Blood On The Sun

12

"MAC," COLONEL ANTONIO DENTON SAID, sitting upright behind his desk in full dress marine uniform. "Give us the evidence and we'll take care of the problem."

The investigation was really Stella and Aiden's, but the connection to Colonel Denton brought Mac into the picture. Besides, he wanted to give both Jacob Vorhees and Kyle Shelton time to think before talking to them again.

The Manhattan office of Colonel Denton was polished walnut from chairs, to floors, to walls, to desk. There were only two photographs on the wall, both signed, one by the first President Bush, the other by a marine private who had signed the full-color photograph of himself and Denton in neat letters: To Captain Antonio Denton on his birthday, with thanks from a grateful grunt. Semper Fi. The signature belonged to no one famous, but it was a name both Mac and Denton knew well, a man who had died saving both of the men who now sat in this office.

Denton was fully gray, military cut, average height, a face that had seen much and stored it with loyalty.

"He killed two men," said Mac, handing an envelope over the table to Denton, who was missing the small finger on his right hand.

Denton put on his glasses and looked at the fingerprint record in front of him.

"You got these…?" asked Denton.

"When the suspect had a DUI twenty-two years ago," said Mac. "Name comes up Arvin Bloom, only it's not Arvin Bloom."

They understood each other.

Mac said, "I'd bet these are the only prints on file of the Arvin Bloom who isn't Arvin Bloom. These are the ones that turn up whenever we check his prints."

"And," said Denton, putting down the sheet, "you think the day of this DUI is the day the new Arvin Bloom was born."

"He's off the charts, Tony," said Mac.

Denton nodded. He owed Mac. Mac owed him. It was possible Denton could come up with something. He was military intelligence. It was easier to track such things down since the Homeland Security laws and the "or else" orders for all agencies to cooperate with each other.

"You think he's one of ours," said Denton.

"Kills like it," said Mac. "Possibly military. Possibly CIA."

"Won't be easy," said Denton with a smile.

"Didn't think it would," said Mac. "He's lost it, Tony. He'll kill again."

Denton sat silently for a moment and then said, "As I said, give me what you've got and we'll take care of the problem."

Mac's unblinking look was a familiar one to Denton.

"It's New York's problem," said Mac. "You wouldn't let him walk, but there are others who might depending on what he knows and what he's done. You know it. I know it."

Denton reached for the phone and said, "I'll call you."

Mac nodded and stood up.

"Make it urgent," said Mac. "This one knows how to kill and how to disappear."

"You up for dinner, a drink?" asked Denton.

"Sure," said Mac.

"You holding up all right, Mac?"

They both knew he was referring to 9/11, to Mac's dead wife. Denton had been at the funeral, had stood at Mac Taylor's side.

"Fine," said Mac, forcing a small smile.

"Lieutenant Rivera," said Denton into the phone. "Get me Longretti in Washington."

Mac left the room, closing the heavy door behind him.

Stella had sat at Joshua's bedside, recording his statement, which, she concluded, would probably be worth very little because the man was clearly delirious, guilt-ridden and flashing back to feverish moments in his past.

A physician named Zimmerman, slightly overweight, dressed in whites with the stethoscope of his profession around his neck, watched, fascinated, while his patient was questioned. Zimmerman could not have been more than twenty-eight.

"I killed Glick," said Joshua, wide eyes blinking. "I killed Joel. I was going to kill the priest."

"Go over each murder for me again," said Stella.

Joshua licked his lips and looked at the doctor as if he had never seen the man before.

"I was guided by the hand of a demon," he said.

"Could you be a little more specific than that?" asked Stella.

"Don't remember," said Joshua. "He called me on the phone, found me in a bottle, spoke to me in tongues. Can I request execution by crucifixion in this state?"

"No," said Stella. "Nor in any other one."

"I think he's bleeding again," Dr. Zimmerman said in a deep voice. "Right foot."

Stella nodded, clicked off the tape recorder and tucked it into her kit.

