Case of Lies

by Perri O'shaughnessy

  “Don’t you want to know what it is?”

  Nina said, “Yes. But I have no way of finding out, except if you decide to tell me.”

  Meredith grabbed her purse. “Well, I can’t!”

  “Suit yourself. Door’s unlocked.”

  The girl flung it open and snow immediately drifted in. Jumping down, she said, “Bye.”

  And then she paused.

  “I owe you now. You were nice to me. I’m really not what you think I am.”

  “It’s all right.”

  Meredith leaned her head back into the cab and said, “When I heard the shots, I ran out of the cafe, across the lot, and around the corner to the vending machine by the office. The husband was halfway down the stairs, yelling. I didn’t see the robber. But I did pick up something. Stay here.”

  She ran into the office and a minute later came out with a plastic grocery bag. The Bronco door on her side was still wide open. She set the bag on Nina’s seat and said, “So look. I didn’t know the lady had been shot or I never would have taken it. I couldn’t sell it when I learned she was dead.”

  Nina opened the bag and saw a blue-steel revolver.

  “No lecture,” Meredith said with a warning tone in her voice. She had the sullen, frightened look of a child about to be spanked.

  “Why now?”

  “You have brought back the whole thing for me. After your boy talked to me I can’t sleep. I was broke and I was going to go to Reno to pawn it. Then-I realized I couldn’t do that. I almost threw it in a trash can, but I kept thinking about her. Maybe the gun was important. So I said to myself, Okay, let’s see if they find the killer without this. I’ll just keep it. And they haven’t found him, and I have this thing which is like a tool of a demon, like it’s on fire in the secret place where I kept it. And you come. That’s all.”

  Nina couldn’t quite believe this story. “Who has handled this gun?”

  “No one but me. Oh well, I can always go to Vegas. Even if Mr. Bova-”

  “You think Mr. Bova will fire you? Why would he?”

  She brought her face close and hissed, “You really want to know? You want to know why I kept the gun?”

  “Tell me.”

  “What if he shot the lady? What if he was the robber?”

  “He was in Sparks that night,” Nina said.

  “That’s what he said.”

  “His girlfriend agrees. So do several neighbors who saw him there that night.”

  She got very still. “Really? He really didn’t do it?”

  “So you thought you were protecting him?” Nina said. “Weren’t you afraid if he found out he would hurt you, if you thought that?”

  “How would he find out?” Meredith said. “I wasn’t going to say anything. I wasn’t protecting him. I was protecting my job. And now I look stupid. Oh well. I took the gun and I kept it. I thought I could sell it someday, and I thought maybe my boss did the shooting. If he went to jail, he would have had to sell the motel.”

  “His alibi is as solid as Hoover Dam,” Nina said.

  “Okay, you see? I’m stupid. I’m mixed up. I have been very, very poor in my life. And now I’m very, very cold.”

  “Thanks,” Nina said.

  Meredith said, “You’re welcome.”

  27

  NINA DROVE TO THE COURTHOUSE COMPLEX on Johnson Boulevard. Snow lay heavy on the fir boughs. The sky had turned iron-hued. It was disorienting, this sudden change from blue and green to whites and grays. Traffic was building on the highway as the skiers poured out of their knotholes in the valleys below the Sierra, drawn to the mountains like carpenter ants to fine woodwork. The snow came over the tops of her heels and her feet froze.

  The police department was right next door. Sergeant Cheney came out and escorted her to his office. Still standing, she placed the bag carefully on his desk and said, “I haven’t touched it. It’s the gun that killed Sarah Hanna.”

  Cheney looked at the bag as though it contained scorpions, then, gingerly, pulled it open at the top and peeked inside. He picked up the phone and said, “Is the forensics tech still around? Send him in. Tell him to bring an evidence kit.”

  While they were waiting, he said, “Where’d you get it?”

  “The clerk at the Ace High Lodge picked it up off the ground right after the shooting.”

  “She’s been hiding it all this time?”

  “She didn’t want to get into trouble.”

  “She made her trouble worse.” He made another call.

