Eureka (43 page)

CHAPTER 40

It was a little past midnight when we drove through the gate in the eight-foot stone wall and kept going as quietly as we could, past the pond down to the Victorian main building of the Shuler Institute. The guard at the gate saw Earl and waved us through. There was a light over the door and a dim night-light in the main office, but the place was deserted.

We cut off our car lights and followed the gravel drive around the main building, guided by the moon. We stopped under a group of trees and turned the car off. The second car followed. I got out, walked to the edge of the trees, and listened.

It was deathly quiet. A cricket chirped way down at the end of the property and an occasional breeze whisked the leaves. Otherwise there was not a sound.

The rage ward loomed behind the main office building like a haunted Victorian mansion etched by moonlight. Like the main building, the third floor had four large gables, one facing in each direction, their spires reaching up like daggers toward the full moon. The second floor had several high windows on each side. That would be the ward for “the loonies” as Morningdale had called them. The first floor, apparently the gym and swimming pool, was windowless.

There was a single light on. It cast an eerie yellow glow from the gabled window facing west, toward the Pacific. Otherwise, the building could have been deserted.

“Is that where Riker's holed up?” I whispered to Morningdale.

“Probably,” Earl said. “I know Dahlmus had the south room, and me and that nut from Baltimore each had a room.”

In the darkness of the south room, Riker had watched the two cars drift under the trees and stop. Was it Guilfoyle and his bunch coming back? They had left in a hurry, he assumed to pick up Earl and that loopy one in the gaudy shirt. Riker sat on the window seat, saw two of the men come to the edge of the grove of trees and stare up at the building. He began to get nervous. He took out a cigarette, cupped his hand when he lit the match.

 

Big Redd squatted in the safety of the trees and stared hard at the one darkened window he could see. Then he thought he saw a flare. He squinted his eyes. Not sure. He focused on the dark window. Then he saw a red pinpoint brighten for a second. He picked up a pebble and tossed it at Bannon.

I felt a stone hit my leg, turned around, and saw Redd, hunched down. He made a motion for me to move back and with the other hand pantomimed someone taking a drag on a cigarette. Then he pointed to the dark window on the south side of the third floor. I moved back and focused on it, saw a momentary glow. Someone was in there. Smoking. Watching us. Now we had a problem. If it was Riker, we couldn't move from the cover of the trees without being spotted.

The gravel road wound down past several utility buildings and swept around the rage ward, almost to the end of the large compound, before circling back to the main entrance. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the moon was so bright there was no possibility of making a dash across fifty yards of lawn to the entrance of the secured building without being spotted. Riker could be sitting there with a high-powered rifle, ready to take down anyone who entered the building.

There was one possibility. At a certain point, the driveway came within ten yards of the southwestern corner of the building. From the third floor of the building, it would be impossible to tell how many people were in the car. Also, from any one of the gabled rooms, it was only possible to see any three sides of the building.

I decided to send our two fastest runners, Redd and Aaron, to zigzag fifty yards across the lawn to the cover of two bays of trees under the south window. At the same time, one-eyed Max would drive straight to the northeast corner of the building, and one-armed Lenny, Rusty, and I would pile out of the car and blow the lock on the door Riker could not see. Once inside, our objective would be to cross the swimming pool room, to the stairwell on the southern side of the building. I would go up the stairs followed by Rusty, and hopefully trap Riker on the top floor, while Lenny and Max would cover the entrance to the elevator. Redd and Aaron would make a dash for the building and back me up. Riker's only option then would be the roof.

There was still that
if
. What if Riker was someplace else? Maybe making a run for it on a boat. Maybe some pilot was flying in to pick him up and fly him down to Mexico. Riker was a devious, psychopathic, cold-blooded killer. No time to worry about what-ifs. I had to move.

Riker watched the copse of trees, wondering what their next move would be. He had to assume that Culhane and Bannon were down below with plenty of backup. And if that was the case, he also had to assume that Guilfoyle had been trapped or arrested at Lefton's place. Maybe even killed. Riker had to get off the third floor. To stay there was suicidal.

Below him, two dark figures darted from the trees, dodging like rabbits in the moonlight, and behind them, one of the cars roared from the shelter of the small orchard.

The car was heading for the north side of the building. His blind side.

He had only one option. Get off the third floor and go through the second-floor ward to the north side of the building.

