“Doesn’t sound too hard to pull the wool over the probation officer’s eyes. If I was Eddie, I’d just lie about where I lived and where I traveled,” Marlee said.
“I think he got away with a number of things for quite a while doing this, but now it’s catching up to him,” Barry said. “So, what’s your big news?”
“Pam went to high school with Eddie and said he either dropped out or was kicked out during junior year. And, Eddie and Blake Rikers are half-brothers. Eddie and Blake lived right across the street from Pam and Tim until Eddie’s step-dad kicked him out of the house after he left high school. Pam also said that both Eddie and Blake are geniuses and thought it was a waste of potential that they never went on to college or became professionals.” Marlee paused to take a breath. “And, Eddie probably has a juvenile record since Pam saw the cops bring him home more than once. She said he was always in trouble and skipped a lot of school.”
Barry slid into one of the chairs by the desk, and Marlee slunk into her reclining lawn chair. They were both silent as they processed the information on Eddie Turner and what impact, if any, that it might have on the case.
“You said Eddie’s actions are finally catching up to him? What did you mean?” Marlee asked.
“Eddie is under suspicion in multiple counties in Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. They’re all related to passing bogus twenty-dollar bills,” Barry said.
“Weren’t you and Doug doing a stakeout on some people you thought were involved with funny money here in town?” Marlee asked, remembering the night the two cops picked her up as she was walking from the truck stop back to the dorm.
“Yeah, but Eddie’s name never came up. It was a couple other scumbags from around town,” Barry said.
“If they’re scumbags, then Eddie probably knows them, and I bet they’re working together.” Marlee said. Barry nodded, still in thought.
Marlee, with some difficulty, leaped out of the beach chair. “I think I know what happened! I think I know who killed Beth and Tim and why!”
How many criminals does it take to pull off the perfect crime? If more than one person’s involved, then it’s no longer perfect.
Chapter 29
Marlee and Barry shouted over the top of each other as they drove to Eddie Turner’s trailer. “We need a firm plan in place when we question him. Otherwise, he’ll try to baffle us with bullshit,” Barry said.
“I think we just see where the conversation goes and only reveal what’s absolutely necessary,” Marlee argued as they pulled into the trailer court. “Besides, I have a plan.” She jumped out of the car before Barry had it in park, and she marched toward Eddie’s front door.
Eddie Turner jerked open the door before Marlee was on the front step. “I see you came back to take me up on my offer,” he said, his voice dripping like slime as he puffed on a cigarette. “Who’s this?” he growled when he spotted Barry walking behind Marlee.
“This is my friend, Barry. We wanted to chat with you a bit,” Marlee said, not waiting to be invited in. She confidently pushed her way past Eddie and stood in the living room, hands on hips.
Eddie seemed more curious than offended and allowed Barry to enter the home as well. The three stood in a circle, each waiting for the other to begin.
“We know about the fake money scheme you’ve been running in town and all over the Midwest,” Marlee accused.
“Who told you that?” Eddie asked, neither confirming nor refuting their claims. “Are you cops?”
“Hell, no we’re not cops,” Marlee said with disdain. “We found Beth’s diary. She spelled out everything about the counterfeit money. We want in.”
Barry and Eddie both looked at Marlee in surprise. Neither expected this pronouncement from her. Eddie finally laughed and blew a cloud of smoke upward. “Sure, you want in. How do I know you won’t run to the police?”
“Why would we tell the cops anything if we’re making money? I have a lot of school bills to pay, and Barry wants to quit his job working for a carpenter. That takes money, and if we can get in on your money scheme, then we wouldn’t have to worry so much about funds.”
“What else was in Beth’s diary?” Eddie asked, thinking over Marlee’s claims.
“She wrote about Stairway to Hell and how you and the guys there are printing fake money and passing it all over. Beth wrote how your brother, Blake, was the brains behind the whole project, and you followed his directions,” Marlee said, baiting Eddie.
“Bullshit! That bitch! I don’t take orders from anyone. Blake does what I say. Where’s Beth’s diary? Hand it over!” Eddie shouted.
