The Equalizer (19 page)

Chapter 23

DAY FOURTEEN

S
omeone had broken into a
vacant store and sawed a hole in the wall to gain access into the hair salon next door. The burglars hadn’t counted on the alarm system but managed to grab a new digital camera and cash from the till. They were long gone before patrol showed up. I spent a couple hours documenting the scene and talking to the salon owner then went back home and back to bed. When I got up at 7:00 a.m., Victoria was gone, along with her duffle.

At 8:30, I was already scheduled to participate in a conference call with investigators in neighboring counties about similar burglaries. None of us had any suspects. After, I spent time rehashing all the notes on the murder cases. There was a growing dissatisfaction in the community with how the investigation was going. Daily, the
Birch County Register
ran negative pieces concerning the unsolved murders in the form of editorials, letters to the editor, online blogs. I ran into Ralph as I was leaving.

“You’re going home late,” I said.

“Every night,” he said. “You too.”

“I’m so afraid the murder cases will go cold.”

“They’re not there yet. Heard you have nothing on the burglaries.”

“Not a thing. They never leave a single print.”

“You know our priority is the murders. There must be something we’re missing.”

“I’ve thought of some things we could check out.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

When I walked into my apartment,
I saw a white envelope on the counter in a plastic bag with a Post-it note on top.
This came in today’s mail. I handled it with a tissue. Call me when you get home. I’m at work.

I found some gloves and opened it. Inside was another quote:

CS: He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it

and whoso breaketh a hedge,

a serpent shall bite him. Kyrie Eleison

A pit? Serpent
?
Not good.
I called and left a message on Troy’s phone. On my way to bring it in to evidence, Victoria called asking if I had been home.

“Yes, I’m on my way back to the department to enter the letter into evidence. How are you?”

“Scared shitless. I think I should move around. A girlfriend at work said I could stay with her.”

More likely, she was punishing me for being out last night.

Fifteen minutes after
I got home, my doorbell rang. I glanced out the peephole. Victoria held a cardboard box. She must have changed her mind.

“You have a key,” I said as I opened the door.

“I don’t feel comfortable just walking in,” she said.

“So what’s this?” I said, as she put the box on the kitchen counter.

“Open it.” Her arms were crossed—her lips pursed.

I flipped the flaps open and found among the loosely packed newsprint, another box with holes. When I took the inside lid off, there was a large, light-colored snake curled up inside. I slapped the lid back on.

“Snake,” I said.

“I guess I can stop worrying how and when the snake would show up.”

I wasn’t afraid of snakes—but I knew nothing about them and this one could be deadly.

“Can it breathe in there?” I asked.

“Air holes in both boxes.”

“Ah. Was this delivered to your house?”

“UPS delivered it to the newspaper office just after I called you,” she said.

The return address on the box said: Reptile City, San Antonio, Texas. I pulled up Reptile City on my phone and found the hours. It was closed and wouldn’t reopen until tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

I called Troy to tell him we had something new in Victoria’s case.

He said, “I’m occupied at the moment. Can you handle it?”

“Sure, just didn’t want to step on your sensitive toes,” I said.

He hung up.

Victoria had a finger in her mouth, her eyes wide with anxiety.

“Where are you staying tonight?” I asked.

“With a friend.”

“Victoria, if you feel safer you can stay here.”

“Let me make a call,” she said. She went into the hallway by the bedroom and spoke softly—but I caught enough to know she canceled a reservation.

She rode along to the department, stayed in the car while I entered the snake into evidence. Then, since ketchup and beer didn’t cut it for dinner, we went to the Sub Shop. As we pulled up to a stop sign on Central, Troy made a left turn in front of us. Naomi was sitting in the passenger seat. A crazy jealousy overtook me. Was it because Naomi was seeing someone else or because it was Troy? But with “Snow White” living with me, it would be illogical to expect Naomi to be exclusive. Still, I felt like a fool.

When we sat down with our meal, Victoria asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said, as I crunched on a chip.

“No, you’re definitely pouting. Is it still because of the wedding?”

“I don’t pout, but speaking of the wedding, what was your
real
motive in taking me?”

She stared then blinked a couple times. “You still love her.”

“I was totally blindsided. Adriana and I broke up only five months ago, and I certainly didn’t expect she’d be the bride and marrying some old . . .”

