Divisible man the third.., p.6
DIVISIBLE MAN--THE THIRD LIE, page 6
A protest formed on her lips, but I cut it off.
“Two,” I said, holding up fingers to make sure the server understood. He ducked away quickly.
Andy pushed her fingers into the smooth tight sheen of her tied-back hair, then lifted her arms and worked her ponytail free. She shook her hair onto her shoulders and rubbed her eyes.
I win.
The server came back carrying two bottles with lime wedges jammed in the necks. They know us at Los Lobos. They probably pulled the bottles from the cooler the minute we walked in.
We touched glass to glass.
“Us,” she said.
“Us.”
Andy took a sip, then looked around. Being early on a Monday, we had the dining room to ourselves.
“Usual disclaimer?”
“Usual disclaimer.”
She settled in her seat, dipped another chip in salsa and took a bite. Her eyes met mine. In stark contrast to her tired affect, her eyes were alight.
“You already know we arrested Clayton Johns last night. This morning, technically.”
“I saw it on CNN while I was in Detroit. Jesus, Dee!”
She made a sour face. “Those TV trucks jammed up the whole street at the station. They’ve been there since dawn. I’d like to know how they found out so fast.”
“Five-time pro-bowler. League MVP at least once that I know of. I’m surprised you didn’t have reporters from ESPN.”
“They might have been there,” Andy said, dipping another chip. “We’ve got stations from Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison. And they’re feeding national outlets. CNN. Fox News. How much do you know?”
She munched the chip and dipped another while I talked.
“When I got back, Arun looked up the online story from The Journal. I only know what they reported.”
“First things first. Did Lane showing up last night have anything to do with this?”
“Ah. You got that. I couldn’t leave you a note with any details last night.”
“Tell me she’s not involved.”
“She’s not. Not directly. She might have to be interviewed for background, but she’s in the clear.”
Andy’s reassurance didn’t feel reassuring.
The server returned to ask for our order. I went with the three-taco plate I always choose. Andy asked for a shrimp quesadilla. She waited until he cleared the room and then lowered her voice.
“Lane needed to talk last night. I thought it might be about her mom. All teenaged girls go to war with their mothers and they’ve been butting heads for a while. But that wasn’t it. Lane started right in about Sarah.”
“Lewis?” Lane’s friend Sarah figured prominently in a case Andy worked last winter. I remembered how the girl’s brush with suicide came to our attention during another Los Lobos dinner. “Is she okay?”
“Sarah? She’s okay, although when a kid who goes as close to the edge as she did, you worry. The path to self-destruction has been broken in.”
“How do Lane and Sarah connect to a retired NFL running back?”
“This gets a little teen-twisted, but here goes. Lane said Sarah was feeling the gravitational pull—yeah, I know, that’s how Lane put it—of some of the older girls on the pompon squad that Sarah joined. Juniors and seniors. Sarah told Lane those girls were partying at some rich kid’s house on The Lakes. Some upperclassman. Parents away on weekends—the usual John Hughes screenplay. Lane said Sarah was trying to get invited, but after school let out Sarah’s parents sent her away to camp for a few weeks, which diffused the issue.”
It felt like taking the long way around, but Andy likes to stand up all the dominoes before she flicks the first one over.
“When Sarah came home last week, the story changed. The in for these parties wasn’t the girls on the pompon squad, it was through another girl, Stella Boardman.”
Andy lifted her eyes at me. Like I should know the girl. I shrugged.
“Boardman? Will, you’ve heard the name. They live in Horizon Homes. Their house was a regular stop when I was on uniform patrol. The Battling Boardmans?”
I had no idea but nodded with great authority. Andy has often talked about the Horizon Homes subdivision in the southeast corner of Essex, a low-quality 1960s development that attracted frequent visits from the police.
“The apple and the tree, I’m afraid. The parents are a piece of work; the girl has been on our radar for a while. She’s had half a dozen run-ins. It seems she’s the conduit to these parties, and she’s the one that reached out to Sarah.”
