Dead Drop: A Girl's Guide to Homicide

by D. A. Brown

  But now Shirley was beginning to smell. She kept the heat up high, like most old folks. Eldon finished a casserole from the fridge and downed a few beers. He couldn’t take the chance of getting pulled over for a DUI, so he sat in the living room and watched TV until close to twelve-thirty. Pulling up forest service maps on his computer, he found a service road off of Highway 2 that would take him close to Spada Lake. It was under two hours to drive there. Without any complications, he’d be back in time for work.

  The body was heavier than he expected. Grabbing one end, he pulled her down the basement stairs, one thump at a time. At the bottom, he turned out the lights, even the computer monitors.

  Eldon backed the Subaru up to the basement door, opened the hatch and lined the interior with plastic garbage bags. He put Shirley’s feet in first, straining against rigor mortis to fold her over into the back of the car. He covered the body with a tarp and a shovel, along with four rocks and some polypropylene rope.

  Eldon went back in and made a thermos of coffee. He grabbed his laptop and threw it onto the passenger seat.

  Traffic on I-5 was light all the way to Highway 2. Headlights drilled him as he drove east but few cars followed him. Driving deeper into the Wenatchee Forest, the darkness was soon complete.

  When he reached the end of the county maintained road, he pulled over and waited. Spada Lake was a reservoir with vehicular access near Olney Pass. It wasn’t likely to be staffed this time of year and since it was public utility land, no camping was allowed.

  With the windows down, he slowly sipped coffee listening for signs of others.The night was only full of the sound of leaves rustling against a languid breeze and the lapping of the lake against the shoreline.

  When Eldon was finally convinced he was alone, he calmly opened the hatch and pulled Shirley out. The wind had picked up and it had started to rain. Slinging her over his shoulder, he walked down to the shoreline and dropped her to the ground. He put a small flashlight in his mouth and moved quickly. Fastening a rock to the end of each hand and foot, he took off his shoes and pants and waded out into the lake pulling her body with him. She sunk quickly, which he didn’t expect, and he panicked, suddenly terrified he would be tangled in the ropes and drawn to the bottom with her. He dropped the last rock and struggled back to shore

  It would be next spring before she was found, if ever. The polypropylene rope was marine grade. Her limbs would give way before the rope would.

  On the way home, he tried to calculate how much time he had left in Seattle, how long he might be able to hide her disappearance. His temper had failed him and thrust him into this predicament. His routine was going to be disrupted but his business would have to be re-arranged beyond what he could imagine in an hour and a half drive back to the city.

  NCIC and WASIC was down, which always seemed to happened just when the system was needed the most, and Sophia and Tommy were too nervous to request the information on the registered owner belonging to the plate by way of radio. It was late and they were both tired.

  “I’m out of here. I need to spend some quality time with my dog.” Sophia rubbed her eyes and stared at her computer screen.

  “Yep.” Tommy sounded like he was out of breath.

  “You ok?” She looked over her shoulder at him.

  “I’m fine. Just getting too old for this shit.”

  “Go get some rest. And do it at home, with your wife.”

  “Didn’t I tell you? I’m back with the wife. Things are good now.”

  “I’m really glad to hear that, Tommy. Evelyn is a good woman.”

  “Yes, she is. And she should get a frickin’ medal for putting up with my ass.”

  “ I guess I can take you off my shit list now,” Sophia laughed.

  “Leave me on. No doubt I will do something stupid in a day or two.”

  Sophia turned off her computer and stood up. “So first thing tomorrow, we run that plate, pray it hasn’t been flagged and then go from there.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. That kid is probably full of shit. If that plate comes back to a car that even remotely resembles that ride we saw tonight, I’ll be surprised.”

  “Fingers crossed.”

  Sophia and Bodhi settled down for a late dinner of steak and oven roasted broccoli, Bodhi eating her small piece in one gulp. Sophia opened a good bottle of merlot, making a mental note to stop after two glasses. It was the first time she’d had any alcohol since she’d last seen David alive. Only a few nights had passed but it seemed like months ago.

  She glanced at her answering machine. She’d been so busy with work, she hadn’t check it in three days. The message light blinked three times, indicating three messages.The first was from her mother, reminding her of her promise to come down to California for the holidays. Her mother didn’t care which holiday, just one or all. The second message was from Shelly Torres asking Sophia to call her on an urgent matter. Shelly never called her at home, only on her cell phone.

  The third message was from David. She sat upright. He sounded stressed, his voice higher than usual.

  “Hey, it’s me. I got your message to meet. I’ll be there but then I’m gone. I have a feeling I’m being watched and I think it’s a cop. Can’t say for sure. It’s just a hunch.” David cleared his throat. “Despite what you think, I still care and I’m so sorry for what I did.” The call ended abruptly, as though he was timing it.

  Sophia rummaged in her work bag and pulled out her digital recorder. She transferred the message from her voicemail, checked that she had it and then pulled her answering machine out of the wall. She called Tommy’s cell. It went to voice mail.

