He slipped on a pair of latex gloves that Wendy had to dye her hair with, thinking they would protect against him leaving any fingerprints on Danny’s car. His dishwashing gloves were just too dirty to use and were already in the trash bag anyway.
As he drove away from his house, he wondered why his original plan wouldn’t still work. He could drop Danny’s car at the train station, making it appear as if he had taken a train somewhere. With the fact that he and Wendy were having an affair, everyone would probably assume they had gone together. No one would ever ask him about it because he wasn’t a friend of Danny’s. Yeah, right, no one would question him, even though he was the husband of the woman Danny was having an affair with, and who just happened to be missing.
Why would the police want to talk to him? In every book he’d read, the spouse of the dead or missing was the prime suspect. It’d be no different with him. He’d have to think about how he’d answer their questions, because they were bound to be asked once someone became concerned over why neither Wendy nor Danny showed up for work.
In the end, he decided to still use the train station because that was where his car was, and it was still a good misdirection clue which could explain both Danny’s and Wendy’s disappearance.
He arrived at the station an hour before the first train was scheduled. He parked Danny’s car off in a far corner of the lot and left the keys in the ignition. A quick look about the parking lot told him there wasn’t anyone there, unless someone was sleeping in their car. But he decided he didn’t have to worry about that, because the few dozen cars parked here were all a good distance away. Once he had switched cars, there would be no way anyone could possibly connect him to Danny or could they? He had taken Danny’s house key off the key ring before he left the house. He’d need the key to get into Danny’s place to plant evidence. While he was filling the hole back in, he had decided he needed to give the police a patsy. He figured who better than April, and he would do his best to frame her. If only he knew where she was.
It didn’t occur to him that Danny not having a key to his apartment on his key ring with his car keys would be a big red flag for the investigators. It was a mistake he’d never know he made, and it wasn’t the last.
It was while he sat in Danny’s car, contemplating how to plant the evidence, that he realized he’d made a huge mistake. It was so obvious the realization physically hurt. Damn! He hadn’t given any thought to the security cameras here at the train station. Shit! How many cameras were there and where were they? Did they tape everything for later review or was someone watching him right now? He had no idea. It was too late to check it out now, he was already on video. The whole world had gone security camera crazy in the last few years. You couldn’t go anywhere without being watched and recorded. There was even a camera in the toilet at work. It videotaped everything except you on the toilet.
Tyler pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up and over his head before he exited Danny’s car, dragging the black plastic bag out of the car behind him. The sun was just beginning to rise as he walked across the parking lot and out on to the street. He kept his head down and the large plastic bag over his shoulder the entire time he walked the block and a half to his car. He was purposely keeping his head down in an attempt to avoid the security cameras. He’d later learn he’d been successful.
On the trip home, Tyler swung his old Nova in behind the strip mall on Third Street as planned, only now he was looking for security cameras. The mall was in a rough neighborhood so cameras seemed to be a given, but the more he sat there looking for them, the less he believed they were there. He couldn’t find a single one. He’d originally chosen the Third Street Mall because its trash was picked up first thing Monday mornings and their trash bins were set out in the open. Now he wasn’t so sure. If there weren’t security cameras watching the back of the building, this may be a regular dumpsite for criminals and the police may come here before going anywhere else when looking for dumped evidence. Tyler changed his plan rather than make another mistake.
As he drove away, his mind raced trying to figure out what to do with the bag of bloody paper towels, dirty clothes, plastic bags and his rubber kitchen gloves. He couldn’t take them home. His trash wasn’t due for pickup until Thursday, and the hole was already filled in. It occurred to him that it had been a mistake not to have buried the bag in the hole, but he’d forgotten about the bag until he saw it sitting in the garage while he changed out of his work clothes for this trip. Damn, the mistakes were piling up.
He then thought he’d drop it in one of the school dumpsters, but then he thought he’d seen cameras overlooking the trash areas at the local schools and he decided that was a no-go also. What he needed was someplace where he wouldn’t be seen on any cameras.
As he pulled out of the alleyway, he remembered that there was an abandoned warehouse on the river a few blocks away, and he turned in that direction. So far this morning, he hadn’t seen any other cars or anyone walking the streets, which was fine with him, but it wouldn’t last for long. As he pulled into the parking area of the old warehouse, he slowed down so he could take a hard look at the street. He wanted to make sure no one was out wandering around. He was pretty sure that the homeless used this old building for shelter. Again, he was lucky and there was no one. Of course, five a.m. on a Sunday morning typically wasn’t the most active time of the week. It was one of the factors he’d considered when he planned this whole thing.
He drove straight to the back of the building and parked in a shadow by the loading dock. He quickly got out of his car and walked briskly towards the waterfront. He remembered as a kid his dad would bring him down here to watch the barges get loaded with the products this place had made. The company had been Haydon Industries and he had always assumed they made some sort of metal products. But as he got older he learned they had made plastic piping for mining operations.
