Sin City Homicide (16 page)

31

Alma Parr sat on his balcony, nursing a whiskey and reading news reports about Jon Stanton on his iPad. The newspapers, generally, had treated him neutrally at the beginning of his career, but Parr noticed that a pattern had emerged as time wore on. Certain reporters always treated him well, and certain ones always treated him poorly. Clearly, he had developed a close relationship with some of them. Parr had never been able to accomplish such a feat. Reporters nourished themselves with misery, and it made him sick. He treated them the way they treated everyone else, as a means to an end. On days when he didn’t need a particular end, the reporters went for a rough ride.

There was a knock at his door
.

“Come in,” he shouted.
He didn’t remember if he had invited Karen over, but he knew she occasionally liked to pop in unannounced. The door opened, and Orson Hall stepped in, a six-pack under his arm.

He walked out onto the balcony and sat in the chair next to Parr.

“You know,” Hall said, “my granddaddy worked in a factory during Prohibition. I sometimes wonder where I’d be now if he’d had the balls to be a bootlegger.”

“My grandfather spent the last ten years of his life in federal prison. I doubt he thought it was worth it.”

Hall nodded at his whiskey. “Mind if I get one of those?”

“Help yourself.”

Hall went inside to the bar. As he fixed himself a drink, he hummed, and Parr could tell he was already drunk.

“Heard you had a meeting with the sheriff about our boy.”

“Jon?”

“Yeah.”

“Sheriff’s nervous. Just trying to cover his ass.” Hall came out and sat back down, holding a glass filled to the brim with whiskey. “You should invite some women over.”

“You sure you up to it?”

He shrugged. “Guess not.”

“Can I ask you somethin’? Why’d you bring Stanton out here
, anyway? Jay and Javier are two’a the best we got. Hell, I could’a taken a crack at this case. Seems like you didn’t really wait.”

“It happened over two weeks ago
, and we had nothin’. I was getting desperate.”

“Why?”

He waved his hand. “Powerful forces behind this one. And they want it solved yesterday.” He took a gulp of the whiskey. “Fucker’s somethin’ else, though, Al. I’m telling you.”

“He didn’t seem like shit to me.”

“Looks are deceptive. See, you, you’re an open book. What you see is what you get. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and because of that, you think everyone else does, too. That’s not the way it works. Stanton looks like a fucking choirboy on the outside, but inside… I don’t know what he is. A monster, maybe.”

“You sure we’re talking
’bout the same guy?”

“You know how I met him? It was a forensics seminar. One of those bullshit things that you’re gonna have to start goin’ to when you start moving up. There were six speakers
, and Jon was the last one. By the time he came in, he could tell we were all half asleep anyway, so he didn’t lecture. He had us show him something, any item we had, like a pen or a badge, and he told us that he would leave the room, and we were supposed to hide it anywhere we wanted. He came back a few minutes later, and damn if he didn’t find it every single time without a word from any one of us.”

“Was it a small room?”

“No, fucking auditorium. We even had one’a the guys sneak out and throw his away—it was a paper cup or something—in a trash bin outside, and he still found it. He said the dust by the door was kicked up, and it wasn’t like that when he left. That’s how he knew. I never saw nothing like it.”

“He’s got a few records over at the SDPD. Most arrests, most convictions, most shootings.”

“He’s somethin’ else.” Hall swallowed a few more gulps. “Follow up on what you got. You can count on the full support of the chief and me. I think he burned that body. I want him in cuffs and behind bars within the week. Can you get it done?”

“All I got is the word of a few cholos right now. I’m sure I can find more.”

“You ever work Narcotics?”

“No.”

“Here’s what you do to bust those assholes: find some piece’a shit who will take fifty bucks to write an affidavit about drug activity in the house, or you go through their trash. Most junkies and dealers throw away the baggies they keep their product in. Supreme Court has said anything in the trash doesn’t have the expectation of privacy or any protections. Most of ’em don’t know that. Get the warrant and do the raid yourself. You and five or six guys you trust. If there’s nothing there, you find something there.”

“You telling me to throw down evidence?”

“Don’t tell me you got a problem with that? You know how many brutality complaints I’ve fielded for you?”

“I’ve never thrown down. Never. If the fuckers didn’t do it, they shouldn’t be arrested. It won’t matter
, though. I guarantee some drugs and weapons will turn up.”

“Good. Good. Even better. Arrest the fuckers and hit
’em hard. Have a line up and have ’em identify Stanton. Make sure you show ’em a picture of him first. I want a confession, too. But he’ll never confess to you. Talk to Mindi.”

