On a Killer's Trail (16 page)

“I don’t know.” Stephen turned angrily to one side, sweeping his forearm across the tabletop. Kate grabbed her coffee cup and set it over against the wall. “Look, Dad and I weren’t all that buddy-buddy the last couple of years. He didn’t tell me everything.”

Kate waited a moment, until his breathing settled down a little. Gently, she said, “You took it from his closet Thursday morning, and he disappeared that day. I’m asking you, can you really believe he had nothing to do with it?”

“Somebody set him up.”

“Aw, come on, Stephen.” She kept her voice low, hoping not to attract attention. It was three-thirty in the afternoon, and only a sprinkling of diners occupied the other tables.

“Dad would not do that,” Stephen insisted. “He’s not the easiest person to get along with, but he’s not a killer.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.” Stephen’s eyes were dark.

“That’s not good enough. I’m telling you, the evidence says your father is a murderer.” She leaned forward and held his gaze. So far, she wasn’t getting much that she could print.

He surprised her by taking the initiative. “You obviously think you know what happened, so tell me what did. You think Dad wigged out and went on a rampage and started shooting old people he knew from the shelter?”

Kate shook her head. “No. I think it was very calculated and deliberate. Someone at the shelter heard Ted Hepburn and Edna Riley talking about how your father was going to steal the money and run off with it, and that person told your father, and he went and killed them both.”

Stephen’s jaw dropped. “He wouldn’t…”

“Yes, he did.” She let that sink in, then looked at her watch. “When I leave here, do you know where I’m going?”

He shook his head.

“I’m going over to the police station. They’ve arrested Miss Palmer. Do you know Roberta Palmer from the shelter?”

He nodded.

“My front-page story tomorrow will be all about how they arrested her this afternoon. They’re holding a press conference in an hour. It will be on the Internet and the television news tonight. Miss Palmer helped your father steal the Animal Protection Society’s money. She was going to meet him today, but the police caught her.”

“He said he didn’t do it.” Stephen turned away from her, staring out the window.

Kate gathered her things. “I’m sorry, Stephen. This probably wasn’t a good time to interview you. I should have let the police or your mother tell you about this.” He didn’t respond, and she sighed. “Before I knew about Miss Palmer, I had thought maybe I could interview you and your mother and let you both tell your side of the story. I was hoping it would help uncover the truth. But now…This was a bad idea.” She stood up.

“Wait,” Stephen said. “What are you going to write about?”

She shrugged. “Miss Palmer’s arrest, for sure.”

“What are you going to say about my dad?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll have to see what the police tell me at the press conference.” Talking to Burton’s son was an error in judgment. That was plain to her now. She hoped he wouldn’t try to make trouble for her. If he weren’t a fugitive, Jim Burton would no doubt have called her boss and demanded that she be fired.

“I’m sorry I upset you. I’m…still kind of new at this. I meant it when I said I want to help find the killer. If it’s not your father, then I’d like to find the person who really did it. And I don’t want to make things any harder than they are for your family.”

He didn’t lift his head.

“Well, thanks.” She managed a smile and went out to her car, feeling a little sick.

Big, fluffy flakes of snow were falling. She decided to do a sidebar on Roberta Palmer, recapping her years at the animal shelter. In the short time between talking to Stephen and the press conference, she could squeeze in a telephone call to Amelia Weston, the kennel manager, and ask her if she could e-mail a summary of Roberta’s service at the shelter.

A short time later, Kate drove toward the police station. She anticipated seeing Neil and maybe getting invited up to the Priority Unit afterward. Her pulse accelerated, and she knew it wasn’t from the prospect of picking up tips for her story. Neil had claimed a huge percentage of her thoughts lately.

“Who am I kidding?” she said aloud. “I can’t think of anyone else I’d even consider spending the rest of my life with. Lord, if this isn’t right, please show us both.”

She drove onto Middle Street and realized she wouldn’t be able to park within three blocks of the police station. Maybe the garage behind? She signaled for another turn and let her thoughts drift back to the handsome detective.

