by Joe Hart
“Mrs. Erickson? Did you understand what Detective Perring told you?”
Stella’s eyelids fluttered and she focused on him as if seeing him for the first time. “I need to get my pills. I haven’t had them yet today. Henry’s out on the boat with our son. Maybe you can speak to him when he comes in. They should be back anytime now. I hope he’s not in trouble again.”
“Mrs. Erickson—” Perring began, but Liam shook his head slightly.
“What type of trouble was he in before?” Liam asked.
“Oh he and his friends got up to mischief. That was all. Boys being boys.”
“What did they do?”
“I’m not sure they did anything. It was all hearsay. Someone accused my Dade of beating up that black boy after the Webb girl died.” The old woman shook as she tried to raise her head higher. “But he didn’t. He’s a good boy, my son. Always helping. He’s going to be a lawyer, you know.”
Liam held her wavering gaze. “You must be very proud.”
She smiled revealing a set of flawless false teeth. “Yes, I am.”
Liam nodded. “We’re going to leave you be now, ma’am. You have a lovely afternoon, okay?”
“Of course. Henry’s going to take me out sailing later. If the weather lightens that is.”
Stella blinked rapidly, then managed to get her hands on the controls of her wheelchair. She maneuvered it around so that she could look out the window at the lake, then fell still as if dropping into a slumber. Liam and Perring went out into the hall, stopping once the door was shut behind them.
“God, she has no idea what we just told her,” Perring said.
“I think somewhere it registered but she won’t realize it until later.” Liam put one hand against the wall and stared at the floor before bringing his eyes up to Perring’s. “Did you catch all that?”
“About Dade assaulting Dickson Jenner. Yes, I did.”
“Did you know about it?”
“No. This is the first I’ve heard.”
Liam opened his mouth but closed it as Avery appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Are you finished? Is she all right?”
“Yes, I think she’s fine but I’d like to ask you who her power of attorney is,” Perring said.
“Well it’s her son, Dade.”
“And if something were to happen to Dade? Who would the responsibility default to?”
“To me. Why?” Avery shifted from foot to foot as if the floor were too hot to stand on.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this Mrs. . . .”
“Lott, Avery Lott.”
“Mrs. Lott. It will come as a shock to you but Dade was killed in a home invasion last night.”
Avery’s hand went to her throat. “Oh no! Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately yes. If I might ask you a few questions?”
The other woman looked shell-shocked, her jaw trembling. “Of course.”
“Are you a family member or just a caretaker?”
“I’m, well, my mother was best friends with Stella before she died. After she passed away and Stella’s health declined, I started providing home care for her. I’ve known the family for years.” A tear broke free of the corner of her eye and trailed down her cheek.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Perring said. “We won’t take up much more of your time. Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Dade in any way? Someone he’d had a falling out with through business or otherwise?”
“No, not at all. He was always so kind. He’d come to see his mother every other day. It always brightened her up so much when he’d stop by.” Avery’s face crumpled and she began to cry in earnest. “This is going to be so hard on her.”
Perring nodded. “Anything else you can think of that may help us? Anything Dade said in the past weeks that was odd or unsettling to you?”
“No. Not that I can think of.”
“Was he very close with anyone? A girlfriend or fiancée?”
“No. He always said he never wanted to get married. ‘Being tied down,’ he called it. No, he had his work, a few friends, and he loved to sail but that was it.”
“Thank you Mrs. Lott. We’ll be in touch as soon as we have more information. If you think of anything, please feel free to give me a call directly.” Perring handed the crying woman a business card.
Avery began to follow them down the stairs but Liam turned and tipped his head toward Stella’s room. “We can see ourselves out. Go ahead and check on her.” She gave him a grateful smile and wiped at her face as she made her way back toward the room.
Outside the sky had sunk lower and a light rain fell. Superior was a tumult of hundreds of cresting whitecaps. They hurried to the car and climbed inside, both shrugging off the cold rain from their jackets. Perring drew out her cell phone and dialed as she started the car but didn’t put it in drive.
“Blair. Were you able to pull up Erickson’s record? Um hmm. Okay. How about the neighborhood?” She listened for a long time and frowned. “Fuck. All right. Do a run-up of Dade’s friends and acquaintances at his business and send it over to me. Yeah, we’ve already been there. Not sure. Okay.” She ended the call and sat back in her seat. “Erickson doesn’t have a record.”
“Nothing?”
“Not even a speeding ticket.”
“And the neighborhood canvass?”
“Nada.”
Liam stared out the window at the churning water. “Is there someone who’s been at your precinct long enough to have arrested Erickson on the Jenner charge?”
“Yeah. Actually Mills might know about it. He was uniform up until two years ago and he’s about the right age.”
“Worth a try.”
Perring drove them through the sodden streets, everything outside the windows the same color as the sky. As they pulled past the squad car positioned at the end of Owen’s drive, a fork of blue lightning stabbed the clouds above the lake, crawling away through the gray until it winked out. They jogged to the house. Liam took off his coat, reveling in the warmth and dryness of the entry.
