Code 61 (14 page)

“Sally, you go up first.” I leaned toward her, and whispered, “Safe and holster your weapon.” She did, with a snap as she lowered the hammer drop. But she did it reluctantly. If you're spooked, though, the place for your gun isn't in your hand. “When you get to the top, tell everybody that we've got him and he's okay.” She had a walkie-talkie, but with the combination of limestone foundation and beaucoup trees, there was little chance of her contacting anybody from where we were.

Toby said, “Be careful, lady.”

Sally climbed up a pile of soft dirt that had washed out of one of the limestone block walls, stuck one foot into a large horizontal crack, and simply stepped out of the foundation and back onto firm ground. I could see her removing her walkie-talkie from her utility belt, and heard her calling “81.” That was the number assigned to Knockle.

“Hokay, Toby. Look, we'll have Sally grab your hand, and I'll give you an assist from down here. See how she got to the top using that dirt pile?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Sure.” His head was moving around like he was going to see something. Fat chance of that in the dark.

“Just don't step in her tracks, or you'll sink down too far.” I shined my flashlight on Sally's path out of the foundation, just to let him know exactly what I meant. I looked up, and Sally indicated she was ready. She held out a hand, and helped Toby up as I pushed.

I went up the same way that Sally had, but sank appreciably farther into the dirt. I had to put my flashlight down, and use both hands to get to the top of the wall, and as I pushed myself upright, one of the blocks I was kneeling on came loose and went thudding back into the foundation.

“You okay?” asked Sally.

“Yeah, just fine.”

“You sure make a racket,” she said.

I assumed the lead, with Toby close behind me, and Sally bringing up the rear. “Just where can I find this Dan the vampire?” I asked.

“I don't know. Hell, anywhere. He could be down in the woods back there,” said Toby, his voice tense. “I don't know.”

Almost as if by magic, Sally was in the lead.

“What's he do?” I asked. “Drink blood?”

“Sometimes.” He sounded out of breath.

“You want to stop for a few seconds?” Even though Sally had said he was all right, I didn't want him fainting from the pain of a possible sprained knee or ankle. It was still too far to carry him.

“No!” he whispered, but with considerable emphasis.

As we got closer to the house, and the trees thinned, the headlights of the cars we'd positioned to help began to interfere with our vision.

“Tell Eighty-one to turn off the car lights, just parking lights will do,” I said. Sally complied.

They went out about five seconds later. Much better. I realized that Toby hadn't really complained about any pain since we got out of the foundation. “You okay, Toby?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Just fine. Dead man walkin', that's me.” I thought the sarcasm was appropriate this time.

It was a strange situation, really. I was in possession of a name, purportedly that of a suspect. That was good. The fact that I didn't have the foggiest idea who this Daniel Peel was didn't bother me much, seeing as it was fairly easy to find people in the information age. I was about to set Toby down and have a nice, heart-to-heart chat. Whether or not this Peel was actually a suspect didn't really bother me. Just the additional name would enable us to open more avenues of inquiry, as it were. Sure didn't hurt to have Peel's name, though. Not a bit. The problem, in a nutshell, was Toby's announcement that Peel was a vampire. I mean, it's always better to have your only witness not be delusional. Sanity really does enhance credibility, no matter what they say.

We kept Toby outside in the back of a squad, with Sally standing right by his door, while Hester and I talked.

“Vampire? You're kidding. Carl? You are, aren't you?”

“No. 'Fraid not. That's what he says, anyway.”

“Named Daniel?”

I found myself getting a little defensive. “Well, nobody's really called 'Count' much anymore.”

“And,” Hester asked, struggling, “is there, maybe, a werewolf named Bob?” She lost the battle, and kind of giggled. “Jesus, Houseman. Where do you
ffnd
these people?”

“Okay, okay.” I sighed. “But, we do have Toby saying that this Daniel Peel dude killed Edie. And he did run out of the house…. ”

“He probably couldn't keep a straight face anymore,” she said. Then a deep breath. “Okay, right. Look, it's just late, and we've all had a long day, and it looks like it's just getting a good start, so, what do we need?”

It was good to get back to business. “We need an interview with Toby, a good one, and real soon. First of all”—I thought for a second—“I don't think we want Toby back in the house with the rest of them, especially not with the vampire business. If we do have something to that, I don't want them to know that we know.”

“Can we keep him isolated?” Hester asked the question even as she came up with the answer. “Of course we can. He's a runner.”

“You got it. A material witness, who's demonstrated his desire to flee.”

According to the Iowa Code, any officer may arrest any person as a material witness, provided that the person is a material witness to a felony, and if the person might be unavailable for subpoena. Toby claimed knowledge of a felony, all right. He'd already run once.

And we were, via the bridge across the Mississippi at Freiberg, less than five miles from Wisconsin. We can't subpoena from another state, and we sure can't subpoena somebody we can't ffnd, even if they stay in Iowa.