“We didn’t bring it with us,” Barry said, jumping in on the diary story. “We’re not that stupid.”
Eddie let out a long breath. “Okay, fine. You two want a beer?”
“Sure,” said Barry and Marlee shrugged. Eddie sauntered into the kitchen and clanking and rattling was heard as he rustled around in the refrigerator for beer.
Barry turned around and mouthed, “What are you doing?”
Marlee merely smiled, but the smile didn’t last for long. Eddie reappeared with only one can of beer. And a gun aimed right at them.
Marlee shrieked, moving out of the direct aim of the gun.
Eddie just laughed. “You think I don’t know he’s a cop? I’ve seen him around town in his little uniform directing traffic and catching stray dogs. How stupid do you think I am?”
Neither Barry nor Marlee responded to Eddie. It didn’t seem like the type of question he really wanted answered. He motioned for them to sit side-by-side on the filthy couch while he lit another cigarette and opened his can of beer. Eddie seemed to be stalling, trying to figure out what to do with his two prisoners.
“Eddie, just let us go. We won’t say anything, and you don’t have to cut us in. We’ll just go away and keep our mouths shut,” Marlee said, Barry nodding vigorously.
“Not until I have that diary. Where is it?” Eddie guzzled beer while moving the gun back and forth between them.
“It’s in Marlee’s dorm room,” Barry blurted. “We’ll go get it and bring it back to you.”
“Nah, I think Miss Marlee and I’ll go get the diary, and you can wait here,” Eddie said as he set down his beer can and rummaged in a drawer all the while waiving the gun in their general direction. “Here,” he said, tossing Marlee a roll of duct tape. “Tape him to the chair.”
Ten minutes later, Marlee was driving Barry’s car back to her dorm room. It would have been a normal drive except for the chain-smoking psychopath sitting next to her. “Do you mind putting out that cigarette? Barry will be really mad that you smoked in his car.”
“How about I put a bullet in your head? How would Barry like that?” Eddie snarled.
“Never mind,” Marlee said under her breath. She had no idea what her next step should be. There was no diary, so she had nothing to present to Eddie. She was also worried about bringing the gun-toting Eddie into her dorm and endangering her friends, especially Jasmine.
Marlee drove well below the speed limit, taking her time getting to the dorm, hoping a plan would pop into her head. Luck was not on her side. Her mind was as blank as when she’d left Eddie’s trailer.
They walked toward the dorm from the rear parking lot. Eddie walked behind Marlee with his gun tucked inside his ratty coat. “Don’t even think of doing anything funny,” Eddie hissed. “One screw up, and I’ll shoot you then I’ll shoot your little cop friend.” Marlee nodded that she understood, all the while her mind was racing.
Marlee and Eddie walked down the hallway toward her room. She desperately hoped no one would see them, thus bringing about the possibility that they too would be held at gun point. As she was fiddling with the key to unlock her dorm room, Kristie from next door poked her head out of her room.
“Hey, Marlee whatcha doing? Oh, I see you have company,” Kristie said, looking Eddie up and down.
“Yeah, this is an old friend,” Marlee said, not looking at Kristie f
or fear she would be able to read her face and sense the danger. The last thing Marlee wanted to do was put Kristie or Jasmine in any harm. “Talk to you later.”
Kristie pulled her head back inside and shut the door. Marlee breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about Kristie being injured or killed. As Marlee eased her own door open she peeked inside and saw Jasmine atop her lofted bed, under the covers. Jasmine caught her eye and was about to speak, but Marlee put her finger to her lips to hush her.
“I don’t think my roommate’s here, Eddie,” Marlee said loudly. “We should be able to just pick up the diary and leave. You don’t need to use your gun,” Upon hearing the words, Jasmine flattened herself and pulled the blankets up over her head, leaving the bed looking rumpled and unmade. She was so slim that it was impossible to tell she was up there with the extra blankets and quilts.
