January's Betrayal (Larry Macklin Mysteries Book 3)

by A. E. Howe

  Edwards jerked upright in his chair, his eyes bright for the first time since he was brought in.

  “No shit! Wow. That explains a few things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I saw him a couple of times driving around odd places at odd times. But he’s such a weird guy I just put it down to him doing his own thing. Never tagged him as DEA. Wow! The Thompsons must have some real radar for snoops. I wish I’d known. I’d have rather tagged him than Nichols or your dad.” He nodded to me. “Hell, I’d have rather popped that cold fish than Ayers.” He sounded very sincere. I hoped Matt would get a chance to listen to these tapes someday.

  “So the Thompsons were paranoid?” Pete made it a question, gently prodding Edwards.

  “Yeah, they constantly wanted to know what the sheriff was doing. Always pissed if I couldn’t give them anything. Justin and most of his lieutenants were constantly moving from one house to another. We knew that someone was watching us. I kept assuring them that it wasn’t anyone from the sheriff’s office, but they didn’t believe me. In fact, they started searching me for a wire every time I talked with them. Wouldn’t take my phone calls. On and on. Justin really had it in for the sheriff. He seemed sure that he was the problem.

  “I think Nichols just got fed up hearing it, and one day he said, ‘Why don’t you get rid of him?’ That’s when things really got crazy. Justin was pretty sure he knew who was raping those women. He’d had problems with Conway and some of the girls at the club.” Edwards got quiet for a moment.

  “How did they get from there to framing Ayers?”

  “That was Nichols. Nichols really wanted to be tight with the Thompsons. When the sheriff let Ayers go, Nichols told the Thompsons how most of the county thought that the sheriff had made a huge mistake and that they should exploit the situation. Honestly, I was surprised that Daniel Thompson went along with it. The old man didn’t like Nichols that much. But like I said, the Thompsons were a lot crazier by that point. They thought the cops were going to raid them any minute. And, honestly, Justin’s the one who really runs the whole operation these days. His father’s what, seventy-six?”

  “Who killed the girl?”

  “I did. Nichols was supposed to. He was there, but he chickened out at the last minute. Nichols didn’t have any problem getting her into his car. He pulled up alongside the bank, out of range of the camera, and he just called her over to his patrol car. Actually, Angie was his second attempt. He let the first woman go. So this time I was watching him. When I saw that he was chickening out, I did it for him,” Edwards said cockily. He had an awful lot of faith in the plea bargain agreement.

  Pete made a note. I knew he’d want to come back and get all the details on Angie’s murder later, but right now it was important to get the broad strokes down on tape.

  “Who set up Ayers?”

  “Surprise, surprise, Nichols stepped up to the plate for that one. Nichols pulled Ayers over. He’d been watching him. While he did that, I set up the scene in the back of the store with the woman’s body. Lights off so no one would see me. Nichols came around with his lights on like an idiot, that’s how the snoopy neighbor saw him. The rest was easy. Nichols didn’t seem to mind shooting a man. Strangling a woman was too much for him, but not shooting Ayers.”

  “Who killed Conway?”

  “Both of us were there. That was easy. We gave him some heroin and within an hour all we had to do was push his head underwater to make sure he was dead.”

  Pete couldn’t resist a jab at Edwards’s ego. “So why weren’t you all smart enough to get him to give up his souvenirs?”

  “Who would have thought he was dumb enough to keep that stuff at his parents’ house?”

  “So why’d you kill Nichols?” Pete asked.

  “That’s his fault.” Edwards nodded toward me.

  “How’s that?” I couldn’t keep myself from injecting.

  “You called me and said that you were going to meet with Nichols and wanted me on stand-by. It didn’t take a genius. I figured he wanted to make a deal and was using you, the sheriff’s son and a member of the investigation, as a sounding board. I did what I needed to do. I got there before you. Wasn’t that hard. Forced his gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.”

