HIGHWAY HOMICIDE (22 page)

Chapter Thirty Four

Carl got to his feet, walked around his desk and over to the rifle rack on the wall. He reached up and took one down.

“What are you going to do with that, Carl,” Judy asked him.

“I’m going to load all these things and they’re gonna stay loaded until we’ve caught this guy. I want us to take every bit of precaution we possibly can, Jude. If we’ve cause to need one of these in a hurry, I don’t want to have to be fiddling around trying to load the goddamned things. All anyone will need to do is just point it and pull the trigger.”

“Isn’t that dangerous, Sheriff, to have cocked and loaded weapons lying around here like that?” Erica asked nervously.

“They aren’t exactly lying around now, are they, Erica? They are up there on the goddamned rack. I just don’t want either of you women to suddenly get it into your heads they just have to be dusted today, that’s all. They’re safe enough if everyone leaves them alone. Just like me.”

Erica still looked very apprehensive.

“Right, Carl,” Judy said, “Just calm yourself down and don’t be so goddamned rude. We won’t be touching your precious rifles, will we, Erica?”

Judy had asked Erica to stay on a litt
le longer, at least while she’d been so busy at the Sheriff’s office. The two of them had found they liked each other and they got on very well together. Secretly, Judy was glad of some female companionship.

Erica willingly helped out with the housework at Judy’s place to earn her keep, and she also helped with the meal preparation as well. Bu
t there was no way Judy would ever relinquish her kitchen for the actual cooking to anyone.

“Something wrong, Erica?” Judy asked her, as Carl finished the loading of the rifles and had placed them back in the rack.

Erica didn’t answer her but looked past her apprehensively at the rifles on the wall.

“I just hate guns, of any kind,” she said finally. “I had an accident with one of them when I was a kid. I almost shot my own mother.”

“Oh, Erica, you poor girl,” Judy said aghast. “What on earth happened? What did you do?”

“My father was showing me and my girl friend how to shoot targets out in our back yard. Well, we had a huge yard back then and my Dad just loved to hunt. Anyway, we were using a single shot twenty two caliber rifle, and I got all excited when I actually managed to clip the target with it. I just
didn’t realize my Dad had reloaded the gun. When I picked it up again, I had one hand on the stock and the other on the trigger guard. My hand suddenly slipped a bit and my finger hit the trigger.”

“My God, Erica! Where was your mother?” Carl asked.

“She was just coming out of our back door as the gun went off. I was lucky to only break the window in the kitchen door. But it scared my Mother and me half to death. She wouldn’t have one in the house at all after that. In fact, this is the closest I’ve been to a rifle since that day. As I just said, I hate them!”

“And with damned good reason, Erica. I don’t blame you one little bit. Unfortunately, in this business they are the tools of our trade. T
hey’re a necessary evil.”

“They’
re evil, all right.” Erica said heatedly, “I wish the awful things had never been invented.”

“Okay
, Erica, I understand how you feel,” Carl said, “but I feel the way things are in town right now, I have to leave them that way. I also think, Judy you and Erica should both stay here in the office today. Dave’ll come by later to drive you back to your place. I’m really glad you have him staying with you right now.”

“You sound as though you think we are in real danger, Carl
,” Judy said.

“No, Jude, not just you ladies in particular
. But I think until this crazy dude is caught, everyone in town could possibly be in danger. And he’s already outsmarted me once, but right now I’m going over to get Irene Fox. I just remembered she’s the only person in town, apart from Russ Harris, who has actually seen the real guy face to face. She and Russ can identify him and don’t think for a moment he doesn’t know that. I’m going to send Dave over here with her, for safe keeping. So you guys look after her, alright?”

“Y
ou are thinking he’ll try again today then?” Erica asked.

“No, Erica, I don’t just
think
it. I’m absolutely bloody
certain
of it. That’s why I want you to all stay inside here, please, Jude. I’ll get Dave over here with Irene just as soon as I can. But I have to go and warn Russ now.”

“Why don’t you just call him?” Judy asked.

“Well, for one thing, Jude, he doesn’t own a gun and I don’t want him to be out there trying to throw rocks or whatever at the guy.”

“You’re going over there to protect him, aren’t you? Goddamn it, Carl, why don’t you just say so.” Judy said angrily to him.

“You know why, Jude. That’s my job.”

“It’s not your job to get your silly self killed,” she said with tears streaming down her face. She came over to hug him and said, “Just be careful, that’s all I ask, and
make sure you get the lousy bastard before he gets you.”

“I’ll be careful, Jude, don’t worry, and you take good care of Erica here until I get back.” With that, he broke away from her embrace and went quickly out of the door.

