Die-Off

by Kirk Russell

  ‘Are you making the claim that they framed you in the transfer of the eight point two million and that it wasn’t you who transferred the money?’

  ‘I’ve never stolen anything in my life.’

  ‘You didn’t transfer the missing money?’

  ‘The money disappeared after I learned about the pike project. I knew it was gone and I’ve been trying to figure out where it went.’

  ‘Did you inform the company?’

  ‘I should have but I didn’t because a routine audit was coming up.’

  Marquez waited for more and when it didn’t come, said, ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’

  Hauser didn’t respond and looked down at the lawsuit. He rested his hand on it and when he spoke his voice was slowed as if it took great concentration to have this conversation.

  ‘My lawyer believes if the money is returned and the pike issue resolved then everything else can be negotiated away. He wants me to immediately cease contact with the Department of Fish and Game. But I don’t think it matters anymore. Paula is going to leave me and my life will be ruined by ENTR. I can no longer get into the files I need and I’m not going to be a source of information to you anymore.’

  ‘Why would your wife leave you?’

  ‘She’ll choose them over me. They’ll talk to her. They’re probably talking to her right now.’

  His face fell. He shook his head.

  ‘I can’t think clearly. I’m worried and scared and wondering why I ever warned you about the existence of the hatcheries.’

  ‘If Enrique Jordan wasn’t killed trying to dump pike in the Sacramento I still wouldn’t have any proof, Matt. And I need the hatchery locations. I need your biologist friend.’

  ‘Then go do your job and leave me alone. If you had backed me up, they would have held off coming after me. Now they’re going to destroy my reputation and make me look like a thief and a liar.’

  ‘They may do that, but there may also be a way we can still work together.’

  ‘I think you blew that chance.’

  ‘Just listen. When the pickup rolled and Jordan was trapped he didn’t make any phone calls, but someone used his phone to call 911. The caller didn’t stay on the line long but gave enough of a description for the first responders to find the accident location. They found a badly injured and unconscious Enrique Jordan. The found his wallet and other personal effects but no cell phone. I didn’t find one either and I looked pretty hard and trying to locate it with GPS failed. I think the phone either got taken apart and stayed with the man who made the call or it went into the river after the call got made.’

  Hauser’s cell rang and without a word he turned it so Marquez saw the caller ID on the screen. It read Paula Hauser.

  ‘I don’t know where you’re going with this, but I’ve got to talk to her right now. You’re welcome to wait outside.’

  The wait was almost two hours but Marquez was like that. When Hauser came out of his study he looked shocked and defeated and offended that Marquez was still there.

  ‘She’s not coming home, Lieutenant. Are you happy? You helped make that happen. She wants me to move out. She wants me to find another place to live by tomorrow night.’

  ‘Keep talking to her.’

  ‘I’ve been talking to her for five years. I’ve walked on eggshells because I haven’t wanted to lose her and all that time she was looking for a way to leave. Are you married?’

  ‘You asked me that once before.’

  ‘Does your wife love you? That’s all I’ve wanted, for her to love me. But you can’t make someone do that. That’s how it has felt the last several years, as if I’m trying to talk her into loving me. They got to her. They told her I embezzled money and she believes them. She wouldn’t listen to me as I tried to explain.’

  ‘Listen to me. You might still have a way with us. I talked to my captain and also to the chief on the drive here. So here’s the offer: you tell us Emile Soliatano’s role and give us him and we’ll start working to shield you from ENTR if he gets us to the hatchery where Jordan got his pike.’

  ‘Who is Emile Soliatano?’

  ‘He’s the guy who made the mistake of going to the hospital and pretending to be Enrique Jordan’s brother. He was convincing enough and they didn’t have another next of kin so they rolled with it and he got the word from the trauma surgeons that Emile didn’t make it. Once he knew, he was on the phone and out of the hospital and in his car on his way to you. The only problem is we were following him. I was there. I saw you and Emile meet and it wasn’t very hard after that to figure out you weren’t quite who you said you were, and you can tell me that you were forced into that or whatever story you come up with, but don’t bother. We’re past that. We are at the point where you have to make a decision that we can verify tonight. Where is Soliatano?’

