Penfield opened the car door. The rain poured over him, and his clothes were drenched within a matter of seconds. He walked over to the gravestone and ran his fingers across the name “Penfield” that was engraved in the top portion of the marble. His side began to hurt again. He looked up to the sky and felt the rain strike his face.
Chapter 19
DNA
Twenty, November.
Emma exited through the back door of the sheriff’s department and walked down the sidewalk that led her past the wooden gazebo where the smokers gathered. There was never a shortage of people crammed under the tiny wooden structure, even in the worst of weather. She continued down the sidewalk and walked farther away from her building. She needed time to think, and these short walks always seemed to be the best way to clear her head. At the very least, it would give her a few minutes away from the constant ringing of telephones and the annoying chatter of some of her co-workers.
It had been several days since Penfield had seen the killer from the Tatums’ boat. The case had gone quiet since then. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Despite having half the force looking for Ben’s and the Tatums’ killer, they hadn’t been able to turn up any new leads.
She hadn’t spoken to Penfield, either, since telling him about the Tatum funeral. She thought he might go, but she hadn’t heard anything from him. She didn’t blame him. He’d offered her help with the investigation, and he’d almost gotten himself killed because of it. She’d repaid him by kicking him off the case.
It hadn’t been her call, but maybe that didn’t matter. She should have fought harder to keep him on it, despite Slater’s insistence that he be gone. She knew Penfield was an accomplished detective. He undoubtedly had more experience than anyone in her department, including herself. There was something else he had that was even more valuable, at least in her opinion. He had an incredible gut instinct for finding the truth and a personal code to never give up. She desperately needed someone like that now.
Emma pulled out her phone and searched through her contacts to find his name. She selected it, and the phone went into dial mode before she quickly pressed the end button and slipped the phone back into her pocket. She knew Slater would be furious for bringing Penfield back, even if it could do nothing but help them.
She wasn’t sure if it was a territorial thing or not, and Slater hadn’t been willing to go into the details of his phone call with Penfield’s former captain. Penfield himself had told her some of the details that led to him exiting the Hampton Police Department, but she didn’t know if he’d been completely forthcoming with her. Maybe there was much more to the incident than he’d let on.
Emma thought back to her own case. She had no idea where to turn, and Slater’s patience with her was wearing thin. She was the lead detective, and so far she had four dead bodies and no solid suspects. Every interview she’d conducted had essentially led nowhere, and she’d run out of people to talk to. It was only a matter of time before Slater’s confidence in her evaporated, and she’d find herself reporting to another lead detective, if she’d even be allowed to continue on the case. It wasn’t an ego thing with her. Rather, she owed it to her partner to find his killer. She couldn’t let Ben down, but that’s all she’d managed to do so far.
Emma finally came to the wooden bench that was placed under a tree near the end of the sidewalk. Thankfully, there was no one sitting on it, so she could be alone. There was something about this spot that calmed her mind. Maybe it was the relative quiet, or perhaps it was the fact the bench was surrounded on three sides by trees and bushes. They were a welcome change of color and texture from the gray cubicles that were everywhere she turned in her office.
Emma thought of everything that had happened since that day they’d gotten the call about the murder at Mobjack Bay. It was a rare occurrence for the area, but she’d had no idea just how far out of hand it would get. How could she have? The case had seemed open and shut. She’d had no idea just how wrong she and Ben had been.
She sat on the bench for several minutes and was about to get up when her cell phone rang. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and secretly hoped she’d see Penfield’s name on the display. Instead, she saw Doctor Greene’s.
“Hey, Doc, what do you have for me?”
“The DNA results finally came back.”
“Did you get a match?”
“Not with anyone in the system, but we did get something you’re going to find very interesting. We tested the mitochondrial DNA and got a parental match. Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to child, by the way. That hair belongs to the offspring of Sally Tatum.”
Emma didn’t respond. She just stared off into the distance.
“Are you there?” Doctor Greene asked.
Emma stood and started walking back toward her office.
“Thanks, Doc. You just named Ben’s killer.”
Emma ended the call before Greene could say another word. She broke out into a jog and quickened her pace with each step she took. It was true that Sally herself could have transferred the hair from Charles Ray to the pillow after she’d laid down, but Emma didn’t think that was the case. Emma thought back to one of her last conversations with Penfield. He’d named Charles Tatum as his most likely suspect. He’d been right.
She entered the building and headed straight for Slater’s office. She told him about the DNA results and requested two deputies to accompany her to Charles Ray’s trailer. Slater gave her Joe Debney and Ann Baker. Emma filled them both in as quickly as she could as they made their way outside to the parking lot. Both Debney and Baker had been close to Ben, and Emma knew they’d be just as anxious as she was to see his killer brought to justice.
