Sinister Justice

by Steve Pickens

  “Not from me he doesn’t. And Sharon thinks he’s a complete pig, so no worries there.”

  “Dorval’s got far worse things on his hands than rehashing a closed case.”

  “Don’t I know it? I’m sorry, Alex,” Haggerty said.

  “You can’t apologize for other people. For the record, I had nothing to with my father’s death. I had nothing to gain by it. While I indirectly gained from Reed Longhoffer being killed, I had nothing to do with that, either. I did not in any way have anything to do with any of the murders. You’ve got my word on it.”

  “That’s good enough for me, Alex.”

  “Besides, you’ve already checked out my alibis,” Alex said with a wink. Haggerty cleared his throat and looked away, Alex braying with laughter. “You’re just doing your job, I know. But you can tell that son of a bitch Dorval you’re wasting your time by continuing to bother me on this issue. I know you have a list of suspects a mile long.”

  “You aren’t kidding there.”

  “Dorval really is a coward, isn’t he?” said Alex.

  “And a bully. One day he’ll get his.”

  A silence fell between the two men. Jake and Sam waited anxiously for one or the other to say something, but only the sounds of horns from the passing tugs shattered the quiet. For a moment, they considered back stepping and clearing out, afraid of one or the other discovering them, but then Alex spoke.

  “I have to get going. I’m expected to be there when the Chinook arrives. It won’t take long for her to get there.”

  “I realize that. I’m sorry to have stolen the thunder from your day,” said Haggerty.

  “Nonsense. I don’t see how being accused of multiple murders and being a complete psychopath put a damper on the day at all. Take it easy, Adam.”

  “Won’t be any of that for a time, I’m afraid,” Haggerty said. Jake could hear how tired he was.

  “Keep with it, Adam, you’ll get there. And when you do, let me know when you find the man who baked my father like a Duncan Hines cake mix. If it weren’t for how badly my mother took it, I think I’d thank him,” Alex said, starting to walk directly toward Jake and Sam.

  Sam grabbed Jake by the collar and dragged him around the corner so rapidly that his heels cut tracks in the gravel. They ducked behind a large wooden crate just in time for Alex to go stomping past them, heading for his Jaguar.

  “That was close,” said Jake.

  “A bit, yes,” Sam breathed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Sam and Jake went back to Jake’s PT Cruiser, joining the procession of cars moving slowly down Enetai Avenue to the spot where the Chinook was to be permanently moored. Jake glanced down at Wilde Park as they crossed the bridge over the creek, wondering if such an innocuous piece of land had truly sparked the murders of three people.

  It was three, now, as he had suspected all along. Alex had said as much to Haggerty. They were now dealing with three homicides in their sleepy little burg. No wonder Haggerty was sounding exhausted.

  “…And then I thought we’d take the alligator with us,” said Sam.

  “What? What are you talking about? What alligator? Oh, I get it. Paraphrasing Pratchett at me. I see how you are. Well, then, what was I missing out on while lost in thought?”

  “I suspect you were thinking about what I was talking about,” said Sam. “The fact that Daddy Dearest didn’t depart this world via natural causes.”

  “You know, it is scary how much we think alike. I was, indeed, thinking of that. Did I hear correctly when Alex made reference to a Duncan Hines cake?”

  “You did,” said Sam, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Hansel and Gretel?”

  “If memory serves, the Blackburn home on Dormer Window road is one of those retro Victorian affairs, replete with faux trim, which, in architectural terms, was called gingerbread. I can’t decide whether this guy is being creative or just a horrible plagiarist.”

  “Jacob,” Sam scolded. “A man is dead.”

  “On the other foot,” said Jake, turning down the newly cut road named Chinook Place, “I can’t also decide if he’s doing us a service or not. These have all been horrible, awful people.”

  “I can hardly find an argument for that. And I feel damn guilty over it.”

