FIRST STEP MURDER

by H. R. Whidden

  Faxon walked out of the station, the only thing he had left was the help he could get from the General, and the hope that Lew would find Linda Walker. When he got to where they had left the SUV he expected to find Harper waiting for him, but the car was gone.

  It took a while for him to get a cab and he went back to the small apartment. She was packing her things.

  “Harper it’s not over yet, it’s disappointing I know, but we’ll keep trying, we’ll find out who killed your parents.”

  “I tried to reason with you, we could have gotten the information, you were so worried about this guy, and he picked up Mr. Samuels and through him off the roof of a building. We could have found out who was involved. I thought you cared about me.”

  “Harper don’t do this, you know how I feel about you. I’ve been single a long time, I love you. Torturing some guy no matter how bad he was isn’t the right way. It would have changed who you are. I’ll find out with or without you.”

  “Then it’ll be without me.”

  She picked up her duffle bag and walked out.

  He sat on the couch for at least an hour, he was hollow inside. He didn’t eat dinner and he fell asleep sitting up on the couch in the clothes he had on. He woke up at 3:00 am the apartment seemed empty with her gone. He walked and stood in the doorway of the bedroom for a while then walked back and lay down on the couch still in his clothes and eventually fell back to sleep.

  * * *

  Harper drove the SUV home when she pulled up to the gates she sat there and looked up at the name above. New Castle Farms, it was 7:00 pm she reached out and punched in the code but the gate didn’t open. She pushed the intercom button and her Aunt Rachel answered and saw her on the camera system.

  “Harper, what are you doing here sweetie you didn’t call?”

  Rachel opened the gates and Harper drove up to the house without answering her Aunt. She parked the new Porsche SUV under the carport next to Rachel’s Audie. Rachel came out of the house with Conner and Harper hugged her aunt a little longer than she normally would have. She refused to cry, even though she bit her lip it was clear to Rachel something was wrong, she saw the tears in her eyes.

  “Harper it’s good to see you again,” Conner said. “I think I’m gonna go back in and check that roast in the oven.”

  Conner could tell there was something wrong. For one thing he didn’t see Faxon and he knew from his first encounter with the man wouldn’t leave Harper alone unless it had been up to her.

  “Harper girl I can tell you’re about to explode, where’s Faxon, what’s happened?”

  Harper blurted out the story of how one suspect after another had died or been killed and how they had tracked down the ensign in Nashville and how Faxon had made the decision to turn him in to the authorities instead of them questioning the information out of him.

  “I’m stupid, I fell in love, and he let me down Aunt Rachel.”

  “Harper you wouldn’t have really tortured that man, would you?”

  “I’d skin the hide off of him an inch at a time if he could have told me who killed mother and father, and now there’s no one else. I’ll never find the man that killed them, they’ll never have peace. I told myself I wouldn’t love him, not until it was over. He crushed all hope for them to have peace, that bastard.”

  “I don’t believe you Harper, you’re angry right now, I saw the way you two looked at each other, you’ll get over this, and if I know this Faxon Bennett he won’t give up that easy, on you, or on finding the man responsible.”

  * * *

  Faxon didn’t get up until 11:00 am there was no smell of bacon and the bed next to him was cold and empty, he pulled the cover up over his head hopping to fall back to sleep. He had convinced himself last night that she’d eventually understand they couldn’t turn into cold blooded killers and come back. Now he was beginning to think that was just being hopeful.

  Not being able to fall asleep He eventually got up and went to the kitchen and poured a large glass of milk and drank it down then made a cup of coffee. He didn’t feel like eating and sat at the table looking out the window at the overcast sky when his phone rang, he picked it up quickly hopping it would be her, but answered as if it wasn’t.

  “Faxon Bennett Investigations,” he said.

  “Faxon it’s Landau Comaneci, it seems I have a need for your service again. My third wife has come to America with my daughters and is staying at my Hampton home it seems she’s fallen for a dishonest man’s attentions and he has taken some money. I need you to convince him to return it, or bring him to me, I can be very convincing.”

