Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (19 page)

“Yeah, most of these people don’t open their eyes till around noon.” Buck yawned.

That caused Penny to yawn widely. I stuck my finger in her mouth, and she bit it. I pulled back, yelling, “Hey, not nice.”

“Well, sticking your finger in my mouth isn’t, either” She grinned then leaned over to say in my ear, “I remember things you did with that finger last night, sailor.”

I smiled sheepishly and changed the subject. “I’m going to call Trapper at a decent hour and fill him in on our findings. Maybe he has some news for us, like both Waters and Morgan were killed in a shootout with the law,” I said hopefully.

Buck laughed. “I have a feeling those two will be a little hard to catch.”

“Maybe you can talk them to death in their sleep.” The voice came from Deacon on the couch. “I know it’s killing me, listening to you while I’m trying to sleep.”

Buck threw a donut at Deacon. It landed on his neck. He picked it up and started eating it.

“See, you put a donut in front of a cop, and they shove it in their mouth,” Buck roared.

Deacon pulled his service revolver out of its holster and held it up in the air, yelling, “Say that one more time, scumbucket!”

Penny piped up, “Now boys, stop fighting or I won’t have sex with either one of you.”

Buck’s eyes went wide, and Deacon sat up on the couch in a flash. She laughed out loud.

They couldn’t top that, so we sat in silence for a while as Penny grinned and giggled.

Around 11 A.M. everyone was up and straightening the mess they made last night. Luther was supervising, making sure it was as clean as they found it. Deacon, Buck and I were looking over the list of references the apartment manager gave me, trying to decide how we wanted to handle it.

To take a line from Buck’s philosophy, I said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”. I told Penny we were heading out again. She gave me a kiss and subtly brushed my crotch, saying to protect myself. I just stared at her as she ran off, laughing. I was getting hard, covering myself with the file folder I got to keep our papers in. I would get back at her.

We drove Deacon’s patrol car down to Roseville, the first address from the references. It was a bust. The address was a bump and paint shop, and the person named wasn’t there. The manager said he had no idea who we were talking about when we mentioned Morgan. We left. The second address in Fraser was also a bust. It was a Dollar Tree store. We had to ask anyway in case Morgan worked there. They said he hadn’t, didn’t know him. Our boy was playing fast and loose with references. Shows no one checks them.

We sat in the patrol car feeling annoyed. I pulled out my Palm cell phone and dialed the next reference. It was a massage parlor. I laughed, said he was stroking everyone. I dialed the next on the list, back in Clinton Township, and a woman answered. It sounded like Waters. I couldn’t be sure, but I had the tingle. You know the tingle. It comes through intuition and paying attention. I felt it came from when I heard the voice on the VHS tape. It sure sounded like her on the phone. I waved at Deacon and pointed to the address on the list, signaled him to go. He did.

“May I speak to Davey?” She paused a long time and then asked who this was.

“I’m a friend of Mick’s. He said he was having trouble with his van and couldn’t let Davey use it, but asked me if I could let him use mine. I don’t like loaning out my wheels to just any one, but Mick vouched for Davey.” I was working off the top of my head.

She paused again, then said, “Davey isn’t here right now, and your number doesn’t come up on my caller ID. Give it to me, and I’ll have him call you.”

I had three cell phones. Don’t ask why. I gave her the least used one and said I would be at that number later in the day. She paused for a moment, hopefully writing down the number, then said she’d give it to him and hung up. I told my team about the call.

Deacon asked why she didn’t wonder where we got her number. It was a good question. I had a feeling she might be suspicious now.

I called Trapper and hurriedly explained what was going on. I gave him the address, and he said to not do anything until he got there. He also said he’d shoot me in the balls if we did.

We found the house, parked down the street and waited for about 10 minutes before three township patrol cars came roaring in followed by Trapper and Becker in their unmarked car. We got out and followed everyone up to the house. The police covered the front and back of the house, and Trapper banged on the front door, yelling the usual police line, “Open up, it’s the police.” There was no response. He called again. Nothing. So they took a battering ram to the door and stormed in. The police scoured through the house, yelling “clear” in each room. They found no one in the house.

Buck, had stayed by the car. Deacon and I went back to the car and waited for Trapper. He stormed over and said the bitch left. The coffee was still warm, the TV still on, cigarette in the ashtray, but she was gone. I didn’t know if he would yell at us, but he just looked at our ragtag little group and said she was on the run. Then he strode off. I was shocked that we wouldn’t hear a blast from him. Deacon whispered, “Damn.”

The cops inquired at the neighbors’ as to the type of car Julia might be driving.  They got a fairly decent description, put out an APB and searched the house.

I asked Deacon to check with the other cops to find out what kind of car Waters fled in. Trapper waved me over to him and said, “I appreciate the heads up on the killers, but I’m warning you not to get too close. I don’t want to have to scrape you up off the pavement.”

I said he’d be the first to know anything we found. He was called to the house and left me standing alone. Deacon and Buck came over. The big cop said the car was identified as a Blue Dodge Charger, about 2004 or 2005. I said the black Bonneville must belong to Morgan, or he borrowed it.

