by M. Z. Kelly
“He’s still our principal suspect.”
“I think we’ve lost our focus. Reginald Dunbar had the motive and means to make the main witness against him go away.”
“But he also had an alibi, and....”
“And bullshit. Dunbar had a reason for wanting Mel dead, and made threats to her before she died. We’ve taken our eye off the ball.”
“None of those threats have been tied directly to him.”
“’Course not. Dunbar paid someone to take care of his business.”
I decided it was useless to argue with him, but it seemed strange to me that he’d gone back to thinking Dunbar was now our principal suspect. I decided he was the ultimate flip-flop subject, as I endured another hour of his theories, before we finally made it to the small mountain town of Trinity.
After checking into our motel and taking a room that adjoined Olivia’s, I told her about Darby’s theory over drinks on the balcony of her room. “It’s like he suddenly has a wild burr up his butt, deciding Dunbar is guilty. I know we haven’t ruled him out as a suspect, but all signs are pointing to Ellis and his group.”
Olivia poured us each a glass of pinot that she’d brought with her. The evening was cool, but beautiful. Her balcony overlooked a small barranca, surrounded by pine trees. It was a soothing setting, contrary to what we expected to encounter tomorrow.
“Darby seems to waffle from one idea to another, depending on the day or the weather,” Olivia said. “I wouldn’t give what he says too much credence.”
“You’re probably right.” Bernie was resting at my side, and I gave him a treat. “He’s just so...”
“Persistent?”
I chuckled. “I was thinking something more along the lines of pain in the ass, but there’s that too.”
“We should have a better handle on things tomorrow, after we have Ellis in custody.”
I then mentioned the Wonderland case, asking Olivia, “What are your thoughts on Dr. Haley Robinson?”
“As we know, she’s squeaky clean, not even a traffic infraction. On the surface, she seems like a hard-working dedicated physician.”
“And below the surface?”
She looked at me. “Not sure. The murders of her father and sister make me think there’s something going on, but I’m not sure if it has anything to do with our current crimes.”
“Have we had any luck contacting Robinson’s aunt and uncle, or her mother?”
“Jenny and Molly are working on it, but, so far, they haven’t had a call back. We’re also drawing a blank on the Tanner case. Her ex has a solid alibi for the time of death. Jenny texted me, saying they’ve found nothing on the shrink’s patient list.”
“Anything come up in the autopsy?”
“Mumford confirmed the tox screen showed she was a heroin user, for whatever difference that makes.”
We talked about the fact that heroin use was becoming an epidemic. I then said, “No luck seems to be our only luck lately.”
Olivia agreed, then changed the subject, mentioning my brother. “Any more thoughts about trying to find Daniel?”
“I gave Molly what little I know about him and asked her to do some checking in her spare time. It’s also occurred to me that maybe he doesn’t want to be found.”
“Because of the money?”
“If he knew about me and took the money anyway, it would explain him never contacting me.” I took a moment, then told her about Joe’s call. “He thinks they have a lead on Pearl and maybe the Rylands in Brazil. If they find Pearl, I hope he can fill in the blanks.”
“How are things between you and Joe?”
I sighed. “I think he read something into what I said over dinner, making him think I have feelings for him.”
“And you don’t?”
“No...maybe...” I exhaled. “I’m not really sure what I’m feeling. Joe has been there for me through a lot of things, but I’m not sure we’re a good match.”
She smiled. “Give it some time, maybe your feelings will sort themselves out.”
“What about you and...I’m sorry, I forget the name of the man you said you were dating.”
“Martin. I’m not sure how serious things are between us either. He’s the first guy I’ve dated since Alex...since my husband’s death.”
Olivia had previously told me that her husband, who had been her college sweetheart, had been killed on their honeymoon by a drunk driver, while running an errand.
“I understand,” I said.
We were quiet for a moment, listening to the trickle of water in the streambed below us, before she went on. “I guess you could say I was pretty reclusive for years after Alex died. I buried him, then buried myself in the job.” I heard the emotion in her voice as she continued. “Alex was the only person...” She brushed a tear. “...he was able to help me move past my family situation, what my father did to me and my sister.”
“He sounds like he was a wonderful guy.”
Olivia took a moment to compose herself, then surprised me by setting her glass down and unbuttoning her blouse. She pushed the garment off her shoulder and turned her back toward me. I saw there were dozens of scars. “This is part of what he helped me forget about, if only temporarily.”
“Your father did that?” She nodded as she buttoned her blouse. “You must hate him—your father.”
“I hate what he did and I’ll never forgive him, but I’ve found a way to pack it away and move on.” She met my eyes and smiled. “Just as we all do.”
I sipped my wine, then said, “I appreciate you sharing.”
She smiled. “As I once told you, Kate, thanks to our childhoods, we live much of our lives in the darkness.” She clinked her glass to mine. “We just have to shine a light on the dark side of the world.”
FORTY-NINE
The raid on Camp Tribute began at seven the next morning. Before leaving for the camp, we met with Detective Owen in our motel’s parking lot. The lieutenant in charge of the Kern County Sheriff’s staff was a big man with silver hair, and spoke like someone with a lot of years on the job. After introductions, he told us what he knew about Camp Tribute.
