by Steven James
“Domestic abuse case with a city council member,” said Officer Muncey. “They brought his wife and kids here to protect them.”
“Took the kids,” grumbled Jason Stilton. “Left the cats.”
Tessa pulled out her iPod ear buds and knelt down to pet the pumpkin-colored furrball. “Oh, they’re so cute! What are their names?”
“That one’s Sunshine and the black one’s Midnight,” he said.
I knelt down to pet Midnight.
She clawed at the air and hissed at me.
“You have to reach out toward her with your hand open,” said Tessa, demonstrating. “And do it more slowly. That way she knows you’re not going to hurt her.”
I wondered if Tessa was really talking about the cat.
Midnight purred, rolled onto her back, and let Tessa scratch her stomach. “See?”
“I never would have pegged you as a cat person, Tessa,” I said.
“I love cats.”
“I didn’t know-”
“There’s a lot you don’t know,” she said flatly.
I was beginning to realize just how true that was.
“Hello, there.”
I turned toward the voice and saw that Ralph had stepped into the room.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“Just wanted to say hi to the brains of the family.”
“Thank you,” said Tessa.
“You remember me, right?”
She nodded. “Special Agent Ralph Hawkins.”
“Uncle Ralph.” He gave her a hug.
So I made her cry, but Uncle Ralph got a hug. Wonderful.
She pointed at his pocket. “What’s that?”
“Um, nothing.”
She feinted to the right and then leaned left, stuffed her hand into his pocket, and produced his PSP. “Sweet,” she said.
“Hey, give me that!” He tried to snatch it away from her, but she stepped back just in time.
“I should have warned you, Ralph,” I said. “She’s good.”
“Why are you playing video games?” she asked. “I thought you were supposed to be like solving murders or something.”
“Everyone needs a break sometimes. Now give me that.” He reached for it again, missed. Sighed.
“So what are you playing?”
He gave up and leaned an arm against the wall. “Sorcerer’s Realm IV. I can’t seem to make it past the crypt on Level Five.”
“No prob. I can help you.”
“You play?”
She did that sarcastic teenage girl jut-your-head-forward-and-tweak-your-voice thing. “Yeah.”
“Oh,” said Ralph. “Right.”
She flopped onto the couch, and he positioned himself next to her. Then she began to maneuver the game controls like a pro while he watched submissively. “See that cave?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, there’s a secret passage in there, but you need to behead the ogre first.”
“I didn’t know you could behead him. I always just beat on him with the club.”
“No, beheading is definitely better.”
I watched them for a few minutes, Tessa pointing. Ralph nodding, his head bobbing up and down above those massive shoulders. Watching Ralph trying to use his thick fingers to press the tiny control buttons made me think of trying to type wearing a catcher’s mitt. No wonder he couldn’t beat Tony.
And every once in a while Tessa would laugh. For the first time in months I actually heard my stepdaughter laugh.
As she showed my friend how to behead ogres.
64
Before Ralph left he pulled me aside. “Tucker’s on disciplinary leave,” he told me. “Until they can figure out exactly what went down last night.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I expected that. Any word on Vanessa?”
He shook his head. “Last I heard she was the same. Bullet matched, though. It’s the same weapon as the mall. Listen, I gotta go, have a good afternoon with Tessa. She’s a darling girl.”
Darling wasn’t exactly the word I would have chosen. “OK, I will.”
Then he said good-bye to Tessa and took off. I hung out with Tessa and the cats for about half an hour, and then I checked my messages. Three voicemails from Margaret. Huh, that was even faster than I expected. One message from Lien-hua.
I called Lien-hua.
Maybe I should have been surprised when she told me that two hours ago they’d found the rest of Jolene’s body in the home of Reggie Abrams, retired FBI agent, but I wasn’t. Maybe I should have been surprised when she told me Abrams had been shot execution style in the head or that he was the former head of FBI in the state of North Carolina, but I wasn’t.
The only thing that really surprised me was that Ralph hadn’t mentioned any of this when he was with me at the house.
Weird.
“Did we find out any more about this cult in New Mexico?” I asked her.
“A little. The leader’s name is Aaron Jeffrey Kincaid. He used to own PTPharmaceuticals but dropped off the map after selling the company a few years ago. I’ll email you his picture and bio. Oh, and I have an address. We just called it in to the local police about ten minutes ago. They’re heading over to check him out.”
“Give me the address,” I said, flipping open my laptop.
“What are you doing?” asked Tessa, picking up Sunshine.
Yeah, this is good. She likes video games. “Watch this,” I said and booted up F.A.L.C.O.N.
“You’re not gonna believe this,” Lien-hua said. “Here’s the address: 19654 Walnut Road, Taos, New Mexico.”
“What’s so significant about that?” I typed in the address, and Tessa watched the screen tilt and then zoom in on the coordinates. First the planet. Then the hemisphere. Then North America. The west. New Mexico. Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
“Sweet,” she said.
