Pitch Black (17 page)
A
T FOUR-THIRTY THE DOOR to Gabe’s office abruptly opened, swinging wide enough to slam against the file cabinet sitting to its side.
His startled gaze snapped up. Kate McPherson stood there, fury painting every line of her body. “I want you to arrest that boy!”
“Kate?” Gabe now saw Bobby standing a step behind her.
“Ethan Wade tried to kill my son!” she shouted. “I want him arrested!”
Gabe rose from his desk and moved to close the door behind them, looking at Bobby, seeking some rational explanation.
Bobby’s expression was a mix of mystification and pain. “Jordan took an overdose of sedatives yesterday afternoon.”
“He did not!” she yelled. “Someone drugged him! He couldn’t have gotten those pills by himself. All medications are kept in a locked cabinet.”
“How is he?” Gabe asked.
Bobby looked grave. “They caught it in time. He should be okay . . . or at least as okay as he’s been.”
“He was getting
better,
” Kate snapped. “He said his first words yesterday; on the road to recovery. Now this . . .”
These two people were suffering in ways Gabe couldn’t imagine. For the second time in one day, he’d been reminded of what a rough road it was being a parent. Then he thought of Maddie, doing it completely alone. Kate’s accusation was going to affect her, whether it was true or not.
“Why don’t we sit down?” he suggested calmly, motioning to the two chairs on the opposite side of his desk. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thanks,” Bobby said as pulled the chair out for Kate to have easier access.
Kate sat and gave a jerky shake of her head. “All I want is for you to arrest that boy before he kills someone else.”
Gabe sat and folded his hands on his desk. As he did, he realized they were trembling.
He didn’t waste his breath arguing that Ethan hadn’t
killed
anyone. Even if her wild accusation about the pills was true, Jordan was alive. And although he had no authority where the alleged crime had taken place, he didn’t want to turn her out of here and let her serve as a bellows to the rumors already smoldering around town.
“Let’s back up just a bit,” he said. “Explain to me what happened.”
Sliding forward to the edge of her seat, Kate tapped her fingernail on Gabe’s desk, emphasizing every word as she said, “Yesterday Ethan Wade visited my son. Whatever he did or said had Jordan hysterical. They asked us to leave, the doctor was on his way. Thirty minutes later, the nurse found Jordan unconscious. No one at the stress center can explain how he got the pills, or why he would have taken them himself. They’re
very
careful with their medications. No unauthorized persons can access them; they’re kept in a secure locked cabinet.”
Gabe could hear the corporate rhetoric in her last lines. There were plenty of instances where medications were given in error or left unattended; any number of things that could result in something like this. Last year, County Hospital had just such a situation that resulted in a nasty lawsuit. The first line of defense for the facility had been to circle the wagons. Gabe imagined it was the same everywhere.
“What makes you think that Ethan Wade had anything to do with Jordan taking these pills?”
“Who else? He was the only visitor yesterday . . . he and his mother. He probably forced Jordan to take them. That’s why Jordan was hysterical.”
Christ, what else could go wrong for Maddie?
“Did the facility call the police to report the incident?” Gabe asked.
After a pause, she admitted, “Well, no.”
Bobby said, “They’re checking into things themselves first.”
Kate’s face hardened and she lowered her voice. A fevered gleam came into her eyes. “Of course, they don’t know the whole story. I’ve been thinking”—she paused—“nothing else makes any sense. I’m sure that boy killed Steve, too.”
“Whoa.” Gabe raised a hand. “Accusations with no facts or evidence won’t help matters here.”
“
Who else
could have done it?” She leaned forward. “We’ve known those other boys all their lives. They adored Steve.” Settling back in her chair, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing like this ever happened around here until that boy and his mother showed up.” She paused. Her lips were pinched tight when she said, “You know he was adopted—and not that long ago. Lived like a wild animal most of his life. Who knows what he’s done in the past. That’s probably why they moved from up north in the first place—gettin’ away from what he’s done.”
