Die-Off

by Kirk Russell

  Later than night Maria made a half-hearted throw at saying she was going to drive herself back to the house she shared with five others in San Francisco. She asked him to drive her to her car which was at Kevin’s place and Katherine stepped in.

  ‘You’re not driving anywhere. Your dad and I will go get your car and bring it back here and you need to lie down.’

  It settled that way and what they learned when they picked up her car was that Kevin was living by himself in a house that was probably worth two and a half million. He came out after they reached the turnaround at the top of the driveway: probably Maria had called him. He seemed to know they were coming.

  Katherine looked at Marquez and said, ‘Guess he didn’t go to the party after all. How about if you talk with him and I leave? I think it’ll be better all the way around that way. I’ll get in Maria’s car and go.’

  Kevin was in shorts and sandals and an Oregon shirt with a big green O on it.

  ‘Hey, Lieutenant, how’s the wildlife doing? How’s Maria?’

  ‘You saw her get hurt. How close a call was it?’

  ‘It could have been worse. I thought the dude in the Lexus was going to nail her but she made a killer turn.’

  ‘Did he run the stop sign?’

  ‘Totally.’

  ‘Did he see her go down?’

  ‘He hit his brakes and I saw him watching, but then he jammed.’

  ‘But he knew?’

  ‘Yeah, he knew.’

  Kevin smiled for no particular reason, maybe just for the way people can be. His hair was shoulder length now and his face drier and with some lines. They looked at each other, Marquez just a little taller and both with the broad shoulders of a swimmer.

  ‘Did Maria talk with you about Terry Ellis and Sarah Steiner’s road trip?’

  ‘She talked, but, you know, they’re dead. They’re gone.’

  ‘Did you know them?’

  ‘I knew Terry.’

  ‘What about Sarah?’

  ‘I met her a couple of times.’

  He paused. He looked from Marquez to his open front door as if somebody was waiting there for him, then turned back.

  ‘Terry was pretty hot and Sarah was fun. It’s a bummer what happened to them.’

  He pointed a finger at Marquez.

  ‘Maria said the detective dude thinks you killed them.’

  ‘I doubt he thinks that.’

  ‘Yeah? Maria said you’re pretty worried about it.’

  ‘Well, Voight is a question mark. I don’t know where he’s going with it. You knew Terry well and you spent time up in the area where they were going. Did you set them up with people to meet?’

  ‘I might have but like I told Maria I don’t remember, so I’m not going to remember for you standing in my driveway either. Terry was from up there. She knew all kinds of people. Her brother is a river rat.’

  ‘Know him?’

  He shrugged. ‘Sure, I know him but Terry had her own friends up there. If they went to parties she knew who to call. She knew people through her brother. He blew off college and moved there and she was on the rivers with him in the summers.’

  Kevin touched the O on his shirt. ‘Jack Ellis went to Oregon for a couple of years.’

  ‘What’s he doing when he’s not on the river guiding?’

  ‘No clue, dude, you gotta ask him.’

  Kevin stared and then smiled as if he’d just thought of something funny.

  ‘Maybe you can partner with the detective dude Voight and help him solve the case. Maybe ask him if he wants your help. I mean, we used to say nothing scares Maria’s dad and we always thought Maria was like you. Like that board today, I knew she would ride.’

  ‘You knew?’

  ‘Yeah, and that’s a dangerous badass road.’

  ‘Did you know she would crash?’

  ‘I knew she might have trouble and it would be nasty if she fell.’

  ‘You were okay with that?’

  ‘She got on the board, dude.’

  ‘So her choice?’

  ‘Always is.’

  ‘And riding is much more fun than dealing with her questions.’

  ‘Dude.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  Kevin squared off in front of him and stood in closer.

