Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (62 page)

“Well, that was a revelation,” I said when we reached the parking lot. Trapper laughed and agreed.

“What are you going to do now?” Trapper asked.

“Well, Lincoln asked me to snoop. I just may do that. But I’ll need good criminal help. I’m calling Buck.”

Trapper laughed out loud, got into his car and headed out. I got on my cell phone, called Buck, and asked what he was up to. He said he was polishing his babies, and I asked if he wanted to go commit a misdemeanor. He said he’d love to, and I told him to meet me at my office.

About a half hour later Buck came in and sat. I filled him in on what happened after he called Trapper.

“Damn, the ladies won’t be parading by anymore?” he lamented.

“Nope, they’re all gone. Sorry, Buck, but at least your cars are safe now,” I offered.

“So what kind of crime are we going to be committing?” he asked.

“When it’s safe to go, we are going to be trespassing around a garden hunting for a machete.”

He just stared and snickered. “We are going to be digging up a garden to find a big knife?”

“No digging.” I got up, went to my ample closet and took out two metal detectors I’d had for years. I gave one to Buck, pulled up a chair next to him and showed him how they worked. I stood and showed him how to swing it and to listen for the sound of metal. I put a couple of metal items on the floor and showed the way they sound when detecting an object.

“These won’t find dead bodies, will they?” he asked.

“Not unless they have metal in them.”

“OK, this looks like fun. Can I borrow this to go to the park and hunt for treasure?” he asked.

“Sure, anytime you want. We need to wait till Doan is closed for the night and go when it’s dark. I checked my moon phase program on my Palm, and there is a full moon tonight, luckily. Take it home with you and play with it in your yard, get used to it. I have extra batteries if needed.” I showed him the pointed tool used to probe the ground for the metal objects and gave him a small trowel used to dig up the finds. I gave him the instruction book to look over and sent him home. I said I’d call him and we’d meet at his place and go from there. He went off.

It was almost 4 p.m., and I decided to go back home and see what Penny was up to. I forgot to ask her who was on her show that day so it would be a surprise when I got there. Lately, she was having themes at home, bringing her work home to bug me. I was dreading going back that night since I didn’t know what to expect.

I drove up to the house. Nothing moved, and the door didn’t open when got there. I went in and it was quiet, so I went to the back and saw Penny out in the yard with an artist easel painting on a small canvas.

I came out. She saw me, smiled and said, “Take your clothes off. I want to paint you nude.”

“Hardly.” I came up and saw she had painted a picture of the lake and the backyard. It wasn’t half bad. “Not bad. It looks good. You had an artist on your show today?”

“Yes, sir, he’s a convict who paints jailhouse portraits now.” I looked at her and said I hoped she didn’t invite him home. “No, sweetie, they wouldn’t let him go out on his own. They had guards watching him.” She reached down to the side of her easel and brought up a portrait of her. It was good. “The artist painted this while he was in the studio. Everyone loved it. He can paint one of these in less than 20 minutes.”

“Why is he in jail?” I asked, sort of knowing.

“Art forgery, what else?” she said, as if it was funny, which it was.

“Ah, stands to reason. I’m going to be going back out tonight with Buck. We’re going to trespass on Doan Appliance property.”

“That’s nice, sweetie. Don’t get caught,” she said matter-of-factly as she painted. Sometimes she amazed me. I said to enjoy her painting and went in the house to look for dark clothes to wear.

Around 9:30, after I told her about my day and my visit to Doan, she said she’d never buy from them again. We had dinner and watched a bit of TV. I said I was going to pick up Buck. She said to be careful and went back to painting a fruit bowl on the dining room table.

I called Buck, told him I was on my way, and asked if he understood the metal detector. He said he found 78 cents in his yard, and he definitely was going to be borrowing it again. I got to his house, we put the detectors in a duffel bag and headed off to Doan’s offices. I parked in the lot next to Doan’s, a warehouse for a furniture company, and we crossed over onto Doan’s property.

“I hope he doesn’t have some kind of security system out here,” I said.

We didn’t hear any alarms, nor did any lights go on, so we made it to the side of the garden. I whispered to Buck to go to the other side and sweep back through the flowerbeds towards the middle where we would meet. If he found something, signal to me. He went around to the other side and started his search. The moon was just enough so we could see the ground, but not enough to make us very visible in our dark clothes.

I was finding a number of junk metal items, and nothing good was hitting. I was almost to the center of the garden, as was Buck, when I heard a car door slam. Buck heard it, too, and we ran to the back of the yard and into the trees and bushes. We watched as a figure came around the building, carrying something that looked like a grocery bag. The figure went to the side of the flower bed, pulled out a trowel from the bag, and started digging what looked like a deep hole. Then the figure put something into the hole and covered it. Smoothing the ground around it, the person went back to the side of the building, and we heard a car door slam again. A car started, and we could hear it drive away. We waited about five minutes and then ventured out. We went to the spot where the hole was dug. I swept the metal detector over until I hit something big. We carefully dug until we found the item. It was wrapped in newspaper. I put on the rubber gloves I brought, carefully opened one end and found it was what we hoped for, a machete blade sticking out of the partially unwrapped paper. Buck gave a quiet cheer. I re-wrapped the package and buried it back in the hole. I stuck a small stick into the ground to mark the spot, and we headed out quickly.

