by E. R. FALLON
“What have you got for us?” Maple asked as he approached them.
Sheriff Sanchez gave Harry a look like, “Who’s the prick in the suit?”
“This is FBI agent Maple,” Harry said.
Sanchez shook his hand.
“The guy’s wife is inside. Mrs. Baker. She was in shock, which is why she waited a while to call us. His name was Michael … Mike. Not only did we find the car you were looking for but the wife says her husband was murdered by a man who matched Albert Fisher’s description. The guy shot him to death. Her husband ran out of the house when he saw his brand new pickup truck being stolen. It was very early in the morning so he’d just stepped out of the shower and was naked when he ran outside. He had an early shift at the factory and had been getting ready for work. Mrs. Baker says she saw two women with Fisher. One of them matches the description of his sister, Joyce.”
Harry got the info on the stolen pickup truck from the sheriff and called Nolan to issue an alert for the vehicle to police in the area.
“What did the other woman look like?” Harry wanted to question the wife directly but she didn’t want to overstep into another department’s case, nobody in law enforcement ever liked that, so she treaded carefully.
Sheriff Sanchez leafed through her notepad. “Long brown hair. Brown eyes. And the wife said it looked like she had an athletic build from what she could see of the woman in the car.”
That sounded a lot like Emily Will.
“Could she tell her height?”
“Not from inside the truck, no.”
Harry didn’t believe that killing the man in his driveway had been part of the Fishers’ plan, but they were smart enough to understand that the police might be looking for Emily’s car and knew they needed to switch cars. To think that if Dr. Tompkins hadn’t been killed, then his assistant wouldn’t have called the police, and then Harry wouldn’t have spoken to Smith Reed and found out that Emily had been taken by the Fishers, plagued Harry. They might have gotten away with the crimes and gotten away from Harry, maybe for good.
And Emily Will, she wasn’t in on Joyce and Albert’s plans, or was she? Harry loathed thinking that way but she had to as part of her job.
“Mind if we have a look at the car?” Harry asked with the deference she always used whenever on another cop’s territory, even though her department had powers in the whole county.
“Go right ahead.” Sheriff Sanchez gestured to the small red vehicle. “Our forensics unit already combed through most of it. We’ll let you know if we find anything once the results are in.”
Harry envied Sheriff Sanchez for having a forensics team at her disposal despite her territory being a rural area also.
“I can already tell you that a senior member of our team found what appeared to be fertilizer residue in the car’s trunk,” Sheriff Sanchez said.
Maple looked shocked. “They have a bomb with them?”
“We can’t confirm it but it’s possible,” Sheriff Sanchez said. “I trust you’ll notify the bomb squad?”
Harry spoke for Maple. “I’ll do it.”
Harry couldn’t figure out what the Fishers would need a bomb for. Just how exactly did that work into their plans? They didn’t strike her as fanatics. Did they envision a bomb, as what, extra security against the police?
“I have to call Nolan about this,” Harry told Maple.
She excused herself and went off to the side to make the call to the captain so that he could alert the bomb squad, and the nearest belonged to another town miles away.
When Harry returned, Maple went with her to Emily Will’s abandoned car. They both put on plastic gloves they’d retrieved from their pockets and Harry approached the already opened driver’s side door first. The sheriff department’s forensics team had already dusted the steering wheel for fingerprints so Harry inspected the car floors in the front while Maple dealt with the back seats. She pulled a clear evidence bag out of her pocket and put a fast food hamburger wrapper and empty plastic cup and straw into individual bags to bring back with them to test for DNA. Sheriff Sanchez might not have been keen on them taking evidence, but Harry reasoned that what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
“Find anything?” she asked Maple.
“Just a lot of garbage. Who do you think is the slob, Emily Will or the Fishers?”
“Who knows?” Harry shrugged. “Maybe both.”
Maple bagged a French fry container he’d found and Harry seized his bag from him and clutched it in her hands with her own evidence bags. She went over to their car and discreetly tossed them into the back seat while the sheriff was talking with one of her deputies.
Harry checked in with Sanchez and then she and Maple went inside Mike Baker’s home. Although the FBI had dipped their toes in the case, it was still very much Harry’s investigation.
Mrs. Baker sat on the couch with the television on low volume. Her young, fair-haired daughter watched cartoons from the floor. An older woman sat with her arm around Mrs. Baker. Her mother? Her husband’s mother? Mrs. Baker had a wad of crumpled tissues in her hand.
Harry and Maple introduced themselves. His good manners surprised Harry. The little girl smiled at them and Maple crouched down to her level to say hello, which left Harry pleasantly surprised too. Although she didn’t think she’d settle down or have children, she liked kids.
After a moment, the older woman got up and collected the child and went into another room.
“Mike’s mother doesn’t think Callie, she’s our daughter, should hear me talk about what happened to Mike.” The woman sobbed and pressed the tissues against her eyes and nose.
“Mrs. Baker?” Harry said gently.
“Call me Sandra.”
“Sandra, we’re the team investigating the people who we believe murdered your husband. We’d like to speak with you for a few minutes.”