  ‘I don’t know where he is. He found a place for his wife and him. I supplied the money.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I needed him. He was in a position to know.’

  Marquez nodded and it was possibly true. It was basically what Soliatano had said.

  ‘How did you find him in the first place?’

  As he asked, Marquez knew it had to be the biologist and the biologist was on the inside of the pike project not the outside. He listened as Hauser spun something about how he got the Soliatano connection and another piece came together for Marquez. He wondered why he didn’t see it sooner. They stared at each other and Marquez said, ‘Call him.’

  ‘He has a new phone and we’re not talking anymore. I don’t know his new phone number.’

  ‘Too bad you don’t; that was our one chance.’

  Marquez stood.

  ‘Good luck with everything, Matt. I’ll let myself out.’

  Marquez got as far as the sidewalk before Hauser spilled out of the house and hurried down the steps, calling to him, ‘Lieutenant, wait.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  ‘Are you going to ask me about my dad every other breath? Is that the only reason I’m here?’

  ‘Maria, I have to ask you about everything that might have anything to do with this investigation, but let’s get off to the right start. I want what you want. I want to find the killer of your friends and bring them to justice. It’s that straightforward. That’s all I want.’

  Maria felt tired and a little hazy from the long drive and the early start this morning, but that feeling was gone now and she was ready to deal with this Voight dude. Voight’s eyes were warm but his face was heavy and his eyes drowning in flesh. She was going to give him two hours and then drive back. She wasn’t staying the night or missing work tomorrow. This guy was like on a mission to nail her dad and it was disgusting.

  ‘I do have questions about your stepfather. I won’t deny that and I’m sure he has told you. Hasn’t he?’

  ‘He’s the only father I’ve had so I call him Dad. Is that okay with you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I only have about two hours and when I leave here I’m driving home.’

  ‘We have a motel room rented for you.’

  ‘Unrent it.’

  ‘You may be a very critical link in this, Maria.’

  ‘Then you waited a long time to talk to me. Where do you want to start?’

  ‘Tell me about Terry and Sarah, where you met them, what kind of friendship you had, how close you were to them. How much did you know about this road trip and their activism?’

  ‘You asked me the same questions last time we talked.’

  ‘Some of the questions will be the same and, as you know, I’m taping this so I have it to refer back to. I have notes from our last conversation but I’d rather have your words. I probably look like an old, fat middle-aged guy but I was a homicide detective at LAPD for a lot of years. I didn’t come off a sheep farm up here and drive around as a deputy until I got promoted. I know something about homicide investigation.’

  ‘Okay, but you sure don’t know much about my dad and
it’s even worse if you do, because if you do know him and you’re doing this anyway then you’re evil. Why did you leave LA to come here?’

  ‘I’ll tell you sometime. Today I’m the one asking the questions.’

  ‘Then ask something you haven’t already asked five times.’

  ‘Okay, I will, and let’s start over. Talk about Terry and Sarah in any way you want. I’m looking for what I missed.’

  Maria’s stance toward this interview softened as she talked. She knew Sarah best and could picture her easily: green eyes, dark wavy hair parted down the middle and to her shoulders, some freckles, her smile and sense of humor. She missed Sarah’s sense of humor and her way of getting at things. She missed that a lot and she hadn’t known Terry like that. Terry was more to herself, not quieter, but more contained. It wasn’t completely natural the two of them made the trip together and she told the detective it was more about both having family up here, especially Terry’s brother, Jack, the river guide. Jack pushed Terry to get involved. Sarah was already involved.

  ‘Involved in the movement to take out the dams on the Klamath?’

  ‘Yes, and other dams in California, San Clemente, the one on Malibu Creek, and on the American and other places.’

