BODY IN THE BOX a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by E. R. FALLON

  Dino didn’t look happy that someone was sitting in his chair. Terry walked over to say hello to the pleasant-faced woman he assumed was Rebecca Everhart.

  “Rebecca Everhart?” Terry said to her.

  “Yes. Hi.” She stood up to shake his hand.

  “Detective Jackson — Terry.”

  “I’m looking forward to working with you,” she said.

  “Same here.”

  Dino came over and actually smiled at her. “I’m Dino Cooper.” He shook her hand.

  “Rebeca Everhart.” She touched the files on Dino’s desk and sat back down.

  Terry couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. If it had been anyone else seated in that chair Terry knew that Dino would have picked them up by the collar and tossed them out.

  “We brought a guy in again for interrogation,” Terry said to Rebecca.

  “I’ve been reading over the case files,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to them. The captain said it was all right.”

  “No, of course we don’t mind,” Dino said.

  Terry gave a little smirk.

  “Interesting stuff in those files. It reminds me of a cold case in Philadelphia in the 1950s,” she said. “Mind if I take a crack at the guy?”

  “Go right ahead,” Dino and Terry said at the same time.

  Terry was surprised she was so eager. He knew that Dino had wanted to test her out by sending her in, but it was clear that she was experienced enough to go in on her own terms.

  “His name is Stan,” Terry said. “He claims he saw a woman take the box with the boy inside it out of a Cadillac—”

  “I know all about him. I read it in your files,” Rebecca said. “You guys are probably thinking what I’m thinking — he’s either lying or he’s unclear about what he saw exactly?”

  “Exactly,” Dino said.

  Rebecca made her way to the interrogation room. Dino had offered to show her where it was, but apparently she had already given herself a tour of the station.

  “She’s good,” Terry said to Dino. “If she keeps this up we’re going to look like idiots.”

  “Yeah, more so than we already probably do in the captain’s eyes at the moment.”

  “Let’s watch her with Stan,” Terry said. “I bet she’ll get something good out of him.”

  He and Dino went to the observation glass. On the other side Rebecca entered the room where Stan sat fiddling with his sweater. He looked up when he saw Rebecca, and appeared surprised to see a new face, although he seemed more relaxed with her than he had with the two male detectives. Terry casually switched on the outside speaker so he and Dino could hear Stan and Rebecca conversing.

  “Who are you?” Stan asked.

  Captain Peters came over to them and looked through the observation glass. “She’s in there already?”

  “Yeah. She wanted to go in by herself,” Terry replied.

  “I’m Detective Everhart,” Rebecca said. “You’re Stan, right?”

  Stan nodded. “Where — where are those other guys, the ones who brought me here?”

  “Do you think he misses us?” Dino remarked.

  Rebecca said, “I’m speaking to you today.” She didn’t give him a moment to think. “So you were there the night the boy in Beech Hills was dropped off, is that right?” she said right away.

  Stan looked directly at her. “Yeah, I saw it.”

  “I like her approach,” Captain Peters remarked on the other side of the glass.

  Rebecca was playing it cool. “You told the other detectives that a woman left the box. Did she have any trouble carrying it? The boy inside wasn’t that little. I don’t know if I believe you, Stan.” She shook her head as if she was disappointed in him.

  “I’m telling the truth, ma’am, I swear. I don’t need a lawyer because I’ve got nothing to hide.”

  “Ma’am? I love it,” Dino commented.

  Rebecca’s voice grew louder over the speaker. “Are you sure you saw a woman, Stan? Or are you lying to me? Did you really see anything? Are you just making up this damn story for fun?”

  From the expression on Stan’s face, he looked like he might start bawling. “No. I, I’m—”

  “You what?” Rebecca slammed her fist down on the table, directly in front of Stan’s face. “Tell me the truth. I’m getting tired of your lies.”

  “I . . . I saw the kid in the box. And maybe I saw a Cadillac SUV . . .”

  “Maybe?”

  Stan nodded.

  “And you never saw a woman, correct?”

