Every Dark Place

by Craig Smith

  Garrat pondered this quietly for a moment before shaking her head. ‘The trouble is the prints are good. If we diddle around and start telling white lies it looks like we’re trying to fix the evidence again. When that gets out, and it has to come out sometime, I’m going to be implicated in the liem ဈ". That doesn’t work for me, Max.’

  ‘It wasn’t a lie, Pat. It was a mistake!’

  ‘It was a mistake. If we don’t correct it this morning it becomes a lie – mine as well as yours.’

  ‘Are you telling me that if I don’t go to the press this morning, you will?’ Max was hot.

  He expected cover from an ally – not this.

  Garrat ignored the emotion and explained her proposition. ‘If you were just going along with my office yesterday – with the aim of misleading Missy Worth before we interviewed her – I suppose we could let this thing drag out a few weeks and release a correction when absolutely no one would notice or care...’

  ‘You mean you asked me to say they were Booker’s prints?’

  ‘Let’s call it a cooperative decision, Max. Something we both understood we had to do.’

  Max Dunn smiled like he had just been kissed by a beauty queen. ‘I could live with that!’

  Garrat turned to me almost as an afterthought. ‘Rick, I want you to go after Missy Worth. Don’t be afraid to push those prints at her. Let her know Max and I wanted to protect her from the media by claiming the prints we found belonged to Booker, but she had better know that if she does not cooperate fully, and I mean right now, I’m going for an indictment on three counts of murder. Then I want you to try to establish whatever patterns in the two cases that seem reasonable.’ She looked up at Max. ‘Max, are we going to have a problem if Rick noses around the Merriweather situation before you have handed us the case?’

  Max was certain there weren’t going to be any problems at all. ‘Anything you want from my people, Rick, just say the word. You’ve got a free hand, buddy!’ He finished his offer with a friendly wink, ‘Might even throw in a get-out-of-jail-free-card for you, if you need one.’

  Chapter 53

  Friday 8:35 a.m., March 26.

  AS SOON AS MAX Dunn and his chief of detectives beat a hasty retreat, Garrat gave Massey his orders in detail – what he was to say to the media and what he was to keep to himself. When she had finished, Massey asked about Garrat’s decision to drop the charges on the very day he took off with two more victims. ‘They’re going to bring it up,’ he said. ‘You know they will the moment we have a news conference.’

  ‘Tell them,’ I growled, ‘if they want to talk about history they should interview Connie Merriweather. It’s not Pat Garrat’s fault we dropped the charges! It’s his!’

  Garrat shook her head. ‘Don’t you dare mention Merriweather’s name in that context, Steve.’

  ‘So what do I tell them?’

  ‘Tell them to interview Buford Lynch. He could have ordered a new trial without turning that monster loose.’

  When Massey was gone, I took a seat by Garrat’s big desk and told her, ‘Max is right, you know. If we go after Missy Worth at this point we’re going to look like cheap shot artists – even to Missy.’

  ‘We’ve finally got some leverage on that woman, Rick. Let’s use it. She knows something she hasn’t told us. I want you to get it from her.’

  ‘She’s not afraid of jail, Pat.’

  Garrat shook her head. ‘This is not about jail. It’s about linking her to the deaths of her sister and friends. You need to wake her up and make her see what her silence is going to cost.’

  ‘I’ll do what I can,’ I said.

  ‘No. I want you to get everything from that woman. I want you to hang her over a cliff if you have to!’

  I was assuming Garrat meant that metaphorically. On my best day, I doubt I could have held Missy longer than a few seconds.

  I WAS AT THE DOOR when Garrat called to me. I stopped and looked back at her.

  ‘I got you in the game, Rick. It’s what you wanted. Do whatever you need to do; chase down any lead you want. Max won’t say a word at this point, but for the love of God find those girls before it’s too late.’

  Chapter 54

  Darkness.

  UPSTAIRS, WILL DOES NOT creep about as before but moves freely, fearlessly. Tabit and Penny and Tamara cower below. Boy with a broken leg and a bullet in his other knee is failing.

  Ben, who is where Will left him, is conscious, but the fight in him is gone. His lungs are bleeding. He is dying.

  Will looks across the backyard. He checks to either side of the house. Nothing moving.

  No one coming. He goes down the stairs slowly, the ache in his muscles and bones making him nauseous. In the basement he sees Ben on his back, hears the sucking of his wound.

  The man rolls his head and looks at Will. ‘Please…’ Will does not know if he pleads for death or life.

  He walks on. He finds the others waiting for him in the darkness. He whispers for Penny to come with him. She comes to him fearfully. Will looks past her and sees Tabit in the shadows holding her sister. Tamara weeps like a bride in an empty church. Boy alone looks at him. Boy does not speak. The pain has not yet taken all the hero out of him; he stares so Will and God will know what he would do if he still had two good legs and half a chance. But of course he doesn’t.

  ‘Shut the door,’ Will tells Penny. When she has done this, Will tells her, ‘I want to show you something, Penny.’