“Why? Doesn’t sound like they’re crowd compatible.”
“They’re not. But, remember I said the story changed? Turns out the house at the lakes isn’t where some junior or senior boy lives. Lane told me last night that the parties are hosted by older guys—men—who like to mix with younger girls. The Boardman girl has the in. She invited Sarah, only it wasn’t Sarah she wanted. It was Lane.”
“Lane?” My skin crawled.
“The Boardman girl sold it to Sarah as way better than immature Essex High boys. She told Sarah these guys are sophisticated, hot and experienced. Ready to party. She told Sarah getting an invitation is a great way to…lose it…with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“It?”
“It, Will. You know! At some point a girl has to think about things like that.”
“Are you saying Lane—?”
“No! Yes. I mean, no, Lane is nowhere near ready for anything like that, but yes, she’s thought about it and we’ve talked about it and she’s got her head on straight.”
Of course, she does…I hope…
“Lane said that Sarah said that Stella said that lots of girls are going up to this lake place. There’s a pool, a hot tub, and a chance to, as Sarah put it to Lane, do things if the girl wants to.”
“And what if they don’t want to? God!” I rubbed down the goose bumps rising on my arms. “Wait, you said that the Boardman kid wanted to go through Sarah to invite Lane. Why?”
“I’ll get to that. Anyway, the Boardman girl didn’t take the rejection well and got a little ugly about it. She told Sarah she would take Verna Sobol instead.”
“Jesus Christ! Who’s Verna Sobol?”
Andy tipped her head and raised her eyebrows at me. “Sobol? Her dad’s a city maintenance supervisor. Cecil? You’ve met him, Will!”
Me and names and faces; I’m terrible, but I have an out. Andy knows and remembers everyone. I figure that knowing Andy covers me.
“They’re one of the only other African American families in Essex. Verna is a year younger than Lane.”
“Younger? She’s only fourteen?”
Andy nodded slowly. “And a bit of a wild child, according to Lane. Which is why Lane needed to see me last night.”
“Are they friends? Lane and Verna?”
“Not particularly. Lane thinks it’s funny that everyone thinks they’re supposed to be, like they’re some sort of color combination. But no, not really. There’s the age difference. A year at that age is a big difference. And they move in different circles. But last night Sarah told Lane that Stella told Sarah that she was taking Verna instead.”
“Say that three times, fast.”
“I guess it was meant to stick it to Sarah and Lane for turning her down.”
“Given the older man component, I’m going to guess you called Cecil.”
“I did call Cecil. But Verna’s older brother answered. Cecil and Diane went away for the weekend. I called Cecil’s cell, but it went to voice mail. While I was on the phone with the brother, I asked for Verna. He said she was staying overnight with a friend.”
“Ding! Ding! Ding! Alarm!” I lifted my beer and took a healthy drink, calculating the distance to empty, the timing of the delivery of our meals, and the prospects of ordering a second. Andy’s stood largely untouched.
“Exactly. Suddenly I have a situation. Lane didn’t know where on The Lakes this animal house is, but she thought Sarah might. I decided it would be best to have that discussion in person. Sarah trusts me—and it would be harder for Sarah to withhold something to my face. I packed up Lane and we drove over to the Lewis place. I got lucky. Sarah’s mom was at choir practice and her dad was at the Planning Commission meeting.”
“Oh, right. That.” Robert Lewis, Sarah’s father, had tried to recruit Andy to a citizens group fighting state highway expansion in the northeast corner of the county. Andy, citing the fact that the city signs her paychecks, declined.
“Sarah was home alone, so it was just us girls. Sarah didn’t know the address, but she knew it was on Leander Lake, at the north end, and that the house has an infinity pool.”
“A what?”
“One of those swimming pools where it looks like there’s no edge. I immediately knew the property. I’ve been there.”
“Is that the place with the crazy sculptress?”
Andy nodded and sipped her Corona.
“The one whose husband threw all her iron statues into the lake? And then she threw him in?”
