Dog Tags

CHAPTER 31

I AM THE SECOND CALL WILLIE MAKES, RIGHT AFTER 911. I dress quickly and drive down to the foundation; Laurie is at the gym, and though I call her, I don’t want to wait for her. I’m worried about Willie; since he’s an ex-con, even an exonerated one, I’m concerned about the treatment he will get.

When I get there I find that Pete Stanton is on the scene and has already taken over the investigation, which pleases me greatly. Pete knows Willie well, and will not have a knee-jerk reaction against him.

Laurie pulls up as I get out of the car, and we go straight over to Willie and Sondra, who are in the office. Once we make sure that Sondra is okay, I ask Willie to describe what happened, which he does.

“Was he going to shoot Milo?” I ask.

Willie shakes his head. “I don’t think so. If he were gonna do that, he wouldn’t have had to hold the gun on Sondra, or even come out in the open. The worm could have hidden in the bushes and shot Milo.”

“What were you doing here?” I ask.

“Watching Sondra and Milo, just in case.” He goes on to say that he hadn’t even told Sondra about it, because he didn’t want to make her nervous.

“Have you told the story to Pete?”

Willie nods. “Yeah, but he said he wants to question us more, and that we should wait here. He’s acting like a cop.”

“He is a cop.” Willie and Pete are friends, and Willie expects special treatment. I know that Pete is first and foremost a terrific cop who will do his job the way it is supposed to be done. Dead people with crushed heads and guns make cops very careful.

I go over to Pete, walking by the body still lying on the ground. The medical people and the coroner have arrived, and they will no doubt be removing it in a few minutes. It is not a pretty sight; the deceased man’s head looks like a cantaloupe that came in second in an argument with a bazooka.

I have to wait ten minutes while Pete talks to his forensics people, who are photographing the scene and looking for physical evidence. When he’s finished, he comes over to me.

“What’s going on?” I ask, leaving the question open-ended.

“What’s going on? Your partner killed a guy with a sledgehammer that’s attached to his shoulder.”

“A guy who was attempting a kidnapping with a deadly weapon,” I point out.

Pete nods. “Don’t worry; you don’t have another client on your hands. Willie’s clean on this.”

I’m surprised that he’s making such a definitive statement so early in a situation like this. “Who’s the dead guy?” I ask.

“Name is Ray Childress.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell,” I say.

“It rings plenty of bells,” Pete says. “You just can’t hear them.”

“Enlighten me.”

“He is, or was, available for hire. Not usually for kidnappings, almost always for hits. And believe me, he didn’t come cheap.”

That explains why Willie is finding a receptive audience for his recounting of the events. It’s completely credible that Childress had bad intentions, and Willie’s reactions were perfectly logical and legal. “Any idea who hired him this time?” I ask.

“I could ask you the same thing. You know more about this situation with the dog than I do.”

I shrug. “Anything I might know is protected by attorney–client privilege.”

“I got you the damn client,” he points out.

I nod. “I know; I’m so grateful my eyes are filled with tears. You can take comfort in the fact that I don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

“What a surprise,” he says, and goes back to work.

It’s another three hours until I can get Willie and Sondra out of there. We spend the time taking care of the dogs, which is especially important since the volunteers are turned away from the crime scene.

As we’re getting ready to leave, I tell Willie that I’m going to keep Milo at my house for a while. “He can stay there without having to leave, and the backyard is fenced in and protected.”

“Andy, I want to be a part of this,” Willie says.

“Part of what?”

“Finding out what the hell is going on. Somebody sent that piece of shit to hold a gun on Sondra; I want to find out who that is and deal with him.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the look on Willie’s face that I see now. If I don’t get him involved, he’s going to go off on his own. “I hear you,” I say. “You can be a big part of it.”

He nods. “Good. Damn good.”