Return to Murder

by John Osipowicz

  Walking away, Todd said to Hiram, “He doesn’t fit at all someone who would have driven you all the way up to Indiana to abandon you. When I called the planation they gave me the names of both limo drivers. That fellow was Kirby Hagar. When I googled his name for any background information, it said Hagar been a lifetime resident of the Charleston area. Frankly he seemed too conformist to do anything so radical as to abandon one of his children.”

  “Maybe these drivers aren’t the answer.”

  “Possibly not, but we still have one left. Mitch Everson. He fits better. He’s younger, not quite forty, and has lived in five different states plus the Congo region of Africa. His profile said his wife died thirteen years ago of Malaria, probably gotten in his African venture. In Sheriff Carbon’s notes that I read, one of the names he listed as possibly connected to you is a person named Everson, so there’s a match there. Still, I want you to be the final judge.”

  A half hour later, another similar limo pulled up to drop off two young girls. One of the girls was talking about writing a research paper on this plantation for her History class. This driver was dressed more casually than Kirby Hagar with a sweater and slacks. “There was no mention of children in my research on this guy,” Todd said. “You might have been his child.”

  “All I can say is just looking at him I don’t feel any connection,” Hiram said.

  Todd was going to use a different approach here. Possibly he had been too easy on Hagar. He told Hiram his plan.

  “All right, I’ll do it, but I don’t think I’ll be much of an actor.”

  He had Hiram walk up in front of him. Todd could see that the man was startled. It was not a normal reaction when a teen-ager comes up to you. Hiram said the words that Todd had told him to say. “I think you’re my dad.”

  “There was now a visible reaction. Everson said, “Go away kid. I don’t know you.” He started to walk away from Hiram. Todd had told Hiram to keep hounding the guy.

  Hiram caught up to the guy who was now on the other side of the limo. “You look familiar. I do know you.”

  Maybe this wouldn’t have worked if Everson had remained calm. However, seeing the kid that he had abandoned now fully grown up caused something inside him to give way. He opened the passenger side of the limo, crawled across the seat and got behind the wheel. Even though he was probably scheduled to pick up another customer, he suddenly started the limo again and began to speed back on the road toward the exit. By the time he reached the street level he was going at least forty.

  “Hiram, run to the car!” Todd shouted. “We’re going to follow that guy.”

  Everson had a good head start, but at each of the first two corners he hit a red light, enabling Todd and Hiram to catch up. They were only two cars behind now.

  The chase was on. Everson’ limo nearly hit a horse and carriage and then ran a bicycle rider off onto the sidewalk. Todd fell behind even more; he wasn’t going to risk people’s lives for this capture. Because of the flat land, he could still see the limo two blocks ahead. Everson seemed to know where he was going. Todd could now see the harbor in the distance.

  Everson drove to where three boats were docked side-by-side. The outer craft looked like some kind of speedboat. Everson jumped into that boat; he had the keys, and the engine roared to life. A college-age kid was standing inside the middle boat watching Everson pull away from the dock.

  Todd leaned down toward the kid. “Is this your boat?”

  “It’s my dad’s. I’m waiting for him.”

  “Can I borrow it?”

  “Absolutely not. You’re a complete stranger.”

  Todd pulled out his credentials. “For you to get to know me better, I’m Todd Henson, and I’m a cop. I’m trying to catch that fellow who just pulled out in the other boat. He could be a murderer. I have to catch him.”

  “That sounds like a good story which you possibly made up. I tell you I can’t lend my dad’s boat out. He’ll kill me.”

  Hiram interrupted. “He’s telling you the truth. That man who is my dad abandoned me when I was two. Let’s make a deal. Lend my friend the boat, and I’ll stay here and wait with you for him to come back with it. Hurray, that other boat’s starting to disappear from sight!”

  “If this is a scam, it’s a pretty good one. All right, I’ll take the chance.” He got out of the boat and threw Todd the keys. The he turned back to Hiram. “What’s your name?”

