Sailing into Death (CJ Washburn, PI Book 2)

by James Paddock

  "We'll guard him with our lives," CJ said.

  Parker just rolled his eyes.

  "When you drop him off, why don't you stay for dinner?" Gracie said. "Meals out are going to get old after awhile."

  Stella looked at CJ, who tilted his head in agreement. "Thank you. We'd like that."

  After Gracie left, Stella said to Parker, "I like your wife."

  "Yeah. Me too," Parker said. "So what's on your agenda for the afternoon? How can I be of help?"

  "I want to find out who Douglas' real father was," CJ said. "For that we need to find Ms. Danohough. Rebecca said she was picked up by Eddie Hall. We can try her residence, though I doubt she'll be there. Since he may be her boyfriend and business partner, I'd say if we find him we'll find her."

  "Business partner?" Parker said. "The Coffee Bean Boutique?"

  "Yes."

  Parker pulled out his phone. "That'll be easy."

  It wasn't as easy as Parker thought it was going to be. After more than thirty minutes of Sunday afternoon runaround and mumbled unfavorable sentiments for a few of his fellow human beings, he said, "Got it! And you're not going to believe it."

  CJ sat back in his chair. "Don't tell me. Apollo Beach."

  "You're good. The seven thousand block of Fox Hill Drive."

  "Did you come up with a phone number other than his cell phone?" CJ asked.

  Parker shook his head. "No. I say let's head over there. You have a GPS in your car, I assume. If not we can use the app off my phone."

  "We have the GPS. Wouldn't you want to go in with official backup?" Stella said. "This may be the nest or whatever."

  "Or it could be just a coincidence," the detective said. "You believe in coincidences, don't you?"

  CJ snorted. "I say let's go eye-ball it, see what vehicles might be parked on the driveway. Maybe you can get a plate number or two. I figure we'll either find Ms. Danohough and her boyfriend or, as Stella suggested, a nest of critters."

  "If we do see anything that looks suspicious," Parker said, "we can't do anything but call it in. With me officially off duty, we are all just civilians."

  Stella put her hand on CJ's arm. "That's just fine with us. I think CJ has had enough excitement for a weekend anyway."

  Two minutes later, lunch tab paid, they sat in the car waiting for the air conditioner to cool it down while Stella punched the address into the GPS. When nothing came up she pulled out her iPad, brought up MapQuest and, again, put in the address. Just as with the GPS, no such address was found. She searched for just the street. When that produced nothing she said, "There's no Fox Hill Drive in Apollo Beach. This is bogus."

  They all sat back in silence.

  "Well I guess," CJ said after a time, "we ought to do what we should have done in the first place."

  "What's that?" Stella asked.

  "Go to Ms. Danohough's address. We've been assuming she's not there because we figured she'd gone off with Ed Hall so as to stay out of sight of whoever is trying to kill her. Could it be that she's simply keeping him with her as her bodyguard, so to speak?"

  "Good point," Parker said. "Why the bogus address though? Where does he really live?"

  "That's a very good question."

  CJ dug out Danohough's address he'd received from Rebecca. Stella loaded it into the GPS and a minute later, they were on their way. Stella drove because the pain killer was making CJ feel a little woozy, almost nauseous. As she pulled out onto the street, CJ leaned his seat back and closed his eyes.

  By the time they got to Danohough's apartment building, Stella looked like she was ready to shoot either the GPS or Detective DuPont sitting in the backseat overriding the GPS's irritating voice with his own version of how to get there. That was one thing CJ knew about Stella; she didn't like backseat drivers, especially when she was following a GPS.

  "It's a bottom floor apartment," DuPont said and opened the car door. "I'm just along for the ride, so you guys can do the talking."

  They all got out and gathered at the front of the car. "You're our consultant," Stella said.

  "Seems ass backwards," CJ said. "It's your city."

  "Officially, I'm not even here," Parker said. "I'm like the fly on the wall. Are either of you two packin'?"

  "I told you the other day," CJ said. "Didn't want to go through the paperwork on the flight, so no."

  Parker looked at Stella.

  "Well..." she said, looking between the two men. "I might be."

