by Bill Bernico
“Any ideas where they might have gone?” I said.
Ron shook his head. “We checked their rap sheet, looking for relatives or known associates in the area, but these two are pretty much loners. They’re like Siamese twins that aren’t physically connected. You almost never see one without the other.”
Matt laughed and then stifled it immediately.
“Something funny?” I said.
“Rocky and Bill Winkle,” Matt said.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“The Winkle Brothers,” Matt explained. “They go by those nicknames, Rocky and Bill and their last name is Winkle. Get it? Rocky and Bill Winkle.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I get it, but what’s your point?”
“No point,” Matt said. “I just thought it was funny.”
I cleared my throat and turned back to Ron. “Sorry, Ron. What was that you were saying about Siamese twins?”
“The Winkle Brothers,” Ron went on, “are almost always seen together. The younger brother, Melvin, seems to be dependent on his big brother, Willard. He’s always looking to Willard for approval and I’d consider him the more dangerous of the two.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because Melvin wouldn’t hesitate to start a fire just to impress Willard. Whereas Willard seems to put a little more thought into his fires. He’s the reason we haven’t caught these two yet. If they ever got separated, it wouldn’t be too hard to bring Melvin in.”
“Sounds to me like Rocky’s not playing with a full deck,” I said.
“He got the mind of an eight-year-old,” Ron explained. “But he’s got the body of a professional wrestler. You wouldn’t want to tangle with him. Bill is the brains, if you can call it that, of that duo.”
“That’s good to know,” I said. “Do you have photos of the two brothers I could have?”
Ron pulled two mugs shots from the file on his desk and passed them over to me. I looked them both over carefully and was about to lay them on the desk when Matt’s hand reached for them.
“Can I see?” Matt said.
I handed him the photos and turned back to Ron. “Is the Winkle house sealed up or can I get inside?”
Ron plucked a single key from the folder and handed it to me. “This will get you in the back door. They must have taken the front door key with them. I can’t help but wonder if they’re planning on returning to the house at some later date.”
“That’s where I’ll start,” I told Ron. “Just as soon as I drop Matt back at home. I’ll check with some of the neighbors and go through the house and I’ll let you know if I find out anything at all.”
“Thanks, Elliott,” Ron said, standing and offering his hand again.
I shook his hand and turned to leave when Matt spoke up. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Harper.” Matt held his hand out and Ron shook it. Matt followed me out of Ron’s office and back down the hall to the front door. I waited until we were in the van again and then turned to Matt.
“You handled yourself pretty well in there,” I said. “Except for the laughing.”
“Come on, Dad. That was funny and you know it.”
“Maybe so,” I agreed, “But this is a serious matter I’m supposed to look into and it has to be handled as such. Ever hear the old saying that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression?”
“Seems I have,” Matt said.
“I just hope Ron’s first impression of you was a good one. Someday, when you take over the business, you may have to call on Ron again, or he’ll call on you. If and when that happens, you want him to remember you in the best possible light. Understand?”
“Sure, Dad. And don’t think for a minute that Ron hadn’t already considered the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’ connection. He looks about your age.”
“What does his age have to do with anything?”
“Didn’t those cartoons come out when you were both kids?”
“They were on television before I was born,” I told Matt. “Clay probably watched them as a kid.”
“Those cartoons are from grandpa’s time?” Matt said.
“Yup.” I started the van and drove toward home. Luckily I had to drive near there on my way to Silver Lake. I pulled into the driveway and left the van running. “Come on,” I said to Matt. “I’m just going to tell your mother where I’ll be before I leave.”
The two of us walked into an empty house. There was a note on the kitchen table that told me Gloria and Olivia, my nine-year-old daughter, were at the store picking up some last minute trimmings for Matt’s birthday party.
I turned to Matt. “Let’s go. Your mom and sister are out and I don’t want you here alone.”
“You still think I’m going to try to sand and stain that bookshelf by myself?”
I laid a hand on his shoulder. “Not at all. How’d you like to help me search the Winkle house?”
Matt’s face lit up. “You mean it?” he said, excitedly.
“Sure,” I said. “It’ll save me a little time and we need all the time we can get.”
Matt clapped his hands together once and rubbed them together. “Oh boy, my first case.”
We got back into the van and drove to Silver Lake. I pulled into the driveway of the address Ron had given me. Matt and I walked to the front porch.
“What are we doing here?” Matt said. “I thought that key Ron gave you was for the back door.”
“It is,” I said. “But look up on the porch and tell me what you see.”
Matt studied the porch for a moment and then turned to me. “Nothing. It’s empty. What do you see?”
“I see three newspapers still rolled up lying there. I see mail sticking up out of the top of the mailbox. I see yellow police tape across the door. You want me to go on?”
“I get it, Dad. It’s in the details, but how can we use that information?”
I scratched my head. “We may not be able to use it right now,” I explained. “But somewhere down the line, as we’re processing other clues, what we see here now may make a little more sense coupled with those other clues. Get in the habit of taking in as much as you can and storing it. Ya see?”