  “Hiram.”

  “No wonder you want to get back at your dad for naming you that.”

  As Todd sped away the last thing he heard Hiram say, “I think my mom named me.”

  He pushed the throttle all the way forward, and the boat leaped ahead.

  Everson had a gun out and was firing back at Todd. So far, Todd’s boat was too far way for the bullets to reach him, but he was gaining. He ducked down in the next few seconds as two bullets pinged off the hull.

  Everson had not realized that as he was turning to fire he had inadvertently steered the boat to the right at a sharp angle. Maybe because the boat Everson had was not accustomed to speeding. It began to sputter. Todd gained more, shortening the space in between them to a couple of boat lengths.

  Everson turned more fully around to keep shooting, but he didn’t shut the boat off. The craft was heading right for a round rocky outcropping at the end of the harbor. Everson was totally unaware of the danger, until the bow of his boat smashed headlong into the outer edges of that island. Whatever that rock was made of, it was a lot stronger than the boat.

  The entire front part crumpled up, coming to an abrupt stop. Everson was flung headfirst into the water. For a moment Todd lost sight of him. There he was back up at the top again. He started to splash in the water creating much motion but no movement. He began sinking again.

  “Help, I can’t swim.”

  Todd didn’t hesitate he jumped in just as Everson was going down for the third time. Todd was beginning his second water rescue within a week. He pulled Everson back up and began swimming toward what looked like some gray brick structures. He got to some hard granite walls. Three big men up there reached down to help Todd lift Everson onto the grass. Maybe a hundred spectators had gathered around. What were all those people doing on that island that had those three flags flying high?

  Emerson was unconscious but still breathing.

  Todd stood on wobbly legs. “What is this place?” he asked?

  His question got a laugh from the crowd. Someone answered. “It’s Fort Sumter. You made the grandest entrance onto it since that first shot was fired in the Civil War.”

  Another voice came from the crowd, “We’re not surrendering the fort, though. Maybe the South can still win the War.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  Two burly spectators kept watch on Everson enabling Todd to call 911. Fifteen minutes later a police patrol boat pulled up to the island. On the phone Todd had briefly explained the situation. To the two cops from the boat Todd gave a more detailed explanation with people in the crowd corroborating that Mitch had fired his gun at the pursuing boat.

  It turned out that the boat was Everson’s but he was taking into custody for discharging that firearm. To add to that, Todd charged the man with both child endangerment and abandonment. The sentence could mean ten years in jail.

  With his clothes still soaked, Todd stopped back at the Days Inn for dry ones.

  “That chase was pretty exciting,” Hiram said. “It might be fun to be a cop.”

  “Actually I could have gotten killed if one of those bullets had found its mark.”

  “Everyone has to die sometime.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather die when you were eighty or ninety?”

  “I guess so, but I don’t know if I want to live that long. I’m already bored with life.”

  Next, they drove to the city jail to talk with Mitch Everson.

  Mitch had his wet clothes exchanged for a bright-colored orange jumpsuit. In his cell he was sitting with his head in his h
ands. The jailer announced visitors, and when Mitch looked up he said, “So you’ve brought the kid to give me more guilt than I already have.”

  “It seemed you didn’t have enough guilt to ever bring him back into your life. Why did you do a thing like that? The kid could have died.”

  “I saw stores and people around. I knew someone would take care of him. There are always do-gooders in every community.”

  “Well, that do-gooder certainly wasn’t you,” Todd added.

  Hiram suddenly slipped away from Todd, took two steps toward his seated father and punched him squarely in the nose. Hiram was not a small person, and apparently his punch packed a wallop because Everson flipped back and hit his head on the wall. His nose started to bleed. He took his shirt and wiped it while at the same time rubbing the back of his head.

  “I suppose I deserved that,” he said.

