Over Her Dead Body (17 page)

Chapter 26

Detective James looked down at his watch. He was standing on Jerick Stanton Bridge downstream from where Michael had jumped into the water. He had been watching it closely for any signs Michael may have floated downstream. He was standing just over the rail on a small gravel patch. He glanced at his watch again. Damn. It had been about three hours and there was no sign of him. The detective glanced upstream again. Nothing. He turned and stepped over the guardrail and went to the other side to look downstream. The sun was beginning to set and he put his hand up above his eyes to block out the light. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of a bobbing head, a person swimming, or even Bander floating…but he could see nothing. Damn. He looked at his watch again. Time was running out. He needed to have a net thrown across the river to catch his body in the event Paul had more than wounded him. He could be dead floating on down to Pennsylvania by now. There wasn’t enough money or manpower for a net. So if Bander was dead, they weren’t likely to find him. They would drag the river tomorrow but he didn’t expect to turn up anything. The water was too shallow and moved too fast. The best odds were that he would get hung up on some rocks or branches and a fisherman would find him. That wouldn’t help his case though. Dead men don’t talk. Dead men don’t confess. Still, something was nagging him about this Bander guy. All the evidence was pointing one way but his gut and instinct
s
w
ere
telling him something different. He had seen his face when that girl had told him about the DNA and him having a kid. It was a genuinely shocked and surprised expression. He had no idea that he had a kid. It wasn’t uncommon of course for a guy to have a kid and not know about it. It happens all the time. But for a guy to be found with a dead kid that he didn’t know he had…that was a different thing altogether.

The detective lowered his hand and went back over to the other side of the bridge and continued looking upstream. He had a walkie talkie clipped to his belt and listened in to the boat and land chatter as the men continued their search. He looked at his watch again. It was getting late and they didn’t have enough manpower to continue the search into the night. With each passing minute, the odds of finding him diminished. He wondered if he had made the right decision allowing the girl to approach him. The detective shook his head. No, that wouldn’t have changed anything. Ban
der would have hit the water no
matter what. And who could blame him after what had happened to him? What guy would want to risk being tortured again guilty or not? This was going to be a mess for the DA and difficult to prosecute. Detective James’ cell phone rang. “Detective James.” He spoke as he flipped the phone
open
and put it to his ear.

“Are you sitting down?” The voice was from Dr. Crane, the supervising CSI.

“Oh, hey Doc. No, I can’t say that I am. Bander escaped again and I’m up here on Jerick Stanton trying to find him.”

“He jumped in the river?”

“Yep. We’ve been searching for damn near three hours. No sign of him. Hell, he may be dead for all I know. Paul took a shot at him when he leaped. He hit him but I don’t know how bad.”

“Did you put a net up to catch him?” Crane asked.

“Nope. Not enough men, not enough money. You know the speech. Just couldn’t do it. Hell, I don’t have enough guys to continue the search. And they’re talking about making more cuts next month. You believe that
D
oc?”

“Oh I’ve been paying attention. I sent the board a letter but I believe it was likely used to line the bottom of a bird cage somewhere. This will come back to bite them in the gluteus maximus.”

“The gluteus maximus
D
oc?”

“Yes, the buttocks in layman’s terms.”

“Oh it’ll bite them in t
he butt
D
oc. Let me ask you
D
oc;
y
ou keep a spare tire in your trunk?”

“Of course. One never knows when a flat or blowout may occur and leave one stranded.”

“Well did you have a flat today?”

“No.”

“Yesterday?”

“Nope. Can’t say I did.”

“Well, one could argue that the spare isn’t necessary since you’ve gone so long without a flat.”

“Yes, I see your point. The city is arguing that the extra manpower isn’t necessary because of the low crime.”

“Exactly. And you don’t get rid of your spare because you know the day will come when you will need it. Well, this week it might be a murderer gets away. Next time it might be a terrorist. Either way
D
oc you are right. This will bite them in the gluteus maximus.”

“Agreed.”

“So what news have you got for me
D
oc?”

“I’m afraid this isn’t going to make your day any better. Or perhaps it will, depending on how you look at it.
"

“Well, what is it
D
oc? Don’t keep me in suspense.” Detective James was craning his neck to look at something. “Hey, hold on a minute
D
oc.” The detective opened a pouch he had attached to his belt and took out a small pair of binoculars. He put them to his eyes and stared out onto the river. He set his phone down on a guardrail post and pulled out his walkie talkie and pushed a button. “Water teams one and two come in
.
O
ver.” There was a pause and then a click and both water teams on the boats checked in. “I’ve got some movement under some branches on the northeast corner of the cove on the eastside of the river. Can one of you check that out please? Over.”

“Water team one. We’re right near there, we’ll check it out. Over.”

