“Your friend here, too?” I asked.
“No. I'm alone.”
“You drove over here just to take a walk up a bluff?”
“There's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing. I can drive and walk just about anywhere I want to. I don't see any 'No Trespassing' signs.”
“That car's got an expired registration,” I said. “You just admitted to driving it here. We're going to have to charge you, and impound the vehicle.”
“What?”
“And your fleeing obvious officers will suggest to a court that you were fully aware that the registration was expired, and were trying to avoid capture.” It was a moment.
“That would be chickenshit. I am appalled!”
I just smiled. It would at least make up for my good wash pants.
“Care to tell me why you're really here?” asked Hester sweetly. “I do have some influence with these two officers.”
“You might have him start with that,” I said, indicating the edge of a dark green backpack protruding from the ffssure.
Chester stepped back, and moved as if he was going to reach for the pack. He glanced at us, to see what the reaction would be, and found himself staring down the muzzles of three handguns.
“Freeze,” said Hester. “Don't move a muscle.”
He stopped. “I was just going to hand it to you.”
“I'll get it,” said Tillman. He moved slowly past Chester, reached down, and retrieved the backpack.
A long time ago, the Supreme Court ruled that we could make searches “incidental to arrest.” In this case, that meant that we had every right to examine the contents of the backpack before we handed it back to him. Just in case there was a “weapon contained therein,” as we say.
“Look through it,” I said to Tillman, as Hester and I lowered our guns again. I stepped closer to Chester.
“I told you to steer clear of this case,” I said, “and I meant it.”
“I haven't interfered. Not once.”
I decided not to mention my suspicion that it was him who had leaked the vampire stuff to the press. Instead, I said, “You're less than half a mile from the Mansion right now, and there's nothing else on this bluff but the scene of a possible crime.”
“He's less than a quarter mile from there, Carl,” said Tillman, who probably hunted in these woods.
“I had no idea…. ” said Chester, just as Tillman held up a small gray case with an LCD screen in its face and a keypad. It looked like a hand calculator.
“This is a GPS receiver, Carl,” said Tillman, “and it works.” Tillman was young, and his father owned a large, modern farm, so I took his word for it. They used them a lot these days, to place herbicides and other things with amazing accuracy.
I gave Chester a disgusted look. “Wanna try that again?”
“Is this guy a priest?” asked Tillman, holding up a crucifix that looked to be about a foot long.
“Nope,” I said. “He's a vampire hunter.”
“No shit?” said Tillman. “Way cool.”
On the way back down to the cars, with Tillman toting the pack, I asked Chester why he had tried to defy my order to stay away from the scene.
“In the first place, I was lost,” he said, without much conviction. “In the second place, I hardly think it's fair that you have patrols out just to keep me from my job.”
Aside from the fact that only a dedicated egocentric would think our patrols were meant for him, it was the first time I had heard him refer to a job.
“Just what would your job be?” I asked between mossy limestone stepping blocks.
“To bring the vampire to justice,” he replied.
“That's our job,” said Hester. “Just ours.”
“God's justice,” he said. “Not the laws. The justice of the righteous.”
“Oh,” I said, “that's just fuckin' swell.” I stumbled, and made my usual graceful recovery. “In the first place, he's probably not anywhere around here.”
“Who? The one you were all chasing?”
“Whoever it is you're looking for, Chester,” I said.
When we got to the cars, I told Tillman and Knockle to get a wrecker for Chester's car, and then escort it and him to the jail. I reiterated the traffic charge.
“Aren't you going to charge me with interference?” asked Chester.
“No. But don't push it. I'm willing to cut you some slack, because you weren't actually in contact with anybody but us. But, like I said, don't push it.”
“Of course.” He was smiling.
“Knockle,” I said, “do not give this gentleman a ride back to this area. Keep his car in Maitland as evidence, and take him directly back to his motel over in Wisconsin, as soon as he posts bail.” I paused. “And tell Harry that he's over there, and what happened.”
“You bet, Carl. Hey, too bad about those pants. You looked pretty good before you went up the hill.”
NINETEEN
Monday, October 9, 2000
13:21
When we finally got headed up to the Mansion again, Hester and I tried to come up with a game plan. To begin with, we wanted to know what Edie's five housemates knew about who had been upstairs when we went to the third floor. We were virtually certain that it was this Peel, but we needed to be sure. It was apparent that he'd been up there a while, possibly since Edie's murder. Had they known? I was willing to bet that at least some of them had. So was Hester.
We were pretty sure that the unknown called Peel had killed Edie, probably killed Baumhagen, and had been the window peeker at Alicia Meyer's. It looked like we were going to have to find out about Peel from the group at the house, though, since Jessica Hunley had split too soon to be interviewed. It was a case where, the more we knew about Peel, the more we'd probably know about the why and where of the killings.