“About what?”

“Get her to wear a wire around him.”

“She’ll never do it to another cop.”

“You’re her boss—boss her.” He finished his whiskey and pointed his finger at Parr. “I want this fucker. He’s humiliating us. Get him for me, and your career here is going to be a good one.”

Parr didn’t say anything as Hall rose, picked up his six
-pack, and left the house.

32

Stanton woke, his hand on the firearm he kept on the nightstand. His eyes were wide open as he listened for the sound that had awakened him. He heard it again: knocking.

H
olding his weapon behind his back, he rose, went to the door, and looked through the peephole. Mindi was out
side
. He placed the gun down on top of the television and opened the door. She opened her mouth to say something then just ran at him and threw her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek and pulled away.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. But you don’t have to worry
. I’m fine.”

“I tried to see you at the station, but Al wouldn’t let me. They wanted some time alone with you
, they said.”

“Yeah, we had our time alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“They think I killed somebody. A burn victim in a car.”

“That happened days before you flew out here.”

“Apparently
, there’s someone out there saying it was me.”

“That’s ridiculous. After everything you’ve been through
, they interrogate you?”

“That’s not important now. I need your help. Orson’s forcing me to leave in a week. There’s a lot we need to do before then. Have you heard anything from the lab about that DVD?”

“Oh, yeah, they left a message saying to call them, but I haven’t done it yet.”

Stanton checked the clock on the dresser. It was almost six in the morning. “How far a drive was the compound Freddy Steed lives in?”

“About an hour. Two if traffic’s bad.”

“Give me ten minutes to shower. Then we’re heading out there.”

Stanton showered, shaved, and put on a fresh shirt and pants before fixing his hair. He looked at himself in the mirror for a while. The work had aged him past his thirty-four years. Wrinkles were beginning to appear around his eyes
, and he had found a few gray hairs. Stress. Humans were not supposed to experience the type of stress that modern men did. It was the true killer of civilizations, a quiet one that few suspected. Stress drove presidents and kings to madness and made entire nations fall. Stanton fought stress as best as he could, but in the quiet morning hours, he sometimes woke with a pounding heart and butterflies in his stomach. He knew he wouldn’t make it to retirement. He would have to quit soon or die doing it.

He stepped out of the bathroom and saw Mindi
, still in uniform, lying on the bed, flipping through the channels.

“You can’t wear that. We’ll have to stop by your apartment and have you change.”

“Why?”

“If these guys are real white supremacists
, they’re also anti-government. Any representation of government will set them off. We’re not cops today.”

“What about our backup?”

“Call in for at least one unit, but we’re gonna have them park half a mile away from the compound. You ready to go?”

“Yup
.” She hopped off the bed.

They left the
hotel, and Stanton went to the valet to retrieve the Cadillac, but Mindi informed him that his Cadillac had been returned to the car rental agency. So they got into Mindi’s squad car and pulled onto Las Vegas Boulevard.

“We need to find another car. Can we use your
Jeep?”

“No, it’s in the shop for the transmission. My sister has a decent car
, though. She’d let us borrow it. She has clothes that could fit me, too.”

“How far away does she live?”

“Twenty minutes. It’s in North Vegas. Practically on our way.”

Mindi left the strip and headed toward
Heather Lakes Drive, where trailer parks sat to the right and used car dealerships on the left. The dilapidated park sat empty, except for a few homeless men drinking on the playground.

Mindi
turned up a winding street and parked in front of an old stucco-and-brick apartment building.

“Do you wanna wait or come in?”

“I’ll come in.”

Mindi led him to the third floor, where she knocked on a door with chipped paint and a rusty doorknob
. Stanton could hear kids screaming from inside.

A
woman who somewhat resembled her, with the addition of perhaps thirty pounds and bleached-white skin, answered. “What you doin’ here?” she asked.

“I need to borrow your car. And some clothes.”

“What for?”

“It’s for a case. I didn’t want to drive all the way back. We’ll pay.”

“How much?”

“Fifty bucks.”

“Hundred.”

“Fine.”

The woman fully opened the door, and Mindi walked in, motioning for Stanton to follow. He stood by the couch as the woman shut the door. Mindi went into a bedroom and told him she would be out in a minute.

The woman was looking him up and down
, and Stanton noticed that the cigarette dangling from her fingers had the distinct odor of tobacco mixed with marijuana. Many people used the trick to make their pot last longer.

“So
, you a cop?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Our daddy was a cop. We got different mamas, but the same daddy.”

“She didn’t tell me that. Was he here
, with the sheriff’s office?”