The docks at Haydon Industries were now pretty much dilapidated, and he had to watch where he stepped to avoid dropping through some hole into the river. On his way from the parking lot to the edge of the dock, he picked up several chunks of broken concrete. He stuffed these bits and pieces into the plastic bag as weights to help sink the bag to the bottom. Once he’d retied the bag, he tossed it into the river a few feet off the dock.
He stood and watched as the ripples from the splash were slowly carried off by the current. When he felt sure the bag was lost forever in the dark muddy water, he turned and started back to the car. After a few steps though, he stopped. A thought had just crossed his mind, and he suddenly realized he was making yet another mistake. The hooded sweatshirt he was wearing had been seen on the security cameras at the train station. He couldn’t risk having the police find it if they searched his house, especially if it matched the one on the video. He also couldn’t afford to have some forensic tech match a stray fiber from Danny’s car to a sweatshirt in his closet or drawer. He must have read it a hundred times—the police forensic lab matched the fibers of some fabric belonging to the suspect to something from the crime scene or the victim’s body.
He quickly pulled off the sweatshirt and wrapped a couple of chunks of broken block in it, then trotted back to the edge of the dock and tossed the sweatshirt in. He walked back to the car admonishing himself for being so stupid not to have realized the problem until the very last moment. But at least he had realized it.
When he arrived back home, he parked the Chevy Nova in the garage and closed the door. Then he moved his everyday car, a Chevy Impala, which he had parked across the street last night, into the driveway and went to work replanting the garden.
It was noon before he finally finished, and when he was done, he stood back comparing the photos he had taken of the garden before he started digging and the actual garden after the fact. Each plant group was exactly where it had been and each plant, at least to his eye, was in its original spot. While he was doing the replanting and wondering what to do about April, he hit upon the idea that he nee
ded to make it appear as though there was a lover’s triangle going on between Wendy, Danny and her. He quickly put away the shovels and rakes he had used to do the replanting, stuffing the pictures in between the two-by- fours that made up the door frame, and promptly forgot about them.
While taking a shower, he took stock of the items he had with which to frame April. He had Wendy’s and April’s purses and IDs. He had Wendy’s jewelry. He also had Danny’s wallet, keys and jewelry. But the best piece of incriminating evidence was the large carving knife covered in fingerprints and blood. He knew positively it was Danny’s blood and he was hoping that the fingerprints were April’s and not his. It was a risk but it was one he felt he had to take. Who else could it have been? But why had she stabbed him? Danny could have been her savior. Apparently, April hadn’t drunk enough tea to kill her. After all, she did manage to drive away in her sister’s car. Then he remembered that the poison was also a hallucinogenic drug that the rural populations in Southeast Asia and India used recreationally in small quantities. It was then he had a stroke of genius. He’d plant the remaining drug in April’s apartment after planting some on drink glasses in Danny’s apartment. It would be the final nail in the proverbial coffin.
As he sat pondering what to do with the evidence, he realized that it could be used against him should someone in authority arrive before he had time to plant it. He needed someplace to hide the stuff and he needed it now. The only place that came to mind was out in the garage. There was dead space up under the eaves of the garage, between each of the rafters. It was the perfect size to hide a small plastic bag with the jewelry and Danny’s wallet in it. He’d have to put each purse in a separate space making sure to flatten them as much as possible and push them back from the edge ensuring anyone running a flashlight over the area wouldn’t see anything to be suspicious about. He placed the small bottle of poison in April’s purse, along with the credit card he had used to anonymously purchase it with those items already tucked in her purse. He wouldn’t forget them when he went to plant evidence.
To Tyler’s surprise, the knife wouldn’t fit in the space under the eaves, it was too long. So he had to try and come up with another place to hide it. He finally decided on a small space between the frame and the body of the Nova under the passenger side of the old car. He had no idea how he knew to look there, but it worked out well. He slipped the knife in nice and easy. Now he just had to remember not to drive the car unless he removed the knife first. Otherwise, the knife would probably fall out and he’d be caught.
Tyler gave a great deal of thought throughout the day as to exactly where he should plant the knife. Finally, he decided to worry about it later and took a long nap. When he woke, he realized he had made another mistake. The safe bet would have been to leave it in Danny’s car. That way, when the police searched it, they’d be sure to find it. It would have put paid rather quickly to any chance of April turning the tables on him, but it was too late now.
CHAPTER FIVE
April managed to drive almost all the way back to her apartment before she finally passed out and crashed into a ditch. On the way into the ditch, she sideswiped two parked cars just a half mile from her destination. The interesting part of her accident was, despite happening in a relatively populated area at twelve thirty in the morning on a Saturday night, no one seemed to notice.
Part of the reason may have been because she was driving so slowly—barely ten miles an hour—and the contact with the other cars so minor, it went unnoticed. She had scraped a little paint and busted off the driver’s side mirrors on both cars, but other than that there wasn’t any real damage. The following morning, Sunday morning, few if any of the home owners nearby were up early, in fact most slept in until around eight or nine. Thus, April wasn’t discovered until then.