  CJ's mouth dropped open. "You're carrying? Why didn't I know?"

  "You never asked."

  "You took it on the plane?"

  "I learned what to do. Got a hard-sided lockable case. Declared it at check in. Did the paperwork. Wasn't that hard."

  Parker laughed, shaking his head. "A tad ironic, I'd say. We have a police detective, a licensed private investigator who's an ex-cop, and a yet to be licensed PI in training who's never been a cop. Guess who's packin'."

  CJ snorted.

  "I should have guessed by the purse she's carrying," Parker added.

  "Is that what you meant by 'among other things' yesterday when I first noticed the new purse?" CJ asked.

  "Yes."

  "I do have to say, though," Parker said, "I don't know about the reciprocity between Arizona and Florida for carrying a concealed weapon. I'd have to look it up."

  "Florida recognizes my Arizona license," Stella said.

  "You're sure?"

  Stella started to pull out her iPad. "I can bring up the reciprocal agreements on the Arizona Department of Public Safety website if you'd like."

  Parker held up his hand. "I believe you." He turned to CJ. "Is she any good with it?"

  "I can't say I even know. How embarrassing is that?"

  "Before I'd marry her, I'd want to find out. You may have to brush up on your own skills. Have you seen it?"

  "Of course I've seen it. It's a pink SIG Sauer MOS-22. She's had it for a few years."

  "Pink?"

  "I'm a girl," Stella said. "Deal with it."

  "Not much punch in a little pink twenty-two," Parker said.

  "It's enough if you hit what you're aiming at," Stella said. "Guys have to carry big guns in case they miss."

  "Ha ha. You and my wife ought to go on the standup comedian circuit together."

  "We could be the Hot Packin' Dick Wives."

  Parker laughed, but CJ winced and rubbed his stomach.

  "You okay, Clint?" Stella said.

  "Stomach's a little uneasy. It'll pass."

  "Probably the grouper."

  CJ snorted.

  They entered the building and navigated their way to Apartment 107. Approximately eight inches below the numbers on the door was a peep hole. CJ watched it closely after Stella pushed the doorbell, a habit that he picked up from years on the police force. Seconds passed but there came no response. She rang it again. This time a shadow passed across the peep hole as though someone stepped up close to look.

  "Did you see that?" CJ said.

  "Yeah," Parker said. "There's definitely someone in there and they're not answering the door."

  CJ knocked on the door. "Ms. Danohough! It's CJ Washburn."

  A few seconds of silence passed and then came a thump and a crash. CJ looked at Parker.

  "Try the door," Parker said.

  CJ turned the knob and the door inched open. He started to say, "I'll go in first," but Stella was ahead of him. She hit the door with her shoulder, rushed in and to the side taking a shooter's stance, her SIG Sauer out in front of her. CJ and Parker moved in around her, and the three gawked at the scene before them.

  Stella raised her SIG Sauer to point at the ceiling. Parker took her arm and directed the weapon toward the floor. "There are apartments above, no one below. Point it down."

  She nodded.

  A man lay on his side next to an overturned straight-backed chair, partially unbuttoned shirt, eyes wide, blood and sweat dripping from his face. Beyond him, scattered about a small dini
ng area, were dozens of seashells and shards of glass. A small, round table lay on its side, the window under which it appeared to have resided, stood partially open, curtains blowing about. Parker rushed to the window and looked out.

  "Gone," he said, shaking his head and pulling his phone from his pocket.

  "Is there anyone else in the apartment?" CJ asked of the man.

  The man closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. "Just Eveleen."

  "Are you Ed Hall?"

  The man looked at CJ for a few seconds as though confused by the question and then nodded. "Yes."

  "Where's Eveleen?"

  Just before Hall bowed his head CJ noticed that what he at first took as sweat and blood, was a mixture of sweat, blood and something else. Maybe tears?

  "In the bedroom," Hall said without lifting his head again.