  Ben Lyons is on his back, eyes still open. A soft sucking slurp breaks out of him with each breath. ‘He’s dying,’ Will tells the girl. She stares numbly at her father. Eyes dry, she is mystified, not sad. Ben’s eyes shift dumbly over his daughter’s face. He is a man looking at a stranger. Will draws the Bernardelli from his pocket and puts it in Penny’s hand.

  He moves her wrist until the gun points down into her father’s face. ‘If you kill him for me, Penny, I’ll let the rest of you live.’ Father stares at daughter in wild, mute confusion. Penny still does not weep. ‘Tell her, Ben,’ Will whispers. ‘Tell her it’s for the best.’ Ben’s eyes begin to tear up. He turns away to stare at the wall. It is as Benဈ" tclose to giving permission as he can manage.

  ‘ Now, Penny,’ Will whispers, ‘and I promise you, it’s over. You’ll walk out of her with the others. I’ll get in the car and drive away, and no one will ever have to know what you’ve done. The others won’t even know, and I’ll never tell. He’s dying anyway. Why not save the living and bury the dead?’

  She pushes against Will, wanting to lift the gun up to him, but Will holds her tightly.

  Left arm over her back, right hand to her right wrist. This is what she wants, to kill daddy, but first she must pretend to fight him. ‘He hates you, Penny. You know I’m right. Always Benny.

  Everything for Benny. Twins in name only. You knew it long before he gave you to me so Benny could live.’

  He feels her weakening, hears her weep. She would collapse if she could, but Will holds her to the truth like a hand to the flame. ‘Does he ever tell you how much he loves you, Penny?’

  She nods, lying to Will about Ben’s affection, but as she does it, her tears float on her eyelids.

  Her shoulders tremble. Not resisting what Will asks of her, but because she longs to do it. ‘Does he ever tell you how proud of you he is, Penny?’

  Will feels something move in her. He watches her eyes cooling. He feels her tender, formless body stiffen. Today is the day she has dreamed of – though she has never admitted such a desire even to herself. Today she has her revenge.

  Holding her, Will feels the drawing of her breath, her muscles locking down. Ben feels it too. He knows he is about to die. He knows too it is for good reason! He shifts his gaze to Penny, his eyes filling with tears. ‘Penny, please!’

  ‘Do it!’ Will hisses.

  The gun clicks, and all three of them flinch. But that is all the sound there is. A Bernardelli holds only seven bullets.

  Chapter 55<
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  Friday 9:40 a.m., March 26.

  ‘DID YOU BRING ME a beer?’

  I sat down across from Missy Worth in a small room they used for counselling the patients. ‘Have you heard?’ I asked.

  Her face went numb. ‘A deputy came by yesterday. The parents came in last night.

  With it all over the news, it’s kind of hard not to hear about it, even in here.’ She hesitated awkwardly. ‘So how soon will they know if it’s really Mary?’

  ‘If we get enough dental we ought to have it this morning. Otherwise, they’ll have to try for a DNA match. That usually takes a few weeks.’

  Missy Worth lost her focus for a moment. I could only guess that she was somewhere in the night ten years ago. ‘The news said Will’s prints were on some kind of club they found.’

  ‘We asked the sheriff to lie about the prints until we could get your version of what happened.’

  Missy Worth’s face drained of colour but she managed to look at me with all the sincerity of allyဈ" widthht= used car salesman. ‘My version? What are you talking about?’

  ‘Missy, I need to read you your rights before this goes any further.’ She swore as I pulled one of Max’s business cards out of my shirt pocket and read off the back of it, ‘ You have the right to remain silent... ’

  It is a short speech full of good advice that no cop wants a suspect to take. A good con eventually learns to heed the words the high court insists that we read, but most are too impatient to find out what the cops know. They waive their rights, thinking they can lie their way through the tough spots. Of course, if they were predisposed to listen to good advice, they would have avoided the crime in the first place. I read Missy her rights for no other purpose than to get her attention, and it worked beautifully.

  ‘I want a lawyer,’ she told me flatly.

  I smiled evenly, ‘He’s going to tell you to keep your mouth shut.’

  ‘Then that’s what I’d better do.’

  ‘You clam up now and the prosecutor is going to charge you right alongside Will. Only choice you’ll have is whether you two stand trial together or separately. You might not do time, but then again, you might get the needle. Hard to know what a jury is going to do with bloody fingerprints on the murder weapon and a long history of violence.’

  A little fear can trip a lot of switches, and I let this settle a good ten seconds.

  ‘On the other hand,’ I added, ‘if you cooperate, Garrat will deal. Maybe a suspended sentence, maybe nothing at all. Depends on how fast you decide you want to be a good citizen.’

  Missy didn’t answer me with much enthusiasm, so I pushed her a little. ‘What you’ve got to realise here is we’ve got two kids in jeopardy, and you’re the only person in the world with a clue as to what’s really going on.’

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on!’ She tried to stare right through me as she told me this.

  ‘You lied about not knowing Will before the attack. I want to know why.’

