Die-Off

by Kirk Russell

  ‘Why are you calling the one who got hurt an “individual” or a “person” but the other one, the one who might have threatened Terry and Sarah, is a man.’

  ‘I believe it’s a woman who got cut but I’m not sure yet.’

  ‘Okay, okay, let me ask some people, but I really can’t talk to Kevin or Ridley. They just tried to get me killed.’

  She told him her story and how she figured out when she was in the ambulance what Kevin did to her. Voight listened without interrupting and it made her like him a little more.

  ‘I’d appreciate anything you can do, Maria. This man may have come on to Sarah at a party before he got angry they were there. He may be the one who painted the side of their vehicle. He may have also painted road signs to mark where they were found.’

  ‘And you’re just finding that out now?’

  ‘It’s only an idea at this point and a very thin lead that Kevin Witmer might be able to help with.’

  ‘Then why don’t you tell him you’ll close his dope business and put him in prison if he doesn’t come across?’

  ‘He’s smart. A DEA agent up here told me they’ve looked at him for years and haven’t been able to get anywhere. But you might be able to. Will you at least try once more?’

  She felt the fight go out of her and sadness flood in.

  ‘I’ll try.’

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Marquez listened to Muller’s account. The SOU followed the man from the Sacramento Hyatt to the clean new ENTR building on Cambridge Street in Palo Alto. He didn’t drive straight there but neither did he strain to lose anyone tailing him. What that said to Marquez was the man believed he got in and out of the second hatchery without being seen. It said he worked for ENTR or someone within the company, so they could discard the idea that ENTR was ‘one hundred percent with them.’

  Or perhaps videotaping Fish and Game officers was the standard information-gathering method of a firm whose business was built around intellectual property. Marquez doubted that but the whole thing didn’t anger him the way it did Muller. He believed the truth lay somewhere between Barbara Jones and Hauser. There probably was a shadow operation running in the background and Barbara Jones might not know anything about it.

  After the call with Muller, he called Jones and left her a message. He left another for Maria and then Muller called back.

  ‘When do you get back to the Bay Area?’

  ‘Later tonight.’

  ‘We may need your help with Faesy. He’s in his food truck headed up the coast. We had him set up for a delivery tomorrow in Compton and now he’s on his way north. We thought he was going to his girlfriend’s in Ojai but he’s already past Santa Barbara and the tusks he’s supposed to deliver tomorrow are with him, so it’s not happening as agreed. After the meeting at headquarters I thought he was with us, but now I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s not answering his phone and I’ve got to leave half the team in the south. Depending where Faesy goes, I may need you to help cover him. Are you good with that or are you too used to sleeping through the night nowadays?’

  ‘Call me when you know.’

  His phone rang again soon after he hung up with Muller and at first he thought it was Muller calling back but it was Voight.

  ‘What were you doing holed up in a cabin with a woman?’

  ‘Where did you hear that?’

  ‘From your wife.’ Voight laughed, and the laugh was derisive but there was also humor. ‘I heard it from a deputy in Weaverville who said you apprehended an escaped convict.’

  ‘Yeah, they hiked up to her cabin with a couple of assault weapons and whatever accelerant they set the fire with in a backpack. Did you get my message a few days ago?’

  ‘I got it and I want to talk. I’ve been thinking about you. How close are you to Yreka?’

  ‘Are you serious about talking or is this another game?’

  ‘I’m serious.’

  He was close to Yreka but after Muller’s call knew he should keep driving, keep pushing, yet this might be the moment with Voight. He was just ahead of a storm blowing in out of the Gulf of Alaska and forecast to bring the first hard cold rain of the fall. Off to his right he saw it coming and the smart thing was to stay on the road and not lose time.

  ‘Marquez?’

  ‘I’m here and I’m not far from you. I can stop for about an hour. How about we meet at that restaurant you like?’

