“I tried to reach the FBI for comment. The best they would give me is that they are still treating Washburn as their prime suspect. On top of the APB out on him, there is another for his girlfriend, Stella Summers and her car, a 2005 Hyundai Sonata, light blue.”
Mug shots of the two of them appeared on the screen.
“If you see either of them call 911 immediately. Whatever you do, do not approach or engage them.”
“Thank you, Candice. Up next, how an unemployed construction laborer thought he could get rid of his wife in the guise of the dumpster killer. Also, is this record-breaking heat ever going to quit? And how about them Wildcats?”
CJ turned off the TV and tossed the remotes aside. He stood and walked to the door to look out and became momentarily excited with seeing Stella’s car. Then he remembered that she took Lizzi’s car. He closed the door and looked at their phones on the counter, batteries lying next to them. She’d taken the new phone but that certainly didn’t do him any good. He couldn’t take a chance calling her even if he did know the number.
He pushed his hands into his pockets and started pacing.
If Dan was pulled off the case, who took it over, or has the FBI decided the entire Tucson Police Department had a conflict of interest and threw everybody out? Was there anybody pursuing the angle that the perp might be a police officer?
He pulled his fingers through his hair.
Where the hell is Stella? She’s been gone over an hour. She probably has no idea there's an APB out on her. Could she have tried to write a check and was spotted, didn’t even get out of the store before she was arrested? He needed to get a hold of Dan.
He looked at Stella’s car keys where he’d dropped them on the counter, and then at the time. It wouldn’t turn dark for another hour. Dan lived off Fort Lowell Road, about as east as one could go and still be in Tucson. With the news broadcast, the chances of being spotted in Stella’s car jumped up a couple of notches. He’d be crazy to take the risk. Still, if she was in custody, he’d have to do something.
He went into Lizzi’s bedroom and looked in her closet. There was nothing there he could use as a disguise, unless he wanted to dress like a woman. That was certainly worth considering, but the sizes were too small. He probably couldn’t pull it off anyway.
He remembered the coat closet, by the door. He pushed the bicycle aside and looked up at the hats on the shelf. One was too feminine, but the other, army green with a chin cord, would work just fine. He put it on his head and looked at the bicycle. Even at night taking the car was risky, but he could take the bicycle, though it’d be a long ride to Dan’s.
But he could ride to a payphone.
He stepped outside and looked up at the sky. The sun was still hanging too high. Not only was it still light, but riding a bicycle at 110 degrees would likely prove suicidal. He noticed a thermometer just outside the door. It indicated 102 degrees. Still suicidal.
He stepped back in and returned to pacing.
As he thought about it, Stella hadn’t really been gone that long. If it was him he’d have been in and out of Wal-Mart in less than twenty minutes with food and clothes. But Stella was Stella. He’d give her another half hour, hour on the outside.
He turned the TV back on and mindlessly stared at the rest of the local news and then Wheel of Fortune until it ended. At 7:00 he pushed the bicycle out the door and then just stood there, realizing that Stella took the key. If he locked it he wouldn’t be able to get back in, so he left it unlocked.
It took him a half hour to find a pay phone, by which time the sun was completely gone. The pay phone he found, however, was at a busy, lit like midday, McDonald’s. He kept the hat pulled low and his head down as he dumped change into the phone. He dialed, leaned hard against the wall, closed his eyes and waited.
“Payne,” Dan said into CJ’s ear.
“Mr. Payne, this is Josh McKenzie. We spoke a time back about a piece of real-estate you were interested in. I’m just calling to let you know that the seller has reduced the price and I thought you might like to revisit it if you’re still in the market.”
There was a long pause and CJ was afraid he’d blown it. Then, “Josh McKenzie? I don’t… McKenzie. Oh, yes. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, it has. My seller is anxious now, would like to close a deal soon.”
“Well, tell you what, Mr. McKenzie. I’ll have to get back to you on it. How much is he asking?”
“He’s dropped it to eleven.”
“I appreciate the call, Mr. McKenzie. I’ll have to think on it, discuss it with the wife and all that. Eleven, you said?”
“Yes.”
“Like I said, I’ll get back to you.”
“Certainly. Good talking to you.” CJ hung up, threw a leg over the bicycle and rode out through the back of the McDonald’s parking lot. Two blocks away he stopped in a dark area behind a hedge of overgrown cacti, laid the bike down and peered back between the cactus pads. There were no police vehicles or FBI in unmarked vans screaming into the area. Either Dan’s phone wasn’t being monitored, or they got away with it and Dan didn’t blow the whistle.
Chapter 25
When CJ arrived back at Lizzi’s apartment, Lizzi’s car was there, but when he went to try the door, it was locked. He knocked, waited five seconds and knocked again.
“Stella, it’s me,” he said at the door.
From the corner of his eye he caught movement at the kitchen window, the only window Lizzi had. “Stella, open…”
The door flew open. “Where the hell have you been?” Stella reached to hug him and got tangled in the bicycle.
CJ shoved it aside and pulled her into him with one arm.
“I was about ready to call Dan, figured they’d found you.”
“I...”