“Hurry up!” Eddie barked, motioning to the gun inside his coat. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Marlee walked toward her lofted bed and reached under the mattress, retrieving the notebook used to document the details of both Beth and Tim’s death investigations. It was the closest thing to Beth’s personal diary that she could produce. With any luck, Eddie would just glance at it and see enough to convince him it was indeed a diary.
With a deep breath, Marlee handed the notebook to Eddie and motioned him toward the door. “Here it is. Let’s get back to your trailer and release Barry. Then we can forget all about Barry and I trying to get in on this fake money thing, and you can get back to business.”
Eddie grabbed the notebook and rifled through the pages without reading them, satisfied that it was indeed Beth’s diary. “Let’s go!”
The drive back to Eddie’s trailer took what seemed like four days. Marlee again drove as slowly as possible, giving herself time to think of a great plan. The only problem was, she didn’t have any plan. All she knew was that she had to keep Eddie talking so he wouldn’t leaf through her notebook and see that it wasn’t Beth’s diary after all.
“How did you get involved in the fake money scheme?” she asked, putting along behind a senior citizen driving ten miles under the speed limit.
“I thought it up and got Blake involved since he worked at the printing place. He knew enough about printing and was able to get his hands on some ink. We made our own templates and started printing money. Easy as can be,” Eddie said, lighting another smoke.
“You had quite a sophisticated operation,” Marlee said, playing to his ego. “Who did you get to pass the fake money around?”
“A lot of people. Some you wouldn’t expect. Blake and his roommates. Beth passed some bills at 7-11 where she worked, but when they were turned over to the cops we had to cut back on circulating them here in town. I would pass them when I was playing gigs in other areas on the weekends, and I had a few friends passing them too. Like I said, the cops were on to the fake money here in town, but didn’t know who was doing it. We had to lay low for a while,” Eddie said, enjoying the opportunity to brag on the counterfeiting empire he built in the small town.
“Did they need the money so bad that they were willing to get involved in an illegal operation like this?” Marlee asked.
“Not everybody has money like you rich college kids. Hell, most of the college kids I know don’t have much money either. Everybody has bills to pay. Plus, it’s fun sticking it to the man, you know? The law has been breathing down my neck since I was a kid. Finally, I’m coming out on top,” Eddie said.
“But wouldn’t it have been better to just work at a steady job and earn money honestly?” Marlee asked.
Eddie snorted. “And how do I get this steady job with good pay? And even if I do get the job, will the wages be high enough to pay all my bills, fix my car, and send me on a two-week vacation? I seriously fucking doubt it. This working hard-and-steady job thing is for suckers. I outsmarted the system, and as long as nobody rats me out, I’ll be just fine.”
Even though Marlee taped Barry to a kitchen chair as loosely as she could, he was unable to free himself by the time Marlee and Eddie returned to the trailer. His efforts at escape were notable since he and the chair were now tipped on their sides. Barry looked up at Marlee as they entered the kitchen and raised his eyebrows.
“I guess we’ll probably just get going now that you have Beth’s diary,” Marlee said, struggling to turn Barry and his chair back to an upright position.
“Not so fast. Just sit your ass down. We’re going to look through this diary together,” Eddie growled, grabbing a beer from the fridge and flopping down in a kitchen chair.
“But you said we could go after you got the diary. We kept our part of the bargain,” Marlee whined, as she worked to free Barry’s right arm from the duct tape.
“I said sit down!” Eddie yelled, pulling the gun from his coat and motioning Marlee to a chair next to him. He picked up the notebook and started reading the first page. As he read, his expression turned from nervous anticipation to angry skepticism. “Who killed Beth? You expect me to believe she wrote this in her own diary? What is this?”
Now that they were busted, Marlee needed to think of a story and fast. “Those are some notes I was keeping about Beth and Tim’s deaths. It’s sort of a project for my criminology class. You know, since there’s been so much going on in town the past few weeks. Our professor gave us all an assignment to keep notes on the deaths related to the university.”
“Who gives a shit about your project? Where’s Beth’s diary?” Eddie yelled, his face just inches from hers.