For a moment, Gabe sat quietly, reassessing his perception of Kate. He’d never seen this meek, weak-willed woman so vehemently assertive. Given the atmosphere in town right now, she could stir up a real hornet’s nest.
Maddie had said there was nothing in Ethan’s past to cause issues. He just had to keep things focused on the facts.
Bobby said, “If there’s a chance in hell that it’s true, that he killed Steve, you have to do something. If he’s a murderer, he probably had something to do with the Arbuckle boy’s death, too.”
Something in Bobby’s tone plucked Gabe’s intuition. Why would he take such a leap? Gabe hadn’t questioned Bobby yet about the possibility of Jordan being abused; hadn’t spoken to him at all since last week at the insurance office. That didn’t mean Gabe had eliminated him as a suspect in McPherson’s murder.
“What makes you say that?” Gabe asked, keeping his tone neutral. This was exactly the kind of wildfire he didn’t want to see started. Especially if it was being set to throw the focus off the true murderer.
“Like Kate says, who else? A kid with a past like that, he’s sure to know how to get all the illegal crap he wants. Beer wouldn’t have been a problem at all. He probably got Colin drunk and shoved him off the bridge to shut him up.”
“Shut him up?” Gabe kept his mind trained on the idea that Bobby was working him and tried not to think of the Eagles cap he’d found on the bridge.
He’d held that piece of evidence here in the department’s evidence room. He hadn’t sent it to the lab with the beer cans because there was no way to directly link it to the crime scene. It could have been lying around for weeks, or dropped by anyone. DNA testing was expensive and often inconclusive. Now he had to ask himself, was all of that simply justification? Had the real reason been that he was afraid they’d prove it indeed belonged to Ethan?
Now it looked like testing that cap was going to be necessary, possibly to protect Ethan.
“ ’Cause Colin saw him kill Steve,” Kate said.
“He told you this?” Gabe’s gut felt like a churning cesspool. “Colin said
to you
that he saw Ethan Wade kill Steve?”
“Well, not to me,” Kate admitted. “But Carrie Jacobs said her son said that Colin had said to someone at school that he knew what happened up there.”
At school.
Mrs. Whitfield’s conversation bounced around in Gabe’s mind. The first sparks had already been set to tinder. “I questioned Colin more than once. He was very clear in his statement. He did not witness what happened to Steve. He and J.D. Henry were
together
in camp at the time, a ten-minute walk from the falls. J.D. gave the same story as Colin—
independently.
Neither boy saw what happened.
“I’m afraid the Buckeye grapevine is sprouting new fruit as it grows. I can assure you,” Gabe continued, “we’re doing everything we can to catch whoever killed your husband. There is no evidence that points to any particular suspect at this time.” He locked gazes with her. “
Any
suspect.”
“What about what happened to Jordan? That boy is trying to kill my son, too!” Kate remained unmoved by Gabe’s logic, swinging her focus back to her original accusation.
He stood. “Why don’t you let me ask some questions and see if I can help sort this out.” Not that he had any authority at the stress center, and until he had a better handle on what was going on, he sure as hell wasn’t going to urge her to contact the police in Knoxville. “Meanwhile, it’s always best for those involved not to talk publicly about ongoing investigations.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Oh, I see.”
Gabe walked around the desk and put a hand on her shoulder. “Can I count on you both to keep this between the three of us for the time being?” What a tangled web we weave. . . . But people in this town were already worked up; mob mentality could become a problem in a hurry. He assured himself he would take this stand for anyone in Ethan Wade’s shoes.
“Of course,” Kate said as she and Bobby stood.
“I’ll be in touch as soon as I have any new information,” Gabe said, opening the door.
Bobby stopped to shake his hand on the way out. “Thank you.”
As Gabe shook his hand, he felt like a first-class heel. He should have simply told them it was out of his jurisdiction and their complaints needed to be made to the Knoxville police department.
Watching them leave the outer office, Gabe hoped like hell that Madison had been in the room with Ethan and Jordan the entire time yesterday.
