by H. P. Bayne
Sully threw himself into the passenger seat, slamming the door as Forbes reversed away from the house.
“Where are you going?” Sully asked.
“He’s armed and he’s shooting. This is a job for SWAT, not a lone cop.”
“What if he tries to get rid of the gun? That’s our evidence.”
“Wrong. You’re our evidence. He was just shooting at you.”
“I’m supposed to be dead, remember? I can’t be a witness for you.”
That gave Forbes pause. “Damn it…. It doesn’t matter. He knows he shot at you, and I’ll be witness enough for now. Get out of here and take your dog. Call someone to come get you. Are you hurt?”
Sully had been working on answering that question himself. A quick inspection of his thigh in the light from his cellphone revealed what he believed to be nothing more than a deep graze. It probably could use stitches, but that was a luxury he could ill afford given his current circumstances.
“I’m okay,” he said. “But you’d better let me out before I start bleeding on your seat. My DNA’s on file thanks to that murder charge you were trying to bust me on.”
“Betty Schuster,” Forbes said. “I haven’t forgotten. Believe me, I haven’t forgotten.”
Something in his tone suggested he hadn’t forgotten either how badly he wanted to nail Sully to the wall on that one. But that was a problem for another day.
For now, Sully took Forbes up on his offer, bailing out of the car once they were clear of the property.
“I’ve got video and a text exchange,” Sully said before closing the door.
“Send them to me, then wipe and toss your phone. It’s registered to your brother, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. He can come up with something then. His problem, not mine. Now, get lost.”
Sully was happy to obey, limping down the street with Pax until they reached a grove of trees he expected would conceal them long enough to call for a ride.
29
Dez ground his finger against the doorbell, Eva’s hand resting against his back acting as a reminder to stay calm.
When Marc Echoles opened his front door, Dez wasted no time.
“Where is he?”
Marc offered a sympathetic smile and stepped back to allow entrance into his home. “Through to the living room.”
Sully sat on a low-slung couch, leg propped in front of him on a coffee table. Rusted blood stains stood out against the jean material.
“Don’t freak out,” Sully said, before launching into the story that indeed made Dez freak out.
The fact Justice Prescott Montague was in custody addressed a couple of problems.
The likelihood of justice for Carter was one, but coming in a close second was that it kept Dez from tearing the man apart.
Marc and Eva wisely gave the brothers a wide berth, using a pause in the conversation to take Pax into the backyard under the pretence of enjoying the warm late summer night. Then Dez tore into Sully over his decision to approach an armed man with accusations of murder.
“I don’t know who’s the bigger idiot, you or Raynor,” Dez barked. “And, yeah, he’s next on my hit list.”
“He saved my life, Dez.”
“He put you in that position to start with.”
“I put myself into that position. I volunteered. And, hey, it worked out just fine. I’m okay, and all that gunplay meant Raynor had enough to haul him in. He hasn’t been arrested for Carter’s murder yet, but Raynor can at least start the process of questioning him on it now that he’s in custody. Plus, his shot at the Supreme Court is finished. That’s some justice right there.”
Dez ground his teeth together. His side ached badly, leaving him in prime form for a continued argument. His anger at Sully over his two-year absence had not gone anywhere and seemed, in fact, to have been waiting for the right moment to rear its head.
This felt like the right moment. But while there were things needing said, Dez took a calming breath first. He wanted to tune Sully in, not eviscerate him.
Sully raised an eyebrow, the picture of unhappy anticipation. “Dez?”
“I won’t ever understand why you didn’t tell me. You let me believe you were dead, Sully. After everything with Dad. It’s just…. I know I didn’t say this to you before, because I was so goddamn happy to see you, and then with you going missing recently, that was all I could think about. But, Jesus Christ, man, I’m really pissed at you, you know that?”
Sully’s eyes hadn’t left his, and Dez watched as his brother’s expression—previously set in stone-like stubbornness—softened.
“I know. I’m sorry. You have every right to hate my guts over that.”
“I don’t hate you. That would make it a hell of a lot easier. But, yeah, I’m really pissed with you. I’ve lost people, Sully. I’ve lost a lot of people I really love. And you knew that. You knew it, and you put me through it anyway. I almost didn’t come out the other side this time. Do you have any idea what that was like for me, to stand there, believing you’d just been buried alive or crushed to death right in front of me? I panicked. I absolutely, completely freaked out. If it wasn’t for the fact Raynor had been skulking nearby, I probably would have lost whatever was left of my mind. Next to me, Raynor’s a little guy, but he packs a solid punch.”
“I am sorry, Dez. I really am. I never wanted to hurt you. But I didn’t see any other way. I thought you’d be safer not knowing, that it would keep you from making choices that would ruin you. I really thought you’d be okay in the long run, better than you would be, having to keep worrying about me and all my problems.”
“Yeah, well, I missed you and all your problems like you wouldn’t believe. Don’t you ever pull a move like that again. Or, Sull? I will kill you myself.”
Sully’s face broke into a grin that dissolved whatever was left of Dez’s anger. “Message received.”
Dez and Sully had barely stepped foot back inside the apartment when Dez’s phone rang.