Marlee wiped Eddie’s spittle from her face with the back of her hand, stalling for time waiting for a brilliant plan to spring to mind. Just then the phone rang, sparing Marlee from cooking up another far-fetched story.
“Yeah?” Eddie growled into the receiver. “That nosy student and her cop friend are here now. Come on over. And bring everybody. We’re going to finish this thing once and for all.”
I want everyone to know that I wasn’t just some drunken bimbo that got hammered and froze to death. There’s a lot more to the story.
Chapter 30
Twenty minutes later, Blake, Adam, and John burst into Eddie’s trailer. “What the hell’s going on, Eddie?” Blake asked. “What are these two doing here?”
Eddie relayed the story of Beth’s diary and how Marlee and Barry wanted in on the phony money scheme.
“Beth kept a diary? Where is it?” Blake asked, helping himself to a beer from the fridge and settling in on a kitchen chair.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Marlee and her cop friend tried to trick me with her notes for a college project. They’re a couple of liars, and I want to find out what they’re really up to. And I want that damn diary!” Eddie said.
It didn’t take a genius to see that she and Barry were outnumbered. Plus, Barry was still duct-taped to a chair, and Eddie possessed a gun, which tipped the odds against them even more. Her only recourse was to stall them until she could think of something else.
“If Tim was involved in the money scheme, why kill him?” Marlee asked, holding her breath as she waited for an answer.
“That was an accident!” Eddie and Blake shouted in unison.
John, the calmest of the group, spoke first. “We just wanted to talk to Tim, and things got out of hand. Tim thought we killed Beth, and he was really upset when he found out she was pregnant. We tried to talk sense into him, but Tim overreacted, and Eddie hit him a little too hard with a baseball bat.”
“So, he died right then?” Marlee asked. “How did he get to the shed on the farm?”
“Yeah, he died instantly. There was nothing doctors could’ve done, and we didn’t want to get into trouble for what was an accident. Blake knew Tim got a key from his grandfather for the shed, so we took him out there knowing it would take some time for anybody to find his body,” John reported.
“Why did Tim get the key to the shed?” Marlee asked.
“After B
eth died, the cops were swarming our house, so we moved our printing stuff out to the shed. When we took Tim out there, we picked up our printing materials and moved them out to the place we’ve been staying since the fire,” John said, his winter pallor getting even lighter. “I couldn’t stand to look at him, so I pulled his hood over his head.”
“Why burn down the house? And why kill Tim’s dog?” Marlee was still more upset about the death of Rufus than she was the demise of Stairway to Hell.
“When Eddie and Tim were arguing, Rufus attacked Eddie, and he broke the dog’s neck. That set Tim off, and he went wild. We couldn’t talk any sense into him, and Eddie hit him over the head with a bat. That’s what did him in,” John said. “The fire was a distraction. We thought the cops would be so busy investigating it that they wouldn’t find Tim for a few days. And that’s exactly what happened.”
“I suspect you guys were hoping Tim’s disappearance and fire would all be blamed on Pam,” Marlee said. “And that’s why you told me Tim was graduating in May and that Pam knew it. You were pointing me in her direction all along.”
“Yeah, that was part of the plan,” John replied. “We gave conflicting stories to keep you off balance, but kept pointing you back to Pam.”
“So, who killed Beth?” Marlee asked looking around the room. “And why?”
John, who had been the spokesperson since the group arrived looked puzzled. “We didn’t kill Beth. She died because she drank too much and then fell down and froze to death. It was an accident.”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Marlee. “Beth knew she was pregnant and planned to keep the baby. I think she talked to you guys about getting a bigger cut from the fake money scheme. Since she was pregnant, she wasn’t drinking because she knew it could be harmful to the baby. Somebody spiked her drink. I know she wasn’t drinking garbage pail punch or beer at the party because I saw her spill some clear liquid. I think she believed she was drinking pop, but you guys put alcohol in it without her knowledge.”
Fatal Footsteps Page 23