  “You deserve much more than that,” Todd said, “and you’ll get it during your sentencing after the trial.”

  “There doesn‘t have to be a trial. I’ll plead guilty. You caught me.”

  “Why did you hate me so much?” Hiram was glaring at the man he now knew was his father.

  “I didn’t hate you, and I don’t hate you now, Son.”

  “Don’t call me son. I’ll never call you my father.”

  “Why did you do it?” Todd asked.

  “This is not an excuse, but it was through a whole series of circumstances. Your mother, Hiram, was a beautiful lady both inside and outside. Her name was Talia. You have her eyes and chin. I truly was in love with her. We were married within two months of our meeting, and you arrived a year later. Talia was an archeologist, traveling the world unearthing the past. I was really a nobody doing the job I have now. She saw something good in me I guess, because she seemed committed to our marriage.”

  “And you weren’t?” Todd asked.

  “No, that isn’t the story. Let me finish. Talia came from a wealthy family; eighty years earlier her grandfather started a shipping company out of Charleston harbor. My first indication of their wealth was when her father gave me that boat as a wedding present. I didn’t know anything about how rich they all were before I married her. She never mentioned it once. Two months after we were married her dad died. Her mom had died in a plane crash when Talia was seven. She was an only child so the bulk of her father’s estate went to her.

  “She didn’t care about that at all. She cared about understanding the world’s past by doing those digs on all continents. The family’s wealth did enable her to have such a vast career. She had me quit my chauffeur job and accompany her on those digs. We had a wonderful time together, but a year later after she came back from one of the Nairobi digs, she didn’t feel well. She got worse and worse. It was diagnosed as a strain of malaria. A month later she was dead. You were only a year old at the time, Hiram.”

  “This doesn’t explain why you abandoned me out on the road. Why I that difficult a kid to take care of?”

  “You were a joy.”

  “I’m not understanding this,” Todd said. You now had all this wealth.”

  “Actually, that was the point. I didn’t have any of it. The grandfather’s original will stated that any genetic heirs to his fortune had to reach twenty-one before the money could be theirs. That was many years away. Also, Talia had spent a lot of money to pursue her archeological dreams. This combined with her father’s investments taking a downward slide during that recession we had a few years ago. There was money left, but the lawyers told me only about ten percent of what the grandfather originally had still remained. However, I could not touch any of that money until Hiram turned twenty one.

  “I went back to my original chauffeur job, but I couldn’t even keep up the payments on our lakefront condo. It went into foreclosure; I sold it for half its value. I had to hire a nanny to take care of Hiram while I worked, and that got to be expensive. I survived for a year, but by the time Hiram got to be two we were almost broke. I went back to the family lawyers, and asked if there was any way that the original will could be amended. They said no, and then as an aside, they told me if Hiram died, that provision of the will would not apply to me because I wasn’t a blood relative of that first family. There would be no waiting period. I would get the money immediately.”

  “So you decided to in effect kill your son?” Todd said.

  “Don’t put it that way. I had forgotten what the lawyers had said, until another month went by, and I got deeper in debt. The company I was driving for went out of business, and now Hiram and I had virtually no money. I began to think about that death thing. I can’t even swat a bumblebee. I couldn’t kill anyone, but if I made it appear that Hiram died, I could get the money.”

  “Is that when you drove him to Indiana?”

  “I didn’t pick that state specifically, but I wanted it to be very far from Charleston, and in some kind of more remote town so there wouldn’t be big-city newspaper headlines. I still had the limo from the company that had folded. I was supposed to return it to them immediately, giving me no car at all. I figured I could delay a day or two on that, and so this was the time for me to make that trip. I drove and drove like a madman while Hiram slept on the back seat. I was a madman; I was abandoning my child. When I saw the sign for Calypso, I thought this was about as remote as it could get. I let Hiram out near a general store and a couple other businesses and drove away without looking back. I know it was heartless, but I was desperate.”

