A Welcome Grave

24

It was dark when we left Donny Ward’s house in the woods. The dogs circled around us as we walked to the car. Two were friendly, but the third, that chewed-up hound, kept his distance and growled until Joe had the engine going. I wondered how old he was, if he’d been around the day Donny had been visited by a man with a gun and a bagful of cash. Might a dog remember something like that? I thought he probably would.

Joe’s car bounced along the rutted lane, and then we came out onto the main road, and within a few seconds Donny Ward’s home was out of sight. It was raining now, a light mist that didn’t make a sound against the car but appeared in thin sheets on the windshield between swipes of the wiper blades.

“We’ve got to give it to Targent,” Joe said. “I don’t believe Donny would do what he said, deny everything. He broke pretty easy with us, and I think that’s because he’s been breaking a little bit over it every day for a long time. He’d give it to the cops.”

“Probably, but it doesn’t make the bridge between Doran and Jefferson. Not alone.”

“Targent needs to hear it, though. Proves Doran was set up. By somebody who had plenty of money to spare.”

“Yeah. We’ve just got to show that it was Jefferson. I want to get that prick.”

Joe shot me a hard look. “That’s what this is about now?”

“You heard what that guy said. About his daughter, and the dog . . . If Jefferson made all that happen, I intend to see that people know about it.”

“The man’s dead.”

“The people who need to know what happened aren’t.”

“People like Karen?”

I turned to him, but he had his eyes on the road.

“I didn’t say that. I was thinking more of people like Monica Heath’s family. Like Andy Doran’s family.”

Joe slowed, a stop sign ahead. “There’s an obvious problem with Donny’s story.”

“I don’t see it.”

“This guy who was sent to intimidate him came before the cops. How would anyone have known what Doran’s alibi was before the police?”

That was a damn good question. I didn’t answer for a while, thinking of the possibilities.

“Could it be a cop was involved? Jefferson paid one off?”

Joe frowned. “Would have had to pay off more than one, don’t you think?”

“That is a problem. I don’t know the answer, but I do believe Donny Ward. You’ve done thousands more interviews than me, Joe. Did you think he was telling the truth?”

“Yes. But I still want to know how that guy appeared on Donny’s front porch with a bag of money before the police had talked to him.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. Talk to the cops, to the prosecutor, to Doran’s public defender.”

“And tonight when you see Karen? What will you tell her?”

I looked out the window at the shadowy forests around us.

“I don’t know.”

Targent was at Karen’s house when I arrived. I laid my hand on the hood of his Crown Victoria when I walked to the door and found it was cool to the touch. Great. Targent had been alone with Karen for a while, filling her head with theories that all pointed back to me.

Karen answered the door and forced a smile that was as hollow as they come. Her face was drawn and strained, a mild but noticeable increase. It was as if a sculptor went back and added slight changes each night, a gentle buffing of tension and a few ridges of fear for display in the morning to come.

“Hi,” she said. “Detective Targent is in the living room. I didn’t know he would be here. I told him you were on your way, and he wanted to wait.”

“Grand. I’ve missed his wit and charm.”

She didn’t respond, and I followed her into the living room.

“Thanks for joining us,” Targent said. He was sitting on the low stone ledge that ran below the fireplace. Daly was missing in action.

“I’ve got something for you,” I said. “While you’ve been busy getting useless search warrants, my partner and I have actually done some investigating.”

“Oh?” His face didn’t change. Karen looked interested, though.

“You ever heard of a man named Andy Doran?” I asked. I said it to both of them but watched Karen. The name didn’t seem to mean anything to her.

“Nope,” Targent answered, and Karen shook her head.

“He went to jail five years ago for murdering a girl out by Geneva-on-the-Lake. The first witness—only witness, actually—to identify him was Matt Jefferson. Matt called his father the night of the murder, then went back to the cops the next day and changed his account of the night in a way that implicated Doran, who was then arrested. Doran said he’d been set up but eventually took a plea for twenty years.”

Targent wasn’t looking at me. He had his head down, tracing the edge of the stone shelf with his index finger.

“So he’s in jail,” he said. “Makes it tough for him to wreak such havoc, don’t you think?”

“He’s out, Targent. Broke out of prison by hiding on a garbage truck about a month ago. It was, in fact, immediately before Jefferson got his first disturbing phone call.”

Targent rolled his head and looked at me. “So the idea is the guy was so pissed off that Jefferson’s son identified him that he came after him and his father as soon as he broke out? Give me a break, Perry.”

“Maybe he’s not just pissed off that he was identified. Maybe there’s more to it than that.”

“Such as?”

I glanced at Karen. “He told police he’d been set up.”

I could tell Karen didn’t like this. She saw where I was going with it and shook her head.

“Doesn’t every criminal say they were set up?”

“Exactly,” Targent said.

“My partner and I have already uncovered some fairly appalling evidence of how corrupt the case against him was.”