“The same. I responded to six calls up there before they divorced and moved away.”
“To be replaced by a retired NFL player with a taste for young—”
“Don’t say it! Yes. And I hate to put it in these terms because it has undertones I don’t subscribe to, but it made sense that Stella Boardman was recruiting two pretty young African American girls in Essex to party with an African American sports figure.”
I left that alone, knowing how hard Andy works to walk a colorless line in her job.
“More to the point, I suddenly had knowledge of a minor child who might be in jeopardy. I made a bee line to drop off Lane and called the station to see who had Eastside Patrol last night. Guess who?”
I had no idea, but I could tell Andy wasn’t pleased. I came up with Sims, because he’s the smallest officer in the department. I pictured Sims up against a muscle-bound ex-NFL player.
“Sims is on paternity leave. It was Traeger. Your chauffer-buddy. He’s not the brightest bulb.”
“But a nice guy.”
“Not my first choice, Will, when I’m about to knock on the door of a very wealthy, very well-known individual and ask if he’s committing statutory rape. The guy probably has lawyers live streaming. I called County and asked them to have a deputy meet us there.”
Andy leaned forward, signaling an uptick in the story’s intensity. She checked the small room for the tenth time to assure herself that all the other tables remained empty.
“You’re not going to believe what happened next.” I misread the cue and started to guess, but she cut me off. “I stopped around the curve, you know, where Sunset Circle swings across the top of the lake? I waited for Traeger. He pulls up behind me but leaves his headlights on and then sits in his car waiting for me to get out. Seriously, Will. I get why the chief is holding back on him. Anyway, I go back to his car and get him to turn off his damned lights, although my night vision is now shot. He’s on the radio with Mae at dispatch. Guess what?”
“Um…”
“There’s a noise complaint. Somebody’s partying with loud music at the Johns place. So, I told Traeger to follow me in. That property is huge, Will. I think the original owner wanted to build a hotel there.
“Anyway, we got to the front door and there’s no answer. I told Traeger to keep trying the bell. I went around the side of the building and down to the deck with the pool. By now I can hear the music, only it’s not coming from the house. There’s nobody in the house that I can see. Nobody in the pool or hot tub. And while I’m poking around the deck, I almost had a heart attack because Lyle came around the corner with his hand on his weapon. I told him if I see him do that again his arm will wind up in a cast. I mean—I like the guy, but not behind me in the dark!”
“It’s a boat,” I said. “The music was on a boat. Boy, that’s a big no-no on Leander Lake after dark. Homeowners up there are absolutely rigid about that kind of shit.”
Andy ignored me, which told me I was right.
“I grabbed Traeger’s flashlight and went down to the boat dock. There was no moon last night, but I picked up a reflection from one of those big aluminum pontoons—way out on the water. There was no other boat at Johns’ dock, so I sent Lyle to the next property over because they had one. He woke up the owners and got the keys to their speed boat and picked me up. He might be a little clumsy as a cop, but he sure can handle a boat.
“We found one of those big pontoon party boats about a quarter of the way down the lake, just sitting there. No lights. Motor off. Music blasting.”
Dinner interrupted. After assuring the server we needed nothing further and waiting for him to return to the bar, Andy leaned over her plate and spoke just above a whisper.
“Johns was there. So was Verna Sobol. She was on one of the side cushions. Passed out. Nothing on.” Andy tipped her head slightly, wordlessly filling in the rest.
“What about Johns?”
“We found him across the deck from her. On his ass on the floor, also passed out. And…”
“And?”
“And it was all hanging out. He didn’t have a stitch on and…um, it was pretty obvious what happened.”
I must have given her a blank stare. She spun her hand in a you know what I’m talking about gesture.
“Oh. You sure?”
I got The Look. She was sure.
“Lyle pulled alongside. I jumped on the boat and checked to make sure the girl had a pulse and was breathing. She smelled like a distillery. Her clothes were all over. Knotted up—you know, like pulled off in a hurry. I’ll wait for the lab report, but if she wasn’t roofied, I’ll eat the report. The thing is, I think Johns accidently roofied himself.”
