Dial 'M' for Maine Coon

by Alex Erickson

“It had to have been a crank call,” Harry said.

  “They claimed they knew about us,” Martin said. “She mentioned our names!”

  “Not mine,” Sterling said. “You shouldn’t have called me. You risked everything by being so stupid.”

  “Me?” Martin’s laugh was near hysterical. “You’re the one who couldn’t leave well enough alone. He didn’t have anything. But no, you just had to put an end to his pointless investigation, all for your sake. You didn’t even think of how this might come back on the rest of us.”

  Amelia and I shared a knowing look.

  “No one is in any danger here,” Sterling said. “Keep your heads about you and everything will turn out as it always does. I’m keeping the detective in charge of the investigation busy. He won’t be able to work the case, which means, we are at no risk.”

  “People are asking questions,” Martin said. “It’s getting too dangerous.”

  The voices moved deeper into the house. Amelia and I gave it a count of ten, then started down the stairs. I couldn’t make out what was being said, at least, not until we reached the bottom step.

  “I’m not doing this anymore,” Harry was saying. “I had nothing to do with any of this, yet people are looking into me. I saw them following me.”

  “It’s your imagination.” Sterling said it in a way that made me wonder if, indeed, he was the one keeping an eye on Harry. “Like I said, no one is in any danger.”

  Amelia started toward the front door, but I hesitated. While what I’d heard would help me convince Detective Cavanaugh to look into Sterling Wright, along with Martin Castor, I was still missing the smoking gun. If I could just get one of them to confess, to say something that wasn’t so darn vague, then maybe I could put an end to the investigation right then and there.

  I motioned for Amelia to keep going, mouthing that I’d be along in a minute. I was close to the door. If they started to come my way, I could make a run for it.

  Amelia gave me a frightened look, but I waved her off. I would be okay. After a moment, she carefully opened the door and slipped outside.

  “I’ll get you set up so you can trace any further calls,” Sterling said. “We’ll find out who did this, and see what they know.”

  “I bet it’s that PI, Chudzinski,” Martin said. “He’s been working the investigation again. Apparently, he’s got a couple girls working for him now.”

  “They’ll find nothing,” Sterling said. “That is, if Harry doesn’t ruin it for all of us. You never should have brought him in on this.”

  “I needed help,” Martin said, his voice lowered. “He did his part.”

  “And then turned around and screwed it all up again. I’ve had to put someone on him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. If he keeps it up, he’s going to end up like Joe Danvers.”

  “Now, Sterling, we don’t need to go that far.”

  I leaned forward, straining my ears to hear any hint of Harry’s presence. They were talking about him like he wasn’t in the room with them.

  A cold chill crept up my spine. If he wasn’t with them, then where was he?

  I decided now would be a good time to get out of there. I peeked around the edge of the staircase to make sure no one was looking my way, and then, seeing the coast was clear, I made a run for it.

  And walked right into a very surprised Harry Davis.

  There was a moment when neither of us knew what to do. We stared at one another, mouths agape, hands outstretched, but not touching.

  In that brief moment, I might have been able to do something. I could have shoved him over, could have rushed the door and gotten away. Even if he recognized me, he wouldn’t be able to go to the police without it coming out about his part in Christine’s disappearance and Joe’s murder.

  Instead of running, however, fear had me frozen to the spot.

  “Martin!” Harry shouted, regaining his composure faster. “Someone’s here!”

  I made a belated attempt to make a break for it, but now, Harry was between me and the door, and he looked ready to tackle me if need be.

  So, I went the other way.

  I bolted around the staircase, both away from Harry and from where I’d last heard Martin’s and Sterling’s voices. Unfortunately, I was also running opposite the direction in which the garage was located, which meant I was fleeing into the unknown.

  Footfalls and voices came from behind me. After only a few moments, the sounds spread out, and I realized they were separating to better trap me. I rushed to the nearest window, tried to open it, but it didn’t budge. The window beside it was the same.