And create a diversion.

As he ran from his apartment and down the hall, he was smiling. Culhane and Bannon commanded the top of his hate list.

What a diversion he had planned for them.

 

Rusty handcuffed Earl to the branch of a eucalyptus tree.

“One sound outta you and you're morgue meat,” I said, then jumped in the car.

We screeched down the gravel drive, slued around the corner, the car's rear wheels spewing stretches of lawn behind them, and slammed to a stop. The four of us piled out. The door's interior lock was a bar lock, a long steel slat running the width of the door. It could only be unlocked from the inside by a key.

“Lose the door,” I said to Rusty, who swung his pump shotgun up and blew the hinges off. We charged through and ran around the pool to the exit on the south side. That door was unlocked.

As Lenny and Max headed for the elevator, I followed Rusty up the stairs, two at a time, to the third floor. There was a short flight of steps, a landing, then another flight up to the second-floor landing and the door to the ward for the insane.

Riker was waiting for us when we reached the first landing. As we rounded the corner, his shotgun roared, echoing up and down the narrow stairs. It deafened me for a moment but the blast hit Rusty in the legs, just below the knee.

I squeezed off three shots as fast as I could but Riker had spun back around the corner.

Rusty rolled down the stairs to the landing, his legs shredded by buckshot. I jumped down and pulled him around the corner just as Riker got off another shot. It ripped a three-foot hole in the wall. And once again, Riker was gone.

Eerie screams came from the rage ward. At first one or two, then a chorus of terrified cries and shrieks. I peeked around the corner just as Riker fired a third load of buckshot into the lock of the mental ward. Riker dove through the doorway, my shot missing him by inches.

Rusty was groaning in pain. I got on the walkie-talkie. “This is Bannon. Rusty's down with leg wounds. I think it hit an artery. Riker's in the mental ward, going north. Get a doctor and get some backup to the north door. I'm in pursuit.”

“On the way,” Max answered.

I took off my jacket, wrapped a sleeve around Rusty's thigh, and used the shotgun barrel as a tourniquet to stop the arterial blood pumping from one leg.

He pointed up the stairs. “Go, go,” his lips told me.

Like the hounds of hell, screaming, moaning, babbling howls led me up the stairs into bedlam.

The mental patients were raving mad, chained to beds, clutching at Riker, tearing at his clothes. They were scratching his face, some looking for a savior, some striking out in fear. He was slashing at them with his shotgun and punching them, dragging them and their beds as he raced toward the far door. Another group rushed me as I charged in. Under the dim rays of the overhead night-lights, they were faceless hands and arms clutching at me, restrained only by the chains that bound them either to the floor or their beds. I spun around, trying to break loose, when I heard Riker's shotgun roar again. On the other end of the ward I saw two or three inmates spin away from him, screaming in pain. He turned and fired a second blast into another group. Bodies lurched as the buckshot ripped into them.

Then Riker saw me. He shook loose the last of his attackers, dodged through the door, and raced down the stairs leading to the pool room.

I holstered my Luger and tried to break free of the terrified people surrounding me so I could follow him.

Riker reached the first floor and ducked into the pool room. Adrenaline-spiked, he looked as crazed as the victims he had left on the second floor. He went to the corner of the room, pulled open the door
.
A broom closet. He went to the next. A large boiler rumbled in one corner, fed by gas and feeding hot water into the heated pool. Riker backed across to the room to the door, aimed at the gas valve, fired his shotgun, and dove through the opening.

I was halfway across the ward when I heard the boom of the shotgun followed by the gas explosion. The floor erupted, showering the room with bodies, bedding, chairs, shards of tile. An instant later, a geyser of flame burst through the hole. The searing blast struck me, throwing me on my back. The whole room began to tremble. Flames ate the deck, the ceiling, the walls.

Inmates were tossed around like puppets without strings.

A young woman staggered toward me, her brown hair ablaze. I scurried across the floor, pulled her down, and beat out the flames with my hands.

A crack jagged across the floor under me. I started to get up. There was another explosion. More debris swept through the room.

The floor split open and collapsed beneath me.

I plunged, arms and legs flailing, straight down into the swimming pool below.

It knocked my breath out. I was in a surreal world. A world of debris, of gowned bodies chained to sleeping-cots, a world tainted by orange flames reflecting off the surface above.

