You Can’t Stop Me (6 page)

“I understand.”

“I do have to say this, though.”

Harrow was returning to his chair as Byrnes said, “Do you have any idea what you’re proposing, how much a production like this would cost?”

“Actually, yes,” Harrow said. “That’s frankly part of why I sprang it on you the way I did. Dennis, it was an ambush—I make no pretense otherwise.”

Byrnes was unprepared for what happened next. Harrow handed him a fat spiral-bound document—a budget proposal.

The exec began flipping through the pages—the numbers were large, but actually less than he might have anticipated. Still, tomorrow the UBC board would be giving the exec the kind of bad time he’d just given Harrow.

After another endless sigh, Byrnes said, “All right, J.C.—we’ll do it your way. You’ll get your toys. I’ll even go to bat for you with the board. I’ll tell them you told me your plan ahead of time, and take the heat that should be yours.”

Harrow frowned, confused. “Why would you do that, Dennis?”

“Because I back my people. We’re a team. We’re a family…and I’m Daddy.”

He waved the budget at the host.

“But if this half-assed scheme fails, and ratings fall? It’s your ass, and your whole crew’s.”

Harrow’s mouth made the thinnest line of a smile. “Sounds like ‘Daddy’ is strict.”

“Daddy spanks, yes. And Daddy also has chores for you. We’ll do things your way, J.C., just as you’ve requested.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You do things your way, hire who you want within these budget parameters…but you will also be available for any and all publicity we deem necessary.”

Harrow’s face tightened. “You know I find that distasteful. My contract—”

“Screw your contract. This is another unpleasant means to an end that you’re going to have to put up with.”

“Any and all publicity,” Harrow said hollowly.

“Any and all—if this is going to work for both of us, I’ve got to be able to pump the ratings as much as possible.”

Harrow sat silently for several long seconds. Then he shrugged. “You’re right, Dennis.”

“All right, then.” Byrnes slapped his thighs. “If we’re going to do this, let’s make
Crime Seen!
a bigger hit than it is already.”

The exec rose and moved toward the door, and Harrow said, “There’s one more thing, Dennis.”

Turning back, the network president said, “Don’t you think you’ve been greedy enough?”

“Not a matter of greed,” Harrow said. “But I want a new segment host.”

“Why?”

“I need to reward the talented PA who found the clue that set this in motion.”

Byrnes smirked. “Funny, you want to reward him—I’d just as soon throttle him.”

“It’s a
her
,” Harrow said. “Carmen Garcia.”

The exec frowned. “Isn’t she Nicole’s mail girl?”

“Yes.”

Byrnes closed his eyes. “Brother—Nicole’s going to
love
that.”

“Why, Dennis, are you suddenly afraid of Nicole?”

“…I have to ask, J.C.—is this personal?”

Harrow looked at him blankly. “What?”

“Jesus, man. Don’t make me pull teeth—are you sleeping with her?”

His eyes narrow, Harrow said, “Christ, Dennis—she’s young enough to be my daughter.”

Shrugging, Byrnes said, “Which in Hollywood is a plus.”

Harrow shook his head glumly. “You’ve been out here too long. You think everybody is an amoral scumbag.”

“Hollywood gets to us all, J.C. Just tonight, for example,
you
screwed
me
over….”

Harrow had no response to that.

Byrnes threw up his hands. “All right. I’m tired. You win. I’m going home and see my wife and two daughters, who are just fine, thanks so much for asking. I’ll let Nicole know that you have a new segment host.”

“Thanks, Dennis.”

“You’re welcome, J.C.” He beamed at his star. “Screw me again, and you’ll find out just how amoral a scumbag I can be.”

The room was stuffy, the weather warm for May, the humidity heavy, the smell of rain hanging in the still air as the Messenger (as the killer thought of himself) found the spot on the videotape and cued up the ending of
Crime Seen!
yet again. He had not prayed in years, but he did now. Maybe, finally, someone was getting the goddamned message!

“Recently, a member of the
Crime Seen!
staff found what she thought might be a clue tying another crime to the deaths of my wife and son.”

Watching in his living room, the Messenger smiled.

“Next season,” Harrow was saying, “we will be following this clue, and working hard to uncover other evidence, in a concerted, focused effort to track down the killer or killers of my family….”

About damn time
, the Messenger thought.

“And we’ll be doing it right on this show. You will be with us every step of the way—helping us track down the murderer of my wife and my son.”

He took in Harrow’s words like clues that each needed close examination, and he wondered if it was possible that after all this time, the dumb shit-kicker he’d transformed from a retired county sheriff into a national celebrity was finally,
finally
getting a clue himself.

If so, maybe there was even more work to be done than he had planned on.

That was all right. He had been waiting years for someone to raise the stakes, and, thus far, no one had. He had sent message after message over the last ten years, and, until now, no one had discerned their meaning.

It wasn’t as if Harrow had been the first. Far from it. By August of 2002, the Messenger had already delivered two other communications without anyone understanding what he was up to; and since Harrow’s family, there had been more.

Many more.

