Dead Hot Shot (Loon Lake Fishing Mysteries) (15 page)

Scrambling up the bank from the shoreline was not as easy as it appeared. A layer of ice beneath what was now two inches of wet snow made each step forward seem like two steps back. Osborne wasn’t the only one whose boots kept slipping. Nor did things improve when the three of them reached the screen of arbor vitae running along Gina’s property line: the trees — though a good six feet high and densely branched — had gaps of three to four feet between them.

“Stay low,” whispered Ray, who had taken the lead. Osborne did the best he could as he crouched behind Lew. It worried him that the snow had suddenly stopped and a break in the cloud cover turned the rising moon into a floodlight exposing the cabin in its snowy clearing. Any approach would leave tracks visible from inside.

The unmistakable crack of a rifle shot caused Osborne to freeze for a second before slamming himself into the snow behind Lew and Ray. Was that from inside the cabin? Or outside? It happened so fast he couldn’t tell. He held his breath. Lew and Ray were motionless. Thank goodness the clumps of grass between the trees are high, thought Osborne, decent cover. More shots and the sound of bullets thudding into the trunks of the arbor vitae.

“Josie, someone’s here,” cried a hoarse male voice from near the cabin. “Grab that laptop and get in the truck! Go! Go! Go!”

“Godammit,” said Lew under her breath as she inched forward in a belly-crawl. Ray was moving, too. Osborne hesitated and was relieved when they stopped. A low rise between the line of trees and the cabin would be difficult to cross without being seen. The windows at the rear of the cabin were lit and the curtains pulled back. Anyone who crossed that clearing was a target.

The sound of a door slamming, an engine revving and the spinning of tires on gravel encouraged Ray, who jumped to his feet and ran straight for the lighted window. He peered in, then turned and waved Osborne and Lew forward. “I don’t see anyone,” he said in a low voice when they reached him. “All you can see is the kitchen and it’s empty. Let’s hope they haven’t taken Gina hostage.” He tried the back door but it was locked. He banged on it. A wait. He banged again. When nothing happened dread hit Osborne in the gut. Another crunch of tires from the other side of the cabin — then silence.

Pulling her Sig Sauer pistol from its holster, Lew said, “Ray, maybe we should try the front — ”

The door flew open and Gina stood there: a silhouette against the bright lights of the kitchen. “Oh, thank God,” she said, stepping back and holding the door open. “They just left and. and I’m okay, I’m okay.” Her eyes widened as she resisted breaking down, but her shoulders drooped and her voice cracked as she tried to smile. “You don’t know how good it is to see you guys — if I’d known you were coming I’d have baked a cake.” By the last word she was in tears. “I hate crying,” she sobbed. “I’m just fine.” Ray gathered her into his arms, patting her back as she wept.

“Gina, take your time, we’re not going anywhere,” said Lew as Osborne got Gina a glass of water and Ray eased her into a chair at the kitchen table.

“But don’t you — they’re heading for Canada,” said Gina, rising in her seat. “Josie told me her friend killed those women. Someone needs to — ”

“Settle down, kiddo,” said Lew. “I’m about to alert all law enforcement in the region. They can take it from here.” Gina sat back, wiping at her face with a Kleenex that Ray had handed her, then took several deep breaths while Lew punched in the emergency number for the switchboard on the cabin phone. “Working fine,” she said with a faint grin as she held the receiver high.

Two seconds later Lew was instructing Marlene to put out an APB for Jake Cahak’s Dodge RAM. “We have reason to think they’re headed for Canada,” she said. “Tell Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota authorities I suggest they cover every possible route between here and the border. But I want southern routes covered as well just in case they decide to pull a fast one and head for Illinois. And, please, Marlene, be sure to repeat that these two people are armed and dangerous and one or both are wanted for murder.”

After giving brief physical descriptions of Jake and Josie, she hung up, pulled out a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. “With luck, they’ll be spotted within the hour. Gina, feeling better?” Gina nodded with a faint smile.

Lew pulled out her notepad. “I need you to start at the beginning and tell us exactly what happened. Every detail. Doc, would you take notes, please? I don’t have a tape recorder so I’ll need yours for backup. Ray, you’re in charge of the coffee.”