  “Damn it, Tommy.” She hung up, poured herself another glass of wine and hit the speed dial for Shelly.

  “Hey, Shel.”

  “Dang, girl. Nice of you to call me back two days later.”

  “I’m a shitty friend. I deserve anything you have to throw at me.”

  “You’ve been busy.”

  “And you know that because…?”

  “I watch the news, read the papers. You should try it.”

  “Yeah, except more often than not, we are the news and the news doesn’t always get it right.”

  “Look, I was actually calling you to ask you something.”

  “You can ask, but you know I’m not always going to give you an answer.”

  “Fair enough.” Shelly cleared her throat. “Marcus Burton. What can you tell me about him?”

  Sophia took another sip of wine.

  “Why are you asking?”

  “Can’t tell you that.”

  “Off the record?”

  “Off the record.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “He called the assignment editor and asked for a favor.”

  “What kind of favor?”

  “He wanted us to hold off on a story about the Halifax kid.”

  “Really.”

  “Yeah, and I thought it was strange because the story didn’t really have legs. You know, she went missing and then suddenly she wasn’t missing, she was with her brother, and then these rumors started popping up about her being a victim in some abuse thing…” Shelly was waiting for Sophia to finish the story for her.

  “Is there a question in there for me?”

  “I want to know what you have to do with all of this.”

  “Did you hear I was involved?”

  “Burton suggested that you and Tommy had been re-assigned to work another case. That you two were officially off the Halifax case, and that it was closed. He said that it had been a huge misunderstanding and the result of a teenager’s overly vivid imagination.”

  “And so what do you want from me, Shel?”

  “I want the truth, the real story. I don’t trust him. He’s a cheese weasel, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Again, off the record?”

  “At some point I’m going to need something on the record.”

  “Honestly, Shel I don’t
know what the hell is going on and what Burton does or doesn’t have to do with any of this. I interviewed her teenage brother, and he may be an asshole on some level but he was seriously messed up by what he saw. And I believe him. So, yeah, we’re off the case, that’s true. But I don’t believe for a moment it was a mistake or the result of some kid’s vivid imagination.”

  “That’s what I thought. Look, I won’t pass this on. I’ll try and do an end-run without setting off any alarms. I promise I won’t involve you.”

  Sophia had heard that before. “Do what you have to do, Shel but don’t count on me right now. We have some serious attention coming our way. I can’t take a pee without someone opening a file on me.”

  “You got it, my friend. I’ll do everything I can. Talk later?”

  “Sure. See you soon.”

  Sophia hung up and finished the bottle.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sophia beat Tommy into the office again. Jess, always alarmingly perky first thing in the morning, came over and sat down.

  “So, what have you two gotten yourselves into?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you and Stinson seem to be geeting a lot of interest from the command staff lately, that’s all.”

  She and Tommy had been out of the office over the last couple of days and apparently had missed some fireworks.

  “We were pulled off the Halifax case and it was inactivated. Aside from that…”

  “Oh, it wasn’t just inactivated, it was closed ‘unfounded.’” Jess lowered her voice. “You didn’t hear about that little dust up?”

  “No”

  “Yeah, I guess Pierson went a little ballistic when the order to unfound the case came down from Burton’s office. I was in the women’s bathroom, and you know what the walls are like in there, and the two of them were going at it like two cats in heat. It wasn’t pretty.”

  “Could you hear what they were saying?”

  “Not for the most part, but I did hear Burton say ‘call off your people’ and then something about ‘no more discussion’ and ‘friend to the department.’ I couldn’t make out the rest of it.”

  “Jesus. This is ridiculous. In all my years on this department, I don’t think I have ever seen such a cluster.”

  “Well, at least not one that wasn’t officer initiated.” Jess chuckled and then turned somber.

  “How are you doing?”

  “I’m OK. Just trying to move on to other things.” Sophia typed in her password on the computer. “Wouldn’t mind knowing if they have any leads on David’s case, though.”

  Jess was good friends with the homicide case detective and had probably asked around.

  “Between you and me…” Jess looked over her shoulder. “I don’t think they have squat. Almost sounds like a professional job. Slugs dug out of the wall, casings picked up. Only thing the guys at the scene mentioned was the smell of really strong cologne and they didn’t find any there.”

  “I smelled that, too. That means we just missed the suspect. He could have been watching the whole time.”

  “Who wears that much cologne anyway?”

  “Beats me. Maybe something trying to mask the smell of something else when he’s around people.”

  “I suppose. Seems like kind of an old guy thing.”

  Sophia felt a pang of guilt. She really should pass on the information about the phone message and the fact that Victoria Tilden claimed to have seen David at the dead drop. But she had promised Tommy she’d keep it quiet at least long enough for them to figure out the connection to Grace Halifax.

  “Thanks. Keep checking for me, OK? I can’t afford to show my face over there at the moment, much as I’d love to.”

