“What?” she asked sharply. The anger about Robert Harper was resurfacing.
Watch it, she warned herself.
Overby smiled in a way that bore only a loose resemblance to a smile. “In the whole scope of the case it would be helpful to everybody if Chilton could be persuaded to stop the blog. Helpful to us and to Sacramento. Not to mention saving the lives of people who’ve posted comments.”
“Exactly,” Royce said. “We’re worried about more victims.”
Of course the AG and Royce would worry about that. But they’d also worry about the bad press against the state for not doing everything to stop the killer.
To end the meeting and get back to work, Dance simply agreed. “If I see anything you can use, Charles, I’ll let you know.”
Royce’s eyes flickered. Overby missed the irony completely and smiled. “Good.”
It was then that her phone vibrated with a text message. She read the screen, and gave a faint gasp and looked up at Overby.
Royce asked, “What is it?”
Dance said, “James Chilton was just attacked. I have to go.”
Chapter 21
DANCE HURRIED INTO Emergency Admitting at Monterey Bay Hospital.
She found TJ looking troubled in the middle of the lobby. “Boss,” he said, exhaling hard, relieved to see her.
“How is he?”
“He’ll be okay.”
“Did you get Travis?”
“It wasn’t the boy who did it,” TJ said.
At that moment the double doors to the emergency room swung open and James Chilton, a bandage on his cheek, strode out. “He attacked me!” Chilton was pointing at a ruddy-faced, solidly built man in a suit. He sat beside the window. A large county deputy stood over him. Without a greeting, Chilton pointed to him and snapped to Dance, “Arrest him.”
Meanwhile the man leapt to his feet. “Him. I want him in jail!”
The deputy muttered, “Mr. Brubaker, please sit down.” He spoke forcefully enough so that the man hesitated, delivered a glare to Chilton then dropped back into the fiberglass seat.
The officer then joined Dance and told her what had happened. A half hour before, Arnold Brubaker had been on the grounds of his proposed desalination plant with a survey crew. He’d found Chilton taking pictures of animal habitats there. He tried to grab the blogger’s camera and shoved Chilton to the ground. The surveyors called the police.
The injury, Dance assessed, didn’t seem serious.
Still, Chilton seemed possessed. “That man is raping the Peninsula. He’s destroying our natural resources. Our flora and fauna. Not to mention destroying an Ohlone burial ground.”
The Ohlone Indians were the first inhabitants of this part of California.
“We aren’t building anywhere near the tribal land!” Brubaker yelled. “That was a rumor. And completely untrue!”
“But the traffic in and out of the area is going to—”
“And we’re spending millions to relocate animal populations and—”
“Both of you,” Dance snapped. “Quiet.”
Chilton, however, had his momentum going. “He broke my camera too. Just like the Nazis.”
Brubaker replied with a cold smile, “James, I believe you broke the law first by trespassing on private property. Didn’t the Nazis do that too?”
“I have a right to report on the destruction of our resources.”
“And I—”
“Okay,” Dance snapped. “No more!”
They fell silent as she got the details of the various offenses from the deputy. Finally she approached Chilton. “You trespassed on private property. That’s a crime.”
“I—”
“Shhh. And you, Mr. Brubaker, assaulted Mr. Chilton, which is illegal unless you’re in imminent danger of physical harm from a trespasser. Your remedy was to call the police.”
Brubaker fumed, but he nodded. He seemed upset that all he’d done was bang Chilton’s cheek. The bandage was quite small.
“The situation is that you’re guilty of minor offenses. And if you want to complain I’ll make arrests. But it’ll be both of you. One for criminal trespass and one for assault and battery. Well?”
Red-faced, Brubaker began to whine, “But he—”
“Your answers?” Dance asked with an ominous calm that made him shut up immediately.
Chilton nodded, with a grimace. “All right.”