“Somebody, that sheriff gal, she already talked to me.”
“I understand that and I understand that, as the law around these parts, she’s the main person handling your husband’s case, but we’re conducting the investigation of the people we believe—”
“I know who they are.”
Sandra picked through a stack of old newspapers and magazines on the coffee table, and much to Harry’s shock, there was a regional newspaper dated from yesterday that had what looked like a long, detailed story about the auction house robbery and murders, in particular the story of Albert and Joyce Fisher. The Fishers names hadn’t been released to the public until then. And Harry was mentioned as the lead investigator, with Maple only mentioned as “the FBI agent assisting Detective Cannon”.
Sandra handed the paper to Harry and she continued to skim the article, which contained things that nobody except for the police knew, like the fact that the Fishers’ father hadn’t died. Thank, God, the journalist had left out the part about them kidnapping Emily Will. The information in the article must have been leaked before Smith Reed made his statement.
Somebody in her office, another cop, must have leaked the details to the press, along with an old mugshot of Albert and Joyce’s driver’s license photo. Oh, crap. This wasn’t good at all. She showed it to Maple, who gasped. A double homicide and robbery was unheard of in those parts, in what was considered a safe, quiet area, with only the occasional small theft, from what Nolan had told Harry.
Nolan had been her boss for less than week but already she respected him because he earned her respect. The problem with Maple was that he demanded respected because of his status, he didn’t want to earn it from his team.
The town and nearby area was eager for news about the auction crime – the last big story, according to Nolan, had been the wildfires last summer that destroyed thousands of acres in the county – and so whoever had leaked the never-before-seen info to the press might have gotten a nice chunk of money, but there would be hell to pay over it. She hadn’t known Nolan for long, but he didn’t seem like the type of captain who would allow something
like this to go by unnoticed. Somebody might be out of a job soon.
“They said you’re the lead investigator?” Maple spoke in disbelief.
“They did,” Harry said smartly. That was the only positive thing about the article, that she’d been given all the glory. “Technically, I am. You’re just here helping us out.”
“If you can call it that,” Maple mumbled.
“Are you all okay?” Sandra seemed to notice their bickering.
Harry understood the irony of her being worried about them when they were the police.
“Look at them.” Sandra poked her finger at the Fishers’ photos in the article. “Those faces, those eyes. They look evil, they just look evil.”
“Can I keep this?” Harry asked about the newspaper.
Sandra nodded and Harry tucked it under her arm.
Harry still wondered a little if Emily Will was working with Joyce and Albert. “Sheriff Sanchez told me you said you saw a second woman in the car,” she said to Sandra. “What was her demeanor like?”
“She was crying. The man and the older woman weren’t. I couldn’t stop looking at the younger woman because she was crying so much. I kept thinking, why would a bad person with that bunch be crying about my husband? There’s nothing about her in the newspaper article, just about those two. Who is she? They kidnapped her, didn’t they?”
“We believe so, yes.” Sandra’s warm presence had made Harry divulge too much.
Once again, Harry thought that Emily couldn’t be guilty. That’s how investigations typically went: Harry would think one thing and then another, and so on, until she homed in on what could be considered the absolute truth.
“I’ll say a prayer for her safe return,” Sandra whispered.
“That’s very kind of you,” Maple said, to Harry’s surprise.
A few minutes later, Harry exited the house with Maple and waved goodbye to Sheriff Sanchez as they walked to their car for the long, night-time drive back to the station.
“I’ll call your office with any results as soon as we have them,” the sheriff said.
“Great. Thanks,” Harry replied.
A lamppost lit the end of the dark driveway where the body had been found.
Maple surprised her by striking up a conversation on the drive back to the station. “Why did you tell Sandra Baker that the Fishers kidnapped Emily Will?”
Once again, Harry drove. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that question. She won’t tell anyone.”
“Are you sure?”
“It was a mistake. Okay? I shouldn’t have done it.”
“You know, you’re wrong about me,” he said after a period of silence.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m assuming you’ve pegged me as someone who hasn’t earned my place. But I bet you didn’t know I used to be a regular cop before I joined the FBI at twenty-eight.”
“You went to college?” she asked. “I didn’t.”
“No college. We’re more alike than you thought.”
Harry grumbled, “I don’t know about that,” but inside she respected Maple a little more.
“You know who did go to college?” Maple said.
“Who?”
“Carlow.”
Harry started to laugh.
“It’s true,” Maple said. “He told me.”
“I didn’t know you guys were friends. He became a cop right after college?”
“I think so. We’re friendly, not friends. He mentioned something about liking to cook, but I don’t know if he’s any good at it.”
“He got his job because of his dad,” Harry said.
“You don’t know that.”
“Oh, yeah, I do.”
“You’re way too hard on other people sometimes.”
“My job is to question other people. Besides, I can be hard on myself as well.”
“I’m sure you can be,” Maple said.
They were quiet for the rest of the drive.