Joshua hadn't killed anyone. A case could be built against Joshua, not a strong one, but one that if taken to a jury might be enough.

Stella rose.

Joshua looked up at her and smiled.

"Anything?" asked Mac, looking through the one-way mirror.

"Lulling 'em. Making nice," said Detective Buddy Roberts, who stood with hands in pockets.

"They say anything?" asked Mac.

"No, Shelton knows we're listening."

Mac's eyes were on Shelton and Jacob Vorhees, who sat silently.

He wasn't looking forward to what was going to happen when he stepped inside that room. He wasn't looking forward to what he was going to do to the frightened boy. Mac told himself that this would hurt Jacob Vorhees, but as with most wounds, after the pain the healing would begin.

Mac looked at Roberts, who shook his head "no" in answer to some inner question.

Roberts, two months from retirement, was big and bald with deep bags under eyes that had seen almost any horror the inhuman mind could come up with. He had built a fragile wall between himself and the images of children mutilated by their own parents, women torn from between their legs up to their bloody faces.

Roberts' wall had been breached a little less than a year ago after he saw the body of a six-year-old boy who had been cut open, his liver removed. The cutter was the boy's father. It was less the horror of the dead boy, which he could block, but the reaction of the father.

"I want to be a liver donor," the father had said with a grin.

The father was a thin weasel with nervous hands and long dirty hair. The reason the father gave for what he had done was that he had been watching a rerun of Lost in Space when he suddenly got the idea of cutting out his son's liver. The weasel had thoroughly enjoyed telling the story, and that he had hidden the liver.

Mac had been on the case, had followed a trace trail of blood from the apartment building to a deli across the street. Roberts had watched Mac, who had simply stood inside the deli doorway, looked around and walked to the ice cream freezer. The deli clerk watched as the two policemen removed frozen fruit bars, ice-cream sandwiches, chocolate-topped cones, half gallons and quart blocks of ice cream.

And there it was at the bottom of the case, still red, frozen inside a zippered see-through bag. Roberts remembered thinking that the liver was no larger than one of the ice-cream sandwiches.

So, when he had interviewed the father, Roberts knew where the liver was: in the CSI lab being examined.

"Freezer at the deli," Roberts had said.

"Good," beamed the father, rubbing his head. "What say we have it for lunch?"

Roberts' wall had not come down completely, but he knew it soon might. He didn't want to see what was on the other side. He had already seen it.

"Buddy?" said Mac, pulling Roberts back from his thoughts.

"Yeah," said Roberts.

"They told them that Shelton can have a lawyer and stop talking and that Jacob must have a lawyer."

Roberts smiled, now fully back in the room.

"Shelton wants no lawyer," said Roberts. "We've got it in writing with witnesses. The Vorhees' family lawyer is on his way here now. We advised the boy that he say nothing till the lawyer gets here."

Mac looked through the window. Shelton looked tired. Jacob looked frightened and determined. Danny said something. Shelton nodded.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door followed immediately by a lean man of about seventy in a designer business suit. The man who introduced himself as Lawrence Tabler shook Roberts' offered hand.

Mac knew who Tabler was, a high-cost, aggressive and convincing advocate for his clients. He turned his blue eyes on Mac and said, "Detective Taylor."

"Mr. Tabler," Mac acknowledged.

They didn't shake hands. A little over a month after 9/11 Mac had testified as an expert witness in the trial of a man who had brutally beaten his pregnant wife to death.

Tabler had relentlessly attacked the forensic evidence, suggested alternative scenarios to explain the evidence and, finally, attacked the integrity of the entire CSI unit, finishing with Mac. Tabler had done his homework or, more likely, had someone else do it.

"You want my client convicted, don't you, Detective?" Tabler had asked in court.

"He's guilty," said Mac.

"You're sure?" Tabler said, turning to the jury.

"I'm sure."

"Your wife died on 9/11," Tabler said.

"She did."

"You had a breakdown?"

"A short period of clinical depression," said Mac. "Like most people."

