Die-Off (23 page)

‘What about now?’

‘Now I’m cold and sitting down along a river thinking somebody tried to kill me today and I need to do something about it.’

She was quiet now but he knew she wasn’t through talking about Colson.

‘Jim might have been a cop somewhere. Sometimes we’d pass a cop parked on the side of the road writing a report or whatever and he’d say I know what that feels like. Or we’d see a cop eating alone in a diner and he’d make some comment. He’d talked about going someplace warmer, Hawaii, or Mexico, even though his Spanish sucked. He was always talking about getting the money he needed to go somewhere else. That’s how he got into the animal thing, to make that money to go somewhere beautiful and warm where he could be anybody.’

‘You must have asked him about the gun when the call got made to me.’

‘I did and it was one of the answers he uses, that someone told him one night when he was bartending. You know, late at night and close to closing and he’s the only bartender and no one is at the bar until this guy comes in and orders a Jim Beam or something and then tells him he killed two girls and the gun is buried in a fishing tackle box three quarters of a mile from the Condit Dam up in Washington.’

The tackle box was very much a police secret and it was the first thing she had told him that confirmed everything. She was sending him a message telling him that, but he wasn’t sure what the message was yet or how to read it.

‘I know a lot about him and I can tell you it was better before he got comfortable here. When he stopped worrying so much that he was going to get found he started to bully people. He likes making people afraid of him. He made this Mexican girl who wasn’t legal and was cleaning the Methuselah bar at night give him blow jobs. He didn’t care about the sex. He was getting plenty of that anyway. He just wanted to break her down and make her obey him. He’d call me over to watch.’

‘And you’d watch?’

‘I was curious and frightened of him. I’m more frightened now that he has money. He did a smart thing up here. He figured out how to move things quietly. He moves plenty of dope grown here in Humboldt, but you would never know that because he doesn’t deal in it. The same guys that carry the animal parts move the dope.’

‘He probably learned that from the Mexican cartel he works with.’

Marquez saw her flinch at that and she turned her face quickly and changed the subject just as fast.

‘You got me out of the cabin and I’m going to help you, but you really missed a chance with me this afternoon. I would have made you feel so good it would have stayed with you the rest of your life.’

She pointed.

‘Here come the cops.’

Lisa Sorzak made her statement to the police and didn’t give her name as Lisa X. She said Sorzak and also said she had no idea why she was targeted. She wondered aloud if they were actually after Marquez and added that she was still naked when Marquez returned and knocked on the door, so she just made it out in time.

The two men were arrested at gunpoint as they made their way back to the river bridge. They had no other way across but claimed they were returning from scouting fishing sites for next season and their boat was stolen when they were on foot along the shoreline.

That story changed after they were separated and were asked for more details. Marquez listened to that questioning and about an hour later it came out that one was a parole violator wanted for an armed robbery and murder in Nebraska. The other didn’t have any criminal record and neither knew anything about a cabin that had been burned. Marquez was never close enough to them to identify either in a line-up so he didn’t try. The Fed who stopped by after the Nebraska felon was identified summed it up.

‘The asshole going back to a murder trial and prison may want to trade on what he knows later, but admitting to burning a cabin and trying to name who hired him isn’t going to get him anything. If he goes down for the Nebraska murder he’s looking at a life sentence already. Your best chance is the other man if you can track him after they kick him loose.’

And they had to kick him loose. He was out the next day and by then Lisa Sorzak had disappeared and Marquez got a call from Voight that took him south.

W
hen her cell rang Maria debated answering. She really didn’t want to talk to Voight again. She let it ring twice more and walked outside so no one at work would overhear.

‘I’ve got just a few questions about Kevin Witmer, and they won’t take long.’

‘They can’t.’

‘We’re on the same side, Maria. Give me some help here. How long have you known Witmer?’

‘Since grade school but we didn’t really become friends until high school. Same with Ridley and the three of us were buds for awhile, but that ended when I moved here and started this job. Part of it ending was about Kevin’s dope business.’

