A Killer Past (19 page)

T
HE
THREE
MOBILE
gang members were taken to the County Jail in Paw Paw. Phil volunteered to do the initial paperwork on them. Wally accompanied Jose Rodriguez in his ambulance ride to the hospital, and Jack stayed at the house. He kept Mary isolated in her bedroom while the county’s Crime Scene Unit gathered evidence of the break-in. Other than a few general questions, he didn’t ask her for a step-by-step description of what had happened. He wanted to leave that interview until everyone had left and just the two of them remained.

Once the house was cleared, he opened the bedroom door and told her to come on out. ‘Want some tea?’ he asked, leading the way to the kitchen and going directly to her coffee maker.

‘Sure,’ she said and sat down at the table.

‘You were lucky,’ he said, refilling the water reservoir. ‘They knocked this over, but it didn’t break.’

Mary said nothing, but as she absently rubbed the side of her right hand, she looked around her kitchen and into the living-room area. Jack knew she was taking in the damage the gang had done: the broken window, shattered glassware and dishes, emptied drawers, and knocked-over lamps.

As soon as the water heated, he prepared a mug of tea for her and a coffee for himself; then he sat opposite her. She still hadn’t said anything, and her silence bothered him. For the first time since they’d met, she looked all of her seventy-four years.

‘You OK?’ he asked, wondering if she might be in shock and if he should take her to the hospital … or call an ambulance.

‘I guess so.’

‘You want to talk about what happened here?’

That brought a small chuckle … and a ‘No.’

‘Well, I do.’ He didn’t pull out a notebook. He wanted her to see this as a friendly conversation. ‘Do you realize you just put a gang leader … an ex-con and probable drug pusher … in the hospital?’

‘So that was Rodriguez?’ She shook her head. ‘When he came down those stairs, I had no idea who he was.’

‘Being involved in a hit isn’t his style. Normally he lets others do the dirty work for him, makes sure he isn’t connected. I don’t understand why, personally, he was after you.’

‘My charming personality?’

She said it with a fake smile, which irritated Jack. ‘Don’t be coy, Mrs Harrington, or whatever your real name is. Something’s going on that’s bigger than a gang looking for revenge. Did you know your friend Burrows was at Rodriguez’s house this morning?’

‘That’s what he told me.’

‘So he was here? You talked to him this morning?’

She nodded. ‘He came to say goodbye. He’s flying back to Washington D.C.’

Jack hated to admit that was a relief. He still didn’t understand why Burrows made him so nervous. ‘Did he warn you that Rodriguez might come after you?’

‘In a way.’

She was still being evasive, which irked Jack. ‘Come on, Mary. Why did Rodriguez come here specifically for you?’

‘Why?’ She leaned back in her chair. ‘Because that’s the way David works. If you want someone dead, you make it look like someone else did it.’

Her calm accusation surprised Jack. ‘Burrows wants you dead? But why?’

She gave a small laugh. ‘I can’t tell you, Detective, or he’ll have to kill you, too.’

‘He’s not going to kill me.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that.’ Mary lifted her mug of tea, but before she took a sip, she added, ‘We have our ways.’

Jack noticed the ‘We.’ He also heard the pride in her voice, and he wondered if she might be right. Hadn’t he already sensed
something very dangerous about David Burrows?

‘How’s he going to know you told me?’

‘You’ll put something in one of your reports, or you’ll start doing some checking on the Internet, to see if what I told you was correct. He’ll know.’

Her confidence explained a lot. ‘He hacked into our computers, didn’t he? That message we all found this morning, he did that, didn’t he?’

‘I don’t know what message you mean, but yes, your computers have been hacked into. He needed to know what you’d discovered about me. He also found out about that gang from your computer.’

‘And the box the crime-scene boys found on the floor down in your basement,’ Jack said, ‘the one with the martial arts weapons. That’s yours, isn’t it?’

For a moment he thought she would deny it, then she gave a slight shrug. ‘I should have gotten rid of those weapons years ago. They certainly didn’t help me today.’

‘You said you’d never had any martial arts training.’ He remembered that clearly.

‘I said I hadn’t taken any classes since moving to Rivershore. Actually, I never took any classes. It was simply part of my training.’

Training she hadn’t forgotten, from what Jack could tell. ‘Training for what?’

‘For ways to kill people.’ She closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘I’m telling you too much.’

As far as he was concerned, she wasn’t telling him enough. ‘What people?’

‘Back then?’ She looked at him again and shrugged. ‘Spies. Political leaders. People the government couldn’t legitimately touch.’

‘You worked for the CIA?’

