14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 52

I TOLD VASQUEZ and Swanson we’d catch up to them later, but first I wanted to chat with Clapper.

The front door opened and closed, and Conklin and I were alone in a brightly lit living room with CSIs taking pictures, dusting for prints, and swabbing for trace.

Conklin and I had to piece all this into a narrative that made sense, something that would explain what now seemed inexplicable.

Conklin said, “What do you think happened here, Charlie?”

“My opinion? A couple of guys wanted something, and they were willing to torture and murder four people in order to get it,” he said. “What did they want? Don’t know. Did they get it? Don’t know that, either. It wasn’t a robbery. Nothing was tossed. There’s small cash and jewelry on the dresser in the bedroom.”

He didn’t have to tell us to be careful. We followed in his footsteps as he showed us that the lock had been shot off the back door as well as the front. That told us that at least two shooters were involved.

Dr. Germaniuk, the medical examiner on call, came back into the house and said he was taking Tom Calhoun to the ME’s office now if that was OK. Clapper said, “Go ahead. We got what we need.”

Then Clapper said to my partner and me, “The wife had duct tape residue on her wrists and ankles and across her mouth, so she’d also been taped to a chair. I’m guessing she was cut loose and beaten while her husband was still alive and watching.”

I said, “Oh, my God” a few times, and Conklin looked like he wanted to punch the wall. I asked Clapper to go on.

“Here’s how it probably went down,” Clapper said. “The family was upstairs, probably asleep. The doers shot out the locks and entered. Calhoun probably came downstairs.”

“He had to be armed,” I said.

“His nine was found in the living room. Fully loaded. The gun is bagged and ready to go to the lab.”

“So Calhoun comes down the stairs with his gun,” I said. “He didn’t shoot?”

“He was outgunned. Outmanned. I think he tried to negotiate. I imagine he told the perps, ‘Get out. Nothing’s happened yet,’ something like that. The doers maybe turned it around on him.”

Conklin said, “Like, ‘Come into the kitchen and let’s talk. We’ll leave your family alone.’”

“Yeah,” Clapper said. “Something like that. Then maybe the wife comes down the stairs.”

Conklin said, “Right. They take the gun from Calhoun. Move him and his wife into the kitchen.”

“Oh, man,” I said visualizing the scene, the terror. I saw the shooters telling the Calhouns to get undressed. She has to duct-tape her husband to the chair, then one of the shooters does the same to her.

Putting the next part of it together in my mind, I figured Mrs. Calhoun was tortured to motivate Calhoun to give them what they wanted. What did they want? Did Calhoun have it?

We followed Clapper upstairs to the bedrooms and saw the blood-drenched sheets in the bunk beds where the two boys had been shot in their sleep. They were now in body bags on the way to the morgue with their parents.

My partner and I stood in the open front doorway with lights flashing red and blue behind us and thanked Charlie for the tour.

He didn’t have to say, “Get these bastards,” and I didn’t say, “Call us if you learn anything.” We all knew what we had to do. Calhoun’s death was job one. Every cop in the Hall of Justice would be on this until the Calhouns’ killers were found. The work would go on all night and it would continue until it was over.

But there was nothing for my partner and me to do in this house. Not tonight.