‘How long has Kevin been dealing?’

‘It depends what you call dealing.’

‘How long has he been seriously at it?’

‘In high school he sold a little and always had some to sell and now I think he’s got a lot more sources.’

‘And the sources are up north?’

‘Not where you are, mostly from Humboldt, maybe some from farther north, and I don’t know anything except rumor. Have you talked to Ridley Daniels?’

‘I’ve left messages. Do you know people who buy from him now?’

‘No, and I’m not protecting him or anything like that. I just don’t know, but what’s up with him selling dope? Do you think a dope grower might have killed them?’

That idea had circulated right after they were killed and she knew from talking to Voight he was totally tuned into that, which was why she was surprised he was on it today.

‘Until a few days ago Kevin hadn’t seen me in years. He’s not going to talk to me about his dope business if that’s what you’re thinking. Besides, selling dope is still illegal.’

‘Don’t tell that to people around here.’

Voight cleared his throat. He was getting to the reason why he called and Maria could tell.

‘Sarah and Terry may have visited someone who supplies him and then gone to a party that individual invited them to and when that happened a man at the party got very angry they were there. He may have threatened the individual who invited them. And it’s not the same as what you’re remembering from Facebook about their murders being related to visiting grow fields. Did either ever say anything to you about that?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Maybe?’

‘I called Sarah and I don’t remember what day it was because I called them every day. I was supposed to be on the trip, so if I didn’t call them they called me. That was our way of making up for me not being there. This was a morning when they were at a place on the river where the cell reception was lousy and we didn’t talk long. But she said the night before they had been to a weird party. It could have been that party.’

‘That’s all she said about it?’

‘Yes. I think it was two days after they left Crescent City.’

‘Maria, I need your help finding out if they were at a party where the person who invited them got cut on the arm with a knife.’

‘It’s weird this is coming up now.’

‘I know it’s weird and I’m trying to get to the name of who got hurt. If I can get to that person, maybe I can get to who killed them.’

‘Why are you calling the one who got hurt an “individual” or a “person” but the other one, the one who might have threatened Terry and Sarah, is a man.’

‘I believe it’s a woman who got cut but I’m not sure yet.’

‘Okay, okay, let me ask some people, but I really can’t talk to Kevin or Ridley. They just tried to get me killed.’

She told him her story and how she figured out when she was in the ambulance what Kevin did to her. Voight listened without interrupting and it made her like him a little more.

‘I’d appreciate anything you can do, Maria. This man may have come on to Sarah at a party before he got angry they were there. He may be the one who painted the side of their vehicle. He may have also painted road signs to mark where they were found.’

‘And you’re just finding that out now?’

‘It’s only an idea at this point and a very thin lead that Kevin Witmer might be able to help with.’

‘Then why don’t you tell him you’ll close his dope business and put him in prison if he doesn’t come across?’

‘He’s smart. A DEA agent up here told me they’ve looked at him for years and haven’t been able to get anywhere. But you might be able to. Will you at least try once more?’

She felt the fight go out of her and sadness flood in.

‘I’ll try.’

M
arquez listened to Muller’s account. The SOU followed the man from the Sacramento Hyatt to the clean new ENTR building on Cambridge Street in Palo Alto. He didn’t drive straight there but neither did he strain to lose anyone tailing him. What that said to Marquez was the man believed he got in and out of the second hatchery without being seen. It said he worked for ENTR or someone within the company, so they could discard the idea that ENTR was ‘one hundred percent with them.’

Or perhaps videotaping Fish and Game officers was the standard information-gathering method of a firm whose business was built around intellectual property. Marquez doubted that but the whole thing didn’t anger him the way it did Muller. He believed the truth lay somewhere between Barbara Jones and Hauser. There probably was a shadow operation running in the background and Barbara Jones might not know anything about it.

After the call with Muller, he called Jones and left her a message. He left another for Maria and then Muller called back.

‘When do you get back to the Bay Area?’

‘Later tonight.’

