1 A Small Case of Murder (7 page)

Vicki Rawlings would have had a nice place if she took care of it. The drug dealer owned a doublewide trailer set back in the privacy of a hollow off Route 208, nicknamed the Race Track Road because it led straight to Mountaineer Park. Traffic was fast and heavy on the country road on race nights.

Maintenance wasn’t on the teenage homeowner’s list of priorities. An unused tool shed rested behind the run-down trailer on the lot void of grass and vegetation.

Dusk had turned to dark by the time Joshua and Tad arrived in their search for his runaway patient.

Beth’s five-year-old white sedan was parked next to a dirty four-wheel drive truck in front of the trailer. The truck bore temporary tags.

“She’s here all right.” Joshua rolled his Corvette up to the trailer. The black 1968 convertible sports car was the one toy he had managed to scrimp together enough money to purchase before having children. “Do you want me to go in alone?”

“We should both go in.”

Joshua reached into the glove compartment, took out his nine millimeter Beretta, and checked the cartridge. It was loaded.

When he saw Tad’s worried expression, Joshua assured him, “It’s legal. I picked it up at the sheriff’s office with all the permits in proper order yesterday morning after my meeting with Wally.”

“Then you met our esteemed Sheriff Curt Sawyer.”

“Not yet. Every time I’ve stopped by his office to talk to him about Vicki, he’s been out. I’m beginning to think he’s avoiding me.”

“Not necessarily. Sheriff Curtis Sawyer is more lawman than politician.” In a firm tone, Tad told him, “I don’t want to get caught in any crossfire. I only want to get Beth out of there.”

“I’m here because Vicki already tried to kill you. I don’t want her to finish the job.” Joshua tucked the gun into the front waistband of his jeans.

The trailer throbbed with the rhythm of rap music blasting from inside. They walked up the metal steps to the door.

“I don’t recall that being Beth’s musical taste,” said Joshua.

“It isn’t.” Tad knocked on the door. Receiving no response, he rang the doorbell. They waited.

Joshua pressed his ear to the door. “I don’t hear any movement inside.” When he put his hand on the doorknob, the door swung open as if an invisible being had opened it to invite the visitors inside. He removed the gun from his waist-band before stepping up into the trailer.

Tad followed.

On the other side of the threshold, they found a kitchen overflowing with dirty pots, pans, and dishes. The smell of rot-ting food assaulted their senses.

Empty beer cans formed an aluminum pyramid on the kitchen table with pills in clear bags scattered around the base. A bag filled with white powder acted as the table’s centerpiece.

Tad dipped a fingertip into the powder to taste it. “Cocaine. Good quality stuff, too.” He observed the size of the bag. “Must be at least one kilo here.” There was a box of small empty baggies and one baggie filled but not closed. “Looks like they were dividing it when they were interrupted.”

His gun poised, Joshua stepped over the obstacle course of discarded clothes and plates of half-eaten food to the hallway leading back to the bedrooms. The door to the bedroom at the end of the hall was open.

“I don’t think anyone is here,” he heard Tad yell from the kitchen.

Joshua continued checking every bedroom to the back of the trailer. “Beth’s car is here, and that truck belongs to someone.”

He saw something black wedged under the door like a small animal crushed under a plank. It was a leather-driving glove. He considered picking it up until he saw what appeared to be splotches of blood on it.

“They must have gone somewhere,” Tad called to him.

Joshua stepped into the master bedroom.

A shock, not unlike that of a bucket of ice water being dumped over his head, raced through his body.

It could have been Sarah’s room. Clothes cluttered the floor and the bed was unmade.

A poster of Vicki’s idol hung over her bed. A muscular, half-naked, horned and fanged beast grinned with bloodlust at Joshua.

It wasn’t until he stepped up to the bed that he discovered that the blood splattered on the poster was real.

So was the body on the bed.

Looking like the angel she wasn’t, she lay with her arms crossed over her chest. She was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt with no underwear or panties.

