Deserving of Death (CJ Washburn, PI Book 1)

by James Paddock

  Stella laughed and put her hand on CJ’s arm. “We know that. Don’t worry about it.”

  Just before 5:00 they were on the road, Stella driving. CJ snoozed on and off until a few minutes after 8:00 when Stella took an exit for gas. They switched drivers and Stella slept while CJ pushed hard. With an hour time change it was just past 10:30 when they approached the downtown exits of Tucson.

  Stella gulped down some of her cold coffee from the fuel stop and pulled out her cell phone. “About time to call Dan.”

  She dialed and put the phone to her ear.

  “Good morning, Detective, it’s Stella. Has there been any new developments?”

  CJ watched Stella’s face, at first neutral, then serious, and then, “Oh my God! No Dan! It wasn’t Clint.”

  CJ mouthed, “What?” at her.

  “That’s impossible, Detective, because he wasn’t in Idaho last night.

  “I know because I know.

  “Damn it, Dan! He was with me all night, has been with me since noon yesterday.

  “Yeah I’ll swear to that, because it’s true.”

  CJ grabbed the phone from Stella. “What the hell is going on, Dan?” he said into it.

  “Holy crap, CJ!” Dan blasted in CJ’s ear. “Where the hell are you?”

  “I’m sitting right next to Stella.” On a hunch he pulled away from the Speedway Street exit he was about to take and re-entered the interstate traffic. “What the hell happened?”

  “Christ! There’s been another victim, this time in Moscow, Idaho. Same exact MO, and you’re suspect number one. Turn yourself in right now and if what Stella is saying is true you’ll be off the hook. You certainly can’t be in two places at the same time. Please tell me you’re back in Arizona. Don’t know how you’d have done it, but I hope to hell you are. Where the hell are you?”

  “Don’t know if I want to answer that right yet.”

  “Don’t even tell me you’re still in Idaho.”

  “Nowhere near there. Do you have any ideas on who this guy is?”

  “No, I don’t. And this puts another spin on it.”

  “Puts a huge spin on it. This guy is smart and has some serious inside knowledge and resources.” And then it occurred to CJ what he missed the night before, the one thing that hovered just out of reach. “It’s a cop.”

  “What?”

  Stella’s eyes got big and her mouth dropped.

  “Think about it, Dan.”

  “I am thinking about it. I’d put my life on the line with any officer on this force. I don’t believe any one of them would just up and start killing women.”

  “You had your doubts about me.”

  “Not once, CJ. I never once thought you were the perp.”

  “Even after the body was found in my car?”

  Dan didn’t say anything but CJ could swear he could hear his teeth grind. He swerved over a lane as he passed the Grant Street exit and accelerated past a plumbing repair van barely doing the speed limit.

  “I wasn’t there last night and it can be proven, so I’ll be off the hook, as you say, but until then I’m not about to be stuck in some holding cell.”

  “If you turn yourself into me within the hour, I think the FBI will be convinced this last one wasn’t you.”

  “You’re not sure, though, are you? And what about the one that was found in my car?”

  “An obvious plant.”

  “Obvious to you, maybe, but not to the Feds.” CJ swung back to the right lane and took the Miracle Mile exit. “I can see some career climbing happy agent getting his rocks off bringing down an ex-cop private investigator, and passing last night’s off as a copycat.”

  “I think you’re over-thinking this CJ. Turn yourself in and everything will fall into place.”

  CJ punched the gas as he turned right onto Miracle Mile, crossed to the left lane and pushed toward the Flowing Wells intersection and a red light.

  “What the hell you doing?” Stella demanded.

  “Yeah, what are you doing?” Dan said, obviously having heard Stella.

  “I’m proving I’m not in Idaho. After that I’m playing it all by the seat of my pants.” He looked over at Stella’s panic-stricken face and said, “It’ll be okay. I know what I’m doing.”

  “I don’t think you have a clue what you’re doing, CJ” Dan said.