He wound the tape back slightly.

Harrow said, “You will be with us every step of the way—helping us track down the murderer of my wife and my son.”

If you’re smart enough,
he thought, going back to his plans for his next message.
If you can read the writing on the wall….

First thing Saturday morning, J.C. Harrow was on UBC’s small corporate jet, heading to Waco, Texas.

He hadn’t slept well. On some level, he supposed, he had won, but Byrnes had been right to liken what his host had done last night to hijacking the show and blackmailing the network. Had he gone to the exec with his “catch a serial killer” road-trip concept, Harrow might have been embraced as a visionary…or rejected out of hand.

And he had not been experienced enough in the business of show to calculate the odds. Just going for it, on live television, seemed the best way to acquire the wherewithal to track down the bastard who had stolen Ellen and David’s lives.

So he had stooped to commandeering his own program, and putting the man who’d hired him in a hell of a spot with the network. Now, on the Cessna, he sat with the other three passenger seats unoccupied, the two pilots his only company. He didn’t mind the solitude—it helped him get the bad taste out of his mouth, over how he’d gotten here; and he could study the files of the team he hoped to assemble—hard copy in manila folders, not his laptop. He was no Luddite, but he preferred the Old School approach; he still chose a morning paper over a news website.

When he got to Waco, he learned from his PD contact that Laurene Chase—the best forensics investigator in central Texas and maybe the entire state—was working a crime scene; he would not be able to talk to her until the next day. That was disappointing, but he was okay with it—he was still prepping, and one thing that TV and law enforcement had in common was that solid preparation was key to success.

After a solo dinner, Harrow spent the evening in his room going over the files. The names he was considering were all people he knew personally, professionally, or by reputation. They were not in every case the number-one person in their fields, but all were eminently qualified and, more importantly, were people Harrow felt he could work well with, and trust.

He started with a baker’s dozen files; when he was finished, he had a smaller stack, and began to make a list on a yellow pad.

Laurene Chase was at the top. In descending order came Michael Pall, a DNA scientist with the Oklahoma State Crime Lab; chemist Chris Anderson from Meridian, Mississippi; Billy Choi, a tool mark and firearms examiner from New York; and computer forensics whiz Jenny Blake, Casper, Wyoming.

The taller stack of files had other strong possibilities, and he would not be distraught if he had to return there. In any case, he would have a better chance of making this work with a dependable number two who would keep her head when all about them, especially her emotionally invested boss, might be losing theirs.

The biggest liability would be if he was unable to assemble the right team—and the chemistry between team members was something that could not be predicted. A second major liability was himself—no police department anywhere would dream of assigning a crime scene analyst to investigate the murder of his own family.

He’d already heard from Carmen that this morning’s media outlets were rife with editorials and interviews with experts condemning his participation—on MSNBC, a retired LA detective turned bestselling author said, “I’ve heard of having a fool for a client, but this is ridiculous.”

Beyond any ethical or practical concerns, having such an emotionally involved crime scene analyst on the team was one thing; having that analyst
head up
the team was another. It could easily be a recipe for disaster…which was why his choice for a second in command was key.

The first name on his list.

Laurene Chase.

By mid-morning Sunday, Harrow found himself leaning against a rented Lexus at the far end of the parking lot of Our Savior Baptist Church on the northeast side of Waco. He blew out a ribbon of smoke from his second cigarette. The sun was bright but pleasant, the temperature in the mid-seventies, Harrow enjoying a breeze. Spring in Texas included the scent of flowers Detective Harrow couldn’t identify, though the evidence was pleasing enough.

These days, Harrow was smoking again, but out of a sort of half-assed respect to his late wife, he tried to keep the habit at bay. He wore a navy blue polo, jeans, and black Rockys, the cop shoes he seemed to have worn every day of his adult life.

As the congregation emptied out of the brick church down wide cement stairs, Harrow stubbed the cigarette out under his toe, then stood a little straighter, searching for his friend. This was a mostly African-American congregation, dressed in Sunday best and proud of it, parading past the pastor after a brief exchange, then mingling with other worshipers below a while before slowly dispersing to their cars.

Harrow liked black churches—right now, there were smiles and laughs and loud talk and hugs and backs getting slapped. Predominantly white churches he’d attended since childhood had always seemed stiff and vaguely guilt ridden. And at this kind of church, the women, older ones anyway, wore hats! What the hell ever happened to white women in hats?

Last out was a tall, slim, milk-chocolate woman in a fitted gray business suit and open-collared pink dress shirt under a gray vest. Her long black hair was battened down in tight cornrows, and she wore tiny silver hoop earrings that caught sunlight and glinted. That same sunlight made the woman squint, but her oval, black-framed glasses took up the battle, tinting darker against the brightness. When she glanced toward Harrow, she added a wide smile to her ensemble.

She started toward him, and he met her halfway, next to a silver Toyota Camry that would prove to be hers.

As she neared, her smile turned sly, and she said, “Not too often do we get a real, live TV star out here in the boonies.”

“Waco’s hardly the boonies, Laurene.”