I went to the squad car.

“Hey, Toby?”

“What?”

“You know that I'm a deputy sheriff, don't you?”

“Now what?” He had a right to be suspicious, and he certainly appeared to be.

“Well, Toby, since you've run once, and since you're a material witness in a felony case, I'm placing you under arrest as a material witness.”

“You can't do that!” They always say that. Hell, even their attorneys say that.

“It's done, Toby,” I said. “Don't be too bothered about it. I told you about that earlier today, didn't I? We'll take good care of you.” I gestured to Sally. “Go ahead and take him in. Stop and have him checked at the Maitland Hospital before you book him. Just in case of some lawsuit over his leg.” I moved a bit closer to him. “Okay, now, you've got the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court or courts of law. You have the right to an attorney, and to have him present during questioning.” I smiled. “Got that?”

“I don't believe this,” said Toby. “I just don't believe this.”

“But, do you understand what I've just said? You gotta understand it, Toby.”

“Yeah, yeah, I understand all that shit. But it just isn't gonna help, is all.”

“Don't worry,” I said. “It should be a lot easier than running through the woods in the dark.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“Hey, Toby, just consider it revenge for scaring the hell out of me.” I smiled.

“What?”

“When you ran right by us in the woods. Just before you fell in the foundation.”

He shook his head. “I never ran by you. I was lying down until I got up when you turned your lights on. When I ran into the hole.” He gave kind of a satisfied smile. “Like I said, dude. Like I said.”

Sally and I exchanged what I would call meaningful looks and then she glanced back toward the woods. “I think we'll be leaving now,” she said quickly. She turned to Toby, in the backseat behind the thick Plexiglas screen. “Now you behave, Toby, and just be quiet back there, and put on your seat belt.” She got into the squad, and left the door open while she buckled herself in.

“Don't pick up any hitchhikers,” I said. That earned me a look from Sally. “Don't forget, cite under Code Chapter 804.11. Make certain you include that.”

“Okay, boss.”

“And no questions to him until one of us gets down there.”

I went back to Hester. “We can talk to him when we get back to Maitland. Ought to be good enough.”

“You know what bothers me?”

“Tonight? Hard to tell,” I said. “What?”

“The man who joined us at the restaurant. That Chester dude.”

“Yeah.”

“So, somebody shows up who hunts vampires, then we have a suspect say that our victim is killed by a vampire. What're the odds?”

“Tonight? Pretty good.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I'm afraid we better talk to this Chester guy again. Not right away. Damn. Not tonight, anyway.” She brushed a wayward strand of hair from her forehead. “But this stinks. It almost feels like some sort of setup.”

“Maybe … ”

“Do you want your office, then, to get hold of this vampire hunter and set up an appointment?”

“Oh, Harry will keep us in touch,” I said, half kidding. “Right now, the two of us are the only people who know all the connections. I'd like to keep it that way.”

“There's a third one, Carl.” She was beginning to smile, broadly.

“Who?”

“Dangerous Dan the Vampire Man,” she said, and snickered. “Honest to God, I'm never coming to Nation County again.”

“We're entertaining, you gotta admit,” I said.

“Right. So, anyway, regardless, then we need a search warrant application for the house and related property, real quick.” She looked tired. “And then we need to do the damned search, and in a house this big, that could take a day or more.” She regarded the Mansion, looming in the dark. “Easily. Can your department stand the cost of putting the residents up for the night?”

Well, we sure as hell couldn't leave them in the house.

“Let me call Lamar,” I said, “but I think we should talk to the group inside, first.”

“Sure.”

We explained to Hanna, Huck, Kevin, and Melissa that we were going to make out an application for a search warrant, and submit it to a judge.

“Then what?” asked Huck.

“Then,” I explained, “the judge either issues the warrant or he doesn't. If he does, we begin the search.”

“If he doesn't?”

“Then,” I said, “we go home to bed.”

“What about us?” asked Melissa.

“Well, that's the tough part,” I said. “We can't let you just go about your business, because we have the right to secure the premises while we make application to search it.”

“You mean we can't go to our rooms?” This from Hanna.

“Not without an escort,” I said.

“I don't think you can do that,” said Kevin. “I don't think that's legal.”

I sighed. “Okay, let me explain it this way. If I tell you it's legal, and it isn't, then I can't use anything in court that I find here at the house. See?”

He just looked at me.

“Neither can I use anything that I'm led to by any evidence in the house that I've discovered under the search warrant.” He was still quiet. I sure had their attention, though. “Judges call that the fruits of a poisoned tree. Means it's all tainted and unusable. Okay so far?”

“Yes.”

“Good. So, then, you understand that when I say we sure as hell
can
do that, that only an idiot would tell you that if it wasn't true, because then it would totally screw up his investigation. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“So you don't have to worry, even if I
am
an idiot.” I grinned. “And what are the odds?”