“Got it,” said Ray, jumping up from the table.

“Josie heard us talking in the parking lot at Mildred’s place,” said Gina. “That’s how she and Jake knew where to find me. They were desperate for her laptop. Those files I found were full of data that he hadn’t yet forwarded to the connection up in Montreal that’s been buying it from him.

“That’s who knocked on the door when — thinking it was Ray — I said I’d call you back. But they barged right in before I could. He had a very unpleasant-looking gun and Josie was right behind him. He spotted my computer open on the desk in the front room and grabbed for it. He was unplugging it when I suggested that he might want to be sure he could open the files before leaving.

“Don’t ask me how,” Gina raised both hands as if still surprised at herself, “but I managed to stay pretty calm. Kinda like ‘oh, hey, people barge in here every day, go right ahead, take what you like.’ I stayed cool. Even when the phone rang — ”

“That had to be me,” said Lew.

“That’s what I figured. Worried that any calls might make the situation worse, I took the phone off the hook. Sorry.”

“Hey, that’s what got us out here,” said Lew. “Thank goodness you were able to stall ‘em.”

“Maybe ‘cause I was calm, Jake decided to sit down and try to open the files — which, of course, he couldn’t. I explained — excuse me, I lied — and said that I had already emailed the files to a tech in Chicago who’d hacked into them and who was in the process of sending the files back to me under new encryption so I could analyze the data. I was honest — I said we were looking for who had been stealing credit card numbers.

“That’s when Jake threatened me. He said if I didn’t open the files for him — That’s the one time I was really afraid because he became so enraged so fast I wasn’t sure I could reason with him. But Josie calmed him down and I offered to help out. If they wouldn’t hurt me, I said, I would give them the new password.

Meantime the files were still loading so they knew they would have to wait for that to finish.”

“And they believed you?” said Lew.

“Yeah. Jake could see it happening on the screen. What was lucky for me is he’s got system skills but the guy’s no hacker. He knew he couldn’t get past an encrypted file without help.”

“If that’s the case, how did they get into Mildred’s data in the first place?” said Lew. “Wouldn’t that have required a password?”

“Yes. And what do you think that was? Aside from the fact that she kept an index card in the cash register with the damn password written on it.”

“Wait,” said Ray, turning around from where he was spooning coffee into Gina’s coffeemaker, “let me guess — raccoon?”

“Close, try again.”

Ray tipped his head, thinking hard, then said, “Raccoon polka?”

“No,” said Gina laughing as color crept back into her face, “babyraccoon.” One word, all lower case.

“By now I’ve convinced them that the files they need are loading into the laptop on the desk and since they have to wait, I’m hoping I can keep them here until Ray comes to pick me up for dinner.”

“An hour?” said Lew. “You were going to keep them waiting an hour?”

“When was the last time you worked with a huge file, Chief? Those can take a long time to load. I was afraid that if I gave them the computer, I’d be the next person with a bullet in my head. I was desperate to buy time.”

“Were you really loading files?” said Osborne.

“Oh, yes,” said Gina. “Definitely loading files. Couldn’t fudge that. So while we’re waiting, I offered them a deal. I said I was a private contractor, that I had been stiffed by a couple of the banks that had hired me and if they were interested I could provide more credit card data on one condition: they had to cut me in on the profits. I made it a point to ask for a lot — thirty percent.

“But I also said they would have to let me set up a system that would hide what was happening. I think that’s what convinced Jake I was for real because then he opened up and told me how he works. Installing state of the art computer systems in expensive homes has made him an expert on computer security from spam filters to firewalls — and where the gaps are. So he jumped on this because he knew right away that I knew what I was talking about.”

“Gina, this took guts,” said Osborne. “I’m not sure I would have the fortitude.”

“Doc, you’re looking at someone who, in my years as an investigative reporter, had to sneak up on mobsters’ garages to steal their garbage. You want scary? That’s scary. This was unsettling, but Jake and Josie were so nervous about getting that computer and all the files that they had to trust me. Jake may be able to siphon data but, like I said, he’s no hacker.”

“So now you’ve got business partners,” said Lew, “and you’ve got them on hold. How long were they here? More than an hour?”

