by W. H. Clark
“No, tell me what happened to the boy.”
Gammond looked directly at Ward now and studied him through slitted eyes. “O’Donnell said he would bury the boy. He was in pieces. So he took the boy in his truck.”
“The truck that O’Donnell said was stolen. You took that call. You set it all up.”
“Easy thing to do. I told him to get rid of the truck. Forest fire did the rest.”
“You know why O’Donnell was out looking for the boy?”
“I guessed the boy had run off.”
“He was being abused by his father.”
Gammond paused.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know that.”
“Well, that poor little bastard,” Gammond said. “Well, that’s too sad. Dang. But don’t change anything enough to bring the boy back to life.”
“Kenny bought your silence and you engineered it all.”
“Our Lord works in mysterious ways.”
“I got his bank statements here and it wouldn’t take much to show that the withdrawals he made found their way into your pocket,” Ward tapped his pocket.
Gammond shouted, “Hey hey. Hands. Hands. I’m going to have to have those. And the letter.”
Ward’s hand went back towards his pocket. Gammond waving his gun stopped it.
“I’ll take them from your body,” Gammond said.
“You destroyed Newton.”
“Collateral damage,” Gammond said.
“You have any remorse?” Ward asked.
“Ain’t got time for sentimentality, truth be told. Being police, you should know how that is.”
“Why’d you get Lafayette to confess?”
“Oh, he ain’t never getting out. Another kill to his reputation. Well, you know.”
“And get us off the case.”
Gammond shrugged.
“So, who killed Bill O’Donnell? That you?”
“I ain’t laying claim to that.”
“It was Kenny. And the doctor too. Kenny got spooked when O’Donnell had his funny turn at the nursing home last week and assumed O’Donnell had told his tale to the old family doctor. O’Donnell mentioned the doctor’s name and that got the doctor killed too. That about right?”
“That would be speculation. But…” He sighed. “I ain’t gonna question detectives’ logic.”
“Well, I guess it’s all over for you both. And Arthur.”
“I know you’re a young man but you ain’t that naive.” Gammond put his hand to his mouth and wiped his lips. “You want to turn around?”
“You’re going to kill me here?”
“Dang it. You ain’t given me no choice. And I ain’t taking you off somewhere. Here’s as good a place as anywhere.”
Ward let out a sigh. “I guess I would be wasting my time trying to talk you out of it.”
Gammond nodded. And then Ward’s cellphone rang. Instinctively, his hand went towards his pocket. Before the hand could get there he saw the muzzle flash and heard the report of the gun. The force of the bullet knocked him off his feet and he fell backwards, his hat flying off and landing a few feet away. He felt the heat of the blood spilling out inside his clothes and he couldn’t breathe right and the overwhelming sensation he had was surprise. He watched snowflakes falling towards him and he felt like he was the one falling. The next thing he heard was a dog barking. From his position he saw a flash of black fly past him as he fought his own blackness.
Jesús didn’t go for the ankle as most small dogs would. He leapt at Gammond’s thigh and his teeth sank into flesh and the sharp canines tangled in Gammond’s pants and Jesús hung there for a couple of seconds before Gammond batted him off with his free hand. He aimed the gun at the dog and fired but Jesús was already around his other side and Gammond twirled around and fired again, soil and snow exploding from the ground.
Ward tried to sit up but found that he had no strength in his left side and the pain in his chest, gnawing at molten nerves, made him cry out and blood gurgled in his cry. With his right hand he levered himself onto his devastated left side and his blood started to stain the ground.
Jesús was still barking and he pranced and ran, pranced and ran, and Gammond, in his whirling around, stepped onto the end of the dog’s leash. Jesús tried to run and was snatched back by the taut leash. The dog fell over but was up straight away and he made another attempt to run away but he was snatched back again and Gammond took another shot but missed again. The little dog leapt away from the sound of the gun and the debris it threw up and as he did he ran right around Gammond. Gammond made his own growling sound and spun around to get another shot at Jesús and his left leg became snarled in the leash. The dog made a sharp turn and ran towards Gammond and then circled him and the leash tightened around both legs and Gammond’s momentum took him spinning around and spiraling down.
