Polar (Book 2): Polar Day (21 page)
“Can you even believe that?” Danny said as he fumbled in his pocket for his cigarettes.
Tessa glanced from the road to Danny. “Are you reaching for your cigarettes? Are you seriously thinking about smoking in my car?”
Danny scowled. “Please? Just this once?”
“Absolutely not.”
“God dammit I need a cigarette after this day. That family just made those reservations today, I’d bet my ass on that. They’re driving up to Coldfoot just to keep us away from their daughter.”
“I imagine you’re right but you’re still not smoking in my car.”
“They must have heard Melissa on the phone with me. Or maybe she freaked out herself and told them.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re gone.”
“When they get their asses back to Fairbanks I’d like to charge them with obstruction.”
Tessa laughed. “Sure. See how that goes over in the media. ‘Police harass terrified parents desperate to protect their child…’”
“Maybe there won’t even be a Fairbanks for them to return to though. At this point I can see that being the case.”
“Don’t say that. So this didn’t work out. We’ll find something else that does.” Tessa drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “What about Jennifer's cameraman?” she asked. “He heard the chanting too. Maybe he'll recognize Dzubenko's voice. We could talk to him unofficially. Just feel him out.”
“If we ask him flat out if the voice is Dzubenko's and he agrees that will never hold up. They'll say we led him to the conclusion we wanted. Can you imagine how a lawyer for Dzubenko would go after us on that?”
“I said unofficially. If he does think the voice is Dzubenko's, maybe we can at least convince the Chief and the FBI agents to let us tail that son of a bitch.”
“I like how you think, Tessa,” Danny said. “I think I've been a good influence on you.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “Please. You think I didn't know how to be a cop before you came rolling into town? You know where Bob lives?”
Danny reached into his pocket again, this time procuring his phone. “No but I can find out. Let’s head over there.”
****
Robert Spencer had been placed on medical leave not long after witnessing the fire that had claimed Jennifer Higgins' life. He'd tried to continue working following the murder, but had been terrified to go out on an assignment with any of the reporters. The station owner had suggested therapy to help Spencer deal with the fallout from the trauma he had been part of and had granted the man's request to take time off.
Thus Danny and Tessa found him at home on the afternoon of August 21. Neither was surprised to see Spencer’s haunted expression and hollow eyes as he opened the door and ushered them into his living room. They expected nothing less, having both seen more trauma victims than they could count.
“Mr. Spencer, thank you for meeting with us,” Tessa said as she and Danny sat down next to each other on Robert’s disheveled brown couch.
“It’s not a problem,” Spencer said, taking his place across from them on a worn matching loveseat. Spencer picked up the tv remote from an end table and turned off the movie he had been watching.
“You’re a Godfather fan?” Danny asked, referencing the movie that had been playing.
“Who isn’t?” Spencer replied.
“True enough.” Danny dispensed with the small talk. “Listen, Mr. Spencer…”
“Please, just call me Bob.”
“Great, Bob. We want to talk to you off the record for a moment. We’re not asking you for any kind of statement and we know however you answer our question we won’t be able to use the information officially.”
“What’s the point then?” Bob asked, clearly puzzled.
“It will help us,” Tessa asked. “We just need you to be honest with us.”
“Fair enough,” Bob said, shrugging his shoulders.
“The day Jennifer was killed,” Tessa continued, “You told us you heard chanting before the fire started. Do you remember that? Do you remember the chanting?”
“Of course I do. How could I forget it?”
“If you heard the same voice again do you think you’d recognize it?” Danny asked.
“I can’t imagine I wouldn’t.”
“Have you seen any of the interviews with Jamie Dzubenko on the news?”
“That guy who says you’re harassing him?”
“That’s the one,” Danny said.
Bob sat back on the loveseat and eyed both Danny and Tessa with growing suspicion. “What about him?”
“Do you think his voice could be the voice you heard chanting? Have you ever had the sense that his voice seemed familiar to you when you’ve watched him?”
Bob shook his head slowly. “I don’t know…”
“Bob, we know how terribly difficult this must be,” Tessa said. “I can’t begin to imagine what you witnessed when Jennifer was murdered. But if you could just think about the chanting for a minute and remember the voice in your head.”
