. ‘Don’t fuss so much, Doc. I knew you had me covered.’

  The colour came back to his cheeks. ‘No, that ain’t it. You confronted him unarmed for a reason, but I’m damned if I know what it is.’

  Sydney shrugged, feeling her eyes becoming colder and more distant. ‘I came here expecting to trap him into confessing to his role in listening in on me, and whatever else he did for Copping or Jubb or Chase or whoever. I admit I also had an inkling by this time that Hank had murdered my father. You ask why I left my weapon in the truck. The truth is, Ben, I didn’t trust myself with him and a loaded gun.’

  The two of them said nothing more. Only this time the silence was broken by the sound of a single distant shot from a rifle.

  Fifty-Two

  Deputy Isaac Solomon made one mistake. He regarded his detainee as broken, a husk of a man no longer in possession of spirit or mental resolve. Accordingly, he dropped his guard, and when he yanked open the cruiser’s rear door to bundle Hank Stevensen into the back seat, he allowed himself to get too close to his prisoner.

  The headbutt was swift and powerful. Hank’s forehead smashed into the deputy’s face between his nose and chin with brutal intensity, buckling Isaac’s legs. Lights dancing in his watering eyes, he sank to his knees and slumped to one side like a scarecrow torn from its support stake. Isaac blinked once, twice, and as his eyelids opened again they did so in time for him to see the sole of Hank’s boot slamming into his cheekbone. His head snapped back, something in his neck cracked, and a violent jolt of pain ripped through the length of his spine. Isaac hurtled backwards, seeing stars in the sky, hurried movement close by, but as he tried to call out, his entire world went dark.

  He had no idea how long he’d been out, but the deputy got the impression it was barely a minute. Coming to in stages, he regained his composure and struggled to his feet. His hand automatically moved to his gunbelt, but his 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol was missing from its holster. Scrambling across to the cruiser, he dug a hand into the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out a set of keys, then yanked open the door and reached inside to unlock the rifle from its rack between the
seats. He put a hand to his chest and realised his two-way communication device was also gone. Still struggling to regain his equilibrium, Isaac pointed the Remington skyward and fired off a single round.

  It felt like only seconds had passed before both the sheriff and Merlot were by his side, Lowe easing him into the cruiser’s passenger seat. ‘You see where Hank went?’ Sydney asked, prising the weapon from his unsteady grasp.

  The deputy cast his mind back to the moments after the boot took him down. He hadn’t blanked out immediately, sliding into unconsciousness gradually as he lay sprawled out on the leaf-strewn soil beneath the canopy of branches crowding over him in the wooded area between the road and a slight embankment. An image flashed across his mind and he pointed along the tree-lined path, heading north-west.

  Benton looked up, then back at his colleague. ‘You stay here, Isaac,’ he ordered. ‘I think you may have a concussion, and I don’t want to be worrying about you while I’m out there hunting. You hear me?’

  Isaac Solomon nodded once, the movement sending a stab of pain down the back of his head behind the right ear. He winced and muttered beneath his breath, ‘I’m sorry, Ben. I got complacent. My cuff keys are missing, so assume he’s out of them. He has my sidearm and radio.’

  Nodding, Lowe said, ‘Syd and I will go after him. I’ll call for backup on my cell so’s he can’t hear it going out. Help will be here before you know it, okay?’

  ‘Ben, I… I…’

  ‘Hey, we gotta go. Don’t beat yourself up. It happens. I’m leaving you my spare pistol in case Hank doubles back. Don’t mess around with him next time, you hear? You lay eyes on him, drop him where he stands.’

  ‘If my head clears I’m coming after you,’ Isaac insisted, furious with himself.

  ‘And I’m telling you to stay put. Consider than a direct order.’

  He turned to speak to Sydney, which was when both men noticed she was no longer with them.