Finally, with frustration evident in his face, Brubaker muttered to Dance, “Okay. Fine. But it’s not fair! Seven days a week for the past year, working to help eliminate drought. That’s been my life. And he sits in that office of his and tears me down, without even looking at the facts. People see what he says in that blog and think it’s true. And how can I compete with that? Write a blog of my own? Who has time?” Brubaker delivered a dramatic sigh and headed out the main door.
After he’d gone, Chilton said to Dance, “He’s not building the plant out of the goodness of his heart. There’s money to be made and that’s his only concern. And I have researched the story.”
His voice fell silent as she turned to him and he noticed her somber expression. “James, you might not have heard the news. Lyndon Strickland was just murdered by Travis Brigham.”
Chilton remained still for a moment. “Lyndon Strickland, the lawyer? Are you sure?”
“I’m afraid so.”
The blogger’s eyes were sweeping the floor of the emergency room, green-and-white tile, mopped clean but scuffed by years of anxious heels and soles. “But Lyndon posted in the desalination thread, not ‘Roadside Crosses.’ No, Travis wouldn’t have any complaint with him. It’s somebody else. Lyndon’d made a lot of people upset. He was a plaintiff’s lawyer and was always taking on controversial causes.”
“The evidence doesn’t leave any doubt. It was Travis.”
“But why?”
“We think because his post supported you. Doesn’t matter that it was a different blog thread. We think Travis is expanding his pool of targets.”
Chilton greeted this with grim silence, then asked, “Just because he posted something agreeing with me?”
She nodded. “And that leads me to something else I’ve been worried about. That Travis might be after you.”
“But what argument does he have with me? I haven’t said a word about him.”
She continued, “He’s targeted somebody who’s supporting you. And the extension of that is that he’s angry with you too.”
“You really think so?”
“I think we can’t afford to dismiss it.”
“But my family’s—”
“I’ve ordered a car stationed outside your house. A deputy from the sheriff’s office.”
“Thank you . . . thank you. I’ll tell Pat and the boys to be on the lookout for anything odd.”
“You’re all right?” She nodded at the bandage.
“It’s nothing.”
“You need a ride home?”
“Pat’s coming to pick me up.”
Dance started outside. “Oh, and for God’s sake, leave Brubaker alone.”
Chilton’s eyes narrowed. “But do you know the effects that plant is going to have . . .” He fell silent and held up two hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay off his property.”
“Thank you.”
Dance walked outside and turned her phone back on. It rang thirty seconds later. Michael O’Neil. She was comforted to see his number pop up.
“Hey.”
“I just heard a report. Chilton. He was attacked?”
“He’s fine.” She explained what had happened.
“Trespassing. Serves him right. I called the office. They’re getting the crime scene report back from the Strickland shooting. I pushed ’em to get it done fast. But nothing really helpful jumps out.”
“Thanks.” Dance then lowered her voice—amusing herself because she did so—and told O’Neil about the curious encounter with Hamilton Royce.
“Great.
Too many cooks screwing up the broth.”
“I’d like to put them in the broth,” Dance muttered. “And turn up the heat.”
“And this Royce wants to shut down the blog?”
“Yep. Worried about the public relations is my take.”
O’Neil offered, “I almost feel sorry for Chilton.”‘
“Spend ten minutes with him; you’ll feel different.”
The deputy chuckled.
“I was going to call you anyway, Michael. I’ve asked Mom and Dad over tonight for dinner. She needs the support. Love it if you could come.” She added, “You and Anne and the kids.”
A pause. “I’ll try. I’m really swamped on this Container Case. And Anne went up to San Francisco. A gallery’s going to be hanging a show of her recent photos.”
“Really? That’s impressive.” Dance recalled the one-sided conversation yesterday about Anne O’Neil’s impending trip at their attempted breakfast after meeting with Ernie Seybold. Dance had several opinions about the woman, the most unblemished of which had to do with her talent as a photographer.