Sanders appeared in the archway and watched them come in. “So?” he asked as Perring neared him.
“I’ll fill you in in a minute. Where’s Mills?”
“In the bathroom.”
“Is Owen awake yet?” Liam asked.
Sanders gazed coldly at him for a moment. “He just came down. He’s having coffee in the living room.”
“Thanks.” Sanders didn’t budge from the place he stood. Liam sidled past the older detective, brushing his shoulder with his own. He found Owen standing at the windows in the living room nursing a steaming cup of coffee. New lines seemed to have formed around his weary eyes.
“Morning,” Liam said.
“Morning.”
“You got some rest.”
“Yeah. I think my mind just finally shut down.”
“Probably a good thing.”
Owen dropped his gaze from the waves and stared into his cup. “I want to apologize for how I acted yesterday. You’re right, Valerie needs me now more than ever and everyone is doing their best to help.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I have no idea how I would cope with what you’re going through.”
“I do. You’d be out there hunting the bastard.”
The thoughts from earlier that morning rose in his mind along with the imagery of the dream. Liam started to reply but Perring and Sanders entered the room, stopping behind the couch.
“How are you today, Mr. Farrow?” Perring asked.
“Doing okay.”
“Good. Have you secured the money yet?”
“Yes. It’s being wired into three separate banks later this afternoon. I’ll have to go and pick it up personally.”
“We’ll wait on that until the drop location’s been determined. We don’t want you carrying around two million in cash until we have to.”
“While we’re talking about that, how is this going to be handled when we receive
the details about getting Valerie back?”
Perring sighed. “That’s difficult to say since we don’t know the specifics yet. But generally speaking we’ll arrange the exchange for your wife and comply with all of the kidnapper’s demands. When everything is set we’ll strategically place our SWAT teams around the exchange site. Depending on who is requested to bring the money, we’ll have multiple officers hidden in a crowd if the meeting place is public, and if it’s not they’ll be seconds away if they’re needed. In the event that the exchange doesn’t go as planned, because in all honesty we do not intend to let this person walk away with two million dollars, we’ll have a small tracking device hidden within the money.”
“What if something goes wrong?” Owen asked.
“Nothing is going to go wrong, Mr. Farrow. We’re going to take every precaution,” Sanders said. “Besides, there’s a good chance that we’ll get this guy before we ever have to meet his demands.”
“Was that where you both were this morning?” Owen said, addressing Liam and Perring. “Following up a lead?” Liam glanced at Perring, seeing the look in her eyes that was as clear as a shout. Not a word.
“It was a possibility but turned out to be inconclusive,” Perring said. “But I promise you the moment we have something solid, you’ll be the first to know.”
“I want to say, you’ve all been great,” Owen said, looking down again. “I’m sorry if I was harsh with any of you yesterday.”
“No apology needed,” Sanders said.
“Absolutely not,” Perring said. “Liam, could you join us in the kitchen please?”
He nodded and left Owen to stare out at the lake as he followed Perring and Sanders into the next room. He poured himself a cup of coffee even though his stomach was a cold and aching hole in his center that demanded solid food.
“I filled Rex in on the situation with Erickson and we spoke to Mills,” Perring said.
“And?”
“He didn’t make the arrest in the assault case but a friend of his did who’s since retired. Apparently shortly after Alexandra’s suicide, Erickson and two of his friends accosted Jenner on a road near his home.”
“How did they know him?”
“They were a year or so older but went to the same high school.”
Liam ticked his fingers off. “So you’re saying both Webb girls, Owen, Jenner, and these three guys all went to the same high school?”
“Yes.” Liam started to continue but Perring cut him off. “Let me finish.”
“Okay.”
“Jenner was walking home one evening and they cut him off in a vehicle and beat him pretty badly.”
“How badly?” Liam said.
“From what Mills said he spent several weeks in the hospital with a fractured orbital bone, four broken ribs, a punctured lung along with multiple bruises and cuts.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Who were the other two men with Erickson?”
“Gage Rowe and Marshall Davis. Another couple of kids who ran with Erickson.”
“And how did they get off without serving time for the attack? Sounds like they nearly killed him.”
“Jenner refused to press charges. His mother was the one that called the police. She showed up just as the three were leaving. Dickson might have died if she hadn’t come along right then.”
Liam set his coffee down, the interior of his stomach mimicking the lake outside. “Why didn’t he press charges?”
Perring shrugged. “I think he knew it was another losing battle. Suppose he figured money would get thrown at lawyers until the kids got off. I’m guessing he wanted to be done with it.”
“So now we have Erickson murdered in his home.” Liam glanced at the two detectives. “And you’re looking at Dickson as a prime suspect, aren’t you?”
Sanders shrugged. “Shoe fits.”
“Why would he wait this long to get revenge?”
“Finally got up the courage. Who knows? Point is we’ve got motive out the ass for Jenner to want Erickson dead,” Sanders said.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Liam said quietly.