He had a little anger remaining, and he let it go as he answered the call from Forbes.
“What the hell’s the matter with you?” he snapped by way of greeting. “You could have got him killed, you know that?”
“Shut up, Braddock. I’ve got good news.”
Dez put the phone on speaker, allowing Sully to hear too.
“He with you?” Forbes asked.
“I’m here,” Sully said, following Dez to the pullout and sitting next to him.
“Once Ahlgren and Tessa Montague realized what kind of time they’d be looking at for their little stunt, they sang like a pretty little pair of canaries. The two of them have been seeing each other behind Montague’s back all this time. And Tessa admitted to having involved herself with Carter Devereaux when he was still her student. She said she tried to end things with him for good that day in the cave, but he threatened he would go public if she left him. She didn’t know anything about those photos though. He’d promised to delete them right after he took them. Guess she forgot she was dealing with a teenage male. Anyway, Tessa said she’d gone alone to the cave, but saw Montague there when she walked out. Apparently, he tailed her.”
“Go figure,” Dez muttered.
“I don’t know why he had the gun in his car that day, and he’s firmly exercising his right to remain silent. But Tessa told me she watched as he walked into that cave with a handgun. Not long after, she heard what she’s certain was a gunshot, and Montague came running out just as the cave collapsed. She said he swore up and down she hadn’t heard a gunshot, but rather the start of the collapse. But she’s adamant it was a bullet she heard being fired.”
“Montague seemed pretty damn convincing at this whole jilted-husband-in-the-dark thing,” Dez said. “You’re telling me he was actually there from the start of all this?”
“I know Sullivan thought Montague went down there to confront and kill the kid, but I don’t think he actually knew what had gone on between the two of th
em,” Forbes said. “She told me Montague figured she was meeting Ahlgren there. She said she’d been careful to distance herself from the Carter situation with Montague. She didn’t even tell him about her work at the school, in case word had got out around there. She’d even dyed her hair blonde and got extensions, to lessen the chances of anyone recognizing her.”
“What about the keys?” Dez asked. “How did those get in Carter’s possession?”
“She figures Carter must have stolen the key card when she tried to break up with him the week before the cave-in. She told him she was with a new guy, and she was really happy. She got weepy, went to the bathroom to blow her nose or whatever, and got back to find Carter had gone through her wallet and taken some stuff. Not money or credit cards. Just some photos, she thought. It wasn’t until she got back to Montague’s later that she realized her keycard was missing too.”
“And the lockbox key?”
“She never had one. Montague’s gun used to belong to his father, apparently, though it wasn’t registered. I checked. The only thing I can think is that Montague dropped some shit either when he confronted the kid or when he ran from the cave.”
“He hasn’t been charged yet?” Sully asked.
“I want to get a team back into that cave to see whether they might be able to recover the body. It was deemed too unstable at the time, but it’s flooded since. I’m thinking that means it’s shifted again. Maybe the right experts will be able to figure out a safe way into that blocked passage. If we can retrieve the body, we’ll be able to find out for sure whether he was shot. And if we can retrieve a bullet matching to Montague’s gun, all the better.”
“That’s all fine, but why go to the trouble of hiring a private investigator to look for evidence of infidelity?” Dez asked. “He claimed those rings were lost, but we’re thinking now he probably planted them in the cave. What’s the point of all that?”
“Here’s what I think,” Forbes said. “Montague had put in that bid for a spot on the Supreme Court, and he wanted Tessa and her infidelities out of the picture. Problem was, she was the one person who could connect him to Carter’s death. He needed a way to ensure she kept quiet—short of killing her, of course. No point compounding a problem if he didn’t need to. If he’d been smart, he probably could have just paid her out to leave the marriage. But he’s greedier than he is smart, so that wasn’t the route he took. He knew the Devereaux lawsuit was likely to open up some cans of worms, and he crapped himself over that. What if they decided to go back into that cave to try to retrieve the body? They’d realize the death wasn’t accidental, after all. You said Montague was keeping tabs on his wife through GPS. He would have known she was visiting that cave, so he stole her rings and planted them there. My thought is he already had the rings; he was just looking for the right place and opportunity to plant them. The rings being found there wouldn’t prove she was behind the kid’s death, of course, but it would look bad on her. But before he planted anything, he needed to try to convince her she'd lost them. Turns out she really thought she had. Had a lot on her mind between the affair, the impending lawsuit and the potential divorce. Her husband was in a good spot in terms of setting her up.”
“But if she was hauled in under suspicion of murder, she would have just ratted out her husband,” Dez said.
“It probably wasn’t meant to get that far,” Sully said. “All he’d have to do was prove to her he could set her up if he wanted to. If he could scare her bad enough, she probably would have signed divorce papers and walked away with whatever he decided to give her. Basically, it was Montague’s info that sent us to the cave that night, Dez. I think he wanted you to find the ring there. It would have given him something to use against her, without involving the police. I'm thinking he deliberately ignored your message asking for her exact location so he could go there himself and plant the ring. Lars and Tessa left to get scuba gear, so that gave Montague time to get in, drop the ring, and get out.”