‘No. Even back then they had limits on what they could do.’ She pushed her chair away from the table and stood. ‘You know what, Sergeant? I’m hungry. All I’ve had today is a piece of toast. What about you? Hungry?’

She walked over to her refrigerator and opened it. Once again, her calm amazed him. ‘I wasn’t finished, Mrs Harrington.’

‘I have some leftover chicken. Or I could fix an omelet.’

‘Mrs Harrington, we need to talk.’

‘OK.’ She closed the refrigerator door and came back to the table, holding a chicken drumstick. ‘What do you want to talk about?’ She sat back down. ‘What happened today? It’s simple. Four guys – who evidently belong to a gang – broke into my house. I suppose they planned on robbing me. Their leader, this Jose Rodriguez, tripped going down the stairs, hit his head, and broke his arm. I was very lucky that the police arrived when they did.’ She took a bite of chicken, chewed it for a moment, then asked, ‘Why did you arrive when you did?’

‘Your neighbor called 911.’

She smiled. ‘Good for Ella. She called here right after the ambulance left. I told her I’d call her back as soon as I could.’

Mary looked over at the telephone, and Jack was afraid she’d get up and make that call before they were finished. ‘You can call her after I leave,’ he said, hoping she took that as an order.

To his surprise, she didn’t argue, simply took another bite of chicken. He kept talking. ‘We actually received several 911 calls. According to the dispatcher, the first one came from a man who hung up right after giving your address. She couldn’t trace the number and wasn’t sure if it was a prank or not … but then the call from Mrs Williams came in.’

Mary frowned. ‘I thought you could always trace 911 calls.’

‘It could have been from one of those throwaway phones.’

‘Maybe I’m wrong, then.’ She put the drumstick down and smiled. ‘Maybe he’s not trying to kill me.’

‘Rodriguez?’

‘No, David.’

Knowing David hadn’t totally thrown her to the wolves – or in this case, to Jose Rodriguez – made Mary feel better. Actually, it made sense. David didn’t want her dead, he wanted her back in the agency. And what better way to convince her to return than to force her to use her training. If she’d killed Rodriguez, she wouldn’t have been able to stay in Rivershore.

Too bad for David his plan didn’t work. She hadn’t killed Rodriguez, and so far only Rossini knew anything about her past.
And just a little at that. If she could keep him on her side, Mary Harrington had a future.

New energy in her step, she carried her empty tea mug to the sink and dumped the chicken drumstick in the garbage. ‘David said you’ve been having trouble with this gang. You need to get a warrant, and check out Mr Rodriguez’s place.’

‘You’re now dictating police business?’

He sounded a bit miffed. Not a good way to keep him on her side. She softened her suggestion. ‘Didn’t I hear Rodriguez was in jail and only released a couple years ago? Wouldn’t he now be on parole?’

She could tell from his look that Rossini understood what she was saying; nevertheless, she added, ‘Does this county have any drug-sniffing dogs?’

Rossini frowned. ‘If Burrows planted drugs, we won’t get a conviction.’

‘I don’t know if David planted any drugs, but he doesn’t make mistakes. If you find drugs, you’ll get your conviction.’

Once Rodriguez was back in jail, she doubted if any of that gang would bother her again. She’d also bet a search of Rodriguez’s home would reveal the whereabouts of her nunchuck, but she wasn’t sure how to ask Rossini to give it back. Which was really a shame.

‘Now, is there anything else?’ she asked.

‘We’re not through,’ he grumbled, but he did get up. ‘I’m going to question those three boys and Rodriguez. Something’s going on that you’re not telling me.’

‘I doubt they know anything.’ She smiled and headed for her front door. ‘You’re the one who knows more than you should.’

One down, and one to go
, Mary thought as she watched Rossini get into a police car and drive off. Now all she had to do was figure out where Peter Dubois was staying.

A
T
THE
HOSPITAL
, Jack found Wally standing in the hallway outside of Rodriguez’s room. ‘Your car’s parked outside,’ Jack said, stopping beside the chief. ‘You talked to him yet?’

‘I have.’ Wally smiled. ‘He’s saying she lured him to her house, and then she got him down in her basement, and started hitting him with a crowbar.’

‘How’s he explain the broken window near her back door, or the knife we found on the basement floor?’

‘Says they thought she was in trouble and broke in to help her. As for the knife …’ Wally chuckled. ‘He says he had that for protection.’

‘Didn’t do him much good.’ Jack waited for a nurse to walk by before going on. ‘You heard from Phil? What are those guys saying?’

‘Haven’t heard a word.’ Wally pointed at a sign down the hall on the wall. ‘No cellphones allowed. I’ll step outside and call him in a bit, but I’m waiting for the doctor to come back with the initial tox screen. I’m pretty sure the knife Rodriguez was carrying is a violation of his parole, but if he’s also using, maybe we can tie him to that delivery we stopped. I’d sure like to find some drugs in his house.’

