Vermilion Drift (25 page)

“Look, the Vanishings had him all twisted up. He was going crazy. And frankly, your mother was riding him hard, because it looked like her people were the ones being targeted. He wasn’t sleeping. He wasn’t particularly eager to go home at night. And, hell, you were being a little shit.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were a teenager, and, hell, teenagers are always difficult. And because the investigation took your dad away a lot those days, I suppose you were the one helping your mother through what she was dealing with and saw mostly her side of things. Anyway, you did nothing but give him grief and push him away, and I got the sense your mother was doing the same. He ended up getting pushed into the arms of a woman.”

“What woman?”

“I didn’t know who it was, but he met her at Jacque’s. And it wasn’t about love, Cork, I can tell you that.”

“What was it about?”

“Look, it happened like this. We got a disturbance call. Your father and me, we both responded, arrived in our cruisers about the same time. A couple of guys in the parking lot were beating the hell out of each other over a woman. A skanky looking thing, a peroxide blonde in a skirt that barely covered her ass. We broke up the fight. Didn’t book anybody, but the woman claimed she was afraid, so your father offered to give her a ride. He was gone a long time, longer than necessary, and when he came back into the department, there was something different about him. The kind of different easy to spot. Wouldn’t look me in the eye. None of my business, so I didn’t push him. We were in the middle of the investigation of the Vanishings, so he was out a lot anyway, but after that, sometimes when he was gone, I figured it had nothing to do with the job.”

“How’d you know?”

“A feeling. I knew your old man pretty well. Anyway, after the Cavanaugh woman disappeared, I didn’t see any more of that behavior from him.”

“And you’re saying what?”

“You were the one who said the Cavanaugh woman could’ve worn a wig and called herself something else. It’s pretty coincidental that after Monique Cavanaugh disappeared, your old man settled back down. And you know as well as I do that coincidence is never coincidence.”

Cork looked outside at the lake and tried to think clearly through a spin of unpleasant images.

Borkman said, “You asked about Monique Cavanaugh and Indigo Broom, so you must know something about her I don’t. Was she the kind of woman who could’ve got her jollies disguising herself and slumming it at Jacque’s? And if she was, was she the kind of woman who’d make your old man the kind of offer he couldn’t refuse?”

Before Cork could answer, his cell phone rang. Sheriff Dross.

“Cork, I wanted to let you know. That bloody fingerprint we found in Lauren Cavanaugh’s boathouse? We finally got a match.”

“Who is it?”

“Hattie Stillday. We just brought her in.”

S
heriff Marsha Dross looked tired but relieved. She wore her khaki uniform, something she usually did only when she had to face the media and wanted to be certain that the impact of her authority came through in every way possible. Agent Simon Rutledge sat in a chair in a corner of the office. He wore a tan sport coat, white shirt, and yellow tie. The knot on his tie was pulled down a comfortable few inches, and the collar of his shirt was unbuttoned. He was working a Rubik’s Cube and seemed to be paying very little attention to the conversation between Cork and the sheriff.

“When we showed up at her home to interview her, she took one look at us and told us everything,” Dross said. “We brought her back to the department. She refused an attorney and then repeated everything on videotape for us. She seemed happy to get it off her chest.”

“You believe her confession?” Cork sat on the far side of the sheriff’s desk, trying not to pay too much attention to the pounding in his head, which, despite the Tylenol, threatened to crack his skull wide open.

“The evidence is all there,” Dross said. “In the back of her pickup we found a canvas ground cloth with bloodstains on it. She claims she wrapped Cavanaugh’s body in it. Simon’s people are taking it down to Bemidji to analyze the stains. And she certainly knows things about the murder that we haven’t made public.”

“Like what?”

“That Cavanaugh was killed with a thirty-eight.”

“Does she have the weapon?”

“She claims she threw it into the lake.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere along the eastern shoreline, near the rez. She doesn’t remember exactly where.”

“What about the details of the shooting itself? Lauren Cavanaugh was shot twice, right? The graze and the fatal wound. What did Hattie have to say about that?”

“She was unclear about the number of shots she fired.”

“Unclear?”

