by Jeff Carson
“What do you want?” Attakai’s voice was muffled.
Wolf heard it loud and clear, but he pretended to hear nothing.
Attakai knocked on the glass with the side of the barrel. “What. Do. You. Want?”
Wolf gave him an icy stare. “Open up, deputy. I have some news.”
Wolf knew every man and woman in the department, but after the county merger a few years ago and new hires, like Deputy Attakai, there were a lot more of them. And since the creation of his detective squad, he’d been spending most of his time with a lot less of them, which meant he had more colleagues, but not necessarily more friends and allies. Attakai had been friends with Barker. Attakai was no ally.
Attakai flicked the lock and pulled the door open a few inches, keeping his gun at his far side. “What do you want?”
“You heard about Lindsay Ellington?”
Attakai nodded. “Yeah. I just saw it on the news. So what? It had nothing to do with—”
Wolf gripped both hands on the door and pulled as hard as he could. The door slammed to the hilt and shattered. Wolf was inside before the first shards of glass hit the floor.
Attakai stumbled backward against a chair and raised his gun. “Stop!”
Wolf raised his hands just inside the door. The glass continued to splash onto the floor and the deck outside. “I figured it out, deputy.”
“What? What the fuck are you doing? You broke my door.”
“Where is he?”
“I could shoot you right now!” Attakai’s teeth were bared.
There was a frantic knock on the front door. “FBI open up!” It was a female agent’s voice.
Attakai leaned to the hallway and looked.
Wolf sidestepped out of aim’s way and lunged for the gun. Taking it out of the deputy’s hands in one motion, he ejected the chambered round, dropped the magazine into his other hand and threw them all out the back door.
Attakai watched the hardware clatter off the deck and into the grass. He closed his gaping mouth and leaned against the wall. His chin tilted back, reminding Wolf of his cousin Hector when he’d made the same defiant gesture.
“Get the hell out of here,” Attakai said.
“They found Lindsay Ellington this morning.”
“I know. And I didn’t do nothing. Why don’t you ask them? They were outside watching me all night. I didn’t do anything.”
The knocking on the front door became pounding. “Open up!” Now it was a male’s voice.
Attakai eyed Wolf’s holstered gun. “Help!”
The door rattled.
“Where’s Fred?” Wolf asked.
Attakai made a sour face. “You punks don’t get it. I’m not working with that freak. Those feds planted that phone at my house. I’ve never seen that thing in my life.”
“I believe you’ve never seen the phone. But I don’t believe you about Fred. So I’ll ask you again. Once. Where’s Fred?”
Attakai’s defiance wavered. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Footsteps were thumping past the kitchen windows, rounding the back of the condo.
For a moment Attakai looked scared, and then the next moment he ducked and dove at Wolf, grabbing both hands around his thighs as he dug his shoulder into Wolf’s groin.
Wolf put his right hand over his gun and kneed Attakai in the face at the same time he was wrapped into the man’s two-leg wrestling take down. Attakai’s face jerked up and to the side as Wolf connected a skull-jarring blow, but Wolf was still caught in the man’s grasp and fell backward into the kitchen table, his back slamming onto the wood.
The table gave way under their combined weight crashing down, and for an instant the bottom dropped out of his stomach, and then they slammed onto the ground in a heap.
His breath was pushed out of his lungs and more broken glass rained down. Wolf felt a shard bounce off his forehead and the warm flow of blood running into his hair.
Attakai got to his knees and threw wild punches down onto his head.
Wolf pushed Attakai away with his left arm. His right arm was occupied with keeping his gun in his holster so he jammed his head forward, connecting his forehead with Attakai’s mouth and nose.
Attakai grunted in pain, his lower face painted in blood from Wolf’s wound and the blood gushing from his nose.
The deck outside rumbled and Hannigan came barreling through the door, and just like that Attakai was off of Wolf and sailing through the air with flailing limbs.
“Wolf! What’s happening?” Luke came in after her partner, her eyes wide. “What are you doing?”
