Humpty Dumpty: The killer wants us to put him back together again (Book 1 of the Nursery Rhyme Murders Series) (27 page)

“Fine. So I am part of them. But they are not the villains everyone thinks them to be.”

“Here’s the other thing that makes it tough to buy your story,
Olaf
. The body parts showed up all along the train lines. A bunch of them right in your home turf there in Washington.”

Had watched as Joshua got in closer to the lens. The former agent may have had concerns about the video conferencing, but he had taken to it like a pro. Although, looking at him more closely, Had could see that he was pale and sweating, his eyes darting back and forth.

“I cannot control what you have or have not been finding,” King’s Man responded, unruffled. “All I can say is that I had nothing to do with it.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.”

“Mr. Fjerstad… excuse me… King’s Man. Do you know of any hobos who might be capable of doing something like this?” Agent Cooper interjected, sitting forward in her seat, also adjusting for the camera like she had been born to it. Had was thrilled with how well the video thing was working.

“No, I cannot imagine—”

Joshua cut him off. “And you’re telling me your name is just a coincidence?”

This time, the confused expression on King’s Man’s face seemed genuine. “What does my name have to do with anything?”

“All the king’s horses and all the
king’s men
,” Joshua intoned. “Tell me that has nothing to do with this.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“No, you don’t, do you? Follow, that is. You’re a leader. What did you call yourself?” Joshua looked down at a printed piece of paper in his hand. “
King’s Man, the King chosen from amongst the kings of the hobos
. There’s an awful lot of kings in that sentence.” He frowned, and it appeared to Had that the frown went beyond a simple interrogation tactic. The former agent’s focus seemed to flit about the room, instead of the laser focus Had was used to seeing from him.

“Where did you—?”

“Your blog, man. That might have been a mistake. Not sure what you were thinking on that one.” Joshua wiped at his forehead with his sleeve. He was sweating profusely, and seemed to be getting more and more pale by the second.

“Still, I don’t see how—” the suspect started.

“Humpty Dumpty. You know. The serial killer and the nursery rhyme?
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
?”

“All of my children’s rhymes were in Norwegian. It was not
Humpty Dumpty
for me. It was
Lille Trille
. And it doesn’t translate into ‘king’s men’ in my language.”

“That may be true. I’ll have to check up on it. But you have to admit, it’s one hell of a coincidence.”

There was a sound from Reggie’s direction. It was the grinding of the Tardis from
Dr. Who
. Had glanced over at her as she pulled out her cell phone and showed him that she had just received a text.

“We just got the results back from the bomb fragments taken from the site where you found the torso,” she whispered, trying not to interfere with the interrogation taking place. “You need to see this.” She handed the phone to Had.

He scanned the contents of the text, and immediately surged to his feet, surprising both Agent Cooper and Joshua. Giving them a signal to wrap things up with King’s Man, Had gestured to the phone.

Joshua was clearly confused, his eyes unsteady, but Coop seemed to get it. “Mr. Fjer… ah, King’s Man. We’re going to need to pick this back up again later. But please be thinking of any way that you can help us out here. The evidence is pointing at you, and what it’s saying isn’t pretty.”

Had went to cut the connection as Joshua came to his feet, swaying. The former agent started to speak, and then abruptly collapsed, taking out the camera as he fell.

“Joshua!” Agent Cooper was by his side in a heartbeat. Bella came in just milliseconds behind, licking the face of her friend and whining her concern.

Joshua was twitching in what almost looked like convulsions. His skin was grey and clammy, but sweat continued to bead his brow.

“Call an ambulance,” Coop barked at Had.

He pulled out his phone to call, but Joshua groaned and stirred from his position on the ground. His arms waved in an effort to get Had’s attention. As if Had was going to be paying attention to anything else right at this moment.

“Don’t call. Don’t call an ambulance.” Joshua’s voice was strained but strong, and Had hesitated before hitting the “call” button. “I’m fine.”

“You are anything but fine. Don’t be such an ass,” Coop snapped at him, trying to keep Bella out of his face.

“I’m not being an ass,” he responded. “Well, not any more than normal. This is just… well, I’ve had this happen before.”

