The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) (29 page)

Eddi
e
had to turn sideways to maneuver his slinged arm through the door to Whitmore’s office. He took shallow breaths, otherwise the clavicle and his bruised ribs threatened to detonate.

Last time he was here, Whitmore had pointed to a chair and all but ordered him to sit. This time, Whitmore opened a palm and offered the same seat to him.

“I’ll stand. Been on my ass the last two days,” Eddie said.

Whitmore shrugged in a suit-yourself gesture and propped his feet on his desk. The cop looked like he hadn’t slept in forty-eight hours.

“I’m holding McKenna,” Whitmore said. “Attempted murder.”

“He represented?”

“Why don’t you throw the book at him?”

“The DA needs a witness to bring testimony if we want to take this one to the limit.”

“Eddie McCloskey.”

“Yeah.”

Eddie thought about it. “If he pleads out?”

“Five years, he walks in three if he’s a good boy.”

“I never got why they didn’t punish people just as harshly for attempted crimes as they did for committed crimes.”

“Seems kind of backward to me too.”

“Guy gets off light because he botched the job basically.”

“Basically.”

The two men watched each other. Whitmore waited for an answer.

“Well, shit,” Eddie said.

Whitmore nodded. “Three to five it is.”

“He say anything else?”

“That he was sorry.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not. I don’t know if he was.”

“He’s not.”

Whitmore nodded. “Okay then. For lack of a better phrase, I’m going to extend some professional courtesy here. You want to watch Hollis’s confession?”

“Not really. But if he hates his son so much, why’d he do it?”

Whitmore nodded. “Hollis hates everybody. But maybe he had some room in his withered old heart still for that eighteen-year-old kid who got ran out of town.”

“Guess so. Did he cop to everything?”

“Yeah. It was like you said. He strung Colin up over the creek, knocked him on the head, and drowned him while he was out. The rope marks around the ankles were supposed to throw us off because everybody and their mother knows Colin is into some kinky shit in the bedroom.”

“And he was the one who wrote on the window of Bernie’s back door?”

“Yep. And it wasn’t just the back window, it was all of them. He knew Bernie was depressed—”

“Right, because Bernie had given him that letter for Michael. Instead of mailing it, the old man read it. Michael never got it.”

Whitmore sighed. “It wouldn’t take a shrink to know that Bernie was on the edge from that letter.”

“How did he expect to get to Kindler?”

Whitmore shook his head. “He said he didn’t have a plan for Marty, but I’m calling bullshit on that. Everything else was worked out ahead of time.”

“Not that it matters. He’s going away for awhile either way.”

“Right. Maybe he had a plan, maybe he didn’t, but when the prayer service or whatever the hell they’re calling it this minute presented itself, he had his opportunity. He knew it was going to be a zoo, and dark, with too many other distractions that would give him the chance to do it when Marty was alone and then slip away.”

Whitmore paused.

Eddie knew he had more to say.

Whitmore sighed. “All the paranormal hoopla and your investigation was the distraction that Hollis had been waiting for.”

Eddie hardened his stare.

Whitmore held out a palm. “I’m not blaming you. It was Marty’s fault in the first place for trying to pull off this hoax.”

“Shame you can’t throw any charges at him.”

“After Colin was killed, Marty had a chance to come forward and tell us it was all a fraud but he didn’t. If we’d known, maybe we would have figured this out sooner, but …”

“If you came out and said you were misled by the alleged paranormal activity, you’d be out of a job.”

Whitmore didn’t nod but the affirmation was there in his eyes.

“So Hollis figured with all the hysteria, and all the confusion, and with everybody watching what I was doing, there’d be enough red herrings for him to kill three people. But here’s what I don’t get—the truth usually outs. He had to figure he’d get caught if he stuck around. He had to have an exit strategy.”

Whitmore smiled balefully. “Son of a bitch has got a ton of cash squirreled away. He’s not disabled, not by a long stretch. So he’s been collecting checks all these years, living off the land basically, in a place he inherited from a second cousin or something. He owns it outright. Pays about twenty bucks in taxes a year. He’s been in two or three car accidents that never happened also. The pig was feeding from a bunch of troughs, as they say, with very little cash going out. He planned to skip town after he took care of Marty, go somewhere warm, never come back.”