  All this money and he doesn’t have windows that open? I wanted to scream, but that would only give me away.

  Footfalls neared. I was in a sprawling living room with only one large exit, which spilled out into the rest of the house. I, of course, was nowhere near a place where I could escape without getting caught, so I did the only thing I could think of.

  I ducked down behind the couch.

  “I know you are in here.” Sterling’s voice was hard, uncaring. “There’s nowhere for you to go.”

  I clamped a hand over my mouth and nose and tried not to breathe. Little whimpering sounds tried to burst free, but I somehow managed to swallow them back.

  “What part of our conversation did you happen to hear?” Sterling asked. “I’m assuming you’re the one who called Martin this evening?”

  The light clicked on, blinding me briefly. The jig, so they said, was up. I couldn’t hide behind the couch forever. All it would take would be for Sterling to walk around the room and he’d have me. There was always a chance I could make a run for the door once he came around one side of the couch, but it was going to be a close thing.

  Martin and Harry came into the room then, and spread out. So much for my escape plan.

  “Come out,” Sterling demanded. “There’s nowhere to run.”

  I closed my eyes, prayed that Amelia was long gone by now. She’d seen the file, knew who killed Joe. She could go to Cavanaugh and tell him everything. He’d find a way to get a warrant, and then Sterling Wright, Harry Davis, and Martin Castor would be taken where they couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

  Unfortunately, it might be too late for me by then.

  I rose from where I crouched, determined to meet my fate standing.

  There was no recognition in either Martin’s or Sterling’s eyes, but Harry knew me. He was running his hands through his hair incessantly and looked ready to rabbit out of there. It made me wonder if he’d actually had a part in Joe’s murder, or if he was a convenient scapegoat for the other two.

  “The police know I’m here,” I said.

  “I seriously doubt that.” Sterling’s voice was surprisingly calm for having been overheard discussing his crimes. He glanced at Harry. “Make sure she was alone.”

  “I am,” I said. “I know everything.”

  “This isn’t good.” Harry tugged at his hair.

  “Go make sure she’s alone,” Sterling said, never taking his eyes from me. “I’ll take care of this.”

  Harry hesitated only a moment longer before he hurried out of the room.

  “What are you going to do to her?” Martin asked. “I’m not covering for you anymore.”

  “You won’t have to. No one will know what happened here tonight.” Sterling stepped forward and held out a hand. “If you would, please, come with me.”

  “I’m not sure I want to do that,” I said.

  “You really have no choice.”

  I considered making one last attempt at escape, but ended up allowing Sterling to walk forward and grab me by the arm. As long as Amelia got away, then I’d suffer whatever fate he had planned for me.

  Martin produced a ball of twine from a drawer in the room. He handed it to Sterling, as if they’d done this sort of thing before, and Sterling proceeded to tie my wrists behind my back. He moved with a calm calculation that spoke of someone who always got exactly what he wa
nted. He wasn’t afraid, which in turn made me terrified.

  “Let’s go,” he said, guiding me out the door. And then, to Martin, “Keep Harry contained. Explain to him that everything will be fine. Go about your day tomorrow like any other day. If you think he’s going to cause us trouble, do whatever you think is necessary to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “I understand.”

  Sterling shoved me in the back, causing me to stagger. He took me to his car—a black Mercedes, no less—and opened the back door for me. “Slide on in, Ms. . . . I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Denton,” I said almost mechanically. If I was going to die, I might as well go being called by my name, not Miss or Lady or whatever he’d decide on. It was the only comfort I could give myself.

  That, and Amelia got away.

  I got into the car, knowing it was probably one of the last things I’d ever do. Sterling reached in and buckled me in securely. “Can’t be too careful,” he said, before getting into the front of the vehicle. He glanced back at me and smiled. “Let’s go for a ride, shall we?”

  27

  Twine bit into my wrists as I tried to work my hands free of their bindings. Unfortunately, Sterling had tied me up pretty tightly, so there was little give, and I wasn’t strong enough to break it.