EVERYONE LEFT THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE AT FIVE
. An hour later, Madison finished her final proof. This article on steroid abuse focused on the investigation into Zach Gilbert’s death. Gabe had sent the boy’s computer to the state lab for their geek squad to search for any information that could expose the source of the illegal drugs. She made it clear that a good percentage of the time, it wasn’t some nameless, faceless Internet address, but someone in the community.
She had gone on to state that Zach Gilbert wasn’t the only boy in Buckeye to use steroids. She stopped short of naming names, since all she had at this point were rumors and suppositions. But the more this topic was out there, the more in-your-face she could make it, the more likely it would be that someone would spot something suspect and report it to the police.
She could hardly wait to see the mail response she got after this one. She could take the heat; in fact she was beginning to look forward to it. It brought back memories of the good old days. Besides, it’d all be worth it if it made these kids wise up, or even better, caught the creep who was dealing.
She shut down her computer and her office lights with a feeling of satisfaction.
Packing up her things to leave for the day, she chuckled as Gabe’s words came back to her.
Put the paper down for a nap.
He was smart enough to know he was butchering the phrase. That was one of the things she liked about him, his willingness to be the butt of the joke. It was rare to find a man, especially one in a job like Gabe’s, who didn’t take himself too seriously.
Too damn bad they were standing on opposite sides of the river looking at one another. And she didn’t see a bridge being built anytime soon . . . not until McPherson’s murder was solved.
Today, she’d become much more aggressive about that subject herself. In addition to setting her old PI friend to work, she’d done a little digging on her own.
Steve McPherson had lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, prior to moving here. Madison had been very curious about his first wife’s death. She could hardly wait to tell Gabe what she’d discovered. In fact, she decided, she’d swing past his office on her way out of town. Maybe she’d catch him still there.
As she drove past the grade school, she saw several boys playing basketball on the outdoor court. There were also several standing around watching. One of those was J.D. Henry.
Considering Shelly’s inadvertent confirmation that Jeffery Henry had been using steroids, this opportunity was too good to pass up. Madison stopped and got out of the car. She didn’t walk over to the court. Instead, she stood, leaning against the fender, and watched for a while.
Traffic was still a steady flow behind her, people on their way home for dinner. From what she knew of J.D.’s mother, there most likely wouldn’t be a hot meal waiting for him at home.
She was just about to give up and leave—it would be positively fruitless to walk up and try to engage J.D. while he was with his friends—when J.D. turned, said something to the kid standing next to him, and started to walk away.
Madison walked casually over and met him at the edge of the sidewalk. “How are you doing, J.D.?”
“Fine, ma’am.” After a short pause, he said, “My mom said I’m not supposed to talk to the newspaper about what happened to Colin.”
“I see.”
Ma’am. Southern boys, even when they’re blowing you off, they’re polite about it.
She shifted her weight and lifted her chin to look at him since he was slightly taller than her. “Good thing I don’t want to talk about Colin then.”
“You don’t?” The surprise in his voice told her that was all anybody had wanted to talk to him about.
She shook her head. “No.”
“I don’t know anything about the other, neither.”
“The other?” she asked.
“You know . . . Mr. McPherson.”
She couldn’t tell if he was looking at the ground to avoid looking her in the eye, or bowing his head in respect for the dead.
“Ethan said you didn’t,” she said. “Know anything about what happened to him, that is.”
“He did?” His face brightened perceptibly. He squinted slightly when he asked, “Did he say the same about Colin?”
“Yes.” She studied him closely as that brightness drained away. She realized how busy the tongues in Buckeye had been over the past couple of days. She supposed if Gabe had made that leap and come to question Ethan, so would everyone else.
She took a breath and tried to corral her temper. “I’m curious about your brother.”
“Jeffery? What about him?”
“I understand he’s in jail.”
“Yeah.” J.D.’s chin came up, defiant. “Ma says it’s bogus.”
“The charges against him, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you think?”
He shrugged.
“Jeffery good at sports? Does he work out?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. He can bench-press one-seventy-five.”
“Seriously? He must have been dedicated to lifting.”
“I guess. He has a bench and weights in his room.”
“Do you think maybe he was taking something . . . you know, to bulk up?”
