Beneath the Cracks (25 page)

With more trepidation than I could remember
evoked – even by Mark Seleeby – I pressed the play button.

"Helen, goddammit, pick up the phone. 
I know you're there.  I know you're avoiding me, and we
both
know why.  You may as well get this over with
right now, before I show up with a battering ram an plow my way
into your little fortress."

I unplugged the machine and shut off the
ringers on the phones.  Using the fax line for my primary mode
of contact to the outside world, I called MSUH.  The mobile
clinic was an outreach program through the emergency
department.  Their director was out of the hospital for the
evening, but the charge nurse was more than happy to give me the
names and phone numbers at the hospital for the people in charge of
providing services to the shelters.

"They'll be in the office at seven Saturday
morning, Detective Eriksson.  Is there anything else I can
help you with tonight?"

"If you could transfer me to the hospital
operator, I'd appreciate it."

A moment later, the phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Ken?"

"Yeah – hey, Helen, Johnny Orion just called
here.  He's looking for you."

I rolled my eyes.  "Uh-huh.  I
heard.  Is Maya awake?"

"Sure.  She's worried to death ever
since Johnny called.  You wanna talk to her?"

"Please."

"Helen?"

"Maya, I'm fine.  Johnny is
overreacting." 
As usual
.

"Did you really go into a biker bar tonight
without backup?  He said it's a wonder you didn't get
killed."

"Honey, I'm fine.  Do I sound like
there's a hair out of place?  I didn't call so you could give
me the third degree.  I wanted to see how you're feeling
today.  Did the doctor say when you'll be discharged from the
hospital?"

"I spiked a fever this afternoon," Maya
said.  "My white blood cell count is a little higher than he'd
like to see it, so they probably won't spring me from this joint
until Monday now.  I'm really bummed about it too."

"You sound like it.  What did he do,
let you have an extra day of fentanyl?"

"Nope.  Today we are experiencing the
joys of hillbilly heroin.  I asked the doctor if I could have
pot brownies tomorrow."

"Are they letting you eat real food
today?"

"We have advanced to pudding and ice cream,
but no Rocky Road yet.  I'd kill for a double scoop of cookie
dough right about now.  Helen, are you really all right? 
Johnny said what you did was incredibly risky."

"But worth the reward.  Not that any of
my overprotective brethren are interested in hearing what that
was.  I figure I'll give them a night to cool down before the
cold light of sanity opens their eyes."

"Was it good news, something that helped
advance the investigation?"

"It was excellent news.  For the first
time, someone admitted to knowing and talking to Detective
Cox."

"At the biker bar?"

"Yes.  Apparently, he was one of the
few quote-unquote homeless men that Uncle Nooky allowed through the
front door."

"Interesting, particularly in light of how
he died."

I filled her in on the bizarre situation at
Dupree Farm, right down to the heavy artillery of security guarding
the place.  "Now tell me if you don't think we're really
following the footsteps of Detective Cox.  He had to have gone
to Uncle Nooky's to find out if other people in the neighborhood
had been approached by Denton."

"You really think that's where all of this
is leading?"

"Think about it Maya.  Doesn't it make
sense that the injury that caused the death of our homeless men
–"  The doorbell rang.  "Son of a bitch!  He climbed
the wall.  That persistent bastard."

The rapid ringing was soon drowned out by
pounding and the faint sound of my name being shouted.

"He's there."

"Dammit.  I should've built a panic
room," I muttered.

"You'd better go talk to him Helen.  I
have a feeling he's not gonna calm down until he sees that you're
all right."

"He's
trespassing
."

"He loves you," Maya said softly.  "Cut
the guy some slack."

"If I haven't called back in ten minutes,
call 9-1-1."

"Funny girl.  Go kiss and make up with
him.  You know that's all he really wants."

Unfortunately, I knew better.  A few
little lies were snowballing into something that all the kisses in
the world wouldn't make disappear.  "I'm serious, Maya. 
Ten minutes."