Ward was seeing the blurry battle but he felt desolate and was sure that the little dog, who had lost one owner to a fatal shooting, was about to lose another. And then he saw Gammond’s stocky frame start to fall. The remaining strength that he had in his right side was channeled into his arm and he slowly, too slowly, wrenched it up to his body and his hand clutched onto his coat and then twitching fingers grabbed hold of the zipper. He thought he’d counted to a hundred before enough of the zipper’s teeth had let go and his hand crawled into the jacket. It couldn’t have been a hundred though as he heard the thud of Gammond hitting the ground and the gun firing into the air at the same time as Ward’s fingers found his own gun.
Gammond shouted, “Hellfire,” but the words were wheezed out by the impact. He managed to hold on to the gun but Jesús immediately went to work on his arm, yanking from side to side as his teeth penetrated cloth and then skin. Gammond cried out the same words again and then “dang son of a bitch.”
The bullet from Ward’s gun entered beneath Gammond’s chest and exited his shoulder with a shower of blood fanning out over the snow. Ward saw that he was still moving and prepared to shoot again but he realized that the movement was caused by the dog’s gnashing at the lieutenant’s arm and Ward slumped back down and prepared to bleed out.
Before his eyes closed he saw the little girl standing at Gammond’s feet. She had her back to Ward but he knew it was her. Her long dark hair. The clothes. So familiar. Tattooed on his heart forever. She stood motionless for a few moments and then she crouched down, leaning over Gammond’s head as if she was looking into his face for signs of life. The dog suddenly stopped tugging at Gammond’s arm and he looked directly at the girl and he sat in the snow and whimpered gently.
Ward’s eyes opened partially and the lights in the hospital corridor caused him pain in his head and he tried to shield his eyes but neither of his arms would move so he closed them again but before he did he thought he noticed the figure of Mallory running alongside the gurney he was traveling on. He tried to take a big gulp of air but it felt like someone was sitting on his chest and he could hear a bubbling sound as he inhaled.
He didn’t know he’d fallen asleep at that moment and he had no recollection of dreaming when he woke. No dreams of sinking in a field. No memories of a little girl. Simply a wonderful blackout without pain or panic or thoughts of death and an orphaned dog.
74
“I know you can’t speak,” said a voice. “Just listen. Gammond is alive. He’s in a bad way but he’s alive.”
In Ward’s disoriented mind the words seemed to come from everywhere at once and seemed to have traveled a long way. He blinked a couple of times and then he could see someone sitting next to his bed.
“I have the letter.” Newton huffed gently. “And I’m kinda confused as to why Gammond would go and do what he did.”
Ward’s facial muscles made a massive effort to work a smile. Didn’t work. He winked instead. He wanted to say something but couldn’t. Wasn’t sure what he wanted to say anyway.
“Most importantly, I guess, is that McNeely has fallen in love with your dog and you’re going
to be engaged in a tug of war to get him back. I may have to step in and mediate. She says she’s taken him in as evidence but I’m not buying that. It was Mallory saved your life by the way. He kept you alive. Applied pressure to the wound and kept you warm. I won’t say how he did that. Now, if your eyes can move the other way, there’s someone else to see you. I’ll leave you now.” Newton moved off slowly in his wheelchair.
Ward turned his head slowly. Cherry was already holding his hand but he hadn’t noticed as the anesthetic had sent his nerve endings to sleep. Her face was still beat up but Ward only saw the tears and the most wonderful smile in the world.