Wolf ignored her and got up. Blood flowed into his right eye.
Attakai was wiping blood from his lip safely behind Hannigan’s bulky frame, which left Wolf little choice but to go through Hannigan.
Hannigan’s eyes popped wide. “What are you do—”
Wolf pushed the FBI agent with all his strength, sending him toppling backwards over Attakai into the hallway. Before the tumbling mass of body parts was through hitting the ground, Wolf grabbed Attakai by the shirt, pulling him hard toward him. Attakai’s shirt fabric ripped as Wolf reeled him over.
With lightning speed, before Hannigan had a chance to interfere, Wolf clamped a sleeper hold onto Attakai’s neck. “Where is he?”
“Wolf!” Luke had her hand on her gun, unsure whether or not to pull it. “Who? Who are you talking about?”
Attakai’s face was bright red and trending blue. Wolf had a grip and there was no letting go.
Hannigan got to his feet, his face twisted into a controlled rage that had Wolf glad there was a body between him and the agent. “Let him go.”
“No. Where is he?”
Luke bent over Wolf. “Explain yourself!”
Wolf just tightened his grip. He thought of Sally Claypool, her mother, he thought of Lindsay Ellington and the life that could have been, snuffed out by a monster. He thought about Bud Ellington, and the unshakeable depression that would settle onto the man for the rest of his life.
Wolf tightened his grip some more.
“O-kay.” It was two noises coming out of Attakai’s mouth rather than a word.
“Okay what?” Wolf asked, easing up on his hold.
Attakai sucked in a breath that whistled in his throat. “I’ll tell you.”
“You’ll show us.” Wolf clamped harder again.
Luke and Hannigan were frozen now.
“O-kay.”
Chapter 28
The MD 530’s skids touched the ground and the turbine’s whine lowered in pitch as the pilot powered it down. When they stepped out it was like stepping onto a sizzling frying pan, the desert even hotter than Wolf remembered it being the day before.
“Over here,” Hannigan said, grabbing a fistful of Deputy Attakai’s sleeve and pulling him.
Attakai stumbled forward and planted his handcuffed hands on the dirt, eating a cloud of dust in the process.
With a yank, Hannigan pulled him back up, and it was like a particularly nasty toddler pulling a stuffed animal out of a toy chest.
“Easy, fella,” Luke said.
Hannigan grunted. The big agent’s upper lip was fat and split in two from the scuffle inside Attakai’s house, making him look like he had a severe overbite, which made him look a less-intelligent oaf version of himself, which was apparently pissing him off.
ASAC Brian Todd materialized from the dust cloud with four agents in tow, behind that another two powering-down helicopters and even more agents climbing out.
Sheriff Mansor was inside the well site clearing standing next to his Chevy Blazer, his sidekick, Deputy Wines, dutifully standing by his side. He walked toward them and met them halfway.
“Howdy,” he said, gesturing to a yellow excavator in the distance. “Got us a digger.”
Sheriff Mansor looked on his former deputy with pity in his eyes.
ASAC Todd stood between them, swiveling his head to take in the landscape. “Where to?”
&n
bsp; Attakai nodded. “Next to the other hole.”
Todd raised an eyebrow behind his mirrored sunglasses and pointed. “After you.”
They followed Attakai around the tanks until he stopped about twenty feet short of the hole that had contained Fred Wilcox’s Ford Explorer.
“It was there,” he pointed a few degrees to the left of the hole. “I had the excavator here. I dug a few feet over from the bigger hole. You can see the lower ground where it settled.”
It was obvious now that Attakai had pointed it out.
Sheriff Mansor whistled and the excavator rumbled to life.
Minutes later the machine’s teeth were breaking the ground while the group of men and women in suit and uniforms watched. A team of three FBI agents was suited up in white forensic outfits, their hands clad in latex, their gear ready for action at their feet.