She pulled in at the parking garage and grabbed a ticket from the machine, then nosed into a parking spot on the ground floor. She jumped out of the car and locked the door, pocketing her keys. Gotta hurry! As she dashed for the police station, she couldn’t help replaying the interview with Stephen in her mind.

All of a sudden, she caught her breath as some of the young man’s last words echoed in her mind.
He said he didn’t do it.

A
s the other reporters asked questions of the police department’s spokesman, Kate edged around toward the stairway door. Neil was leaning against the wall. He smiled in greeting and squeezed over to make room for her beside him.

“I need to talk to you when this is over,” she whispered.

He nodded, and she tried to focus on the question-and-answer session, jotting notes on the saga of Roberta Palmer’s arrest. Good thing she’d thought to call Amelia Weston before this got out. Every reporter in Portland would be pestering the shelter staff now.

When the conference was dismissed, Neil quirked his eyebrows. “Want to come upstairs?”

“Sure.”

He punched in a numerical code on the keypad beside the heavy door and swung it open. “The stairs are always faster than the elevator.”

They trudged up the steps together and into the Priority Unit office. It was nearly empty—only Paula, the secretary, and Lance Miller were at their desks.

Neil took Kate to his workstation and pulled over an extra chair. “So, what’s up?”

“I talked to Stephen Burton this afternoon.”

“You did? Why?”

Kate winced. “Looks like you think it was a bad idea. I was afraid of that.”

“Well…I guess if you’d asked my opinion first, I’d have said
to be careful and think out your questions ahead of time. I mean, he’s not exactly squeaky clean, and his father’s accused of a double homicide and grand theft.”

She nodded soberly. “I did consider that. But you don’t think Stephen is dangerous, do you?”

Neil shrugged. “The lady who owned the cat would think he is. Did you get anything interesting?”

“Kind of. Nothing I can print, you understand. I talked to him for ten or fifteen minutes and decided I’d made a mistake. I felt kind of sleazy trying to get him to talk about his father, under the circumstances.”

“I can see that. I mean, it’s our job, but you don’t want to use Jim Burton’s son to smear him in the paper before he’s convicted in the courts.”

“Yeah.” She scrunched up her face and then relaxed. “I told you it was a mistake. You would have seen that from the beginning.”

He chuckled. “So, what are you up to now?”

“I have to go back to the office and write up this whole Roberta Palmer thing, but first, Stephen said something I thought you should know about.”

“I’m listening.”

“I…” She hesitated, belatedly wondering if she’d misused Neil’s confidence. “Well, you know how you told me on the phone that Roberta was arrested?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I sort of told Stephen that.”

Neil’s eyes narrowed, but after a moment he lifted his hands in dismissal. “If it was a secret, I wouldn’t have told you. I mean, hundreds of people already knew. The airport staff, the passengers, the people trying to get into the terminal…”

“That’s a relief. But, anyway, I’m afraid I pushed Stephen a little. See, he kept insisting that his father wouldn’t kill those people. I told him it was true, and that you had proof Jim Burton’s gun was the murder weapon. He still didn’t want to believe me, so I told him you had arrested Ms. Palmer, and that
she was in cahoots with his father. I told him they’d planned this for a long time, but then one of them heard Edna Riley and Ted Hepburn talking about it, and the next thing we know, those two volunteers are dead. I mean, that’s what must have happened, don’t you think?”

“It’s a very interesting theory. It could very well be true. According to Gerald Riley, Edna heard the rumor from Ted. Could be he’d overheard or seen something at the shelter that made him suspect Burton wasn’t on the up-and-up.”

“And if Roberta heard him tell Edna, and she told Jim…”

Neil nodded. “I can see that happening.”

“Yeah, well, when I put it out there, Stephen got angry. And here’s the thing—he told me, ‘He said he didn’t do it.’”

Neil puffed out his breath. “Those were his words?”