“Thought we’d lost you. You’ve been asleep for three days.” She let go of his hand and reached down towards her feet to pick something up. “Your boss gave me this,” she said. It was Ward’s notebook. Cherry held it cringingly by the corners as it had dried-up blood on it. “It saved your life. The bullet was diverted away from your heart,” she said, and then she sobbed. “Your heart. But the weirdest thing. This is weird. You remember what you wrote in there? Don’t try to speak. I think you must have freaked out or something. Like you found religion. The last thing you wrote says ‘Jesus is my savior. Christ is my redeemer’. You remember writing that? Don’t try to speak. You wrote it anyway. I thought you’d found God or something. And then I realized. You see what it means? It wasn’t Jesus saved you. He saved you! He saved you! Your dog.”
And then Ward’s eyes closed and Cherry’s voice skipped away. He heard her calling his dog’s name and he thought that she was the weird one.
75
“Kenny’s gone,” Newton said.
Ward’s throat hurt when he said, “He’s our man for Bill O’Donnell and Doctor Brookline.”
“And the boy? I ain’t told you this but the medical examiner found something. The boy was murdered. Strangulation.”
“He was run down?” Ward stated it but it came out as a question.
“Both. Maybe his killer strangled him and then ran him over to make it look like an accident. The boy had bruising on his face too. He’d been recently beaten. What did Gammond tell you? This letter. What’s in this letter that made Gammond go and do this to you?”
Ward took a deep breath and his lungs filled. “Nothing,” he said, and the rest of the wind wheezed from his body.
“I’m not getting something here.”
“He shot me for what he thought was in the letter. I bluffed him.”
Newton almost laughed. He eased himself down onto the chair next to Ward’s bed, both his hands sliding down his walking cane as he sat.
“It’s Kenny’s son who killed the boy,” Ward said. “Arthur. Kenny and Gammond covered it up. Gammond told me. Kenny paid him off. Said it was an accident. Gammond blackmailed O’Donnell to go along with it.”
“And O’Donnell took the boy into the forest to bury him.”
“But you’re telling me the boy was strangled. We need to get Arthur Kenny.”
“He must have strangled Ryan and then run over him like I said.”
“It’s a guess. When Gammond wakes up we keep the bluff going.” He took another gulp of air. “Otherwise he’s going to clam up. He might give us more. He thinks the letter contains everything.”
“When all it contains is O’Donnell’s confession about John White. How he faked his death. With the help of Brookline.”
“He didn’t want him suffering the abuse Ryan did. Larsson said Ryan’s father physically abused him.”
“And he wanted it known what he’d done. But not till long after he and Brookline were dead.”
“And the story in the newspaper about the capsule being moved. He probably thought the capsule was going to be opened. He wanted to warn the doctor. I’m guessing Kenny went to visit after hearing about his outburst. I’m guessing Kenny made up his mind that O’Donnell was going to tell about the cover up of Ryan’s death.”
Newton said, “He misunderstood that O’Donnell’s confession wasn’t about Ryan at all but about Ryan’s brother.”
Ward said, “Kenny made a mistake killing him.”
“And the old man only ever wanted to do the right thing…”
“Gets killed for the wrong reason.”
76
Newton bent down and placed the flowers on top of all the others that were still there, now just bumps under the snow which covered Bill O’Donnell’s grave.
He placed another bunch on Ryan’s grave and when he stepped back with wet eyes, Alice White took one arm and John White took the other.
“You walking without your stick,” Alice said.
Newton nodded.
“You got no need to feel bad, Mr. Newton,” Alice said. “What’s done is done and it’s done at the hands of God.”
“Is this okay?” Newton said to John White. “I know you wanted Ryan to be returned to where we found him, but—”
“This is right,” John White said. “Next to our granddaddy. Sure it’s right, sir.”
“I’m sorry this wasn’t… I guess we could’ve…”
“You done your job,” Alice said. “Like I said, you was driven by God. It’s Him makes the decisions. You a good man, Mr. Newton.”
77
Cherry was at Ward’s bedside when Newton walked in. Ward thought he looked younger. Probably because he was feeling ancient himself. Ward’s beard had started to grow back with flecks of gray he hadn’t noticed before. He cursed whoever it was shaved it off in the first place. Cherry had said she liked it better with the gray as it made him look more distinguished.