  Stan nodded quickly. “I never saw a lady.”

  “And you never saw the box being taken out of a Cadillac SUV?”

  “I saw the car I think that same night. But I never saw anyone take a kid out of it.”

  “But you did trip over the box?”

  “Yeah. I tripped and I saw the kid.”

  Rebecca patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks, Stan. You did well.”

  “Great work,” Terry told Rebecca after she’d left the interrogation room.

  “Yeah, good job.”

  Captain Peters nodded at Rebecca, and Terry sensed that the captain was impressed by her interrogation skills.

  Rebecca gave them a slight smile, as though they were making a big deal out of nothing.

  “You heard what Stan said,” Rebecca told them. “He lied about seeing a woman take the box out of a Cadillac SUV. But he did see the body, and he claims to have possibly seen a Cadillac SUV in the area that same night, so we still might be looking for a Cadillac SUV. But he certainly isn’t the most credible witness,” she said.

  The captain cleared his throat. “You got that right.”

  Terry nodded. “Everhart, I like your style. I think we can all work really well together.”

  “I echo that,” Dino said.

  Terry looked through the observation glass at Stan, who was sitting quietly chewing his fingernails. “What do we do with him?”

  “Release him. We can’t keep him here,” said Captain Peters.

  * * *

  Dino invited Rebecca to go to Lulu’s and have lunch with them. He’d surprised even himself by being so generous to a newbie. Rebecca seemed relieved that they had invited her, which Dino took to mean that male colleagues had not always been so accepting.

  It was shortly after noon. Lulu’s was crowded with workers from the tall office buildings nearby that housed insurance companies and criminal law firms. A few uniformed cops from the station were also there.

  The other detectives in the station usually ate at Morgan’s, a steakhouse and bar a little farther away, but Dino and Terry mostly kept to themselves. Rebecca seemed perfectly happy to be sitting with them.

  They sat at the same booth in the back where Dino had met Tommy Monahan that morning.

  “Have you eaten here yet?” Dino asked Rebecca, who sat next to Terry.

  Rebecca shook her head. “I’m still settling into my apartment. I really haven’t taken a look around the city.”

  “Dino could show you around. Couldn’t you, Dino?” Terry smiled at him.

  “Sure, if you’d like. I’d be happy to.”

  “That would be fine, when I have the time. It doesn’t look like I’ll have much time now, though. When I first arrived at the station the first thing Captain Peters says to me is, ‘We need to solve this thing fast, so get working.’ Some welcome. He didn’t even say hello. Is he always like that, or is it just me?” She laughed.

  “That’s pretty much how he is,” Dino said. “We do have one of the best closed case rates in the state, though, so his no-nonsense attitude pays off.”

  “What was it like working in Jersey City?” Terry asked her.

  “Not much different. But some of us had a knack for keeping cases open for a long time. I wasn’t one of them.”

  “I wouldn’t think so. Peters told us that you come highly recommended,” Dino said.

  Rebecca read her menu. “He said that?”
r />   “He did,” Terry said.

  A server came over to the booth. She was the same woman who had served Dino and Tommy in the morning. She scribbled down their orders. Then she gathered their menus and went quickly to the kitchen.

  “She’s in a hurry,” Terry remarked.

  “She seemed more relaxed this morning.”

  “You guys ate here this morning?” Rebecca asked.

  “Yeah, with a friend,” Dino said. “I usually come by myself in the morning, but sometimes Terry shows up. He has a family so he’s usually with them then.”

  “Feel free to join Dino if you want,” Terry said. “And me, when I’m here.”

  “You wouldn’t mind?” she said.

  “Of course not,” Dino said. “You’re one of the team now, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess I am,” Rebecca said thoughtfully.

  “Are you ready for tonight?” Terry asked.

  “What’s tonight?” Rebecca said.

  The server brought them Rebecca’s soda and Dino and Terry’s coffees, mixing up who got what, but the detectives managed to rearrange the drinks in the correct fashion after the server had left the table.