"Are you still depressed?" Tabler said, turning back to Mac.

While he didn't look directly at the prosecuting attorney, a slightly plump young blond with long straight hair, Mac did see her, wondered why she hadn't objected to this line of inquiry. Mac knew where it was going and couldn't stop it.

"I'm still depressed," said Mac.

"A man is accused of brutally murdering his wife," said Tabler. "You didn't choose to lose your wife, but you assumed going into the investigation that he had the choice?"

"We work on the evidence," said Mac. "We go where it takes us."

"And this time it took you to my client," said Tabler. "Often evidence doesn't lead. It follows, follows where you want it to take you. Is that right, Detective Taylor?"

"No," Mac had answered firmly.

"You've made mistakes," Tabler pushed.

"Yes," said Mac. He wanted to add, "Haven't you?" but decided not to.

The assistant prosecutor and Tabler made a last-minute plea bargain during the lunch break. Before the judge, the husband had admitted to having taken too many pills for a headache and going wild when his wife had asked him the same question she asked every morning: "One egg or two?"

He had gone into the kitchen and began beating his startled wife.

The plea bargain gave the murderer a minimum sentence of ten years. Mac felt that the settlement was partly due to his own testimony.

Now Mac said nothing, but opened the door and stepped through with Tabler behind him. Shelton and Jacob looked up.

Tabler smiled at the boy and said, "I'm your lawyer."

Jacob nodded.

"Have you told them anything?" Tabler asked, taking the last chair in the room.

Mac stood against the wall behind Tabler, arms folded.

"He was advised not to say anything till you got here," said Mac.

Tabler tried to turn his head to see Mac, but he couldn't.

Mac went on, "We'd like the two of them to tell us again what happened on the night of the murder."

Jacob pulled a folded sheet of yellow, lined paper from his back pocket and handed it to Tabler, who slowly and carefully read it. When he was finished, he handed the sheet back to Jacob.

"He's already made a statement and signed it," said Mac, moving now to sit next to the lawyer. "And it's on tape."

"Can't be used in court," said Tabler. "He did not have a lawyer present."

"He volunteered," said Mac.

Tabler was shaking his head.

"He's twelve years old. No judge will accept it," Tabler said. "However, I have no objection to reading my client's account of the murder of his family."

Shelton looked past Tabler at Mac, arms folded, sitting across from him. Their eyes met. Kyle Shelton looked away.

Jacob cleared his throat and in a shaking voice read the account he had signed. It was within a few words of being exactly what Jacob had said earlier. Essentially, Jacob recounted hearing noises and a scream. He ran into his sister's room where he saw Kyle Shelton stab his sister and then his mother. Jacob was frozen in horror. Then his father, wearing briefs and a white T-shirt, came into the room and ran toward Shelton, who stabbed him many times. He knew he would get Jacob next. Jacob ran, got his bike and rode away, heading for the woods next to the road. He realized that he was covered with blood. He took off all his clothes and ran naked back to the house through the woods and through backyards. When he got back, Shelton's car was gone. Jacob had gone to the murder scene, saw his family dead and with great difficulty put his mother and sister respectfully on the bed. His father was too big to lift or pull. Then Jacob had heard something- the downstairs door? Had Kyle Shelton come back for him? Jacob ran to his room and groped his familiar way to the closet and climbed up to his private place. He had stayed there for two nights. Then Mac had come with the dog.

"Shelton?" asked Mac.

"What the boy says is the way it happened," he said.

"You have questions, I assume," said Tabler.

"We've got lots of them," said Mac. "I'll start with Jacob."

He moved from the wall, uncrossed his arms and moved toward the table. Jacob raised his right hand as if he were in school.

"Yes?" said Mac.

"How is Rufus? I'd like to see him again," said the boy.

"Who is Rufus?" asked a confused Tabler.

"A dog," said Jacob. "He found my private place."

"I'll see what I can do about you paying Rufus a visit," Mac said.

Mac looked at Jacob and went on.