Eddie shook his head. The crazy shit people thought they could get away with.

“Speaking of money, why did Kindler do this? He doesn’t need the cash. Was it just to stay in the spotlight?”

Whitmore took his feet off the desk and sat forward. “He’s living on credit. That house of his is leveraged. He pissed a lot of the family money away gambling. He was trying to do a bunch of things: get a book deal, get on one of those reality shows, get a movie deal. Beyond that, who knows. Maybe he’d use all that juice to run for mayor.”

Eddie had never had a lot of money and it baffled him when the rich were so careless with it.

Eddie said, “They were expecting a pay-day of some kind. When I asked Colin what he was going to do after the Mill closed, he told me he didn’t have any plans. Strange for a man who’s about to get sacked.”

Whitmore nodded sagely. “Professional courtesy is a two-way street.”

“What do you want to know?”

“For starters, how you knew Kindler was a fraud.”

Eddie smiled. “It was more a feeling.”

Whitmore waited for more.

Eddie came around to his designated chair and finally sat. “The odds were too long. Excluding Hollis’s claims and all the other claims I heard about in the grocery store, we still had three sites of alleged activity. Either it’s the find of the century or it’s bullshit, and in my experience it’s usually the latter.”

Whitmore said nothing.

“Then, there’s activity at each site whenever I show up.”

Whitmore still said nothing. Just waited.

“It was my fault. I didn’t control the scene. That’s what Tim was always going on about, controlling the scene. Limiting the variables. I let Colin dictate when I turned the power back on in his house. Then I had Kindler trying to give me footage I didn’t shoot myself. And then Ana’s footage from the lake. What are the odds Ana and the others step away for five minutes out of two hours and the lake decides to light up?”

“Something specific had to trip you.”

“I compared the footprints that appeared in Kindler’s house from a few weeks ago and the other night. They were different.”

“Could have been two different ghosts.” Whitmore didn’t really believe what he was saying, he was just making Eddie go through the debrief.

“That lengthens the odds. Now there’s two ghosts leaving prints. And that would negate the whole Tessa theory. If you want to follow up on it, I’ll bet those prints match the shoe sizes of Kindler’s two ladies.”

“Why would he switch them?” Whitmore said.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. You asked what tripped me and that was the first part. Then I remembered Colin had dictated the scene to me, so I went back to his place because it was easiest to get into.”

Whitmore’s eyes narrowed.

“You’ll get no apologies from me for breaking into a dead man’s house. Because I did, Ana’s still alive. And so is Kindler.”

The skin around Whitmore’s eyes softened.

“How’d you know it was Hollis?” Whitmore asked.

“Process of elimination. I knew it wasn’t Bernie. He wasn’t the type to commit murder. And I knew it wasn’t Kindler because he had an alibi the nights of Colin’s death and Bernie’s disappearance. Who else had a motive?”

“I don’t think Bernie was in on the fraud.”

“I don’t either. Remember I checked his phone to see if he could manipulate the thermostat? I didn’t take it a step further to consider that somebody else could have. Someone with a reason to do so.”

“Marty has an iPhone and was over Bernie’s place about six months ago,” Whitmore said.

“Yep. And he knew exactly when we’d be at Bernie’s and exactly when Ana would be at the lake. He controlled everything, except Colin’s house.”

The two men shared, for the first time, a comfortable silence.

Eddie said, “It’s a variant on the old saying. Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

“Ben Franklin.”

Eddie nodded. “It’s easier when one of the three isn’t even in on the secret, like Bernie. Cleaner that way.”

“Agreed.” Whitmore sat back in his chair. “Not many people know about the fraud. My people here and Ana. I asked her to keep it confidential while we sorted it out.”

Eddie nodded at the lieutenant. “We good then?”

Whitmore grinned. It surprised the hell out of Eddie. “We’re good, Ed.”

There was a knock on the door. The desk sergeant poked her head in. “Marty Kindler’s here.”

Whitmore called him a bad name. “Tell him I’ll meet him in the box.”

But the desk sergeant didn’t go away. She looked at Eddie. “He’s asking to speak to you.”

Kindle
r
wore an expensive suit and stood outside the interrogation room where Whitmore had grilled Eddie previously.

“A quick word, Ed?”