  “We’re going to stake out the area where the body was found, in Beech Hills,” Dino said.

  “You can count me in,” Rebecca replied.

  * * *

  Around 7 p.m. Dino left the station with Rebecca and Terry, heading for Beech Hills. The plan was to observe the area around the Diamond Ladies Shoe factory until at least four in the morning, because you never could tell how late someone might make an unexpected visit. They took two cars, with Rebecca riding solo — her decision.

  “Hey, I’m already here. Where are you guys?” Rebecca’s voice boomed out of the two-way radio.

  “We’re coming,” Terry said.

  “Do you think she should have gone with one of us for tonight?” Dino asked.

  “What do you mean? As far as I can tell, she knows what she’s doing.”

  “She’s experienced, yes, but she’s never worked in this city before. It might have been a good idea for one of us to help her out. It’s her first time on a stakeout here.”

  “Did you want to ride with her, is that what you’re saying?” Terry said, smirking at him.

  “I won’t deny she’s good-looking. But that isn’t what I meant. I was only trying to be helpful.”

  Terry chuckled. “Since when did you ever care about being helpful, Cooper?”

  “Shut up!” Dino shot back and grinned.

  They were both wearing bulletproof vests underneath their shirts. Dino patted his automatic encased snugly in its leather holster.

  “I should have stopped for coffee,” Dino said as he approached Beech Hills.

  “Personally, this time of the night, it makes me tired an hour after I drink it,” Terry said. “In the evening, I prefer tea.”

  “I never knew that about you.”

  “It’s an old habit. Way back when I was a beat cop, I’d pull the early shift three days a week, and when I came home, it’d be very late at night. Tulia would always be waiting for me in the kitchen with a cup of tea.”

  “That sounds really nice, actually.”

  “Yeah, well, that was a long time ago.”

  Dino glanced over at Terry, surprised at the gloom in his partner’s voice.

  “Hey, Terry, don’t worry about it. Things change, you know? So maybe she doesn’t wait for you with tea anymore, but Tulia still loves you, and she knows you love her. I can see it when you two are together.”

  “Thanks. I like to think so,” Terry said quietly.

  Dino drove slowly around the corner. He spoke into the two-way radio. “Everhart, we’re here.”

  “I know. I saw you driving past me,” she said.

  “I hope we aren’t being too obvious.” When his joke fell flat, he said, “Any action so far?”

  “Yeah, a couple of stray cats.”

  Terry chuckled.

  “Be in touch,” Dino said.

  “Ten-four.”

  Dino pulled over to the side of the road and put the car in park. Terry turned on the radio.

  Dino turned it off after one song. “Sorry, but it gives me a headache.”

  “I’ll let it slide since we listened to music the last time we were on a stakeout,” Terry said.

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  “There are parent-teacher conferences tonight at Jimmy’s school,” Terry said out of the blue.

  “Is Tulia going?”

  Dino shut off the headlights but kept the engine running and the heat blasting.

  “Yeah, by herself,” Terry said. “She made cookies for it.”

  “Oh, yeah, what kind?” Dino asked.

  “Oatmeal raisin.”

  Dino made a disappointed face.

  “I know, I told her she should’ve made chocolate chip.”

  Dino chuckled slightly. “And how’d she take that?”

  “She thought it was pretty funny, actually. I think.”

  “You’re lucky your marriage is nothing like mine was. Carol and I never joked around like you and Tulia do. We were in love when we married, but by the time we divorced we hated each other.”

  “But you get along better now that you aren’t together anymore, right?”

  “Somewhat,” Dino said.

  “I hope something happens tonight. If we don’t get anything soon, I bet the captain is going to pressure us to arrest Stan.”

  “Where’d you hear that?”

  Terry stared out the passenger side window. “Nowhere, just by the look in his eyes this afternoon when Everhart was questioning Stan. It seemed like the captain might have it on his mind. If he gets desperate enough, who knows what he’ll do.”

  “Yeah, who knows.” Dino settled in his seat, preparing for the long haul.

