by Paty Jager
“I’ll take Ms. Cox to the interview room,” McCord said.
Hawke held onto Tonya. “How did you know we were coming in with her?” While the trooper had brought the woman to him at the hospital and found the information that started all the killings, he was beginning to wonder if she was on the side of Ms. Cox and the people hiding their involvement in the subdivision scandal.
“Your sergeant called Captain Horton.” McCord drew Tonya away from him. “He said you were bringing Ms. Cox with you and from what he knew of the investigation was worried someone who wanted her dead would be looking for her.”
Hawke took pleasure in seeing the surprise in Tonya’s eyes. Didn’t she think there were people out to stop her from digging up the scandal?
“Can I see what you found at the cabin?” Hawke wanted to know everything. It was one of his downfalls when it came to getting caught up in a mess like this.
“Talk to our captain.” She nodded for them to follow her. She buzzed them through a door.
Hawke motioned for Mathews to follow him. They walked down the hall to a door with the placard: Captain Thomas Horton.
Hawke knocked twice and waited for permission to enter.
“Just a moment,” a deep voice called out.
Hawke glanced at Mathews as he waited patiently.
The deputy started fidgeting. Finally, he said, “What did you find out that made you suspicious of Tonya?”
“She knew Trask. The man I went to Arizona to talk with.” Hawke filled Mathews in on the information he’d gathered from the man and how he was awaiting extradition to Idaho.
“You were busy!” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe I thought every word out of Tonya’s mouth was the truth.”
“It turns out very little is,” Hawke said as the door to the Captain’s office opened.
A man in his forties, with a balding head, dark eyes, and a big nose stepped out. “Hawke?” he questioned, looking from Hawke to Mathews.
“I’m Hawke,” he said, stepping forward and shaking hands.
“Mathews, sir,” Mathews said, shaking hands.
“Let’s go down to the conference room. That’s where they are going over the information Troopers McCord and Wagner found.” The captain led the way deeper into the building. At a door with a placard, Conference Room, he opened the door and three people, two with paper strewn about in front of them and one with a computer, sat at a long table.
“Reed, Stacy, and Rose, this is Oregon Trooper Hawke and Idaho County Deputy Mathews. They have been on this case from the beginning. I’d appreciate you sharing with them what you’ve learned so far.” Captain Horton waved them into the room, joined them, and shut the door.
One of the two women had the blue Idaho State Trooper uniform on. The other two people present appeared to be civilians.
The woman in civilian clothes started. “I’m Stacy Clann. I’m a professor at the university in the environmental department. So far on the flash drive that was given to us, we found Felix White’s dissertation on the effects of surface water versus ground water in relation to illnesses. He pretty much states that the Sunrise Rose Subdivision on the northeast side of Boise was using surface water without going through the proper cleaning methods. Yet, they were charging the property owners a high, water usage fee, stating it was due to the government regulated water purification methods.”
“Does he name anyone in particular?” Hawke asked. He knew what had happened from Tonya’s version, if she had told the truth about the paper. What he wanted was someone to pin the murders on.
“A corporation. No individual names.” Ms. Clann flipped through some of the papers in front of her. “He shows tests he ran on the water from half a dozen homes in the subdivision and tests he did on the surface water. The tests were conclusive the water came from the Boise River.”
He could tell the environmental injustice meant more to the woman than the murders. Hawke shifted his attention to the woman in the uniform. “Have you been able to pull up names on the people in the corporation?”
“I’m working on it. It appears the corporation was dissolved right after the murders in Hells Canyon.” Trooper Oakley was the name on her pin, handed Hawke several pages.
The only name he knew was Childress. He hadn’t been the lead in the development. A man by the name of Buck Bayle was the President of the corporation. “Who is this Buck Bayle?” he asked.
“Billionaire who owns half of Boise,” Captain Horton answered.
“Any ties to things illegal?” Hawke asked.
“He tends to keep his nose clean.”
“Which means you believe he is into illegal dealings but can’t catch him.” Hawke watched as both the captain and the trooper nodded their heads.
“Have you sent anyone to Arizona for Trask?” Hawke asked.
“I sent two detectives this morning.” Horton faced him. “What did you discover?”
Hawke filled him in on the fact the man had been a part of the investigation into Tonya’s parents’ death, had falsified the police records on White, and was the brother-in-law to Herman Childress. “He’s an alcoholic who will cave pretty easy once the booze is withheld. We might need to talk to him before you ask the people in the corporation to come in.” He shrugged. Getting to the bottom of this today would simplify his life, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“We can’t hold the woman. We don’t have any evidence that says she’s committed a crime other than lying,” Horton said.
“Then we need to ask Childress to come in after you talk to Trask and confront him with what we know. He seems to have manipulated his brother-in-law to implicate White in the murders. That means he knows who gave him the orders to take care of White. And I believe he picked Sheridan to go with me so the other tracker could kill White.” Hawke put his hand on the doorknob. “While we wait on Trask and Childress, I’ll see if Ms. Cox will talk to me.”
Horton nodded.
“Mathews, stay here and see if anything I can use on Ms. Cox is found,” Hawke told the deputy.