We also wanted to determine two things about the movement of Edie's body. First, we needed to make sense out of the bloodstains. Both the stains on the carpet and those on the servants' stair had been explained by the action of setting down Edie's body in the body bag. Whoever was moving it needed either a rest, or a way to open the doors. Either way, the problem was determining why the stains were at the bottom of the servants' stair, which only went to the third floor; and on the second floor in front of Edie's door. If she'd been killed on the third, and we certainly had no real evidence that she had, it might explain the movement. Except to get her down to the second, the logical way was to go via the main stair, which we had gone up. To go down from three all the way to one via the back stairs, then right back up to two via the main staircase…. Illogical. Not to say not possible, but not logical.
As Hester said, “Especially since it doesn't look like she was killed up on the third, anyway.”
“Since it didn't appear she was killed in the basement, on the first floor, on the second floor, or on the third floor…. ” I said. “Unless she was killed on the roof, she wasn't killed at the Mansion at all.” Not a brilliant deduction, by a long shot, but at least logical.
“Sounds that way,” said Hester. “You really think that's likely? Not the roof,” she added quickly. “But, I mean, if you kill her away from the house, why drag her back at all? Why not leave her there?”
“Oh, maybe because you'd rather have the cops looking at suicide, instead of a missing person. If it was a suicide, we sure wouldn't pry as much as a missing person case.”
“I don't think so,” said Hester. “To deliberately cast suspicion, you should kill her there. Otherwise, even a dumb cop is going to figure out that she was done elsewhere, and there goes your plan.”
“I'll try not to take that personally.”
“Sorry. Didn't mean it that way.” She chuckled. “So all we have to do is prove who killed her, and why, and then we can explain the evidence.”
I glanced toward her and smiled. “Simple, no?”
We drove in silence. Hester had her attaché case opened, and as I drove, she was leafing through our prel
iminary reports, as well as the reports of everybody else at the scene who'd had to write one. As I turned into the Mansion drive, she stacked the papers neatly, closed her case, and said, “I've got another question, that just might at least have an answer attached.”
“That'll be a relief.”
“Okay, now you're going to have to go with the flow here.” She leaned her head back against the headrest, and shut her eyes. “We've had a total of two runners: Toby and the Unknown who is probably Peel. Right?”
“So far.”
“We have no idea what Toby was up to, do we? I mean, he said he was running to get away from Peel, who was a vampire. Isn't that it?”
“Yep. That's what he said.” I slowed, to give us time to finish the conversation.
“But you don't believe him, do you?”
“Toby,” I said, matter-of-factly as we crept up the drive, “is a lying sack of shit.”
“Oh, yes,” said Hester, sounding happy. “He sure is. Now, then, hang on. We have the elusive Mr. Peel trucking out the very same door, and also into the woods, right?”
“Yep.”
“Now think back,” she said. “Don't we assume that Toby was just trying to get away, for whatever reason?”
“Yeah. I think we can do that.”
“And don't we think Toby's a general screwup, when it comes right down to it?”
I chuckled. “Oh, we do, we really do.”
“Now, and jump with me here, we also think that our Peel dude was fleeing, as well, and basically just trying to get away. Right?”
“Okay … ”
“But what if they were not running so much away from something, as running to something?”
I didn't answer for a second. Then, “And Toby is so much of a fuck-up he couldn't find it in the dark?”
“You got it.”
“Damn,” I said. “Damn. I think you might be right.”
She sat up straight, eyes wide, and said, all perky, “Oh, I am. I know I am.”
“So now, we just have to find where?”
“That's it,” she said. “If we find that, I'll just bet we find out a lot more at the same time.”
Time being short before the wake, we knew we were going to have to target one particular individual first. Did we do one of the innocuous ones first, or go for one who would produce a useful effect that we could use later? We decided to go for the latter.
“So, who first?”
She thought a second. “You think that Holly, a/k/a Huck, is the strongest personality up there?”
“Well, her or Kevin. She strikes me as the more stable one.”
“I'll go with Huck,” said Hester. “I think Kevin might be her most enthusiastic follower, though. And he might be her 'muscle' with the rest. Strong ally, you know.”
That seemed possible.
“So,” I said, “we concentrate on Holly slash Huck for our break?”
“Don't you think?” said Hester.
“Well, sure,” I said with some spirit. “Unless it turns out we have to concentrate on somebody else.”
It's nice to have a plan.
We relieved the two reserves that were stationed just outside the gate. They were curious about why we'd been summoned to the base of the bluff, and we told them that there had just been some weirdo up on the hillside. It had the advantage of being the truth.
They showed us two little plastic vampires, a small plastic gravestone, and a large paper bat.
“Where in hell did you get those?” I asked.
They'd found them hanging from the mailbox, and from the gate pillars. One of the women in the Mansion had pointed them out. Probably placed there by local high school kids. Halloween was close enough that the things were probably on sale all over. It was to be expected because of the coverage, I guess. I was glad it wasn't more than that.
“There are pictures of them in place,” said one of the reserves, a man named Vinton.
I was impressed that they'd thought to take photos, and said as much.
“Oh, it wasn't us,” he said. “One of the TV stations from Cedar Rapids had a crew up when we got here. They got 'em on tape.”
Great.
We radioed in when we got out of our car at the Mansion. It was 14:00 on the button. By 14:02 our plan was already in trouble.