“She said she fired once. I didn’t press the issue. But she told us other things only the killer would know.”

“Like what?”

“She claimed to know precisely the location of Lauren Cavanaugh’s car.”

“Which is where?”

“Sunk in a bog half a mile from the entrance you and Haddad found to the Vermilion Drift. Ed Larson and his crew are out there right now checking on it.”

“What was her motive for the killing?”

“She argued with Lauren Cavanaugh over payment for some photographs. She didn’t mean to kill her, just to threaten her. Things went south. An accident.”

“What was the deal with the photos?”

“Cavanaugh bought them but kept sidestepping the issue of payment. Finally Stillday demanded they be paid for or be returned. Cavanaugh flat-out refused, so Stillday confronted her in the boathouse with the gun. Bang.”

A diseased place
, Cork thought. Meloux had been right.

Dross glanced at Rutledge, intent on his Rubik’s Cube, then said, “It makes sense, Cork. People get crazy when money’s involved.”

“And she put the body with the others already in the mine?”

“Yes.”

“How did she know about the Vermilion Drift?”

“On that subject, she’s saying nothing.”

“For now,” Rutledge said without looking up.

Cork thought that before too long Hattie Stillday would be “Simonized.”

“Did she say where she got the murder weapon?”

“Claims she’s had it for years. Came down to her from some dead relative on the reservation.”

“Does she know the thirty-eight was also the weapon that killed Monique Cavanaugh?”

“She didn’t offer any information that would indicate she did. Like I said, she wasn’t inclined to talk about the Vanishings.”

“What about the threatening notes Max Cavanaugh and the others have received?”

“She says she doesn’t know anything about those. And she finally refused to answer any more questions without an attorney.”

“Has she retained one?”

“She called Oliver Bledsoe’s office.”

Bledsoe ran the Office of Legal Affairs for the Iron Lake Ojibwe.

“The counselor was down in Duluth for a hearing, but he’s on his way back,” Dross continued. “Should be here in an hour or so.”

“Did she say when the killing took place?”

“A week ago Sunday.”

“That’s right in keeping with the M.E.’s assessment,” Cork agreed. “Did she give you a time?”

“Apparently there was some kind of meeting at the center that night. Hattie says she waited outside until it was over and Lauren Cavanaugh went to the boathouse, where she confronted and shot her.”

“Mind if I talk to Hattie?”

“I guess not. Provided she’s willing. Okay with you, Simon?”

“Sure,” Rutledge said in a distracted way.

“I’ll have her brought to the interview room,” Dross offered.

“Thanks.”

Rutledge held up the Rubik’s Cube, solved. “I hear you’ve got yourself quite a headache, Cork.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“Around. What happened?”

“My best guess is that someone on the rez isn’t particularly happy with my investigation.”

“Any idea who?”

“Still working that one out, Simon.”

“And you’ll be sure to let us know when you do?”

“Absolutely.”

Rutledge gave Cork a Mona Lisa smile and started undoing the puzzle he’d just solved.

Hattie Stillday sat with her old hands folded on the tabletop in the interview room.

“This is serious, Hattie,” Cork said from across the table.

“I know that, Corkie.”

“Have you ever been in jail before?”

“Hell, yes. In Youngstown, Ohio, back in ’fifty-two when I was shooting photos of the steelworkers’ strike. And again in Pittsburgh a few days later. Now that was a fine time in labor history. And two years ago during the vigil at Fort Benning. I’ve always been rather proud of my incarcerations.”

“That’s good, Hattie, because if your confession stands up, you’ll very likely finish your life in prison.”

“I didn’t mean to kill that woman, Corkie.”

“But kill her you did.”

“Intent matters,” she said, as if she knew the law. “And what do you mean if my confession stands up?”

“There are things about this killing that you don’t know.”

“I know everything about this killing. I was there.”

“How many shots were fired from your gun, Hattie?”

“I don’t remember exactly.”

“You just told me you knew everything.”

“This old brain of mine doesn’t always remember all that it should. And it wasn’t exactly like I was playing mah-jongg.”

“You told the sheriff you killed Lauren Cavanaugh over money. Is that true?”