In her undressed state, Joshua could see the tattooed serpent in all his glory. The snake was wrapped around Vicki’s right leg, up her hip, and across her stomach to her back. As Joshua stood over her, the tattoo seemed to come to life to strike at him in defense of the serpent’s lifeless hostess.

A steel stake stood erect from the very center of the pentagram tattooed on her left breast.

“Did you find—” Tad stopped speaking when he stepped into the bedroom and saw her. “Oh, Lord!” He rushed to the girl.

“Don’t touch her!”

The sight waiting for the doctor on the other side of the bed stopped him. He halted, immobile, unable to speak his horror.

“What—” was all Joshua got out before Tad put his hands to his mouth, and ran out the back door in the hall.

When he went around to the other side of the bed, Joshua could hear him vomiting outside.

Beth’s body was sprawled on the floor next to the Vicki’s bed. The revolver was still clutched in her hand.

Chapter Six

As if the victims could escape, Joshua stood guard in the bedroom doorway to dial 911 on his cell phone. He was still on the phone with the emergency operator when a headlight beam shone through the window to bathe the room in light. After parking on the bare lawn, the van’s lights and engine were extinguished.

Through the bathroom window, Joshua saw “Channel 6” emblazoned on the van’s side panel. Tess Bauer was climbing out of the passenger seat. “We have company,” he called out.

“Damn!” Tad cursed when he saw Tess Bauer giving instructions to the camera operator. “Who invited her?”

“You wait here.” Joshua raced to the front door to intercept them on the steps outside.

“What are you doing here?” Joshua was further displeased to see the light on top of the camera glowing to signal that the operator was recording the encounter.

“Amber told me that Vicki Rawlings had been murdered.” Tess attempted to push her way inside only to find that he blocked her entrance.

“So you come rushing over here with a camera crew without calling the police?” While Joshua kept the journalist on the rickety front stoop, the camera operator balanced the camera hoisted with both hands up to eye-level while keeping his footing on the step below them.

“I needed to check to see if it was true. It’d be very embarrassing if I had called in a false alarm to the police.”

“Does that mean Amber has a history of lying?” He shifted to block the camera’s view into the trailer.

Tess stuck the microphone into his face. “Well, since you won’t let us in, why don’t you tell us who you are? Do you work for the Rawlings?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

“Has Vicki Rawlings been murdered?”

“You’ll get a statement from the police when they’re ready to release one.”

The sheriff’s black and gold patrol car came up the drive-way. The blue lights on top of the cruiser lit up the dark enveloping the trailer’s yard.

Sheriff Curtis Sawyer climbed out of the passenger side of the car. His deputy got out of the driver’s side.

When Tess’s camera operator whirled around to record them making their way across the yard, Sheriff Sawyer barked, 

“Get that camera out of my face.” When the sheriff sprung threateningly in his direction, the camera operator jumped backwards and tripped over a rock, which caused him to perform a strange-looking dance while fighting to regain his balance without dropping the expensive piece of equipment. The jig ended with him plopping down onto his rump with the camera held high up in the air.

The sheriff looked up at Joshua, who blocked his path through the door. “So you’re Joshua Thornton.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, too, sheriff.” He offered the county’s chief lawman his hand, which he clasped into a firm grip.

“Sheriff Sawyer, is it true that Vicki Rawlings has been murdered?” Tess stuck her microphone into his face when he sidestepped her to investigate the crime scene.

“I’ll tell you what I know after I know it and not a minute sooner.” Sheriff Sawyer stepped through the doorway while refusing entrance to the journalist. “What have we got here?”

Joshua answered, “Two bodies back in the bedroom.”

“Two bodies!” As the door swung shut, they both heard Tess drop the microphone with a loud clankity-clank onto the metal stoop.

While slipping on a pair of evidence gloves, Sheriff Sawyer studied him. “What are you doing here?”

Like his predecessor, Charles Delaney, Curt Sawyer came from a military background. It stuck more with Sawyer who, while short, was solid muscle. He stood straight with his shoulders back and his broad chest stuck out as if to show off the gold badge pinned on his navy blue sheriff’s uniform. Joshua was a head taller and in good shape, but he wouldn’t want to get into a boxing match with this man.

