“Walt!” Marcie said sternly. “This is serious. Quit messing around! You could have been killed!”
“About that, Walt. How did you fight off your attacker?”
I looked over at Ronald “That’s a good question. My head is still scrambled a bit and I don’t remember anything after I blocked the toilet with my head.” Ronald’s eyes were on the floor, his feet just kind of shuffled around.
“Back to the attack. What can you tell us?” Paul asked.
I shook my head again. “I was just standing there and the next thing I knew, somebody was trying to strangle me.”
“Did you see him?”
“Only the cuff of his coat and his hands. He’s white and his coat was some sort of brown tweed.”
Marcie and Paul exchanged a look and then Marcie nodded her head.
“What?” I asked.
“Officer Reynolds told us there was an older man dressed in a tweed jacket who followed you into the men’s room.”
“You get a look at him? What about surveillance cameras” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, he was sitting in front of us. All I saw was his back. Darla waited on him but doesn’t remember much. The only cameras they have point to the register and only the register.”
“How about storefront cameras, anything there?”
“We’re looking but so far nothing,” Paul said gravely. “Guy just vanished into thin air. It’s downright creepy is what it is.”
I shook my head “No doubt about it, the guy was a pro.” I turned my head and looked at Ronald. “All the years on the job, I don’t think I ever came across a professional killer,” I lied.
Ronald’s eyes parked themselves on the floor and stayed there.
We went back and forth for about an hour. Finally, I begged off and asked to do this again later, after I was released. The nurse, who wasn’t happy about the Q&A to begin with, shooed them out of my room. Marcie lingered behind for just a moment to wish me well. She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek, then she too was gone. Her perfume stayed behind, giving me something to dwell upon other than the lump on my forehead and my hand that was wrapped up like a mummy.
I took the time to rest and think about the attack, and about the attempt on Ronald and Jessica. There had to be a connection, but the only thing I could think of was Florida. It had been six years since Chaney Shannon had died and in the intervening years, nobody had sought me out for retribution. So I was inclined to let that line of inquiry go, at least for now.
Picking up the remote control, I turned the TV on and flipped through the channels. The time on the TV said it was 4:55 p.m. so I flipped back through the channels until I found a local station. A promo showed a picture of Tony’s Pizza & Beer with police tape across the front of it. I turned the volume up just in time to hear “A local man was savagely attacked in a popular bar, details just ahead.”
Putting the remote down, I waited for the commercials to finish and then a minute more for the news to start. I was the first story.
“Last night, a Fruita man was the victim of an attempted murder. Police identified the man as forty-three-year-old Walter Walker. Walker was a graduate of Fruita Monument in 1989. He gained some national attention a few years ago as the chief detective on the Chaney Shannon murder. Walker discovered Shannon was serially raping underage children, as well as running a Ponzi scheme with undocumented workers. Police told KREX news that they don’t have a suspect at this time but assure the public not to worry.”
“Our Christina Hernandez is on the scene at this hour with the latest. Christina, what can you tell us?”
The screen showed an attractive Latin woman standing in front of Tony’s.
“Well, authorities are telling us the victim was on a date with a woman who herself is a Fruita policewoman. Now the chief of police, Paul Addison, had this for us a little while ago.”
Now the screen went to a shot of Paul sitting behind his desk. He sat tall and looked very good in his uniform, almost like he knew what he was talking about.
“Mr. Walker was the victim of an attempted robbery. Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt that badly, which is probably a tribute to his training…” I couldn’t take anymore and turned the TV off. Pushing myself up, I rolled onto my side and found the phone by the bed. I dialed Ronald’s cell phone. He answered after the second ring.
“Hello,” he said casually.
“You fucking shitbag!”
“I’m going to assume it’s the drugs you’re on.”
“You set me up to draw that guy out. You sniveling turd!”
“Now I know it’s the drugs.”
“You get your ass back here right now and pick me up!”
The door opened and Ronald stepped into the room. ”Figured you would be in a talkative mood.”
I grabbed the side rails and tried in vain to put them down. Shaking and cursing at Ronald, I finally got them down and lumbered out of bed with my hand balled into a fist. I made it two steps before the chords that were attached to me began tearing at my skin. I stopped and tore them off. Bells started going off, but I didn’t care about the noise or the damage I might be doing to myself. I threw a jab towards Ronald’s nose. He leaned to his left as my right arm flew by his face. Twisting to my left I swung my mummy-wrapped hand, but lost my balance on the slick floor and went crashing down.
A nurse rushed in just in time to see me fall on my ass. She crouched down to help me up. My face was red with anger, spittle was sliding down the side of my face and my hospital gown had slid up around my waist exposing my genitals to the nurse. Her voice was calm and reassuring. She looked at Ronald, who stood there looking down at both of us. His face was calm, his eyes were empty of guile or remorse. Ronald’s hands were in front of him, his fingers stapled together. He opened his arms wide and shrugged at the nurse as if to say ‘what’s a guy to do?’ She shot him daggers with her eyes in response.
