Killer Weekend

by Ridley Pearson

  The lodge’s private bowling alleys dated back to the hotel’s construction in the 1930s and Averell Harriman’s vision of grandeur. The two lanes stood empty at 12:30 P.M. on a Saturday. The alleys had been a playground for Gable, Stanwyck, Cooper, and Hemingway. Walt could almost smell the Cuban cigars and the bourbon on the rocks mingling with Chanel No. 5. Never renovated through the subsequent decades, the lanes had nonetheless been well maintained, while allowing the history to show. Danny and Walt sat across a linoleum-topped table rimmed with cigarette scars.

  If this table could talk, Walt thought.

  He asked the attendant to give them a few minutes, and the young Swede took off without comment.

  “You mind if I run this thing? Record our conversation?” Walt held an iPod in his hand, a small white brick plugged into its top. He placed the device on the table and tried to get comfortable in the chair.

  “You do what you have to do,” Danny said.

  “Tell me about Ailia Holms.”

  “Yeah. Unbelievable. I thought that’s what this was about.”

  “Because?”

  Danny gave Walt a transparent look. “You’re here, aren’t you? If you didn’t know Allie and I had a thing going-this is before I went…away-you’d be the only one in this town.”

  Danny Cutter’s good looks got in his way at a time like this. Walt couldn’t think of him as normal. A guy that good-looking and that rich.

  “Is that past or present tense?” Walt asked. “The thing.”

  Cutter adjusted himself in the chair. “We had a history. She wanted to update the files, as it turned out. Keep them current. But I discouraged that. Didn’t avoid it completely, but discouraged it.”

  “Physically?”

  “Meaning?”

  “You don’t understand physically discouraging someone?”

  “She can be…difficult…to say no to. Was…I guess I should say. Can’t get used to that.” He moved in the chair once more. Then he lowered his voice, despite the room being empty. “I slept with her the night of Paddy’s party. The cocktail party at his place. During the party. It just kind of happened.”

  Walt had seen the two up on the balcony hallway. He maintained his poker face, but inside he was reeling. He’d not anticipated Danny’s candor. “That sounds like encouragement to me. I’m talking about discouragement.”

  Danny’s eyes went distant, then focused and found Walt. “You’re talking about her arms, aren’t you? I bruised her, didn’t I? She was pissed at me for that. Steaming mad. Said if Stu saw any bruises…She was afraid of Stu. I gather the resentful-old-man thing is not entirely an act.”

  “What bruises?” This was what Walt asked, but mentally he made a note to check on Stuart Holms’s jealousies.

  “She came by the house. This is yesterday morning. We had words. Allie liked getting her way, and our ways were a little divergent. I took it a little too far. What can I say? Shit happens. She liked to play the sex card, and sometimes, quite frankly, it got a little old. Scratch my itch and I’ll do you favors. But I didn’t want any favors.” He paused and rubbed the corner of his lips with his knuckle. “Rehab wasn’t totally lost on me.”

  “Who doesn’t want the favors of a woman like Ailia Holms?” Walt asked.

  “A man who’s had Ailia Holms,” Danny answered. “It wasn’t those kind of favors. It was money stuff. I didn’t want her help, that’s all.”

  Walt said nothing.

  “The really strange thing?” Danny asked rhetorically. “I was attacked by a cougar the day before yesterday. Did you hear about that?” He studied Walt. “I’m sure you did. Thing could have taken me down, taken me out, and instead it turns around and leaves me alone. Just like that. Gets you to thinking, I’ll tell you what. You kidding me? You know what I decided? I want to be useful. To make my life useful. To someone, something, other than me. And I want to get there on my own. Break out the frickin’ violins-I can see it in your face-but I’m serious, Sheriff.” He scratched his lips again. “And now Allie out Adam’s Gulch last night. A cougar. Right? Maybe the same cougar. How bizarre is that?”

  “It’s plenty bizarre,” Walt said flatly. He noted that Danny Cutter had put Ailia’s attack as night. Not even Royal McClure had done so. He struggled with seeing Danny Cutter as guilty. He didn’t want to believe it.

