With a Vengeance (22 page)

“Where’d they find her?”

“Greene County. At a friend’s house.”

Pete’s phone rang. “So Hector was telling the truth,” he said as he checked the screen, expecting to see Zoe’s name. In all the hubbub, he’d forgotten to read her message. But this time the incoming call was from Chuck Delano. The guy was persistent. No doubt about it. Pete pressed the key to ignore the call.

“Yeah,” Baronick said. “He told the truth about that much at least. I can’t wait to hear what the girl has to say though. I’ve sent two of my men to bring her back to Monongahela County Police Headquarters.”

“
County
Headquarters?” No. There was no damned way Pete would allow County to snatch this case from him now. “She comes back
here
.”

“Be reasonable, Pete. You’re already stretched too thin. We have the facilities and the manpower. You don’t. The only reason I’ve let you spearhead the investigation up until now is because this is where the action has been. But it makes no sense to bypass County and bring Lucy here for questioning.”

Maybe not, but Pete wasn’t letting go. He remembered Hector’s words to him three days ago and echoed them to the detective. “Do you know how to tell when she’s lying?”

“No. How?”

“I do,” Pete said.
Her lips move
, he thought to himself, but he wasn’t sharing the joke with the detective.

Baronick glared at Pete. Pete glared back. A game of who-blinks-first. They’d played it many times before.

“All right. We keep her at HQ, but you can sit in on the questioning,” Baronick said.

“No deal.” Pete wasn’t about to leave his township when a killer might still be on the loose. And Baronick knew it. “You bring the girl here. After we both question her, County can have her.”

The detective held eye contact, but took a deep breath. Pete refrained from smiling. He’d won this round.

“Fine. We’ll play it your way. This time.” Baronick pulled out his phone and walked away.

Pete keyed up Zoe’s text message. He read it once. And then again. “
Hey
,” she wrote, “
did you know Bud Kramer has a quad hidden under a tarp in the back of his garage?
”

Twenty-Four

Zoe and the rest of the A crew stood in front of the open bay door, gazing at Medic Two as if it were a wounded comrade newly out of the hospital. Earl fingered the metal where the bullet had pierced the fender.

“Does it pass your inspection?” Tony asked.

Earl tipped his head, squinting at the patch job. “Yeah. Gotta say, Kramer’s guys do good work. I can’t even see a dimple.”

The crew seemed appeased. Their large orange and white team member had been pronounced fully recovered and ready for duty.

The mention of Bud Kramer set Zoe’s nerves on edge. Had Pete received her message? Would he have time to check into the ATV hidden under the tarp? Or would he even bother when he was focused on the Livingstons?

She shook her head. Bud as a sniper was about as preposterous an idea as she’d ever come up with.

Besides, she was the one who had alerted Pete to Lucy as a potential suspect. He’d think she was nuts if she called him to check every single ATV in the county.

Tony clapped Zoe on the back. “So what’s the latest?”

Had she missed something? “About what?”

He fixed her with a look. “What do you
think
? You’re Chief Adams’ girl. You have the inside scoop on the investigation.”

Chief Adams’ girl? That’s how they saw her? “I’m not really his…I mean, we’re not really…”

Tony further narrowed his eyes at her.

She glanced around and discovered the others giving her equally skeptical looks. “I haven’t talked to him since this morning. They were watching Hector Livingston’s house and trying to find Lucy.”

“I heard they arrested Hector and were searching his house,” Tracy Nicholls said. “And they captured Lucy down in Greene County and are bringing her back for questioning.”

“Oh,” Zoe said. Obviously she was out of the loop, Chief Adams’ girl or not.

Tracy blushed when the other crewmembers all turned their attention to her. “I was talking to my friend at the newspaper a little while ago.”

“So they’ve caught them.” Tony sounded relieved. “Good.”

Tony, Tracy, and the other two guys on the crew drifted into the office, talking about the case and whether Hector or Lucy…or both…was the killer.

Zoe ran the news through her head and wished it brought her the same sense of relief as the others felt.

“What’s wrong?” Earl asked.

She blinked, realizing she’d been staring at, but not really seeing, him. “I was thinking.”

“I know. About what? I thought you’d be happy to hear Lucy and her father were in custody.”

“I thought so too. Maybe I would, if I’d heard it from Pete.”

Earl crossed his arms. “He’s probably busy.”

“No matter how busy he is, if he believed I—
we
were safe, I think he’d let me know.”

A trace of a grin crossed Earl’s face. “A minute ago you were arguing about not being his girl.”

She opened her mouth to throw the
we’re just friends
line at him, but realized who she was talking to. Earl knew her too well. Instead, she said, “That’s not the only thing bugging me.”

“You’re still hung up on Bud Kramer having a quad.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah. Maybe. No.” Zoe laughed at her lack of conviction. “I know it’s stupid. We’re talking Bud. We’ve known him for years.”