“Only you schmucks initially missed the ring, and then you discovered those photos on Carter’s Xbox. That must have thrown the judge into a tizzy. I can’t imagine the country’s highest court would have taken him if he had anything remotely seedy in his past. If it came out his wife had been sexually involved with a high school kid while she was teaching, that would have been all over the news. Montague would be tarred by association. He probably comes out better for it if he ensures the photos go away and if he offers Tessa a sweet little package to sign the divorce papers and go away quietly.”
“Only he figured out pretty fast I wasn’t going to help him destroy those photos,” Dez said. “They’re potential evidence in Carter’s death.”
“Right,” Forbes said. “Which is where Tessa and Ahlgren come back in. Montague probably figured he’d kill two birds with one stone. The little lovebirds told me Montague called Tessa and told her about the photos. He said he’d found out about her fling with the high school kid, but that he’d keep it to himself and grant her a divorce with a hefty sum of cash if she and Ahlgren found and destroyed the pictures. Only that wasn’t all he asked them to do. He also told them you were a major loose end, and that you’d bury them—not only on Tessa’s seedy past, but on Carter’s death. They told me he directed them to kill you.”
Dez’s heart thudded against his chest wall—not in worry, but in excitement. “Hang on. You’re saying they’re handing you Montague on a murder plot?”
“More or less. I’ve got enough to hold all three of them for now, anyway. I’m going to start digging through phone records, text messages and emails, see if I can find something concretely pinning Montague to anything illegal. I’ll let you know if I have to cut him loose. You might want to watch your back if that happens.”
“He won’t make any moves on me,” Dez said. “He’ll know the police are watching him. Anything happens to me, he’s on the hook for it, and he knows it. If anything, he’ll be my new best friend.”
“You’ll keep us posted if you’re able to go back into that cave?” Sully asked.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know. I’ve got to say, this is a pretty hot little case you put me onto here.”
“Is that a thank you?” Dez asked.
“Piss off, Braddock.”
30
One month later
There was a chill in the fall air, the colours of Winteredge a variety of greens, golds, reds and oranges.
But while the usual range of hikers enjoyed the autumn day, there was a somber cast among those gathered atop a pile of rock located deep within the park.
A search and rescue team was hard at work, several members having rappelled into the caves down the hole through which Dez and Sully had fallen the month prior.
The brothers were back, too, although they stood apart from the group, sheltering within a particularly thick grove of trees. From here, they could see Carter's parents, along with Evan and Roanna, as they all watched the team’s progress from nearby. At the top of the mound of rock stood Forbes, hands in pockets as he awaited word from below.
“You think they're going to find him?” Sully asked.
Dez shrugged. “I don’t know. Forbes said a couple of experts thought they could give it a go. I guess we'll have to see. If it gets unstable, they’ll have to pull out.”
Dez paused, and Sully waited, sensing something else on his brother’s mind. “They don’t really need to bring him out. I mean, Montague’s already been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in relation to me. He’s facing a stiff prison term, and life as he knows it is pretty much over.”
“But they haven't charged him with Carter's death yet,” Sully said. “This could be what they need to get there.”
“Is he still around? You haven't said much about him since Montague was arrested.”
“I haven't seen him. But this isn't all about him. There are people who love him, and they need justice too.”
Another hour passed, by the end of which the brothers had dropped t
o sit on the uncomfortable, cold forest floor. But neither of them were going anywhere. They needed to see this through, and Sully suspected his job was not yet done.
At last, a round of handshakes were exchanged among those standing on top of the rocky slope, drawing both Dez and Sully to their feet. Dez, impatient as ever, fired off a text to Forbes. Sully didn't need to see it to know his brother was asking what was happening.
A few minutes ticked by before Forbes checked his cell phone. Infuriating minutes passed before he bothered to reply.
Sully edged closer to read Dez’s screen. Got him. They’re bringing him up now.
“Are they going to find a bullet wound on him?” Dez asked. “I mean, is the damage too bad for them to see anything?”
“When he showed me his death, I remember him getting hit in the chest. He had a hard time breathing after. And I know it hit his spine, maybe even lodged there. It might be a bit hard to make out the bullet wound because of the other injuries, but I think they'll find it if they look close enough.”
Dez sent a text containing that information to Forbes.
A reply came a few seconds later. I guess I don’t want to know how you know that, do I?
More time went by, but more bearably now; the fact answers were on the horizon proved enough to root the brothers to the spot with no more thoughts of discomfort.
At last, a stretcher emerged, containing the bagged remains of Carter Devereaux.
Sully turned his attention to the teen’s parents, watching as Lana’s hands flew to her mouth. A moment later, she was enveloped in her husband’s arms.
“I don’t know if this will be good or bad for them,” Sully said.
“It will be good in the long run,” Dez said. “People need closure. Not everyone gets it. But, yeah, this is going to be a rough time for them, for sure.”
A coroner knelt next to Forbes, and the brothers watched as the body was unwrapped to allow for an initial examination. A forensic pathologist would do a complete autopsy later, but hopefully they would at least get the one answer they needed now.