  “Hold on a second, Dan.”

  CJ eased off the gas for a second just before the light turned green, then accelerated again. Seconds later, just beyond the intersection, he swerved into the left turn lane, punched between several oncoming cars and bounced into a parking lot.

  “But this is…” Stella shut her mouth.

  “CJ, talk to me,” Dan said.

  “Just hold on a minute.”

  He swung the car around the edge of the parking lot until he was at the main entrance to the Westside Police Service Center. He said, “Okay, Detective, here’s what I want you to do.” He put the emergency brake on and climbed out of the car. “Go to the nearest window where you can see the public parking lot.”

  “What the hell you doing, CJ? Fine, I’ll play your game.”

  CJ waited and watched, hoping the hell Dan wasn’t a step ahead and ushering uniformed cops out the door.

  “Okay. I’m there. What am I looking for?”

  CJ started waving his hand in the air. “See that idiot waving at you with a phone plastered to his ear. That’s me. Now you’re a witness as to my whereabouts at this precise moment.” He got back in the car and started it rolling toward the parking lot exit. “If I have to I can produce several witnesses as to my whereabouts from noon yesterday until this moment which will place me far from the Idaho crime scene. Going off the grid again, Dan. I’ll call you.”

  With that CJ hung up and handed the phone to Stella. “Turn it off and take the battery out.” He swung the car into Miracle Mile west-bound traffic.

  Stella did what he said. “Now what?”

  By this time CJ was entering I-10 east-bound, back the way they’d come. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just drop you off at home. It’s me they’re after.”

  “No way.”

  “Why not? You’re probably already in trouble for aiding and abetting. You don’t need to add more to it.”

  “First of all, Clint, this is my car. I’m not giving it up that easy. Second of all I’m with you on this. I’m not sitting alone at home while my man goes off and has all the fun.”

  “Your man?” He looked at her, his eyebrows raised.

  She looked away.

  “Where was your man when you showed up with Lucas last week? You did everything short of actually denying that you had a boyfriend.”

  When she turned back to face him tears were running down her cheeks. “I’m really sorry about that. The entire situation was new to me. I didn’t know how to handle it, how to handle you. I wanted to be a good aunt, wanted to show my little sister I could be responsible. And then I was called to get you out of jail and I had to bring Lucas with me. Children are so impressionable at that age, aren’t they?”

  CJ took the Speedway exit and reached over to take her hand. “I’m sorry. Shit happens at the exact wrong time.” He stopped at the light.

  “Yeah.”

  After a long silence CJ said, “If you’re sticking with me we’re going to have to change our names.”

  “What?” She wiped at her tears and gave him her confused look. “Why?”

  The light turned green and he turned left. “You’re going to have to call me Clyde from now on.”

  She furrowed her brow. “Clyde. I don’t get it. Why?”

  “So I can call you Bonnie.”

  She knuckle-punched him in the arm and laughed.

  “Hey! Careful. I’m driving here, you know.”

  She laughed some more, sniffled and dug a Kleenex from the glove box.

  Chapter 20

  “What do we do now?” Stella asked.

  They’d continued east on Speedway f
or twenty minutes before anything more was said, each receding into their own thoughts.

  “It’s rather obvious that you’re part of this now,” CJ said, “so going to your apartment is out of the question, at least it is for me. If we separated you could return.”

  “No.”

  “You’d get a little bit of heat.”

  “No.”

  “Dan would likely pick you up but he couldn’t hold you very long, would probably let you go in hopes you’d lead them to me.”

  “I said, no! I’m not separating from you. We’re in this together.”

  “Then let’s go to Las Vegas and get married,” CJ said.

  Stella whipped her head around. “What!”

  “We could be up there by late afternoon, have an evening wedding, find a cash-only motel and have a wild honeymoon, be back here by tomorrow afternoon, or just stay up there for a few days walking the strip, playing a few machines.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Sure. That way when we’re caught they won’t be able to make you testify against me nor make me testify against you.”