  ‘Voight talked to me way back when, and he’s called again. He left a message yesterday. He’s a dipshit working down his old list and I haven’t called him back yet, but I will and maybe I’ll remember seeing you more places and hitting on Terry or Sarah, and take it even farther back and come up with some memories of Maria’s stepdad hitting on her other friends. Shit that will really get Voight going, vague stuff that I make up as I go and that’s a warning to you. Do not fuck with me.

  ‘You sent your daughter here and she started asking bullshit questions and now you’re asking what I think about her getting hurt. Shit, I don’t think anything about it. To me she’s already dead. She blew me off. She blew Ridley off. She was done with us a while ago and coming around with long-time-no-see bullshit doesn’t change that.

  ‘So, yeah, if she crashed today and she was in a coma or if the crash took her out, I still would have said, “Hey, Mrs Lieutenant, your kid is inside in the hospital and sorry about all that work you did raising her, but I’ve gotta go to a party right now.”’

  Marquez moved to his car and opened the driver’s door.

  ‘Oh, so you’re leaving, it’s getting too heavy for you and you’re not going to say anymore.’

  Marquez looked over the top of the car roof.

  ‘There’ll be time, Kevin. I’ll be back one way or the other.’

  ‘Do not fuck with me.’

  ‘I’ve heard that before too. I don’t know how many times but a lot.’

  Kevin was still standing there watching as he drove away.

  TWENTY-NINE

  Very early in the morning as Marquez made coffee he heard a noise in the darkness out on the rear deck and found Maria with a blanket wrapped around her and her legs up on the bench, her back to the house wall. It looked like she’d slept in her clothes.

  ‘It hurts a lot and I couldn’t sleep and I keep thinking about Kevin and Ridley.’

  ‘Do you want to talk about them? I’m making coffee.’

  ‘Let’s talk out here. I don’t want to wake up Mom.’

  That used to mean she didn’t want her mom to overhear. He made coffee and Maria warmed herself inside, and then they moved back out, Maria with a blanket around her shoulders and the broken collar bone painful this morning. He watched how she shifted the blanket so it didn’t put any weight on the sling.

  ‘Do you remember that Kevin went to the University of Oregon for a couple of years and then dropped out?’

  ‘When I saw him last night he had an Oregon shirt that he said he got from Terry Ellis’ brother, Jack.’

  ‘Jack Ellis never graduated from high school.’

  ‘So why would he lie?’

  ‘Because he’s a dork and he’s messing with you since I asked him questions he didn’t like. Kevin was at Oregon for a year and a half so he could sell dope and make connections to sell more. Supposedly he was making three grand a week selling marijuana. He was like one of those dope stores. He sold smoke and chews and brownies and everything. Then he moved south to be closer to his farms.’

  ‘How big is his dope business now?’

  ‘I don’t know but he inherited money when his mom died and he funded growers. He has partners. He’s sort of like vertically integrated and his business getting bigger was pretty much why I said goodbye to Kevin and Ridley.’

  ‘Kevin said last night it would have been okay if the car had hit you.’

  ‘Typical him, but he doesn’t really mean it.’

  ‘I think he did last night.’

  ‘I can’t deal with that this morning, Dad.’

  ‘He said you left. You blew him and Ridley off and there’s no going back.’

  ‘So like he wanted me
to get hurt?’

  ‘He doesn’t want to be questioned about Sarah and Terry.’

  ‘Yeah, but he didn’t kill them and neither did Ridley. Kev and Rid and I knew a lot of the same people once. Facebook was still happening then and plenty of people followed their trip. Sarah was posting every day and just before they left Kevin posted on Terry’s wall that he knew some good people up there. What he meant was he knew where to get primo weed, but it was also so Sarah or Terry would call him. Sarah wanted to see a grow field before she started law school and she was interested in organic farms, mushroom foragers, bee keepers, and some of the trippy back-to-the-land types. Kevin had some friends for them to call and he probably helped them because he wanted to sleep with Terry.’

  ‘Did you ask him about that yesterday?’

