Deadlocked (Lou Mason Thrillers)

by Joel Goldman

  He stood back from the board, the pattern plain. Father Steve was at the center of this new universe. The Kowalcyzks and the Kings were his parishioners. He was the last one to have seen Mary and the one witness to the shooting of Nick Byrnes. His church depended on Whitney's money.

  The latest flake of suspicion was even more intriguing. Father Steve knew that the jury had been deadlocked, though he shouldn't have known anything about their deliberations. His claim that he had learned that fact from Whitney's father didn't wash with Harry's memory.

  Mason conceded the vagaries of fifteen-year-old memories; he'd won enough cases by convincing juries that memory had an accurate half-life of minutes, not years. Unless it was Harry's memory. None of this made the priest guilty of anything, but all of it made Mason wish for a seat next to Father Steve the next time he made confession.

  Mason asked himself what angles he wasn't working, what rocks he was stepping over instead of turning over. Vince Kowalczyk, he realized, might not be in the Omaha phone book, but Mary said he was a carpenter, which meant he could be in a union. Mason got the phone number of the Omaha local from directory assistance. A human being answered his call instead of an artificial voice telling him their options had recently changed.

  "I'm looking for someone who may be a member of your union. His name is Vince Kowalczyk. I am an attorney representing his wife, Mary. It's very urgent that I talk to him," Mason explained.

  "Hold on," a man said, asking someone named Jim if it was okay to give out membership information. Mason eavesdropped from his end of the conversation. Jim said to take the guy's name and we'll give the message to Vince, let Vince call the guy if he wants to.

  "Works for me," Mason said, leaving his phone number when the man repeated the message.

  His paper shuffling brought the clipping about his parents' accident back to the surface, Mason picking it up again, asking himself the same questions. What was he missing? The article told only part of the story: how the car went off the road. Mason wanted to know why. The article said nothing about witnesses, but that didn't mean there weren't any. Their names would be included in the police report. Mason picked up the phone again.

  "Detective Greer," Samantha said.

  "What's the best way for me to beg a favor?" Mason asked.

  "Dial another number," she answered.

  "Too late. I'll settle for the second best way. I need an accident report."

  "A car accident? You've got to be kidding. Get off your ass, go to the records department, pay your ten dollars, and wait for the mail. Just like everybody else."

  "I would, except for one thing. This accident happened forty years ago. No records clerk is going to lose any sleep tracking that down unless it's an order instead of a request."

  "What's so important about an accident that happened forty years ago? A little late to file a lawsuit, isn't it?" Samantha asked.

  "It's my parents' accident," Mason answered. "They were killed. I never knew the details. Now I want to know."

  "I'll buy that if it will keep you out of trouble for a while," she said. "Friday afternoon is no time to ask someone to start a search like this. Can it wait until Monday?"

  "Monday would be fine. And, thanks, Sam."

  Mason wondered if the accident report would tell him why someone was visiting his parents' grave now. The accident happened on August 1 forty years ago. Today was July

  19. There was no way to know when the rock Mason had found had been left there. It could have been a week, a month, or a year.

  Mason couldn't remember when he'd last visited his parents' grave or whether there were any rocks on the headstone. But someone had left another rock today. Mason knew the question, writing it on the board, even if he didn't know the answer. Why July 19? Then, Mason added another question. Who left the rock?

  Mason didn't have answers, but at least he had questions. He'd kick-started his case and peeled open his past. Now all he could do was the one thing he hated to do most of all. Wait.

  Chapter 25

  There's only so much heat a city can take. Some people shrug it off at first, declaring over cold beer and barbecue that it augurs for a hard winter and pass the beans, please. Like they'd written The Old Farmer's Almanac. Others claim to like the heat, thumping their chests as they jog or paint the house while the sun is at its zenith, their faces rigid with surprise when the rest of their bodies wilt, somebody calling an ambulance for them if they're lucky. Then there are those who go to the mattresses, cranking up the air-conditioning, watering their lawns at noon, flying their I'll-be-goddamned if-anybody's-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do flags every time the mayor invokes another emergency heat ordinance.