He nodded, obviously, grateful he didn’t have to deal with the woman who’d twisted his thinking.
Horton led Hawke down the hall, back to where they’d entered and down another hall. “I believe McCord has the woman in an interview room.” Horton stopped and faced him. “She needs to be booked and arraigned.”
“I know. But I might be able to get more out of her if she thinks I’m a friend and not someone pushing her into jail. Any chance you can find the file on her parents’ accident about fifteen years ago? It would have been with the City Police.”
“I’ll do my best. It’s the room down there on the right.” Horton motioned to a closed door at the end of the hall before pivoting and striding back the way they’d come.
Hawke stepped into a room with small metal table and three mismatched chairs. The sickening sweet stench of a drunk, the odor of unwashed bodies, and coffee met him as he walked in the windowless room.
He walked over to the only empty chair and pulled the single cup of coffee, sitting in the middle of the table, closer to him.
Tonya sat across him with a cup of coffee gripped in both hands in front of her on the wooden top.
Hawke smiled and leaned back in the chair.
Trooper McCord stood, when he walked in the room. She held a cup of coffee.
“Take the other seat. This is a friendly conversation,” Hawke said to the trooper and pushed the third chair toward her with his foot.
“Are you arresting me?” Tonya leaned back, as if by putting space between them he couldn’t put her in jail.
He nodded. “Eventually, you will be arrested and arraigned for aiding in a prison escape. Right now, keeping you alive is more important. You know who killed White and possibly Sheridan. And you know all about the corporation who had them killed. Your buddy Officer Trask told me all about you and how you dug and dug because you didn’t feel that your parents’ deaths were investigated fully
.” Hawke took a sip of coffee. He’d caught the woman’s attention.
“Trooper McCord found the evidence that White was after when the two of you took off to get away from Sheridan.” He made as if he were deep in thought. “How did you and White know that Sheridan was going to kill him? That is why you shot at him through the window and then tried to bury him under rock?”
Tonya sat back down. She sighed heavily. “I knew Felix had information hidden that would help me get noticed in the investigative reporter world. I’d followed his trial, which went way to quick and had too much unclear evidence. So I started investigating who he was before he “snapped” as the prosecutor said over and over again at the trial.” She sipped the coffee, made a face, and picked up a packet of sugar on the table near her. “All the information I found on Felix said he was a quiet, easy-going guy unless he felt there was an environmental injustice. I couldn’t find anything that was environmental about the case. I mean, he knew the people who he’d supposedly killed, yet the prosecutor said they were strangers he found in his family home and killed them in a violent rage.” She ripped the end off the packet and poured it in the coffee. “Nothing fit. So I kept digging and visited Felix at the prison. At first, he didn’t say much. Then I’d start telling him things I’d found and asked him for clarification. That’s when I realized he’d been put in jail to stop him from publishing his findings. But he wouldn’t tell me where they were. He said if I could get him out of jail, he’d take me to them.” She shrugged. “I figured out a way to smuggle him out of jail.”
“Did you tell anyone about what you were doing?” Hawke wondered how Childress could have had a hitman sent after White so fast. And how he knew that Sheridan would do the job.
“The only person in on it was the guard I paid to look the other way when he shoved what was supposed to be an empty cooler out to the food delivery truck.”
Hawke glanced over and saw Trooper McCord already had her logbook out, ready to write the guard’s name down. “Who was the guard?”
Tonya clenched her lips together and shook her head. “I’m not snitching. He helped me get Felix out.”
“And look what happened? Felix’s life was cut short because of it.” Hawke stared the woman in the eyes. He wouldn’t need to get the name from her. All they had to do was ask which guard was on duty in the kitchen that day.
She flinched. “I was trying to help him.”
“You got him killed. If you had gone to the proper authorities, you still would have had the story and White would still be alive and out of jail—a free man.” Hawke drank some coffee, letting the words sink in.
Tonya brushed at tears in the corners of her eyes. “Do you really think someone will harm me?”
He nodded. “You know too much. And you are the one that dug all this back up. It had been forgotten with White in jail.” Hawke leaned forward. “Tonya, you have to tell us everything you know and who all you think is involved in the cover-up.” He glanced at McCord. The trooper had been writing down everything Tonya had said
Tonya glanced at the trooper. “You’re writing all of this down?”
“You are wanted for the prison escape.”
When the woman didn’t say anything, Hawke added, “Trask is on his way here. We know he was used to push White into jail and from what he told me, I believe he knows a few of the people behind the water contamination. But I have a feeling you know everyone involved and who the one could be that knows how much you know.”
A young trooper walked into the breakroom. He dropped a file next to Hawke and walked out.
Hawke opened the folder. It was the report on Tonya’s parents’ accident. He flipped through the folder and a name caught his attention quickly. “You didn’t just want to help Felix White, you wanted to take down the man who got away with killing your parents.”
Her hands gripped the mug in front of her so tight her knuckles turned white. Her face grew taut and red.