"I'm going to make some statements and then give you a chance to respond."

"Response will depend on your questions," said Tabler.

Mac nodded and asked his first question.

"Your father had a badly bruised bone in his right forearm. Medical examiner says it happened on the night of the murders. Any idea of how it was broken?"

Jacob shrugged and said, "I don't know."

"Your father was right-handed, right?"

"Yes," said Jacob, looking at Mac as he had been told to do. He had been told not to look at Kyle.

"Would you take off your shoes and socks please?" asked Mac.

"Why?" asked Tabler.

Mac looked at Kyle, who knew exactly why Mac was asking.

"Your client claims to have gone barefoot and naked through the woods for a mile two days ago," said Mac. "I have dated photographs that show the bottoms of his feet with no cuts, bumps or bruises."

"I'd like to see those photographs," said Tabler.

Mac handed the lawyer five eight-by-ten photos of the bottoms of the boy's feet.

"For the record, I'll ask again that your client take off his shoes and socks."

Tabler put down the photos and nodded to the boy to do what he was being asked. When he finished taking off his socks and shoes, Jacob lifted one foot at a time. Tabler and Mac looked. Kyle stared at the wall.

"Your client didn't walk home," said Mac. "He never left his house. Mr. Shelton set up the evidence in the woods to make it look as if Jacob had taken his bike, pedaled down the road, went to the clearing, and left his damaged bike and his clothes there where we could find them."

"How can you conclude that?" asked Tabler.

"From the evidence, particularly a leaf from a linden tree and a crushed caterpillar found in Jacob's room," said Mac, looking at Shelton. "The tree and the caterpillar came from the area where Jacob's bike and clothes were found. We can get leaves from those trees and determine which one the leaf I picked up came from. Since Jacob never left home, the most likely person to have stepped on the leaf is Kyle Shelton. Your turn to take off your shoes, Kyle."

The game was almost over.

"We'll test them for traces of blood from the victims and the dead caterpillar," Mac continued. "If we find traces of the caterpillar, we can match it to the dead one I found on the leaf."

Kyle took off his shoes and handed them to Mac, who placed them on the table.

"Kyle, you want a lawyer now?" asked Mac.

"I suggest you do that," said Tabler.

Kyle shook his head "no."

"Then we go on," said Mac. "We got some of your clothes and did a spectrographic collection of your scent and Jacob's. I got a department dog that specializes in human scent, and let him take his time. Your scent was all over the clearing in the woods. There wasn't the slightest trace of Jacob's scent except on the clothing you left. Then I took the dog to check the Vorhees house. Your scent showed up in the upstairs hallway, on the stairway, in the kitchen, in Becky Vorhees' room and in Jacob's room, but not all over the room, just on a straight line to the closet. You want to tell me why you were in Jacob's room?"

"No," said Kyle, glancing at Jacob and touching the boy's shoulder.

"Okay," said Mac. "I will. Rufus confirmed what I thought. You helped Jacob hide. Why?"

"I was afraid," said Jacob, shaking.

"Jacob," Tabler warned.

"That the police would say I murdered my family," said the boy.

"No," said Mac. "I think Kyle had a plan, not a very good one, too complicated, too many places to find holes full of evidence, too little time to take care of all the holes."

"Detective," Tabler said, looking at Jacob. "My client is through answering questions."

"We checked your father's background," said Mac. "Found out why you've moved so much."

"No more questions," said Tabler.

"I didn't ask a question," said Mac. "I made a statement of fact. The next one is even more important." Mac pulled a photograph of the vase from the box and held it up. Jacob began to cry. Shelton put an arm around him.

"There was a bruise on your father's arm," said Mac. "His right arm. It was sufficient to make him drop whatever he was holding and shatter the vase that he was hit with. Your father was the one with the knife. When you came into your sister's bedroom, she and your mother had already been killed by your father. You grabbed the vase, hit him, took the knife when he dropped it and stabbed him."

Tabler rose and said, "We're leaving."