  Voight’s car was there as he drove up and got out, his muscles stiff from the drive and sore from yesterday. He slid into the booth and listened to Voight order the same roast beef, mashed potatoes, and gravy he’d ordered when they were last here. Marquez ordered fried chicken and iced tea. He didn’t get what Voight liked about the restaurant, but they definitely knew him here.

  ‘What were you doing at a cabin up on the Trinity?’

  ‘Tracking down the woman who made the call with the White Salmon gun tip.’

  ‘Say that again.’

  ‘I was looking for Lisa Sorzak and found her. She gave me the name of the man who calls himself Rider. It’s Jim Colson.’

  Voight settled his beer back onto the table.

  ‘Do you believe her?’

  ‘I do, though I’m not sure yet why she’s telling me. I got her name from the owners of the Methuselah Tavern in Crescent City. That’s the place I told you about last time we had anything close to a talk. The owners are named Lila and Geoff Philbrick. Sorzak and Colson were the first two employees when the place opened a decade ago.’

  ‘Colson is Rider?’

  ‘That’s what Sorzak is claiming.’

  ‘What’s wrong with her? What’s your hesitation there?’

  ‘She also goes by Lisa X and it’s not really clear to me where she’s coming from. She owns a bar in Weaverville and through a patron there and a Trinity warden I found her in a cabin along the Trinity. I told her to expect your call and that you’re working the Ellis and Steiner murders.’

  ‘Did she already know that?’

  ‘She seemed to.’

  Marquez opened a small notebook, turned it around on the table and Voight put on reading glasses as the waitress refilled Marquez’s ice tea. She glanced down at the notebook and without offending her Voight slowly shielded the pages with his hand. He copied Lisa Sorzak’s cell number and slid the notebook back and folded his glasses as Marquez texted him the number as well.

  Neither of them was old school but each still carried a notebook. It was one of the first things Marquez noticed about Voight. He was an investigator with strong habits and in his experience investigators who stuck with their habits did so because they worked.

  ‘Rider is your animal parts smuggler and Rider is Jim Colson. He’s the one who put this Lisa up to making the tip call and you and I are now looking for the same person. What does Lisa Sorzak say about this Colson?’

  ‘That he’s damaged goods and that he changed from the guy she first met who was lonely but could be fun, to someone who enjoys holding power over others. She said, and these are her words, when she met him he didn’t even seem to own his name and didn’t care what he was called. He was trying to live with as little identity as possible and the name Rider may have come before the animal trafficking.’

  ‘And this Sorzak hit it off with him.’

  ‘She said they recognized something in each other. Colson used to talk about living out their lives in Hawaii in a big house. That was his dream.’

  ‘According to her.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘So I’m supposed to accept her version and that you and I are after the same people.’

  ‘I don’t care what you accept or don’t, especially what has to do with me. What I’m doing is passing on what I learned. Take it or leave it.’

  ‘Slow down, Marquez, don’t get so hot so fast. I know why you called me and I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t believe there was reason for us to talk and for me to back off you. What else do you know about this Jim Colson?’
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  ‘Between Lisa Sorzak and the owners of the Methuselah, I’ve got a few more things. What he wrote on his employment application at the Methuselah puts him in his mid-forties and Sorzak says that’s about right. She keeps repeating that she doesn’t know anything about him but seems to know he was married and had a son who was eight when he left wherever he came from. The boy got sick and the disease he had caused the doctors to look for a genetic cause, so they tested mom and dad as well and it came out that the boy’s real father was a neighbor down the street. Colson flipped out and left.’

  ‘Left where?’

  ‘Could be Texas.’

  ‘There’s got to be a lot more than one Jim Colson. Have you asked for help in Texas?’

  ‘I did this morning.’

  ‘Okay and this Jim Colson somehow got from bartender to trafficking in animals. I’m sure bartending is a gateway to selling animals but maybe you could explain it to me how it works. I mean, if he was selling cocaine and pills from behind the bar I’d believe that, but snake skins?’

  ‘So you know, Rich, there’s a breed of macaw that Rider deals that goes for one hundred thousand dollars a bird.’

