Violent Crimes (17 page)

Tom Beatty had followed Hamilton into the mountains. When the Escalade turned off toward Kiner's cabin, Tom kept going. A mile later, he parked on a logging road and approached the cabin through the woods. While surveying the area around the cabin, he spotted several hidden security cameras, motion detectors, and guards. He didn't want to risk detection, so he scaled a tree and watched through high-powered binoculars.

Hamilton had stayed inside the cabin for an hour before he got in the Escalade with his bodyguards and drove away. Beatty assumed that Hamilton was headed home to recuperate. If he went to his office he would have to explain his injuries to his coworkers, probably by claiming he'd been in an auto accident. After a few seconds, Beatty forgot about the attorney. He didn't care what Hamilton did. The man he was interested in was the man in the cabin.

Beatty was certain that Kiner's men would stop hunting him if he killed Kiner, which he could do with ease from his perch
once he got the right rifle. But killing Kiner would not solve all of his problems. Tom did not want to be on the run for the rest of his life. He'd had a stress-free job at Masterson, Hamilton until Christine was murdered. He wanted peace and quiet desperately, but he would never find peace as a fugitive.

Amanda Jaffe had been able to trace him to his camp in Forest Park as a result of the pokeweed berries he had inadvertently left next to Dale Masterson's body. Beatty assumed that the police would eventually make the same connection between the berries and his isolated camp. He had cleaned up the area and buried the bodies of the two mercenaries, but the graves would be easy to find. The MOs of Christine's and Masterson's killings were identical, and once the police found two more dead men, he would jump to the top of the list in Masterson's murder case. If he wanted to return to the peace and quiet he'd experienced before Christine was murdered, he'd have to figure out a way to convince the police that Reginald Kiner had killed Dale Masterson and Christine Larson, and he had no idea how he could do that. Beatty decided that it was time to ask for help. He worked his way back to the ground and headed for his car to make contact with the one person he thought he could trust.

Amanda usually walked to work on sunny days, but she had not slept well and she decided to drive to work with Mike. The couple had not made love last night, both protesting that they were exhausted, and Mike had been quiet during breakfast, burying himself in the newspaper so that, Amanda suspected, he would have an excuse to avoid talking to her.

When Amanda arrived at her office, she dived into work that she'd put on hold because of the Beatty and Masterson cases. Issues in those cases and her problems with Mike tried to worm their way into her thoughts, but she was able to sidestep the attempts by burying herself in an obscure area of immigration law that had become important in a case involving a Guatemalan drug dealer she was representing. When five o'clock rolled around she congratulated herself on a productive day and called Mike to ask if he was ready to drive home. Mike told her he was tied up with detectives who were interviewing two prostitutes who were witnesses in a liquor store robbery and he would get the detectives to drive him home. Mike sounded friendly on the phone, and Amanda took that as a sign that he was not mad at her any longer.

Amanda parked in a garage near her office. She entered the garage and pushed the button for the elevator. The elevator door opened and Amanda got in. Just before the door closed, a heavyset woman wearing jeans and a black polyester Portland Trailblazer jacket squeezed in.

“Sorry,” she apologized with a smile.

Amanda smiled back.

“Looks like you did my work for me,” the woman said when she saw the fourth-floor button lit up.

“Glad I could help,” Amanda replied.

The elevator stopped at 4. The blond woman waited for her to get out, then followed after her as Amanda circled around to the back wall. The woman walked past her as Amanda got to her car. Amanda had just stopped to fish in her purse for her key when Tom Beatty stepped out of the shadows.

“I'm not going to hurt you,” he said.

Amanda saw the blond woman standing next to a pickup truck, watching them. Tom followed Amanda's eyes.

“I'm here because I need your help and I couldn't risk going to your office. Please. I just want to talk, then I'll leave. You don't have anything to worry about.”

Amanda hesitated. Then she opened the car and got in.

“What do you want to talk about?” she asked when Beatty was seated next to her in the passenger seat.

“I know who's responsible for killing Christine and the attempt to kill me in Forest Park and at my house.”

“Someone tried to kill you at your house?”

“Miss Ross and I were followed from the jail when she drove me home. There were two men. Before I disarmed one of them, his gun discharged and killed the other man. Then I . . . I hit the man with the gun too hard. He died as well.”

“These were the men who were found in the trunk of a car?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill Dale Masterson to avenge Christine's death?”

“No, Amanda. I went to Masterson's house to find out who was responsible for killing her. He was dead when I found him in his den. Moments later, I heard the front door open and I heard someone go upstairs. That's when I left.”

“Did you break into Dale Masterson's law office?”