  CJ glanced into a narrow but very neat kitchen, water trickling from the faucet, a small kitchen towel lying on the floor against the far cabinet. He turned away from the kitchen into a hall where he expected to find the bedroom Ed Hall had mentioned. He stopped at the first open door to find a bathroom, then across from it to an empty bedroom. He continued on to what had to be the master bedroom. Stella was suddenly by his side, her SIG Sauer still grasped in both hands, pointed at the floor, determination etched in her face.

  The bedroom door was open. CJ stepped in, took one look and then rushed back to the bathroom where he proceeded to empty his stomach of everything he had eaten at the bistro.

  Chapter 27

  "Put your SIG Sauer in the trunk of your car before the police arrive," DuPont said to Stella. "It'll avoid any undue questions and concerns. All you'd need to do is drop your purse and have the SIG fall out.

  She gave him a questioning, "You're crazy," kind of look.

  "Stranger things have happened," he said.

  When Stella left, CJ helped Ed Hall into a chair while DuPont documented the scene with his camera phone. After that he sent everyone out of the apartment so as to not contaminate the crime scene any further. The last CJ saw of Hall and the Detective, they were outside the apartment door, Hall sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, DuPont taking more pictures of the contusion on Ed Hall's forehead. Blood seemed to continue to seep from under the hairline.

  While waiting for the first responders to arrive, CJ and Stella sat on the front stoop of the building, he with his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees.

  "How're you feeling?" she asked him.

  "Better. For a while it was like someone was twisting a knife in there. Embarrassing."

  "Why?"

  "I took one look at a Eveleen Danohough, blood and brains all over, and proceeded to get sick. Never done that before."

  "I almost got sick, too."

  "I'm supposed to be a trained professional. Been there; done it. In the words of my old captain, 'Check it at the door so you don't chuck it in the door.'"

  "Obviously there was something else going on; most likely something you ate didn't agree with you. Maybe the grouper."

  CJ shook his head. "No. It's not the grouper. The pain killer felt wrong before I ate. Maybe a bad combination."

  One of the sirens they'd been hearing for the last thirty seconds burst into the apartment complex parking lot. A St. Petersburg police cruiser skidded to a stop right in front of them and a police officer who CJ recognized got out.

  "Officer Pratt," CJ said. "Nice to see you."

  "Clinton Washburn. Am I here to haul you in again?"

  "I sure hope not." CJ pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Detective DuPont is inside with two victims, one deceased, one not."

  Stella stood. "Perp appeared to depart out the window. Apartment 107." She then proceeded to lead Officer Pratt and his partner into the building.

  Detective Gorky arrived on the heels of the medical examiner, spoke to Parker for a minute or so and then went in. CJ had long since moved away from the stoop. He had been alternating between sitting in the rental and leaning against the trunk, depending on how he was feeling at the time. The nausea came and went, though had gradually gotten better. He was now leaning against the car.

  "How much longer do you think we'll be here?" Stella said.

  "The detective will want to get our statements." He looked over to where Parker and an EMS tech were standing with Ed Hall. The tech was intent upon Ed Hall's injury. Several more units had arrived and officers were canvassing around looking for anyone who had seen the perp come or go. "I'd sure like to be able to listen in on what Ed Hall has to say."

  "I can't imagine they'd let you do that."

  Just then Ed Hall and CJ met eyes for a few seconds, until Hall looked away. "No, no way," CJ said, "but he appears to be telling Parker something, so I'm anxious to hear Parker's report."

  A dark gray Dodge Charger rolled in, blue light strobing from the dash. It stopped in such a way as to tie up the parking lot even further.

  "Oh, oh," CJ said.

  "What?" Stella turned her head in the direction CJ was looking. "Oh," she added as Agents Coulter and Washburn climbed out.

  "The Detectives are not going to be happy," CJ said.

  The two agents started toward the entry to the apartment building when Josh spotted CJ and Stella. The surprise, though quickly covered up, was quite evident. Coulter continued toward the crime scene while Josh turned toward them.

  "What are you doing here, Dad?"

  "It was we, us, the two of us here, who discovered the body."

  Josh looked up at the sky, pulling his hand through his hair. "Great. I think I'm going to be on the carpet for this."

  "Why?"