“Well,” said Lien-hua, “the phone number for Peoples Temple was Walnut 1-9654. It was retired after the tragedy. It’s never been reassigned to another customer.”
“Subtle,” I said. But as the screen zoomed in closer, I began to regret my decision to let Tessa watch.
“What’s that?” asked Tessa.
Deep billows of black smoke churned from each of the six buildings. “The ranch is on fire,” I whispered. “The whole place is.” I maneuvered the cursor around the screen, tilting it, zooming in and out to observe the buildings from different angles. A fierce desert wind from the west whipped the flames into a white frenzy.
“Are there any people in there?” Tessa asked softly.
I flipped the laptop closed. “Tessa, wait over there for a minute ’til I’m off the phone.”
“But-”
“Please.”
“Patrick-”
“Now.”
She let out an annoyed sigh but finally stepped back.
“What’s going on?” asked Lien-hua.
“They torched the whole thing,” I said. I zoomed out and saw four police cars racing down the road toward the ranch. Two fire trucks followed closely behind them. I told Lien-hua what I saw.
“How old is the video?” she asked.
I checked the data timer. “About five minutes. We’re between satellite passes. Hang on a minute.” I zoomed in on something in the corral. An animal. A whole herd, actually.
I zoomed closer.
None of them were moving.
Zoomed closer. Closer still.
It looked as if the livestock were covered with sores. At first I thought it might be insect activity.
No, not that high in the mountains. It’d be too cool this late in the year.
“Listen, Lien-hua, have the police call in a Hazmat team and tell them to avoid the dead livestock in the meadow. If Kincaid is planning another White Night, he might have developed some kind of drug or contagion. We need to isolate it ASAP.”
I heard a shuffle of movement behind me and turned around. Tessa was staring down at the screen. “What’s
going on?” she asked.
I closed the computer again. “Please, Tessa, I’ll be off the phone in a minute.”
She didn’t move.
I pointed to the couch. “Work with me.”
She shook her head, slouched away, and situated herself on it with her arms folded tightly.
I heard Lien-hua call out for Dante Wallace to get in touch with the New Mexico state patrol and regional Hazmat teams. Then, her voice came through the phone to me again. “Pat, we’re at the Abrams’s scene now. Can you meet us here?”
“I need to hang out with Tessa this afternoon.”
“Who are you talking to?” asked Tessa.
Lien-hua continued. “Well, I guess we can email you the files.” You really should swing by the crime scene. “Are they done processing it?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded. Then I caught myself. “No, I really don’t think I can come.”
“Come where?” asked Tessa.
“OK,” said Lien-hua. “I guess I’ll just brief you later on what we find.”
Then again, maybe I could leave Tessa here for a little while, let her play with the cats… “What’s the address?”
“To where?” asked Tessa. “Where are we going?”
I held the phone to my chest for a minute. “ We are not going anywhere. I have to go to a crime scene.”
“I’ve never been to a crime scene.”
“I can’t take you.”
“I thought you wanted to spend time with me.”
Oh man, she was good. She was way good.
“I do but-look, it’s against the rules.”
“But if the cops are done, what would it matter?”
“How do you know the cops are done?”
She rolled her eyes. “You just asked the woman on the phone if they were done, and then you nodded- hello! — you wouldn’t have done that if she said no. So if they’re done, why can’t I come?”
“How did you know I’m talking to a woman?”
“Are you kidding me? Tone of voice.”
OK, it was official. So she was a better investigator than most of the FBI agents I’d worked with over the last nine years.
“Well,” I said. “I’m not taking you, and that’s final.”
I pulled to a stop in front of Abrams’s house on Cedar Point Avenue and turned to Tessa. “Stay in the car.”
“But then I can’t see-”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“How are we supposed to spend time together if you’re in there and I’m out here?”
“Ha. That’s not going to work this time.” I pointed to the two FBI agents who were stationed on the porch. “Don’t worry, you’ll be safe. I’ll be back in a couple minutes, and we’ll go grab some supper. Maybe steaks or something.”
“I’m a vegetarian.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I like meat. Nice, juicy catburgers whenever possible.”
“That’s not even funny.”
“Wait here.”
She set her jaw and slid down into her seat. As I stepped outside the car my phone rang.
Margaret.
She didn’t waste time. “Why aren’t you returning my calls?”
“I’m a little busy, Margaret.”
“You went to see the governor today?”
Wow. Word travels fast. “I needed some advice.”
“On what?”
“Fishing.”
“Well, listen,” she said. “I’ve looked over all the reports from last night, and I’m satisfied.”
I almost dropped Ralph’s phone. “You’re what?”
“Satisfied with Tucker’s response to the situation,” she continued. “Of course, it will have to go through all the official channels, but he really had no choice but to fire his weapon when the attacker refused to comply. You, on the other hand, did not respond appropriately.”
I shifted the phone in my hand. “Excuse me?”
“When the assailant was waving the guns in your direction and in the direction of your fellow agents, you did not fire. Standard operating procedure clearly indicates that-”
Anger rising. Rising.