“No, just an hour or so. But it didn’t take long for Jake to get so anxious that Josie sent him outside to keep watch. While he was patrolling the cabin, she double-crossed the guy and offered me a better deal.”

“Are you serious?” said Lew. “Girl’s got guts.”

“Oh yes, chatty Cathy’s got it all figured out. She offered to go partners with me fifty-fifty because she’s already planning to dump Jake once she meets his connection. Said his quick temper makes him high risk. I asked her what she meant by that. She thought it over then told me he’s killed two people and she does not intend to take the rap as an accomplice.”

“She told you all this?” said Lew, astounded.

“It was just me and her here for half an hour — and she did all the talking. The girl’s a schemer and I can tell she’s managed to fool a lot of people. Her mistake is thinking she’s smarter than everyone else.”

“Don’t they always,” said Lew with a shake of her head. “Go on. Was she specific as to who he killed? Anything about Nolan Reece?”

“I took a chance and asked if Jake had anything to do with that. He sure did. Josie said he was furious at the way Nolan had screamed at him in front of all the people here preparing for the engagement party. That wasn’t the first time she’d gone after him, either. He despised the woman.

“Plus he was under the impression that Josie was in her will and could inherit a hefty chunk of money. He knew Nolan always went down to the dock late at night so he planned ahead — lowering the fishing boat and waiting in the woods near the dock.

“Josie said he hit her with a club so hard she blacked out and fell into the lake — ”

“Which explains why we found Nolan’s bridge on the other side of the dock, Lew,” said Osborne, interrupting. “She was hit so hard that the bridge flew out of her mouth and across the dock to where you found it.”

Lew nodded. “What else did Josie say, Gina?”

“Before Nolan came to, Jake pulled the boat over on top of her so she couldn’t move and sat in the boat until he knew she was dead, then hoisted the boat back onto its shore station.

“It was on Thanksgiving after he had driven the girls back to Mildred’s and was hanging out in the barn with Josie that he bragged about how it was the perfect crime — totally unaware that Mildred had entered the barn to search for her missing pet. Mildred saw Jake’s truck parked there. Standing on the stairs she overheard Jake and confronted the two of them. She shouted at him to get out, that she was going to call the police and started back towards the shop. He ran down the stairs, grabbed his rifle from the back of the truck and shot her as she was crossing the parking lot.”

“So it’s all Jake,” said Lew.

“Yes, it’s all Jake.”

“Poor Mildred,” said Osborne, “she was so heavy, so arthritic, she moved so slow. He must have had all the time in the world — ”

“And shit for brains to leave those spent casings on the ground like that,” said Ray.

“Probably didn’t occur to him that shooting humans is different from bringing down an eight-point buck,” said Osborne. “You need to pick up after yourself.”

“Gina, are you saying that they left here with that computer and all those files?” said Lew. “This worries me. Although you did say one of your tech grad students downloaded those so we’ll be able to notify the banks — ”

“Let me show you something,” said Gina with a smug look on her face. She marched across the kitchen and into the next room, past the desk to the door to her bedroom. “Look.” She opened the door. On the nightstand near the bed was a white laptop.

“Josie has an Apple laptop and I have an Apple laptop: same model. The one they grabbed is mine. The files that were loading were photos from my niece’s wedding last month. This,” said Gina, holding the flat white laptop high in triumph, “this is Josie’s laptop with the data files.

“And everything on my laptop is backed up, so if I never see it again — no loss.”

Before anyone could say more, the cabin phone rang. Gina picked it up, answered and said, “For you, Chief.”

Lew took the phone, listened and said, “Thanks, Marlene.” She set the phone back in its cradle and studied the floor for a moment before looking up to say, “A motorist just called in an accident on his cell phone. He’s at the site of a green pick-up overturned on Highway 45 near Land o’Lakes, license plate BIG DOG.

“Ice and heavy slush on the roads up there — must have spun out. Two victims. The sheriff’s deputies and ambulances are on their way.”

• • •

Josie Dark Sky was thrown from the vehicle as it rolled, only to have it land on her. She was dead when the first squad car arrived. Jake, not wearing a seat belt, was still trapped in the rear of the extended cab when the vehicle caught fire. He died on the way to the hospital. Gina’s laptop computer was found in a pile of brush heaped beside the highway — undamaged.