  “That’s not right,” she said.

  “What’s not right? The not testifying or the getting married?”

  “Stop! Stop somewhere!” She pointed to a strip mall parking lot. “Over there. I’m not going to talk about this in the middle of traffic while we’re waiting for Tucson police to surround us.”

  “Okay.” He signaled as he turned and then steered the car across the half empty parking lot to a spot between two large trucks.

  “What’s not right,” she said before he had the car completely parked, “is doing it like this. My dream wedding is not a disgustingly cute little chapel with witnesses pulled off the street while we’re running from the FBI and police in three states.”

  “So…” he paused for a very long time, debating whether or not to allow more of this crazy notion to spill out of his mouth. He looked her straight in the eyes. “...you think we should have a big wedding, then invite your mom and her boyfriend?”

  She tilted her head and met his gaze, eye for eye. “Is this a proposal?”

  He took a deep breath and made the final plunge. “I love you Stella Summers. Will you be my wife?”

  Her mouth opened and then closed. She looked out at the bright day and then back at him. “I have been waiting three months for you to ask me and you choose now to pop the question?”

  “You’ve been waiting for me to ask you?”

  “Yes.”

  “So the answer is yes?”

  “No.”

  “The answer is no?” he said, suddenly deflated.

  “No.”

  He blinked at her a couple of times. “Which is it, yes or no?”

  “Neither. I’m not answering until you’ve asked at the right time, in the right place, and if you don’t know what that is then God help you.”

  “Okay.

  “I’m thirty-nine, three years older than my sister and she has the marriage and the family, even if it is a little screwed up, but I’m not desperate enough to run off to Las Vegas with you, at least not until the day before I turn forty, which is still ten months away.”

  “Is that, then, a tentative yes? If I hold off until June eleventh, you’ll do the chapel in Las Vegas?”

  “If you’re not in jail on June eleventh and you’ve been stupid enough to wait that long, then I guess if I’m not in jail, I’ll be stupid enough to go to Las Vegas with you. Is that answer enough for you?”

  He nodded. “It is. I guess, then, to keep us from having to testify against each other, we’d better figure out who the dumpster killer is.”

  “Back to my original question, what do we do now?”

  “We’ve got to find a hideout, and for that I’ve got an idea. But I’m going to have to turn on my phone.”

  When CJ explained his idea to Stella, they remained out of sight between the two trucks for another half hour, until a man appeared and drove one of the trucks away. They discussed how he could get his phone turned on, find the number he wanted and then turn it off before the FBI could lock onto his location.

  “What if we went somewhere that you had no signal?” Stella said. “They couldn’t see you then, could they?”

  “No, they couldn’t. Great idea. And I know just the place. First, since we can’t trust yours either, we need to get a new phone.

  Chapter 21

  They turned south off of Speedway onto Houghton and found a place to buy a phone with chargers for both house and car. He remained in the car while Stella did the shopping. Afterwards they continue south on Houghton out of Tucson until it intersected Sahuarita Road in Corona de Tucson. From there they drove west to Old Nogales Highway, turned south again until they intersected with Interstate 19 in Green Valley then continued south toward the Mexico border. Once out of Green Valley, CJ started relaxing. He was pretty sure the border patrol hadn’t been advised to keep an outlook for him. They were frying other nasty fish. He was also fairly sure the word had not been fully disseminated that he was not in Idaho.

  “How far south do we have to go?” Stella asked. “All the way to Nogales?”

  “No. I believe I was somewhere between Amado and Tubac; twenty miles or so from Green Valley.” He’d remembered trying to call Trish on his way to Nogales to serve the subpoena. He pointed to the phone sitting in the tray between them, connected to the charger. “Turn on the new phone. When we lose the signal on that we’ll activate yours. If you also don’t have a signal we should be safe to activate mine. It won’t take but a minute to get the phone number and then I’ll shut it down.”

