One Through the Heart (29 page)

‘Easier to leave some words out,’ Lash said. ‘Straight to point.’

‘OK.’

‘Knew Brandon well, never trusted him. Knew his past.’

‘He told you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did it attract or repel you? I’m asking because I want us to speak truth to each other.’

‘Understand.’ Lash closed his eyes as he debated how he wanted to answer.

It was a hard-edged question but Raveneau didn’t want to hide anything. He waited and thought about what the doctor told him before he walked in here. Lash’s breathing problems had worsened and he needed oxygen to sleep. A tracheal intubation was scheduled pending his white cell count coming back up. The doctor added, ‘His count is never coming back up. Your announcement of his death isn’t false it’s just a few weeks premature, nothing like four months. He’ll never have the tracheal intubation.’

Raveneau glanced down at the bed a moment and when he looked up Lash was staring at him, his eyes a startling blue.

‘Saw I could use him.’

‘You could use his past to control him.’

‘Yes.’

‘Lindsley told me he combed through everything you owned looking for your secrets. He did that when you were asleep. He and the caregiver colluded and slipped you Valium after you were first diagnosed. Were you aware of that?’

‘Yes.’

Of course he was. People like Lash didn’t miss anything. He was hypersensitive, hyper-aware.

‘Despondent.’

‘You stopped caring what happened?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is it possible he found the key to the bomb shelter lock?’

‘Yes.’

The software missed a follow up word there, and as Lash frowned, Raveneau tried a couple of phrases to get at what he meant.

‘His ambition was transparent. He wanted to co-author the three books you talked about doing with him and after you died step into your shoes.’

‘Yes. Strange man.’

‘And unrealistic in thinking you would ever write a book with him.’

‘Yes.’ Lash smiled a sad smile. ‘Never going to write a book with him. My legacy. Standalone. Pride.’

‘Did you ever tell him that?’

‘No.’

‘But he figured it out at some point.’

‘Became very angry.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘Started writing book with him.’

‘Why didn’t you tell him you weren’t going to be able to write any more books and ask him to leave? Tell him the collaboration idea was mistake.’

‘Needed him. Useful. Good researcher. Liked talking with him.’

Raveneau wasn’t sure he believed that. ‘You kept him for that or because he was in on some of your secrets and you couldn’t risk alienating him.’

‘No.’

‘Then what?’

‘I – was – afraid – of – him.’

‘Afraid he might do bodily harm to you?’

‘Became vulnerable. Look at me.’

‘As your physical condition declined you felt vulnerable and you were afraid he might harm you even if he was locked out of the house.’

‘Yes.’

‘Did he ever physically threaten you?’

‘Yes.’

Lash’s software stopped working as well as he described Lindsley leaving his wheelchair too near the stairs and then edging it closer and closer one night after an argument. It didn’t ring true to Raveneau. It might be true. It might well be true but underneath was something else and who knew if there would be another chance with Lash. He hesitated a moment and then decided to just put it out there.

‘You probably know when he first got into the bomb shelter. I don’t. We’ve got DNA matches with items of Ann Coryell’s we removed from the shelter. We also have other blood of varying types that soaked through a mattress on a steel cot that is old enough to rule out Lindsley, Siles, or anyone we’ve discussed. Some of that blood may be twenty years old. I think when Lindsley got in there he found that and he left it just as he found it. He didn’t move anything. He didn’t touch anything, and they were careful when they brought the Missouri skulls in. Why was that?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘You don’t have an answer, Albert, but I think I’ve got one. Lindsley was thinking about DNA and evidence and what he had over you. We know that John Royer took skulls from caskets the Mississippi floods uncovered and that those skulls made their way to the bomb shelter, and once they got there they were carefully moved in and leaned against a wall and no one went near the cot. We could tell that from the dust and some other things. Maybe it was just Lindsley or maybe it was all four of them, but I’m betting it was Lindsley who said, “Stay away from the cot. Don’t walk in that area.”

‘A good defense attorney would still argue that’s a contaminated scene, but the blood on the cot, the age of the blood, the suspicion of you a decade ago, it would all work against you. So I’m guessing he let you know what he found and at that point you were tied to him. Is that what happened?’