  “Mitch, I hate to say this, but when we saw you today you still had that same job,” Todd said.

  “I managed to get work with another limo company.”

  “I didn’t mean that. What I’m getting at is that I don’t see the trappings of any kind of wealth. Your clothes were alright, but not elegant, and you’re still making a barely survivable hourly wage.”

  “You are correct. I’m not much better off financially than I was. I should have checked into the legality of obtaining that money. The part I didn’t know was that an actual death certificate had to be obtained before I could claim the money. When I got back from Indiana, the story I had told a day later was that Hiram and I had gone finishing that night with him having fallen out of the boat. It’s documented that I can’t swim, which is why I failed one of my high school gym classes. My story was I jumped in after Hiram, but my lack of swimming ability made it impossible for me to save him. They dredged the water for three days, and of course didn’t find a corpse. However, no body, no death certificate, no money. I couldn’t even commit a crime well, and here I am. The money is still being held in escrow by those lawyers.”

  Everson head was back in his hands, as they left the cell.

  “What does all that mean for me?” Hiram asked.

  “Suddenly you are resurrected from the dead, and DNA testing will prove you are who you say you are and entitled to that money. You could become a fairly rich fourteen year-old-kid. Since you are part of that original family I would think those lawyers would help establish you financially. I don’t know how much money is there, but it may enable you to move and live wherever you want to.”

  The kid was quiet for a moment. “I want to say in Calypso, at least for a while. Ms. Brock has been so good to me. I know she doesn’t have much money. I may have a surprise birthday present for her.”

  “I’ll find out who those lawyers are, Hiram. We’ll stay here a couple more days and get this all settled.”

  “I’m glad I found my true dad, but it was very sad also.”

  “I agree. Desperate people are vulnerable and capable of doing desperate things. This doesn’t absolve your father for what he did. That punch was good pay-back. I’m glad you did that. He will have to serve jail time, and I’m sure he will never forget what he did. That’s enough punishment.”

  Todd gave a half smile. “And really I’m living in a pretty good town, with now a little bit of money. Life is strange.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Hiram met twice with the
family lawyers. When the legal dust had settled, Todd’s new bank account was inflated by twelve million dollars.

  On the way home he said, “The lawyers tell me I’ll have to get an investment counselor.”

  “How do you think your life will change?” Todd asked.

  “Really, I’m going to keep living the way I am until I get to be eighteen. Maybe the money will grow a little. Then I’ll decide what I want to do and where I want to go. Possibly I could be the richest cop in the Midwest.”

  “You’d better rethink that career choice. It’s not like on TV and the movies.”

  “I’ve been given a real gift with that money. Now it’s time I gave something instead of being just a troublesome teen. Maybe a cop; maybe something else. I don’t really know, but I’ll have four years to decide.”

  From Todd’s point of view he was very glad he had solved that case. However, there was much still unsolved. After his one trip, Mitch Everson wasn’t even able financially to leave Charleston to come up to Indiana. Todd checked with his employer, and there had been no periods of absences. Maybe it is difficult to really know if anyone can kill, but Todd’s short association with Everson told him the guy had not come up to Calypso and killed Ma, Walt, or the Sheriff. Those crimes were still unsolved, in addition to the murder of Billy Jessup that had led Todd to Calypso.

  On the trip back, Todd and Hiram made a deal that Todd would not tell anyone about the money. In general both of them would say that Hiram had found his father, and now the kid was back in Calypso to continue his own life. End of story.

  The next morning at his McDonald’s breakfast he was visited by Lulu. The gossip in the town had already spread about Hiram finding his father. She congratulated Todd on a job well done.

  “I was happy about it, Lulu, but I still have all these murders to contend with.”

  “That’s why I’m here. I have some news for you about all that.”

  “So you’ve solved those crimes while I’m gone? My deputy, Jo Clark is back in South Bend a couple days for some surveillance work, so you can take her place.”