“The camp was the headquarters for the Mountain King, a silver mining operation that was active back in the early 1900s. It’s been abandoned for years and occupied by squatters and a few homeless. It was sold to a private party about five years ago and fenced off, with plans to eventually redevelop the area. It never happened, and most of the buildings are still boarded up.”
“What about Jackson Ellis and the Society?” Olivia asked. “Any mention of them in connection with the camp?”
“We heard some rumors, but nothing concrete. I understand Ellis is bad news.”
“A suspect in at least two murders. We’ve heard unconfirmed reports that he and his followers are armed, so we should be prepared to meet resistance.”
“We’ve got our SWAT...” Owen turned as an armored vehicle came up the road. “Looks like we’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”
After some further discussion, plans were made to let their SWAT vehicle take the lead in making our way into the camp, with the rest of us following behind. Bernie and I rode with Olivia as we made our way further up into the mountains, toward the abandoned camp.
The road was narrow, and we saw no sign of other vehicles as we stopped at a closed gate that led inside Camp Tribute. After the lock was cut, the SWAT vehicle headed directly into the encampment. The other members of the convoy held back, waiting as the armored Humvee made its way down the road leading into the camp. Even from where we waited, I could see that the mining camp was a series of dilapidated buildings in need of major repair. A couple of the structures looked like they could fall over if given a shove.
The SWAT vehicle stopped in the middle of the encampment, where the officers carefully made their way over to the largest building. The front door was easily breached, then everything suddenly changed.
“Several down inside the dining hall,” we
heard one of the SWAT officers say over the radio. “It looks like we have multiple casualties.”
After getting the all clear signal, the rest of the convoy made its way inside the camp and over to the building that had been cleared, while the SWAT team moved out again, checking other buildings in the encampment. I was unprepared for what I saw when Bernie and I entered behind the other detectives.
“There must be a dozen bodies,” Olivia said, once we got inside.
The building looked like it had been the main headquarters for the mining camp at one time. There was a central meeting area, with an adjacent kitchen and dining room. There were bodies on a sofa, several on the floor, and some in the kitchen. There was no immediate visible indication regarding the cause of death.
“Looks like they drank the Kool-Aid,” Darby said. Olivia gave him a disapproving stare and he defended himself. “Just stating how it looks.”
Despite his insensitive comment, what he’d said seemed possible.
“We got four more down upstairs,” one of the SWAT officers told Lieutenant Owen, after coming down the stairway. “Looks like the same as what happened here.”
It took SWAT an hour to clear the other buildings, but no additional bodies were located. We’d found a total of fourteen fatalities in the main building, none of them with any obvious signs of injury. We estimated that the deaths had occurred sometime in the past twenty-four hours, possibly the night before our assault. None of the dead matched the photographs we had of Jackson Ellis, or his two principal followers.
As we waited for the coroner and forensics staff to arrive, Section One staff met on the boardwalk in front of the former headquarters for the mining camp.
“Whatever the cause of death, it looks like our suspect is in the wind,” Olivia said. “That means we start over.”
“I’ve got a BOLO out,” Leo said. “Maybe we’ll catch a break.”
“Somebody must have tipped Ellis off about what was happening,” I said, “and he wanted to make sure no one would talk.”
“He cleaned house,” Darby agreed. “My guess is he and his two cronies are relocating, planning to pick up where they left off somewhere else.”
“Maybe, but...”
Olivia’s words were cut off by Lieutenant Owen, who came out of the main building. “We’ve got something breaking in one of the outbuildings.”
We hurried down the street, following him into a building that looked like it had served as a garage at one time. The area smelled of grease and was full of rusted equipment that had probably served the mining operations years earlier. At the far end of the building, there was a trapdoor with stairs that led down into a basement.
Due to space constraints, Olivia asked the others to wait while she and I went down into the basement with Lieutenant Owen. Leo took custody of Bernie before we made our way down the stairs. When we got to the basement, we saw there were two SWAT officers guarding a girl, who was huddled in a corner.
“Her name is Mary Wilson,” one of the officers said, coming over to us. “She said she’s been hiding down here since last night. She hasn’t said anything about what went on upstairs.”
Olivia took over, going to the girl and introducing herself. After giving her lots of assurances that Lazarus and the others wouldn’t harm her, Olivia said, “Tell us what happened at the camp last night.”
It took several more promises about her safety, but Mary, who looked to be about sixteen, brushed the hair out of her eyes and finally said, “Lazarus said he was betrayed. Will and Julie told everyone they had to come to the gathering place.”
“What happened then?”
“They made everyone line up, then gave them something to drink.”
“Do you know what it was?” Mary shook her head. “What happened then?”
“I ran and hid here. I heard them calling to me, telling me to come out, but they didn’t know about the basement. I was afraid and stayed down here.”
“You’re a very brave girl, Mary. Can you tell us why Lazarus felt he had been betrayed?”