I hadn’t decided until that point that I would tell them about Donny Ward. Part of me still thought it was too early, but I’d also expected to receive at least a meager amount of interest from Targent. So far, I wasn’t getting that.

“Doran told police he had an alibi,” I said. “Told them he’d been with a friend all night. When the cops interviewed the friend, this guy pretended to have no idea what Doran was talking about.”

“He probably didn’t.”

I shook my head. “Joe and I interviewed him this afternoon. He had plenty of reason to lie to the cops back then, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a lie.”

I explained Ward’s story, but Targent’s expression didn’t change; there was still no trace of anything but skepticism and strained patience in his face.

“Isn’t that enough for you, Targent? Don’t you think this is at least worth checking out?”

“I’ll check it out, because that’s my job, but my perspective right now is that this is more than a stretch. You’re forcing it. Even if everything you’ve told me is true, I don’t see the connection between this and Alex Jefferson.”

“It’s there. Trust me, it’s there. The guy who attacked me on the street told me Jefferson and his son had—”

“Hang on.” Targent held up his hand to interrupt me. “This is all fascinating stuff, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve got a few points to make before we get lost in this. What did you just say?”

I frowned. “That the guy who attacked me—”

“No. Before that. You said the connection was there, and then you said . . .” He waited.

“Trust me.”

He nodded. “That’s the one. That’s what I was looking for. You said, ‘Trust me.’ As if you’re a reliable source of information to this investigation. As if you’re not lying to me now, haven’t been in the past.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay. Let’s all keep that statement in mind while we watch a movie.”

“What?”

“Mrs. Jefferson and I were about to watch a movie when you joined us. I’m glad you’ll be here for the viewing. I think that’s most appropriate.”

Karen was seated in the far corner of the couch, tucked back into it, as far away as she could get from both Targent and me.

“Mrs. Jefferson and I have talked about last night’s events,” Targent continued. “We both agree that it’s unusual that this, um, predator has chosen to go through you if all he wants is money from her. Why pull you off the street before he’d even contacted her? Why shoot up your gym?”

I looked at Karen, and there was a quality in her eyes that I didn’t understand. Was it an apology or an accusation? More like something in between, I thought, and then I got it. She was suspicious. Targent had actually pulled that off. Karen was suspicious of me. She didn’t want to be, felt bad about it—that was the touch of apology I saw in the look—but she was, anyhow.

“Karen,” I said. “You know this is insane.”

“I know you have nothing to do with this,” she said. “I’m just confused. I don’t understand why someone is making it seem like you do. This man in Indiana who said you hired him—”

“You told her that?” I said to Targent.

“It’s relevant to the investigation. I’m trying to keep her up to date.”

I shook my head, disgusted. “I don’t know what to tell you about that, Karen, except that it’s a lie. I never hired that guy.”

“I believe you.”

“Back to my movie,” Targent said.

“You’ve got to at least hear me out on Doran. There’s more here than you understand.”

“I’m sure there is. I find it fascinating that you’d locate this suspect with a grudge so quickly after I informed you—and Mrs. Jefferson—that Brewer had heard something along those lines in Indiana. That’s a real neat trick of timing, Perry. As was that violent incident at your gym last night.”

“You’ve seen the tape of that. You know what happened, and you know it wasn’t some elaborate façade.”

For a long moment, he just sat and looked at me. His eyes flicked to Karen for an instant, as if to make sure she was watching, and then back.

“I’ve been talking to Mrs. Jefferson about the fingerprint we found in her husband’s car. This man named Thor.”

Shit. That was the last thing I wanted Karen to know about.

“Met with Detective Swanders again today, as well as one of the organized crime guys at the FBI,” he continued. “There are people down there who are pretty disgusted with you. People who think you withheld some very important information about the Russians. Some believe you might have interacted directly with Dainius Belov when all that was going on. This Thor guy, they told me, he probably would have been around. Sounds like he’s Belov’s top lieutenant. I asked the guy at the bureau to give me odds on you knowing Thor, and he said ten to one.”

Karen would not meet my eyes. She was watching Targent and would not turn my way.

“You want to tell Mrs. Jefferson how you’re acquainted with Thor?”

“Already told you, I don’t know the man.”

Targent picked up a remote control and turned to the big plasma television beside him. He turned it on and then punched a few buttons on the remote, and the screen turned to a grainy black-and-white image of my gym. It was from my own security cameras, and it showed the front of the weight room, where I stood by the blown-out window with a curl bar in my hands and Thor in front of me.

“Can you tell us who that gentleman is?” Targent said.

Now it was me who couldn’t look at Karen. “You know who it is.”

“Right. And so do you, Perry. We’re sitting here looking at proof that you’ve lied to me. Remember what you told me this afternoon when we searched your apartment? You told me I needed to prove that you were lying. Consider it done. And lying to me is withholding information critical to a homicide investigation, and that can be considered a crime. You lied yesterday when I asked you about him, then lied again sitting here in front of your client thirty seconds ago.”

