Spare Change (34 page)

“The day you found this
shirt with blood on it, was it the same Sunday I brought Ethan Allen Doyle over
here to stay?”

“Yes, but earlier on. I
pretty much knew Scooter was carrying on with Susanna Doyle, they’d been going
at it for six or eight months, but when you told me her and her husband was
both murdered; I couldn’t believe Scooter had a part in it. 

“Later on that night, when I
started asking about how he happened to come by all the blood on his shirt, he
got bristly as a starved alley cat. Right then I knew. I knew sure as I was
standing there, Benjamin Doyle’s blood was what was all over Scooter’s shirt.
‘I know what you been up to,’ I told him, and he gave me a look that felt like
a razor slicing down my back. I believe he wanted to tear me apart right then
and there, but I warned him I’d put the shirt away for safekeeping and if he
laid one finger on me, it was gonna make its way to the sheriff’s office. Then
he stomped off and that was the end of it.”

“You’ve still got the
shirt?”

She gave a slight nod of her
head, barely any movement at all, mostly her eyes, looking up then down. “I
thought my holding on to it would force him to stop this sort of behavior,” she
said, “I figured, maybe he’d start acting the way a man ought to act. I never
dreamed he’d drag Sam into this mess, or cause harm to that little boy.”

“Where is the shirt?”

“Put away.”

“Washed?”

“No,” she answered, “but I’m
not giving it up unless you promise to let Sam go free. I know my Sam; he
hasn’t got his daddy’s meanness.  He’d never harm that little boy; I’d stake my
life on it. His daddy’s the one who’s got to be held accountable.”

“I wish I could promise you
such a thing, Emma, but it’s not in my power. Sam’s being held over in
Wyattsville. Whether or not he’s released is up to the District Court in that
area. But, I’ll sure see what I can do. I’ll put in a word for him, let the
arresting officer know the circumstances of his situation.”

“He’s all I’ve got, Jack.”

“I know,” Jack sighed, he
then wrapped his arm around Emma, who burdened by the weight of her words had
become smaller and quite pitiful. 

After a long while of
sitting in silence, Emma finally pushed herself to her feet and walked through
to the back of the house. Jack remained where he was. He knew she’d be back and
he knew when she returned she’d be carrying the shirt in her hand. 

He was right. 

T
he following morning Mahoney was standing at the crime
lab when the door opened. “I think the blood on this shirt might match one of
the victims in the Doyle murders,” he said and handed the detective an evidence
pack. 

“I’ll get back to you this
afternoon,” the detective, known for his lack of patience answered. He tucked
the package beneath his arm and disappeared through the swinging door.

Mahoney then went to the
Eastern Shore station house. He sat at his desk, drank a cup of coffee, and then
called Olivia Doyle. “I’m sorry for what happened with Officer Cobb,” he said,
“that was not a department authorized visit; he came out there on his own.”

“Sorry?” Olivia shouted
back. “Sorry? That’s what you say when a policeman shows up and frightens a
child witless?”

“If I’d known what he was
planning, I’d have taken measures—”

“You said he was no longer
on this case!”

“He’s not; but I have reason
to believe that Officer Cobb’s father may have asked him to speak with Ethan.”

“Oh? Now, our lives are in
danger? Is that it? We have to go into hiding like—”

With Olivia being on a tear
as she was, Mahoney had to interrupt to squeeze in an answer to even one
question, let alone the barrage she was throwing at him. “That’s not it at
all,” he said, “Officer Cobb’s locked up in the Wyattsville jail and there’s a
good possibility we’ll be taking his daddy into custody sometime today. So,
neither you nor Ethan Allen have anything to worry about.”

“That’s easy enough for
you
to say!”

“Actually, I don’t think
Officer Cobb ever intended to harm the boy. Our understanding is that he came
there to try to find out the truth of what happened; probably because his
father has been identified as a suspect.”