“The man was holding toy guns,” I interjected. “And he couldn’t have dropped them even if he wanted to.”
“But you didn’t know that at the time, now did you?”
Don’t lose it, Pat. Don’t lose it.
“Oh, wait,” I said. “I see. Now I get it.”
“Get what?”
“Someone from Governor Taylor’s office called you, didn’t they?”
“Dr. Bowers.” She was speaking very slowly, very distinctly. “I hope you are not accusing me of acting unethically?”
“Why not? That’s exactly what I’m doing-”
“Bowers, your techniques are not working. We still have no idea who the killer is-”
“Vanessa might know a name.”
“Oh, haven’t you heard?” Her voice had become chilly. Distant.
My heart sank. “Heard what?”
“She died this afternoon, Dr. Bowers.”
No.
“How did she die? Who was assigned to guard her room? What was the time of death?”
“She died from being shot in the neck, Dr. Bowers, when you led your team into an ambush. Now I’d like you to stop all this nonsense about Jonestown and killer cults and focus on finding the man who shot her or I’m pulling you off the case. One more screw-up, and you’re going back to Denv-”
“I think I’m losing you, Margaret,” I said.
“Don’t hang up on me, Dr.-”
I hung up and then shut off Ralph’s phone. I was tempted to drop it against the garage door at about eighty miles per hour, but caught myself just in time.
65
Sheriff Wallace met me at the door. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I avoided mentioning my conversation with Margaret. I just wasn’t up for it. I peered past him and looked inside the house. Blood spatter on the wall and doorframe told me where the shooter and the victim were standing at the time of the murder. Abrams’s workout bag lay by the door, a racquetball racket leaning next to it. He might’ve been on his way out when he was attacked.
We followed the dried blood trail through the house to Abrams’s bedroom. He’d been dragged into the closet.
“And Jolene’s body? Where was that found?” I asked.
“Over yonder. On the treadmill.”
“Treadmill?”
“Yeah.”
Treadmill?
“By the way, I don’t know if this matters now that Grolin’s dead,” he said. “But I finished going through his credit card statements.” “And?”
“That leather jacket he likes to wear? He bought it from the Gap over there in Hanes Mall last spring. Guess who was working at the Gap that day?”
“Jolene.”
“Yup.”
I thought for a minute. It was all too perfect. Someone had been framing Grolin and planning it for close to a year. “Any other leather jackets purchased that day?”
“Other jackets?”
“From the Gap. Were any other leather jackets purchased that day, or maybe later that week?”
He looked perplexed. “I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Lien-hua entered the bedroom. Ralph was right behind her.
“Ralph,” I said. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you tell me about this crime scene when you were at the safe house?”
“I thought you’d appreciate a little time away from the case.”
“Why?”
He glared at me. “I flew Tessa in so you could straighten things out with her, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So do it.”
I felt my fingers tense. Anger began to curl through me. At Margaret for being Margaret. At Tucker for rushing in last night. At the Illusionist for winning. At Ralph for being right. “But you should have known I’d come out here after talking to Lien-hua on the phone-”
“Listen, it’s important for me to be here at this crime scene.” I said it loud enough for everyone to hear, but I knew I was saying it for myself. Silence in the room. There are some things more important than crime scenes, I heard a voice inside of me say. At first I thought it sounded like the voice of my dead wife. But then I realized it sounded more like the voice of her only daughter.
I tried to shake the thoughts from my head, get focused again. No one responded to my comments. I continued, “So, he was shot yesterday morning, right?”
“Yeah,” said Ralph. I could tell by his tone that he was still upset.
I turned around and scanned the room, expecting to see a pawn somewhere. When my eyes came to rest on the treadmill, I wasn’t disappointed. A white one. “But why Abrams?” I asked, exasperated. “How does he fit into this whole thing? What do we know about him?”
“He made a name for himself back in 1991,” explained Lien-hua. “That’s when North Carolina signed on to become part of the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.”
“VICAP,” I said.
“Yes. He was the one who signed North Carolina in.”
It seemed like the case was spinning off sideways, getting skewed. I was starting to doubt I’d ever be able to catch this guy. “Did we get anything on that brush yet?” I was asking everybody. “Get any prints off it? DNA? Anything?”
“Hmm.” Ralph scratched at his chin. He seemed to be lightening up. “Far as I know, Brent was taking care of that. We should have had those back by now. Maybe with him being on mandatory leave right now, something slipped through the cracks. I’ll check on that.”
“I’ll do it,” said Sheriff Wallace. He stepped away to make the call.
I walked over to the closet. Abrams’s body had already been removed. A patch of dried blood stained the carpet.
“Dragged him into the closet,” I said. “Why a closet?”
“I think it’s part of his narrative, his fantasy life,” said Lien-hua. “The first pawn was found in a closet, he strangled Mindy in that cave…”
“Maybe he feels at home in tight places,” said Ralph.
“Or maybe he likes the dark,” added Lien-hua.