“What?”
“There were bottles and glasses and a lot of liquor, and I think he slipped her something, but then must have drunk from the wrong glass because he was incoherent. Even after we rolled him over and cuffed him, he was barely conscious.”
“Jesus! That could have been Lane!”
Andy leaned back. “I don’t think she’d ever put herself in that position.”
“The girl…did he…?”
Andy nodded. “No question. It was…on her. I recorded the scene with my phone. That’s why I couldn’t call you. I took a bunch of photos then had Traeger bag my phone. Traeger called in the cavalry and I have to say, he did a decent job of towing that boat back to the dock.”
“Wow.”
“No kidding! In pretty short order, we had everyone there. The chief. The sheriff. Westside Patrol. County. The night supervisor. EMTs. The works. Tom got right down in Johns’ face and told him to stay put. Tom himself took swabs off the guy. He got pretty agitated, but the chief made a big impression.”
“Can you do that? Swab a guy like that?”
“The guy was a walking crime scene, Will! Sure, his lawyers will try to have it all tossed, but this wasn’t a search warrant situation. We found him that way. Plus, I had photos. Close up photos.”
“So many questions I don’t want to ask. What about the girl? Verna?”
“As soon as the EMTs arrived, Tom put me in charge of her. As in, ‘Don’t let her out of your sight.’ I spent the better part of the morning at the hospital. I would have preferred going back to the scene. DCI is lending their forensic team. The parents didn’t show up until almost eleven. I guess they were over in the Dells and forgot to pack phone chargers.”
I’d been working over my tacos while Andy talked. Her dinner sat nearly untouched. Now, for just a moment, she stared at her plate. She lost herself in deep thought.
“It sounds like this is a slam dunk,” I said.
“Huh…”
I waited, but she didn’t move.
“For Johns. Pretty hard to play the He Said She Said card. Or the ‘I thought she was older’ card.”
Her eyes came up slowly, squinting, looking through me.
“Did Verna’s parents consent to the rape kit?”
“What? Oh, yes. Yes, Johns is toast …” She trailed off.
“What?”
“Okay, I know this comes a little after the fact. Maybe it’s the alcohol talking…”
“Dee, you’ve had like two sips.”
She leaned back in her chair and stared at me.
“Thinking back on it, now that I’ve had a chance to think, I remember something I kinda put aside at the time. When it was just me and Traeger. Before the whole circus arrived. A feeling…”
“Like?”
“Like I was being watched.”
Andy didn’t finish her beer. I did. After paying the bill, I proposed driving her home. One word to the owners and her car could stay in the Los Lobos lot overnight. I promised to get up with her at any hour and return her to it.
She refused.
“I’m going back.” She pulled her keys from her bag.
“What? No! That’s ridiculous! Don’t make me call the chief.”
“I need to find out who called in the noise complaint. We might have a witness.”
She stepped close to me, slipped her arms around me and pressed her body against mine. Gold-flecked green eyes blinked at me beneath long dark lashes, sending a coded message I didn’t understand but my body did.
“Dammit, woman,” I muttered. She grinned.
“I won’t be long.”
She cut off my ironclad objection with a kiss.
I watched her drive away, thinking What just happened?
Sometime after midnight my wife slipped into our bed. Her breathing quickly eased into the smooth rhythm of unencumbered sleep, telling me that whatever had drawn her back to the station had been settled, at least for the night.
10
“Have fun!” I flipped Sandy and Arun a jaunty wave as they walked away from the airplane. Neither looked back. Their attention had already fixed on the small welcoming committee waiting inside the Brainerd Lakes Airport FBO. The anxious cluster looked like every other welcoming committee I’d seen since I began flying Sandy to these meetings. Expectant. On their best behavior. Hoping their plea to the Christine and Paulette Paulesky Education Foundation would yield a new science curriculum, or a chance to replace outdated computers, or hire new teachers to relieve overcrowded, underfunded classrooms.