“He scared Ethan Allen
half-to-death, is that not harm? Do you have any idea what might have happened
if I hadn’t had a baseball bat ready?”  Once Olivia got wound up, there was
little chance of stopping her; the words came in rapid fire succession. “I’ll tell
you what probably would have happened…” she went on, “Ethan Allen and I would
have been murdered stone cold dead! We’d have been lying here in a pool of
blood on our own doorstep!”

“That’s not true,” Mahoney
said, “If Officer Cobb intended to harm either of you, he would have been
wearing his service revolver. Sergeant Gomez of the Wyattsville Police
Department said he wasn’t carrying a gun or any other type of weapon. And
that’s the truth; I checked Officer Cobb’s locker here at the precinct—both his
gun and gun belt are in there.”

“He was probably was carry
some less obvious type of weapon; a wire or a nylon stocking for strangling.”

“There was nothing. Officer
Cobb was still lying in the hallway when he was arrested and he underwent a
thorough search before the doctor even tended to his broken knee.”

“He has a broken knee?”

“Actually, they say it’s
shattered. He’ll supposedly have a pretty pronounced limp, once he’s able to
walk again.”

“I’m sorry about that; my
only intention was to stop him from coming after Ethan Allen. I had to protect
the child; after all he is my grandson.”

“Missus Doyle,” Mahoney said
hesitantly, “I’ve still got a few questions as to what happened. If you’ve no
objection, I’d like to come by and have a word with Ethan.”

“Don’t you come over here
upsetting the child,” she warned.

“I’ve no intention of
upsetting him. But a report has to be filed, so I’ve got to ask about what
happened.”

“Are you coming alone?”

“Absolutely alone,” he
assured. Promising to be there in the afternoon, he hung up.

Before he left the office,
Mahoney called the crime lab, “Any news yet?” he asked.

“It’s an hour since I saw you,” the detective growled,
“I
said
this afternoon!”

I
t was just after two o’clock when Mahoney arrived at
the Doyle apartment. “I apologize for the intrusion,” he said, making every possible
effort to sound sincere. 

Olivia, clinging to her
wariness, invited Jack in and half-heartedly extended an offer for a cup of
coffee. At times she imagined she could still see the light in his eyes, but a
light which could pop in and out as this one did was surely cause for
skepticism. “You do understand,” she said, “I won’t let you talk to Ethan Allen
alone, right?”

“I wouldn’t ask you to,”
Mahoney answered.

She then called Ethan Allen
into the room, and positioned herself between the boy and Jack Mahoney in such
a way that to speak face-to-face, one of them had to lean forward. They sat on
the sofa, Olivia in the middle, the boy on one end, Mahoney on the other. 

“I’m sorry to bother you
with these questions,” Mahoney said tipping himself forward, “but it can’t be
helped. There’s certain information that’s required to file a report. It’s a
real serious thing to charge an officer with trying to intimidate a witness,”
his voice slid down a bit lower, “real serious. You understand that, right?”

“Yes sir,” Ethan stammered.

“But the truth is the truth,
and that’s all we’re looking for here.”

Olivia glared at Mahoney;
her way of warning him not to start badgering the boy. “My grandson always
tells the truth,” she said emphatically. “Don’t you, dear?”

Ethan swallowed hard on that
one, but gifted with his mama’s way of dancing around a thing, he said, “I
never once lied about Mister Cobb.” 

“See!” Olivia grinned
triumphantly.

“That’s a real honorable
thing,” Mahoney commented, even though the boy was rumored to be a tale-teller.
“Real honorable.” Jack pulled a pad and pencil from his pocket; “Okay, Ethan,”
he said, “you tell me the complete truth of what happened here last night and
I’m gonna write it down—word for word.”

Ethan looked up at Olivia
and only after she’d given a nod of approval, did he start to speak. “I was
doing what Grandma said, not stepping foot outside of the building, when it
happened. Missus Parker, she lives down on the second floor, said she’d pay
five cents for me to bring a casserole up to Mister Bailey—he lives right down
the hall. I said sure; five cents is a fair amount for delivering. The dish was
real hot, so I was watching where my foot was stepping and I didn’t see
Policeman Cobb coming up on me. First thing I heard was him yelling how he
wanted a word with me, that’s when I let go of the dish and took off running.”