They disconnected and Dance continued toward her car, unraveling the iPod ear buds. She needed a hit of music. She was scrolling through tunes, trying to decide on Latino or Celtic, when her phone buzzed. Caller ID announced Jonathan Boling.
“Hi,” she said.
“It’s all over the CBI here, Chilton was attacked. What happened? Is he all right?”
She gave him the details. He was relieved nobody had been hurt seriously, but she could tell from his voice quality that he had some news for her. She fell silent and he asked, “Kathryn, you near the office?”
“I wasn’t planning on heading back. I’ve got to pick up the kids and work from home for a while.” She didn’t tell him that she wanted to avoid Hamilton Royce and Overby. “Why?”
“Couple things. I’ve got names of posters who’ve supported Chilton. The good news, I suppose, is that there aren’t a lot. But that’s typical. In blogs more people are contrarians than supporters.”
“Email me the list, and I’ll start calling them from home. What else?”
“We’ll have Travis’s computer cracked in the next hour or so.”
“Really? Oh, that’s great.” Tiffany or Bambi was a pretty good hacker, apparently.
“I’m going to mirror his disk on a separate drive. I thought you’d want to see it.”
“You bet.” Dance had a thought. “You have plans tonight?”
“No, I’ve put my cat burglary plans on hold while I’m helping you guys.”
“Bring the computer over to my house. I’m having my mother and father and a few friends over for dinner.”
“Well, sure.”
She gave him the address and a time.
They disconnected.
As Dance stood beside her car in the hospital parking lot she noticed several aides and nurses leaving for the day. They were staring at her.
Dance knew several of them and smiled. One or two nodded in greeting but the response was tepid, if not chilly. Of course, she realized, they’d be thinking: I’m looking at the daughter of a woman who might have committed murder.
Chapter 22
“I’LL CARRY THE groceries,” Maggie announced as Dance’s Pathfinder squealed to a stop in front of their house.
The girl had been feeling independent lately. She grabbed the largest bag. There were four of them; after picking up the children at Martine’s, they’d stopped at Safeway for a shopping frenzy. If everyone she’d invited showed up, the dinner party would include nearly a dozen people, among them youngsters with serious appetites.
Listing under the weight of two bags gripped in one hand—an older-brother thing—Wes asked his mother, “When’s Grandma coming over?”
“In a little while, I hope. . . . There’s a chance she might not come.”
“No, she said she’s coming.”
Dance gave a confused smile. “You talked to her?”
“Yeah, she called me at camp.”
“Me too,” Maggie offered.
So she’d called to reassure the children she was all right. But Dance’s face flushed. Why hadn’t she called her?
“Well, it’s great she’ll be able to make it.”
They carried the bags inside.
Dance went into her bedroom, accompanied by Patsy.
She glanced at the gun lockbox. Travis was expanding his targets, and he knew she was one of the officers pursuing him. And she couldn’t forget the possible threat—the cross—in her backyard last night. Dance decided to keep the weapon with her. Ever-fastidious about weapons in a household with children, though, she locked the black gun away for a few minutes to take a shower. She stripped off her clothes energetically and stepped into the stream of hot water—trying unsuccessfully to flush away the residue of the day.
She dressed in jeans and an oversize blouse, not tucked in, to obscure the weapon, which sat against the small of her back. Uncomfortable, yet a comfort. Then she hurried into the kitchen.
She fed the dogs and put out a small brushfire between the children, who were sniping over their predinner tasks. Dance stayed patient—she knew they were upset about the incident at the hospital yesterday. Maggie’s job was to unpack the groceries, while Wes straightened up for guests. Dance continued to be amazed at how cluttered a house could become, even though only three people lived there.
She thought now, as she often did, about the time when the population was four. And glanced at her wedding picture. Bill Swenson, prematurely gray, lean and with an easy smile, looked out at the camera with his arm around her.
Then she went into the den, booted up her computer and emailed Overby about the assault on Chilton and the confrontation with Brubaker.
She wasn’t in the mood to talk to him.