A car pulled up to the house as we stood there. A man of about forty got out and asked us what the hell was going on. Deacon asked he who he was.

The man said, “I own this house. I got a call from a neighbor, friend of mine, saying the cops were crawling all over the place. Is the renter in trouble?” The man evidently was the landlord.

I walked to him and asked, “Who is the renter?”

He said, “I rented it to a man named John Stafford.”

I pulled the list of references out, and the name was on the list. At least Morgan had one real friend on the list.

I pointed out Trapper to the man and told him he was in charge. The man hustled off. We heard a lot of commotion from the back yard and went there. There was a lot of yelling from the cops. They had discovered a body in the garage under some tarps. Trapper brought the landlord over, and he identified the body as that of John Stafford. Well, so much for staying with friends, I mused.

I looked at my partners and said, “They are now no longer just killing cheerleaders.” That worried me.

Buck said, “Could be Stafford was getting too nosy as to their intentions so they took him out.”

We got back in Deacon’s patrol car and left before anyone questioned why we were using it for unauthorized purposes. We drove to a nearby restaurant to get some lunch.

“Well, we now know they’re still in the area, and we have eliminated every place they can stay so far,” I said.

Buck added, “Not to mention, they have to leave their possessions every time they get chased out.”

Deacon swallowed a big bite of sandwich and said, “They either have a big stash of cash or using credit cards.”

“Since Waters’ father died, maybe she came into some inheritance,” I speculated. “Deacon, can you sneak around and find out if there has been anyone checking on credit cards?” He agreed to make a few calls.

We ate in silence, then paid and went back to the car. We sat there wondering what to do now. I said there was one last name on the reference list, but there was no time for them to move in there so it would be a waste of time to follow it up. We decided to go back to Buck’s place and wait it out.

*

Chapter Sixteen

We got back to Buck’s place around 3 P.M., I found Penny relaxing on a chaise lounge in the back yard, taking in the sun. There were other females in various stages of undress spread out on towels and blankets around the yard. I tried not to look. Penny wore a skimpy green tank top, shorts and flip-flops and looked delicious. I wanted to bite her all over. She took my hand as I came up and yanked me down to kiss me, then warned me about looking at the half-naked women. I pulled over another lawn chair and sat, relating our journey of the day and admiring her still great legs.

“I’m sure Waters is really pissed by now. She’s going to want to get back at you if she finds you were behind her having to move so many times,” she said with a touch of worry in her voice.

“Screw her! She brought this on herself with her misguided loyalties. How fast she forgot the crap her father put her and her mother through.” I was pissed about it.

“In the years I’ve interviewed people, I’ve concluded that we’re guided by emotion and not logic. Most people are gullible. I see it all the time. I’m sure Daddy Dear died a horrible death, and the cheerleaders are to blame. Boohoo. He was a drunk and mean before we did what we did. But she got sucked into his death bed confessions.” She looked angry.

It was the first time she spoke of the incident. Maybe she was willing to get over it now. Plus, seeing how Julia Waters turned out, she had no sympathy for the woman. Neither did I.

“Yeah, she’s risking a great career as a lawyer and advocate for abused women to commit multiple murders and will most likely end up on death row. Stupid.” I shook my head.

“What are you going to do now?” she wondered.

“Well, we decided it was a waste of time tracking her, so we are going to sit back and wait. Waters can’t finish her vendetta without you, so you’re the bait.”

She looked a bit startled by that comment. “I’m not real keen on putting my body out like a minnow. What if she bites, and you lose her. I’m dead?”

“We have enough fire power between the weapons Buck and I have, and I’ve seen the arsenal the bikers are hiding. They get started on her, they’ll need a big scoop to scrape up all the parts left.” I grinned. She didn’t. “Really, stop worrying. We aren’t going to let anything happen to you.”

“You better not, or you’ll never get any more sex from me,” she threatened.

“I thought of that. You are the only woman who’d put up with rolling in the hay with me.”

“Remember that, sweetie. Oh, and don’t forget Morgan. Waters may be the driving force, but it’s been Davey doing most of the killings.”

That was something I thought I’d let go for now. One killer is bad, two killers is trouble.

Buck came around the house, eyed the sunbathers, stopped in his tracks and said, “Whoa, sea of flesh. I like.” His walrus smile spread around his face.

“Quit drooling, Buck, it doesn’t make you look good.” Penny laughed. 

I asked, “What’s up?”

“Need you up front, man. We’re plotting strategy.” He took one more lingering look around the yard. I pushed him towards the front. He said, “OK, OK, I’m going.”

Deacon and Luther were sitting on the porch as Buck and I came around. We grabbed lawn chairs and sat facing them.

Deacon spoke first. “I was listening to the police bands and heard they were chasing Waters up I-94, but lost her when she ran a couple of cars and a semi-truck into a big tie-up on the freeway. Cops had to stop, she kept going.”

“Damn,” I huffed out. “No mention of her brother?”

“They said she was alone in the car.”