Sheriff Sawyer noted the pills and cocaine on the table while Joshua told him, “Tad MacMillan asked me to come out here with him to look for Beth Davis. She ran away from the hospital this afternoon.”

The sheriff motioned for him to lead the way to the murder victims.

Joshua stopped at the bloody glove, already in a plastic evidence bag, which was still on the floor by the bedroom door. “I found this on my way in. When I saw there was blood on it, I left it there.”

“Did you touch it?” Sheriff Sawyer squatted to study the glove.

Joshua swore he saw a look of recognition. “No, I didn’t.”

The sheriff was studying the carpet in the hallway.

Joshua said, “Judging by those drag marks, I think Vicki Rawlings was knocked out and then dragged from the living room or kitchen into the bedroom where she was killed.”

“Not bad, for a lawyer.” The sheriff stepped around him to enter the scene of the murders. “What made Davis collapse at the hearing?”

Joshua followed him into the room where his deputy was photographing the scene from every angle possible.

One of the medical examiner’s duties was to check the bodies at the crime scene before transporting them to East Liverpool Hospital for autopsies. Tad was in the process of bagging Beth’s hands in paper bags held in place with rubber bands to protect any evidence that might be on them when they came in.

Joshua noticed that Tad’s gloved hands trembled while he worked on the body of the woman for whom they had both cared.

“Mr. Thornton?” Curtis Sawyer snapped.

Joshua started out of his thoughts. “Excuse me?”

The sheriff repeated his question. “Why did Ms. Davis collapse?”

“You’ll have to ask her doctor about that. I had to leave to go to a meeting.”

As he studied the scene on the bed, Sheriff Sawyer stepped around Vicki’s body and knelt to examine Beth’s. “How long ago did this happen, Doc?”

“Beth’s been dead two hours.” Tad stood up and nodded towards Vicki’s body. “She’s been dead four hours.”

“You mean there’s two hours difference between their times of death?” Sheriff Sawyer looked from one body to the other.

Joshua was also surprised. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would Beth wait two hours after killing Vicki before offing herself?”

“Could you be wrong?” Sheriff Sawyer asked the medical examiner.

“Not by two hours. They didn’t die at the same time.”

Both Sheriff Sawyer and Joshua looked from one body to the other, then back again.

“You know,” Joshua mumbled, “it doesn’t make sense for Beth to kill Vicki with a stake through the heart, then take out a gun, and shoot herself. I mean, if I was going to kill some-one, then kill myself, why not use the same weapon?”

Sheriff Sawyer agreed. “Why not shoot Vicki Rawlings and then shoot herself? Why go to the trouble of bringing in a stake and driving it through her heart before blowing your brains out?” He turned his attention back to Tad. “Any sexual activity?”

“No signs at all with Beth. Vicki’s not wearing any under-wear, but I don’t see any bruising on her inner thighs. You’ll have to wait for me to do the autopsy to find out for certain.”

The sheriff removed the bag covering Beth’s hand with the gun still stuck in her hand. Her fingers clutched the gun in a death grip.

Tad said, “Cadaver spasm. It happens when the brain shuts down instantly. I’ll have to break her fingers to get the weapon for you.”

“Awfully big gun for such a little girl,” Sheriff Sawyer observed.

Joshua studied the gun stuck in Beth’s hand. “Luger.  Nine millimeter. Looks kind of old.”

“You know something about guns, Mr. Thornton?” Sheriff Sawyer asked him.

“I am a Navy commander.”

“You’re a legal weenie,” the sheriff snickered. “Most legal weenies I know don’t know jack about guns.”

“I didn’t go straight into litigation from the academy.” Joshua could feel the sheriff’s gaze on him. “Look at these powder burns.”

“I get the feeling you’ve done this before.” Sheriff Sawyer motioned for his deputy to photograph her hand. “Don’t you be disturbing any evidence.” He handed Joshua a pair of evidence gloves and motioned for him to put them on in order to preserve the crime scene.