She had pretty much just gotten me back onto my feet when I lunged at Ronald again. My lone good hand found his neck and started to squeeze, while my mummified hand sat uselessly on his shoulder. But Ronald didn’t react. Instead, he calmly reached up, disengaged my hand from his throat and then held my hands together while I thrashed about wildly, trying to get free. The nurse by now had backed out of the room and was screaming frantically for security. Now that we were alone, Ronald let go of my hands and then pushed me backwards. This time I fell against the cheap hospital chairs. I sat there trying to catch my breath.
Ronald brought his finger to his lips and whispered, “When she comes back, I suggest you tell her you had some sort of flashback, otherwise your heading to the loony bin.”
I sat there gasping for breath. My anger hadn’t subsided yet, but I knew he was right – if I didn’t calm down in a hurry, I wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon. Just then, two overweight security guards crashed through the door. Their guns were drawn, but their aim was all over the room. Ronald had again adopted the pose of a meditating monk. I, on the other hand, was still fuming, but I wasn’t trying to kill anyone either.
“What’s going on in here? Sir, are you hurt? Did this man attack you?”
I waved them off with my hands, wiping my face as I attempted to hide the fury behind my eyes. “No officer, I’m fine and he didn’t try to hurt me. I was… having a flashback to last night. This man is my friend and is not a threat,” I lied.
They looked back and forth at both of us until they finally decided that whatever we were fighting about was over. I’m pretty sure they didn’t believe me, but what could they do? The nurse only saw me attack Ronald. He, on the other hand, hadn’t done anything in her eyes that had provoked me.
“Still, I think it would be best if you left the hospital for now, sir. At least until the patient is cleared for visitors.”
He shrugged. “Whatever you say, officers.” Then Ronald strolled out of the room like he didn’t have a care in the world. “See you tomorrow, Walter.”
; Ugh… the only time he called me Walter was when he was good and truly pissed at me. Maybe attacking him hadn’t been such a good idea after all. On the other hand, he had almost gotten me killed.
“Ah, cookie nuts!” I said dejectedly.
Just after dinner, Marcie stopped by. Only now she was in her civilian clothes which made me sad. I would have liked to see her again in her uniform, it fed a fantasy of mine. Hopefully there would be time for that later though. She asked how I was doing and if there was anything she could get me. I told her no, unless she wanted to slip into her uniform and come back to question me good and proper. She hit me on the arm and pronounced me healthy.
After she left I thought about calling Lori to see how the kids were doing, but quickly decided against it. As far as I knew, I was still persona non grata in the Earl of Dentistry household. Then I thought about calling Jessica but decided that was probably a bad idea too. If Ronald was right, and I was pretty sure he was, someone out there was looking to kill not only Ronald and Jessica but myself as well. If she was safe then the last thing I needed to do was draw attention to her.
The bad news was I could expect a visit from the Feds either tomorrow or the next day at the latest. I doubted they would turn this over to the state or the county. No, a man getting garroted in the men’s bathroom was going to register way out of their league. This would mean that when they showed up it would only be a matter of time before they would be onto Ronald and by extension, Jessica.
I was okay seeing Ronald sitting in a 6 x 9 cell for the rest of his life, but the thought of Jess in prison was another matter altogether. Lying there looking at the ceiling, I thought about the questions they would ask and the direction my answers would send them. I could mislead them just enough to buy some time. Not a lot, but maybe enough to offer up the real culprit.
Which brought me back to Ronald. In order for this to work, I would have to bury my anger with him at least long enough to either get Jessica a deal of immunity or to get her completely released from suspicion. Trouble was, I didn’t have a suspect or any lines of investigatory inquiry to follow. The attempted murder at Ronald’s was professional. The hit on me was also professional. I assumed my survival was due to Ronald’s intervention. This meant he could probably both identify the killer and maybe give us a place to start.
My memory was still a bit foggy, but I remembered there being blood at the scene. So the crime scene guys would have something for DNA. I doubted there would be prints at the scene, but if he was confident, maybe not. Sadly, the fact he had walked right up behind me and gotten that garrote around my neck meant he had a reason to be confident. So I was hopeful in that respect.
I looked down at my hand and wondered for the first time why it was wrapped like a mummy. Looking around for the call button, I buzzed the nurse. When she came in, I noticed she wasn’t the same nurse from before. This nurse was short and round, with a pleasant face and a nicely styled haircut. Her name tag said ‘Betty’.
“Is there something you need?” she asked.
“Yeah, I was wondering about my hand.”
“Is the bandage too tight?”
“No, I was just wondering how much damage was done to it?”
“Let me check your chart.” Betty walked back to the door and pulled my chart from a holder on the door. She was flipping through it slowly. I watched her closely to see if maybe there was something in there I didn’t want to know. Satisfied, she closed it and then looked up at me.
“It says here you have a fairly deep cut across your palm.”
“Anything else”
She went back to the chart again. “Nope, it looks like anything vital was missed. Probably going to have a good scar when it heals, but other than that you’ll be just fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Is there anything else you need or I could do for you?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks for the information.”
