The Wind Is Rising 1

by Daniel Steele

  With his hand on his Glock, Jenner said pointedly, “Yeah, gentlemen, why don’t you pile into the back of our cruisers – make sure you don’t hit your heads getting in. We’ll take good care of you.”

  As his men began to round up the Satsuma crew and head them toward the cruisers, Jenner turned back to Deel.

  “We wouldn’t have gotten here so quick and things might have gotten hairy for you guys except for your girlfriend up in Bell’s wing. She called the office and said some really strange guys had come in and tried to grab Bell, then went out after you. She said she got a really bad feeling about them.”

  Jenner grinned.

  “She was really concerned about you.”

  A smiling Deel looked up at the hospital where she would have been standing looking out.

  “Well, well, well. That was so nice of her.”

  McConnell was so disgusted he spit on the ground.

  “There is no fucking justice in the world. None. You’re going to bang her and you’re to get laid by a boatload of Italian broads tonight. I’ll go further. Not only is there no justice. This proves there’s no God.”

  “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” Deel said leaning back against the railing and pretending to run his fingers through his hair. “I can’t help the affect I have on women.”

  “I don’t hate you for being beautiful. I hate you for being an asshole.”

  Deel just smiled harder.

  “Jealousy does not become you.”

  Jenner turned to go, saying over his shoulder, “Maitland, could you hold off any more riot situations until after I go off duty tonight?”

  “No guarantees, but I will try.”

  I knelt beside Bell. He was quiet and seemed to be breathing harder. There was a portable blood pressure monitor his cardiologist had insisted I take along. It showed 180 over 130. Not good for a man who could keel over any time. I called to Jenner.

  “Could you tell Dr. Olson we need him out here to check on Mr. Bell?”

  “Sure. You aren’t going back up?”

  “Not until we have to.”

  To Bell, “Are you alright, Wilbur, you’ve gotten very quiet. What just happened would shake up anybody.”

  “I never been arrested for anything in my life, Mr. Maitland. Can they do that? Take me back to that county of theirs on a murder charge that I didn’t have anything to do with?”

  “They could theoretically. But they’re not going to. I looked over that so-called murder warrant of theirs and it is a piece of crap. It’s all based on the testimony of one drug user’s - a Mr. Cootie Mills - memory of a conversation he heard between you and a Clifford Samms. The best thing you’ve got going for you is that you’re a key witness in the Sutton case and we are going to move heaven and earth to make sure you stay right here until the trial is over, which may be a year or more from now.”

  “And after that, I probably won’t be around to worry about it, right?”

  I grabbed his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye.

  “No, I expect you to be here, but after you’ve helped us out so much, it’d be a pleasure to poke holes in that warrant of theirs and their case in general.”

  He seemed to be breathing more rapidly and shallowly so I told him, “Wilbur, just breath slow. They’re gone now, they won’t be bothering you again. Just enjoy this beautiful day. It’s about nice as they come. Sun is shining. Sky is blue. River is calm. And it’s brisk enough to kill the heat, but it’s not uncomfortable out here. It’s November. Up north they’re already shoveling snow. These are the kind of days people move here for.”

  He swallowed and then sighed.

  “I know. But that shook me.”

  “It would have shaken anyone. I’m beginning to wonder if that’s why they did it this way.”

  “What?”

  They could have sent down one deputy with a warrant and gone through our office or the Sheriff. Even in Satsuma they’d know you wouldn’t need this kind of force unless you were going after a gang or a really bad guy. You don’t fit either way. So why?”

  Five minutes later Olson and two nurses came walking quickly.

  Olson pulled me aside while the nurses fussed over Bell.

  “I didn’t know you were deliberately trying to kill your star witness.”

  “I had no idea those clowns would show up. They really shook Bell up. I wanted to give him some time out. Can you tell me if it’s safe to let him stay a little longer?’

  Olson joined the nurses and did his poking/prodding doctor imitation and the three of them put their heads together.