“I’m not staying,” Newton said. “Just wanted to let you know Arthur Kenny was picked up at a gas station just outside of Austin, Texas. Your neck of the woods.”
“Thereabouts,” Ward said. “What’s a New York lawyer doing down there?”
“New York lawyer? He ain’t no lawyer. He’s a salesman.”
“Okay.”
“We already got the Bureau involved going through other missing children cases. Just in case. He travels.”
“Any sign of James Kenny?”
Newton shook his head. “Nothing. Theory is he’s skipped the country.”
“I want to call Larsson. It’s his story. I made a deal.”
“That’s fine with me,” Newton said. He turned to Cherry then. “I see what you mean about the beard. Kinda gray. Looking more like his mutt every day. But they do say that.”
“He’s gonna shave it off if we carry on with this and I like it too much for that to happen,” Cherry said, and she went to stroke Ward’s beard and he play-slapped her hand away.
“Leave me alone, you two sons of bitches. I’m recovering here and you two are setting me back. Nurse!”
“Okay, okay, I’m leaving. You get your rest,” Newton said, and he turned to leave the hospital room.
“Hey,” Ward said. “I thought you were retired.”
“Captain asked me to stay on until you were back at your desk.”
“You definitely bowing out after this is over?”
Newton didn’t say anything. Ward thought he looked happy sad. He gave Ward a lackluster salute and left.
78
Arthur Kenny’s lawyer had kept telling Newton that his client would not answer Newton’s questions. Arthur sat there in the interview room with his head bowed, his baldness showing at that angle. And then his head snapped up.
“This is ridiculous,” he said, and his lawyer tried to stop him saying anything else by placing his hand on his arm but Arthur Kenny shook him off and carried on. “I didn’t strangle that boy. I did run him down, though. I’ll admit to that. But I didn’t strangle him. I mean, I ran over him but he must have been sitting in the road or something. He went under the car. I didn’t see him.” And the lawyer became red in the face and he threw up his arms in surrender.
“I thought we agreed I would handle this,” the lawyer said. “You don’t need to say anything that might incriminate you.”
“Aw, to hell with th
at. I didn’t murder that boy. I’ll admit to running him down and that’s that. It was an accident. An accident. I’m not sitting here and be accused of murder. It’s plain ridiculous is what it is.”
Newton left him enough space to say more but Arthur’s head went down again and the lawyer’s head shook from side to side.
“We have evidence says the boy was strangled and we can place you at the scene, now by your own admission,” Newton said, and now the lawyer’s head went down. “We also have witness evidence that you were there and you conspired to dispose of the body with the help of others. You think a jury is going to believe you? Go ahead and take your chance. You admit to it now and you’d be looking at a reduced sentence. You deny killing that boy and you’re convicted, you’re looking at a whole longer stay in jail. Might never get out. So, what do you want to do?”
“I’m not confessing to doing something I didn’t do. I’d rather take my chance with a jury. I’m not a murderer. It was an accident.”
“Okay,” Newton said. “Interview terminated at…” He looked at the clock on the wall. “…eleven forty-seven.” He turned off the tape and stood. The lawyer was rearranging papers in his briefcase and Newton addressed him. “You’ve got some work to do with your client. I’ll leave you a spell to figure things out and I’ll be back.” Before he reached the door Arthur Kenny spoke again.
“You spoke to the little boy? I mean, he’ll be grown up now, but—”
“Little boy?” Newton walked back to the table and his finger was over the button on the recorder again but he didn’t press it.
“Little boy who was there. I saw him hiding behind the tree and then he was gone. He must’ve seen something… everything. He can testify for me.”
“Well, this gets better and better,” the lawyer said. “Arthur, listen to me. I can still help you but not if you won’t take my advice. You don’t need to say any more.”
“Oh, shut up,” Arthur said. And then he turned to Newton. “I’m telling you there was a little boy there. He saw me run over that boy. He must have seen me not strangle him.”