The detective put away his walkie talkie and picked his cell phone back up and watched through the binoculars as the boat approached the cove. “Sorry Doc, go ahead with what you were saying.”

“We ran the DNA test from the swab you had taken from the girl.”

The detective was busy watching as the boat inched in closer. He could just make out something white moving under the branches. “Ya, you already told me that
D
oc. The test matched alleles with the Bander guy.”

“I’m not talking about the DNA from the vic
D
etective. I’m talking about the DNA swab you had taken on the wife. Bander’s wife.”

“Ya, go on…” The boat was having a hard time penetrating the bushes and trees.

“The wife’s alleles are also a match.” There was a pause. “What I’m trying to tell you
D
etective, is that Bander’s wife is the mother of the girl you found.”

“Wha..” The detective dropped his phone. He reached down and picked it up out of the dirt and brushed it off. “What?”

“You heard me correctly. The Bander’s
are
the girl’s parents.”

The detective was stunned.
Who would have seen that one coming? I must be losing my touch.
He thought as he remembered comforting the grieving wife. He felt cold chills run up his spine. “Alright
D
oc, thanks.” The detective hung up the phone and placed it back in its pouch at his waist. He held the binoculars back up and s
aw
an officer in the boat lift up a milk jug into the air. The walkie talkie crackled and a voice from water team one came through.

“Sorry
D
etective. Someone set out a trot line and attached it to the jug. There was a few fish pulling it around. Nothing more.
Over.
” The officer threw the jug back under the bushes and the boat pulled out away from the cove.

The detective ran his hand through his curly hair and sighed. This was getting complicated. He pulled out his phone and speed dialed the officer who was tailing the wife. “Where is she?” The detective asked. The officer ran through the details with the detective. Nothing much to report. The wife had gone straight to the sister’s house and hadn’t left. The sister arrived home about an hour and a half later. “Alright. Go ahead and bring her in for questioning.” The detective turned and headed toward the car. “And one more thing…consider her and the sister armed and dangerous. Check her for weapons before you put her into the car and don’t turn your back on either one of them is that understood?” There was an agreement on the other end. “Ok. Be careful.” The detective sounded worried as he hung up the phone and got into the car. He got behind the wheel and sighed outloud shaking his head. “It’s going to be another long night.” He said to nobody inparticular. “I’m getting too old for this shit.” He started the car and headed for the station.

Chapter 27

Officer Harris hung up the phone with the detective. He and his partner were going to have to bring April Bander in for questioning. This was not something he had expected, or hoped for. He wasn’t sure what to expect from the girls. What he knew for certain is that when it came to arrests, he would rather bring in a guy anytime over a girl. Girls fight harder, they are more clever, and no guy ever likes having to fight with a girl. Guys on the other hand, usually went calmly, and those who didn’t got the rough treatment and usually they didn’t put up a fight for too long. Officer Harris looked over at his partner. “You ready?”

“Are we arresting her?” Officer Fitch asked. Both officers were new to the force. Officer Harris was only twenty-four years old and had a good complexion with a short
,
high and tight haircut. Officer Fitch was twenty-five and had dark curly hair. Both were strong, young, and energetic. Nei
ther of them were too keen on
having to collar a female.

“Nope. Just bringing her in for questioning.” Officer Harris said.

“She gonna go easy?”

“Do they ever? We’re to consider them armed and dangerous
.
”

“Jesus” Officer Fitch said with the unexpected news. “This shit just keeps getting stranger by the minute.”

Officer Harris put the car in drive and headed from the road down the long gravel driveway to the sister’s house. He pulled in behind Becca’s car
,
put
it
in park
,
and turned off the engine. Both officers shared an expression before getting out of the car.

The house was a beautiful log cabin ranch with a huge bay window overlooking the front yard. The front porch was made to look like something out of an old western. It was rustic looking but clean with potted plants scattered about. There was a glass storm door and a doorbell beside it. Officer Harris reached out and pushed the button. A chime could be heard from inside. After about ten seconds footfalls could be heard coming toward the d
oor. Becca opened the big wooden
door and pushed open the glass storm door. Her expression was not pleasant.

“Yes. What can I do for you
O
fficers?” She asked gruffly.

“
Ma'am
, we need to speak to Mrs. Bander please.” Officer Harris said using as polite of a voice as he could muster.

“Well, she’s sleeping. You’ll have to come back later.” Becca said and began closing the door.

Officer Fitch was on the right and caught his hand between the glass and pulled it back. “I’m afraid it can’t wait, it is important that we speak to her now
ma'am
.” Officer Fitch said politely but sternly.

Becca looked back over her shoulder and stepped out of the storm door forcing the officers to take a step back. She shut the storm door behind her. She had on baggy pajama looking pants and a white cotton shirt. Her blonde hair hung down past her shoulders. She lowered her voice to a near whisper. “Is her husband dead? Did you find him?” She asked.