  ‘Bullshit.’

  ‘No, it’s true, and he’s the go-to guy in the US for that particular species. He also moves venomous snakes that go for fifty grand and rare turtles and tortoises for twenty-five grand. Elephant tusk is going for a thousand dollars a pound in Beijing. Colson is tapped into the vein and rich enough now to protect his route.’

  ‘What do you do when you take delivery of a basket of venomous snakes?’

  ‘You take orders from clients who have pet stores or you deal direct to collectors and you get the buy orders first. The buyers are out there and eager to pay. Colson, if he’s Rider, has warehouses in the LA Basin and one or more in Vancouver. Vancouver is his distribution point for Asia.’

  ‘And if he gets arrested for two murders that works for you.’

  ‘He won’t be. This isn’t a guy who would give up a gun he used.’

  ‘I’ve had cases where I was taunted.’

  ‘And now you’ve got a suspect helping you with an investigation.’

  ‘I want to make something clear, Marquez. I’m not apologizing for anything yet and you and I aren’t on the same side of the table until I see a lot more.’

  Marquez stared at him wondering if he was wasting his time. He read self righteousness in Voight’s look and believed him. Voight wasn’t apologizing for anything. He debated then continued.

  ‘There was a raid of a warehouse in LA about a week ago. A robbery unit went looking for a truckload of flat-screen TVs that got lost on its way to a Best Buy distribution point. They didn’t find the truck with the TVs but they did find a murder victim, a young Latino man who was dropped with two shots to the head. They believe he was guarding approximately a million dollars worth of illegal animal products. About three hundred thousand of that was in elephant tusk and the value on all of it may be more. I need to go there and meet with US Fish and Wildlife and it may turn out that murder ties to Rider.’

  ‘But it’s not tied to him yet?’

  ‘No, but it was a kid guarding the stash who got executed just ahead of the police raid. He was probably taken out so he couldn’t talk.’

  ‘I’m listening, but help me out here. What makes elephant tusk worth a thousand a pound? Do they cure brain cancer and heart disease or make your dick hard?’

  ‘None of the above, they get carved into knick-knacks, bookends, that kind of thing.’

  Voight ordered another beer and started to eat again as he put it together. He looked up from his plate as he reached a conclusion.

  ‘If you’re telling me this, then you’ve already talked to your FBI friends.’

  ‘I have and they’re helping dig for a Jim Colson who went missing a decade or so ago.’

  ‘Why are you telling me?’

  ‘Even if you don’t, I think you and I are on the same side.’

  ‘Despite everything?’

  ‘Yes, despite you letting the sheriff tell you how to investigate.’

  Voight put his fork down. He leaned back in the booth, started to say something and Marquez cut him off.

  ‘A couple of years ago, after you and I first bumped heads, I asked a friend at LAPD how good you were as a homicide detective. He told me he’s seen a lot of detectives and only a handful that really have what he called the unteachable thing. He called it unteachable because you can’t identify it when you interview and promote someone. He said you had it.

  ‘So if you’ve got it, I know you’re not looking at me and never were. You know I didn’t kill Terry and Sarah. The sheriff may think I did kill them but I don’t believe you do. In Harknell’s world Fish and Game is something he occasionally steps in and has to scrape off his shoe and rub off his boots on the lawn grass before he can go back inside a building. I’m sure he encouraged focusing on me and has asked for updates and to be kept in the loop. That’s how I hear him and you can tell me I’m full of shit.’

  ‘You generally are.’

  ‘Am I wrong?’

  ‘As long as I’m lead investigator you won’t become a suspect without hard evidence. It’s a cold case until we learn something new that I can work with. I had hoped the gun was that.’

  Voight glanced at two guys seated at the bar but no one was hearing this.