  I felt a chill go over me. I wasn’t sure if it was from listening to this cold-blooded killer, who I’d actually liked, or from the thought that my actions had led to him killing Nichols. Probably both.

  “Of course, everything snowballed from there. The Thompsons went bat-shit crazy that I’d killed Nichols without asking them first. Talk about control freaks. Their paranoia was ratcheted up another notch, which I didn’t even believe was possible. I saw the way they were looking at me. The old man, Daniel, was ready to cut me loose. And the only way that was going to happen was with me dead. So I told them I’d solve everything once and for all.” There was a brief pause as though he was trying for dramatic affect. “I’d kill Sheriff Macklin.”

  “How’d you think you’d get away with it?” Pete was genuinely interested.

  “I thought that was pretty obvious.” Edwards looked around at everyone. then he smiled. “You all haven’t found the body yet.”

  We all looked at each other nervously. As if on cue, there was an insistent knock at the door. Pete got up and answered it. He stepped out for a minute and then came back in, looking grim.

  “They found the body of Rufus Brinkman with a bullet in his chest about a block from the shooting,” Pete told the room.

  “There’s your answer.” Edwards looked proud.

  “You were going to pin it on Mr. Brinkman.”

  “Yep. He made threats toward the sheriff about a month ago after a court case that went against his brother. I figured it would be easy to pin the shooting on him. I got an old hunting rifle from the Thompsons, then stopped Brinkman this morning and asked him if he had ever seen the rifle. I handed it to him to get his prints on it, then tied him up and put him in the trunk of my car.

  “Again you,” he nodded to me, “were very helpful. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away from Matt Greene, who’d managed to assign himself to my post during the parade. But, conveniently, you took him away.” I wanted to slap the smug smile off his face. “I knew roughly when you all would be coming by in the parade, so I drove a block away and shot Brinkman and got back in time to shoot the sheriff. Unfortunately, that woman ran out into the parade. Who the hell was that, anyway?” Edwards asked.

  I had begun to suspect who she was and, if I was right, I was going to have a pretty heavy debt to pay off.

  The interview went on for hours as Pete, and later Chief Maxwell, the DEA supervisor and others questioned every detail. Turned out that Edwards had some bad news for Maxwell as well. One of his officers was also helping the Thompsons. It was a bit of luck for Dad. Maxwell wouldn’t be able to use much of this against him in the election. But that was the only bright spot. I sat there wondering if Dad would come out of this looking okay, or if my bungling had not only led to several murders, but also to his electoral defeat in the fall.

  Toward the end of the interview, Dad came into the room. For a moment he locked eyes with Edwards. I’m surprised the man’s head didn’t burst into flame from the heat of the anger that Dad shot at him. Dad walked stiffly to a chair, but seemed to change his mind and just stood there as the interview was completed. After Edwards was led out, there was a brief discussion about jurisdictions and prosecutions. Dad never met my eyes.

  When we came out of the interview room, everyone was quiet. Normally, when you’ve gotten a solid confession to a major crime there are back slaps, high fives and invitations to get a drink, but not this time. Too much had gone wrong.

  “Do you need me to drive you home or help with anything?” I asked Dad after everyone had left.

  “No, I’m fine,” he said curtly.

  I wanted to apologize, but he clearly didn’t want to talk to me right then, which I understood. I called
Cara and followed up on the text I’d sent her right after the shooting. She’d been at the other end of the parade, so she hadn’t seen any of it. I promised to talk with her tomorrow.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Sunday may have been a new day, but I didn’t feel like I was facing a new world. I was dreading everything—the job of cleaning up all the reports and papers, facing up to my numerous screw-ups, and talking to Dad, who I knew blamed me for a lot of what had happened.

  I lingered over my morning cereal with Ivy, delaying the point when I needed to go into the office. I was rinsing out my bowl at the sink when I heard a knock on the door. It was Cara and Alvin.

  “I didn’t want to give you a chance to say no,” she said when I opened the door.