“You think I’ve ever forgotten that voice? I don’t need you telling me to remember it.”
Danny held up his hand. “Of course you don’t. We don’t mean to upset you.”
“Do you think if you listened to a recording of Mr. Dzubenko you’d be able to tell us if the voice sounds similar or not?” Tessa asked.
“I’m sure I could.”
“Do you have a computer?” Danny asked.
Bob got up from the loveseat and walked into his dining room. He returned with an open laptop. “Of course I do,” he said. “You’re saying you want me to listen to one of those interviews?”
“If you don’t mind.”
Bob sat back down and opened his browser. He quickly brought up the Channel 10 website and clicked on one of the Dzubenko videos. Within seconds, Dzubenko’s voice filled the living room.
“I suppose I just couldn’t keep quiet after I heard from my aunt that a police detective had traveled to Anchorage to harass her and bring back the terrible memories of the death of her brother. My father. What my family has gone through is horrible enough without having to deal with police harassment.”
Danny watched as Bob listened to the man he was sure had killed Jennifer Higgins. He knew he shouldn’t, but he found himself silently begging the cameraman to recognize the voice from the scene of the fire.
Bob’s hands started to shake as he listened to more of the interview. While he stared at the screen, he no longer seemed to be seeing it. He suddenly slammed the laptop closed, silencing Jamie Dzubenko and making both Danny and Tessa jump in their seats.
“I don’t know if this is the man who killed Jennifer,” Bob said, shaking his head no as he spoke.
“You didn’t recognize the voice?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know if I did or if I didn’t. I can’t say. It could be the voice I heard. But there’s just as good a chance it isn’t.”
“Maybe if you listened again…”
“I don’t think so,” Bob said. “I can’t help you. I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure you can’t just listen to a little more of the interview?” Danny asked.
“I told you folks I don’t know! Christ, you’re making me think this man is right about you railroading him.”
“I’m sorry,” Danny said. “I shouldn’t have pushed it. It’s just that you seemed so certain before that you remembered the voice.”
“I thought I did. But all I can say now is it was a man’s voice. I can hear the gibberish he was saying and I thought I could hear the voice too but listening to this I realize I just don’t know anymore.”
Tessa stood up from the couch. “We understand. And we are sorry, Mr. Spencer. Thank you for being honest with us.”
Bob nodded and rose from the loveseat. “If you don’t mind, I’ll show you out. I don’t want to talk any more about this.”
“Of course.”
Danny and Tessa remained silent until they were seated back in Tessa’s car. “What do you think about that?” Danny asked. “You think he really couldn’t recognize Dzubenko or he just freaked out and didn’t want to think about it?”
“Hard to say. I almost felt like he went into a trance while listening to the interview. Did you see his hands shaking?”
“I did. And I think he did recognize Dzubenko’s voice but just got too frightened to say so.”
“Maybe. But either way this doesn’t help us any.”
“Let’s talk to Jack about it. He needs to know that Melissa called me, and about what she said. Maybe he’ll agree to at least let us keep an eye on Dzubenko.”
“I doubt it. He’s got the Chief all over his ass.”
“I doubt it too but what have we got to lose?”
Tessa pulled out of Robert Spencer’s driveway and headed back to the police station.
****
“What’s going on?” Danny asked the desk sergeant Mark Chambers as he and Tessa returned to the police station. There was a palatable sense of energy and excitement in the air.
“The FBI agents found the arsonist,” Chambers said. “They’re heading over to pick him up now. He’s been hiding out at some abandoned place on Chestnut.”
Danny and Tessa glanced at each other and headed into the station to find Jack Meyer.
They didn’t have to look far.
“Fitzpatrick! Tessa! I’ve been looking for you two. Was just getting ready to call you.” Jack lumbered down the hallway towards the two detectives. “Where have you been?”
“We were out following up on a lead, Captain,” Tessa said.
“Did Chambers tell you the news?”
“He did,” Danny said. “Sir, can we talk to you in your office?”
“Of course.”
Jack turned and headed back down the hall towards his always untidy office. He moved boxes of files from the two chairs in front of his desk.