When EMS arrived, they had to struggle to find her pulse. Her breathing was extremely shallow and her blood pressure was very low. They rushed her to the local hospital where the attending ER doctors were baffled by her symptoms until one of the nurses mentioned it sounded like the illness featured on some medical show on cable a few weeks ago. On the show, it turned out to be a poison of some kind.
Testing discovered it was a plant-based drug that was used in the Far East as a recreational drug in very small quantities and as a poison in ancient times. April would spend the next three days in critical condition in ICU while the doctors flushed her entire system. Although April hadn’t ingested enough of the drug to kill her, the doctors believed she had ingested enough to have caused permanent brain damage.
Tyler slept, although restlessly, for six hours Sunday during the day before getting up and turning on the water sprinklers in the garden. He planned on running them for the rest of the day and overnight ensuring the ground would be thoroughly saturated. Once soaked completely, the wet soil would compact itself. Between the watering and weather forecast of heavy rain showers tomorrow afternoon, Tyler was assured that any evidence of the ground being disturbed would be complete obliterated.
While making a ham sandwich for dinner, Tyler noticed out of the corner of his eye something shiny on the floor under the edge of the table. It turned out to be an earring. Setting his sandwich aside, Tyler went out to the garage and dug out the plastic evidence bag and began comparing the earring to what was inside. He looked closely at all of the pieces and determined the earring he’d just found didn’t match any in the bag. He quickly determined it had to be April’s earring. She was the only other person in the house that was wearing earrings. To be sure, he double checked the little bit of costume jewelry Wendy had left upstairs to see if it matched anything there, it didn’t.
He wiped the earring down for any prints he might have transferred to it, placed it with the other evidence in the bag and stuffed it back into the eave of the garage. Tyler smiled as he walked back to the house. April had unwittingly given him the second best piece of evidence with which to frame her—all he needed to do was make sure it was planted in the right spot.
As he entered the house, his cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was the City Police Department. He waited until it had rung a couple more times before answering it.
“Hello?”
“Is this the residence of Wendy Stone?” the voice on the other end asked.
“It used to be. I mean she’s still my wife at least for a little while longer, but she doesn’t live here anymore. Who’s this?” Tyler asked.
“I’m Detective Beals of the City Police Department. “Who am I speaking to?” he asked.
“I’m Tyler Stone. Wendy Stone’s soon to be ex-husband.”
“Mr. Stone, good,” Detective Beals replied, and he made a note of the fact that the Stones were getting divorced. “The reason I’m calling is we found a car registered to your wife in a ditch over on Beverly Street this morning. A young woman, whom we haven’t yet identified, was found passed out behind the wheel. She’s currently at River Bend Memorial in intensive care. You wouldn’t happen to know if your wife loaned her car to someone last night would you?”
“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. Even though she’s still technically my wife, she moved out over two months ago. I think she’s with some guy named Danny Connors. Yeah, I think that’s the guy’s name.” Tyler mentioned Danny making sure he was part of the record right away as being involved.
“So your wife no longer lives with you? Was that a mutual decision?” the detective asked.
“She left a couple of months ago, of her own accord. I’m not sure where she’s living, probably with her sister. Her sister’s name is April Jennings. In fact, she lives over off of Beverly Street. I don’t know her address off hand. I might have it somewhere, but I’d be hard pressed to find it anytime soon. The ex took the address book with her when she left. But as far as her sister goes, I don’t care where she lives, she’s a real bitch and not one of my favorite people.”
“That’s okay, we can look up April Jennings in the DMV’s system. It doesn’t sound as though
you get along with your sister-in-law any better than you do with your soon to be ex-wife. Is that a fair assessment?”
“What can I say? The woman is a total ball breaker and is always looking for something to bitch about or someone to run down.”
“I see. I’ve got a couple of relatives like that, too. Thank you for your time.”
“No problem.”
“Oh, say, would you mind if I called you if I have any other questions?” Detective Beals asked.
“That would be fine. I’m not sure what help I’ll be, but feel free to call.” Tyler didn’t offer that he was rarely home and he didn’t answer his cell phone while working.
After hanging up, Tyler began to dance around the kitchen shouting, “Yes, yes, yes!” He was thrilled by the news April hadn’t made it to the police and was now in the hospital in intensive care. His plan would still work. He’d get away with it. “Yeah, baby! Who’s the man? I’m the man. I’m the man!” he shouted gleefully.
Throughout the evening, Tyler felt the clock ticking and knew he had to get the evidence planted before the authorities beat him to Danny’s and April’s apartments. He waited until ten o’clock before driving across town to Danny Connors’ apartment. After slipping on a pair of latex gloves, he let himself in with Danny’s own key, the one he took off his key chain. He made sure to bring the bag of evidence, the two purses and the large kitchen knife. He transported the evidence in an old back pack of Wendy’s that she used in college, and to avoid suspicion, he acted very casual when he entered Danny’s building. As part of the attempt to go unnoticed he swung the backpack over his left shoulder and marched right into the building without any hesitation, acting as though he belonged there.
Cliff Roberts Thriller Box Set Page 21