  “Just give me the address Mr. Comaneci and I’ll go see what I can do, but can I ask why you’re asking me to handle this? I know you’re not without other men to help you.”

  “My ex-wife is very pretty some of the men I employ would take advantage of her, I trust you Faxon you are a man of honor and principal, and I have complete trust in you. I would like for you to stay there at the home while you pursue this man and keep an eye on my ex-wife and daughters for me until I can get there. I’ve already told Anya you would be coming, and Faxon I’ll make sure you’re handsomely compensated.”

  “I’ll call when I get there and don’t worry, I’ll find this guy.”

  He put some clothes in his duffle bag and went to get the GTO. It wasn’t too long of a drive to the large two-story home on the ocean. He knocked on the door and a tall slender blond lady with green eyes and high cheek bones answered, she definitely looked eastern European Faxon thought,

  “Mr. Bennett I presume?”

  Her English was good but spoken with a thick accent. She was barefoot and wore jeans with a white button up the front long sleeved shirt, and large gold hoops in her ears.

  “Please come in and make yourself at home, Landau said you’d be staying for a few days.”

  He followed and she stopped at the base of the stairs.

  “The first room on the right at the top of the stairs is yours. I stay in the room to the left and the three rooms at the end of the hall are the girls, their out on the beach, would you like something to drink, wine maybe, or scotch, whiskey?”

  Faxon dropped his bag on the floor at the foot of the stairs. “I’d have a beer if you have one.”

  “Beer, what is it with you Americans and beer, it seems that’s all you drink, I have some and it’s cold, that is the way you like it, yes?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Tell me about this man that took advantage of you.”

  “I met him at an art show, he seemed like an honest man and quiet handsome, much like you Mr. Bennett. He was very well built and I asked him to have dinner with me and the girls, I’m a very good cook, it’s a hobby. Sometime during the evening he got my banking information and drained my local account, somewhere around eighty thousand dollars.”

  “Do you have a picture?”

  “No, you’ll have to make due with a description and some of the places I know he hangs out at and some names of people he told me he knew. I have since found out he’s a local cad of sorts my neighbor told me, you can also talk to them, but I believe their gone for the evening. I’m fixing salmon covered in a béarnaise sauce with artichokes and asparagus with brie. Please say you’ll have dinner with the girls and me?”

  “Sure, I’ll go check a couple of local dives, I might see him.”

  “I don’t understand, what is a local dive Mr. Bennett?”

  “A local lounge, bar, somewhere local guys would go to pick up ladies, and please call me Faxon.”

  “Only if you call me Anya,” she said.

  Three fifteen year old girls came in through the French doors at the back of the house laughing and speaking in their native language. They all look exactly alike, younger versions of their mother. They wore shorts and t-shirts and were barefoot with sandy feet.”

  “You horrible girls,” said Anya. “Go back outside and rinse your feet off.”

  When they came back in they were introduced
to Faxon.

  “This is Laska, Lana, and Lena.” Standing in a line each girl curtsied then giggled. Anya checked on dinner while the girls sat in the living room each with a laptop. Faxon sat at the bar and had another beer and wrote down Anya’s description of the man named Marvin Hawks.

  “Have you met Landau’s other girls Faxon,” asked Anya?

  “I have, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that’s had triplets much less three sets of triplets from three different women.”

  “Yes well Landau is a very rich, handsome man, and he likes women, lots of women, so he has a problem staying married, I suspect there may be another set of triplets one day. He respects you very much you know. That’s very unusual for Landau.”

  They had dinner and Faxon excused himself to go check some of the local watering holes. He drove the GTO down the road to a local middle aged meat market lounge. He sat at the bar with some of the locals. He bought a round of drinks and the men talked and laughed about some of the older rich women they chased. All of them were good for a night out, occasionally dinner, drinks, and a good appreciated roll in the sheets. Faxon mentioned Marvin Hawks and the men all knew him, and they had heard he had made a big score from a rich divorcé. He found out all he needed to know, he lived in a garage apartment not far away and after another round of drinks he drove until he found the house.