Back at Buck’s, we celebrated with soft drinks since that was all Buck had, and I told him my plan to reveal the weapon to Lincoln. Buck asked how I knew the thing would be back there. I said I didn’t, but it was some place to start. Although it wasn’t back there when we started, we got lucky that Doan did decide to hide it back there.

I said I was going to head back home, and he could keep the detector till we needed it again. I drove back to the house and found Penny asleep on the couch. I gently woke her and just about carried her to the bedroom. I undressed her, tucked her in, then went out to the kitchen for a brew. I deserved it. We found the murder weapon and our killer. Now to let Lincoln have the glory. He deserved it, I felt. Besides, he would retire now and be out of everyone’s hair.

*

Chapter Twenty-nine

The next morning I was awakened by Penny standing over the bed with a bed tray of breakfast. I sat up and asked why I deserved this, she should be the one getting breakfast in bed. She climbed in with me and said this was for both of us. We had our breakfast, feeding each other, then we went to take a shower together and toweled each other off. A good morning all around.

She was heading out the door when I stopped her and asked what new ventures would await me that evening. She laughed and said I had nothing to worry about. She had a program today about female problems. Nothing to do with me unless I got cramps once a month. I said I thankfully didn’t and kissed her good-bye. I called Trapper and happily told him of our findings from last night and that I was going to see Lincoln today. He said that was good, now Lincoln could retire in peace. Then he wondered if they would be doing Doan’s commercials from prison. I laughed and said I’d fill him in later on what happened today.

I drove over to Roseville, parked, and went into Lincoln’s cubbyhole. He was doing some paper work and saw me coming.

“Any good news, Mr. Snoop?” he asked, fairly cheerful.

“Oh, you’re going to love this.” I told him about our adventures in the garden and the mysterious figure who so nicely buried the machete in the ground. I told him we left it there to be found properly with a search warrant. He was smiling from ear to ear.

“The only problem is, we can’t identify the figure who buried it, too dark to see. But that’s beside the point. Fingerprints on the machete should reveal the killer,” I said.

Lincoln thanked me and got on the phone to the D.A.‘s office to get a search warrant, using me as cause. He said that I suspected Doan through my investigation as a blackmail victim, and about the connection to the machete that murdered Noreen and the machete Doan kept from the commercial. He told the D.A. that he wanted Judge Mortimore to be the one to issue the warrant. He smiled and hung up.

Not more than a half hour had gone by when Lincoln’s phone rang, and he had his warrant. Judge Mortimore was more than happy to give out a warrant for this case. I could imagine why.

Lincoln gathered a team of officers, had a briefing, then they all headed out. He stopped me and said I could come to watch, but had to stay back. I agreed.

I drove up to Doan’s and followed four cars into the lot. Eight officers streamed out and into the building. Three went around the back with metal detectors. Earlier I had told Lincoln where the stick was, and he told the cops doing the search. I watched from the parking lot as they found the spot and dug it up. They took out the newspaper wrapped weapon, and Lincoln went over to examine it. They had a CSI unit come in to take the machete to examine it. People were herded out of the building, Doan was taken in for questioning, and the rest of the employees were questioned and released.

Lincoln smiled at me as he passed by on his way to his car. I drove up to Buck’s and found him out walking around his backyard with the metal detector. I had to laugh. He looked up and saw me. He shut down the thing after stabbing the spot he stopped at with the probe. He came over to where I was sitting on his picnic table.

“Jimmy, did you catch your murderer?” he asked as he set the detector on the table.

“Well, they got the weapon now. Just have to get some prints off it to catch the killer.” We talked a bit, then I told him I was heading down to watch the interrogation of Doan, I’d talk more to him later. I went off, got to Roseville, and headed towards Lincoln’s office. He was walking down a hall and saw me.

“We had the lab do double time on the weapon. We got him. Want to see the interrogation?” he asked.

“I’d love to,” I replied. We went to the observation room, and I went in. The same suit was in there. He smiled, and I asked if he was assigned to this precinct. He laughed and said they sent him to take care of the minor cases. I looked at him and asked if he knew what the implications were here? He said it was a murder case of a Dominatrix, hardly a big case. I chuckled and said, “This involved big name politicians and an assortment of celebrities all using this Dom. Take a look at the man in the hot seat. He’s Albert Doan, of Doan Appliances, a customer of the murdered Dom and owner of one of the biggest chains of appliance stores in Midwestern America. Tell me that’s not important?”

He straightened, went to the window and looked. “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen his commercials. Wow, he’s a killer?”

“For the police to determine and your office to prosecute. You are new around here?” I asked.

“Well, yes, I’ve been with this D.A.‘s office for about five months. So I am fairly new,” he defended.

“OK, uh, what’s your name?”

“Leo Politano. You are Jim Richards. It’s on the warrant. You were the cause for it,” he said.

“I’m honored. So, Leo, what’s your take on all this?”

“I don’t know. I was assigned to this about an hour ago. I’m here to observe and report to my superiors.”

“OK, works for me, I guess.” Lincoln walked into the interrogation along with Gregory. I was a bit amazed Lincoln would share the questioning, but maybe good cop, bad cop.