  He gave her a speculative look. “You know, we’re going to have to make you an honorary member of the police department if you keep this up. ’Course, there are a few officers you’ve crushed on the witness stand who might differ with me.”

  “It is an interesting change from criminal-defense work,” Nina said.

  “You’re as persistent as a horsefly on a hot day. It’s been a bitch of a case. If you hadn’t come charging in, I don’t know where we’d be.”

  The tech knocked and came in, carrying rubber gloves, a digital camera slung around his neck, and a small case.

  “It’s the weapon. Hanna case. Or so we have heard.”

  “Fantastic,” the man said. He took a picture of the white plastic grocery bag on the desk and said, “Why not bring it down to the evidence room?”

  “Because I think it has been enough places already, and I’m not going to join the chain of custody. You take charge of it. I haven’t even opened the bag. Let me know when you’re finished.”

  “I hear you, brother.” He asked questions, put on the gloves, took the gun out, and took more pictures.

  “It’s a good old Saturday night special,” Cheney said.

  “Six-shooter. Thirty-eight caliber.”

  “How many left in the chamber?”

  The tech picked up the gun with a latex-gloved hand and examined it. “Three.”

  “So if it was fully loaded, three shots,” Cheney said.

  “I bet you got A’s in arithmetic. Okay, I’m gonna tag it.” He made Nina sign the tag with the date, time, and place, and left with the gun. As soon as it left the room, she felt better.

  “I’ll call this the Tahoe gun,” Cheney said. “Two guns down, this gun and the one that killed Chelsi Freeman, one still to find, the Heddesheim gun. The German police have it. They tell me that it was probably a Sig, a target pistol, a single-action semi-auto. This guy must spend half his time at gun stores.”

  “Now we know why he had to buy another one,” Nina said. “He left the Tahoe gun at the scene of the robbery, and Meredith grabbed it.”

  “And he couldn’t bet on getting the second gun through customs, so he bought the Sig under the table over there. How about a cup of water?” Cheney said. “I’m taking your statement now.”

  “I have court in”-she consulted her watch-“twenty minutes.”

  “We’ll call the judge’s clerk.”

  “Twenty minutes,” Nina said. “Flaherty waits for no one. My client needs me there. I’ll finish up later if I have to.”

  It took less time than that.

  When she was finished, Cheney turned off the tape and said, “I’m going to bust her ass. For withholding this evidence. For touching that gun. For sitting two miles away with this thing for two years. For keeping me out late tonight when my wife is making gumbo in honor of the season.”

  “She makes gumbo?”

  “Every year, at the first snowfall. I love winter. I’m so happy it’s here.”

  “Why?” Nina asked.

  “Because it buries everything until spring. Everything but this case. This case is hereby pried wide open.” He gave Nina a hard look. “Aren’t you going to plead for the girl? Show mercy, et cetera et cetera, tell me how she came through in the end?”

  “No,” Nina said. “Nail her. Three more people have died.” She got up. “Next case,” she said. “See you later.”

  “I’ll walk you out. Oh, by the way.” He walked down the hall with its aw
ful lighting and ushered her into the lobby. “ Germany got a hit on the fingerprint in Heddesheim.”

  It was like being hit in the head. “Ohh,” Nina moaned.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Headache.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am. I couldn’t help wanting to spring it on you. My wife says I have a little sadistic streak. We have a name. Leland Moss Flint. Aka Lee. He attended Annapolis and graduated in 1984. If we’re lucky, we’ll have another print of his on this gun.”

  “Lee Flint,” Nina said. It was such a short, sweet name to give her such a sharp pain in the head. “Where is he?”

  “We’ll know soon. You all right?”

  “I’m having an existential moment. Lee Flint killed so many people, Sergeant. It’s almost frightening to hear his name.”

  “We’ll find him now.”

  “You won’t have to look far,” Nina said. “He’s here at Tahoe.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I just know. And he’s desperate.”

  She called Dave Hanna after court. It was Roger she wanted to call, but she reminded herself that you don’t pick your clients and went ahead.