“Yes. Christine knew his password and she knew I was good with computers. During our argument, she told the password to me. She wanted me to get into Masterson's computer to see if I could find evidence about the books. When I broke in, I copied his hard drive, but there was nothing on it that helped.”

“Who killed Christine and sent the men who tried to kill you?”

Beatty told Amanda everything he'd dragged out of Mark Hamilton, and she listened without comment until he was through.

“So Hamilton told you this highly paid executive sent teams of killers after you and Christine?”

“That's what he told me.”

“Out of the goodness of his heart?” Amanda asked.

Beatty looked down. “I . . . I had to rough him up to get Kiner's name.”

“He told you about Kiner under torture?!?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus, Tom. Even if you had him on tape, nothing he said would be admissible or even believable. People will say anything to escape pain.”

“I know that. I just couldn't think of any other way to get what I needed.”

“What do you expect me to do with this?” Amanda asked.

“I need you to prove Kiner is behind the killings.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“I don't know.” He sounded desperate. “Maybe you can tell the cops or have your investigator look into it.”

“What are you planning on doing? Are you going to stay on the run?”

“I can't turn myself in. I'd be killed in jail.”

“I can make sure you're safe.”

“You don't know who you're dealing with. These people don't follow any rules. I'm safer staying hidden. And
you
watch
your
back, too.”

“I need a way to get in touch with you if something comes up.”

Tom handed her a cell phone and a slip of paper.

“If you need me call this number.”

Before she could say anything else, Beatty got out and headed toward the stairs. Amanda watched him leave and saw the blond woman walk around the corner and head back in the direction of the elevators.

Amanda pushed the cell Tom had given her into her purse. Then she grabbed her own phone and called Kate Ross. As soon as Kate answered, Amanda told her what Tom Beatty had said.

“What do you want to do with his intel?” Kate asked when Amanda was through.

“My first thought was that we go to Hamilton and grill him. Tom tortured him, so he's probably scared to death. He might crack.”

“Not if he's going to end up in prison.”

“What do you think we should do?” Amanda asked.

“I'm not sure. Kiner isn't going to admit to anything. The head of security for an outfit like RENCO isn't going to be intimidated.”

“I'm too wound up to think straight right now. Let's sleep on this, then talk in the morning.”

Amanda wasn't in their condo when Mike got home. He'd picked up some Chinese at a restaurant in the Pearl after the detectives dropped him off and he was starting in on the kung pao chicken when Amanda walked in.

“Want some?” he asked, pointing at the take-out boxes.

“You bet. I haven't eaten and I'm famished.”

“I tried to get you on your cell. When I couldn't get through, I bought enough for two just in case you hadn't eaten.”

“Thanks. I was working out and I didn't get your voice message until I left the pool.”

Mike's eyebrows went up. “Working out at night? That's not your usual routine.”

“Yeah, well, I haven't had a normal day and I needed to clear my head.”

“Oh?”

Amanda grabbed a plate and chopsticks and sat down opposite Mike at the kitchen table.

“If I say the words ‘attorney-client privilege,' will you go ballistic?” Amanda asked.

Mike smiled and shook his head. “No, I will not go ballistic, but I will apologize for the other day. If I was stupid enough to shack up with a defense attorney, I deserve everything I get.”

Amanda grinned. “Is living with me that bad?”

“It is trying at times, but worth it. I should have known better than to keep dating you, but I'm stuck with you now so I've decided to make the best of it.”

Amanda walked around the table and sat on Mike's lap. Then she gave him a big kiss.

“I don't deserve you,” she said.

“Too true,” he replied. “Now eat your food before it gets cold.”

Two days after discovering Tom Beatty's campsite and the two dead men, Billie Brewster had driven to Salem for her brother's parole hearing. She was still furious with Amanda Jaffe for protecting Beatty. Alan had told Billie that he was going to talk to the DA about dragging Jaffe into a grand jury, and she was anxious to learn what had happened at the meeting.

Billie was sad during the drive back to Portland. The parole board had denied Sherman's bid for parole as expected, and he had accepted the decision, having known what it would be before he went in. Sherman had shrugged off the loss of freedom as “no big thing,” and Billie wondered if he had become one of the institutionalized who welcomed their arrests because it meant a return to an environment where they had no responsibilities except following the rules, and where food and shelter were supplied free of charge. It was this fear that made Billie so sad.

When Billie returned to police headquarters, she looked for Hotchkiss, but he wasn't around. Billie needed a distraction that
would help her forget about the depressing events in Salem, so she decided to grab the file in the Christine Larson murder in order to bring herself up to speed on that case. She was reading the transcript of the hearing on Amanda's motion to suppress in the Larson case when she came across Greg Nowicki's testimony. After reading it she walked over to Drugs and Vice and found Nowicki in his cubicle, typing away on his computer.