With his one good arm, Eddie shoved Kindler into the interrogation room. Lieutenant Whitmore came in after them and shut the door.

Eddie said, “How’d you get past me and Ana the other night?”

Kindler smiled, pleased with himself. “I told you about my need for security. I’ve got secret passages set up in my house to allow for escape in the event of a break-in. My ladies know them well and I had Ms. Anders and Lori memorize the camera patterns. Easy work.”

“And you were at the lake the night Ana went with the camera.”

Kindler tipped his head. “Guilty as charged. I’d installed some lights in the lake because I knew somebody would go out there eventually to film. When Ana went, I waited till they went away and hit the switch. I removed the lights after they left.”

Eddie balled his fist. “I should have let Hollis ice you, you fucking prick.”

Kindler put on an offended smile. “I made a mistake. All men do. And my heart was in the right place. What makes me one of the greats is I’m not afraid to make another mistake.”

“You were sloppy. Using a different woman when I was at your house to create the footprints. Different shoe sizes, dumb ass.”

“You know women. They’re more fickle than children. Lori did the footprints during our dry run, but then she lost her nerve when you were in the house. That’s why she was acting so weird. I had no choice.”

“Far as I’m concerned, you’re almost as guilty as Hollis. You had everybody looking every which way. It gave Hollis an opportunity. Ana was almost killed.”

“I know, I know. When you dream big, you take big risks. That’s how it is.”

Eddie threw a punch, but Whitmore grabbed his fist in mid-air. He looked at the lieutenant.

Whitmore said, “I don’t want this asshole suing you for A and B.”

Kindler nodded at the cop. “Thank you, lieutenant.”

“You won’t be thanking me when I’m done with you, Marty.”

Kindler ignored Whitmore’s hostility and turned back to Eddie. “Be a rational man for a moment, Ed.”

“I’m not real good at that.”

Kindler reached in his pocket. Whitmore reacted like he was going for a gun and stopped the arm before the hand came out of the jacket.

“My check book,” Kindler said.

Whitmore loosened his grip and Kindler slowly took it out of his pocket.

“You hate me right now. Maybe you always will. You’ll not want to take money from me, but you should. It’s in your best interest.”

Eddie scowled. “I don’t want any more of your money. I got paid for the job.”

“This is for another job.”

“No thanks.”

Kindler put a hand on his shoulder. “For your silence. Name your price.”

“For once, I don’t have a price.”

“Be smart. Be rational. You can walk away more secure.”

“Okay. A cool mill.”

“I said be rational.”

“Why would I keep my mouth shut for you?”

“For the money.”

Eddie laughed. “You’re broke.”

“Not if we keep this quiet. You remember those five guys at George’s bar the other night? They were from that reality show: ParaHunters. If they come through here, that could be the start of something.”

“Not a chance. I won’t do that for you.”

“Not for me. For this town.”

“As always, I don’t follow your logic.”

Kindler sighed like he had to explain something obvious to a five-year-old. “The people around here don’t have much. They wanted a little magic in their lives. Something out of the ordinary.”

“And you wanted fucking tourists.”

“Tourists don’t just help me. They help everybody.”

Whitmore snorted. “All the sudden you’re going to tell us you’ve been doing this for the people?”

Kindler shook his head no. “I’m a businessman. I was looking to make a buck, but you can’t argue the rest of the town wouldn’t have benefited too.”

“Nice try,” Eddie said. “But the truth always outs. Maybe not right away, but eventually. Then the town would have been worse off. Everybody would have been branded a fraud.”

“Fine.” Kindler stiffened and his face reddened. “You won’t do it for me or the town, but how about Ana?”

Eddie said nothing.

“I’m making her the same deal. Her silence in exchange for future compensation. But you see, her silence doesn’t mean shit if you’re not bound by the same terms. If you don’t keep your mouth shut, my deal with her is off.”

Eddie hesitated.

“With the money, she could go back to school and get out of here like she always wanted,” Kindler said.

Eddie shook his head. “The truth will get out one way or the other, and I could never be sure you’d stick to your deal with her. No dice.”

“What’s going to convince you otherwise?”

Eddie smiled. “Have a nice life, dip shit.”

Then he walked out of the interrogation room, leaving Kindler to Whitmore.

Leaving the town to its own problems again.