  But stoke up the blast furnace long enough on people who struggle every day to hold their lives together in the midst of money problems, job problems, family problems, and the heat starts burning them down like a wildfire on a New Mexico mountain. Short tempers get shorter, disappearing in a swallow of whiskey or in the crack of an insult. And people start killing each other.

  A local shrink said as much on the Channel 6 evening news Monday night, a week and a day after Ryan Kowalczyk was executed, a legal killing that didn't offend the laws of nature or cause the distress that an outbreak of weekend fights and domestic disturbances had generated.

  Two Hispanics in a bar on Southwest Boulevard fought over whether one had insulted the other's girlfriend, both of them too drunk to know for certain. The fight ended with the boyfriend's throat ripped open by the jagged edge of a broken bottle of tequila. The boyfriend bled out. The girlfriend grabbed a table knife, snapping the blade off between the other guy's ribs. One dead, one wounded. The girlfriend in jail.

  North of the river, two brothers fought over a gold cap for the younger brother's tooth. He'd left it in the older brother's car and the older brother offered to sell it back to him for thirty dollars. The younger brother decided it was cheaper to cap his brother with a .38.

  On the east side, rival black gangs cruised up and down Prospect Avenue, trash talking until respect and disrespect turned into guns and knives, the cops firing tear gas and busting heads. Two dead, eight injured, two of them cops.

  In Mission Hills, a part of town where only the hired help spoke Spanish and the only cruising was done on a ship, a bank president grilling steaks dumped hot coals on his drunken wife when she confronted him about his latest mistress. The banker told the cops his wife was screaming so loud, he thought he'd give her something to scream about.

  Mason half listened to the news, finishing a cold beer and short end of ribs as he leafed through part of the King file he'd brought home from the office. Setting the file aside, he replayed his weekend. Tuffy nudged his thigh until he shared the ribs with her.

  Friday night, he'd found Josh Seeley's campaign Web site, clicking on the candidate's itinerary, toying with the notion of showing up at one of Seeley's events despite Abby's insistence that he stay away. Mason wasn't willing to give up. His ex-wife, Kate, had cut off their relationship one day with the dispassionate news that she was finished with him. So long. It's been real. Let's be friends. Or not.

  Abby hadn't said that. The hurt in her eyes said she loved him too much to live the life he'd chosen. She would come back to him if he could find his way back to her. It was one of those how-did-I-get-here moments for Mason, wanting her back but not knowing how to make it work and knowing he couldn't walk away from Nick and Mary.

  Seeley was campaigning in Cape Girardeau, a small town in the Missouri boot heel, more Tennessee than Missouri, the first stop on a swing through the southeast part of the state. Mason watched a streaming video feed of the candidate climbing down from his chartered plane, catching a glimpse of Abby behind him, her hair swirling around her face in the prop wash. She could have been Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, she was that far away.

  Mason spent Saturday catching up on his other cases, writing a brief to convince a judge his client lacked criminal intent when he sneaked out the
bathroom window at Best Buy with a thousand dollars worth of computer software stuffed down his pants. It was an exercise in legal gymnastics that ended when he launched another dart assault on his office wall.

  He stopped by the hospital to visit Nick, not getting past Nick's grandmother. She told him that the doctors were going to operate on Tuesday to remove the bullet fragment. Progress of a sort, Mason told her, asking her to tell Nick he'd been there. She grunted in reply, leaving the interpretation up to Mason.

  On Sunday he took another pass at Mary's house. Newspapers had accumulated on her driveway, mail filled the mailbox. The fish in the aquarium were listless. Mason found a container of fish food on a shelf beneath the aquarium and sprinkled some on the surface. After a moment, the fish woke to their meal, darting after the morsels, knocking over the deep-sea diver. Mary wouldn't have left the fish unattended. He knew her that well. She would have asked a neighbor to pick up the papers and the mail and feed the fish while she was gone.