“Oh, really? When?”

“It was…” Joshua started, then looked up at Reggie. He sighed, then finished his sentence in a resigned tone. “It was when I didn’t have enough to drink. I’m just detoxing, that’s all.”

Coop sat back on her heels, staring at him. She then shook her head. “Don’t lie to me, Joshua. I saw your mini fridge this morning. You’d drunk everything in there.”

Joshua pushed himself up onto his elbows. “Believe what you want, but don’t call an ambulance. I said I was fine. I’m fine.”

Had made eye contact with Agent Cooper, his finger hovering over the button. She nodded, and he slipped the phone back into his pocket. Coop slowly stood, looking down at Joshua, before seeming to make a decision and turning back to Had.

“Now,” she said, pinning him with her gaze. “What was so important that you had to interrupt our interrogation?”

* * *

Sariah was torn. Joshua was still on the ground, slowly making his way to a sitting position. Reggie was switching her attention from Sariah to Joshua to Had and then would start the cycle all over again.

This interrogation hadn’t been her idea in the first place. She still felt that Curtis had been their guy. But once they had gotten into the swing of the questioning, there were a lot of things that started to make sense if King’s Man was their guy. There was a compelling argument here.

So to have the process stopped in the middle left her feeling jumpy and incomplete. But the excitement mixed with nerves she saw in Had’s eyes seemed like it could be promising.

“Go ahead,” she prodded. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

“Well, we got the report back on the bomb fragments,” Had said. “It was a fertilizer bomb.”

“So not incredibly sophisticated. That fits the profile pretty well. But why was that enough to cut us off back there?”

“Well, it’s the fact that the fertilizer matched a specific lot,” Reggie stepped in.

Sariah still wasn’t seeing where this was headed. “Great. One more lead for us to track down. We can never have too many, I guess.”

“No, no, here’s the thing,” Had interjected. “The lot was one that Curtis Howse was carrying just three days ago.”

Ah. Now it was starting to make sense. “So Curtis was carrying the main ingredient for a bomb that took out four cops?”

“Yes,” Had answered. “And the other significant component of a fertilizer bomb…”

“Is diesel fuel,” she finished for him.

“And not just any diesel fuel. We tested what was still in his truck. Initial results show it came from the same gas station as the stuff in the explosive. We should be able to tell within a day or so whether or not what was in the bomb matches what came from his gas tank.”

“This is great. We still have close tabs on Howse, right?”

“Yeah,” Had affirmed. “He was planning on staying for the convention anyway, but we’ve kept eyes on him the entire time. I can get him here within the hour.”

“Do it,” she said. Had turned to head out the door, but Sariah stopped him with her voice. “Oh, and Had?”

“Yes?”

“Good call. We needed to jump on this one right away.”

She had been right. The facts all pointed to Howse and now that son of a bitch was going down for it. Joshua’s doubts and criticisms had gotten to her, made her second guess herself. But she was right.

It was all she could do to keep from making eye contact with Joshua right now. The guy was a mess, whether from a serious binge or, as he said, from abstinence. Honestly, she wasn’t all that sure that she cared. It was just that the idea of Joshua sober seemed so unlikely. But one way or the other, saying “I told you so” would just be salt in a ragged, infected wound right now.

And yet somehow, it’s all she wanted to do. Which was just great. Sariah was having a hard time convincing herself that she was a decent person right about now.

Time to put away Humpty. That would at least help balance the scales.

* * *

Joshua still felt pretty woozy as Had and Reggie led Curtis Howse and his lawyer in and made them sit down in the slapped-together questioning room. Bella had stayed right by his side the entire time he was on the floor, and the little pup seemed much more serious than was her usual wont. He could barely twitch without bumping into her furry little form.

Curtis looked much less confident than he had the previous time he’d been here. Something about continual suspicion seemed to get to even the most hardened of criminals. And this one had seen this end of the other side of the law more than a few times in his life. Curtis’ eyes kept flicking to his lawyer, who looked to be a public defender well into his 50s, with graying hair and a pot-belly.