I hit bottom, got my legs under me, pushed upward through the wreckage to the surface, and burst out gasping for breath. The building was ablaze around me. As I reached the side, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the pool. It was Max. He shoved me along the edge of the pool, shielding me from the flames, to the north door. We rushed outside. Cool night air filled my lungs. Then I remembered Rusty.

“Rusty?” I asked.

“He's hurting but he's okay,” Max said, as we rushed away from the flaming pyre.

“Riker . . .”

“I didn't see him.”

Inmates in their white gowns were staggering around the yard, babbling inanely, some pointing at the blazing ward and giggling, some flailing at their burning gowns.

“He can't be far,” I said. He went one way, I went another, both of us working our way through the stunned victims of the fire. Behind me, another fireball erupted from the burning building.

In the flare of the explosion I saw Riker.

He was twenty yards ahead of me, wielding a switchblade, slashing at the crazed tenants. He grabbed one of the inmates by the hair, threw him to his knees, slashed his throat, and pulled off his gown, putting it on himself.

“Riker!” I yelled.

He turned and looked at me. I pulled my Luger and walked toward him.

He looked down at my gun and then back at me and laughed.

“That pistol's soaking wet. It isn't worth shit,” he hissed. He held the knife toward me.

“Come on,” he said, and rushed at me. I held the Luger at arm's length and squeezed the trigger.

It misfired.

He was so close I could feel the heat from his burning body when he slashed my arm with the knife. As he did, another screaming human comet rushed to him, grabbed him, and knocked him down. Riker tried to struggle free but the human torch was twice his size. Flames licked at Riker's purloined robe, etched up it, set Riker's hair on fire. As fire engulfed them both, he kicked and screamed, and finally rolled over and broke free of his fiery captor. His terrified eyes locked on mine for a moment. He charged up at me.

He was three feet away from me, engulfed in fire, his face literally melting from the flames, when I heard the
whoosh
and saw a flash of silver an instant before the thick knife blade pierced his throat. It cut windpipe and jugular and went all the way through his neck, stopped only by the hilt of the bowie knife.

Riker's scream was cut off as air rushed from his lungs and blood spewed from his jugular, and the vile mixture of breath and blood burst from his throat. Riker's mouth gaped open. I stared into eyes of pure madness and watched life flicker out of them before he fell dead.

Big Redd walked up and looked at my arm. He pulled out his shirt, tore a strip off the tail, and tied it tight just above the knife wound.

“Thanks,” I said. “That's two I owe you.”

“One,” he said. “Charlie and I fished together.”

It was the second and last time I heard him speak a word.

CHAPTER 41

In the morning's light, the back side of the Shuler Institute looked like a battlefield. The security building had burned itself out and collapsed into the swimming pool. All that was left was a huge pile of charred lumber. Firemen were rolling up their hoses, the last ambulance and the last of the hearses had pulled out.

A tall, burly man in a state trooper's uniform, with one of those Boy Scout hats pulled down low on his forehead, found me drinking coffee in a clinic they had set up in one of the smaller buildings. A kindly old doctor had used twelve stitches to sew my arm back together.

The trooper offered me his wolf's paw of a hand and said, “I'm Major Stacks, from up at the San Luis Obispo Station. Are you up to a few questions?”

“Sure,” I said. “I could use a drink about now but people would talk.”

He smiled formally and took out a pad and pen.

“What was the final death toll here?” I asked.

“Seventeen dead, fourteen injured.” He said it as casually as if he were talking about the score of a football game. “Could you just kind of run over the events of last night for me?”

I remembered Moriarity's advice: “Keep it simple.” I started with the APB on Riker and Dahlmus, gave him the front-page version up to the shoot-out at the Shuler Corral, and ended with Riker stabbing the defenseless mental patient and Big Redd's bowie knife ending Riker's days among the living.

“Well, that's pretty much the way the big Indian says it ended,” Walker said.

“And far be it from me to contradict anything a big Indian with a bowie knife might tell you,” I said. Then I held up my arm. “Riker sliced about six inches out of this before Mr. Redd came to my rescue.”

He flipped his book shut and nodded his thanks. “You will be around if we have any other questions, won't you?”

“You can find me at Central Homicide in L.A. anytime.”

“Little off your beat, weren't you?” he said.

“I had bad directions.”

He shook his head and smiled.

“By the way, did you hear about Captain Culhane?” he said, stopping at the door.