“You shouldn’t have that tape. I never gave—”

“I left an officer watching your gym today. For your own well-being. You know how guys sometimes like to drift back by the scene of a crime, check it out. Thought maybe we’d get lucky, and I guess we did. I just didn’t expect it to happen the way it did.”

“Your officer didn’t shoot that tape. It’s from my gym camera. That’s illegal search and seizure.”

“Perfectly legal. You gave me consent to the tapes in the presence of about five other officers.”

“That was for last night’s tape.”

“Really? Sorry, I forgot. Called your gym manager and told her I had one tape to return and one to pick up. We agreed that it would be best not to bother you. After all, you’d had a long night.” He cocked his head. “Tell me why Thor was there.”

“Dropped by to ask about a membership. Wants to get back in shape, he said.”

Targent’s face stayed neutral, but Karen’s flushed with anger. I looked at her and felt my shoulders tighten and the back of my neck go hot. Honesty matters deeply to me, and to sit here in front of Karen and lie was painful. I could tell them why Thor had been there, what information he had shared, but I wouldn’t. Even if I could disregard the fact that Thor had saved my life once, decide that wasn’t enough to earn my silence, I’d be a damn fool to talk. Send Targent back to Thor with the details of our conversation? I might as well start shopping for a headstone.

“I didn’t kill Alex Jefferson,” I said. “I didn’t hire someone else to kill him. All the rest of this is external, irrelevant crap. If you want someone to be guilty bad enough, you can find something that makes him look like a possibility.”

“True enough,” Targent said. “But I’d like to hear you explain something. Anything. Why is this guy going after you? Why did Jefferson’s son wait for you to arrive before capping himself? Why is Thor involved, and why are you lying about him? Can you give us one answer, Perry? That’s what I’m asking from you. One honest answer.”

“This is ludicrous, Targent. You really think I’m behind all of it? Karen came to me about finding Matt, not the other way around. Karen asked me to help with this. That’s why I’m involved.”

“He’s right,” Karen said.

“Terrific. She brought you into it. What does that explain? Which one of my questions does that answer?”

“That’s your job. I’m trying to help, but you won’t even hear me out on Andy Doran. Aren’t you even a little intrigued by the timing of his prison break and those first phone calls to Jefferson? Or do you think it’s more likely that I spent the past three years brooding and working up my nut to kill a guy for something that was such a minor offense?”

“Did you think it was a minor offense when you assaulted him?”

“That’s in the past, gone and forgotten. Stop trying to make it count.”

“I’ve seen some things that suggest maybe it isn’t gone and forgotten, Perry. Your little box of keepsakes . . .”

“I kept photographs of a woman I was engaged to and you think that’s evidence of some sort of obsession? Are you serious? It would be more psychotic if I didn’t have anything like that, if I’d purged it all.”

“My partner interviewed one of Alex Jefferson’s colleagues. This guy said Alex saw you at his wedding, parked on the street, watching the ceremony. He didn’t tell Mrs. Jefferson because he didn’t want to put a damper on their special day.”

Karen looked at me with surprise and sympathy, and I turned away.

“This is a cheap tactic, Targent. Throwing this shit in my face with her in the room.”

“Cheap tactic or not, I’d like you to explain your presence at their wedding. That seems, Perry, like the action of a guy who has not moved on. A guy who has an unhealthy obsession.”

I shook my head, not wanting to look at either of them.

“Well?” Targent said. “Can you explain?”

I laughed without humor. “Yeah, I can explain it. I missed her. Is that what you want to hear? That what you need me to say, you prick? I missed her. Was it unhealthy, to miss someone I loved? I don’t know. It was just the way it went, for a while. But it stopped going that way a long time ago.”

“I don’t think we need to be talking about this,” Karen said, and the pity in her voice wounded me.

“It’s all right, Karen. He wants to lay the pressure on, and that’s fine. The sad part is that it’s not helping you.”

“And you turning up in every corner we check, disrupting our investigation?” Targent said. “That’s helping?”

“I’m not turning up anywhere, Targent. Someone’s trying to give it that appearance, that’s all. But since you can’t recognize the truth when you hear it—”

“You know what? I’m done with you tonight. You’ve had your say, Perry. I’d like you to go on home.”

“I came for a few words alone with Karen, thanks.”

“You can have them later. I’m not through with my conversation with her, but I am through with you. Take off, Perry. You want to talk to her, you can call her later, although I will urge her not to take your call.”

“It’s okay, Lincoln,” Karen said. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I do know you. Don’t worry about this.”

I’d been dismissed. I got to my feet with the two of them sitting there waiting for me to leave, walked down the hall, and let myself out of the house, closing the door on soft voices discussing my potential as a murderer.