“How do you think I feel about a step-mother that’s only seven years older than me?”

“How
do
you feel?”

“Who cares how I feel?

She has a knack for turning things around. “People in love can’t care what others think, or no one would ever get married.”

She picked up a pickle and pointed it at me. “Adriana’s mother told me I should forget about you.”

“She’s probably right.”

She smiled and shook her head. Then she reached across the booth to touch my cheek. “Look, I’m sorry. If I had been aware you were still madly in love with Adriana, I certainly would never have invited you.”

We each ate a few bites of sandwich in silence.

Then she asked, “Are we okay?”

“We’re fine.”

I lied. At the moment nothing was fine.

Chapter 24

DAY FIFTEEN

F
irst thing Saturday morning I
checked the snake out and put it on Troy’s desk. I made some calls, as I waited for him to arrive. As he entered the office, I smirked to myself at how clever I was giving Troy some of his own medicine.

“What’s this?” he asked after spying the box.

I had an extreme sense of pleasure watching his reaction as he peered in the box—especially when he jumped back.

“Jesus Christ, Sheehan!”

“The
development
I spoke of last night. UPS delivered it to the newspaper office. Reptile City, the San Antonio company who shipped it, opens at ten o’clock this morning.”

“Has it been entered into evidence?”

I nodded. “So, you were with Naomi Moberg last night?”

“How did you know?”

Just then Ralph and Betty walked in. “Matt from evidence wants me to identify a snake.”

As she reached in and pulled out the snake, we three men stepped back.

“Oh, what a nice boy.” The light-colored reptile curled around her arm. “It’s a rat snake,” she said. “Harmless. Your pet, Cal?”

“Ha,” I said.

“Did you take pictures?” she asked me.

“Just in the box.”

“I can do that. “Does it need a home?” Betty asked, grinning.

“I’m sure Victoria doesn’t want it. Do you?” I asked.

“Sure, I have a nice big aquarium where he’d be happy.”

After Betty left, Troy called Reptile City and put the call on speaker.

“Reptile City,” a voice drawled in heavy Texan.

“Good morning. This is Deputy Kern from Birch County Minnesota Sheriff’s Department. Could I speak with the owner or manager?”

“Speakin’—Billy Duran’s the name.”

“Well, Mr. Duran, one of our residents received a snake from your store. Trouble is the young woman is being harassed and the snake may have been sent to her for that reason. It shouldn’t be too difficult to look up who the buyer was.”

“Sure, I remember the sale because it was unusual.”

“How so?”

“This fella said he wanted to send a snake as a
gift
and he used a prepaid credit card. Wanted it delivered UPS overnight.”

“Did you happen to get a name?”

Billy gave a throaty laugh. “Said his name was Willie Nelson, but I ’spect it was an alias.”

“I ’spect you’re right,” Troy said.

“Sam Houston is a nice snake. I hope ya’all enjoy him up in Minnesota. As I explained to the buyer, he’d just been fed, so he’d should be all set for a time.”

“I’ll pass the information along. If you’d give me that credit card number, that’d help.”

After Billy gave him the number, Troy thanked him and hung up.

“None of this has actually caused harm to her.” Troy started laughing.

“Victoria doesn’t think it’s so funny,” I said to Troy.

Ralph said, “Neither do I. Even though the snake was harmless, it’s threatening and escalating.”

Troy called Visa and after about an hour on the phone he found out the purchase of the prepaid card had been made with cash at Walmart in St. Cloud, which was no help at all.

Ralph said, “Victoria’s case is detracting from the murders. Today, I expect you two to put your heads together and come up with your plan to solve the Peterson/Kohler case because what you’ve been doing isn’t working.”

“Are you saying to drop Victoria’s case?”

“I’m saying it’s of lower priority. Solve the damn murders.”

When Ralph left, Troy looked at me and said, “He’s turning into a boss.”

Just then Victoria called to say she’d received another envelope in the mail and asked what she should do. I sighed and suggested she bring it down to the station to give it to Troy.

We met her in the lobby. Troy read the note aloud.

God himself will shoot them down.

Suddenly his arrow will pierce them.

They will stagger backward,

destroyed by those they spoke against.

All who see it happening will scoff at them.