“You dropped the dish
because you were frightened?”

Ethan gave a wide-eyed blink
and nodded. 

“Then you started running?”

“Yes sir.”

“Did Officer Cobb grab hold
of you?”

“No sir. I ran off too
fast.”

“How far away was Officer
Cobb?”

“He was down the far end of
the hall.”

“And, when did he catch up
with you?”

“He didn’t ever catch up to
me, Grandma Olivia came out and batted him in the knee and I run in the house
fast as I could.”

“Did you think Officer Cobb
was trying to hurt you?”

Ethan Allen shrugged, “I
suppose so,” he said.

“Did Officer Cobb threaten
you? Did he say he was gonna hurt you; anything like that?”

“He was calling for me to
wait up, that’s all.”

Mahoney turned to Olivia,
“When you encountered Officer Cobb, where was he?”

“Three or four yards behind
Ethan. I heard a huge commotion and when I opened the door, Ethan flew by like
the devil was after him. I could tell he was in trouble, so I grabbed the baseball
bat and went at the policeman.”

“Officer Cobb wasn’t trying
to get into your apartment?”

“He didn’t have the chance.”

Mahoney thanked Olivia and
the boy for their time and left. After that he went door to door asking the
neighbors the same sort of questions. Tobias Wassermann, who’d been the first
to open the door, said the policeman asked the boy to stop. “That policeman was
calling out he just wanted a word with the boy,” Tobias said, “but by then all
hell had broke loose, so I doubt Olivia could hear him.”

Mahoney collected nine
statements in all; it would have been ten, but Matilda Grimes had her
television turned up so loud that she didn’t hear any of the commotion. When he
left the apartment building, Mahoney went down to the Wyattsville Police Station
and asked to see Sam Cobb.

Sam was sitting in a cell,
with a cast that went from ankle to thigh on his right leg and a pair of
crutches leaning against the wall. “Can you get me outta here?” he said when he
saw Mahoney.

Jack shook his head as if the
sight of a fellow officer behind bars was more than he cared to see. “I’ll
try,” he said, “but, you sure got yourself in one hell of a mess this time.”

“You think I don’t know
that?”

“What on earth were you
thinking? Going after some kid who’s probably gonna testify against your daddy?
Looks like you’d know better.”

“I wasn’t gonna…”  

“It doesn’t matter what you
weren’t gonna do! You know what this looks like? Witness intimidation, that’s
what!”

“I was just gonna ask…”

“You weren’t assigned to the
case so you had no right to ask!” Mahoney growled, “Your daddy’s a suspect in a
double murder and you go running down the one and only eye witness—you know
what that is?  Crazy, that’s what. Downright stupid!”

“If you’ve got nothing but
criticism, why’d you come?”

“Because of your mama,
that’s why!”

“Oh shit!  She knows?”

“Yeah, she knows,” Jack
replied, the hard set line of his mouth giving way a bit. “She’s probably the
only person on earth who’d go out on a limb to help a bad-tempered
pain-in-the-ass like you. She believes in you.  She claims this whole affair is
your daddy’s doing; says you’re not the type to harm a kid—”

“I’m not,” Sam cut in, “I
was just trying to help Pop…”

“Don’t go there! With your
daddy the primary suspect in that murder investigation, if you so much as look
cross-eyed at Ethan Allen Doyle, there’ll be more trouble than you ever dreamed
possible.”

“Somebody’s got to make him tell
the truth!  Pop wouldn’t—”

“Stay out of it!”

“But…”      

“No buts!”  

Before leaving the station
house, Jack spoke with Pete Harmon, the arresting officer, and he had a long
conversation with Sergeant Gomez. He told them of his interviews with the
residents at the Wyattsville Arms and his conviction that Sam had no intention
of harming the boy. “He’s a good man,” Jack said, “a good man who’s done a dumb
thing. He was looking to find out the truth of what happened, that’s all. I
know, you know, we all know, he shouldn’t have been there; but there’s not a
man on earth who doesn’t do stupid things some time or another.”