  He stopped to talk to the neighbor across the street, glad to catch him outside. Cats peered at them from the front window.

  "Any sign of Mary?" Mason asked.

  "Nope. Not a peep," the man said. "But you're not the only one been looking for her."

  Mason straightened. "Who else has been over there?"

  "A woman. Driving a silver Lexus. Came by Friday afternoon, late in the day. Knocked on the door and left. That was it."

  "What did she look like?" Mason asked.

  "Dressed to the nines, that's all I can say," the man told him. "Real pretty. Dark hair. I wandered down to the curb, said hello to her. She give me a look like to cut right through me. I said fare-thee-well my lady to you too, if you get my meaning," he said flourishing his hands like a hula girl.

  "That I do," Mason said, recognizing Sandra Connelly.

  After hammering him for not playing by the rules, Sandra had gone Mason one better by not bothering to ask him for permission to talk to his client. Maybe she just wanted to find out for herself if Mary was really missing. Either way, Mason was primed for his next conversation with her.

  Vince Kowalczyk called Mason Sunday night, saying no, he hadn't talked to Mary in two years. Mason thanked him, adding Father Steve to his Monday call list, anxious to hear the next dodge the priest had for him. He wasn't surprised Monday morning when a secretary at the church told him Father Steve wouldn't be in, apologizing that she didn't know where he was or how to reach him.

  Mason had no better luck with Sandra Connelly, leaving her a voice message, following the recorded instructions to press the number two if his message was urgent.

  Late Monday morning, he went downtown to police headquarters and filled out a missing persons report on Mary Kowalczyk, telling the desk clerk to deliver a copy to Detective Samantha Greer. The desk clerk, a skinny kid with slicked back hair and a T-bone nose, wearing a civilian uniform, playing cop dress-up, gave Mason a look that translated as I'll-get-around-to-it. Mason left Samantha a message, convinced that the rest of the world was observing Don't Answer Your Phone Day.

  He didn't hear from Harry about the license plate on the car at the cemetary and forced himself not to push. Harry was reluctant to trace the plate and, as much as Mason wanted to know who was visiting his parents' grave, he had to let Harry do it on his own schedule. It was one more piece of his past that hung out of reach.

  Rachel Firestone had wrapped up Mason's Monday with a scouting report on the King jury.

  "I've tracked down five of the eight names you gave me. You're not going to like this," she told him over the phone.

  "Give it to me," he said, putting her on the speaker phone, standing at the dry erase board, red marker in his hand.

  Rachel began. "Nate Holden dropped dead of a heart attack nine years ago."

  Mason read from his notes on the board. "He was forty-four at the time of the trial. That makes him fifty when he died. I can buy that. Shit happens when you turn fifty," he said.

  "Another juror, Troy Apple, was shot coming out of his house early one morning. Cops suspected it was drug related."

  "Apple was black, twenty-two years old. Back then. Single, lived on the east side. Who needs proof when you've got a good stereotype? Any arrests in that one?"

  Rachel answered, "Nope. But, you'll like the trend. He was shot in the face."

  "Why am I not surprised? I'd rather hold out for the heart attack," Mason said.

  "Check this out," Rachel said. "Martella Garvey and Judith Dwyer are both dead. Garvey disappeared one day. Her body was found six months later, beaten to death. Same story for Dwyer. But, you'll be glad to know that Lisa Braun died of cancer two years ago."

  "Son of a bitch," Mason said. "Aren't the cops paying attention? Doesn't anybody notice that this jury has a worse survival rate than a new sitcom?"

  "No reason to. Martella Garvey was killed in Kansas City. Judith Dwyer moved to Chicago and was killed there. Besides, nine deaths spread out over the last fifteen years in different cities won't attract any attention. And the odds are against the cops finding out the victims served on the same jury since people generally don't include jury service in obituaries."

  "Still," Mason said, "nine out of twelve jurors are dead. Only two from natural causes. That leaves Janet Hook, Frances Peterson, and Andrea Bracco."