  “So, when was the last time you saw her?” Walt probed.

  “And that’s another thing,” Danny said, not answering directly. “Who goes on a run twice in the same day? Are you buying that? That’s not Allie. That’s not right.”

  “The last time you saw her?”

  “Yesterday afternoon. I had a meeting with Stu-a business thing. Allie stopped by.” He paused. “I’ve got to tell you: I didn’t love it-her stopping by. And Stu was weird about it. They had it planned-frickin’ choreographed-and I was the odd man out. And I hate that.”

  Walt searched the man’s face and decided he was telling the truth.

  “I don’t know how much of this is relevant, Sheriff, but you’re probably going to hear it anyway… Stu agreed to invest some serious money in a thing I’ve got going. I’ve got to tell you: That surprised me in the first place. And then he drops this bomb on me that the deal comes with strings attached. The strings were Allie: I take her on as my partner or forget the investment.”

  “And you didn’t like that because…?”

  “Because of the strings. Whether you or anyone else believes it, I’m serious about changing my act. But the thing is: Stu must have known about us. What kind of husband sets up his wife like that? What kind of fool sense does that make?”

  Walt made notes, wondering at the interconnections and the involvement of the husband. “Maybe later today, maybe Monday, I’ll get the preliminary autopsy report. We’ll know if it was an accident or not.”

  “Since when is a cougar attack not an accident?”

  “I’ve got to ask for your passport, Danny.”

  “What?” The man looked shell-shocked.

  “Everything we’ve discussed here is confidential. I hear it come from someplace else, I’m coming after you, and let me remind you, this conversation was recorded with your consent.”

  “You’re flipping me out. What do you mean ‘not an accident’?”

  “I need your passport on my desk by five P.M. I don’t get it by five, I’ll seek a warrant.”

  “Where are you coming from? Me? I liked Allie. Not an accident? Leave me out of this. Please.”

  “No way to do that. I’m sorry to say this, Danny, but you might want to call Doug.” Doug Aanestad had served as Danny’s attorney during the drug bust.

  “I’m starting over here. I actually have something good going.” He was pleading now. He looked a little pitiful. Sounded childish as he mumbled, “I have a business plan. A good one. Ask Paddy. Come on, Walt. You know this town. I’m toast.”

  “It’s messy,” Walt said. “I wish I could tell you otherwise.”

  “Me in a mess?” Danny asked, sarcastic anger boiling out of him. “Now there’s something new. Give me a break, Walt. Come on! Please.”

  As Walt stood, he stopped the iPod from recording and pocketed the device. He placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder, tried to think of something to say, then turned for the door.

  Sixteen

  F iona was leaning against the Cherokee’s front bumper, impatiently tapping a newspaper against her thigh. She wore khaki capris and a lavender shirt with oversized white buttons. Valet parking had left the Cherokee under the lodge’s massive portico out of the noonday sun. Walt unlocked it with the remote, and Fiona climbed in without invitation.

  As Walt took the wheel she said, “Drive me over to my car, please. It’s too hot to walk, and I’ve been waiting an eternity.” She rolled down the window. “I looked for you everywhere.”

  “You could have called,” he pointed out.

  “I tried. You weren’t picking up.”

  “Ah…I was in the basement. The bowling
alley.”

  She looked at him askance.

  “Business,” he said. “I’m a sucky bowler. Don’t go there.”

  “It’s my fault,” she said, as Walt turned into the massive parking lot looking for her car. He hoped she might direct him, but her tone told him to keep his mouth shut. “You know when you’ve got a name or something right on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t for the life of you remember it? It was like that for me.” She looked at him, her eyes begging that he make the connection.

  Walt stared back blankly.

  “The bird droppings,” she said, holding the newspaper out in front of him now and blocking his vision.

  He took her by the wrist, moved the paper out of his way, and pulled over. “What about them?”

  “I made the photos.”

  “I was there, Fiona. I know that.”

  “Not those photos,” she said dismissively, as if it was the clearest thing in the world. “Read!”