  "I was supposed to be keeping an eye on you. In the heat of the investigation at the bombing scene, I became lax, let you all go off by yourself." He looked over at the apartment building. "The victim is Eveleen Danohough?"

  "You already know it is. Why else would you be here?"

  Josh looked toward the building and then back at his dad. "Why were you...? Never mind. You two stay right here and don't talk to anyone, including the police. We're taking over this crime scene."

  CJ shrugged his shoulders. "Okay."

  Josh turned to walk away, than stopped for one more question. "Anyone besides you two?"

  "Detective DuPont."

  Josh followed his dad's nod to where Parker was still watching the tech work on Ed Hall. "That's just great. I thought he was in the hospital."

  "He was until a few hours ago."

  "Who's the civilian with him?"

  "Eddie Hall. Eveleen's boyfriend, we think, and business partner. He is also a victim. It appears the perp bashed him in the head before escaping out a window. Other than the head injury and witnessing Ms. Danohough's murder, he wasn't harmed."

  "So he's our best witness," Josh said.

  "Might be your only witness."

  "You didn't see anything?"

  "No."

  "Why were you here?"

  "Wanted to ask Ms. Danohough some questions concerning Douglas Rothbower, who was supposedly her son."

  "Why?"

  "Because it's what I was hired to do. I'm trying to get all the facts concerning his birth and life so as to help in the legalities involved with the will and next of kin."

  Josh just glared at him.

  CJ held up his right hand. "Honest. There was no intention of getting in the middle of whatever it is you and your FBI pals have going with the WMD threat. You can tell Taffer or whosever carpet you wind up on that I was told by you and your superiors to stay away from it, and that I went off with those intentions, wanting only to try and find out who Douglas Rothbower's birth father really was."

  "And did you?"

  "Did I what?"

  "Find out who his father was."

  "No. Never got to talk to Ms. Danohough. It appears that she is now a dead end; no pun intended."

  Josh snorted. "Like I said, don't go anywhere."

  "Yes, Sir, Special Agent Joshua James W
ashburn, Sir!" CJ snapped a salute and displayed a huge grin.

  Josh shook his head and followed after Agent Coulter.

  Noticing the arrival of the FBI agents, Detective DuPont left Ed Hall with the tech and walked over to CJ and Stella.

  "Is that your son, the FBI agent?"

  "That's him."

  "I could see the resemblance. Are they doing what I think they're doing?" he said.

  "Taking over," CJ said.

  "Don Gorky is going to be pissed. Glad it's not my case anymore." He adjusted the sling holding up his casted arm and added, "I'm starting to hate this thing."

  "I'll trade you that for my broken rib."

  "Will you take the hole in my head, too?"

  "Already have one, so no thanks," CJ said. "So what's Hall's story?"

  "Some guy who he didn't know knocked on the door and then forced himself in. He wanted to know what Eveleen Danohough knew, what she'd told the FBI and police. When she wouldn't say anything he shot her in the head and then started in on Hall. He's convinced that if we hadn't shown up he'd be dead as well."

  CJ looked to the far end of the parking lot where a cop was talking with a resident. "Has the canvassing turned up anything yet?"

  Parker shook his head. "Not that I've heard. On a hot Sunday afternoon, I doubt they're going to find much. People are either inside their air-conditioned apartment or they're at the beach or in a mall. There's probably a one in a thousand chance that anyone will have noticed anything. Doubt anyone will have even seen us arrive."

  "Where did Ed Hall go?" Stella said suddenly.

  CJ and Parker's heads swung around to the EMS van. The two techs were busy putting things away, restoring the van for their next dispatch.

  "He shouldn't have gone anywhere," Parker said and rushed away.

  As Parker dashed off, CJ said to Stella, "Something's fishy here."

  "When you say that, I'm learning to not reply with, 'Other than the murder?' or some such thing," Stella said. "Now what are you thinking that is fishy?"

  "I think Ed has something to hide and he waited for the first opportunity to slip away."

  "What do you think he knows?"

  "Maybe he knows the killer." CJ stepped around the car to retrieve his bottle of water and then returned to lean next to Stella again. He took a swig of the bottle. "Starting to feel a bit better."