"No," said Jacob. "We told you what happened."

"The knife wounds on your mother and sister were all approximately the same depth, made by someone considerably stronger than you. The ones on your mother and sister were straight in. The wounds on your father weren't deep and were at an upward angle. They were made by someone much smaller than he was."

"It was me," said Kyle.

"You didn't kill anyone," said Mac.

"I killed many," Kyle said.

"In Iraq," Mac said.

"He's had enough," said Kyle, looking at Jacob, who had taken off his glasses, placed them on the table and leaned against him, his eyes closed and sobbing.

Mac nodded and said to the lawyer, "You should take him in the other room now. A detective will show you where you can have some privacy with your client."

"My client…" Tabler began, suddenly sorry that he was involved in this whole mess.

"… didn't commit any crime except not coming forward as a witness to murder," said Mac. "He killed his father in self-defense. I doubt if a family court judge will do anything but order that he get therapy. I'll recommend it."

"Come with me," Tabler said to Jacob.

The boy continued to cling to Shelton, who handed the boy his glasses and gently urged him out of his chair and toward the lawyer. Jacob put on his glasses and let Tabler guide him out of the room.

"Howard Vorhees came to his daughter's room with a kitchen knife," said Mac. "He came for a sexual attack, threatened her with death. She fought, screamed. He killed her. Jacob heard the noise, ran in just behind his mother. Howard Vorhees killed his wife. That's when Jacob picked up the vase, hit his father's arm, dropped the vase, picked up the knife and stabbed his father."

"How…?"

"Reconstruction from the evidence," said Mac. "That's about when you came through the door, right?"

"Right," he said.

"Wrong," said Mac. "What were you doing there at the exact time of a triple murder in the middle of the night?"

"I was going to be with Becky," he said. "She was expecting me. She left the front door open."

Mac shook his head "no."

"There was a call from Becky's cell phone to yours after two-fifteen."

"She called to ask if I was on the way," he said.

"She was dead, Kyle. Jacob called you and you came to the house and moved the bodies. It took you about half an hour to get there. The trail of blood from the floor to the bed would have shown more blood if Becky and her mother were moved shortly after they were killed."

"Jacob called me," admitted Shelton. "When I got there, he was covered with blood. So was the knife in his hand. He was just standing there looking down at his dead mother. He wasn't concerned with being accused of murdering his family. He was afraid of the world finding out the horror in that house. Better an intruder than the truth. I knew the intruder story wouldn't work. Too much evidence. I sent Jacob to his room and put the bodies on the bed."

"Why?" asked Mac, though he thought he knew the answer.

"It was the right thing to do," Shelton finally said. "Lay out the respected and loved dead and leave a dead dog at their feet."

"Then?" Mac prompted.

"Then I helped Jacob hide, put his bike and clothes in my car, found that wooded area and scattered it all in the clearing."

"You knew we'd find them," said Mac.

"I wanted them found. They were. Without Becky I was going back to a life of grief and despair, a life I had brought home inside me from Iraq. I could live in grief, growing old in low-pay jobs, or I could do it in prison for life and possibly save Jacob. It was worth a try."

"Did you know the leaf was on your shoe?"

Kyle didn't answer.

"You wanted us to find him in the house," said Mac. "But you didn't want to tell us directly and have Jacob think you'd betrayed him. So, you called me, left clues that got more and more simple. The quote you attributed to Anne Frank was obviously not by Anne Frank. You were telling me to look for a child hiding in the house.

"You're guilty of helping to conceal a crime," said Mac. "Considering the crime and why you did it and the fact that you have no record, my guess would be suspended sentence. That's what we'll ask the court for."

"You think they'd let me take care of Jacob?" Kyle asked.

"Stranger things have happened," said Mac, but he didn't believe Kyle getting custody of Jacob would be one of them.

" 'Nobody should pin their hopes on a miracle,' " said Kyle.

"Who said that? Voltaire?" asked Mac.

"Vladimir Putin," answered Kyle.