  Newark was very different from its more famous neighbor New York City. There were no trendy bars or clubs to hang out at until the early hours of the morning. The streets were crowded during the day with office workers. At night, the city was eerily quiet, and it wasn’t considered safe to venture out alone after dark.

  A couple of homicides a week wasn’t considered exceptional. But besides the kid in the box, things had been pretty low-key that week.

  Dino looked out the car window. There were glistening pieces of broken glass on the sidewalk, old cans and discarded newspapers. Sometimes, the entire city seemed just plain dirty, like it could use a cleaning with a gigantic broom. Dino wondered if it was just the sections he most often went into because of his job, places like Beech Hills and Marks Hill. He wondered if the huge street-cleaning trucks even came by those parts anymore, now that they’d had to cut the county payroll because of lack of funding.

  But maybe Beech Hills and Marks Hill were that way because nobody in the local government truly cared about what happened there. And maybe those places had always been grimy. Dino rarely saw a piece of trash on the sidewalks in Greenwood, though.

  “It’s gross here, isn’t it?” Terry said.

  Dino was used to the area’s ugliness, having grown up in Marks Hill, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city. He knew that some of the others at the station viewed him differently because of his childhood in Marks. Terry had always accepted him. Most of the other detectives had not grown up in the city, and they continued to commute in from the suburbs.

  Dino recalled Terry telling him that he had borrowed some money from his father, on Tulia’s suggestion, and bought a house in Greenwood. Terry had mentioned that his father didn’t like that Terry had become a cop instead of going to college — but being a cop had been his dream ever since he was seven years old and was hit by a car while riding his bike in the street. A policeman had found him and taken him to the hospital.

  “Ten-fourteen,” Rebecca said through the two-way.

  Dino had been drifting off, and he sat up and looked at the car’s clock — 11:14 p.m.

  “Ten-nine.” Terry
spoke into the radio.

  Rebecca’s voice. “A white pickup truck just pulled over to the left of the scene.”

  “Okay, roger that,” Dino said into the two-way. “Ten-seventeen. Everhart, stay put, back us up.”

  “Ten-four. Out.”

  Dino took the car out of park and inched out into the street. He stopped just before he reached the corner, not wanting to alert whoever was parked at the other side.

  The siren wailed as Dino quickly rounded the corner and pulled up alongside the white pickup truck. He parked behind it and then shut off the siren.

  Dino nodded at Terry. Then he said through the siren speaker, “Police. Remain in your vehicle.”

  From where he was parked, it appeared to be a man driving and a woman seated in the passenger seat.

  “How do you want to play it?” Terry said.

  “Let me go first, and you come after.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  Dino approached the driver side window, which was already rolled down. He shined his small flashlight into the vehicle. A teenage boy and girl sat there. They looked like high school students, not who he’d been hoping to find. They were too young to have been the child’s parents. Terry walked over to the other side of the vehicle. The teenage girl sat with her head slightly down. Through the glass Dino saw Terry gesturing for her to open her window.

  “Evening,” Dino said to the teenage boy, who was wearing a baseball cap. He had a frightened, wide-eyed look.

  The teenager didn’t reply, but glanced over at the girl, who still had her head down. Her blouse was unbuttoned halfway, and the edges of a black bra peeked out, contrasting with her pale flesh.

  “What are you two doing out here this time of the night?” Dino asked, although he had a pretty good idea what they were up to.

  The girl suddenly turned toward Dino and spoke up. “We’re on a date.”

  “How old are you, miss?”

  “Seventeen,” she whispered.

  Dino raised his eyebrows then fixed his attention on the teenage boy. “And you?”

  “I’m the same age, sir.”

  “Do you two come here a lot? Do your parents know you’re here? Do her parents know?”

  The boy nodded. The girl glanced over at Terry and then started buttoning her blouse. If Dino had a daughter he sure as hell wouldn’t have allowed her to be in a car with a boy at eleven at night on a weekday. He shook his head in disbelief. The world had changed a lot since he was a teenager, and kids grew up very fast.