Lash didn’t answer.

‘I’m not saying Ann Coryell died in there. There’s less of her blood than the other blood types. She may have been in there awhile but may have been alive when she was moved. When her remains were found and before she was IDed the Marin coroner examining her torso concluded she was shot through the heart before she was beheaded. That may have happened up on the mountain, but it’s our conclusion that she was in the bomb shelter. I know we interviewed your gardener and some other employees and maybe we missed something, but does that throw suspicion on your gardener, your cook, or the handyman who worked for you for years? It could but I’d say at this point it’s not likely, and if the cot got used and used again at least four times, and at least two victims lost in excess of a quart of blood, there’s a pattern.’

‘Gave Brandon a key.’

‘You gave him a key? That’s different than what you said earlier.’

‘Gave him key after conversation about Cold War.’

‘You were talking about the Cold War and you remembered, hey, I’ve got a Cold War era bomb shelter right here in my backyard. Brandon missed that whole era because his mother hadn’t given birth to her killer yet, so he’d probably never been inside an old fallout shelter, so what did you do? Did you point at a key on a peg on the back of a door and say, “Grab that key and go get yourself a look at a real one. You’ll have to dig around on the floor a little before you figure out how we disguised the hatch cover, but don’t give up. It’s down there in the garden shed. Make sure you bring a flashlight because it’s spooky dark in there and there are things in there too, so don’t touch anything the police can tie to you later.” Is that what happened? Give me some help here, I’m having trouble understanding why you would give him a key. When was this?’

‘Two thousand and two. Didn’t know.’

‘You didn’t know what was in there. Right, I get the idea. I’m just not seeing it, and it’s not only 2002, but before Ann disappeared.’

‘Yes.’

‘Then later you learned he was using the bomb shelter. You put it together.’

Lash claimed that one night years later just before he put the house up for sale he was looking out the window toward the Presidio and the ocean and saw a flashlight come on near the garden shed door. Lindsley was staying at the house and he believed it was Lindsley he saw going into the shed. The next day when he asked him, Lindsley denied it. Later, Lindsley said he’d found tracks leading up from the Presidio.

Lash’s eyes closed and for several moments Raveneau was unsure whether this was the end of the conversation. He was back briefly and then gone again for close to twenty minutes as Raveneau sat thinking it through.

When Lash opened his eyes he said, ‘I changed nothing. Not insightful, took ideas of others, but good teacher. I – made – students see. Ann was brilliant.’

‘Was Brandon Lindsley jealous of Ann?’

‘Envious.’

‘And you’re telling me he knew about the bomb shelter before she disappeared?’

‘Yes.’

‘You want me to believe it was Lindsley who killed her, but you’re not really giving me what I need, and there’s the cot and what happened before Brandon. We’re not quite getting there. Let me ask a different question. Were you in love with Ann Coryell?’

‘Yes.’

The answer and the speed of it surprised Raveneau. That was new. Many questions about their relationship were asked in 2003 but Lash never admitted to being in love with her. He told Hugh Neilley and Alcott that he and Ann slept together a couple of times and then it became uncomfortable and she avoided him. It was unresolved at the point she disappeared. It was another reason why he thought she had fled.

‘You were in love but she wasn’t?’

Lash nodded and said, ‘Told others.’

‘You did or she did?’

‘She.’

It continued like this and Raveneau learned that Brandon left on a trip a week before she disappeared and it’s why he was never interviewed. That wasn’t new news, and Hugh and Alcott had checked on the trip.

Lash made another claim now. The last time he was in the bomb shelter was 1984, the year his father died. He was inside it only for a moment and didn’t look around. That was the day he locked the hatch cover and the key sat in a locked compartment in his desk after that.

Raveneau summarized, ticking off what Lash had said. ‘You were in love with Ann. Lindsley was envious of her. Siles and Lindsley were both at your house often and much earlier than we had realised. You gave Lindsley a key to the bomb shelter before Ann disappeared. That’s what I’ve gotten so far, though I’m not sure yet how it helps.’