“This had nothing to do with an investigative story and everything to do with revenge.” Hawke slid the paper across the table that stated Buck Bayle had been cited for reckless driving and endangerment the same night as the accident where Mr. and Mrs. Cox were killed. No one could put the young billionaire at the scene of the accident, but he’d been cited not two miles down the road from the accident for driving while intoxicated. From the marks at the scene of the accident it appeared the Cox vehicle tried to swerve to miss something and ran off the road, catching the tires in the soft shoulder and the car rolled down an embankment, killing both occupants.
Tears trickled down Tonya’s cheeks. She swiped at them with the back of one hand. “He came to my uncle and offered to pay for anything I needed,” She glared at Hawke. “What I needed were my parents. I didn’t want his guilt money. I wanted him in jail and my parents alive.” She swiped at the tears and continued. “I told Officer Trask what I thought had happened and how Bayle had come to my uncle offering money.” She leaned forward. “He told me that there wasn’t any proof Mr. Bayle had caused the accident. That I should take the money and move on.”
Hawke was getting an even poorer impression of both Trask and Bayle. It appeared the man had been in the billionaire’s pocket for some time. He hoped not allowing the man any alcohol would make him turn on the billionaire who most likely made him an alcoholic with all his “favors”.
“Instead, you spent your adult life collecting information on the man. Trying to dig up anything you could take to the police,” Hawke said.
She nodded.
“How did you know he was mixed up in the White incarceration?”
“Officer Trask’s name was on all the arrests. I knew he worked for Bayle.” She pointed to the logbook McCord was writing in. “Make sure you put down all of this. I haven’t been able to get anyone in law enforcement to take me seriously.”
“Is that why you haven’t been completely honest with me?” Hawke asked.
Chapter Thirty
Tonya opened her mouth to answer and a man with a briefcase walked in. “Don’t say anything. I’m here to make sure you have legal representation.”
Hawke saw the fear in Tonya’s eyes and immediately stood, taking the man by the arm. “You aren’t needed here. Ms. Cox isn’t under arrest. You will be, if you don’t leave this building.”
McCord followed him to the door and grasped the man’s other arm, leading him down the hallway.
“Keep your mouth shut!” the man hollered.
Hawke knew what he was doing. The man had come in just to warn Tonya not to make trouble. From her pale face and wide eyes, he’d say she knew the man and realized the threat was real.
Hawke sat down next to the woman. “Tonya. If you let us protect you, he can’t hurt you.”
She shook her head. “How did they know I was here?”
The file lay on the table in front of them. “I’d say when we requested this file from the City Police, word got out to Bayle that you were back in Boise at State Police Headquarters.”
“If he got in here to see me, I won’t be safe anywhere.” She stood. Then sat back down. “I can’t leave. They’ll be watching.” Her hands shook as she reached for the coffee mug in front of her. “I can’t go to jail. They have people everywhere.”
Hawke had been underestimating the breadth of Bayle’s reach. He hoped there wasn’t a Bayle man in the State Police. But how else did the man get past the high security at the front of the building? If there was, the best way to keep her safe was to work with Mathews and McCord on this. Right now, they were the only police in Idaho he trusted. She couldn’t go to jail, yet. Not until they could figure out how to incriminate the billionaire.
He texted Mathews to come to the breakroom, and if he saw McCord, to bring her along with him.
“Mathews and I have stuck our necks out to keep you safe, and we’ll continue. But we’re going to need the help of Trooper McCord to get you out of here. We can’t walk out with you knowing people are watching us to g
et to you.” Hawke half stood and scooped up his now tepid cup of coffee.
“Why have you and Scott stuck your necks out for me?” Tonya asked.
“Because we both believe in justice, like most law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, we don’t know which are the ones for justice and which are the bad cops on Bayle’s payroll right now. Other than ourselves.”
Mathews entered the breakroom followed by McCord.
“Close the door,” Hawke said and motioned for the two to take a seat on either side of him and Tonya. He wanted to keep their voices low.
He studied McCord. “That man, if you haven’t already figured it out, was sent here to scare Tonya and let her know they know where she is.”
McCord nodded.
“How did he get past the security desk out front?” Hawke asked.
“I was wondering the same thing. I told Captain Horton. He’s going to check the security cameras.” McCord’s mahogany brow was furrowed.
“What man?” Mathews asked.
“I’ll fill you in later. Right now, the three of us have to make a plan to get Tonya out of here without anyone seeing her.” He continued to watch McCord. “No one,” he emphasized. “Is to know how or when she leaves.”
“I can scrounge up some clothing from my car for her to change into, put her hair up and things, then take her out in a patrol car,” McCord offered.
“I like that idea.” Hawke thought about it. “Mathews, you go get in your car and head to where you rented the Mustang I’m driving. I’ll leave fifteen minutes after you and meet you at the rental place. Then we can go pick up my truck at the motel.” He shifted to see if Mathews was willing. The deputy nodded.
Hawke shifted his attention back to McCord. “You go about your regular routine. Give us a couple hours, then text me where to meet up with you.” Hawke studied everyone. “Once we get Tonya, we’ll stash her somewhere until we can get Bayle on all the charges.” His gaze landed on Tonya. “Is this okay with you?”
She nodded. “I want to stay alive.”