  “He’s definitely had a shock, but the rhythms are good. The portable EKG doesn’t show any real risk at this moment. Why don’t you let us take back and get him settled in?”

  “Wilbur, what do you want to do?”

  He looked up at the sky. White clouds were drifting slowly by. His face wore the expression of a prisoner staring out through the bars of his cell window at the prospect of freedom. There was a naked hunger in his eyes.

  “I want to stay out here a little longer.”

  “You heard him. We’ll keep a close eye on him Doctor, and my two men will make sure he doesn’t get any more scares.”

  For the next hour I stood at the railing next to him, Deel and McConnell flanking us on both said, and watched the river shuttle and assorted yachts said up and down the river, and the clouds sail by overhead.

  We talked about places we had been, and Wilbur had been almost everywhere. Compared to him I was a country boy that had never made it to the big city. We talked about women – there had been one he’d loved and lost and I had to count two – and wives, where he could count three between divorce and death, and I only had the one.

  It was the kind of hour that never seems to end, but it did. I’d ignored the buzzing of my cell which I’d put on mute and when Deel and McConnell made motions that they’d gotten calls from their respective offices, I gestured to them and they moved away from us, talked quietly and then ended the conversations.

  Finally Wilbur looked up at me.

  “I’m getting kind of tired, Mr. Maitland. I think I should go back.”

  “Okay. Deel, McConnell, you take Mr. Bell back. I’ll be along in just a minute.

  As soon as they had started pushing him off I started checking my phone messages. Cheri. The Big Man. Myra. Sheriff Knight. Bob Monroe, head of the jail. WJXT, Channel Four television. Channel 12 television. Channel 17 television. Then Sheriff Knight. And the Big Man.

  I started with Edwards.

  “We’ve got a very unhappy group of deputies sitting downstairs in the waiting area. And I’m starting to get unhappy calls from Judge Love and Sheriff Bludwurth and the State Attorney down there, Gregory. Tell me what happened.”

  I told him.

  “They were completely out of line, Dallas. If Bell had been in his hospital room with only Deel watching him, I am certain that those cowboys would have grabbed him using force, and I’m not sure they wouldn’t be blasting away in a hospital. Could have been bad. I don’t care how backwoods they are, Gregory at least should have educated them on how to serve a warrant and retrieve a suspect.”

  “Hmmm... not exactly the story they’re telling. But, I’m glad you were there and handled it the way you did. If they had gotten their hands on him, we’d never have seen him again. Why haven’t you been answering your phone.”

  “Bell has been a standup guy about this whole thing. The only thing he’s asked is that he be allowed outside in the fresh air one time. He probably won’t live long enough to ever do it again. After the Satsuma boys interrupted his time out there, I thought he deserved to enjoy a little bit of the outside.”

  “You ready to come back and face the music?”

  “Leaving right now.”

  On the way back to the courthouse I checked in with Knight and put in a good word for Deel.

  “He held his ground and kept his cool. It could have gotten ugly, but he help
ed keep everything peaceful. He didn’t back up an inch.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. He’s a good kid. Oh, and Maitland, be careful.”

  “Careful?”

  “I’ve been around a long time. And Edwards will fill you in. These guys are dangerous. Don’t be fooled into thinking they’re clowns. They’re not.”

  “They’re a long way from their stomping grounds.”

  “That’s what’s got me worried.”

  Going up the elevator I stopped in the waiting area of the fourth floor and found the three Satsuma deputies in a witness room. Two were sitting playing cards. Deacon was on a cell phone. They still had those damned dusters on.

  As I walked by them Deacon moved from the wall where he was on the phone and blocked my path.

  “You don’t look so tough without your bodyguards, little man.”

  I looked up at him and grinned, saying, “Nobody is that stupid,” and slipped around him.