  Scrubby brush gave way to sculptured grounds that had obviously been landscaped. Full-grown Japanese cherry trees flanked the road. Empty of blossoms now, their branches were wrapped in white LED fairy lights. A handsome copper archway stretched over the road, spelling out CHINOOK HOTEL in script, flanked by leaping Salish-styled Chinook salmon. To either side of the letters were stylized depictions of the ship. The arch was lighted in soft pink spotlights. They drove through the arch, following the road down a gentle hill to the parking lot three hundred feet away.

  The parking lot looked natural. The back-to-back angled parking lines were broken in the middle by a long median peppered with more Japanese maples, rhododendrons, and ornamental grasses. The parking lot was surrounded by carefully cut lawn leading to a nine-hole golf course and beyond that was a large forested area.

  “He’s done a hell of a lot of work,” Sam said. “This was just a thicket of blackberries before.”

  “I know,” said Jake, pointing to the large breakwater where the Chinook was going to call home. “Looks just like the one the Queen Mary is in down at Long Beach. She’ll be safe from any kind of wave action in there, and impact from the tide will be pretty minimal.”

  “She’ll be floating, but you’ll hardly notice it. There’s a spot,” he said, pointing out an empty spot in the rapidly filling lot.

  Hopping out of the car, Jake crossed a small footbridge over a creek that burbled loudly. He snapped some photos of the Chinook making her stern-to approach, then stopped to look at the creek below him. He couldn’t remember a creek under Enetai Avenue at this location, and made a mental note to ask Alex about it. He snapped more photos of the Chinook as Alex stood behind a podium temporarily erected on the gangplank that, for the moment, was attached to nothing. Jake clomped off the footbridge and made his way through the crowd to the front of the audience, where he spotted, among others, Reverend Crawford, Evelyn O’Conner, Police Chief Sanderson, Marion Burd, Professor Mills, Emma Kennedy and Randy Burrows, who was setting up a video camera for KABW.

  Alex caught sight of Jake and Sam and flashed his usual million-dollar smile, then began speaking.

  “Thank you all for attending the relocation of this historic vessel to its new permanent home. It is my hope that the Chinook becomes a tourist draw that will benefit the entire community.”

  Applause was scattered. Jake watched everyone’s reactions carefully to see if he could tell anyone bearing ill will toward Alex and his endeavor. He didn’t wish for him to become the next victim of the “Concerned Citizen” of Arrow Bay.

  “As you can see there is still much work to be done. The restoration of this area, which was home to the Arrow Bay Cannery before it burned down, contained highly contaminated soil deposits, which have been thoroughly cleaned. The undeveloped area on the other side of Chinook Creek will be restored to the wetlands it once was before the cannery filled in the land there.”

  Jake ducked behind Sam as Randy Burrows swung the camera around to film the area in question. Jake noted with some irony Alex was not mentioning the copse of trees was going to contain a good-sized lodge at some point.

  “The restaurant onboard the Chinook will feature locally grown produce, locally raised meats, and seafood caught by Arrow Bay fishermen. I’ve been lucky enough to entice my good friend Chef Keith Selman and a good number of his staff to take over the Chinook Winds Restaurant.”

  There were audible gasps at this, followed by a great deal of enthusiastic applause. Jake looked at Sam with one eyebrow raised, unsure of why this was such a big deal, other than the obvious fact that he must have been a well-known chef.

  “You never watch the Food Network, do you?” asked Sam.r />
  “No… Well known?”

  “Right up there with Emeril Lagasse or Rachael Ray. Whole line of cookbooks and the like. It’ll be quite a coup to have him in Arrow Bay.”

  “The Illahee Inn’s incomparable pastry kitchen will be providing all the bread and baked goods served here, as well as trying out some new recipes, thanks to the generous efforts of Emma Kennedy.”

  “Ah ha,” said Jake under his breath.

  Alex glanced over his shoulder, where the Chinook lay poised to be eased into her new slip. He nodded toward several workers who had been standing aside. “Folks, we all need to step back and give the experts in this plenty of room while they ease her in. I’ll close by saying thank you for coming, and there are commemorative ornaments being distributed to all who attended today. I hope you’ll join me again in the spring, hopefully sooner, when we open for business. Thank you,” he said, with a deep bow, hurrying off the podium as they wheeled the gangplank away. He shook several hands and said something to Marion Burd, who nodded and stepped away.