“
Yeah. He died when we was kids.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. How did he pass
, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“He busted some meth house
, and they started shootin’. He got hit in the neck. Died ’bout an hour later.”

“I’ll pray for him tonight.”

She gave him a quizzical look and took a drag of her cigarette. “Was your daddy a cop, too?”

“No, he was a psychiatrist, a shrink.”

“I know what a psychiatrist is.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

Two small children poked their heads out from the kitchen. Stanton waved, and they disappeared.

“How many kids do you have?”
he asked.

“Four. Little shits
, all of ’em. You?”

“Two.”

Mindi stepped out wearing jeans and a blue short-sleeved shirt.

Her sister eyed her
. “Don’t go ruinin’ my clothes.”

“I won’t. Where
’re your keys?”

“Bowl on the TV.”

Mindi grabbed them and reached into her purse. Stanton took out a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet and gave it to the woman.

“I got it, Jon.”

“It’s fine. We should get going, though.”

“I’ll be back after work,” Mindi said. “Don’t leave.”

“I won’t,” she said.

They left the apartment and didn’t speak until they were driving away. Stanton began checking emails on his phone.

“You can say it,” Mindi said.

“Say what?”

“That you didn’t think I came from a family like that.”

“Family like what? She was friendly.”

“She’s trash. Those kids—she’s not sure who the father is for either of them. She sells pot on the side to pay her bills. Not in front of me, but I know she does it.”

“It’s easy to judge other people.”

“So, you don’t judge the dirtbags you bust every day?”

“No.”

“I call bullshit on that.”

“It’s not my place. It’s between them and the Lord.”

Mindi pulled onto the interstate heading out to the desert. A semi nearly cut her off; she flipped off the driver then sped ahead and cut him off.

“Do you
really
believe in that… in religion?”

“Yes.”

“So, you really believe that the earth was created six thousand years ago?”

“The earth, no. But mankind, I do.”

“And you believe in Adam and Eve and how she’s responsible for all the evil by eating an apple that a snake gave her?”

“No, I think she understood the divine plan and ate the fruit on purpose, so that she could have children, namely us. I see Eve as very courageous, not at all how she’s historically been perceived.”

“I’m not talking theology. I’m asking if you actually believe a snake gave an apple to her? And that Jonah sat in the belly of a whale and that Noah put two rhinoceroses on a boat?”

Stanton held up his hand. “Look at this.” He wiggled his fingers. “My hand and fingers move because a thought I had in my mind moved them. They’re connected by nerves, sure, but it was just a thought, something that’s considered immaterial. Something immaterial moved something material. It’s a miracle that we see every day and take for granted. Compared to this, putting two fat rhinos on a boat doesn’t seem so miraculous.”

Mindi smirked.

“What?”

“Nothing. You’re just kinda cute when you get all passionate about Noah’s Ark.”

Stanton waited a few beats
then said, “Your sister was talking to me while you were changing. She told me your father passed away when you were young, that he’s the reason you became a cop.”

“I don’t know
—I guess. I don’t think about it much. It just seemed like what I wanted to do since I was a kid. Hey, there they are.”

A police cruiser was waiting
alongside the interstate. Mindi honked as she passed, and the cruiser pulled into traffic and began to follow them. They drove through empty desert. Stanton counted one rest stop and one gas station in fifty miles. They turned off the interstate onto a partially paved road and headed northeast. The land was barren, occasionally dotted by an abandoned car or motorhome. It was tough, desert country, the kind captured in early westerns like
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
.

“There’s a rumor,” Mindi said, “that they used to do nuclear testing out here in the
’50s. I’ve never seen any evidence of it, but some of the old-timers on the force swear it. They say the government’s covered it up because the radiation affected families who lived nearby.”

They pulled off onto a dirt road that led them between two large hills. On the other side, a huge structure came into view.
Several smaller buildings surrounded it, and the compound was all walled in by a fence that Stanton guessed was probably nine or ten feet high.

“Tell the unit to wait for us here.”

Mindi dialed a number on her cell phone. “Hey, it’s me. Wait for us here… no, no. I don’t think so…. Yes, I’m sure. We’ll be fine.… Half an hour.… Okay, okay. Bye.” She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“You’re going to be waiting in the car.”

“What? No, I can help. What if something goes down?”

“Nothing’s going to happen. They’re probably going to have a few choice words for me and send me on my way. Just in case, I want you in the car. Leave it running. If you hear anything out of the ordinary, you pull away as fast as you can and call the unit to come meet you.”

“I think this is a stupid decision, Jon. I really do.”