  ‘Yeah, and I also asked him after they were killed. His answer yesterday was “let’s go ride and then we’ll talk after.” But I already knew Sarah wanted to see grow fields just to see what they look like. She always wanted to see stuff so she would know what it was really about and she thought once she became a lawyer it wouldn’t be cool to walk through a forest to look at a grow field. But Voight knows that. He talked with me about it.’

  ‘What’s Ridley’s story?’

  ‘He’s just a stoner working for Kevin. He probably drives dope from Humboldt down to here as his day job, but I’m not down with those guys anymore. I don’t really know and I don’t think anything they do is cool and they know that. I have an idea for Voight though. He should put up a photo of the gun you found on Instagram. Somebody might recognize it. Should I suggest it?’

  ‘Sure, why not.’

  Maria pulled out her phone and showed him a text: ‘Dude, let’s get together.’

  ‘That’s what I got from Kevin yesterday morning. He wanted to meet me. It’s not like he’s writing forget it, I don’t ever want to see you again.’

  Marquez held the phone a moment, read the text then handed it back. It was an invite from Kevin and friendly enough—not the guy he saw last night.

  ‘I’m going to leave before Mom wakes up. Tell her I’ll call her.’

  He walked Maria out to her car and watched her back up with her good arm. She lowered her window to tell him one last thing.

  ‘I have a really freaky feeling they got in touch with one of Kevin’s connections and maybe they got shown something that later someone decided they shouldn’t have seen and their getting killed didn’t have anything to do with taking down dams.’

  She put in her ear piece and worked her phone with one hand as she slow-rolled out the gravel drive. She was talking as she turned onto Ridge Road. She was hurt but she was going to be okay. He doubted whether Kevin Witmer or Ridley knew something that might help solve the murders. But that Kevin was hiding something he did not doubt and he knew he would continue that conversation, but not today.

  THIRTY

  That afternoon as Marquez neared Yreka, Judge Sally Mantegna called with a torrent of pointed questions about the search warrant application Marquez had sent her. That he had tricked his way inside a building by colluding with a building inspector didn’t work for her at all.

  ‘You searched the building, found fish scales, remains of fins, at least one small whole fish and then took them to your Fisheries Branch on S Street and they confirmed what you found is northern pike. You have already searched the building and found evidence and you now want an ex post facto search warrant that validates what you’ve done. Am I correct? I just want an answer, I don’t want an explanation.’

  ‘That’s not how I would put it.’

  ‘I’m sure it isn’t.’

  Marquez heard paper rustling as he exited into Yreka.

  ‘Is this the same individual in the news this afternoon after being arrested and charged with embezzling more than eight million dollars?’

  ‘I hadn’t heard about the arrest.’

  ‘Are you saying that I know more about him than you do? Is his name Mathew Hauser?’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Then it’s the same man you refer to here as your “credible source”, which frankly I find incredible. I don’t see how I can approve this.’

  ‘There’s a lot at stake here.’

  ‘There’s always a lot at stake. I hear it all the time.’

  ‘This is an effort to introduce an invasive species that will wipe out the native salmon, trout, smelt, and most other fish species in our rivers.’

  ‘You allege they’re trying to plant and your source was charged with a felony today. You need to get me more.’

  ‘That’s not easy to do.’

  ‘Come back to me when you’ve got it.’

  She hung up and Marquez parked across from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office after checking the lot for the sheriff’s white SUV. Sheriff Harknell was in his office and didn’t make him wait at all. He pointed at a chair and said, ‘Close the door.’

  Harknell was a tall, lean-faced man, with hard-eyed confidence. His predecessor died when a tractor trailer rig crossed I-5 six months into his elected term. That led to his appointment and a special election that led to yet another run-off next Tuesday. That had to be what was on his mind when he asked Marquez to come see him.

  ‘I’m surprised you showed.’

  ‘My chief asked me to. He said you were expecting me today.’