Huck greeted us at the door, dressed in a black turtleneck and black slacks and shoes. Appropriate for the day. I noticed the tattoos on her face were gone. She ushered us into the parlor, with an explanation ready.
“I'm really sorry, but Hanna can't join us. She's not feeling very well, migraine I think, and she's lying down upstairs.”
No problem. Although I made a mental note that Hanna might just be the weakest link, and being kept out of reach. Sometimes it bothers me, that I think that way all the time. She could just as easily be having a real migraine.
“And, I'm sorry, but Toby's still taking a shower; he got up late.”
Two down. The two I'd have picked as the greatest liabilities. Interesting.
“That's just fine,” said Hester. “No problem.”
As we seated ourselves, me on the couch, and Hester in one of the overstuffed leather chairs, we were already down from five to Huck, Kevin and Melissa. So much for approaching the group as a whole.
“We would really like to get to the wake as soon as we can,” said Huck. “We feel we should be there for as long as possible.” She smiled, almost apologetically and, I thought, quite sincerely. “Edie's been our friend for quite a while.”
They'd arranged to limit the interview by controlling both the number of individuals present and the time spent. Not bad. I remembered what William Chester had said about them not going to cooperate, and gave him some points.
“We'd like to go, too,” said Hester. “Since Edie was Lamar's niece.” “Of course,” said Huck. “So, then, what can we do to help?”
“Well, for starters,” I said, “why didn't you let us know that Peel was up on the third floor?” I was really eager to see who was going to field that one.
“We didn't know he was there,” said Kevin, “and I don't think it's fair you should assume that we did.” “But you knew he and Edie were meeting up there sometimes, didn't you?” asked Hester.
“Sometimes, maybe,” he said, and made his first mistake. He was looking squarely at Hester, in order to appear sincere, and missed the look he got from Huck, which would have told him to let her speak. As it was, all Huck had gotten out was “Wuh—” before being cut off.
I spoke very quickly. “Sometimes in her room, sometimes the third floor, then?”
“Usually her room,” he said. “That's why we had no reason to suspect him to be on the third.”
I smiled at Huck. Just to let her know that I knew, too.
“But sometimes on the third floor?”
“Sure,” he said, just as Huck interjected, “We really don't know.”
“Anywhere else?” I asked.
This time it was only Huck, who said, “Now, wait. We don't really know those things. We're guessing,” and she shot Kevin a glance.
“Is there a reason,” I asked, “why you aren't letting Kevin speak for himself?”
“I am speaking for myself,” said Kevin. A little too quickly. And, again nearly simultaneously, Huck said, “I am letting him speak.”
I held up my hand. “Just a second. Whoa. One at a time.”
They exchanged irritated looks.
“Let's start again. Why don't you guys just listen up for a second, here, and I'll tell you some of what we know, and then ask some questions.”
They were quiet; I'll give them that.
“We've already established your knowledge of Peel.” That had been pure luck. There had always been the chance that Toby had tried to cover by giving us a wrong name. “We've already established your knowledge of a relationship between Peel and Edie.” I looked at the three of them. “We've already established that you knew that he was sometimes on the third fl
oor.” I gave them a second to digest that. “I want to remind you that this is a murder investigation, and if you start to try to backpedal now, you may give the impression of complicity.”
Kevin proceeded, smoothly, to make his second mistake. “Let me remind you,” he said, “that you have neglected to advise us of our Constitutional rights.”
I looked at Hester. It had to be her. She nodded, and looked coldly at Kevin.
“A Miranda advisory,” she said, evenly, “is triggered by a custodial interrogation.” She didn't blink. “That's two complete and separate elements. Custody. Interrogation. This, right now,” she explained, “is a noncustodial interview. So, I'd suggest you lose the smart-ass attitude and pay close attention.”
I watched Huck and Melissa's reaction very carefully. They were why Hester had to be the one to put Kevin in his place. So far, it looked like they were getting the hint.
Kevin took the bait.
“Don't condescend to me,” he said. “I'm no fool.”
Hester made a little tent of her fingers, resting her elbows on the arms of her chair. “Want a second to consider the fact you're the only one in the room who had to say that?” she asked.
Huck jumped in and rescued him. That was fine. The fact that she had to do so wasn't lost on anybody. “Wait,” she said. “Like you said a second ago, let's just sort of start over, okay?”
“Sure,” I said. I was becoming fascinated, watching Kevin try to stare Hester down. I reached across the coffee table, and tapped him on the knee. He flinched, and looked at me.
“In all sincerity, I think you're not quite understanding what's going on here. Someone has been killed, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it. Someone you knew pretty well. Possibly while you were here. That's pretty weighty stuff.” I leaned back. “This isn't a game.”
“I'm not playing games,” said Kevin.
“Then it strikes me, Kevin,” said Hester, “that you're being very nonchalant about the death of someone who lived in the same house with you.”
“I'm sorry to have upset you,” said Kevin blandly.
“We're not upset,” I said, making some notes on my pad, “so much as we're curious about a lack of reaction.”
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