“Yes. It didn’t hit me at the time, but afterward I realized that was tantamount to admitting he’d been in communication with his father.”

“Should we pick Stephen up again?” Neil asked Connor ten minutes later.

Connor shook his head and stared at his computer screen. “I should have known Kate wouldn’t leave this alone. Who knows how much she gave that kid?”

“Well, Burton would have heard it all on the six o’clock news anyway.”

“Yeah, but…” Connor sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I was actually toying with the idea of giving her a tip, to see if she could help us flush Burton out. Let her put out the word that we’ve made it impossible for him to get at that million dollars.” He looked up at Neil with a grimace. “I wanted to make him desperate enough to make a move.”

“Desperate men do awful things, Connor.”

His friend nodded. “I wanted him to show himself, and maybe lead us to that money from the fund-raiser that Roberta Palmer stashed.”

“That’s all he’s got now,” Neil said. “If he checks with that bank in Aruba and knows he can’t touch the million, he’ll want to cut his losses and make a break for it. He needs that money from the Fur Ball.”

“Yeah, I hear you. All right, we’ll bring Stephen in again.”

Connor’s phone rang, and he snatched the receiver. “Larson. Yes? We’ll be right there.”

He stood as he replaced the receiver and reached for his jacket. “That was the postmaster. They’ve got a package for Joseph Parlin. Let’s go.” On his way out the door, he turned and looked the length of the office. “Lance! I need you to pick up Stephen Burton. Try his house, or that pizza place where he works.”

“Isn’t the post office closed now?” Neil asked as Connor steered his Explorer toward the main post office branch on Forest Avenue.

“Yes, but they’ve been sorting what came in today. One of the clerks made out a slip to put in the Parlin box for a package, and he saw the alert on the box and told the postmaster.”

“Will he let us have the box?”

Connor shrugged. “I should think so. That warrant we got yesterday ought to cover it.”

The postmaster was waiting to unlock the door for them. “I thought you’d want to know about this immediately.”

“You got that right,” Connor said.

The postmaster led them to the window area and brought out a Priority Mail box. “This was mailed about one o’clock at the branch on Congress Street. It…isn’t likely to be a bomb, is it?” His bushy white eyebrows contracted anxiously.

“I don’t think so,” Connor replied. “Would you rather I opened it in the parking lot?” He shook it, listening carefully.

“No, go ahead.”

Connor set it on a desk. “You got a box cutter?” Carefully he sliced through the adhesive that held the end of the box shut. He opened the flaps, peered inside and smiled. “Oh, yeah.”

“Don’t tell me,” Neil said. “It’s the money.”

Connor nodded with satisfaction. “Two hundred grand. She may have kept a little out for travel expenses.” He placed the box in Neil’s hands. “Guess Roberta’s mother never taught her not to send cash through the mail.”

“Now what?” Neil asked.

Connor looked at the postmaster. “When’s the soonest they can pick this up?”

“The lobby opens at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, but the window isn’t open until 8:00.”

Neil said, “And you put a ticket in the mailbox that says he has a package, right?”

The man nodded. “Yes. If the box is too big for the mailbox, they have to bring the card to the window and pick it up.”

“All right,” Connor said. “We’ll have a detective here by 6:45 a.m. Can you put one of my men in a postal worker’s uniform and let him stand in here and watch to see who comes to get the mail?”

“I…suppose we could do that,” the postmaster said. “He’ll have to stay out of the way. We work fast around here.”

“I’ll send you somebody who knows what to do,” Connor assured the man. “If someone comes for the box, let the detective give it to him. We’ll have some plainclothesmen outside to follow the person who picks it up.”

The postmaster nodded. “All right, if you think it won’t endanger anyone.”

“We’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen. Now, I’ll take this to the station, photograph the bills and lock it up overnight. The undercover officer will bring it back in the morning.”

“That’s an awful lot of cash, Captain.”

“Yes, it is. But if I hadn’t opened the box, you wouldn’t have known what was in it, would you?”