  Jake spotted Jason snapping more photos as the Chinook eased back into the slip. Alex watched, turning away with a wince. He spotted Jake and Sam and he worked his way over to meet them. “I can’t watch it at this point. I know it’ll be okay, but I just don’t want to watch in case something happens.”

  “It’ll be fine, Alex,” Sam reassured.

  “I hope. I hate giving speeches. I’m much happier giving interviews. I told Marion I’d be with her in about twenty minutes.”

  “Spring before you open?”

  “Yep. There’s still fitting out to do. None of the furniture or restaurant equipment is in yet. None of the decorating has happened either. There’s a lot of bare steel still in there,” he said. “A walk through right now would be pretty disappointing.”

  “He’s right, Jake.” Sam said, watching closely as the Chinook backed into the slip. “Are you closing the front end off?”

  “Yes. Same load of boulders as the ones that make up the jetty. The hull paint is good for fifty or more years, so I’ll leave it to the next person as to how they’re going to get the rocks out of the way,” said Alex. “There will be a small electrical current run though the hull to discourage marine growth as well, and of course the creek empties into the holding bay which will keep the salt content down.”

  “Where does that water come from? I don’t remember ever seeing a creek there on Enetai Avenue.”

  “There isn’t one. It comes out of the woods there—it’s all run off from the hillside. Every time they cut more trees down up around Sky Heights, the water jumps. It’s down to a trickle in the summer, but it keeps on coming. There’s a large pond behind the lodge site back there, and it is very deep.”

  “I notice you left out any mention of said lodge.”

  “No reason to start off on the wrong foot. Truth is,” he whispered, “it’s all been pre-zoned and permitted. I can start construction any time, but I want to make sure the old girl is turning a profit before I get into it.”

  “Nice deal you’ve struck with Emma.”

  Alex turned and let out a sigh of relief; the Chinook was in. The vessel’s white flank was nearly eye watering in the muted November light, thrown into particular relief by the red stripe running the length of the vessel. In the stripe was a long line of portholes, sunlight winking on the glass like eyes. Her regal profile, while not quite towering above them, was certainly a sight to behold.

  “Gibbs called her the ‘Queen Elizabeth’ of the inland seas,” said Alex with a reverent tone in his voice.

  “Gibbs thought highly of his own work,” said Jake, looking the vessel up and down. “Still, she’s lovely, Alex. I’m glad you saved her.”

  “As am I,” agreed Sam.

  Jake’s patience began to frazzle a bit. As much as he appreciated the Chinook and truly admired her, he was determined to get some information out of Alex. Alex and Sam continued to rhapsodize about the ship’s lines and her lovely profile and how it was all going to be such a huge success until Jake finally blurted out, “Alex, what really happened to your father?”

  Alex looked at Jake then to Sam, and then burst out laughing. “I am again victim of the Finnigan directness. But I’m going to put you on the spot, Jake, what exactly have you found out?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Jake, you know you’re incapable of telling a lie.”

  “Okay, okay, we sort of overheard you,” Jake said.

  “I know. I saw you. Don’t worry, I’m not angry. I know you couldn’t exactly help overhearing what Adam and I were talking about.”

  “I had no idea you knew one another.”

  “We met at college. The summers I spent up here and in the islands, Adam and I got together for much of it—we share a scuba diving enthusiasm. Quite by accident, we ended up at the UW at the same time. We drifted apart when I left the country to do the genealogy work in Britain. When I came back to Arrow Bay we renewed an acquaintanceship, but it was nothing like the friendship we once had.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I am, too. I hope we can get back to where we were, but between his job and mine, it’s been difficult to schedule anything. And when Adam isn’t working, he’s usually wrapped up in some woman or other.”

  “Does he suspect you of…?” Jake couldn’t quite bring himself to finish the sentence.