Emma climbed into her car as Debney and Baker made their way to theirs. She turned the ignition on and gunned the car out of the parking lot. She immediately hit heavy traffic on George Washington Memorial Highway. She heard the deputies turn their sirens on behind her. She hit her own sirens and did her best to navigate around the other cars.
It took them close to thirty minutes to get to Guinea Road. Emma could feel her adrenaline increasing with each passing second. She had no way of knowing if they’d even find Charles Ray at home, so she began to calculate her potential follow-up actions if he was gone. She knew he earned his living on the bay, but the family boat was now destroyed.
Emma turned off George Washington Memorial Highway and sped down Guinea Road. She made the turn that would take her to Charles Ray’s home. She remembered to look for the leaning mailbox surrounded by weeds and tall grass. She saw it at the last second and was about to turn down his driveway when a pickup truck suddenly appeared. She slammed on the brakes to keep from running into it as it turned in front of her without slowing down. She could hear Baker and Debney brake hard behind her, and she prayed they wouldn’t slam into her rear bumper.
Emma got a quick look at the truck’s driver and saw Charles Ray as he yanked the steering wheel to the right and sped away. Emma pressed down hard on the accelerator and took off after him. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw the deputies’ car stopped behind her. It hesitated a moment, and then it joined the pursuit.
She thought about the look on Charles Ray’s face. He didn’t look surprised to see her, so someone must have tipped him off to her arrival. She had no way of knowing who it could have been, though. Then she realized there was another possibility. Maybe he’d been outside already and had heard their sirens. It wouldn’t have been hard for the sound to travel far in such a quiet and remote part of the county. It had been a bad move on their part, and she cursed her carelessness.
She’d only driven down this road once before, but she was pretty sure it curved to the right before eventually running back to George Washington Memorial Highway. She needed to catch him before he reached that busy road and potentially caused a serious car accident.
She pressed down even harder on the accelerator, but she almost lost control as she made
her way through the bend in the road. It was much sharper than she’d anticipated. Charles Ray knew the route way better than she did. He’d slowed down and then accelerated quickly as he came out of the curve. Emma’s car fishtailed as she approached the straight stretch in the road, and she was worried she’d end up in the ditch. She managed to steady the car and punched down on the gas again. She looked at the deputies in the rearview mirror. They’d slowed down after seeing her car almost spin off the road. It had cost them a lot of distance.
She knew she only had a mile at the most to catch the speeding pickup truck before he reached the main road. She managed to gain a little on Charles Ray as he slowed down for the approaching intersection. Emma watched as he blew through the stop sign and turned to the right. She looked quickly to her left but didn’t see any cars coming at her.
She rammed her car into the back quarter panel of his truck before he had a chance to accelerate. Her front bumper struck the rear passenger tire, and she heard his tire explode just as her airbag deployed. The force of the bag pushed her back hard against the seat and temporarily blinded her.
It took Emma several seconds to regain her awareness. She pushed the collapsing bag away from her and looked for Charles Ray’s truck. She saw he’d tried to drive away, but the deputies’ car had caught up with him and blocked his vehicle.
Emma climbed out of her car and stumbled toward the pickup. Charles Ray opened his door and fell out of his truck. He struggled to his feet and started to run toward the middle of the road to cross to the other side. Emma started to run after him when she felt a sudden and sharp pain in her knee. She hobbled down the road while she reached for her service weapon. Emma refused to let him get away.
Fortunately, Debney and Baker were uninjured, and they were able to chase the dazed man down. Debney tackled Charles Ray as Baker drew her gun on him. Emma arrived beside them just as Debney slapped his handcuffs on Charles Ray.
“Charles Ray Tatum, you have the right to remain silent,” Emma managed to say while she struggled to catch her breath at the same time. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”
Charles Ray said nothing.
“Do you understand these rights?” Emma repeated.
“I didn’t do it,” he said. “I didn’t do it.”
Chapter 20
The Interrogation
Emma stopped outside the door to the interrogation room and looked through its small window. Charles Ray was handcuffed to the table just like his brother had been more than a week ago. He seemed to sense her presence, and he turned toward the door to look at her. Emma didn’t look away. This man had killed her partner. He couldn’t get away with it. She needed to get a confession out of him since the DNA evidence didn’t place him in Ben’s house. Charles Ray had run for a reason, though, and he had no way of knowing just how much Emma had on him. She would use that to her advantage.
She opened the door and walked slowly across the room to the table. Her knee still throbbed from the impact of her car ramming his pickup truck, but she was determined not to show him her pain. Emma sat down on the metal chair opposite Charles Ray and placed a folder on the desk.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said before she had a chance to ask him anything.
“Why did you run then? You thought it was better to flee from the sheriff’s department than wait to see what we had to say? Did someone tell you something?”
“Like what?”
“Did they tell you we were coming?” Emma asked.
“I saw what you did to my brother. What else do I need to know about you?”
“We did nothing to him. He brought all that on himself.”