  ‘I want my lawyer.’

  ‘You think a lawyer can talk your fingerprints off that bat, Missy? You think getting two girls killed because you wouldn’t cooperate is going to win a jury’s sympathy?’

  ‘I got nothing to do with that preacher’s two kids!’

  The prosecutor thinks you might have set things up, that maybe the other night Will Booker showed up at your door and told you he wanted some help and you gave it to him.’

  ‘That’s crazy! I never even talked to the guy. I told you, I didn’t even see him!’

  ‘Garrat thinks you’re lying about that too. She’s looked at your record; says the only thing that could scare you as bad as you were last Sunday is a long heart-to-heart with your old partner.’

  ‘ Partner?’

  ‘I’ve got to tell you, Missy, people are going to be looking for blood after this thing finishes. Once they get like that, they’ll believe whatever the prosecutor tells them.’

  ‘I’ve got nothing to do with what’s happening with those girls!’

  ‘Garrat says she’ll take you to trial herself.’

  ‘I can’t believe this.’ Missy was shaking her head, ‘I didn’t set anyone up!’

  ‘So tell me what really happened ten years ago. Maybe I can change Garrat’s mind on this thing.’

  Her big face set itself like a piece of plaster: cold and white, hard and vulnerable. ‘It happened like I said.’

  I didn’t even blink.

  ‘Okay, some of it was...’ Missy stopped. ‘She’s got to deal with me. And I want it in writing. I’m not saying nothing until I get a deal!’

  ‘I’ve got to take her something if I’m going to get her to offer you a deal, Missy.’

  Missy was quiet for nearly three minutes. I never stopped looking at her, never gave her the chance to evade me. Finally, she shook her head. ‘I didn’t know him, like you think. Lisa did. She scored some grass from him a couple of times. Had a thing for him, I guess. We were meeting him that night at North Shore to do some coke. That’s all I know that I didn’t already tell.’

  ‘Had you ever seen Will before that night at North Shore Point?’

  ‘Me? I knew what he looked like, but like I said, I never met him. Lisa went to see him at the Student Union Grill one time. I was with her. I didn’t talk to him. He sold her some grass; said something about getting some coke at the end of the week. If we all wanted to get high with him, all we had to do was meet him at North Shore that Friday.’

  ‘Did he know the boys were coming along?’

  Her eyes shifted so that she was staring at me suddenly. Times past were long gone. The gal I was looking at knew the system: when to give it out and when to hold it back. ‘You got your good faith, sweet cheeks. Now go tell your boss I want my lawyer and I want immunity – in writing. Then I’ll tell you the rest.’

  ‘Is the rest worth hearing?’

  She reached for her cigarettes and pulled one free. She lit it and watched its glow. I’d seen walls more likely to make a confession.

  Chapter 56

  Friday 10:45 a.m., March 26.

  GARRAT WAS IN CITY HALL meeting with the mayor when I found her. ‘Our girl wants immunity before she gives us anything,’ I said once I had pulled her out to the corridor. Garrat shook her head angrily, but I stopped her before she answered. ‘I found out one thing, though.’

  Her pretty blues flashed expectantly. ‘They were all meeting Booker at North Shore Point, Pat.’

  ‘Like you thought.’

  I nodded. ‘He was apparently coming on to Lisa Chenoweth. Sold her a bag of dope at the Student Union.’

  ‘Assuming we can convince a jury this isn’t just another story – ’

  ‘We can run it down now that we know whereidtᑀ* ght="oweth. to look; that’s not a problem. The thing is she’s got more. I don’t know what it is, but she claims she’s not talking without immunity.’

  ‘Is it going to help us find the Merriweather girls?’

  I let one shoulder kick up. Who knew?

  ‘I’ll send Massey over and see what we can work up, but to hell with getting her a lawyer; I don’t need this thing about the fingerprints getting out just yet. In the meantime, why don’t you get with Connie Merriweather.

  I shook my head. ‘I’m headed to Graysville Prison. Talk to some of the cons; make some offers. Besides we already got a report on the Merriweathers from the sheriff’s department. There’s nothing there.’

  ‘Max and the preacher had a pretty good fight Sunday night, Rick. I’m guessing it coloured the interviews on both sides.’

  ‘Rolly did the primary interview,’ I told her.

  ‘Rolly couldn’t get a tape recorder to talk, Rick. Work the guy. Take your time with him. If you want to know what Will Booker is all about, Merriweather is your man. I guarantee you he knows more than any con at Graysville.’

  ‘Merriweather got eight years of lies, Pat.’

  ‘You don’t want to talk to the man?’

  ‘I�
��m afraid I’ll wring his neck.’

  ‘I expect right now he would thank you for the kindness. Look, it will cost you an hour or two. If nothing pans out there, you can still get over to Graysville this afternoon. I’ll even call the warden for you.’

  ‘I’ll make you a deal,’ I offered with a grin. ‘I’ll go swap sweet nothings with the preacher if you work Missy Worth personally.’

  ‘You don’t think Massey can handle her?’