“Did something happen to him?”

“Osterfelt and Bellini announced this morning that they were joining forces. Osterfelt is running for governor and Bellini will run for lieutenant governor. Culhane announced he was cancelling his plans to run and dropped out of the race about thirty minutes ago.”

“Thanks for the news,” I said, but he was already gone.

It was noon when I drove up to The Breakers. I parked in front of the place, locked the car as usual, and went in. As I headed for the ballroom, the desk clerk waved at me.

“Sir,” he said with a little spit in his tone.

I ignored him. I wasn't in the mood.

Then he snapped his fingers at me.
Snapped his fingers!
I admit I looked like hell. But snapping fingers at human beings does not sit well with me. I went back to the desk. He looked me up and down, and raised his nose an inch or two.

“Excuse me, sir. Are you
visiting
someone?”

I held my arm at full length under his nose and snapped my fingers four or five times in his face, real fast.

“Do you like that, pal?” I said. “Do you like being treated like a dog?”

He didn't know what to do. He started to babble, but I walked away and went up the stairs to the ballroom.

Little had changed since the night before. The ballroom ceiling was still covered with red, white, and blue balloons, with red, white, and blue streamers sagging between them. The tablecloths were still the same patriotic colors, as were the paper cups and platters. There was a small bandstand at the end of the room and the music stands were the national colors. But a lot of the balloons had lost air and were flitting around the dance floor under the ceiling fans. There was no band. The large tables on either side of the dance floor were covered with cold cuts, various kinds of bread, potato salad, and baked beans in tureens, but there was no one to eat all the food.

Culhane was the only person in the room.

His tie was off and his shirt open and his tux jacket was hung over the back of his chair. He was having a drink.

I walked the length of the room, kicking balloons out of my way, and stopped at the food table to put together a roast beef on rye bread with plenty of mayo and commandeer a bottle of Budweiser from a large tub filled with ice.

“Just like a cop,” Culhane growled. “Never pass up a free feed.”

I sat down across from him and took a swig of beer.

“And a beer drinker to boot.”

“Only when I'm eating,” I said, and held the bottle up in a toast to him.

“What's that for? You toasting to my defeat?”

“Look at it this way: you scared the hell out of them for a few days and took a walk. The voters deserve Osterfoos and Beldini or whatever the hell their names are.”

I took a bite of my sandwich and washed it down with a swig of beer.

“If it's any consolation,” I said. “I would have voted for you. Hell, I probably could have lined up half the L.A. police force for you.”

He smiled ruefully. “I should have known those two had something up their sleeves. I wonder how they decided which one was gonna get the big job.”

I shrugged. “Whoever had the most dirt on the other one.”

“I hear you guys put on quite a show down there in Mendosa,” he said, changing the subject.

“You would have loved it,” I said. “We burned down half the institute and used up more ammo than you guys did in the Big War. Hell, it was like the Fourth of July.” I finished the sandwich, then added, “Riker's right where he should have been all along. Dead.”

“You did a good job, Cowboy. I once said you were a bulldog. Grab ahold and never let go.”

“Thanks. Just for the record, if Redd hadn't iced the son of a bitch, I would have.”

He looked across the table at me and smiled one of those enigmatic smiles of his. He knew what I meant. With Riker out of the way, the state would deep-six the case against Culhane for framing Riker. There was nobody left to file a complaint and why bother? It was a twenty-year-old case and Riker had proved to be a murderous psycho. They probably wouldn't have proceeded with it anyway, since Riker had finally ended up having Wilma Thompson killed. But I also knew Brodie would carry the stain of the frame-up for the rest of his career.

“You know Osterfelt might even offer you the attorney general's spot,” I said.

“Suure.” He chuckled. “When the sun rises in the west.”

“Why didn't you stay in the race? Everybody in the state would've known them for the bottom-feeders they are.”

“It costs a lot of money to run that kind of race. Most of it would've come from friends of mine.”

“They can afford it.”

“I couldn't do that, Cowboy, take their money knowing I couldn't win.”

“Maybe next time,” I said. “When the voters have a taste of what those two are really like. If it means anything to you, I think you would have been a helluva governor for a year, maybe two. Before the money boys and pols and kingmakers got their claws into you.”

“You think that would have happened?”

“It always happens. The key to being a successful politician is compromise, Brodie. And once you compromise, you're hooked. After that, it's downhill all the way.”