“Hey, Greg,” she said.

Nowicki swiveled his chair toward her and smiled. “What's up, Billie?”

“Al and I ran across an old friend of yours in one of our investigations—Reginald Kiner.”

Nowicki stopped smiling. “Kiner was never a friend.”

“Oh?”

“Al told you he was shady, right?”

Billie nodded. “He said he left PPB under a cloud.”

“A big, dark storm cloud. We could never prove anything, but everyone was relieved when Kiner left the force and went private. So, why are you interested in him?”

“I was reading your testimony in the Beatty motion to suppress, and you said Carol White started informing for you about ten years ago.”

“That's right.”

“Was Kiner your partner then?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Did he know White?”

Nowicki's brow furrowed. “He might have. Yeah, he did, because she gave us some information we used to bust a dealer we'd been after for a while. Why do you want to know?”

“Just curiosity. The coincidence of Kiner being your partner.” She shook her head. “I can't really tell you why, but I wanted to know.”

“How is Kiner involved in your investigation?”

“We found two dead men in a car trunk. They were ex-military and RENCO Oil employed them as security. Kiner's the head of security for RENCO.”

“I heard that, and I'm not surprised. Reggie would be right at home running mercs in third world countries.”

Billie couldn't think of anything else to ask Nowicki, so she left. Amanda Jaffe had argued that Tom Beatty had been framed for Christine Larson's murder, and there was evidence to support that theory. If Beatty had been set up, the first step in the setup occurred when Carol White contacted Nowicki. Kiner knew White was an informant Nowicki trusted. He could have paid her to tell Nowicki that Beatty had drugs in his house.

Billie frowned. She was reaching. Other than some very tenuous connections to the Larson case, there was nothing to suggest that Kiner was involved in it.

Billie was getting ready to settle down with the rest of the Larson file when Holly Reed called from the crime lab.

“Want to hear a weird coincidence?” the lab tech asked.

“Sure.”

“You know the two dead guys from Forest Park?”

“Yeah. What about them?”

“The prints came back to a Norman McDonald and a Jeffrey Cook, both ex-military, just like the dead men in the car trunk. On a hunch, I did some checking with the State Department.
Both men have traveled back and forth to Nigeria and the Middle East for RENCO Oil.”

When Alan Hotchkiss returned thirty-five minutes later, he didn't look happy.

“What happened with the DA?” Billie asked.

“He's not going to put Jaffe in front of a grand jury. He said, and I quote, ‘She and her father are too well connected to harass without a hell of a good reason.'”

“Don't look so down in the dumps. I've got something that should cheer you up. I can't prove anything, but I'm beginning to think that Reggie Kiner is more involved in Christine Larson's murder than we thought.”

“What have you found?”

“I read the file in Christine Larson's murder case, and I keep on bouncing back and forth between thinking that Tom Beatty is guilty because he killed the men in the car trunk and Forest Park and thinking that he may have been framed for Larson's murder even if he killed the men in the trunk and the park. If he was set up, Carol White is the key. Without her affidavit there's no warrant, and without the search warrant you wouldn't have found the body in Beatty's bedroom.

“If White lied in her affidavit, the person who told her to lie would have a powerful motive to murder her. Greg Nowicki told me that Reggie Kiner knew White and knew Greg had used her as an informant.”

“Why would Kiner set up Beatty?” Hotchkiss asked.

“To make it look like Beatty killed Larson.”

“Yeah, but why would Kiner kill Larson? There's no proof he even knew her.”

“But he did know Dale Masterson and Mark Hamilton. And I just learned that the dead men in the park also had a connection to RENCO. So we know that men who worked for Kiner at one time were in Beatty's house and at Beatty's campsite. What if Kiner sent them there to kill Beatty?”

“Why would Kiner do that? I still don't see the connection.”

“It's the books. If Masterson and Hamilton cooked them to get Global Mining as a client and Larson threatened to tell Global, the lawyers would have a powerful motive to kill her and anyone she told about the fraud. Now, I'm making a big leap of logic here, but Kiner was a bad cop who was suspected of killing witnesses. What if Masterson and/or Hamilton knew Kiner could have Larson killed for a price and paid him to take care of their problem?”

“That's not a leap of logic, Billie—that's a fucking rocket trip to another planet.”

“Yeah, Alan, but what if . . . Think about it. There are direct connections to Kiner and four dead mercs. Why were mercs in Beatty's house and camp? They weren't there to sell Girl Scout cookies.”

Billie waited patiently while her partner mulled over what he'd just heard. After a while, Hotchkiss looked at her.

“Let's say you're right. How do we prove it? If we question Kiner, he'll just laugh at us.”

“I agree with you. But Mark Hamilton might crack if we apply enough pressure.”