  "It's hard to believe," Rachel said. "But, who would want to kill those jurors? Ryan Kowalczyk was in jail. Whitney King was found innocent. I don't get it."

  "Remember, Nancy Troy said the jury made a pact not to talk about the case."

  "You told me. It still doesn't make sense. Why would they have needed a pact?" Rachel asked.

  "If the jury was fixed, they'd have to keep it quiet."

  "You mean the entire jury was bribed to find Whitney innocent? That's nuts! How are you going to bribe all twelve people and keep it quiet?"

  "I don't know how you bribe all twelve of them, but I do know how you keep it quiet. Kill them. I've got to find the last three jurors."

  On Monday evening, Mason had picked ribs up on his way home from the office. Tuffy gave him another nudge, earning the last rib, trotting off to enjoy it alone. The Channel 6 reporter recapped the victim list from the weekend's violence, adding them to the day's top story about a residential real estate agent lured to an unoccupied house and shot to death. The woman's name was Frances Peterson. Police have no suspects, the reporter said.

  Mason nearly choked on his rib. He grabbed the list of jurors from the file he'd brought home, running his finger down the page. Frances Peterson. White. Age thirty-six. Lived in Brookside. Divorced. Two kids. Residential real estate agent. Fifteen-year-old information that he bet was still accurate.

  Mason reached for the phone, catching Samantha Greer at home.

  "Who's working the Frances Peterson case?" he asked her.

  "Don't you ever say hello anymore? Or even I'm sorry to bother you at home again? And, by the way, I got the report on your parents' accident and faxed it to your office. You must have already left or I'm sure you would have thanked me."

  "Thank you and hello. I'm sorry to bother you at home again. Nine out of twelve jurors in the King case are dead.

  Only two from natural causes. Frances Peterson is the tenth. Was she shot in the face like Sonni Efron?" Mason asked. Samantha didn't answer, Mason hearing her catch her

  breath. "Jesus Christ, Lou," she said. "I'll get back to you." The phone rang as Mason set it down. "Lou, it's Sandra. We need to talk." "You've got that right," he told her, smiling grimly. "I'll

  be at my office." Mason pulled out of his driveway. The sun was setting but the heat was rising.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Mason got to his office, the sun was melting the horizon, long shadows advancing in its wake, an orange volcanic rim around the sky. The pale blue neon spelling out Blues on Broadway above the door to the bar was faint competition for the celestial light. Cars were lined up in front, the bar's cool, dark comfort calling people
in off the street.

  Blues was playing his baby grand when he came in the back way. The clear notes rode over the bar chatter, air-conditioning for the soul, before slipping out the door. Mason paused for an instant, trying to place the tune. Blues jammed with the bass player, trading riffs. Blues had bought the bar when he got tired of playing someone else's gigs; he now played as much for himself as for the people who paid for the pleasure.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, keeping the pace down the hall, fumbling with his key, Mason pushed the door to his office out of the way, not bothering to turn on the light. The pages of the accident report quivered in the fax machine, rippled by the breeze from the open door, Mason's hands trembled as he picked them up.

  It was a Missouri Uniform Traffic Accident Report. Said so in large print across the top of the first page. The report was divided into sections, beginning with the names, addresses, phone numbers, sex, race, and age of the driver and passenger. John Mason. White, male, age thirty-three. Linda Mason. White female, age thirty. Next there were a series of boxes to be checked off for every detail. Road conditions— wet. Weather—rain. Time—11:00 P.M. And on it went, Mason scanning and double-checking the multiple choice rendition of life and death, disappointed when he saw that the box for witnesses was empty.

  The second page ended with a narrative description by the investigating officer and another box labeled Cause. Mason repeated the officer's conclusion, slumping onto the sofa, not believing the sound of his own voice.

  "Intentional," Mason said. "What the hell is that?"

  "A word that means on purpose, not an accident. A necessary element of every major felony," Sandra Connelly said from the doorway to Mason's office.