Matt nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. Shouldn’t we go around to the back door?”
I turned and Matt followed me around to the back of the house. There was an unlocked screen door over a solid wood storm door with a small window in the top portion. I slipped the key into the lock and turned. The lock clicked and I pushed the door open. I looked at Matt. “Remember what I said about taking it all in.”
“I will,” Matt assured me.
We stepped up two steps into the kitchen and stopped, looking at everything in the immediate area. “Take a good look all around this kitchen,” I told Matt. “I’ll start in the dining room and then we can split up the bedrooms after that.”
Matt began by opening every cupboard door and drawer. He looked in the broom closet and under the sink. These were places that the police had already searched and I didn’t really expect Matt to find anything of consequence there. I checked the dining room thoroughly and found a lot of the same nothing. The living room had obviously been tossed days before and put back in some semblance of order, but I could still tell that it had been searched. I didn’t find anything in the living room either. By the time I’d finished these two rooms, Matt was just leaving the kitchen. He looked at me, shook his head and shrugged.
“Nothing,” Matt said. “How about you?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s try the bedrooms and this time let’s try to think outside of the box.”
“Huh?”
“Look in places that wouldn’t normally makes sense to check,” I said. “Look for loose floor boards, panels in the walls and ceiling. You know, think like a criminal with something to hide.”
Matt took the first bedroom to the right and I continued down the hall to the second door on the right. Both were standard eleven by twelve foot ro
oms. I could hear Matt moving things around as I searched my own room. I looked in the closets, checked the floor boards, tapped on walls and came up empty. Then I heard my son calling out to me.
“Dad,” Matt said. “I think you’d better come in here.”
I hurried to the first bedroom and found Matt standing as still as a mannequin. He turned his head toward me but remained still. I could see one of the floor boards that had been pulled up and set aside on the hardwood floor. I looked down into the hole and froze myself. I could make out several colored wires that curled around several sticks of dynamite. There was also an electronic device secured to the unit with black electrical tape. I didn’t hear anything ticking but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Matt,” I said in a low tone. “Carefully step backwards and come toward my voice. Come on.”
Matt backed up and into me. I eased us both out of that room and the two of us tiptoed back through the living room, dining room and kitchen and out the back door into the back yard. Matt pulled his cell phone out and was about to dial when I laid my hand over his phone and shook my head, holding up one finger.
“Uh uh,” I said. “It might be rigged to go off with cell phone transmission. Come on, we’ll go next door and see if we can use the neighbor’s land line.” Matt and I hurried next door and rapped on the door frame.
A man answered the door. “Yeah,” he said, somewhat perturbed. “What do you want?”
“I need to use your phone,” I said. “It’s an emergency.”
“Yeah, well, go find some other sucker,” the man said. “I ain’t buying whatever it is you’re selling.”
I pushed him back into his house and pulled out my badge, holding it front of his face. “You can be an asshole later,” I said. “Right now I need to call the police and the bomb squad.”
The man’s mouth dropped open as I pushed past him to get at the desk phone that sat on the table next to his sofa. The man looked at Matt, who just shrugged and stood where he was.
I got Lieutenant Eric Anderson at the twelfth precinct. “Eric,” I said in a frantic voice. “It’s Elliott. Matt and I are on a case for Ron Harper and it led us to the house of his prime suspect. You’d better get the bomb squad over here right away. There’s some sort of device rigged up under the floor in one of the bedrooms. And make sure no one uses a cell phone in this area. That might be all it takes to set it off.”
“We’re on our way,” Eric said. “You and Matt better get the hell away from there, you hear me?”
“You don’t have to tell us twice,” I said. “Matt and I are going to warn the other neighbors to get out. Call Ron Harper for me, will you. Tell him what we found.”
“Will do,” Eric said and hung up.
I hung up the man’s phone and turned toward him. “I guess you heard what I told the police. I think you’d better get yourself out of this house and at least a block away from here. Is there anyone else in the house?”
The man still stood there with his mouth hanging open but didn’t answer. I backhanded him on the arm and snapped him out of whatever trance he was in. He blinked and looked at me. “Huh?” he said.
“Anyone else in the house?” I repeated.
“Uh, no,” he said. “Just me.”
“Then get yourself out of here right now,” I repeated. “Matt and I are going to warn your neighbors. Go on, move.”
The man dashed out his front door and took off running down the street. He didn’t stop until he was a block away. Matt and I began knocking on doors. I took the neighbors to the south of the Winkle house and Matt took the houses to the north. By the time we had warned everybody within that block, I could hear sirens coming up the street. Thirty seconds later Eric pulled up in front of the Winkle house, followed by an armored truck with ‘L.A. Bomb Squad’ stenciled on the side doors. Those doors opened and four men in padded suits and steel shields stepped out. They slipped into their protective helmets and carefully made their way toward the house. Eric approached us just as three more black and white units pulled up to the curb.
Officers from the black and whites set up a perimeter of blockade saw horses across the street and made sure no one got close to the Winkle house. “Where exactly is this thing?” Eric said.