  He sounded slightly, but not dispositively, blitzed. “Yeah?”

  “It’s Nina.”

  “Wait, let me sit down. Okay. What do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything. I want to post you on the progress in your case.”

  “How bad is the blizzard?”

  “We’re going to get more than the prediction. The whole town’s celebrating.”

  “That’s good. Jobs. It’s only raining down here.” Placerville was only at four thousand feet, while Lake Tahoe lay at sixty-two hundred feet.

  “Your time will come,” Nina said. She was relieved that he was willing to make small talk. He seemed almost friendly.

  “Roger says you’ve been working hard for me. I can’t believe you went all the way to Germany. Too bad about the witnesses. I haven’t been feeling good lately. I guess Roger told you.”

  “We have developments. We have the gun, we have a fingerprint, and we have an ID.” She summarized what she knew.

  “Unbelievable,” Dave said. “I’d like to come up there and really talk this through, but Echo Summit is closed and I’m kind of a mess.” Echo Summit, the pass into Tahoe from Placerville, was even higher, at seventy-four hundred feet.

  “Dave? You need to be careful. We are cornering Leland Flint.”

  “Never heard of him. Who is he?”

  “We don’t know yet. But we’re going to get him, Dave.”

  “I can’t cope with all this pressure.”

  “Talk to the police down there. Get some help. Maybe Roger will come and stay with you.”

  “Not Roger. He’s always on me. Ragging and nagging. We’re not getting along.”

  “Then the police.”

  “Why would he come after me, anyway?” The news was sinking in, and his tone was uneasy.

  “It’s your case. It’s where the heat is coming from.”

  “Not really. It’s your case. It’s always been your case. You took it against my will. If anything happens to me, it’s on you.” She heard the familiar resentment against the world coming through.

  “That’s not fair, Dave.”

  “None of this will get Sarah back. She’s dead. You can’t fix that, and the rest is crap.”

  A surge of anger overtook Nina. “Your wife, your niece-they were murdered,” she said. “Stop fighting me.”

  “He’ll go after you first,” Dave said. “You’re the source of the noise. You watch your own back.” He hung up.

  She drove home in the early dark. KTHO said Tahoe was expected to have a couple hundred thousand visitors over the weekend. The motels along the way all had No Vacancy signs. The big ski resorts-Heavenly, Alpine, Northstar-were booked solid. On Kulow Street, every house but hers had its lights to keep away the winter ghosts. The lights weren’t about Christmas in the mountains, not really. They were about the dark, keeping it away. Not having Bob with her took away her daily life, her sense of well-being.

  She thought about getting out of the Hanna case, because she was so angry at Dave Hanna. Then she thought about Chelsi, and how close they were to finding her killer. Her eyes-so innocent and bewildered in those last moments-

  Wish’s van was in the driveway. She pulled in behind it, and struggled through the snow up the icy stairs.

  Wish answered the door. He helped her take off her coat, took her briefcase from her, led her to the couch in front of the fire, handed her a glass of wine.

  “Stop,” he said. “For a few hours. Lie down there. I’m cooking. We’ll eat soon.”

  “Elliott?”

  “He won twelve thousand dollars. We stopped at the Raley’s and bought eggs and coffee and milk.”

  “All right.”

  “Lie down.”

  “Just for a minute.”

  They met at the dinner table: Elliott, in a funk, his hands shaking; Wish, spooning out mashed potatoes like a lady in a hair net in the asylum cafeteria; and Nina, three-quarters of the way down her second glass of wine. Nina could feel a draft at her feet, probably from the old windows next to the table, which led to the backyard deck, which, she noticed, would have to be shoveled soon, in case the snow kept falling all night. She didn’t have a garage for the Bronco, either, which meant that after supper she’d have to open the ski closet and find shovels and brushes and scrapers.

  On the other hand, Wish and Elliott were just right for outdoor tasks, and Elliott especially could benefit from exercise. Yes, it would be for their own good. She had some turkey loaf and complimented Wish on the cuisine, then told them both about Meredith and the gun.