  Voight acted interested but he could care less about the dams. He said he had interviewed Terry’s brother several times. Did she know Jack Ellis? Maria shook her head. She didn’t. She had two guy friends who knew him pretty well and they were in the Bay Area and one of them went out with Terry for a little while. Voight seemed really interested in that, though Kevin supposedly talked to Voight a couple of years ago.

  ‘That was your friend Kevin that you called me about?’

  ‘Yes, and you’ve talked to him before, right?’

  ‘I have to check, Maria. We got a long list of names from Facebook.’

  ‘Kevin Witmer knows Jack Ellis too.’

  ‘How big is Kevin’s dope business?’

  That surprised her. He must know a lot more than he let on. Maybe it was like Dad said; this guy has issues but is the real deal as an investigator. He showed her his list of names now and wanted her to look it over and put a mark next to anyone she thought he should talk to. Some of the names had numbers alongside them, like some old school thing. She asked about that.

  ‘I’m not sure I remember why I wrote those numbers.’

  ‘I thought detectives were all supposed to be really good liars.’

  ‘Do you think I’m lying?’

  ‘You are lying.’

  Voight liked that for some reason and his eyes watered in the corners as he smiled.

  ‘You’re tough, Maria.’

  ‘So answer the question.’

  ‘It’s the number of times each of them posted.’

  ‘A lot of people don’t post but they’re still on Facebook. Those two guys I was just talking about don’t do Facebook but Kevin was a good friend of Terry’s, or maybe not, but they hung out and he wanted to know her better.’

  ‘As in go out with her?’

  ‘Yeah, or that’s what I heard, but she wasn’t very interested in him and I don’t know much about Kevin’s dope business. I know he’s doing it.’

  ‘I’m not interested in busting him. I’m after who killed Terry Ellis and Sarah Steiner.’

  ‘Then why are you doing this bullshit thing with my dad?’

  ‘I’m doing what I have to. How did you follow them as they made this trip along the Klamath?’

  ‘I called them and there was Facebook. They were posting photos and Sarah wrote about the meeting and stuff. Facebook is mostly about photos and if someone was trying to follow them up the Klamath by checking Facebook it could be a good way to do it. They were doing like a journal, but you already know that. We talked and texted. Instagram wasn’t happening yet. I called Sarah a few times but the connection sucked so it was mostly the photos and text. You probably already have my emails to Sarah.’

  He did and it kind of annoyed her the way he didn’t just come out and say he did. It was friggin’ annoying.

  ‘When is the last time you saw your friend Kevin Witmer?’

  ‘Not in a while. We stopped hanging out a while ago, but I left a message for him a couple of days ago.’

  ‘Is that because you think he might know something?’

  ‘My dad is wondering more than I am.’

  ‘Your dad asked you to make contact with Kevin Witmer again?’

  ‘After he and I talked, yeah, he did, but Kevin isn’t going to tell me anything. I’m not really friends with him anymore and it’s not like he would have said if he knew anything.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I don’t know him.’

  ‘You said he was hitting on Terry. Could he have become very angry if Terry ignored his advances?’

  She looked at him coolly. ‘You’re pretty desperate.’

  ‘Let’s go get some lunch.’

  At lunch he ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon and fries and asked how much she knew about her dad’s work.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Oh, what he does and where he goes and what the purpose was.’

  ‘You know he’s like a TFO with the FBI and a deputy US Marshal, right?’

  He didn’t know that and he really didn’t know shit about what her dad did, or else he was lying and he already told her that lying was part of his job. But she didn’t think he was lying this time. He really didn’t know that much about her dad’s job and tried to hide that by taking a massive bite out of the burger.

  But that’s what he wanted to talk about and what Dad was working on now she wasn’t that clear about. It was an international animal trafficking operation he was trying to break. It was different than a poaching ring and he said the animal business was more commoditized now. She told Voight that and he asked about a guy named Rider. She shook her head.