“You had me scared out of my mind.”
CJ pushed the bicycle in while Stella pulled the door fully open and stepped out of the way. “I went out to call Dan for the same reason. I thought they’d gotten you. Both of our pictures were on the news as well as the description of your car. You’d been gone two hours.”
“You called Dan?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“Pay phone on Speedway.”
“What did he say?”
“Couldn’t really talk to him in case he was being monitored. He’s been pulled off the case. I found that out on the news.”
“Why was he pulled?”
“Because I was his partner and because we are still good friends.”
She pushed the door closed, locked it, and then put her arms around him again. “You had me so worried. You should have waited, or left a note.”
“Sorry.”
“What did you say to him? I don’t get why you called if you thought he was being monitored.”
“Years ago, when I was still on the force, we had invented a couple of fake names. It was a drug case we were working. I was Josh McKenzie and he was Brian Shako. When he answered I told him I was Josh McKenzie, a real estate agent he’d previously dealt with. I knew he’d recognize my voice and catch on right away. I reminded him of a piece of land he had been considering and that the price had dropped to eleven thousand.”
“Okay. What does that mean?”
“It means that we are meeting tonight at 11:00 at the shack in the desert where we nabbed the drug ring. That was nine or ten years ago so there is no one who is going to figure it out, even if they were listening.”
She pulled him over to the sofa where they sat and she leaned against his shoulder. “How do you know Dan isn’t going to bring his buddies along?”
“He doesn’t like it when the Feds poke their noses into his business. Now he’s been fired from the biggest case of his life, and he’s pissed. Candice Reed ran her interview with him. He had everything he could do to keep his foot out of his mouth about the FBI taking over, couldn’t say FBI without making a face. Also, my hunch is he agrees with me about the perp being
a cop. He doesn’t know who to trust so he won’t be bringing anybody.”
“It doesn’t feel right,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t trust this meeting.”
“I know Dan. He isn’t going to rat us out now. Maybe before when he was on the case, because he has always been duty first, but now... I don’t think so.”
“What if somebody follows him?”
“He’ll suspect he’s being watched and will take evasive action.”
Stella went silent for a time, and then said, “I still don’t like it.”
Stella’s bad feeling killed her appetite. CJ forced her to eat a slice of pizza anyway. He had no problem consuming enough for both of them.
At 9:30 they cleaned up everything and got into the car. Just after 10:00 they were pulling into the Casino Del Sol employee parking lot on West Valencia Road.
“Now we wait,” CJ said.
“Why are we parked here? This is rather public.”
“If I were on this case and suspected that there was a meeting happening nearby, I’d put some assets in the Del Sol parking lot where they could see Valencia Road. The shack, or where it used to be, is almost directly north from here, the other side of Valencia a couple tenths of a mile or so. From Valencia to Irvington it’s about two miles, most of it desert. Right here in front of Del Sol is the only easy access point.” He pointed out the driver’s side window. “Right over there is a utility access road that passes about a hundred yards by the location. Off that is a dirt track that goes right to it. Four-wheelers use the area.
“What do you mean where the shack used to be?”
“After the drug ring was broken, the shack was torn down and hauled away to keep anyone else from making use of it. Dan and I both know where it was, however.”
They sat in silence for a time, watching cars come and go from the casino parking lot, and the traffic passing by on Valencia Road.
Stella broke the silence. “I don’t like the idea that men have pawed through my personal belongings.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know they’ve searched my apartment. A bunch of FBI suit and ties thinking they have license to touch my underwear. When this is over I’m burning it all. There’s no way I’m putting anything they’ve touched against my body.”
“They’re just doing their jobs.”
“Whose side are you on?”
CJ smiled in the dark. He kind of liked it when she got feisty. “Can I go with you when you buy underwear?”
“Shut up.”
He took her hand and they watched a light-colored sedan pull into the employee parking lot and then creep along the row of cars. They had to turn in their seats to watch.
“Could that be Dan?” Stella said.
“His wife’s car is cream colored. I think that’s closer to white. It would make sense for him to take her car, though. I don’t know if he’d come into this parking lot, however.”
The car turned around at the end of the lot, came part way back and then stopped, its headlights filling CJ and Stella’s backseat. They both lowered themselves as much as they could. After a time the passenger’s door opened and a man got out. As he walked toward the building the car accelerated out of the parking lot and turned east on Valencia.
The two of them straightened and turned around. It was 10:33.
In the next fifteen minutes a half-dozen cars came and went, and then one slowed on Valencia. Instead of turning into the employee parking lot it turned north onto the access road CJ had pointed out. Its lights went out and it continued into the desert for fifty yards and then stopped. CJ couldn’t be sure it was Dan, though it sure did look like his silver Tahoe. In the unrestricted light of the full moon, it glowed like a beacon.
“I think you should stay here,” CJ said. “I’m going to go on foot.”
Stella opened her mouth to argue and then closed it.
“There’s no need for both of us to wind up in jail if something goes wrong.”
There was a silent stretch and then Stella said, “Okay.” Her voice sounded unconvinced, though.