  ‘That was just make-happy bullshit as he and I talked on the phone. I agreed that I was a little steamed up when I told you to stay out of the county. I’m not supposed to say something like that but I really didn’t expect you to show up. Maybe it’s like you showing up after the girls were killed. It’s the thrill.’

  ‘Well, I stopped and I’ve talked to you about as much as I want. I’ll leave now.’

  ‘Don’t go just yet, Warden. I do have some things to say to you. I want you to know what will happen if you cross me again. With or without Voight’s approval, I’ll go forward and your name will go out to the media as a person of interest due to your proximity to the scene of the crime and as yet unspecified other reasons that our very seasoned investigator Richard Voight can’t disclose without compromising his investigation.

  ‘We’ll put out your photo and let the press know we’ve recommended that the Department of Fish and Game suspend you or at a minimum give you a leave of absence or whatever it is they do in your department. That way you can go sit at home while your career dies quietly and we expand our investigation. When we distribute your photo we’ll ask for the public’s help and always there’s someone who has seen a potential suspect in a compromising situation. We’ll give that person a good airing.’

  ‘You do that and you’ll be seeing a lot more of me.’

  ‘Be careful what you say in here. You’re in my county. What you need to know is that your outrage means absolutely nothing to me. You mean nothing to me and I don’t have a problem destroying what you call a career, or you for that matter. I didn’t mean a single conciliatory thing I said to your chief yesterday afternoon and at some point I expect to stand in front of TV cameras and say we’ve arrested you, but the takeaway here is don’t ignore my warning to stay out of Siskiyou County. Now get out of my office.’

  Harknell pulled a gun out of a drawer and laid it on his desk. He did not point the gun toward Marquez or say anything. Marquez looked at Harknell’s face, not the gun, and asked, ‘Why is your gun out?’

  ‘It’s there in case you attack me, which in this case is taking a single step toward me.’

  ‘I’m not going to attack you and I’m leaving.’

  It occurred to him as he stood that Voight wasn’t in lockstep with the sheriff, and that there was something wrong with Harknell that was more than megalomania. When Marquez turned back at the door the gun was back in the drawer and the sheriff was standing with his hands on his hips and a hint of a smile on his face.

  Marquez called Voight from the car and left a message for him. ‘Maybe I’ve been wrong about all this. Call me.’
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  THIRTY-ONE

  The Come On In Bar was near the center of Weaverville but not along the highway running through town. It was on an upslope wooded lot several blocks back from the main road and with a gravel and asphalt lot below for parking. You parked and walked up a short flight of steps to the front door of a long wood-sided building that probably didn’t begin life as a bar.

  Little light leaked out of it tonight. The sign out front was burned out or turned off. He smelled grilled burgers in the smoke drifting down the street and there were a few cars in the lot.

  When he stepped inside he saw four people at the far end of the bar and a young man at a table off immediately to his right sitting with his cell phone and a drink. The bartender was slump shouldered but looked powerful, his big head mostly bald, his glance at Marquez unfriendly. Three patrons at the far end of the bar took more interest in him as he slid onto a stool and waited for the bartender to drift over.

  The bartender wasn’t in any hurry to do that but Marquez wasn’t in a hurry either. He took in two watercolor paintings on the back wall, both river landscapes. A floodlight lit an outside deck in the back that had a good view of the trees overhanging it. He glanced at the one woman among the three at the far end and decided she wasn’t Lisa Sorzak. He checked out the rest of the dank uninviting bar and finally the bartender moved his way.

  Marquez ordered a beer and when he asked about food the bartender said, ‘The kitchen just closed. You’ll have to go somewhere else.’

  ‘I’m not from here. Where would you go?’

  ‘I wouldn’t. Do you still want the beer?’

  ‘What about peanuts or potato chips, do you have anything like that?’

  ‘No. Anything else?’

  ‘Yes. I’m looking for Lisa Sorzak.’

  The bartender nodded toward the three at the end of the bar, the woman with a few drinks in her and the two men trying to hold her attention.