  “So you’re vindicated, sort of,” she concluded, as Elliott embarked on his second serving of everything. “Three bullets gone.”

  “But was it the third shot that killed her?” Wish asked, breaking the encouraging spell Nina was trying to weave.

  But Elliott finally spoke up. “I saw the first two. He aimed high.”

  “She was high, on a balcony,” Wish said.

  “She was behind him. He shot toward the street entrance at about an eighty-degree angle.”

  “Too bad the police couldn’t find the third bullet,” Wish said. “Anyway, I hear you. You saw the first two shots aimed high and in the opposite direction from the woman.”

  “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon. He didn’t fire when I struggled with him. I couldn’t have leaned his arm back like the lawyer said.”

  “Good, that’s clear, then.” Nina went into the kitchen and put on the teapot and thought, I hope.

  “He must have seen the Hannas on the balcony after the students ran, and panicked and shot at them,” Wish offered.

  The kitchen and the dining room of the cabin were essentially one room, so she could continue the conversation without a beat. “Why?” she asked. “He wore a mask. They couldn’t identify him.”

  “I surprised him,” Elliott said. “He lost his bearings. He couldn’t think straight anymore.”

  “Right after dinner I’m getting on the Web and see what I can find on the name,” Wish said. “What did you say his name was?”

  “Guess I forgot to say,” Nina said. “He was ID’d as a man named Leland Moss Flint.”

  Elliott got up from the table, clumsily. He made fists with his hands and started rhythmically beating them against his head from either side, walking around the living room.

  “Elliott, what are you doing?” Nina asked.

  “Thinking. Thinking. Am I making this all up? Is this my fantasy? Are you people real?” Nina and Wish exchanged glances.

  “It can’t be. She wouldn’t. But I remember she had one. Or maybe I’m making all this up to look important. Maybe the notebook’s full of shit. I knew I should burn it. It’s driven me crazy, like Cantor. I’m crazy, that’s right, that’s the problem.”

  Nina went to him and
said, “Put your arms down. Please. Come on, sit down again.”

  “You better call the loony bin.” But he sat back down, wearing an anguished expression. He looked from Wish to Nina and said, “Is it really because of me? Four deaths? I can’t take that. All I wanted was to figure out the problem. Such a fascinating problem, and I didn’t want to be famous, exactly, I mean posthumous fame would have been fine, it was good enough for Cantor. I wanted people to know and appreciate that I solved it, that’s all.”

  The teapot began to whistle, and he jumped. “I never met him, but she had one.”

  “One what?” Nina said.

  “A brother.”

  “Who had a brother?”

  “Carleen.”

  Somewhere she had heard that name. Oh yes, Carleen had been a card counter with the other three, but left the group months before the shooting. “What about Carleen?” she said.

  “Carleen. Carleen Flint. She had a brother. A Flint like her, I’m sure. So she must have told him and he tried to steal my book. Carleen. I suppose I hurt her feelings. She was jealous of Silke.”

  Wish leaned forward. “Hey, what was the brother’s first name? Think back.”

  “I never knew. But isn’t it clear enough? Carleen knew we were going to Tahoe. She and Silke still talked. Carleen works with Professor Braun at XYC.”

  “Now we’re gettin’ someplace,” Wish said. “Nina, I have to go get on the computer. Excuse me.”

  “Am I making this up?” Elliott watched him go. “I know that paranoids-they always think their friends have turned against them. They always think they have some great discovery they’re going to give the world. Am I-are you going to have me admitted? Because I want to be in Washington State if I’m going to be in the hospital.”

  “Listen to me, Elliott,” Nina said. “I don’t think you’re crazy. But unfortunately, I’m afraid it is about you. There is really a man named Lee Flint who robbed you. If he is Carleen Flint’s brother, that’s real and we’ll establish it quickly.”

  “I’m the cause?” His face was screwed up like a child’s and his eyes welled up.

  Nina wondered if he might try to commit suicide. The idea that he was responsible for the deaths seemed to have sunk serrated teeth into him.