  I kept going to the back elevator and rode up to Edwards’ office. Myra was wearing a light blue blouse that quivered like it held jello and gave me a smile that….God…a smile that made me want to float on my own little cloud into my boss’ office. As I walked by her I let my hand slide over the edge of her desk. She reached out to touch me.

  I had to stop and lean over her desk.

  “Is there any chance we could get a bite to eat tonight?”

  “As long as you let me nibble on what I really want to.”

  There was really no rejoinder for that.

  When I knocked I heard, “come in,” and walked in to find Austin Edwards, Circuit Judge Herman Herring and bailiff/body guard Charlie Case inside. Edwards and Herring were seated in comfortable chairs and Case lounged against a wall. He was one of the few men I’d ever seen that made Edwards look small.

  Edwards was on the speaker phone because I heard a voice say, “doesn’t matter what you need Bell for, Mr. Edwards. That piece of slime participated in a conspiracy to kill a Satsuma deputy and two law-abiding citizens. That outranks your need to have him testify in a case where you have no evidence and no chance of a conviction. Yes, when Bell’s name was given to us I did some research and found out about your prosecution. If you can call it that. You’re wasting the state’s resources, time and money, on a case you can’t win and protecting a murder conspirator in a case that we CAN prove.”

  “Judge, respectfully, we have a difference of opinion about that. My First Assistant Mr. Maitland, thinks we can prove it and Bell is a critical piece of our case. Now, after we finish our trial, you’re welcome to come after him and you might have better luck then. It seems like you can wait since you say you’ve got a strong case.”

  A second voice came on.

  “Edwards, you know we can’t do that. We can prove the case, but Bell won’t be around to prosecute, or testify against any other conspirators. He may not even last long enough to finish your trial.”

  “Mr. Gregory, that’s speculation. Mr. Bell has health problems, but you know as well as I do that you can never be sure a witness or defendant will be available. There have been situations in which we were waiting to try defendants that other jurisdictions had first claim on, and they died before we could get to them. It happens.”

  Judge Love came back on.

  “You might wish to reconsider, Mr. Edwards. I would rather not, but if we can’t come to some resolution I’ll seriously consider issuing a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Maitland for interfering in a lawful arrest, assault on a law enforcement officer, harboring a fugitive, and probably several other charges.”

  For the first time Judge Herring spoke.

  “I don’t think that would be a wise thing to do, Reynard. We have a number of eye witnesses that your chief deputy Deacon assaulted Maitland, pointed a weapon at an unarmed and obviously helpless suspect, two of your deputies threatened two of our people with their handguns and that your deputies were carrying shotguns during a confrontation with members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office.

  “If you were to file charges against Maitland, we would file charges against your three deputies and I am certain we could keep them imprisoned up here for a considerable length of time before the situation was resolved. And I think we can keep Maitland up here for the same length of time. Possession being nine points of the law, so to speak. We have them. You don’t.

  “But,” he said, “there’s no reason for any of this to happen. We’re both officers of the court, police officers on both sides are still police officers. Mr. Gregory and Mr. Edwards share the same duty and goal, protecting the public. We have a disagreement over Mr. Bell. Our people had an exchange of words. Those things happen.

  “If you can give me your word, and I’ll accept it, that you won’t come after Maitland or attempt to take Bell, we’ll release your deputies and let them be on their way. You can submit your warrant for Bell and it will receive judicial review.”

  “Herring, the trouble with you assholes is that you think because you sit in a multi-million dollar courtroom in a million-plus population county, and we’re sitting down here in little old Tangerine that you can-“

  “Judge Love!”

  Herring wasn’t loud but the room became still.

  “I suggest you stop, just shut up, before you say some things that will make this personal where it hasn’t been. I’m trying to be respectful of you and your office. I personally think that what happened today should get you, Bludworth and Gregory yanked to Tallahassee and in front of the Governor and the Cabinet for a royal ass chewing. If you want to get into a pissing contest, we can keep you snarled in red tape with government inspectors up your asses until the next decade. You know me. I think you can read in my voice that you’ve pushed as far as you’re going, and then I’m going to start pushing back.”