  “I’m glad you’re here.” And I meant it. She gave me a big hug. Alvin bumped my leg and demanded a proper greeting. I leaned down and petted the Pug, who panted and puffed happily.

  “Why don’t we take a walk?” I suggested. It was a bit warmer today and the sun was bright.

  We took a path I’d cut through the woods, Alvin trotting happily ahead of us and sniffing everything in sight. As we walked, I told her everything that had happened.

  “I’m going into work today,” I said.

  “Shouldn’t you take the day off?”

  “I want to get most of my paperwork in order without having to deal with everyone else.”

  “They aren’t going to blame you for what Nichols and Edwards did.”

  “Once the whole story comes out, it’s going to be pretty obvious that lot of what happened was the result of my mistakes. I screwed this up right from the beginning. I never liked Matt, and I let that color everything I’ve done during the last couple of months. And if I hadn’t been so focused on him, I might have figured out who the real bad cops were.”

  “You’re being too hard on yourself.”

  “No harder than Dad’s going to be. And for once I think he’s right. I’ve done a lot of damage.” I was getting madder and madder at myself. I’d tried not to think about it during the last twenty-four hours, but now everything was falling down around me and I only had one person to blame.

  “It’s okay. Everyone will understand. You’ve told me yourself that no one likes Matt.”

  “But I got it into my head that he was the mole and then used my relationship with my father to drag him into it. If I hadn’t been his son, do you think he would have given my weak evidence and ideas so much credence?”

  I couldn’t believe how blind I’d been. What was crystal clear now was that I was a menace to Dad and the department. “I never should have become a deputy.”

  Cara tried to put her arm around me, but I turned away.

  “I’m going to quit. I’ve done enough damage. It’s time for me to find my own way in a career I’m more suited to.”

  “You know I’ve never been thrilled that you’re a deputy, but I don’t think you should quit like this. Give it some time,” Cara counseled.

  “That’s just putting off the inevitable. I’m going into work and finish up what I can today. On Monday, I’ll give Dad my resignation.”

  Having come to a decision, I hugged Cara and we headed back. Alvin had long tired of trying to track the beasts of the woods and panted along behind us.

  Pete was at his desk when I got to the office. We greeted each other with grim nods.

  “Not our finest hour,” Pete said.

  “No reflection on you. I’m the one that led my father down the wrong path.”

  “The only thing I blame you for is not telling me your suspicions about Matt.” He held up his hand. “I know Matt and I have a history, but you should have trusted me.” He was clearly hurt, and he was right.

  “Another thing I did wrong.”

  “I’m not piling on. Just saying, next time have a little faith in me.”

  I didn’t tell him that there wouldn’t be a next time. I knew Pete would try to argue me out of it and I didn’t have enough energy to fight him.

  That afternoon we went around to Ayers’s house and spoke with his mother and brother. They’d just come from church. She was wearing a dark green dress, and he looked lost in an off-the-rack suit. But he was clean and sober. They listened to us with dead eyes as we explained what we could about the circumstances surrounding their son and brother’s murder. Mrs. Ayers thanked us with a heavy heart, while Wayne just nodded to us and wiped tears from his eyes.

  We drove to Angie Maitland’s house next. Allen Maitland answered the door, his eyes shaded by dark rings.

  “Nothing you can say will make it better,” he told us and slammed the door.

  I offered to start down the list of rape victims, but Pete told me he’d talk to them on Monday.

  My phone rang as I was finishing up my report on the Edwards interview. It was Eddie.

  “I saved your dad’s life and you don’t even call and say thanks.” He still sounded excited.

  “Nice dress.”

  “Thanks. That was the first time I’ve worn it in public. I’m hoping no one recognized me. I’m standing out pretty bad as it is since the Feds came in and took almost everyone else in. I look like the last man standing.”

  “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” I was grateful to him, but I wasn’t really in the mood to chat.

  “Yes. But, of course, Mom said that they’re going to make bail this week, so who knows what will happen after that. I might have to take a trip. Maybe I’ll go down to Miami.”