  “And you’re sure the Lindendales will do it?” she said.

  “If I have to I’ll offer to tear up the check, which I haven’t deposited yet. I don’t really want to do that because it might make them suspicious as to my reason. I’m sure they’re back home in Missouri so probably haven’t seen the news about me.”

  “What are you going to tell them to get the number?”

  “I have no clue.”

  CJ’s idea was to use Elizabeth Lindendale’s apartment as a hide-a-way. To get Lizzi’s okay and have her pass it to her landlady he’d have to get her phone number in Mexico. To do that he’d have to contact her parents and hope that they have a number where she could be reached.

  “We just lost signal,” Stella said.

  CJ glanced down at the phone; saw that there were no bars. “Okay. Turn yours on.”

  As she started to insert the battery into her phone, he said, “Wait! We’ve got bars again.”

  They drove on, watching the phone, waiting.

  “Damn!” CJ suddenly declared.

  “What?”

  “Border patrol checkpoint.”

  Stella looked up to see the checkpoint complex enveloping the northbound lanes, cars and trucks backed up waiting their turn to be cleared through.

  “I thought you said border patrol wouldn’t be a problem,” she said.

  “Random border patrol units driving around I doubt have name and photo of a Tucson murder suspect pasted to their dash, especially if that individual is believed to be in Idaho. But a permanent checkpoint might have that information, especially if Dan has already started disseminating his new knowledge as well as your car make, model and plate number.”

  “It’s only been a couple of hours. Do you really think?”

  He shook his head. “No, not really. But it still makes me nervous.”

  She looked over her shoulder at the checkpoint after they passed by. “Me too.”

  They continued south past Tubac and the Tubac exit while the signal went in and out. “I’m taking the next exit,” CJ said, “and then heading up into the mountains. We’ll eventually lose signal for sure.”

  And so he did, turning east on Palo Parado Road and then bouncing from road to road until finally Stella said, “The signal has been completely gone for a while now. We should be good.”

  CJ pulled over on
a wide spot and as Stella inserted the battery in her phone. They watched and waited while it powered up. After five minutes when they were sure there was no signal, they did the same with his phone. In less than two minutes he had Mrs. Lindendale’s phone number and had shut down both his and Stella’s phone.

  He turned the car around.

  At the border patrol checkpoint CJ slowed the car as per the posted speed limit and stopped behind the third car in line. They looked at each other.

  The first car accelerated away and the rest moved up. A border patrol officer escorted a dog around the car in front of them.

  “You don’t have drugs I don’t know about, do you?” CJ asked.

  Stella gave him a dirty look.

  “C4?”

  “No, but I forgot about the nuke next to the spare tire. Think he’ll smell that?”

  “Not likely. We should be okay. Just relax.”

  “Look who’s saying relax,” Stella said, pointing to his hands. “You squeeze any harder you’re going to break my steering wheel.”

  CJ looked at his white knuckles. He released his grip and flexed his fingers. The front car accelerated away and CJ moved up to the second position. He pressed the window down. The dog and handler walked around the car.

  They moved up to first position and stopped next to a border patrol officer who looked in at their back seat and then at them.

  “Are you citizens of the United States?”

  “Yes, we are,” CJ said.

  “Yes,” Stella said.

  “Where are you coming from?” the officer asked.

  “Nogales,” CJ said. “Just down for the drive.”

  The officer looked up at something to the rear. The officer with the dog was saying something. All CJ could tell was that they were having a short conversation. He looked at Stella, wondered what would happen if he floored it, if they could outrun a border patrol chase vehicle. Of course that would be stupid, he thought. There were border patrol units everywhere between here and Tucson. They’d have the interstate blocked and the exits covered before he could get five miles.

  “Sir.” The officer was back at his window.

  CJ turned his head to look up at him. “Yes?”

  “My canine officer just informed me that you have a brake light out. Just a courtesy, sir.”