“I said it, didn’t I? That woman was a cheat.”

“You killed her because she was a cheat? We have courts to help people get what’s rightfully theirs, Hattie.”

“You think a court is going to side with an old Shinnob woman over a rich white woman like Lauren Cavanaugh?” She laughed, as if the idea was absurd.

“So you killed her?”

“You keep coming back to that. Yes, I killed her. I’d kill her again.”

“You said it was an accident.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m unhappy with the outcome.”

“Do yourself a favor, Hattie. Don’t say that to anyone. By the way, where did you get the gun you used?”

“Oh, I’ve had that for years.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“I don’t remember exactly. A cousin or something.”

“What did you do with it?”

“Threw it into the lake.”

“But you don’t remember where?”

She tapped her head. “Like I said, rusty thinking sometimes.”

“You waited outside the Northern Lights Center until the meeting was over and everyone had left, then you followed Lauren Cavanaugh to the boathouse. Is that how it happened?”

“No. That’s just how I got to the boathouse. How it happened involved pulling a trigger, Corkie. I’m tired. I think I’m all done talking for now.” She moved her chair back and made ready to stand.

“Does Ophelia know you’re here?”

“I don’t think so,” Hattie said.

“Would you like me to tell her?”

“Would you?”

“Sure.” He stood, crossed to the button near the door that would call for the jailer, but hesitated before pressing it. “Hattie, is this why you were with Henry Meloux last night? Was this what you were planning?”

“You’ve always been a curious person,” Hattie replied. “Like your father. Always asking questions. I hope the answers, if you find them, make you happier than they made him.”

Cork buzzed, and a moment later Dross opened the door, accompanied by a matron who took Hattie Stillday away.

“Did she tell you anything more?” the sheriff asked.

“Nothing you didn’t already know.”

Dross nodded and said, “Ed Larson just called. He found Lauren Cavanaugh’s car exactly where Hattie Stillday said it would be.”

O
phelia Stillday bent toward the camera mounted on a tripod on the back lawn of the old Parrant estate. Even though it was called the Northern Lights Center for the Arts, Cork never thought of it that way. “The old Parrant estate” inevitably came to mind, a name that called up all the darkness of that diseased place.

Ophelia was intent on her photography, a shoot that, as nearly as Cork could tell, was focused on Iron Lake. It was late afternoon, and the sunlight was the soft color of goldenrod. The lake was beautiful, but he’d seen so many photographs of it over the years that even to his pedestrian eye the subject seemed a little tired.

He coughed as he approached, a subtle announcement of his presence. Ophelia straightened up and turned to greet him.

“
Boozhoo
, Ophelia,” he said.

She smiled pleasantly. “Hello, Mr. O.C.”

“Beautiful day for a shoot.”

“My grandmother says there’s no such thing as a day unsuited to photography. She says the eye of the artist should always be able to discern the opportunity in any circumstance.”

“It’s your grandmother that brings me here,” Cork said. “Did you know she’s in the Tamarack County Jail at the moment?”

“Grandma Hattie? What for?”

“She confessed to killing Lauren Cavanaugh.”

Ophelia looked genuinely stricken. “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true. She claims the killing was an accident and that it was all about payment for some photographs. Do you know anything about that situation?”

Ophelia didn’t respond. She seemed overwhelmed with trying to wrap her thinking around her grandmother’s situation.

“Ophelia?”

“Yes,” she said in a dazed way. “I knew about it. I told you the center was in financial trouble. But Grandma Hattie would never kill someone over something like that.”

“What would she kill someone over?”

That snapped her awake, and she shot Cork an angry look.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was uncalled for. The truth is I’m having trouble buying her confession, especially considering the motive she’s given. I’ve known your grandmother all my life. She’s never cared anything about money. Whenever she’s had it, she’s given it away. So I’m thinking either she’s not telling the truth about killing Lauren Cavanaugh or she’s being untruthful about her motive.”

“She didn’t kill Lauren Cavanaugh,” Ophelia stated with absolute certainty. “Grandma Hattie couldn’t kill anybody. I need to go to her. Will they let me see her?”