“Decades,” Earl corrected.

“He has no motive to hurt any of us.” That Zoe knew of. “Besides, he’s in wheelchair. The shooter, whoever he is, may have used a quad to get in and out, but he had to climb off the thing to make his shots. Bud couldn’t do that.”

Earl fell silent, pensive.

The flicker of doubt in his eyes tightened a knot in her shoulders. “What?”

He fixed his gaze on Medic Two, but Zoe was pretty sure he wasn’t seeing it any more than she’d been seeing him a moment earlier. He shook it off. “I remember hearing Bud used to be a wild man in his younger days. Hot tempered. Always goading guys into fights.”

“That’s still a long way from premeditated murder,” Zoe reminded him. “Besides, he’s in a
wheelchair
.”

“Because of the pain when he stands.”

“When he
stands
?”

“And walks. Bud Kramer isn’t completely wheelchair bound. He can get around for short distances.”

Short distances? Like the distance from a quad to a preselected vantage point for firing on unsuspecting fire and EMS personnel? Zoe shivered. “I have to call Pete again.”

With Hector secured in Vance Township’s holding cell under Kevin’s scrutiny, and Lucy’s ETA still about an hour out, Pete decided to take advantage of the lull in action to look into this quad Zoe had called him about. As Pete parked in front of Bud Kramer’s Garage, his cell phone rang again. Zoe’s name flashed on the screen.

“Hi,” he said, wondering if she could hear him smile.

He definitely heard no smile in her voice, however. “Have you had a chance to check into Bud’s ATV?”

“I’m just about to talk to him.”

“Did you know he can walk?”

“What?”

“I guess that’s a no. Earl told me Bud’s not completely wheelchair bound.”

This was news to Pete. He’d never seen the man on his feet. Whatever had put him in the chair had happened before Pete moved to Monongahela County.

When he didn’t reply right away, Zoe added, “That means he could have walked from the quad to the spot where…”

Pete completed her sentence. “Where the killer fired the shots.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll look into it.”

After a pause Zoe said, “I heard you caught Hector and Lucy?” There was a hopeful uptick at the end of the question.

“Yeah.”

The silence on the line bore the weight of her unasked questions. Did they do it? Was it safe to go on calls?

Pete wished like hell he had answers for her. “I’m going to talk to Bud. I’ll call you when I know anything.”

Inside the garage, Bud was at his usual post, bent over a stack of papers. He looked up when Pete tapped the counter. “No, your cop car is not ready yet,” he grumbled. “The thing’s a mess. Gonna take us at least a week.”

“That’s not what I’m here about.”

“Good.” Bud glanced at his watch. “’Cause I’m about to call it a day. Quittin’ time.”

Pete took what he hoped appeared to be a casual look around the garage—with special attention to the area in the rear. The other mechanics must have already clocked out. The place was deserted.

“Whatcha looking for?” Bud asked.

Pete kept his voice level. “I hear you have an ATV.”

Bud blinked. Nodded. And aimed a thumb toward the back of the first bay. “Hang on a minute. I’ll be right out.”

Bud spun his chair and wheeled toward the door leading to what Pete guessed was his office. A moment later, another door to Pete’s right swung open, and Bud rolled through.

“What’s with the interest in my ATV all of a sudden?”

That aspect of the crimes had been withheld from the public and the media. Bud’s question seemed genuine. Unless he was covering his ass.

“We’ve had a rash of all-terrain vehicle thefts,” Pete lied.

“You think mine’s stolen?”

“I have to check, Bud. Just doing my job.”

Bud performed another perfect spin in place before wheeling toward the rear of the bay. “If anyone claims I stole this one, they’re lying. I bought it used, but legal.” He continued to the back of the garage and stopped next to a tarp covering what had to be the quad in question. He grabbed the tarp and whipped it off, revealing a clean albeit battered Arctic Cat. Bud beamed at the ATV. “She ain’t pretty, but she runs like a champ.”

Pete strolled around it, taking in the details. For long hours, he’d stared at the photos of the tire tracks. These ones looked as close to a match as any he’d seen so far. The quad didn’t have a speck of dust or mud on it. Either it hadn’t been outside lately—or it had been washed recently. He eyed a gun rack mounted on the back fender to the left of the rider’s seat. “What do you use it for?”

“So far I’ve only had it out once to putt around a bit. But I hope to do some deer hunting this fall. I used to go out with my dad when I was a kid and with my brothers after that.” Bud slapped his leg. “Haven’t been hunting in years though, for obvious reasons. Thought this buggy might give me back some freedom.”

“How long have you owned it?”

“Not long. Couple weeks maybe.”

Pete wished he’d agreed to upgrade to one of those phones with a camera that connected to the internet. He could take a photo of the tires and email it to the lab. “I’m going to get my camera from my vehicle and take some photos of it. If that’s all right with you.” He’d take the pictures anyway, but Bud’s reaction might tell him what he needed to know.