“Have a seat,” he said as he did so himself. “What’s up?”
“Sir,” Tessa said. “We have misgivings about the arrest the FBI agents are making right now.”
“You do? Is this based on the lead you two were just following up on?”
“It is,” she replied. “We talked to Robert Spencer, the cameraman for Jennifer Higgins.”
“Christ that poor bastard,” Jack said. “I’ve heard he’s having a hell of a time of it.”
“Yeah, he is,” Danny said. “But we wanted to talk to him because he told us back when Jennifer was killed that he heard a man chanting before the fire started.”
“And?”
“Do you remember the two kids who were in the woods at the baseball game and saw Nick Torrance right before he was killed?”
“Yes, I remember,” Jack answered. “Where are you going with this, Fitzpatrick? Cut to the chase.”
“One of the kids called me this morning and told me she had seen Jamie Dzubenko on the news and she recognized his voice. She thought it was the same voice that she and her friend heard chanting right before Nick Torrance caught on fire.”
“Aw, Jesus. Really? You’re still on Dzubenko?”
“Sir, we think there’s good reason to be on Dzubenko,” Tessa said.
“Can you bring this kid in and interview her?” Jack asked.
“No. She’s afraid and doesn’t even want her parents to know she called me. Tessa and I went over to their house to talk with them but the family left Fairbanks for the Arctic today. We can’t get anything from the girl right now.”
“So what does this have to do with Robert Spencer?”
“We thought he may recognize the chanting voice as Dzubenko’s too.”
“And did he?”
“No, he didn’t. Or at least he said he didn’t.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Sir,” Tessa said, “Danny and I both thought the man looked absolutely terrified while he was listening to Dzubenko’s interview. It was like he went into a trance. His hands started to shake…” she paused. “We think he said he couldn’t place the voice because he is so frightened. He is quite obviously still struggling to cope with what happened to Jennifer.”
“But he specifically said he didn’t recognize Dzubenko’s voice?”
“He did.”
“Then what the hell can we do with him?”
“Not much, we know,” Tessa said. “But if we could just put more attention on Dzubenko…”
Jack glared across his desk. “Do you both want to get all three of us fired?”
“No, sir,” Danny said. “We do want to save people from burning to death though.”
“What did I ever do to deserve you and your self-righteous, smartass attitude, Fitzpatrick?”
Danny smiled. “You’re a lucky man I guess.”
Before Jack could respond, the meeting was interrupted by a bustle of activity at the front of the station. Danny and Tessa turned in their chairs to see the FBI special agents ushering in a tall and thickset man with his hands cuffed behind his back. Representatives from all the media outlets crowded the front door and main desk.
“You see that?” Jack said. “Lots of people think that guy right there is the one burning people to death around here.”
“Yep, lots of people think that. I don’t though,” Danny said. “Neither does Tessa. And neither do you, sir.”
“You’re so sure of that, are you?”
“Yes, I am. Remember the guy on the video at Phillips’ office? He was slight, thin…” Danny gestured towards the front door of the building. “That fool they just brought in looked big and burly to me. Not even close to the same body type as the man we watched burn Phillips to death.”
“Alright, you know what?” Jack said. “You’re right. You know damn well I think this FBI thing is bullshit, plain and simple. It’s the Chief and the Mayor both trying to keep their jobs. Maybe this poor slob they just carted in here is an arsonist, but I think it’s more likely he’s just a perfect scapegoat.”
“I guess we’ll know in two days if the city starts burning,” Tessa said.
“What exactly do you two think I can do? We don’t have any evidence against Dzubenko and he’s made monkeys out of all of us. And now that they’ve made this arrest and the media and politicians are going to start shouting it from the rooftops, I can’t authorize surveillance on some jackass who isn’t even officially a suspect. We’re over a barrel here and you both know it.”
Danny let out a breath. “God damn Dzubenko. Son of a bitch.”
“I think at this point all we can do now is wait for the twenty-third. If the fires start, we’ll know the FBI has the wrong guy and we can go after ours. Maybe we can catch the bastard in the act,” Jack said.
Tessa and Danny looked at each other. Each nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Maybe we can,” Tessa said.
****