“First bedroom off the living room,” I explained. “The one facing the street.”
One of the bomb squad members was standing nearby and heard what I told Eric. He gave Eric the high sign and led his squad into the house. Eric gestured for me and Matt to follow him further away from the house. We walked three houses further down the block before stopping.
“All right,” Eric said. “What’s going on here?”
“Ron Harper hired me to look for two suspects in his latest fire,” I told Eric. “Well, actually they weren’t originally suspects. Ron said he just wanted to talk to them, but it looks like they just upgraded themselves to the rank of suspect.”
Eric looked at Matt and then at me. “What’s Matt doing here? This is no place for a kid.”
“Who’s a kid?” Matt said defensively and then remembered his manners. “Sorry, Mr. Anderson.”
“Forget it, Matt,” Eric said and then turned back to me. “Elliott…”
“I was dropping Matt off at home on my way to the Winkle house,” I explained. “But no one was home and I just figured we wouldn’t be doing anything more than searching the house.”
“Well, I think you’d better…”
Eric hadn’t had a chance to finish his thought when we heard the explosion. I turned and looked back toward the Winkle house and saw that the front porch was now out in the street—in pieces. Police and other bomb squad members rushed toward the house, which was billowing smoke out through the front door. Bright red and yellow flames licked at the side of the house through the windows.
Eric grabbed the two-way radio on his belt and called the fire department. He’d no sooner signed off the radio when Ron Harper pulled up in the street near us. He got out and hurried over to where Matt and I stood talking to Eric.
Ron looked at me and Matt. “Are you two all right?” he said frantically.
I nodded. “We’re fine,” I said. “I don’t know about those bomb squad guys though. There were four of them inside when the bomb went off.”
Just then three of the bomb squad men in their padded suits came out of the front door, or at least what was left of the front door, carrying the fourth member of their team. The leader yelled to the police officers on the street. “We need to get Jack to the hospital and there’s no time to wait for an ambulance. Let’s take him in one of your squad cars.”
Two of the bomb squad members carried their wounded comrade to a waiting black and white and laid him out in the back seat. One of the guys who had carried him out slid into the front seat just as a uniformed officer slid behind the wheel and squealed off down the street.
I turned to Ron. “I’m sorry, Ron,” I said. “I didn’t sign up for this kind of thing. I have to get Matt home. I know now it was a mistake to bring him and it was probably a mistake to take this job in the first place. I’m not qualified in arson investigation.” Ron started to open his mouth. “I know,” I said, stopping him. “My only job was supposed to be finding these two clowns, but judging by the toys they leave lying around, I don’t think I want the job. I’m sorry, Ron, but you’ll have to get these guys on your own.”
“Elliott,” Ron started to say. “I…”
“Forget it, Ron,” I said. “And you don’t owe me anything for today. Let’s just forget we ever talked about any of this.” I turned to Eric. “I’ll see you later in your office. I’m taking Matt home.”
Eric just nodded and turned back to Ron. I couldn’t hear what they were saying and I really didn’t care. I was just anxious to get home again with my son. Matt and I drove home in silence. I was still shaking inside when we pulled into our driveway. I killed the engine and stopped Matt before he got out of the car.
“I’m sorry, Matt,” I said.
“I had no right to put you in a situation like that. If anything had happened to you, I don’t know what I’d have done.”
“Oh, it’s all right, Dad,” Matt replied.
“No, it’s not. My job is dangerous enough under normal circumstances. I thought I was asking for trouble when I took this job and I shouldn’t have. I took it for all the wrong reasons.”
“What do we tell Mom?” Matt said.
“You let me handle that,” I said. “It would probably be best if she didn’t know anything about this, but there’s no way this isn’t going to make the papers. And if she hears it from someone else, we’ll both be in deep trouble with her. But how about for now if she thinks you were there, but waited in the car during all this?”
“You’re really afraid of her, aren’t you, Dad?”
“It’s not that I, uh, I, uh. Yeah, that’s about it. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
Matt and I walked into the kitchen to find Gloria standing over a sink full of dishes. Olivia was helping her. “What are you two doing back already?” she said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Did you finish what you needed to do at the office?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Matt and I will be in the garage working on that bookshelf until dinner’s ready.”
“You mean you’ve already been to the store for whatever it was you needed?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “How long until dinner?”
“Twenty minutes, Elliott. Leave yourself enough time to wash up.”
“Got it,” I said and then turned to Matt, gesturing for him to follow me back to the garage. We spent the next few minutes arranging the wood we needed to work on. The next few minutes crept by in silence before Matt spoke up.
“I thought you were going to tell Mom what happened,” Matt said.
“During dinner would probably be best,” I explained. “You see…”
“Still scared, huh?”
I ignored his remark and picked up the sander, switching out the coarse disc for a fine grit. I handed the sander to Matt and said, “Your mother’s pretty smart, Matt. She’d see right through any lies. You gotta know how to handle women.” I looked at Matt’s face. It had a sheepish look before he lowered his head, pretending to be absorbed in the shelf. I turned around and found Gloria standing there, spatula in hand.