  That didn’t mean I didn’t try. My wrists were raw, but I had yet to break skin. Maybe if I did, I’d be able to slip out of his knots, thanks to my blood slickening my bonds.

  We rode in silence, with Sterling only paying me occasional glances in the rearview mirror. I’d expected him to interrogate me the entire way to wherever we were going, but he appeared content to let me fidget. I think he was getting some perverse pleasure out of it. He was smiling like he was.

  Eventually, we left the main roads and turned down a dark, forested path. The Mercedes bounced down the rough dirt road filled with potholes and the occasional large rock. As we bounced along a rather large rut, a low-hanging branch scraped alongside the car with an ear-splitting whine.

  “That’ll leave a mark,” I muttered. It was petty, but at that point, I was going to take every win I could get.

  “It’ll get repaired,” Sterling said, sounding just as unconcerned as his words implied. “I always fix everything.”

  “Is that what this is?” I asked, sagging back into my seat. It wasn’t like I thought I could throw myself from the car and escape into the woods, even if I did break the twine. “A fix?”

  “For my troubles? Yes, it is.” He sighed. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, Mrs. Denton, I really am. You seem decent enough, though I do wish you would have left well enough alone. Joe Danvers was definitely not worth all this trouble.”

  “He didn’t hurt anyone,” I said. “He didn’t deserve to die.”

  “Maybe not,” Sterling said. “But he was getting too close. I gave him as much leeway as I could, yet he insisted on looking for his wife.”

  “You mean your daughter.”

  Sterling’s hands tightened on the steering wheel so much, I could hear it groan. “She should never have been born. Her mother made a mistake and she paid for it.”

  “With her life.” I didn’t know why I was egging him on, but I couldn’t help it. This man had killed people. I didn’t care how much money, how much power he had, he didn’t deserve my respect.

  “As I said, I fix things. When the Hemingways decided to go public, I had to silence them before they could make a mess of my career. It was unfortunate, but had to be done. Ah, here we are.”

  We turned down a gravel drive that seemed to vanish into trees and brush. Without his headlights, the darkness would have been absolute.

  The driveway ended at a log cabin deep into the woods. A large, sparkling lake could be seen down a slight decline. It reflected the moon and surrounding trees with near perfect clarity. It would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been so ominous. Sterling parked his Mercedes alongside the cabin and got out. He opened my door and grabbed me by the arm. His touch was surprisingly gentle.

  “We’re going to go inside for a little chat,” he said. “Then, together, we’ll make my troubles go away.”

  I glanced at the lake. “How many bodies are beneath those waters?”

  Sterling smiled. “Enough.”

  I tensed, a brief thought of running flashing through my mind, but Sterling produced a gun from his pocket. I’m not sure where it had come from, but it was there now, and all hope of escape died for good.

  “Don’t try anything,” he said. “I’d rather this not be messy.”

  I let him lead me into the cabin. Inside, it was clean and tidy, and looked well used. I didn’t see a man like Sterling Wright as someone who would spend time fishing at the lake, but there were fishing poles in the corner that looked to have been recently used, as well as a pair of muddy rubber boots.

  “It’s not mine,” he said, as if reading my thoughts. “Martin keeps this place because . . .” He glanced around the room with a grimace. “I don’t know why. We’ve moved well beyond when this sort of life is necessary. Yet, I suppose I can’t be too cross with him. I’ve used his hidey-hole quite often over the years.”

  He shoved me down onto the couch. I fell heavily onto my side, nearly wrenching my shoulder out of its socket since my hands were still bound. It took some work, but I managed to sit back upright. I fixed Sterling with a stare that would have killed a lesser man.

  “What are you going to do with me?” I asked, somehow keeping my voice from trembling. I wanted to be sick, wanted to close my eyes and pretend none of this was happening.

  But it was, and I refused to show weakness. A man like Sterling Wright would feed on it.

  “We talk.” Sterling snagged a chair from a dining nook and set it in front of me. He sat down and crossed one leg over the other. He rested the gun in his lap, pointed in my general direction. “Who knows about me?”