She shook her head. “All I know is he said someone was coming for him and there would be a purge.”
“Did he say who this person was?” After another head shake, Olivia said, “What did Lazarus tell you about this purge you mentioned?”
“Just that everyone who betrayed him was going to die.”
“What else?” I asked her. “Did Lazarus say anything else that you think is important?”
Mary nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks. “He said that someday he would see us in heaven.”
FIFTY
After leaving the crime scene in the hands of the Kern County authorities, we got back to Hollywood Station after dark. As it turned out, Darby was nearly correct in his assessment about Lazarus’s followers having drunk the Kool-Aid. The crime scene staff assigned to Camp Tribute had determined that his adherents had been killed by the ingestion of a flavored drink, laced with cyanide and a combination of prescription drugs.
We took the information Mary Wilson had told us about Ellis’s purge seriously, but had no idea who else he planned to target. Even so, since he’d extorted money from Ron Peters, Marilyn and Mel’s father, we alerted the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, asking them to provide protection for him and his wife.
I got home around seven, Otto greeting Bernie and me at the door. “Monsieur Robin is awaiting your presence in the parlor, madam.”
“Robin...what’s...?”
I suddenly remembered that a couple days earlier, I’d invited my brother over to see our new house and had asked him to trim my hair. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to just fall into bed, but knew that wasn’t going to be possible. As I went into the parlor and greeted Robin, I saw that Natalie and Mo had him cornered.
“I heard you’ve got ghosts, and you inherited a butler,” Robin said, laughing as he came over and hugged me.
“We also think there are bodies buried in the back yard,” Natalie said. “We’re just too lazy to dig ‘em up.”
“Maybe Bernie will earn his keep one of these days and help us out,” Mo said, eyeballing my dog as Robin bent down and greeted him.
“You and Natalie are welcome to hang around while I work on Kate’s hair,” Robin said, after I took a seat, and he got out his supplies.
I inwardly groaned as my friends pulled up chairs and started grilling me about my activities over the past couple days, while Robin set to work. I gave them the barest of details about Camp Tribute, even though they’d already heard on the news about the bodies discovered there.
“That Lazarus bloke used the nuclear option,” Natalie said. “He killed all the witnesses so they wouldn’t talk ‘bout the crazy stuff he’s been doin’.”
“It looks that way,” I agreed.
“I heard through the grapevine he’s headed back to this area to take care of business,” Mo said.
“Any idea who he’s targeting?”
She shook her big head, which tonight had an orange topper. “Just people he thinks crossed him.”
Natalie changed the subject, telling Robin about their Ask Dr. Doris idea. “Kate’s refused to be the model for our Internet sex avatar, and we decided Nana’s too old. Maybe what we need is a guy who’s fished from both ends of the pier.”
Robin laughed. “My fishing pole’s firmly planted on only one end of the pier these days. You really want me to be your Dr. Doris?”
Mo looked at Natalie. “Maybe you need to rethink this, baby sis. Robin’s a good looking guy, but I can’t see him being Dr. Doris.”
Natalie made another plea for me to be their avatar. I told her she was out of her mind, before Robin moved the conversation in another direction, telling me, “Let’s talk about our long lost brother.”
I’d previously told him all about Daniel and the money he’d claimed in the offshore account.
“The dirty wanker stole your daddy’s quid,” Natalie told Robin. “We’re gonna find the blo
ke and shake him down.”
“You ask me, he’s up to no good,” Mo added. “Why else would he steal the drug money your daddy earned?”
“We don’t know for sure that it’s drug money,” I protested, using a hand mirror to check on Robin’s work. “Just a little off the ends,” I said as he worked on my hair.
My brother had a habit of ignoring me when it came to my hair. “Why do you suppose Mom never told us about Dad’s other son?”
“I confronted her about it. She acted like it was no big deal, since Dad was a teenager when Daniel was born. She also said that she thinks Dad adopted me to make up for putting his son up for adoption.”
“That’s brutal,” Robin said.
Mo chimed in. “Your mom has ‘bout as much tact as Nana.”
Natalie stood up and suddenly clapped her hands. “Hey, I just had me one of them bloody eppy-fantasies.”
“Baby sis means epiphanies,” Mo explained.
I sighed. “I’m not sure I want to hear this.”
There was no stopping Natalie. “What if this Daniel bloke is in league with Harlee?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Maybe she and Daniel are workin’ together to make sure you don’t get a bloody cent from either your adoptive dad or your bio-dad, that Harlan nutter.”
I groaned. “Stop. The idea is preposterous and it’s the last thing I want to even think about.”
The room was suddenly quiet, the only sound was the snipping of Robin’s scissors. After a long moment, I said to Robin and Mo, “Do you think that’s possible?”
Mo shrugged. “Your family tree’s one nut short of a hardware store, so anything’s possible.”
I moved my mirror, so that I could see Robin as he continued to work on my hair. He met my eyes as I lifted my brows.
“I think it’s a stretch,” Robin finally said. “But I would like to meet Daniel one of these days.” He laughed. “Maybe we have something in common, like him also being gay.”