“Well it’s a good thing you’re not in charge of this then,” Sanders growled.
“Rex . . .” Perring said.
“No, seriously. You might be a nice guy, Liam, but you’re getting too big for your britches. This is our case, not yours, so from now on you keep your opinions to yourself.”
Liam bristled but clenched his jaw, keeping his retort from flying free.
“Listen, we need to cool it here,” Perring said. “We’re all on the same side, let’s remember that.” She was about to continue when her phone chimed and she drew it out, frowning at the display. “Perring,” she said, moving into the dining room. Sanders stalked to the sink and rinsed out a coffee cup before turning to stare at Liam. Liam matched his gaze and refused to blink, neither of them giving in until Perring stepped into the kitchen, a strange expression on her face.
“Who was it?” Sanders asked.
“The station.” She looked down at the phone in her hand as if it had just bitten her. “The bartender that provided Jenner’s alibi for the night of Valerie’s disappearance just came in and changed his story. He said Jenner left well before nine o’clock that night.”
CHAPTER 11
Liam paced across the living room for what seemed like the thousandth time.
Perring had departed shortly after receiving the call possibly implicating Jenner, leaving Sanders in charge of the task force once again. The house was quiet save for the constant burble of the coffeepots in the kitchen and dining room. Rain continued to slash at the windows, cutting silver scars across the panes that withered away before others took their place. Liam could hear Owen’s voice murmuring in the office off the living room. He’d been on the phone almost constantly since Perring had left, his voice cracking at times.
Liam finally gave up his pacing and eased into a chair, weariness a physical thing hovering over him. The basic sandwich he’d thrown together and wolfed down a half-hour ago was a brick in his stomach. He let his vision grow hazy as the details of the last forty hours washed over him. Erickson and his two high school friends had assaulted Jenner, and now Erickson was dead. He’d done a little research on Gage Rowe and Marshall Davis. Rowe owned three restaurants in town, apparently paid for by some savvy stock investments while he was a young man. The bits of information on the Internet included Rowe’s picture in the local paper for donating several thousand dollars a year to various children’s charities. He looked like a GQ model with clean-cut good looks and expensive suits.
Marshall Davis was a completely different story. Davis had come from a poor household on the bad side of town and hadn’t been able to pull himself out of the life he grew up in. There were six public notices attached to Davis’s name in the last five years. Two charges for shoplifting, two for drunk and disorderly conduct, one aggravated assault, and a single class-one drug charge with intent to sell. The latter had landed him in jail for a stint of seven months before he was released. Davis had most likely given the DA a plea in exchange for a suspension of sentence.
A local pariah, two successful businessmen, a drug dealer, and a mayoral candidate’s wife abducted from her home.
He put his fingers to his temples and without warning the cold case he’d been working on before coming to Duluth sprang forward from the darkness of his memory. What had made him think of Dennis Sandow’s face amongst the whirlwind of facts he was trying to sort? It took nearly a minute for the answer to come to him. Sandow’s case was unsolved because something had been overlooked. He was sure of it. There was something in the notes or photos that he’d pored over for hours at a time. It was staring him right in the face. And the same was true of Valerie’s disappearance, along with Erickson’s murder. There was some detail that connected them, but the more he changed angles and theories, the fainter it became. It was like a fine splinter beneath the skin, irritatin
g but invisible.
Owen stepped into the room and rubbed at his eyes.
“Get all your calls in?” Liam asked.
“Yeah. Pretty sure. Caulston took the longest. He didn’t actually say ‘I told you so’ about Jenner’s alibi falling through, but I could hear it in his voice.” Owen strode to the nearest chair and sat down as if it were covered with broken glass. He adjusted himself, then sighed, looking through the streaked windows to the lake beyond. “God I hope she’s all right,” he nearly whispered. Liam glanced at his friend, hovering over what he was about to do before wading in.
“Did you know a Dade Erickson?” Liam asked.
Owen glanced at him and slowly frowned. “Not well. Why?”
“You and Valerie went to high school with him, right?”
“Yeah. He graduated with us. I had one class with him at college. Why?”
“Just curious. Did you and Valerie have any dealings with him on a professional level?”
“No. Liam, what’s this about? Why are you asking about Dade?”
Liam hesitated, glancing around. Sanders was sitting at the dining room table speaking with one of the task force members. Liam looked back at Owen and lowered his voice. “Dade was killed last night in his home.”
“What? You’re joking. Do they have someone in custody?”
“Not yet. It got me thinking that there might be some connection between Valerie’s kidnapping and his murder.”
Owen’s face seemed to lose a little color, his skin matching the gray light that filtered into the room. “What could that be?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Could it be Jenner? I know Dade and a couple of his friends did a number on him after Alexandra died.”
“I didn’t get that impression when I spoke with him.”
“But what about the bartender? He said Jenner left way earlier.”
“That’s just it,” Liam said, leaning forward. “Why’d he change his story?”