  He took a breath and then: “Where we go from here is up to you, Reynard. We can be civilized, or we can let the dogs out.”

  There was a long silence while we all exchanged glances. We all knew Herring had been a Marine and some said a behind-the-lines Special Services assassin in Vietnam in the 70s. He was always curt, cold and could bring young and green attorneys in his courtroom – and some not so green – to tears. But very few people ever saw this side of him, and seeing the look in his eyes, I could believe the stories.

  A new voice came on the line. Deep, a Barry White deep, but there weren’t any overtones of sensuality in it. There was a strong Southern – almost Alabama – drawl but the words were clearly enunciated. He spoke slow and precisely.

  “I think we all need to step back and take a deep breath, your Honor. I know that Judge Love did not intend to insult you or anyone over there in Jacksonville. When people feel strongly, tempers tend to flare. You know that. We feel strongly because it was one of our own who was killed, in addition to two civilians. And we have credible evidence that your Mr. Bell was involved.

  “I’m sure that’s the reason why Chief Deputy Deacon and our men got a little – overzealous. And – we probably tend to do things – a little more loosely down here. Not so many rules and red tape. But they were trying to execute a legal arrest warrant.

  “Now, I’m not going to argue about who made mistakes. Let’s just agree that it wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. I know that Judge Love will agree to go through the proper legal channels and forget all this – unpleasantness. If you would let my men go, we would take it as a sign of good faith on your part and we’ll go our separate ways.”

  “And there won’t be any further attempts to arrest Mr. Bell, Sheriff Bludwurth?” Edwards said. There was something about the look on his face as he spoke to the man with the deep voice. I had known Edwards for over a decade, and I’d never seen that look before.

  “He is a very ill man. And you will give us your word you won’t send civilian bounty hunters up here to try to ‘poach’ him? Do I have your word?”

  There was no perceptible pause. He wasn’t getting anybo
dy’s okay. He was running the show down there.

  “You have my word, Mr. Edwards.”

  “Give us a few minutes and we’ll get right back to you.”

  “Are you going to just let them waltz out of here?”

  Edwards leaned back in his chair and examined the ceiling.

  “I’m thinking very seriously about it.”

  “Why? You weren’t there, Dallas. It was a legal kidnapping. They deliberately hit when they thought he’d be alone in his hospital room with only one or two guards and maybe fewer. They came up with three thugs and they hired a damned ambulance to make getting him out easier. If I hadn’t pulled him out against his doctor’s orders to let him get a last view of the open sky, they might have gotten him out.

  “And,” I said, pacing up and down, “it would have been a legal murder. In taking him out they’d have killed him. No way in his shape would he have survived even a few minutes of their custody. They wouldn’t have had to touch him. Just scaring the hell out of him would have done the trick.”

  “They have a legal warrant,” Dallas said mildly. Again, there was an expression I couldn’t place on his face. “It might seem pretty flimsy to us, but they’ve got a triple murder, a witness tying Bell to the shooter, an okay by the local State’s Attorney for the action and a judge signing the paperwork. On paper, everything would seem legit.”

  “To hell with that, Dallas. I don’t know what’s going on, why you and Judge Herring are treating these assholes with kid gloves, but this stinks. Nobody – I mean Nobody – swoops in and does what these guys tried. No matter how hick the county they come from. And that warrant? Jesus Christ, Dallas. Did you look at it? I only spent a couple of minutes, and I could tell you it wouldn’t serve as useable toilet paper.

  “A jail house snitch with a lengthy record mentions a conversation he overheard more than SEVEN YEARS BEFORE between the shooter and Bell. No other confirmation. So they issue a warrant against a man THEY SAY was passing through the county and just stopped to see his old friend, the shooter, and just happened to talk about a plot to assassinate a Satsuma deputy in earshot of the snitch.