  “You would probably like Miami,” I said, halfway serious.

  “Sorry I didn’t get there sooner. But after I called you yesterday morning, I heard Dad and the Chief talking. I got enough of what they were saying to figure some things out and came down to the parade to make sure you’d really gotten the guy. Then I saw that deputy and he had a hunting rifle. Everything just clicked.” Eddie was excited.

  I was glad someone was proud of their part in all of this. I think Eddie was the only one.

  “I’m glad you were there.” I did owe him some gratitude.

  “Gave me a chance to dress out. I finally found an advantage to being a cross-dresser. All those years of dressing up and practicing in heels.” He was proud.

  “I do appreciate the chance you took.”

  “I know my family’s hurt a lot of people. I just wanted to balance the scales a little bit.”

  “If you need some money to get out of town, let me know.” It wasn’t his fault that I didn’t do a better job with his information.

  “Thanks. I’ll just have to see how things go.” That was the first time he hadn’t grabbed at money I’d offered.

  I got to work early on Monday and typed and printed my resignation letter. In it I took full blame for the fiasco that had resulted from my investigation of Matt Greene, who turned out to be working for the DEA, and my failure to search for other suspects.

  The atmosphere in the office was grim. No matter how you looked at it, we’d lost two deputies in a week. Most people were having a hard time getting their minds around the idea that both Nichols and Edwards were a pair of vipers. And what made it was worse was that one of them was dead and they didn’t have the chance to show him how much they hated him. In fact, Nichols would never officially be guilty of anything.

  As I walked toward Dad’s office, I realized I’d never heard the building so quiet on a Monday morning. His assistant barely gave me a glance as I by passed her desk. A bark answered my knock at the door.

  Dad sat at his desk with Mauser on the floor beside him, looking up to see who was coming through the door.

  “I brought Mauser in to cheer people up,” Dad said, but I knew that he’d really brought the Great Dane in to cheer himself up. Mauser had clearly picked up on the mood and didn’t even get up to greet me. Instead he sighed heavily and put his head back down on his paws.

  I handed Dad the envelope with my resignation.

  “What’s this?” he asked. His voice had a hard edge to it.


  “My resignation.”

  He started to say something, but apparently thought better of it and closed his mouth. Composing himself, he finally said, “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I screwed up. It cost people their lives. I think I do.”

  “I’m not going to pretend that I’m happy with the job you did on this case. Particularly where it concerns Matt. But I share a lot of the blame. I’m your boss. I’m the one that should have forced you to look deeper and question your own assumptions. Do you think I should resign?”

  His tack took me by surprise and I had to think a minute before answering.

  “No, you trusted my judgment and I’m the one that failed. I’ve never been a good deputy.”

  “You’ve never been like all the other deputies. That’s not the same thing. I’m not going to fight with you about this. But Edwards’s case and the prosecution of the Thompsons are going to take years. I want you to remain as a reserve officer for now. That way you can continue to work on the case when needed, and when you go to court and testify you can wear your uniform. See this through.” His eyes were locked on mine. I didn’t have much of an option.

  “Fair enough,” I said and he put the resignation in his in-box.

  “I’ll get HR to do the paperwork this afternoon. We’ll make it official the end of January,” he said dismissively.

  As I walked out of his office I thought, Now what?

  THE END

  If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon—it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

  Larry Macklin returns in:

  February’s Regrets

  A Larry Macklin Mystery–Book 4

  Read it now: AMAZON AMAZON UK

  Following his resignation as an investigator with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Larry Macklin is working part time as a reserve deputy and trying to decide what to do with his life.

  He’s drawn back into investigating against his will when his friend, Shantel Williams, asks for his help to find her missing niece, Tonya. While Larry initially believes that there’s a reasonable explanation for Tonya’s lack of communication with her aunt, it quickly becomes obvious that her disappearance is part of something more serious. The Swamp Hacker, a serial killer who stalked Adams County fifteen years ago, has returned and is killing again.