Betty nodded and then turned on her heel to leave. She replaced my chart on the door and then closed it behind her. How did I get my hand up in time to stop him? I wondered about it for a long time. Racking my brain for an answer did me no good, so I stopped thinking about it. Closing my eyes, I tried to visualize the attack, but that didn’t work either. Finally, I decided my instincts as a cop must have kicked in. I smiled at the thought. Maybe I still had it after all these years?
***
After Ronald left the hospital, he called Marcie. He wanted to know if a guard was going to be put on Walt’s door. Marcie had said she didn’t know but would check it out and get back to him. After he had hung up, he stopped at a gas station on the way out of town and bought a burner cell phone. He was going to make some calls and wanted to make sure they weren’t traced back to his phone or his house. After that, Ronald pointed his truck westbound on I-70 and drove all the way to Eagle. Once there, he got off the highway and pulled into the parking lot of a local hotel. Then he took his new phone out and after he had it powered on, Ronald made a call to a number he had memorized years ago. He let it ring twice, then hung up. Then he called back and let it ring two more times, and then hung up and waited five minutes.
The third time he called, the phone was answered on the first ring. Ronald could hear heavy breathing on the other line. “Jimmy Dix sends his regards from the grave and Tommy Bones is a washout,” Ronald said menacingly.
Max recognized the voice immediately. A shiver ran down his spine. “Well, you would know better than me,” he said with more bravado than he felt.
“You sent two killers to my front door and now a close friend of mine is in the hospital.”
“You know the rules. It was just a job, nothing personal.”
“You have one shot here at making this right or I’m going to spend every last dollar I have on tracking you down,” Ronald said in a low voice.
Max knew now was the time to trade favors; his life for that of his employer. “I don’t have much, to be honest with you. I mean, I’ve never done business with them before,” he lied. Max wanted to make sure he left his options open. He was more than willing to help find his employer for Ronald but at the same time, he was gambling that he wouldn’t have to burn his employer all the way to the ground. It was a tightrope, but what other choice did he have?
“Bullshit. The next time you hear from me is going to be at the end of your life.”
“Okay, okay, relax. I’ll tell you what I know, which is not much. They called me about a week and a half ago. Said you were the target, gave me your address, and told me the girl especially had to go.”
“Why her in particular? What about my friend, why did he make the list?”
“Look, I didn’t ask about your woman and they didn’t volunteer. As far as the other goes… well, he was collateral damage. He got green-lit when he showed up at your place. But they had a clock and I had to use someone who didn’t know you, so they wouldn’t freak out and start putting it out that paid contractors were now open season.”
Ronald nodded to himself. He had expected Walt was a target because of him, but Jessica on the other hand, bothered him. Why was she on the list in particular? “Then why did you send Tommy Bones?”
“Because Jimmy failed to complete the task and since you’re not going to hit yourself, I had to go with someone who I could count on. Besides that, he was the only one I knew who wouldn’t call ahead first and let you know you were a target, or turn around and sell me out. But I guess since you’re calling me, I was at least wrong about the last part.”
“I gave him options and he opted to give me your name. Now it’s your turn… Name?”
“I don’t have a name,” he said pleadingly.
“You better give me something or you’re going to be out of business for the rest of your life.”
“Whoever it is, is using an encrypted system. I’ll call in some friends to help track them down.”
“You have until tomorrow or I’m going to go hunting.”
“Hey,
I can’t promise you tomorrow. This takes time and I don’t have the equipment to do it on my own.”
Ronald fumed at this and then said, “Guy I used to know in Washington State is a computer geek, goes by the handle of Woodchuck. Reach out to him and tell him I sent you. Use the phrase ‘Cavities are a killer.’”
Max wrote down the name and the phrase. “I’ve heard of this guy. Never spoke to him, but I’ll reach out to him when we hang up.”
“One more thing. When your handler makes contact, if you tell him I’m looking for him, I’ll kill you.”
Max swallowed hard and nodded, his hand clicking on the links to his security cameras. “I won’t, I promise.”
Ronald disconnected the call and then sat there for several minutes to get himself under control. He then opened the phone up and called Jessica on the burner he had given her. Predictably, it went to voicemail. He hung up and then swore. He dialed her regular cell next. This time she answered the phone.
“Hello,” she said tentatively.
“Don’t talk. Just listen. Walt was attacked last night, but he’s fine. I’ve got a line on who did it, but it’s going to take time. Make arrangements to leave today. Throw your cell away and use the burner I gave you from now on. Go anywhere but where you’re at and don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“No, I’m not Ronald. I told you before I left and I’m not changing anything. I’m safe, so don’t worry about me. How bad was he hurt?”
“Jess… he got a few bumps and bruises. He’ll be fine.”
“Now you stop it. This is your fault and I’m not going into hiding for god knows how long! You fix this and then we’ll talk. Give Wally my love.” She hung up on him.
Ronald sat there staring at the phone in disbelief. His wife had just scolded him like a child and then hung up on him. Didn’t she get it? He shook his head and started the truck. He knew a guy in Florida who would help him if it came to that, but he hesitated. Entrusting him was a big step, but what choice did he have?
On The Devil's Side of Heaven Page 18