‘We may need your help with Faesy. He’s in his food truck headed up the coast. We had him set up for a delivery tomorrow in Compton and now he’s on his way north. We thought he was going to his girlfriend’s in Ojai but he’s already past Santa Barbara and the tusks he’s supposed to deliver tomorrow are with him, so it’s not happening as agreed. After the meeting at headquarters I thought he was with us, but now I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s not answering his phone and I’ve got to leave half the team in the south. Depending where Faesy goes, I may need you to help cover him. Are you good with that or are you too used to sleeping through the night nowadays?’

‘Call me when you know.’

His phone rang again soon after he hung up with Muller and at first he thought it was Muller calling back but it was Voight.

‘What were you doing holed up in a cabin with a woman?’

‘Where did you hear that?’

‘From your wife.’ Voight laughed, and the laugh was derisive but there was also humor. ‘I heard it from a deputy in Weaverville who said you apprehended an escaped convict.’

‘Yeah, they hiked up to her cabin with a couple of assault weapons and whatever accelerant they set the fire with in a backpack. Did you get my message a few days ago?’

‘I got it and I want to talk. I’ve been thinking about you. How close are you to Yreka?’

‘Are you serious about talking or is this another game?’

‘I’m serious.’

He was close to Yreka but after Muller’s call knew he should keep driving, keep pushing, yet this might be the moment with Voight. He was just ahead of a storm blowing in out of the Gulf of Alaska and forecast to bring the first hard cold rain of the fall. Off to his right he saw it coming and the smart thing was to stay on the road and not lose time.

‘Marquez?’

‘I’m here and I’m not far from you. I can stop for about an hour. How about we meet at that restaurant you like?’

Voight’s car was there as he drove up and got out, his muscles stiff from the drive and sore from yesterday. He slid into the booth and listened to Voight order the same roast beef, mashed potatoes, and gravy he’d ordered when they were last here. Marquez ordered fried chicken and iced tea. He didn’t get what Voight liked about the restaurant, but they definitely knew him here.

‘What were you doing at a cabin up on the Trinity?’

‘Tracking down the woman who made the call with the White Salmon gun tip.’

‘Say that again.’

‘I was looking for Lisa Sorzak and found her. She gave me the name of the man who calls himself Rider. It’s Jim Colson.’

Voight settled his beer back onto the table.

‘Do you believe her?’

‘I do, though I’m not sure yet why she’s telling me. I got her name from the owners of the Methuselah Tavern in Crescent City. That’s the place I told you about last time we had anything close to a talk. The owners are named Lila and Geoff Philbrick. Sorzak and Colson were the first two employees when the place opened a decade ago.’

‘Colson is Rider?’

‘That’s what Sorzak is claiming.’

‘What’s wrong with her? What’s your hesitation there?’

‘She also goes by Lisa X and it’s not really clear to me where she’s coming from. She owns a bar in Weaverville and through a patron there and a Trinity warden I found her in a cabin along the Trinity. I told her to expect your call and that you’re working the Ellis and Steiner murders.’

‘Did she already know that?’

‘She seemed to.’

Marquez opened a small notebook, turned it around on the table and Voight put on reading glasses as the waitress refilled Marquez’s ice tea. She glanced down at the notebook and without offending her Voight slowly shielded the pages with his hand. He copied Lisa Sorzak’s cell number and slid the notebook back and folded his glasses as Marquez texted him the number as well.

Neither of them was old school but each still carried a notebook. It was one of the first things Marquez noticed about Voight. He was an investigator with strong habits and in his experience investigators who stuck with their habits did so because they worked.

‘Rider is your animal parts smuggler and Rider is Jim Colson. He’s the one who put this Lisa up to making the tip call and you and I are now looking for the same person. What does Lisa Sorzak say about this Colson?’

‘That he’s damaged goods and that he changed from the guy she first met who was lonely but could be fun, to someone who enjoys holding power over others. She said, and these are her words, when she met him he didn’t even seem to own his name and didn’t care what he was called. He was trying to live with as little identity as possible and the name Rider may have come before the animal trafficking.’