I hung up the phone and approached the
quaking front door with trepidation.  "Stop banging on the
door, Johnny."

"Open it, or I'll kick it in."

"You're too angry to have a rational
conversation.  Come back tomorrow."

"Dammit, Doc, open this door right
now. 
Right now!
"

The wood shuddered against his weight
slamming into it.

"You break it, you buy it, Orion."

"You think I give a shit about a busted
door?  Let me in!"

"I'll open it on one condition."

"You're not in a position to negotiate after
the stunt you pulled tonight.  Now open the door."

"I'll kick your ass if you lay a hand on me,
Orion.  And I'll press charges for assault and…and breaking
and entering and –"

"Helen.  Open.  The door."

Every instinct in me told me it would be a
huge mistake to let him in.  They also warned me that Johnny
wasn't going away without a fight.

"You need to leave, Johnny.  I'm not
going to argue about what I did tonight.  You can hate it and
hate me for lying to you, and you can be as angry as you
want.  What I did needed to be done.  If you care about
your detective's murder being solved, what I did absolutely had to
happen."

The rattling wood ceased.

Silence expanded into an oppressive
force.

"Johnny?"

"I don't hate you."

"Can we please discuss this tomorrow when
cooler heads prevail?"

The latch on the door rattled again. 
"I need to see you.  Right now, Helen.  I need to see
with my own eyes that you're okay."

"What you need to do is trust me."

"After you lied to all of us today?"

I sucked in a deep breath.  Distance
was for the best.  "This is who I am, Johnny.  I lie if
that's what it takes to get the job done.  I don't care who I
have to lie to.  If you want to know what's happening with the
case, I suggest you talk to Tony.  We're done talking
now.  Goodnight."

Silence.  I slipped away from the door
and went back to the fax machine and called Maya back.  In the
morning, I found the wilted bouquet of sterling roses lying on the
front step.

Chapter 22

I was at Downey early enough to beat Briscoe
and Conall, and in time to see Finkelstein unwrap her
al-amira
, fold it carefully and place it in a drawer in the
office.  I knocked on the door.

"Helen, I'm glad you're here early."

"You look very different in the
al-amira
," I said.  "Are you Muslim?"

"Jewish," she said, "oddly enough, though my
parents are both Muslim.  The
al-amira
is a relic of my
upbringing I'm afraid.  I converted to Judaism when I
married.  Funny.  The religion took, and the marriage did
not."  Shelly cleared her throat.

"I received a disturbing phone call from
Johnny Orion last night, Helen."

I nodded.  "Am I going to be permitted
to tell my side of the story?"

"It's not necessary.  His concern was
rooted in the feelings he has for you.  Even I see this
much.  What I cannot accept is that you went to this biker bar
without proper backup.  Knowing that Tony and Crevan were only
a couple of blocks away mitigates your rash action only a little
bit, Helen.  You walked into a potentially dangerous situation
alone."

"I felt that sharing that plan with anyone
would have it shut down a second time," I said.  "I wanted to
talk to the patrons of that bar, as members of the community who
know a great deal about what happens there, and Tony and Crevan
refused to let me do it.  I cannot operate under these
conditions, Shelly.  Either I'm here to gather information
that helps solve crimes, or we're both wasting our time."

She pursed her lips.  "I wasn't aware
that they had refused an earlier request.  Can you think of
why they would do that?"

"Only one.  I realize that my tenure at
the FBI was very different than what I've done here in Darkwater
Bay, and to a certain extent, I think that their desire to shield
me from the dangers of this job is my fault.  I told them that
I didn't do the hands on part of investigation with the
bureau."

"And that was less than accurate?"

I shrugged.  "It was mostly
accurate.  We did go into the field when the situation
demanded it, but a lot of the work I did involved review of cases
that were stalling out for local law enforcement agencies.  We
did, however, assist in numerous open investigations."

"You know that Crevan and Tony are very
close friends of Johnny's."

I nodded.