Lash talked now about himself. He couldn’t accept the disease when it was first diagnosed. He drank too much and tried to ignore the onset. The onset came with some good and some bad days, but mostly bad days. There were times in the beginning when the cramping in his legs was such that he couldn’t walk, and Lindsley helped him get around. Lindsley gradually took advantage of his illness, inserting himself more and more. That was all long after Ann Coryell became an unsolved cold case, but Lindsley did have complete access to the house and grounds.

The caregiver would help him get out of bed in the morning but he was awake in the middle of the night and saw lights flickering outside more than once. He guessed there were others that Lindsley invited over as recently as a week before the house sold. He talked and then threw a twist in just as it was clear he was exhausted and couldn’t talk anymore. He said when Lindsley first went into the bomb shelter he found the bloody mattress and skeletons on blankets on the floor. He took photos and asked Lash what had happened and Lash told him he didn’t know, told him he hadn’t been inside since his father had died.

‘Did he believe you?’

‘Said he should go to police.’

‘But he didn’t.’

‘Thought he would.’

‘Why didn’t he?’

‘We traded. Why I agreed to co-author. Worried – every – day.’

‘About the Coryell investigation activating and you back in the news?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you contact police before you moved out?’

After he moved out Lash didn’t expect to live long enough for it to matter. He knew the odds and expected to die soon and it was questionable whether plans would get approved and construction started before he died.

‘You gambled.’

‘Yes.’

He stopped thinking he could do anything about it. He stopped caring. He had no explanation for the bloody cot or the partial skeletons and offered now that maybe it really was the long-time handyman. Raveneau wrote the man’s name down, but it was gratuitous. Neither he nor Lash believed it. Now Lash’s eyes closed and then he spoke one last time, though he didn’t open his eyes again.

‘Brandon killed her,’ he said. ‘I – am – sure – now – it – was – him.’

W
hen the main municipal water pumping stations went offline Coe called and said, ‘They did it. We didn’t think it through well enough. They hacked into the computers at the two main pumping stations and cut the water supply to San Francisco.’

‘When?’

‘Forty minutes ago. Latkos. Hackers she knows and they’re outside the US. From the size of the attack there are probably a dozen of them and probably getting paid.’

‘And I’m guessing you know where she is.’

‘Nothing we’re doing is getting us closer to Siles. We should have caught up to him by now. We were watching the reservoir and pipe system and they came in through the Internet. We’re getting beaten here.’

‘They’ll get the pumps restarted.’

‘They’re trying. The Water Department restarted one ten minutes ago and it went down again right away. Now they’re trying to bypass their computer systems to get the pumps running again. They don’t know if that’ll work. And you may not know this yet, but your police and fire nine one one system is under a denial of service attack as we speak. They’re trying to shut it down. What do you think, Ben? You know your city. Where is this going?’

‘It’s still about fire. The city burned seven times in the first fifty years. It’s probably not that hard to shut a pump down and I doubt the city has had the money to harden their computer systems. Latkos would know that. Whatever she did for us elsewhere in the world she can do here just as easily.’

‘That’s what’s going on. Where are you right now?’

‘In the Presidio.’

‘I’m going to come meet you. Tell me where exactly and give me fifteen minutes to get there.’

Raveneau parked between two cars in a big lot in the Presidio. He should call la Rosa but didn’t call anyone yet. He looked at old barracks refurbished now and the officer’s houses remodeled, clean, and leased and could not help but think about what a different country it was when World War II was fought. 9/11 changed us, he thought. We got scared and we let these different government agencies and the military create secret units in the name of fighting terrorism. Coe is not even allowed to name who Latkos worked for. How can that be? Is that of the people, by the people, and for the people? Not at all, he thought.

Coe’s car slid in two slots away and Coe walked over and got into Raveneau’s car. ‘This could cost me my career,’ he said. ‘It probably will.’ He held up his cellphone. ‘I can call my ASAC and Brian will agree with me on everything and then he’ll say we can’t do anything until we get approval and not from our SAC or even from headquarters. They’ll have to ask and the answer will filter back.’