  ‘There’s a deputy he’s grooming for my job. That’s why he rides me about my weight and everything else. When I brief Harknell, Deputy Turner is in the room to listen and learn. He’s ambitious. He’s got a wife and two kids. He’s a vet and the sheriff trusts that, but he’s also a smart kid and he doesn’t mind volunteering off duty on a Saturday morning to put up ‘Harknell for Sheriff’ signs.

  ‘But it’s hard to be from a rural area and learn how to manage a homicide investigation. There are only forty-five thousand people in the county and there aren’t that many homicides, not yet anyway, so the job involves a lot of other things as well. Turner is already as good as or better than me at some of those and he’s loyal to the sheriff, and he’s a good guy, but combat doesn’t teach you investigative skills and that’s all that’s holding Harknell back from replacing me.’

  ‘Then let me help you in any way I can. I want to see their murders solved. I want to take Colson down if he’s Rider. Let’s join up here.’

  He couldn’t read anything in Voight’s eyes so he said, ‘Think about it and call me.’

  When he left Voight was staring out across the room, but he did call. By then Marquez was a hundred miles farther south and the rain had started.

  ‘All right, Marquez, I’m in. We’ll try to work together, but use this number when you call me. It’s my personal cell and no one other than me looks at what calls I’ve made. I’ll try calling Lisa Sorzak tonight.’

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Marquez knew a retired warden who lived in a cabin at timberline in the eastern Sierra. There was no road to the cabin and supplies were hiked in or brought in by mule. Rossini was the ex-warden’s name and he stayed there from late May until the first heavy snow of the fall and then took a bus to Arizona and lived the rest of the year in a mobile home in the driveway of his sister’s house in Phoenix. He didn’t own a car. He told Marquez he was done driving. He had patrolled enough to never want to drive again, and had once told Marquez that the same thing would happen to him.

  Marquez understood that. After the long drive home tonight and food and a shower and two in the morning sex with Katherine that left him deep asleep he did not want to move. Nor did he want to answer his phone but maybe he sensed what was coming. He slid his hand from the warmth of Katherine and answered his cell phone as he slid out of bed. He picked his clothes off the chair and walked down the hall to the front room. Lisa Sorzak’s voice was warm and alert and edged with something offered as humor but wasn’t.

  ‘Are you in bed with your wife?’

  ‘I’m home.’

  ‘I cal
led the investigator.’

  ‘You called Voight.’

  ‘That’s right, and it wasn’t very satisfying. It was like talking to a door knob. I’m calling you because Jim wants to meet with you. He wants to make a deal but you have to go to him alone.’

  Marquez dressed slowly and listened as he moved into the kitchen and made coffee. The intensity of her voice, its low controlled urgency disturbed him.

  ‘When did you talk to Colson?’

  ‘Tonight and I told him you found me in the cabin and that you were there when it burned. I hope you don’t mind this, but I said you knew that he sent the two goons.’

  Marquez didn’t know that. He knew she might have left in the boat if he hadn’t gotten back down off the slope in time. He didn’t know anything about where the men came from except that they were hired guns, a Nebraska con who skipped out on parole and a local named Tom White. They were paid five thousand each up front and promised another five grand after she was confirmed dead. They didn’t know who hired them. It was done through phone calls and a third party whose name they hadn’t yet given up.

  ‘He laughed when I told him the cabin was gone.’

  ‘Did you hike back up there?’

  ‘Yesterday. It burned to the ground and trees around it will die. He said now I have no place to hide. If you go on his terms you need to be very careful.’

  ‘Why does he want to meet?’

  ‘He says he wants out of the business. That’s all I know.’ She paused before adding, ‘You don’t have to meet him and I wouldn’t if I were you.’

  ‘Set it up.’

  ‘He may try to kill you.’

  ‘Do it anyway.’

  ‘Keep your phone close.’ She broke the connection a moment later.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Late that morning Faesy parked his food truck and walked a half-mile to an underground parking garage in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Fifteen minutes later as he drove a ten-foot U-Haul van out of the garage Marquez got a call from Muller.

  ‘He’s headed your way in a U-Haul and we’re on him. It looks like he plans to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.’