  ‘I don’t live at home anymore and we talk about other things when we see each other. I know he works alone a lot. My mom thinks too much, and thinks that it’s dangerous. Sometimes he’s only with the FBI.’

  ‘He gets to write his own ticket.’

  ‘I don’t know about that. Do you get to write your own ticket?’

  He looked at her like that was the last thing he got to do.

  ‘Was he working on something in Siskiyou County before Sarah and Terry were killed?’

  ‘He wouldn’t have been there otherwise.’

  ‘Try to remember.’

  ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

  ‘Well, I know he was in Oregon the day the girls were part of the debate in the high-school gym and that like them he was all the way down the Klamath and back in California that night. He showed up at the crime scene less than an hour after we issued something called a BOLO.’

  ‘I know what a BOLO is and it was Sarah and Terry, so of course he tried to help. You really don’t know him, do you?’

  She watched him pick up six or so fries and then drop two of them before biting the others in half. His eating habits were weird. It was like he was nervous all the time.

  ‘I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t look at everybody who showed up at the scene. It doesn’t matter if they’re law enforcement; I still have to look at them.’

  ‘Seriously, why are you so focused on Dad?’

  ‘I’ve got other information I can’t talk about.’

  That sort of creeped her out and she didn’t feel like eating anymore. She didn’t believe him but it still made her feel weird.

  ‘Did he ever get really angry with your mom when you were growing up?’

  ‘Not as angry as me.’

  Voight smiled and had ketchup on his upper lip.

  ‘Do you think he sees women differently?’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Does he have more difficulty dealing with women?’

  ‘My dad is like the best.’

  ‘Then he’s got to come up with some answers.’

/>   ‘He does or you do?’

  He didn’t answer and she sat on that a second and then repeated: ‘Dad has to come up with some answers? Is that because you don’t have anyone else?’

  She lifted her purse and pulled thirty dollars out of her wallet. ‘This is for lunch.’

  ‘We’re buying.’

  ‘I just did and I don’t really believe you have other information.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to believe.’

  ‘Okay, what is the other information?’

  ‘I can’t tell you yet.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I expected you to say. See you later.’

  TWENTY-FOUR

  On Hauser’s forehead was a bright-red mark from leaning forward in the pew with his forehead pressed against the knuckles of his right hand. He looked haggard and defeated and offered a damp hand before sliding over on the oak pew to make room. Marquez would never have figured him for religious or church going, but maybe the reason for being here was in what he said next.

  ‘We were married here twenty-two years ago. We have two kids in college, one at Amherst and one at LSU. Both got into UC campuses and could have stayed in state and saved us a lot of money, but that would have put them within their mother’s reach, and they wanted to get away from her. There have been times when I’ve thought the same way, yet I’m having a very hard time dealing with her leaving me.

  ‘Paula filed for legal separation. She says it’s the only way to protect our money from the lawsuit, but I know it’s just the first step. She’s going to ask for a divorce.’

  He turned and stared at Marquez.

  ‘In the end she’s just another lawyer.’

  An elderly parishioner three rows up turned and looked at them then got up slowly and left, the church door allowing bright sunlight in before it closed and returned them to softer shadows. The Holy Virgin Cathedral, Joy of All Who Sorrow was out on Geary Street. Marquez had turned around and recrossed the Golden Gate Bridge when he got Hauser’s call.

  Hauser sighed now, his voice quieter as if he’d reached some resolve last night.

  ‘I’m going to give you Emile’s new phone number but I have to ask something in return. Barbara Jones and the little security group don’t know I was paying him for information and I don’t want them to know. They don’t know anything about him or maybe they know everything, but they don’t know where he is. At least we did that right. I am so over my head. I so wish I’d never gotten involved. The salmon are gone anyway. The snowpack will decline and they won’t make it. All of these native species will be gone. What you’re doing won’t matter on any scale. Humanity treats animals like a product that’s there to harvest and sell. Poachers will get drones and there won’t be a herd of anything left in Africa.’