The officers looked at one another and then back at her. Officer Fitch shook his head. “No
ma'am
, we haven’t been able to locate him.”

Becca’s mouth was slightly ajar. She had assumed they would have found him by now dead or alive. She looked distant picturing him on the run, maybe coming here. She shook the thought away and eyeballed the police officers angrily. “Well, then why are you here? What do you want with my sister?”

“I’m afraid we can’t discuss that with you
ma'am
. We’ve been asked to pick her up and take her down
town. They just want to ask her some questions.” Officer Harris said trying to maintain a level of politeness. Becca’s confrontational demeanor was begging to poke at him like little daggers.

“Do you have any idea what this poor girl has been through the last two days?” Becca looked from one officer to the other. “She just passed out from stress not two hours ago. I’ll be damned if you’re going to march her down to your little station and inflict more trauma on her than has already been done.” Becca was shaking her finger at the officers.

Officer Harris was about to respond when he looked past Becca as the storm door opened and April, hair in a tuffled mess, looking like she just got out of bed, stuck her head out of the door. “Is everything ok Becca? What is it?” April had overheard her sister raising her voice at the officers and saw her jabbing her finger at them.

“They want you to go down town with them to answer some questions.” Becca said. “I told them now was not a good time.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked from one officer to the other. “I’ve already spoken to
D
etective James and the sheriff. I’ve told them all I know.”

“I’m sorry
ma'am
. We were asked to bring you in. They didn’t say why. I’m sure they wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important.” Officer Fitch said.

“Fine. I’m going to go get changed and cleaned up. I’ll be right out.” April said.

“Actually
ma'am
, your fine the way you are. You need to step out please. You won’t be gone that long.” Officer Fitch said as he held the door
open and kept it
from closing.

April’s face went pale. Her heart started beating rapidly. She suddenly felt like she was on the wrong end of the investigation.

“What’s this all about?” Becca asked. “Get your hands off my door. I haven’t invited you into my house. All we have done is cooperate. You have no business coming to my home and treating us like we are criminals!” Becca shouted.

“Calm down
ma'am
.” Officer Harris said to Becca. “I need you to step away from the door please.” He motioned his hand backward a bit from the door.

“I need you to step outside please.” Officer Fitch said. April began stepping outside the door.

Becca hadn’t budged. She looked bewildered at what was happening at
her
home. Officer Fitch had put his hand behind April and was guiding her down the porch and toward the car. “You get your fucking hands off of her!” She said. “She said she’d go with you, she has the right to get cleaned up!”

She moved toward her sister but Officer Harris stepped in front of her. “Calm down
ma'am
. We don’t want any problems. I’m sure she’ll be back in no time.”

“Don’t you tell me to calm down! This is my house and you are on my porch! Get out! Get out now!” Becca was pointing toward the driveway.

Officer Fitch had April next to the car. “I need you to put your hands on the car please.” He told her.

April looked at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“I’m sorry
ma'am
, but I need to frisk you before you can get into the car.”

“Wha…what for? I haven’t done anything. I thought you weren’t arresting me.”

“We aren’t
ma'am
. It’s just precaution to make sure you aren’t bringing any weapons into the station.”
Consider them armed and dangerous
. The words echoed in his mind. He didn’t want to take a chance that they’d get shot in the back on the way to the station.

They attempted to rape him
…Her sister’s words rang through her head and she had a look of horror cross her face. The officer read her expression. “I’ll be using the backs of my hands. No groping. I promise.” April looked at his face and seen he was sincere and turned and put her hands on the car. Officer Fitch began to pat her down using the backs of his hands.

“What are you doing? Don’t you fucking touch her! You get your hands off of her!” Becca yelled as she tried to push her way past Officer Harris.

Officer Harris spun her around and pushed her up against the house and held her hands behind her back. “
Ma'am
, if you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to arrest you for interfering with a police investigation.” He said to her.

Becca had tears coming down her cheeks. “Why are you doing this to us?” She sobbed. “She hasn’t done anything.”

“Then let her go and get questioned and be there for her when she’s done. You can’t help her by getting yourself arrested.” Officer Harris said calmly. He looked over at his partner. He had finished the pat down and had just gotten April into the back seat and shut the door. He nodded to indicate he was ready. “I’m going to let you go now, but if you try anything, I’m taking you in. Do you understand?” Becca nodded and he released her.

Becca turned and stared Officer Harris in the eyes. “If you harm one hair on her head…” She said angrily.

“Be careful how you finish that sentence
ma'am
. Your sister won’t be harmed.” He said and then turned and headed toward the car.

“Is that what you told Michael Bander before you tortured and
raped him?
” She shouted.

Officer Harris stopped, paused, shook his head, and then kept walking. Becca slid down the side of the house to the ground crying. The car turned around and headed out of the driveway.