“You are a cynic.”

“Nope, a realist. It happens in all walks. A cop takes an apple. The next thing it's a buck. Then ten bucks, and the next thing you know he's sitting in the backseat of a police car altering ballots on election night for fifty bucks a vote. If I learned one thing about you, you don't compromise easily.”

“Look who's talkin',” he said. “How come you never got hooked?”

“Because they don't have anything to offer me. I don't
want
anything. I'm happy doing what I'm doing.”

“Everybody wants
some
thing, Cowboy.”

“You're probably right. But in my case, it wouldn't have a price tag on it. You and I are alike in that respect. You sure didn't want to be governor for the money, you wanted to be governor to clean out that nest of crooks in Sacramento. Or maybe I'm wrong, Brodie, maybe just driving them all crazy would have been enough for you.”

“We'll never know, will we?” he said, still smiling.

I finished my sandwich and washed the remains down with the rest of my beer. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Then I heard a click behind me and looked around. In a dark corner, a lighter flared into light and I saw Delilah O'Dell's face for a moment. It snapped out and smoke curled from the shadows.

“Why don't you join us,” I said.

“I'd rather listen to the two of you telling each other how swell you are.”

But she got up and came over to the table anyway. She was in full blossom, as always. She was wearing a tan shantung pantsuit, with a maroon scarf around her long neck.

“How's the arm?” she asked.

“Just another scar to add to the ones I have already.”

“That rich dame likes scars, does she?” Delilah said, taking out the makings and rolling two cigarettes.

“What do you know about that rich dame?”

She peered up at me and smirked.

“Who do you think you're talking to?” she said. “Where do you think Brodie found out about that sissy dog of yours?”

“Mata Hari, huh?” I said.

“She was a piker.”

She lit the two butts, and gave Culhane and me each one. I looked around at what was left of Culhane's run for governor.

“Where are all those swells with the money who were making you look like a winner last night?”

“After I made my bow-out speech, they all went up to the golf course.”

“How about Brett Merrill and Ben?”

“They feel bad for me. But I don't have to tell you that.”

“That was cute, the way you got off the subject about the lady banker,” Delilah said.

“You probably know more about her than I do,” I said.

“You ought to marry her,” Delilah said. “Better than working for a living.”

“I'm not sure she's cut out to be a cop's wife,” I said.

“I'm not sure you're cut out to be a rich boy,” Culhane said.

We got another laugh out of that.

“Better go home and change clothes before you go by her place,” said Delilah. “Unless you want to scare her to death.”

“I got one question to ask before I head out,” I said.

“Christ, you never change,” Culhane said.

“It's for Delilah.”

“Oh?” she said, raising her eyebrows.

“Did the shooting at Grand View happen just the way they say?”

She looked at me for a long minute and said, “It happened exactly the way Brodie said it did.”

I nodded and got up to leave. Then I said to her, “But if it had happened some other way, you'd still say it happened the way Brodie said it did, wouldn't you?”

“You bet your sweet ass I would,” she said with a smile, and without hesitation. Then she added, “You just don't get it.”

“No. Maybe someday I'll understand why Wilma Thompson and Lila Parrish went on the lam. And who paid them to do it.” I shrugged. “Who cares anyway, right?”

Wrong. I did care. I felt sorry for Wilma. After looking for happiness all those years, she still ended up dead.

“I'm sorry about Eddie Woods's wife,” I said.

His face got very sad. He looked out the window as if there were answers out there to questions we all have about life and death.

Delilah started to say something but Culhane cut her off.

“Innocents always get caught in the cross fire,” he said.

“What's the dif,” I said. “By tomorrow, it'll be old news.”

I got up to leave and we shook hands.

“For what it's worth,” I said, “I think you're an honorable guy. We just play by different rules.”

“Don't bet on it.”

“Thanks for the sandwich,” I said, kicking my way through the balloons on the way to the door.

“Hey, Cowboy,” Culhane called after me.

I stopped and looked back at him.

“You're a helluva snoop,” he said. “But you had your nose up the wrong dog's ass on this one.”

“I think you're half right,” I said.

“Don't you ever admit you're wrong?”

“Why bother?”

“Well, just remember one thing.”

“What's that?”

He gave me a farewell smile.

“I told you so,” Thomas Brodie Culhane said.