It was agonizingly slow going, and Wolf’s neck and arms were browning under the sun while his armpits dripped like a leaky pipe. Though Attakai estimated his original hole being at ten feet deep and as narrow as a single bucket scoop, they scooped a four-bucket-wide swath of dirt, digging down inch by inch, all the while allowing the forensic team to inspect before continuing after every pass.
Watching the project progress on a geologic time scale, Wolf stood alone in the shade of a juniper tree.
ASAC Todd walked over and joined him. Saying nothing, he squinted and looked out into the bright daylight, his eyes landing on Luke.
Agent Luke stood next to the hole. Her short-sleeved blouse unbuttoned to air herself out.
“Hot as shit,” Todd said.
Wolf raised an eyebrow.
“This place,” the assistant special agent in charge said. “Gotta be a hundred and twenty right here in the shade.”
It was an exaggeration, but wearing the dark suit and tie Todd was wearing, Wolf believed the man was standing in a vat of his own sweat.
Once again Agent Todd’s eyes landed on Luke. “She’s told me a lot about you. How you’re a good investigator.”
I heard you hire hookers.
“Not the most orthodox with your approach. Not the most … politically sensitive. You’re lucky you’re not in jail right now with that stunt you pulled at Attakai’s place.”
Wolf watched the boom arm of the excavator bend and contract.
“Anyway. You ever think about joining the FBI?”
Wolf looked at him, wondering what the question meant. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Like you said, I’m not the most politically sensitive.”
Todd laughed. “A politically sensitive response to that question.”
Wolf gave the agent a sidelong glance, feeling like he was suddenly being vetted.
“How did you know?” Todd asked.
“About this?”
Todd nodded.
“Since the beginning it didn’t make sense that Attakai moved north and left his sister down here. He went for weeks guarding her night and day, and then he left. He would have only left if she were out of harm’s way. And then we talked to Wilcox’s landlord and his former employer. They both talked about a cop matching Attakai’s description coming in to talk to them shortly after Wilcox disappeared.”
Todd nodded. “Ah. And how would Attakai have known Wilcox’s identity as the killer unless they … met one another.”
Wolf nodded.
“And then there was his sister’s behavior. His cousin’s.”
“You think they’re in on it?”
Wolf shrugged.
“Well … you could have come to me with this. You know that.”
Wolf nodded. “Right.”
“Stop!” A forensic unit member climbed out of the hole with his hands up.
The excavator shut down, plunging the desert into silence for the first time in over an hour.
“Okay, let’s get him out!” Todd marched out into the blazing sun.
The team of white uniforms picked up their shovels and gear and entered the chasm.
Wolf and the rest of them gathered at the edge of the hole.
It was fast going from then on, their quarry materializing from the blackened earth.
First there was a checked red and black shirt, then jeans, and then the shape and orientation of a buried man. He was lying on his back, feet facing to the ramped edge of the excavator hole.
Next to be unveiled by the forensics crew was a tuft of long black hair, and then a discolored, leathery face. The skeletal smile of teeth. A twist of skin and cartilage where the nose had been and empty eye sockets. Black, scruffy, facial hair.
It looked like the insects had feasted on most of the flesh, but the destruction of the clothing was something else. At first glance it looked chewed, torn by animals, but Wolf saw it was bullet holes.
“Wow,” Luke said. “Really did a number on him.”
As more and more dirt was cleared away, they got a look at the extent of the damage.
Wolf started at the feet of the corpse and scanned his way up. The shoes looked to have been pierced by bullets. The jeans at the knees were ripped and the fabric dark black. The crotch, the elbows, the shoulders, the center of the forehead; they had all been pierced by bullets.
ASAC Todd nodded to Sheriff Mansor. “Bring him into your station please.”
Deputy Attakai sat alone in the shade of Sheriff Mansor’s truck. Hands still handcuffed and in his lap, head lulled to the side, the man leaned against a tire and slept like a baby.
Chapter 29
Every day I watched her. I was outside her house. I was on her couch at night. I slept outside on the back porch a couple times.”