Agent Cooper wasted no time. As soon as Curtis’ butt touched the chair, she started in with the questions, not giving him much of a chance to get his bearings. Not a bad interrogation technique, he had to admit.

“When’s the last time you carried fertilizer?”

Joshua could see that the question rattled the trucker. He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, classic indicators of stress… and possible guilt. Maybe Coop was right about this guy after all. It didn’t fit, but Joshua was hard pressed to come up with alternate explanations at this point. After a nod from his lawyer, Curtis answered, his voice quavering a bit.

“I dropped some off in Cedar Rapids a few days ago.”

“Which is exactly where my companions and I were almost blown up just the day before yesterday.”

The lawyer sat up straighter. He might be a total schlub, but even he could see that this wasn’t going at all the way he might want it to.

“What?” Howse had gone still, like a mouse trying to hide from an owl.

His defender leaned in close. “You don’t have to say a word.”

Joshua watched as the suspect licked lips that seemed to have gone bone dry. This whole thing was off. Curtis seemed guilty enough, but there was just something… He refocused as Agent Cooper began speaking again, her tone soothing.

“Oh, I think you understand exactly what I said. But just in case, here it is spelled out. You carried one of the ingredients for the bomb that killed four cops to the exact location where it was used.”

“But I—”

She held up a hand to forestall his next statement. “I’m trying to help you here. It’s pretty obvious this was you. The other ingredient of the bomb is what fuels your truck. Down to the gas station you purchased it in.”

Curtis held up his hands, almost as if he were protecting himself from her. Maybe he was. His lawyer leaned in close to his client.

“I advise you not to say anything more.”

“But I had nothing to do with any of that,” the trucker answered, speaking both to his defender and his attacker.

“You had nothing to do with a bomb that happened where you were, with ingredients you were carrying, at the same moment you were right there?” Coop shook her head in disbelief. “That’s what you’re telling me?”

“Agent Cooper, you’ve already asked that question,” the lawyer said, loosening his tie and unbuttoning the top button. “And don’t say anything else,” he murmured, speaking this time to his client.

Curtis apparently wasn’t listening. “I know you must think—”

“Here’s what I think. I think you’re in a lot of trouble. I think you need our help.” Agent Cooper’s tone was soft, reasonable, almost kind. Joshua could see himself wanting to trust that matter-of-fact tone himself. “You’re going to lose everything that’s important to you if you don’t.”

“What do you mean?” Curtis asked.

“Agent Cooper, that feels like a threat,” challenged the lawyer, standing up this time. “I won’t allow you to use intimidation tactics against my client.”

“My apologies if it came across that way, Mr. Torrance,” she responded. “I’m just trying to help him to understand what’s going to happen. I don’t want things to be worse for your client than they have to be.”

“Fine.” The attorney sat back, seeming a bit mollified, but his gaze was locked on her. Joshua couldn’t blame the guy. She was skewering his client.

“We have enough on you at this point to get any kind of warrant we want,” she continued to Curtis, as if there had been no interruption of their direct communication. “Anything hidden in your family is going to come out. It’ll be a circus. They won’t have a day’s peace for the next ten years. The police will swarm over your house and never give you a second to be alone and unworried.”

The lawyer grunted at that. “That’s definitely sounding like a threat to me. You need to knock it off right now or we’re out of here.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Coop responded. “I have enough to charge him.”

“No, you don’t,” he fired back. “Or at least you won’t if you’re at all intelligent. It’s circumstantial. It’d get tossed. And you know it.”

It seemed this ineffectual lawyer wasn’t so ineffectual after all. But Agent Cooper wasn’t done yet.

“Whether or not I keep him, he’s mine. And he knows it. Your client understands just how bad it’s going to be for him, and for his family, if he doesn’t cooperate.

Joshua reached up a hand to restrain Coop, but she shook it off.

“I just have a few more things to say to your client, and then we’re done,” Agent Cooper said. Her tone was mild, but there was an intensity to her that was almost frightening. “I want you to listen and listen close. You understand?”

Curtis Howse nodded. It seemed his voice had left him for the moment.

Coop continued, her tone level, even as her cold words bit deeper than frostbite in the Arctic. “Confess, and things will be better for your family.”