  The garage was around the back and the old MG that the men said he drove was parked beside it. There was a set of stairs that went up the outside and he could see a lamp on through the small window. Faxon decided to wait until late before surprising Marvin. Up the steps the light had been out two hours, Faxon worked the lock with a bump key and slipped in quietly. The apartment wasn’t much larger than his apartment in Boston, he looked into the bedroom and Marvin was sound asleep snoring. His laptop was on the table and he decided to take Marvin with him, he’d give him plenty of time to decide to return the money he’d stolen, and teach him a lesson at the same time.

  Faxon used his zip ties and bound his ankles together without waking him. He had the ones ready for his wrist before grabbing his hands wakening him up. When he started to yell Faxon hit him with a good right to the jaw zip tied his hands then stuffed a sock into his mouth. He couldn’t believe how good it felt. He struggled with Marvin over his shoulder but was able to get him down the stairs and into the trunk of the car. He went back upstairs and got the laptop and then drove back to Landau’s beach front home. He backed up to the garage and opened the door to the utility room then opened the trunk and drug Marvin still bound and gagged in and shut and locked the door, then he slipped into the house and slept on the couch to keep from waking anyone upstairs.

  The next morning he woke, someone was gently shaking his shoulder, Anya stood next to the couch smiling.

  “You must have come in late? Just the same you didn’t have to sleep on the couch, you wouldn’t have woken us.”

  “It was quiet and I was concerned about making too much noise walking up the stairs, I didn’t want to disturb anyone.”

  “You do know I am divorced from Landau? He often came in late after I was asleep, but he never woke me. Did he ask you not to make a pass at me?”

  “He didn’t have to, I have a rule I never break, I never get intimate with a client Landau knows that about me. Well I have something I need to do right now. I found Marvin Hawks, and he’s sleeping in the outside utility room. It might be better if you and the girls go out for breakfast this morning.”

  Faxon went outside and opened the door to the utility room, Marvin was lying on the floor on his side his feet still bound together, hands bound behind his back, and sock still stuffed in his mouth. He was awake, and Faxon leaned over and pulled the sock out of his mouth.

  “Who the hell are you and why did you bring me here? Why am I tied up, I’ll have you arrested you fucker, you’re in a world of shit.”

  “Man you are really stupid. You steel eighty thousand dollars from the wrong person, then you tell your buddies about it and you’ve got the balls to tell me I’m in a world of shit. Now you can shut the fuck up and listen or I can shove this sock back down your throat until you choke to death.”

  Marvin realized he was caught and he looked scared. The laptop was on the shelf in the utility room.

  “Now you can tell me where the money is, I suspect it’s in an account somewhere and like most people you probably have your banking information on your computer.”

  Marvin confirmed it by looking up at the shelf where the laptop was.

  “Now you can give the banking information password, access codes, and we can electronically transfer the money back into the account you stole it from. Or you can stay here on the floor without water or food until tomorrow when Mr. Comaneci gets here. Don’t worry you won’t need food or water, you’ll tell him what he wants to know and you won’t live after you tell him. Mr. Comaneci is an old world Romanian and you wouldn’t be the first man he’s tortured, I think he really likes it.”

  Marvin Hawks couldn’t get the information out fast enough, he had spent several thousand dollars and Faxon accessed his personal savings account to replace the missing funds. When Faxon was done he cut the zip ties and let Marvin go, he stumbled down the driveway and walked back to his garage apartment. Faxon had warned him that even though he had returned the funds if Anya or Mr. Comaneci saw him while they were out around town he may still be targeted.