  Walt took the paper from her. It was folded open to page five. The article was titled “Bombs Away: County Pound Goes to the Birds.” Walt recalled his father teasing him about the article.

  “And there’s something else-” she said.

  Walt cut her off. “Let me read.”

  “I blew it.”

  “Hang on. Swallows at the pound,” he said, remembering.

  “Hundreds of them leaving bird droppings on all the cats and dogs,” she said, caught up in his enthusiasm. “The health department threatened-”

  “To close them down. Yes.”

  “Bird droppings, Walt.” She stared at him, once again somewhat condescendingly. “The cougar that was darted was transferred to the Humane Society until Fish and Game figures out what to do with her. She was at the pound, Walt.”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah. That’s about the size of it.”

  Seventeen

  W alt entered the shed extension of the Humane Society a few minutes behind his deputy, Randy Anderson, and a few minutes ahead of Fiona, who’d headed home to pick up equipment. The garish green steel building sat atop a sagebrush knoll three miles out Croy Canyon, west of Hailey, where coyotes cried in the wee hours of the morning and area snowplows struggled to reach in the dead of winter. The volunteer worker, a middle-aged woman Walt recognized from the softball bleachers, threatened him with a cup of coffee. Walt politely declined. He and Anderson donned latex gloves and slipped their boots into paper covers. Anderson, a lanky guy with a narrow, boyish face and big teeth, was as close as Walt’s sheriff’s office got to a forensics technician. He’d taken a single course called Death Sciences at a technical school outside of Nampa, just after high school.

  “You got everything?” Walt asked him, not sure he wanted the answer.

  “Yeah. All set.” Anderson hoisted a black duffel bag. “Take me about five minutes to mix the chemicals.”

  Walt approached the interior door that led to the kennel. From the other side came a chorus of loud barking. He opened it, revealing a central aisle that gave way to shelves of cages of varying sizes on either side. The occasional plywood partition segregated the cat cages from the dogs. Though every effort was made to keep the room smelling clean, it was a losing battle. To Walt’s left stood a much larger, heavily reinforced cage. As with others along the left wall, it offered a sliding door to an outside run, currently padlocked shut. Pacing silently wall to wall, the cougar kept a wary eye on him.

  All down the center aisle he noticed ghostly white stains that had been vigorously scrubbed off the concrete. He looked up and saw the scars where hundreds of the swallows’ mud nests had been plucked off the ridgepole. Dozens more had yet to be removed. A few bold swallows peeked their heads from the remaining nests. Made of dried mud and grass, they looked like tiny caves.

  “It’s a never-ending battle,” the volunteer said from behind him. “And a health issue. Most of the smell is the bird poo, I’m afraid. We’re still working on a more permanent solution.”

  “Can we move the cat?” Walt asked.

  “Oh, no, sir. Not us. Have to call Fish and Game to do that.”

  He shouted, “ Anderson, will the luminol hurt the cat?”

  “Shouldn’t. No, sir. It’s basically nothing more than hydrogen peroxide.”

  “Then hurry it up.”

  Twenty minutes later, Anderson had sprayed the concrete flooring inside most of the cage. The cougar wisely chose to stay as far away as possible during this, pacing the opposite wall from Anderson.

  Fiona arrived. She had donned a hairnet, gloves, and shoe covers and made a point to set up her camera gear quickly.

  “Was she alive when he did it?” Fiona asked.

  “We don’t know anything yet. Let’s take it step by step.”

  Anderson returned from mixing another batch. He backed them away from the cage and sprayed the outside perimeter as well.

  “I’m all set,” Fiona announced.

  “Okay, then.” Anderson plugged in a two-foot tube light-a black light like the kind McClure had used in the morgue. “Okay,” he said, somewhat nervously. “Anything blue-green is evidence of blood.”

  Walt asked the volunteer to leave the room. He shut the door, and as he did the dogs barked viciously in a chorus that ran chills down his spine. He switched the long wire of overhead lights off. The room went dark. Mixed in with the dogs was the sound of Fiona gasping.

  Then Anderson croaked out in raspy voice, “Mother of God.”