Then Dance retrieved Jon Boling’s email with the names of people who’d posted comments favorable to Chilton over the past months. Seventeen.
Could be worse, she supposed.
She spent the next hour finding the numbers of those within a hundred miles and calling to warn them they might be in danger. She weathered their criticism, some of it searing, about the CBI and the police not being able to stop Travis Brigham.
Dance logged on to that day’s Chilton Report.
Http://www.thechiltonreport.com/html/june27.html
She scrolled through all the threads, noting that new posts had appeared in nearly all of them. The latest contributors to the Reverend Fisk and the desalination threads were taking their respective causes seriously—and with intensifying anger. But none of their posts compared to the vicious comments in the “Roadside Crosses” thread, most of them unleashing undiluted fury at each other, as much as at Travis.
Some of them were curiously worded, some seemed to be probing for information, some seemed to be outright threats. She got the feeling that there were clues as to where Travis was hiding—possibly even tidbits of facts that might suggest whom he was going to attack next. Was Travis actually one of the posters, hiding behind a fake identity or the common pseudonym, “Anonymous”? She read the exchanges carefully and decided that perhaps there were clues, but the answer eluded her. Kathryn Dance, comfortable with analyzing the spoken word, could come to no solid conclusions as she read the frustratingly silent shouts and mutters.
Finally she logged off.
An email from Michael O’Neil arrived. He gave her the discouraging news that the immunity hearing in the J. Doe case had been pushed back to Friday. The prosecutor, Ernie Seybold, felt that the judge’s willingness to go along with the defense’s request for the extension was a bad sign. She grimaced at the news and was disappointed that he hadn’t called to give her the news over the phone. Neither had he mentioned anything about whether he and the children would come over tonight.
Dance began to organize the meal. She didn’t have much skill in the kitchen, as she was the first to admit. But she knew which stores had the most talented prepared-food depart
ments; the meal would be fine.
Listening to the soft braying of a video game from Wes’s room, Maggie’s keyboard scales, Dance found herself staring into the backyard, recalling the image of her mother’s face yesterday afternoon, as her daughter deserted her to see about the second roadside cross.
Your mother will understand.
No, she won’t. . . .
Hovering over the containers of brisket, green beans, Caesar salad, salmon and twice-baked potatoes, Dance remembered that time three weeks ago—her mother standing in this very kitchen and reporting about Juan Millar in the ICU. With Edie’s face feeling his pain, she’d told her daughter what he’d whispered to her.
Kill me . . .
The doorbell now drew her from that disquieting thought.
She deduced who had arrived—most friends and family just climbed the back deck stairs and entered the kitchen without ringing or knocking. She opened the front door to see Jon Boling standing on the porch. He wore that now-familiar, comfortable smile and was juggling a small shopping bag and a large laptop case. He’d changed into black jeans and a dark striped collared shirt.
“Hi.”
He nodded and followed her into the kitchen.
The dogs bounded up. Boling crouched and hugged them as they double-teamed him.
“Okay, guys, outside!” Dance commanded. She flung Milk Bones out the back door and the dogs charged down the steps and into the backyard.
Boling stood, wiped his face from the licks and laughed. He reached into the shopping bag. “I decided to bring sugar for a hostess gift.”
“Sugar?”
“Two versions: fermented.” He extracted a bottle of Caymus Conundrum white wine.
“Nice.”
“And baked.” A bag of cookies emerged. “I remembered the way you looked at them in the office when your assistant was trying to fatten me up.”
“Caught that did you?” Dance laughed. “You’d be a good kinesic interviewer. We have to be observant.”
His eyes were excited, she could see. “Got something to show you. Can we sit down somewhere?”
She directed him into the living room, where Boling unpacked yet another laptop, a big one, a brand she didn’t recognize. “Irv did it,” he announced.
Kathryn Dance Ebook Boxed Set : Roadside Crosses, Sleeping Doll, Cold Moon (9781451674217) Page 22