Wolf sipped his coffee and put it back on the table.
The lawyer had arrived in time for the interrogation and had been spouting legalese threats for the last hour. The threats were harsh, and most of them involved Wolf ending up in jail, but something in Jeremy Attakai had clicked and he was taking a different approach than advised by his legal counsel.
Wolf had seen similar behavior before. The man wanted the truth out of his head, no matter what the repercussions that might come later from what he told them. He wanted approval and support from his peers. But apparently he wanted approval and support from Wolf and Mansor, because he insisted that he would talk only if they were in the interrogation room with him.
“I thought he’d be coming after her, you know?” Attakai said. “Mary’s daughter was three. Her son was one-year-old. My sister had two freaking kids and this psycho had taken her. And now she could ID his ride. Who knew what that psycho was thinking? She was the only one who ever escaped him.”
Deputy Attakai looked at Wolf for reassurance.
Wolf gave it with a nod.
“Then one day, like three weeks after the whole thing, she called me freaking out. I was at work. I had to be.” The deputy looked at his former boss. “It was that well fight. Remember that?”
Mansor nodded.
Wolf had no idea what the man was talking about, but he let it go.
“I left her unguarded for one freaking day and the guy jumped on the opportunity. I left her and the next thing she knew that guy was trailing her into town from her house. It was a white SUV and she could see the guy inside. He was big, hairy, tailing her ass with every turn she took.” Attakai stared through the table. “Must have been so close to us that whole time the way he swooped in like that.
“Obviously she was freaking out so she called me. But I was down south and at first I was like, ‘Go to the cops, now!’ But then I knew the guy would just stop following her if she did that. That we’d be back looking for his ass.
“Then I told her to read off his license plate number to me. But the guy didn’t have one on the front of his car. So I was, you know, going through ideas in my head. Wondering how the hell we could get this guy. So,” Attakai shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “I came up with an idea. I talked her to me. She’d been on those roads a few times, so I hid my car in the tree
s, and waited, and the guy kept following her, and we led his ass into my ambush.”
Wolf narrowed his eyes, thinking about the maze of dirt roads in that area. “How did you do that?”
Attakai shrugged again. “We stayed on the phone together. She stopped when I told her to, and he did, too. He got out, and he was … he was freaking crazy, man. He was laughing and shit, saying ‘I got you now!’ stuff like that. Anyway, I got him. I came out of the trees, and I pointed my gun, and he … started walking at Mary, and so I shot him.”
Attakai scratched his head. “And I went crazy. Man, Rose was family to us. You know that? She was … I dated her for a while when I first met her. I loved her. Even got in a fight once because of her. Broke some dude’s arms over that girl.
“And this motherfucker, lying on the ground bleeding out his arm, started laughing again and talking about her.” Attakai locked eyes with Wolf. “He was talking about her pussy. How it felt right after he killed her.”
Wolf swallowed.
“So I shot the guy in the legs. Then the dick.” Attakai stretched his mouth at the memory. “Then I shoved my foot on him, made him straighten out, while I shot him in the elbows. The shoulders. I was trying to make him pay. I wanted him to feel the pain and the hurt.” Attakai shook his head. “That guy was sick, though. Not just like, sicko killer … he was an animal. Like, his eyes. They were these dead, animal eyes.”
They sat in silence for a moment, watching Attakai relive the events in his head.
Lights blinked above the two cameras mounted in the corners of the room above the mirrored wall.
“Why did you bury him?” Mansor asked, more than a little accusation in his tone. “Why not tell anyone? There were families out there with dead daughters. They had a right to know, son.”
Attakai closed his eyes and two streams of tears shot down his cheeks. “I wanted to. But I knew I’d crossed a line with shooting him that many times. I knew with my fight, with breaking that dude’s arms and then this,” he looked at his former boss, “I knew you would have lost confidence in me, sir. You told me to not screw up again. You said I was at two strikes, one for each of that guy’s arms. But this was way more than strike three.”