“You want me to believe you didn’t have people watching him 24/7. It had to have taken him a few minutes to strip the sheets off that bed and tie it to the window. Everyone just happened to be looking the other way? How do I know you people didn’t do it? Maybe you did it yourself.”
“Let’s talk about you looking the other way. You knew what Bobby was going to do to your father. Yeah, you were sick that day, but I’m sure you figured that was his chance. You couldn’t very well rationalize why you didn’t try to stop him if you’d been on that boat. Then you might have been arrested, too, at least as an accessory to murder.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Was it Bobby’s plan for Buddy and his friend to find him, or do you think that was purely by accident?”
“They told you nothing. They saw nothing.”
Emma shrugged her shoulders.
“I was just wondering if Bobby ever planned to try to cover it up. Maybe he could have said your father fell overboard. He would have had plenty of time to wash that blood out of the boat. No one at that marina would have thought twice to see someone spraying down their work boat. Maybe your father falling overboard would have never flown with your mother, though. So why not kill him another way? Something that would have looked more like a legitimate accident? I think Bobby wanted to be caught, but why?”
Emma studied Charles Ray for a reaction. She didn’t get one.
“Why kill Ben?” Emma asked.
Charles Ray turned to her.
“Why did you kill him? What did he ever do to you?” Emma asked.
“I never saw him again after you two left my trailer.”
“You ran today for a reason, and I don’t think it was because of what Bobby did to himself.”
“I didn’t kill your partner.”
“So what did you mean when you said you didn’t do it after we arrested you? What was it supposed to be if it wasn’t killing Ben?”
“You can’t pin this on me. You got nothing on me.”
Emma opened the folder on the desk and slid the one piece of paper toward Charles Ray. He took a quick glance at it and then looked back to Emma.
“The DNA puts you in your mother’s bed the night of the break-in. Why would you go after your mother? Bobby killing your father wasn’t enough?”
“She called me after she ran from the house. That’s why I went over there.”
“And how did she call you? Did she make a detour to grab her cell phone while she was fleeing for her life? We know she didn’t go to a neighbors to call you.”
“She used her phone. I’m sure you can get the records.”
“Maybe you were already there. Maybe you just pretended to show up for her rescue.”
“She called me, and I came over.”
“So you got to her house and then crawled into her bed?”
“What are you talking about?”
“We found your hair on the pillow beside hers. It’s a DNA match. There’s no way you can deny that.”
“How? You never got a sample from me.”
“The mitochondrial DNA shows a parental match. Your mother provided the sample. The hair on the pillow had to belong to one of her children. You’re the only one left.”
Charles Ray said nothing.
“What were you trying to do to her? Why try to pass yourself off as your brother, Jimmy?”
“I went in the bedroom looking for the guy. That’s all I did. I didn’t get into the bed. That’s ridiculous.”
“Why are you doing this? What’s the real reason behind it? Your father, my partner, your friend, Buddy. All dead. Why?”
“My mother’s house was broken into, right? You found the busted window pane. Why would I do that when I have a key to the place?”
“You can’t very well unlock the door yourself and then claim someone broke into the house.”
“So I climbed into her bed to scare her, then I came to her rescue? Why? Did I want to kill her? Is that your theory? You don’t think I can chase down my mother? Why not just kill her when I showed up to rescue her? You haven’t thought this through. Your theory is bullshit.”
“Your brother bought the burner phones and then gave them to you. You called Ben with one. Then you called me, too. Why go after Ben? What does he have to do with all of this?”
“I never got a burner phone,” he said.
“What about Jimmy’s body? What did you do with it? Why desecrate his grave like that?”
“Fuck you, lady. I loved him. I would never do that to him. I showed you that coffin because I thought you would give a damn and try to catch who did it. Now you’re gonna tell me I did that, too?”
“You and your brother went out of your way to try to make people think Jimmy was back. Why? You must have known no one would believe it. Did you think it was funny or something? Was it all a part of tormenting your mother?”
“How do you think she feels knowing someone took her son’s body? How would you feel if it was your kid or your brother?”
“There wasn’t one shred of evidence that there was ever a body in that coffin. Where did you put the real one?”
“What are you talking about?”
“His body was never there, at least not in that box.”
“That’s impossible. I was at the funeral. I was young, but I remember being there. He was buried back there. Someone took him, and you’re not doing a damn thing to find out who it was.”
“I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
“You still haven’t offered up one damn reason for why I would kill your partner or Buddy. Buddy was like another brother to me. Why would I do that?”
“Why would your brother kill your father? People hate for all sorts of reasons.”
“Okay, why would I blow up my own boat? What the hell am I going to do now to earn money?”
“I’m sure you can earn more money from the insurance payment than you can from whatever you pull out of that bay,” Emma said.
Dead Rise: An Alex Penfield Novel Page 14