Since the Sheriff’s department only had two cruisers, David had offered to use his Chevy wagon to get around in. The township would pay for his gas, any routine maintenance and would also pay him a mileage allowance, Judy told him. Carl had already sent him over to Irene Fox’s place in it and would meet him there.

Further down the highway in Morristown, a man driving a dark grey Volvo, had been staying for a few nights in several bed and breakfast establishments. He’d already abandoned his fake persona as a Triple A information researcher. He’d also not been seen so far in Cooper’s Corners in anything other than Wells’ Jeep.

In e
ach of the places in which he’d stayed, he’d rummaged around in the landlord’s own rooms searching for a weapon. This morning he’d struck lucky. He’d found a short barreled revolver, complete with ammunition, in the house owner’s bedroom night table. As with the other places, he’d made his search when he knew for certain the owners were busy doing something else. He knew the wife was downstairs preparing breakfast and he could see her husband out in the yard. He was in the middle of bringing in logs for the wood stove.

He slipped the gun and loose ammunition into his jacket pocket, leaving the box in the night table drawer. Then he calmly went down for breakfast. To allay any suspicion, he asked if he could stay on for a co
uple more nights, something he had no intention at all of doing.

The skis in the rack on the roof of the Volvo gave credence to his story of being in the area for some winter sports. He winked at the husband, who was now also seated at the table. “Outdoor
and
indoor, if you know what I mean? You know, apres ski, John,” he whispered. “Some of those snow bunnies can be
real
sporty, believe me!”

The other man nodded and smiled politely since he didn’t want to offend their paying guest. But looking at this guy, he couldn’t imagine any girl falling over her skis to get this character into her bedroom, if that was what he was referring to.

At the same time, his wife just tossed her head and sniffed. That young man must think she was both deaf and daft. Apres ski indeed, she thought. Getting each other into bed was all these young people thought about these days.

When Carl pulled up outside Irene Fox’s place, David was already there as Carl had expected him to be. And, unbeknownst to any of them, so was someone else.

The dark grey Volvo, now minus skis and rack, was stopped a little way further down the street. As he watched Carl get out of his patrol car, the Volvo’s driver started to load hi
s newly acquired revolver. He’d already checked the gun over very carefully. There was no way he wanted a repeat of the rifle fiasco.

He’
d been advised of the cause of the rifle explosion by the landlady of the first bed and breakfast he’d stayed in. The bush telegraph around here was both fast and accurate, he thought. Maybe he’d be able to use it to his own advantage.

In the meantime, he waited to see what would happen. He had no set plan so he would react to whatever situ
ation occurred. He realized the woman in the coffee shop could easily identify him, as could the man he’d questioned, but until today he didn’t have the means to do anything about it.

But the thing that had really shocked him when he had driven up was to see David Ga
tes wagon, a car he was extremely familiar with, parked outside the donut shop. Apart from being shocked, he was also very pleased as well, because it meant he wouldn’t have to go looking for him.

For now though, he would just sit here, bide his time and see what kind of scenario unfolded.

Chapter Thirty Five

Inside the donut shop, Carl was explaining to Irene Fox why he wanted her to close up for the day and leave with David. He told her David would drive her over to the Sheriff’s office and he’d stay there with Judy, Erica and herself.

While they were safe over there, he and Almost would try to track down the elusive Cooper’s Corners
killer. Irene protested in vain she’d be fine, but Carl was adamant. Finally she agreed.

“Well, guys,” she said, “If I’ve got to close up, that’s the way it is, I guess, but let’s not waste a damned good pot of coffee. Can you sit yourselves down for a few minutes while I get myself organized?”

“Sure, Irene, we can always make time for a free coffee, you know that,” Carl said, as she brought two steaming cups over to them. “Take your time. There’s no rush.”

As they sipped at the hot coffee David asked, “Any more movement on the list, Sheriff?” In the office, they all alternated by calling him Carl, Chief, Boss, and Sheriff. If it was Judy speaking, it might be anything from ‘dear boy’ to ‘Hey, you’, depending on her mood of the day.

“Nope, not a damned thing and I’m making a huge assumption our man is one of the ones on your list. But right now, Davey boy, I’m having my doubts. If he
isn’t
one of those guys, we’re right up shit creek without a goddamned paddle.”

“So,
who’s left? Let’s see if there’s anything else I can recall about any of them.”

“The three
I have left on that list are Mitchell Langdon, Bernie Woodall and Toby Clarke,” Carl told him.

