Copp In Shock, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) (25 page)

God only knows, and I don't want to know, what would have been Martha's final answer to the problem with Janice had they succeeded in carrying out their plan.

I believe that the burglary at the Sanford home while Janice was in the hospital was a setup by Martha or Lancer to cover their own tracks in case it became necessary to kill Janice. Just for the record, it seems to me that all the other burglaries were inspired by the search for Sanford's missing goods and committed by Sammy and Clifford, acting under Sanford's orders.

Andrews and
Zambrano
, the crack L.A. sheriff's detectives, were probably the unluckiest bastards of all. They were within a heartbeat of breaking this case. Lancer, the consummate ex-military "spook," had highly sophisticated electronic surveillance gear in his car and had been monitoring the local police frequencies as well as all telephone transmissions in and out of the police department. This enabled him to intercept Andrews' and

Zambrano's
conversations with Chief Terry and other police personnel.

He knew that they were en route to Tahoe in an attempt to match the Tahoe body with the victim who they had
I.D.'d
in Los Angeles. This would have blown the whole plot wide open, establishing conclusive proof that Vicki Douglas, not Martha Kaufman, had died in Los Angeles, and that a deliberate misidentification had been criminally engineered.

These cops were sharp enough to realize, or at least to suspect, that two victims of the same approximate age and time of death—both related in some way to Sanford and me—could be closely connected. And of course these guys had personally viewed the victim in Los Angeles. In the cabin where Janice was found safely sedated, we discovered the L.A. deputies' case file containing photos, fingerprints, and their notes on the Los Angeles murder victim. Their notes indicated that they had interviewed several Mammoth acquaintances of Martha Kaufman.

Lancer knew that their game was just about up. What else did they have to lose from another killing or two? They had to keep the game going. This ambush was intended to plug another hole in this rapidly disintegrating plot.

It is ironic, perhaps, that the "brilliant stroke" with the identity switch at Tahoe would have been their master coup had not the L.A. cops decided to investigate what must have seemed to them to be a long shot. Martha and Lancer actually had no other recourse but to kill the deputies once the body switch had gone forward and the deputies had become suspicious.

I save this for last because it is the most painful part for me to recount. Betrayal is always a particularly bitter pill; to be betrayed by love with one's own life in the balance is the bitterest pill of all, especially when one feels like a sap in the bargain. Perhaps there had been something approximating love when Martha and I began, but Martha's "love" was of a far different character than my definition of love. I have to believe that her interest in me from the outset was largely motivated by her desire to manipulate me. Her almost insane determination to best her father was the driving force of her life and perhaps had been so for a very long time.

If I had not been so blinded by the impact of my first meeting with her, perhaps I would have seen the character flaws that quickly led to her destruction—and of course very nearly my own. As it worked out, I had become very disturbed by her apparent obsession over her problems with Harley, but by that time I had begun working on a form of obsession myself: to make our love real, and special, and forever—little knowing that her interests would take me in directions that I could not possibly tolerate. On the very night of our honeymoon, she was already beginning to spew vile accusations against her father and trying to enlist my help in furthering her own sense of "justice." And of course I did not know at the time about the bearer bonds or any of the other intrigues that were driving Harley Sanford nuts.

Martha "enlisted" me, perhaps in the same way that she had already enlisted Lancer. I did not know at that time the value of the bearer bonds or that they were Harley Sanford's property. I only knew, or believed, that something valuable was in the safety-deposit box and that Harley was trying to get it away from her.

The torching of the gallery was the first concrete evidence I had seen that some sort of "war" was going on between father and daughter—and Martha had been very careful to keep me at a distance from her parents. So I have to feel that the whole deadly plot had been brewing in her mind from my first meeting with her.

So, yeah, I was carefully set up. I had been led to believe that Martha was being pursued by her own father and that she was fearful for her life. I was taking her home with me. Vicki Douglas supposedly was in about the same fix as Martha and she was planning to stay with us in Southern California while seeking a new life for herself. Yes, Martha had told me that Vicki had become involved in prostitution under Sanford's influence and that she felt a responsibility to "rescue" the girl.

Some rescue.

By the time we were within a short distance of my place near L.A., I finally began to understand what Martha was asking of me. She wanted me to assist her in an outrageous plot against her father. We started arguing and I pulled the car over to have it out with her. Before I realized what was happening she had pulled my gun out of the glove box and shot me without warning. I cannot speak to my sense of betrayal and dismay but I know that it was more than a mere gunshot wound that propelled me into this hideous encounter with extreme shock.

I am still a bit fuzzy about the struggle itself and the actual chain of events. The only way that I can reconstruct the actual sequence is that Vicki ran terrified from the car after I was shot and Martha pursued her and killed her with my gun. Some of this I have learned from Lancer, who was following my car at a discreet distance. According to Lancer, Martha placed her wedding band on the dead girl's finger and dropped her engraved cigarette lighter in the pocket of Vicki's jeans. Thinking that I was dead, they stripped the car of the girls' luggage and personal effects. In their haste to get away, Martha's bracelet came loose and was later found by the police near Vicki's body.

I guess I came to, moments later, and somehow was able to drive the few blocks to my house, although apparently banging up the car along the way.

It could have worked. All of it or any of it could have worked. Only God knows why it did not, certainly not me. This could have been set in any small town, anywhere in the world. All of the principals in this adventure knew one another, yet we all must be aware that no human being truly knows others in the recesses of their own hearts and minds.

We did bury
the real Martha Kaufman-
Copp
in a closed coffin, not because the body was so disfigured but because the soul itself was. Janice would not allow a viewing of her monster-child.

It is amazing, though, how quickly the threads of a life can come back together following a tragedy. Chief Terry did not rethink his decision to resign from the force. He will be leaving as soon as a suitable replacement has been appointed. For my money, there will never be a replacement for this cop.

He is going to be a very busy man, nevertheless. Janice Sanford has prevailed upon him to take over the management of her many properties and she will need a lot of help picking up the pieces of that shattered empire. I did not envy him the task of unraveling the legalities of that million bucks in bearer bonds and the Swiss accounts. I know of no more worthy a man than him for that role. It is my guess, and hope, that love is already blossoming between those two and that the horrors of yesterday shall quickly become no more than the faded memory of a distant nightmare. So be it—and I will be looking forward to one day cracking another "short dog" of Jack Daniels with this superlative man. That is from the heart, "bud."

As for myself, I run into Mammoth a lot more often these days. Have a good pal up there and she has no peer in the whole state when it comes to making a man feel like a real king, at least for a day—or a night, for that matter. Besides, I need to pursue my new interest in human psychology.

Above all, I have developed a new respect for the mere joy of being alive and enjoying the company of nice people and good friends. But I should tell you that the first thing I did upon returning to the sanctuary of my home in Southern California was to place a classified ad in the Los Angeles Times reading: FOR SALE—ONE EXPENSIVE PAINTING, TITLED "GOD'S COUNTRY," FREE TO FIRST CALLER.

About the Author

Don Pendleton is the author of
The Executioner
series featuring Mack Bolan, which has sold more than 60 million copies to date.
 
Copp
For Hire
, Mr. Pendleton’s debut hardcover novel, was published to critical acclaim by Donald I. Fine, Inc.
 
Joe
Copp
returned in 1988 with the popular encore novel,
Copp
On Fire
; in 1989 with
Copp
in Deep;
in 1990 with
Copp
in the Dark;
  
Copp
on Ice, 1991, and
Copp
in Shock, 1992.
 
Don Pendleton and his wife, Linda, make their home in West Covina, California.

First Edition, Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1992