‘Mary thinks we should check the house right away.’

‘Mary?’ Wally gave him a sideways look.

‘Mrs Harrington.’ Jack shook his head. Even he couldn’t believe he was taking advice from a citizen. ‘She seemed to feel we’d find something, especially if we had a drug-sniffing dog; but we’d better act fast.’

‘She know something we don’t?’

‘Not that she would admit, but that friend of hers, Burrows, was at Rodriguez’s house this morning.’

‘Think he planted something?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Well, only way we will know is if we look.’ Wally pointed toward the front of the hospital. ‘Take my car and head over to
Paw Paw, find out who Rodriguez’s parole officer is, tell him what’s up and what we need. Once you have a search warrant, grab Phil, Mendoza, and VanDerwell. Have them go with you to Rodriguez’s place.’

Ella called almost immediately after Sergeant Rossini drove off. Mary didn’t really want to talk to her friend, not right then, but considering the fact that Ella had probably saved her life, Mary resigned herself to a long conversation.

‘Thank you,’ she said, over and over. And she meant it. Sure, she’d taken care of the Rodriguez guy, but she might not have been as lucky with the remaining three gang members. No telling how long they could have kept her trapped in the basement, or what might have happened if all three had come down those steps at once.

‘You know, I wasn’t the only one who called 911.’

‘So I’ve heard.’

‘Our Neighborhood Watch is working.’

‘Thank goodness.’ Mary meant it. She considered herself lucky. Sure, the survival training she’d received so many years before and the fact that she went to the gym on a regular schedule had helped, but if she hadn’t kept a crowbar in the basement, and the guy Rossini called Rodriguez hadn’t been so cocksure he could take her with that knife, their confrontation might have turned out differently.

‘I heard you clobbered one of them,’ Ella said.

‘He fell down the stairs.’ Mary wanted that version told, and knowing Ella, it would be repeated to anyone who asked – and even those who didn’t ask. ‘Broke his arm and knocked himself out.’

‘I know how much you dislike going down to the basement,’ Ella said. ‘Did they force you down there?’

‘No, I was putting something away.’ Something she no longer had. Mary had wanted to tell the crime-scene people the box was hers, but she’d remained silent as they carried it to their van. Much good her silence had done. Rossini knew the weapons were hers.

Damn, she’d said too much to him. Blame it on shock … and anger. She’d nearly spilled the beans, told him everything. Thank goodness she came to her senses in time.

‘I can’t believe how calm you sound.’ Ella seemed surprised by that. ‘I’d be a basket case if someone broke into my house.’

‘It all happened so fast, and with you calling 911 …’ Mary let her words trail off. David had also called 911, but it was Ella’s call that got action. ‘Thank you,’ she said again.

‘I’m just glad I saw them sneaking around your back yard. They must have parked on the other street and cut through your neighbor’s to get to your place.’

That made sense. ‘I didn’t have any idea what was up until I heard them break the laundry room window.’ Even then she hadn’t been sure what was going on.

‘Are you going back to your son’s house tonight?’

Mary hadn’t thought about that. Did she want to spend the night in her house, all alone? Anyone or anything could climb through the laundry room window while she was sleeping. But go back to Robby’s house? Spend more time with Clare? That morning her daughter-in-law had once again asked Mary if she’d found the information Clare would need to trace the Smith’s family tree. The woman just wouldn’t let that subject be.

‘No, I’ll be here,’ she said. At the moment she had the door to that back room closed, blocking off the cold air coming through the broken window, but she needed to get the glass replaced or something covering the opening before dark.

‘You could spend the night here,’ Ella offered. ‘I have that extra bedroom, if you don’t mind sharing it with the cats.’

Mary did mind sharing it, and it wasn’t just the number of cats that Ella owned that bothered her. Even with two litter boxes, the smell in the house – especially in that room – was overpowering.

‘Thanks for offering,’ she said. ‘I’ll stay here. But I do need to call someone about the broken window, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to hang up now.’

‘Oh, sure … certainly.’ Ella sounded disappointed. ‘I understand. I’m glad you’re all right.’

Another thank-you, and Mary was finally able to hang up. She’d just started to get up to find her phone book so she could look up a glass repair shop when the phone rang again. She hoped it wasn’t another neighbor calling. If so, she’d have to be polite and
once again explain what happened, and she might never get that window fixed.

But it wasn’t a neighbor on the phone. It was her daughter-in-law.

‘Oh, thank God, you’re finally off the phone. Mother Harrington, is Shannon there?’