"And if Johnny wants them watching you like
a hawk to make sure you're safe, there's no way either one of them
would deny his request."

"Crevan wouldn't," a tiny smirk
blossomed.  "Tony on the other hand helped me get out of here
last night before Johnny had the opportunity to object to my
tactics in person."

"I believe he was duly impressed with your
manhandling of Uncle Nooky.  I've seen him, Helen.  The
man must weigh three hundred pounds."

"Once that weight is off balance, taking
someone that size down is a simple matter of a law not even Uncle
Nooky can defy – gravity.  But try to convince Johnny of
that.  I promise you, Shelly.  What I learned last night
far outweighs any risk to my safety."

"Tell me.  Preferably before Orion
shows up demanding answers."

"One of the regulars at the bar admitted
that Detective Cox also known as
Preacher
, was a
regular.  He was the only homeless guy that Nooky let drink in
the bar from what I gathered.  This source told me that he
heard Cox left a couple of weeks ago to go work on some farm
shoveling manure."

"And you think that was Dupree Farm?"

"Oh, I'm sure it was.  Batshit Crazy
came right out and said it was Dupree Farm.  He also confirmed
that the recruiter that hires the
migrant
workers out of
Downey is Tom Denton. 
Dr.
Tom Denton, the researcher
who claimed to be working on some project involving telomeres when
we met with him yesterday morning.  Funny thing is, the FDA
had no idea that Dupree Farm has any kind of research facility
whatsoever, let alone were engaged in research regarding
telomeres."

"All fingers seem to point directly to Dr.
Denton and Dupree Farm."

"So far, yes.  Tony and Crevan spent
the afternoon with Charlie Haverston from Central Division. 
They too were able to confirm that Tom Denton picks up homeless men
to work on this farm.  Now given the nature of my foray into
the dark underbelly of Downey last night, I didn't feel comfortable
walking in flashing pictures of our victims or Denton, but the
people at more than one shelter in Darkwater proper did identify
Denton's photo. 

"I put a call into the clinic at MSUH last
night.  I'm hoping to speak to the director of the outreach
program that sends the van out to shelters in the city to provide
medical care.  I think that they might be able to give us a
few legal names that will go with the faces of our John Doe
victims."

"Excellent work, Helen."

"We're watching the shelters now," I
said.  "Jason Blake from Sixth Avenue Shelter said that Denton
posted a pickup time for tomorrow night.  My concern was that
Denton is aware of our interest in his activities."

"So we're staking out shelters in advance of
the known pickup time."

"Yes," I said.

"We've got a couple of shelters in Fielding
too, Helen.  I should probably make a call to the lieutenant
over there and see if he can get a team watching those locations as
well."

"I'd appreciate it.  I think we have
enough evidence that Dr. Denton has lied repeatedly to warrant an
official conversation.  What would be ideal is to catch him
doing what he says isn't part of his job and hold him while he
decides that cooperation is in his best interest."

"We can keep him for forty-eight hours
without filing charges, Helen, but surely a man like Dr. Denton
would know this.  What's to stop him from waiting it out?"

Briscoe's voice cut into our
conversation.  "I'd say it would be a fine time for our
material witness gag," he said.  "After all, we'll have
evidence that he's linked somehow to the very men who've been
turning up dead left and right for the past ten months.  We
could insist that he be held indefinitely – for his protection, and
until he decides to cooperate with our investigation."

"I don't know, Tony.  The whole
material witness warrant thing has been under judicial review
because some think it amounts to little more than denial of due
process in cases a lot like ours, where we have suspicion but lack
evidence."

"I say we use it until some fancy-pants
judge says otherwise.  While he's coolin' his jets and tryin'
to decide if it's in his interests to be helpful, we can stake out
that farm and see what's what out there."

"It's far out of our jurisdiction, Tony,"
Shelly said.  "That could be a problem."

"Not if we involve OSI."

Shelly glanced at me.  "How would you
feel about that, Helen?"

"Not particularly comfortable if he's
talking about who I think he's talking about."