  Faxon called Landau and reported the returned funds, Landau promised to be there early the next morning and He spent the rest of the day sitting out on the rear porch enjoying the view and thinking about Harper. Twice he took a walk on the beach once Anya and the girls joined him. Anya asked about his sullen mood, her natural woman’s intuition told her it was over a lover.

  That night Faxon got a call from Alexander Wellington and he made arrangements to meet him and his wife for lunch at their usual place, The Black Rose. The next morning Landau drove his Rolls Royce up the driveway and Anya made breakfast for everyone. The triplets seemed truly happy to see their father and he spent almost all morning talking to them. Faxon got ready to go he carried his duffle bag down the stairs to the door and Landau actually was there waiting for him alone. He thought Anya must have told him that he was getting ready to leave.

  “Faxon I really don’t know how to thank you, I hope you consider me a friend and if you ever need me please ask.” Landau handed him a bag with cash in it. “Anya told me that you and Harper are no longer together and I am deeply sorry, you were a handsome couple. I offer you one of my older daughters and would consider it an honor if you accepted.”

  “I know that’s the way you do things back home Landau, and I am honored, and I do consider you a friend, but I’m afraid I’m still suffering a broken heart.”

  They shook hands and Faxon said goodbye to Anya and the girls and drove away from the Hampton seaside home and on his way to his meeting with Alexander Wellington and his wife. He never counted the money till later, Landau had been very generous the bag contained ten thousand dollars.

  Faxon had to park down the street from The Black Rose and walk back. He thought of the day Harper and himself had met the older couple there for lunch. When he walked through the door the Maître d’ seem to know he was there to meet with Mr. Wellington.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Wellington are right this way,” the Maître d’ said. “I was expecting you to be with a tall attractive blond,” said the young woman as she led him to the Wellingtons. Faxon didn’t respond.

  Mr. Wellington stood when Faxon approached the table and the two men shook hands, Mrs. Wellington remained seated.

  “Where’s Harper,” she asked?

  “She moved back to her home in Littleton,” Faxon said.

  Alexis sensed the sadness in his voice as it broke. Mrs. Wellington patted his shoulder as they sat.

  “I’m so sorry Faxon,” she said. “You both looked so happy together, I had a feeling that the two of you were just meant for each another.”
/>
  “If you don’t mind us asking what got between the two of you,” Mr. Wellington asked.

  “Well you both know about this case. Every lead we followed the person that would give us information died or committed suicide. Harper got more desperate to learn the identity of the man that had ordered the death of her parents. We found the entry specialist responsible for the death of Mr. Samuels, he was in Nashville and I convinced her that we should let the FBI bring him back to Boston to be interrogated. However she wanted us to take the man and do the interrogation and get the man’s name regardless of whether it could be used in court or not, and she didn’t care what she had to do to the man to get the name. In the end I talked her into letting the authorities take him in, and when he lawyered up and wouldn’t talk she blamed me.”

  “I can’t believe she would have tortured the information out of the man,” Mrs. Wellington said.

  “I believe she would have. But I tried to explain the cost to her in doing something like that, it would have changed her, it would have left scars. Unfortunately I believe she’s willing to do anything to avenge the death of her parents including murder.”

  “Well I’m sorry Faxon,” Mr. Wellington said. “Alexis and I will say a prayer for the both of you.”

  They had lunch first before Mr. Wellington gave him the information he’d gotten from his sources.

  “I’ve spoken to a lot of high ranking military men some retired some still active duty there’s a joint investigation with ATF, Joint Chiefs, and Homeland Security, along with international terrorist task force. All of this probably due to your clams of arms being sold from the United States to Saudi nationals sympathetic to radical Islamic forces,” Mr. Wellington said. “I shared the list with them and they narrowed it down to four ex-Marine high ranking commanders all working in the private security business. All four were commanders in Echo Company and all four have disreputable reputations. I couldn’t find out where the four men are, some maybe overseas, you’ll have to find that out yourself, but from what you said the man you’re looking for is here in Boston so that may make it easier.”