“No.”

“And where would the package have stayed tonight?”

“Over there in that bin, with those others for the box holders.”

Connor nodded. “I think it will be safer with me, no offense
intended. And trust me, I can make it look like it was never opened.”

On the drive back to the police station, Neil asked, “You won’t be too hard on Kate tonight, will you?”

Connor sighed. “She’s impetuous. I’m afraid that’s going to get her in trouble one of these days. She could easily have blown our investigation today. Neil, be careful how much information you give her.”

“I will. And I’m sorry if I’ve let my personal relationship with her cloud my judgment on that.”

“Well…anything she told Stephen Burton today, his father would have learned within hours anyhow. She’s pretty sharp, though. I’ve got to hand her that.”

“Yeah,” Neil said. “She figured out the motive for the murders before we did.”

“Uh-huh.” Connor glanced over at him. “You still like her a lot, don’t you?”

“Well…yeah. Is that a problem? Tell me now if it is.”

Connor shook his head. “You’re both adults, and the objections I had last summer no longer apply.”

“Yes, we’re both believers now. I’m a little nervous about it, but I’m starting to think God may approve of this.”

Connor’s solemn expression slowly morphed into a smile. “Keep asking God along the way, and you won’t go wrong.”

Kate arrived at the Larson home shortly after six o’clock. She carried her laptop and purse inside and met Adrienne in the kitchen. “I’m sorry I’m so late, Adri. I had to go back to the office and do my story after the press conference.”

“Don’t worry about it,” her sister said. “Connor called at five and said he’d be late, too. I don’t expect him for at least another hour. I’ve fed Matthew already, but I thought I’d wait on you two.”

“Aunt Kate!” Matthew pulled on the hem of her sweater.

“Hey, buddy!” She swung him up into her arms. “Where’s your precious sister?”

“She’s having a nap,” Adrienne said.

“Want to play with your blocks until Daddy gets home? We can build a castle.”

Adrienne laughed. “I think he’d rather build a police station. Oh, your old roommate, Madyson, called.”

“Yeah?”

“She says you left some boxes in the apartment.”

Kate sighed and set Matthew on his feet. “I almost forgot. I left one last load of things that I couldn’t fit in my car last week. I guess I can go over after supper, but I’m tired. I was looking forward to a quiet evening.”

“No, she said she and the other girl will be out tonight.”

“Too bad. I’m supposed to meet Neil’s grandmother tomorrow.”

“She said someone else is moving into your old room, so they need you to get your things as soon as possible.”

Kate jounced Matthew up and down. “I guess I can pick them up in the morning. I’ll have to try to get up and get moving early.” She bent down to look into Matthew’s eyes. “I’m going upstairs to change. You get the blocks out, okay?”

“That’s no problem,” Adrienne said. “They haven’t been picked up all day.”

“Well, we’ll pick them up after we build a really cool police station, won’t we, Matt?”

Kate sat down to dinner with Connor and Adrienne just after seven.

“Did you manage to talk to Stephen Burton again?” she asked.

“No. I sent a couple of men to pick him up, but he wasn’t at his house or his job.”

“Sorry.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know if your interview with Stephen will have a bearing on this case or not.”

“But it proves his father is still in the area.”

“Not really. He could have called him.”

Kate stared down at her plate. “I’m really sorry, Connor. I should have checked with you before I tried to talk to him.”

“Well, he is one of our witnesses, Kate. And that whole cat shooting thing…I wish you’d be a little more cautious, that’s all.”

She swallowed hard and nodded. “You’re right. So, did you make any progress since you made the arrest at the airport?”

He inhaled slowly. “I did, but you know what? I can’t tell you everything. I hope you understand that.”

She felt the blood flow to her cheeks. “Because of my talking to Stephen?”

“No. There are just things I can’t tell people until the time is right. But I hope that maybe tomorrow something will break in this case.”

“You mean…the murders? Or the embezzling?”