Kyrie Eleison

“Oh, great,” she said. “Now I’ve got fuckin’ arrows to worry about. I don’t have time for this bullshit. I have a deadline.” As Victoria stormed out of the double entry doors and into the lot, she looked over her shoulders, for flying arrows I supposed.

On the way back upstairs I said to Troy, “You may think this is all one big joke, but I’m concerned about how the arrow will manifest itself.”

“Ah, come on. No one has been injured yet.”

“Ronny Peterson and Ted Kohler were
killed
for Christ sake,” I reminded him.

“True, but like you said earlier, this seems more like be a copy-cat.”

“But why zero in on Victoria?”

“Someone with a grudge against her personally or the media in general, I suspect. How many of these have been sent?” he asked.

“Victoria’s received four now, but we didn’t find any evidence that Kohler received more than the one.”

We spent the morning
arguing about the best way to approach the Peterson/Kohler case. We’d decided while we waited for Johnston to return from duck hunting, we’d check further into Kohler’s clients and his associations with his charitable work. Troy was taking the clients, while I would look into the latter. Eleanor gave me a list of his volunteer activities and I began to make calls. At 6:00 p.m., I left the office convinced we’d never solve the case.

Late afternoon Victoria had texted
me saying
she’d pick up pizza. I had texted back saying I wanted pepperoni on mine.

When I walked into my apartment, the pizza box was on the counter. Victoria was at the counter drinking a bottle of Sam Adams. She went to the fridge, then handed me a beer.

“I had them leave a one fourth of it plain cheese for me,” she said. “I took Bullet out for a run and fed him.”

“Thanks.”

After I put my weapon in the safe and changed into jeans, I got out plates and started moving toward my counter-high table. Suddenly there was a piercing sound of glass breaking followed by a loud thud. Victoria screamed! Bullet was behind me barking his head off.

I yelled, “Down!” and lunged to pull Victoria down to the floor.

“What was that?”

“Look.” I pointed up. An arrow with wicked point, the type used for big game, was stuck in my cabinet door.

Victoria gasped. “We were just standing there.”

I grabbed Bullet to calm him and prevent him from cutting his pads on fragments of glass that littered the floor. I did a quick squat walk to the wall where the light switch was located and turned off the kitchen light. I put Bullet in his kennel in the bedroom, and pulled my Smith & Wesson out of the safe. I told Victoria to stay in the living room—but she followed me into the hallway. I flicked off the hall lights and slowly walked down the corridor hugging the wall. Victoria stood in the doorway. The outside fixture above the door cast enough light for me to see Larry Sauer fly down the front stairs, just as two figures neared the front door. I whispered for Larry to stop.

I had my weapon aimed at the figures.

“Why is it so dark in . . .” then a shrill scream. I could tell by their silhouettes that it was Paris and her skunk-haired boyfriend, Stoner.

“Paris, it’s me, Cal,” I said, lowering my weapon.

“Oh, thank God,” she said breathlessly.

Stoner said, “Dude, I saw your gun, ’bout spazed out!”

Larry’s words tumbled out. “I saw it all, Cal. A car pulled up. A guy got out of the passenger side with a bow, and the idiot shot an arrow toward the building. Did anybody get hurt?”

“Just his kitchen window and cabinet,” Victoria said from behind.

“Did you catch the make of the car?”

“Maybe a Ford Focus—dark color,” he said.

“Paris, did you see anyone around outside?” I asked as I went to the glass double doors and looked outdoors. Not a soul in sight.

“No,” Paris said as Stoner hustled her through her door.

“Larry, can you stay here until someone from the department gets here? I’m going to see if I can find the vehicle.”

“Sure,” he said.

I called dispatch and explained to LaVonne why she also needed to get a hold of Troy even though he wasn’t on call.

“Someone will be here soon,” I said to Larry, who’d followed me inside my apartment.

“Victoria, this is Larry, the apartment manager. He’ll stay with you until I get back. You’ll need to tell the deputies what happened,” I said.

She was right behind me as I grabbed my holster, cell phone, jacket, and car keys. “I want to go with you,” Victoria said.

“Absolutely not. Not even remotely allowable,” I said.

“Is Bullet okay?” Larry asked. “He seems a little nervous.”

“Yeah, he probably is.”

“I’ll stay here until you get back,” he said.

“Thanks, and don’t touch anything, you two,” I said.

“I won’t,” Larry said. Victoria’s lips were pulled down in a pout.