  Tommy walked into the office whistling an indecipherable song. This generally meant one of two things; he had either spent the night with some bimbo he was ‘dating’ or he’d hit it big at the track. Since neither of those two things was happening with any regularity as Sophia knew, she was puzzled.

  “What’s with the happy noise?” Sophia swung around in her chair.

  Tommy dropped his bag. He looked at Jess.

  “Mind if I talk to my partner in private for a moment?”

  “Nope. Don’t want to be an interloper.”

  “There you go with the big words,” Tommy said.

  Tommy leaned over and whispered to Sophia. “We need to go out and do some field work this morning.” He had a twinkle in his eye. “I have a name to go with that plate.”

  “Who is it? Do we know him?”

  “Not yet, but we will.”

  They didn’t have to drive very far. Azzo Martins lived on Capitol Hill, a short trip from headquarters. His condo sat above a bank of garages. Brick lined the facade of the units, framed by white columns, and matching window and door frames. Each condo had its own deck that spanned over the garage.The car from the night before was parked in front of a garage door. Tommy felt the hood.

  “It’s cold.”

  He peered into the rear passenger window. “And the genius didn’t even try and hide this shit.” He pointed to a hat and wig laying on the backseat.

  “Can I help you with something?” A man popped out onto the balcony. He took a sip from a coffee mug.

  Tommy flashed his badge. “Mr. Martins? We need to talk to you about a hit and run accident involving this car.”

  “Really? Jesus Christ.” He put down the cup. “Hang on, I’ll come down.”

  “Works every time,” Tommy said leaning against the car. “People love their cars.”

  Martins wore dark, creased jeans and a crisp white shirt that strained against a bulging stomach. His wet hair was pushed back behind his ears.

  “Must be a mistake. I’m the only who drives this car and I haven’t been in an accident. As you can see, there isn’t a mark on it.”

  “Actually, I’m surprised you didn’t recognize us from last night.” Sophia said.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Sure you do.” Tommy stepped between him and the front door.

  “I, I was home all night.” Perspiration formed on his upper lip.

  “Really? Because we have a witness who puts you down there all the time.”

  Martins hung his head and started to cry. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was illegal.”

  Tommy stepped closer to Martins until he was face to face.

  “You didn’t think collecting pictures of men having sex with little kids was illegal?”

  Martins looked around. “Can we go inside, please? I don’t want my neighbors to see me like this.”

  “Sure,” Tommy said and as they climbed the stairs behind him, he looked over at Sophia with a grin and mouthed ‘that was easy.’

  The inside of Azzo Martins’ condo looked like something out of a design magazine. Every piece of furniture was matched with a complimentary accessory. The walls were covered with original art. The home smelled faintly like vanilla bean.

  “Have a seat, sir.” Sophia waited for him to sit, then took her place on the edge of an Eames ottoman.

  Dark circles of sweat formed on his expensive shirt.

  “So Mr. Martins, we know about the dead drop and we are very concerned that you are involved in the distribution of child pornography.”

  Martins was either going to vehemently deny it or cave. Either way, they were still in a bit of a bind. They hadn’t read him his rights, but on the other hand, he could very well be just a witness to something non-criminal.

  Martins began to sob. Tommy looked at Sophia and then back at Martins.

  “Ok, Azzo. Take it easy now. We have to take care of a couple administrative things before we can go on with this conversation.” Sophia pulled out her advisement of rights card and read it to him slowly. “Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?”

  Martins took a breath and blew his nose.

  “Yes.”

  “It would make it easier for us to talk to you if we didn’t
have to take notes. Do you mind if we record this?” Tommy placed the recorder on the coffee table.

  “That’s fine.”

  “And, just so you know, nothing you tell us here is going to surprise us. We do this every day. And I can’t promise you anything, but if you can give us some useful information, it could look really good for you. You see where I’m going?”

  “I’ve tried to fight this. I really have. It’s a disease, you know.” Martins looked at Sophia and Tommy.

  “Sure,” Sophia said.

  “Yeah, I totally understand. I get off on all sorts of weird shit. If my partner knew the half of it…” Tommy looked out the window.

  “Thank you. I appreciate what you are trying to do, really.”

  “So why don’t you tell us what you know about the dead drop.” Sophia glanced at the recorder.

  “I learned about it on a private board. It’s in this place called New World. Are you familiar with that?”

  “I know a little bit, but go on.”

  “Anyway, I met this guy on there. He looked like a kid but I’m not stupid…”

  “Ok.”

  “Well, he said his name was Davey, but I later learned he goes by Gregor in the, uh adult areas.”

  “So Davey and Gregor are the same person?” Tommy clasped his hands together, knitting the fingers tightly. It was what he did when he wanted to hit something.

  “Yes, but their avatars are different. Davey is like a kid and Gregor is, well he looks like some kind of devil with the goatee and slicked back hair. Very creepy.”