“Sure. Whatever you want.” The words were right, but Bud’s eyes shifted as he spoke. He wasn’t as happy to help as he let on.

Pete kept a wary eye on the garage while he walked out to his SUV. He wasn’t sure what he expected. Bud to leap from his wheelchair onto the Arctic Cat and roar away? But he could see the man sitting in his chair in the shadows, waiting.

As Pete dug through the canvas bag that held his evidence collecting supplies, he placed a quick call to Baronick and learned the officer transporting Lucy was still about forty-five minutes away. Baronick chuckled when Pete asked if the officer had reported any trouble with the girl.

Back inside the garage, Pete adjusted the camera to take close-up shots and snapped photos of all four tires, making notes to label each frame. If the photos matched, he’d confiscate the quad and do more definitive testing. But his gut was at full alert.

“Tell me something,” Pete said, keeping his tone conversational. “What happened to put you in that contraption?”

Bud chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“I broke my back…boogie boarding.”

Pete lowered the camera and turned to see if the man was joking. “
Boogie
boarding?”

Bud scratched his head. “I know, I know. Damned stupid thing for an old man to do. We were on vacation in Hawaii with the kids, and I got goaded into it. Gotta admit it was a blast. Right up until a wave got the better of me.”

“I didn’t know you had kids.” Pete didn’t know Bud had a wife either.

Bud’s smile faded. “Two boys. Ain’t seen them in years.”

Pete waited for him to elaborate, but Bud lowered his head and rubbed one leg as if massaging a cramp. “So you haven’t been able to walk since the accident?”

Bud straightened, but kept his gaze on the quad. “No.”

Again, he didn’t seem willing to explain further, and Pete decided pressing him—now—wouldn’t accomplish much. Powering down the camera, Pete said, “That should do it. I’ll let you know when we clear you.” Or when they didn’t.

Bud still avoided eye contact, but nodded. “You know your way out.”

Pete slid behind the wheel of his Edge, setting the camera on the passenger seat. As he keyed Kevin’s number into his phone, he watched the large garage door close.

“Where are you?” Pete asked when his officer picked up.

“Keeping an eye on Snake Sullivan.”

“Is he doing anything?”

“Last time I cruised by, he was sitting on his porch with a six-pack. Only it’s down to a three-pack.”

Pete weighed the decision to pull Kevin off babysitting duties with Sullivan. It wasn’t much of a choice. “Forget him. I need your eyes on Bud Kramer.”

The call went silent for a moment before Kevin replied, “Bud Kramer? The paralyzed guy who owns the garage?”

“You know any other Bud Kramers?”

“Well, no.”

It was Pete’s turn to be silent. If Kevin came back with another stupid question, he’d have the young cop on desk duty. Including janitorial chores like scrubbing the toilet.

As if reading Pete’s thoughts, Kevin said, “I’m on my way, Chief.”

The call came in from county for a ninety-year-old female who was unresponsive, but still breathing. Nothing at all suspicious. Except for the location. A house on a lonely stretch of country road with no neighbors in close proximity.

“I hate being scared of doing our job,” Tony grumbled. He and his partner were up for the call.

Zoe manned the radio and handed him the note on which she’d scrawled the address. “I’ll call for police backup.”

Tony waved her off. “I’m sure it’ll be safe. If things look suspicious when we get there, I’ll phone you and then you can call in the troops.”

“If things look suspicious,” she called after him as they headed out the door, “stay in the unit until the police get there.”

Earl appeared in the doorway from the back. “I have to agree with him. I’m sick of being scared to do my job.”

“They have both the Livingstons in custody, and Pete’s checking on Bud Kramer. One of them has to be the shooter, so I think we’re okay.” She hoped.

“And yet you want to call for police backup for a routine medical emergency.”

Zoe didn’t reply. While it was true she hoped they were safe with the three main suspects under scrutiny, she wouldn’t completely relax until Pete told her they had their man. Or girl.

“Control, this is Medic One, en route,” Tracy’s voice came over the radio.

“Ten four, Medic One,” the EOC dispatcher responded and gave the time. “Eighteen twenty-six.”

“I’m gonna call Pete,” Zoe said.

Earl crossed to the bench in front of the window and flopped onto it. “If it’ll put your mind at ease.”

She keyed Pete’s number on her cell phone. He answered on the second ring. “How’s it going?” she asked.

“They’re just pulling in with Lucy.”

“Anything on Bud Kramer?”

“I sent photos of his tire treads to the county lab. Haven’t heard back from them yet.” He sounded busy. Which, of course, he was.

“The reason I’m calling—”

Before she could tell him about the unresponsive woman, the county dispatcher came on the radio. “Medic One, this is Control. Return to base. Repeat, return to base. Caller reports his mother has regained consciousness and refuses medical help.”