  “No one,” I said. “I didn’t know until just before you showed up. I was on Martin’s trail.” And then, because if I was going to die, I wasn’t going to go down without causing as much trouble for bad people as I could, I added, “He has a file on you. I think he’s biding his time until he can use it against you.”

  “Does he now?” Sterling didn’t seem too bothered by the idea. “Blackmail is it? Or do you think he’ll go to the police?” He smiled. “Would it even matter?”

  “You’ve been controlling them.”

  He waved the gun, dismissing my comment. My heart leapt into my throat as I watched the barrel wave in front of my face. Thankfully, it didn’t go off.

  “Nothing so dramatic,” Sterling said, returning the gun to his lap. “I’ve distracted them, that’s all. It’s not difficult, you know? A meeting here, a new required training session there. And before you know it, the evidence against me is gone, the trouble has passed, and we all move on with our lives.”

  “Except for the people you’ve murdered.”

  “True.” Sterling sighed and sat back, casual as you like. If it wasn’t for the gun and my bound hands, you’d think we were having a pleasant evening chitchat. “But the rest of the world still moves on, does it not? People die all the time. And when it’s in the name of progress, it’s a nasty reality we can’t avoid.”

  “I’m pretty sure not everyone kills people who get in their way.”

  “No, but they should. It’s far easier to make a body disappear or an investigation fade away than it is to fight battles against those who feel they are owed something. And removing these irritants proves I deserve my place in the world.”

  “Or that you can’t win fairly.”

  He laughed. “Fair rarely plays into my line of work.”

  My mind raced. There had to be a way out of this that didn’t end up with me going for a long, deep swim. “I’m friends with the detective on the case, Detective Cavanaugh. He won’t just drop Joe’s murder. And if I vanish, he’ll look even harder. How long do you think it will be before he puts it all togeth
er?”

  “Maybe he will, maybe he won’t,” Sterling said. “The evidence against me is gone; I made sure of that. And even if the good detective suspects me of a crime, he won’t ever find you. You’ll have vanished, just like Christine did all those years ago. Someone will be framed for your murder, just like Joe was for his wife’s. It’ll all be nice and tidy and easily manipulated.”

  “You told Harry to lie about Joe. Are you going to have him make up a story about me too?”

  “Perhaps, but I had no direct hand in his involvement. Martin was the one who brought Harry in. I wouldn’t have chosen to do so, but by the time I realized what he was doing, it was too late. He does work as an effective scapegoat if it comes to it, however.”

  “Martin knows about Christine,” I said. “He ran DNA tests. He knows about me too. Your little scheme has holes in it. If he talks, or decides things have gone too far, he’s going to turn on you.”

  For the first time since we’d arrived, a look passed over Sterling’s face that wasn’t arrogant or confident. Was it fear? It was hard to tell with my own fear overriding everything.

  “I take it you weren’t entirely untruthful about Martin keeping a file on me,” he said. “I suppose I’ll have to deal with that after I’m finished with you.” Sterling stood and stretched. For an older man, he seemed awfully limber. “You’d think he’d realize that he can’t use anything he has against me without his own crimes coming to light.”

  “He killed someone.” I knew it without needing to be told.

  “At his practice. On purpose, no less. The man wasn’t to his liking, if you understand my meaning. This was before Doctor Castor decided to limit his patients to those who fit his ideologies and lusts.” The sneer reached his voice. “He did a good job making it look like an accident, but not good enough. It happened at an opportune time for me.”

  “You covered for him.”

  “I did.”

  “And in return, he’d run your DNA test for you, would keep your secrets, and would help you kill innocent people?”

  “It’s a small price to pay considering the alternative, wouldn’t you say?” Sterling checked his watch. “I suppose we should cut this short. I have an early meeting in the morning with your Detective Cavanaugh. I wouldn’t want to show up to it too bleary-eyed.” He flashed me a smile. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back.” He went to the door, opened it, and then vanished into the night.