“Well, out of those three, only Tobe was in our group. The other two were just wannabes that Maria shot down in
flames. Actually though, Bernie was a bit of a nerd, so I can’t see him doing anything like this, Carl”

“Don’t dismiss him just because of his appearance or his manner, Dave. A lot of good cops have made that mistake.
There’ve been quite a few nerds who’ve turned out to be rather nasty killers. Macho guys don’t have the monopoly on murder, you know. How about the other two?”

“If I had to choose I’
d probably put my money on Mitch Langdon. Out of all of them, he was probably the one who was angriest at Maria. Not only did she turn down flat romantically, but she also refused to allow him into our group as well. Mitch just wasn’t used to being treated like that.”

“How about this other guy then? Toby Clarke.”

“Much the same with him too, really, except Tobe
was
a member of our group,” David said.

“So was Jason Wells and he tried to
shoot
you, for Christ’s sake.” Carl said dryly. “You think this Tobe guy could be capable of doing anything like that?”

David frowned.

“I really don’t know, Carl. I thought I knew all those guys pretty well, but not enough to even know Jason was a junkie. I knew he’d tried a few things. Most of them did. But I thought I knew Maria too, didn’t I? At least in the beginning, I thought I did.”

“That’s what I mean, people change, and sometimes not for the better, either. Anyway, have you seen any of these guys in, say, the last year or two?”

David shook his head.

“Not for probably ten years, Carl.”

“Okay, then, let me put this to you another way. You recognized Wells when I fed you his name again, kinda highlighted it for you, didn’t it? Now you only have the last three of them left. Do you think with only their names in mind now, you could do a bit of people watching? You’re the only one we’ve got who’d have any chance at all of recognizing any of them.

David nodded. “Sure,” he said.

“A moment ago you said something about putting money down. I’d do the same. I think it would be a pretty safe bet now, whichever of those guys you see next, that’ll be our man. It will also mean that if he sees you first, he’s gonna try to kill you, you can bank on it. Now, if you’re still wondering why, it’s because he thinks you saw him kill Maria Caspar, that’s why.”

At that point, Irene came back into the shop from the rear, carrying a small tote bag.

“Just a few things,” she said, “In case I’m going to be away for a while.”

“Well, that’s a bit ego deflating, Irene,” David said. “You don’t expect Cooper’s Corners finest, the Sheriff and his trusty deputies, to catch this guy today?”

“Listen, sonny, I gave up believing in miracles when I didn’t get a pony for my eighth birthday, and here I an, sixty years later, and I still haven’t got one.”

“But you still got yoursel
f a miracle, Irene. I think it’s a bloody miracle you’re still around at sixty eight. And speaking of money, as we were, I’d gladly pay a bundle of it to see old Irene here, up on the back of a donkey, wouldn’t you, Dave?”

“It was a pony, you moron, and I’d pay a bloody sight more to see you pitched
off
on your ass from one.” Irene retorted.

“She got you with that one, Carl,” David laughed, using one of Judy’s favorite expressions.

“Dave, just do me a favor. Get that woman out of here, will you, before I forget I’m a gentleman,” Carl said, but smiling too.

“This may come as a big surprise to you, Carl Berger, but you have to actually
be
a gentleman, before you can forget you are one.”

“Christ, Irene, you’
re as bad as Jude. What do you two do, compare notes?”

“Don’t have to, Carl; putting you guys down just comes natural to us. It is called being a woman.”

“That’s not what
I’d
call it,” Carl muttered, “Woman doesn’t start with a ‘b’.”

“Oh, and remember, Carl, all of us are blessed with excellent hearing along with our superior intellect,” Irene said sweetly.

Carl got up and held the shop door open. “Out, both of you. Give me your keys, Irene, and I’ll lock up for you,” and then he added, loud enough she’d be sure to hear, “At least, if I do it, I’ll know that it’s been done properly.”

Down the street, the driver of the grey Volvo watched as the door of the donut shop opened. Inside the shop, the woman and the two men had been clearly in view, but
he didn’t think this would be a good place to take them all out. He’d need to get all three of them before they could respond. They also had two guns to his one and he knew he wasn’t a very good shot.

He watched as Gates opened his Chevy’s door for the older woman. Okay, he thought, he’s taking her somewhere else. That would perhaps be better. The Sheriff followed them out, locked the shop door and waved at the other two as he got into his cruiser.

A moment later, hed driven away in the opposite direction to the way the Chevy was heading. In just one second, the Sheriff had shortened the odds by half for him. There was now only one gun against his and only two people to take out. Both of them were his planned targets.

Laying his now loaded revolver on the seat beside him, the driver of the Volvo put the car in gear and followed the Chevy.