“Here’s the plan. If something does go wrong and if I manage to get away, I’ll go north toward Irvington instead of this direction. When I’m able to find a phone, I’ll call you. I have the new number memorized now.”
“How will I know if you get away? If the area gets crazy with cops I’m not going to be able to tell what’s going on.”
“Just wait for my call. You don’t have to wait here. As a matter-of-fact, after I get out you ought to drive back to the Wal-Mart, park there and wait. If everything goes well I’ll have Dan drop me there. If you don’t hear from me by 2:00 in the morning, assume I’m in jail.”
“I want to be part of this meeting,” she said.
“I want you there, too. There’s just too much uncertainty here.” He reached across and touched her cheek, then pulled her closer and kissed her. “I love you, Stella. This is all so we can find this guy. The FBI has nothing but circumstantial evidence so there is no way I’m going down for this. We just need to get through it.”
“I…” She closed her mouth.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’ll wait.”
“You were going to say something else.”
She shook her head. “Not important. Dan is moving on into the desert. You’d better get going.”
CJ turned and watched the SUV disappear into the forest of saguaros, palo verdes and mesquites. He opened the door and got out.
Chapter 26
CJ wished Stella had bought him darker clothes. She thought that light khaki would not attract attention, that he would better blend with the environment. In the light of a full moon he felt like someone was shining a giant search light on him.
At the edge of Valencia he crouched beside a prickly bush and waited until he could not see traffic for several miles in both directions, at which time he sprinted across, onto the dirt road that Dan had taken. He dropped to an easy jog, keeping an eye for potholes, trip hazards and nocturnal creatures. What he didn’t need was an attack by a pack of javelina. In the heat of the summer, after a day of sleeping in the shade, they’d be wide awake and active.
Just as he entered the cacti forest he turned and looked across Valencia, into the employee parking lot. Stella was backing the car out of the parking spot. As she pulled up to Valencia road CJ eased behind a growth of mesquite so as not to be illuminated by her headlights. Her turn signal came on and she pulled onto the road and accelerated east.
CJ turned and continued his trek after the detective, starting to feel Stella’s reservations. Although she didn’t voice it all that much, he could tell she was not at all happy that he was doing this. He stopped for a moment and considered turning around. He could find a phone in the casino and call Stella to come get him. He looked up at the stars and the full moon and tried to come up with an alternative approach to finding the killer. There wasn’t one. He had to have a partner who had connections on the inside, and that could only be Dan.
In the light of the moon CJ was able to easily follow Dan’s track. Once inside the line of desert cacti the dirt road went straight for a long distance. Dan’s tracks turned where CJ expected. He followed that at a trot until he spotted the Tahoe. CJ approached cautiously, not sure if Dan was in the vehicle or watching from a secure location.
“You’re losing your edge, Mr. Washburn.”
CJ turned around to find Dan standing five feet behind him.
“I expected you to be here before me, camouflaged like a saguaro or something.”
“I watched you drive in, glowing like a damn Chinese lantern.”
Dan laughed. “I regretted the color when I drove that thing home from the dealer. Would have had to wait for a black one.”
“And the wife thought it was so pretty,” CJ said.
“Well, there’s that, yes. What can I say?”
“You sure you wer
en’t followed?”
“I can’t believe you even had to ask that question, CJ.”
“Did you check for a tracking device on your Tahoe?”
“I doubt they’re thinking that clearly. They haven’t even put a watch on me yet. There was no one for me to shake.”
CJ didn’t like that, would have expected more from the FBI, but he put the thought away. “I wouldn’t assume anything. Have you put anymore thought into the fact that this might be a rogue cop?”
“You certainly had me thinking down that road and then they pulled me from the case, thanks to you.”
“You didn’t have to blow the whistle on me.”
“CJ, your timing was impeccable. I was in conference with two FBI agents when you called. Not only did I see you waving at me, but so did they.”
Dan lifted the hatch on his Tahoe and opened a cooler. He pulled out two beers, handed one to CJ and sat back against the vehicle. CJ twisted the beer cap and did the same.
“So, Mr. Josh McKenzie, why did you call this meeting?”
“We need to figure out how to narrow the field of cops down to this one individual.”
“How do you know for sure that it’s a cop?”
“Balance the timing with what has been released to the press and you’ll see that it’s either a cop or someone on the inside with all the information. It wasn’t known that I was in Idaho until I checked into the motel in Moscow. Twenty-four hours later he’s there killing so that I would become the number one suspect, not knowing that by that time I was in…”
“Where were you, CJ?”
“I can’t say, but I was at a location way south. I really don’t want to get those parties involved unless I have to.”
“You may have to. The FBI may have seen you when I did, but the woman in Moscow was killed about 11:00 last night. You were spotted here at 10:52 this morning. The way the FBI see it you did the Moscow murder and chartered a private plane to get back here as a way to fool the police into thinking you aren’t the killer. You’re going to get picked up eventually and unless they’ve caught the real killer with a woman’s neck in his hands, you’re going to have to produce your witnesses, and even that is no guarantee. They may wind up becoming accessories if they’re the ones who helped you get away.”
Deserving of Death (CJ Washburn, PI Book 1) Page 11