  Eighteen

  T he cage floor was stained in ungainly neon green smears and streaks and splatters. It looked like a monochromatic Jackson Pollock painting. Walt maintained his poise as he imagined a semiconscious, paralyzed Ailia Holms being mauled, bitten, clawed, and dragged around the cage.

  As Fiona clicked off time exposures, Walt thought he heard her crying. Anderson pointed out the long green tail that tapered from the edge of the cage toward the room’s central drain.

  “Someone tried to clean it up,” Anderson explained. “Hosed it down. Maybe mopped. Spent some time on it. I’ll luminol the brooms and mops.”

  “We’ll want to check the drain for tissue, the brooms for prints.” Walt indicated an area in front of the cage. “Get pictures of this as well, please.”

  Anderson illuminated the area in question. “Interesting,” he said, his teeth glowing white and standing out from his blue face.

  The green smear indicating spilled blood was interrupted by two columns-representing clean concrete.

  “These are blood shadows,” Anderson explained.

  “I don’t want to ask.” Fiona sounded frightened.

  “Blood splatter traveled out of the cage and was blocked.” Anderson hesitated. “Someone stood here and watched her die.”

  Nineteen

  B randon had rounded up Patrick Cutter’s seven-person staff, and two security personnel, and was detaining them on the patio until further notice, ensuring they didn’t attempt to manipulate the environment or damage possible evidence.

  Doug Aanestad read through the hastily scrawled search warrant. “Must be nice to work in a place where judges can be bent to favor at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.”

  “Small-town living,” Walt said. “This may take a while.”

  “Ginny will make us both a latté, if you’ll release her for a minute. Best latté you’ve ever had. Patrick gets his beans flown in from Colombia.”

  “Pass. Everyone stays where they are.”

  “It’s a fishing expedition, Walt, and you know it. She got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad luck is all.”

  “Don’t I wish.”

  “You have evidence to the contrary?”

  “Don’t you wish,” Walt said. “I don’t share intel with the enemy.”

  “Five minutes, and you can put her back on the patio. I’m telling you: flown in from Colombia. You’ve never tasted anything like this.”

  Walt answered with a glare. Aanestad slumped into a livi
ng room chair that swallowed him. He continued reading the warrant. Again he mumbled something about Walt’s good fortune.

  By 3:30 P.M. Walt was following Anderson around the house, as Anderson chased electrical outlets to power his black light. When Anderson moved toward the master bedroom, Aanestad steered him clear, pointing out that the warrant contained Walt to a search for evidence linked to Danny, his client, and not the owner of the house. Phone calls were made, and Aanestad won.

  Anderson was going through the guest suite when deputies Tilly and Kaiser showed up, beckoning Walt to the six-car garage. Aanestad followed, the vigilante watchdog.

  Several of the garage bays stood empty. Four cars remained: a Hummer, a BMW sports coupe, a gleaming black pickup truck, and a Toyota Land Cruiser. All had their doors open, mats out on the poured concrete; some seats had been removed.

  Walt informed Aanestad, “Just FYI, we have two teams searching both Patrick’s and Danny’s cars over at Sun Valley. It’s all covered in the warrant.”

  “I saw that. I still think it’s a stretch to include all the vehicles when my client claims to have driven only the Lexus. But there you have it.”

  “If you aren’t careful, Doug, someone’s going to accuse you of being Patrick’s lawyer.”

  “I am Patrick’s lawyer-locally,” he clarified, even though he thought Walt knew that. “I represent the family.”

  “We found it over here,” Tilly said, eager to show his prize.

  Walt approached the back of the Land Cruiser with a quickened pulse. Aanestad was getting on his nerves; and Anderson ’s failure to find a speck of blood evidence was beginning to make him look as foolish as Aanestad made him out to be.

  Tilly pointed into the back of the vehicle, where a small white arrow made of removable tape had been fixed to the caramel-colored carpeting.

  Walt’s eyes followed the white arrow, and at first he didn’t see anything. Then he moved slightly to his left in order to catch the light better.

  Aanestad called out, “That’s Patrick’s car. This has nothing to do with Danny.”