The powder burns from the gun were evident, as was an outline over the top of her hand in which there was no powder burn. “If she fired this gun on her own, there should be a powder burn over the top of her hand,” Joshua pointed out.

Sheriff Sawyer took Beth’s hand out of his. “Like I said, it’s a pretty big gun for such a little girl.” He showed Joshua her grip on the gun. Her fingers barely got around the trigger. The grasp was awkward and clumsy. Without saying anything more, he put the bag back on Beth’s hand and sealed it with the rubber band.

Joshua peered inside the closet to which the door was open.

Vicki’s wardrobe consisted of a variety of coats, pants and tops. There wasn’t one skirt or dress. Some of her clothes were hung up on hangers; others were in a pile on the floor. All of them were black.

Except for a blue-silver trench coat.

Joshua examined the coat hanging on a wire hanger.

“I certainly didn’t expect Vicki to go peacefully,” Sheriff Sawyer was remarking about the murder victim stretched out on the bed. “What are you doing, Mr. Thornton? I told you not to go disturbing any evidence.”

Joshua pulled the coat by the bottom hem out of the closet so it still hung on the hanger to display the front of it to the lawman. The front was splattered with blood and body tissue.

Sheriff Sawyer joined him at the closet. “That’s a man’s trench coat.” He examined the coat and its pockets. “We have more gloves.” The sheriff removed a bloody leather glove from one of the pockets. After sniffing it, he held it out for him to smell. “Carbon.”

“Whoever wore these gloves fired a gun,” Joshua ob-served. “And it’s too big for either Beth or Vicki.”

After replacing the glove in the pocket, Sheriff Sawyer told the deputy to get a picture of the coat and the closet.

Tad was making a note in his notepad when the sheriff said, “Thornton said you came here looking for Beth Davis. Considering all the trouble Vicki’s been causing you, I would have thought you would have stayed as far away from her as humanly possible.”

“I had no choice. It was imperative to get Beth into detox as soon as possible,” Tad said. “I didn’t want to come here.” He pointed in Joshua’s direction. “That’s why I brought him with me.”

“Why would you think Ms. Davis would be here?”

“Beth was on a binge. Vicki Rawlings is a drug dealer.”

“Wasn’t Ms. Davis a pharmacist?”

After Joshua wordlessly advised him that there was no point in hiding the truth, Tad said, “Beth got fired from her job. There’s speculation that she was supplying pills to Vicki Rawlings.”

Sheriff Sawyer laughed. “Speculation? You damn well talk like a lawyer.” He turned serious. “Was Ms. Davis afraid Vicki Rawlings was going to roll over on her to save her own neck?”

Joshua replied, “It’s only speculation at this point.”

Tad couldn’t take his eyes off Beth’s body.

“What condition was she in the last time you saw her?” the sheriff asked.

“Unconscious.” Joshua turned to Tad while he spoke to the sheriff. “Dr. MacMillan was the last one to see her.”

Crossing his arms across his chest, Sheriff Sawyer turned his attention to the doctor. “What condition was Beth Davis in when you last saw her?”

Tad was gone. He escaped the scene out the side door and into the barren backyard. He ran to the edge of the property before dropping to his knees and throwing up again. He jumped when he felt Joshua’s hand on his shoulder.

Joshua knelt next to him to offer him a handkerchief.

“She never got over you.” Tad fought the churning in his stomach.

“I know.” Joshua wanted to ask if Beth had shown any signs of being suicidal.

“Now is not a good time.” Tad threw up again.

Joshua rounded the corner of the mobile home to find the lot illuminated with spotlights. Through the glare, he could make out Tess Bauer standing before the cameras.

“This is Tess Bauer at the home of Victoria Rawlings, whose body has been found moments ago. From what we’ve been told, for the granddaughter of the Reverend Orville Rawlings and daughter of Wallace Rawlings, life has ended as violently as she lived it. She appears to have been murdered. According to an unidentified source close to the investigation, it appears that Ms. Rawlings was killed by a steel stake driven through her heart …”

Joshua ducked into the shadows to return to the crime scene.