At the station Harry wasn’t surprised to find Nolan and Carlow still there despite the late hour. Nobody would be returning home until the killers were apprehended, and no one wanted to return home until that happened. It was a cop’s instinct to go full throttle until a case concluded.
Maple had mentioned he was staying in a motel just outside of town, but he declined a ride from Harry to the motel so he could also go to the station.
Nolan’s office door was open and Harry walked in and set the newspaper Sandra let her take on top of Nolan’s desk. She didn’t bother asking if she could sit down.
Harry opened the paper and showed him the article. “I always read the paper, but not lately. Still, how did I not know about this? Did you know about this?”
Nolan closed the newspaper and sighed. He sat up straight. “I did know about it. I didn’t say anything to you or the rest of the department because I wanted to keep it discreet while I looked for the leaker.”
Harry’s outrage softened. The captain had a plan. She hadn’t known him for long, but she regretted not trusting his judgement.
“And I think I know who it is,” Nolan said. “We’re a small station, so it wasn’t too hard to figure out.”
Harry immediately thought of Carlow. “Was it Officer Carlow?”
“No,” Nolan said somberly. “Detective Cannon, Carlow’s not a bad kid. He can be a bit of a slacker, but his old man was always honest and I like to think his son shares the same quality.”
Harry had been about to respond, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” but thought better of it.
“I think Officer Richards leaked the info to the press.”
“The guy who took Sharon McGuire’s statement?” Harry mused out loud. “Makes sense.”
“Yeah, and his sister works for the newspaper.”
“Wow. Maybe we should’ve been more careful.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. This is a small town. Everyone knows everyone else. These kind of things are bound to happen every so often. That’s how it is in a place like this.”
“I wonder how much they paid him?”
“Who knows? Maybe not a lot. He might have just been trying to help out his sister.”
Harry nodded in agreement. “So how long will he be suspended for?”
Nolan cleared his throat. “He’s been fired, actually.”
Harry took a step close to the captain’s desk. “Don’t you think that’s a little harsh? Back in the city if a cop did something like this, there would be a process and maybe they’d get suspended. It’s not like he committed a crime.”
“It’s different here, and we play by different rules. We’re a small town and trust is very important to this department, and if I can’t trust Officer Richards, then I can’t have him working here any longer. And I don’t feel like I can trust him.”
It wasn’t the choice Harry herself would have made but Nolan was her superior and she would have to respect his wishes. But because she was Harry, and it was in her nature to defend a fellow cop, she couldn’t resist saying one more thing. “Don’t you think Richards’ probably learned his lesson? I mean, it’s a big lesson to learn.”
“No offense, Cannon, but it’s not your place to make that judgement.”
“Understood, sir,” Harry said right away. She would have to drop the matter because Nolan clearly didn’t want to talk about it further.
Her phone rang. “I think it’s work,” she said.
Nolan nodded at her to take the call.
Harry was relieved to find it wasn’t the unknown caller. It was the forensics lab. The DNA results from Emily Will’s car were ready.
“The DNA on the items appears to belong to three people, two female and one male. All adults,” the lab said. “We only have Mr. Fisher’s fingerprints on file and not his DNA. One of the steering wheel prints match Albert Fisher’s. The other two are female fingerprints from two separate adult women.”
It made sense for Emily’s prints to be on the w
heel since the car belonged to her. The other set of female fingerprints had to have been Joyce Fisher’s.
Then the lab said, “We can confirm that the gun used to kill Michael Baker was the same one used to kill Dan Wesley.”
Albert’s gun.
Harry relayed to Nolan what had been said to her on the phone. “They’re faxing over the results, too.”
“Good. I want you to take a drive to Emily Will’s former place of employment in the morning. The flight school’s just outside of town. You can take Carlow with you if you’d like.”
“No, thanks. I think I’ll do this on my own.”
“That’s the answer I expected from you.” Nolan looked down at the newspaper on his desk.
Harry couldn’t tell if she’d somehow angered him. “With due respect, sir, what do you mean?”
“I’m not sure how you did things in the city but out here we’re a team. A small team, but a team nonetheless. All I’m saying is, that it wouldn’t hurt for you to get to know your fellow team members better.”
“Even Maple?” Harry sounded aghast.
“Well, maybe not him.” Nolan smiled. “Why don’t you go home and get some rest?”
“You know that rule about us not sleeping until a case is solved?”
“I’m aware of that rule, but I think it’s something more of you younger people follow.”
“I don’t think I can leave this place,” she said, not without sarcasm.
“Go visit your brother, then, and that adorable niece and nephew of yours.”
The captain knew her brother because their children attended the local schools.
“I’m not sure about that either,” Harry said. “It’s hard enough to face my brother, let alone those sweet kids.”
“Go. You’ll feel better after.”
Harry didn’t know Mickey’s young kids that well anymore since she had lived far away from them for a long time. It was unfortunate that she was only getting to know them now under the awful present circumstances. She wanted to be there for them, but part of her worried they’d start relying on her too much in their mother’s absence, and Harry didn’t like being tied to any place. And if she made strong ties with her brother’s children, then that could happen. She felt like a terrible person for fearing that, yet she did.