  “Of bashing my father over the head and baking him at four-fifty in an industrial sized oven? No.” He looked up into Jake’s eyes. “You don’t, do you?”

  Jake had to think for a fraction of a second. He tried to think of Alex disabling his father by smashing a gold candlestick into his skull, then putting the prone, bleeding man into his own oven, turning it up, and then walking out, knowing that his mother would surely be the one to discover the body.

  “No,” he said. “No, I don’t think you could have done that.”

  “Ah, but paying someone to do it, that you can see me capable of,” he said, grinning. “Adam thought the same thing.”

  “Well…”

  “Don’t feel bad about it, Jake. Just think about the situation. Does it make much sense that I’d do that?”

  Alex had everything he wanted and had exacted the best revenge on his father by taking the family business away from him. He looked Alex straight in the eye and said, “No, it doesn’t.”

  “And if I was going to pay someone to kill dear old Dad, it would have been to my advantage to do so before I took over the company. Would have made my wresting control of it a lot easier,” Alex said, running his fingers through his hair. “I’ve atoned for a lot of my sins in many ways, Jake, and I’m trying to live my life in as much harmony as I can, but killing my old man was too good for him. Getting the company away from him, watching him wriggle and suffer over it—that was getting back for all the rotten things he did to me as a kid. And an adult. Killing him would have deprived me of that.” He shook his head. “God that sounds horrible. It’s awful and wrong and I’m trying to let it go, but someday I’ll tell you everything that bastard did to me and maybe it won’t sound so terrible.”

  “Alex, I think I have a very good idea of what you mean,” said Sam. “Trust me, it doesn’t sound as horrible as you might think.”

  “It’s still not karmically healthy,” Alex said. “Now that the old guy is dead, maybe I can let it go finally.”

  “I think you’ll find it helps a lot. I speak from experience.”

  Alex gestured to a bench, and the three of them sat down, Alex in the middle. They watched as the crews continued to secure the Chinook. A door had opened on what had once been the car deck level, and the gangplank lowered.

  “Dad was trying to wrestle control of the company from me. I really should put the emphasis on trying. There’s no way he could touch us. There is, refreshingly, too much of the Blackburn family on my side of the issue to go back. We’re already turning a healthy profit a full year ahead o
f schedule, even with all the capital expenditure,” he said, motioning to the Chinook. “Those that were on the fence were happy to be making more money and figured why mess with something that wasn’t broken?”

  “What’s up with Dorval?” Jake asked. “Isn’t he like a manager or something?”

  “I don’t think they call it that, but he is Adam’s superior. As for what is up with him, he’s incapable of believing people can change. Dorval knew me from my youth—God that makes me sound like an old fart, doesn’t it?”

  “A bit,” Sam said. “Did you grow up with him?”

  “Kind of. My parents owned a summerhouse near where the Dorvals lived. They always resented our money. I think Nelson Dorval feels I’m the apple that didn’t fall too far from the tree.”

  “Then he’s an idiot,” Jake said. “All he’d have to do is talk to you for five minutes to realize…”

  “Thank you for that, Jake. And there, of course, is the problem. I could talk until I was blue in the face. It wouldn’t do any good as far as Nelson Dorval is concerned. I’m cut from the same Blackburn cloth as my bastard father.”

  “We heard Haggerty asking about the Susan Crane thing,” said Sam.

  “Then you know he is satisfied with how things ended up.”

  “Could Dorval make an issue of it?”

  “No. I’ll see to it.”

  “Alex—” Jake said warningly.

  “Ah, there you are, Jake, my conscience at my shoulder. Don’t worry,” Alex said, ruffling Jake’s hair. “Nothing bad or illegal. I will say having money and political connections proves useful from time to time. Is that enough information?”

  “Let’s just say I don’t need any more.”

  “I know Haggerty doesn’t suspect you, but I gathered from his tone that he considers personal issues to be a likely motive,” Sam said.

  “He did. He does. You have to understand, Adam is under tremendous pressure to bring someone in. The chief is leaning on him to get this solved. There’s talk of having the FBI come in, though I admit I’m not completely sure how that works.”