“Maybe not. But I sure didn’t expect to see a Hollywood type like you turning up at a church.”

“Outside a church. Wouldn’t want to risk lightning.” He grinned and extended a hand. “Good to see you. Really good.”

She knocked the hand aside and gave him a big, warm hug. She smelled better than the flowers in the breeze.

“Been too long,” Laurene said. “When was the last time, anyway?”

He thought for a moment. “Probably that IAI conference in Dallas.”

They were both members of the International Association for Identification, an organization made up of some seven thousand forensic investigators, examiners, techs, and analysts worldwide.

“Doesn’t
that
seem like a lifetime ago,” she said.

“Laurene, I’m sorry about Patty.”

“I know you are. I got your flowers and the card. Meant a lot, J.C.”

Laurene’s life partner, Patty Moore, had passed away not quite a year ago from cervical cancer.

“I’m just sorry I couldn’t make it down here,” Harrow said.

“It’s all right,” she said. “I know you’re a busy guy.”

Harrow glanced around. “Can I take you for Sunday lunch or brunch or something?”

“Sure. And I know just the place.”

They walked two blocks to a Popeye’s Fried Chicken. She knew Harrow was a sucker for the onion rings. They shared a big basket of them and some hot wings and laughed about the prospect that food like this would kill them before some bad guy did. Seated at their little table by a window, the view obscured by restaurant adverts, they wiped off their fingers with paper napkins, and the talk turned serious, as if a switch had been thrown.

“I should have got down here,” he said, hardly able to meet her eyes.

“You didn’t know Patty that well.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What you wrote? On the card? It really did mean a lot, J.C. Hell…” She sighed, and her eyebrows flicked upward. “You understand loss better than most. But you know how it is—you shake it off, and get on with it.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“I, uh, checked up on you, kid. I know.”

“You know.”

He nodded. “I know. I know you went back to work less than two months ago.”

“Come on, J.C. I needed time.”

“Time to grieve.”

“Right.”

“I need you to level with me, Laurene.”

“Why?”

“We’ll get to that…
if
you level.”

Laurene seemed to stare out the window, though she was really looking at a poster advertising buffalo shrimp. “I got to where I could barely get out of bed, J.C. Clinical depression, the medics call it. Damn near lost my job.”

“Funny. I almost lost mine the other day.”

The dark eyes sparkled. “You? How does a
TV Guide
cover boy almost lose his job?”

“Haven’t you been watching the show?”

Her half smile added up to a whole smirk. “Right, I’m gonna watch some jive-ass reality show, after I been out on the street all day and all night, busting bad guys in the flesh.”

“Oh…well…I can under—”

“J.C.!” Her laugher was sharp, little knife jabs of glee. “You can’t tell when I’m
playin’
you? There is not a week goes by when I don’t time-delay your ass. Me skipping commercials doesn’t offend you, does it?”

Now he laughed, embarrassed. “No. Not at all. Did you, uh…catch the show the other night?”

“Yeah, I saw it. This is how they do the ratings now? Send the star door to door?”

He leaned in. “Now I
know
you’re playing me, because, if you did see that show, you must already know why I’m here.” He locked eyes with her, and nothing jokey remained in her expression. “Laurene, I need a second-in-command. A second I can trust not to bullshit me, and let me know when I’m out of line.”

She sipped Diet Coke through a straw; her eyes were not on his now. She was thinking.

“You know what I’m asking, Laurene.”

She sighed. Shrugged. “J.C., I have a job. A job I haven’t been back to for long, and probably shouldn’t risk.”

“I don’t want you to risk anything, Laurene. But with your background and abilities, you could work anywhere. You’re damned good at what you do. But you are also underappreciated and underpaid.”

“It’s ’cause I’m a local girl. But I like helping out where I grew up.”

“I’m not asking you to leave Waco forever. But I
am
offering you a raise.”

She stretched her arm across the table and put a finger to his lips. “I’m not worried about the money, Handsome. Long as there’s health. I learned the hard way what happens when you don’t have that kinda coverage.”

“UBC treats its people well, far as perks go. They have a deserved rep for underpaying the help, but
I
will set your salary.”

“Suppose I don’t care about coming back to Waco.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, does this gig have legs? Will it last past this one case?”

Harrow shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose if we’re successful, anything is possible. But with the TV exposure you’ll have, a lot of new possibilities are going to open up.”

“Right. Maybe I’ll star in
Foxy Brown Part Two
.”

He laughed. “Hey, I would pay to see that.”

She laughed too, then got very silent, wheels turning.

Finally, she said, “If I can wrangle a leave of absence, you’ll guarantee good PR for the Waco PD? Give them some kind of love on the air?”

“Hell,” Harrow said, “I can probably get them a screen thank you in the credits every week.”

This was the kind of request Dennis Byrnes would love—the kind that didn’t cost a damn thing.

She thought a while longer. Then: “All right, Sweet Talker. I’ll hit up my boss. If they don’t put up too big a fuss, I’ll do it. What are we talking, nine months?”

“That’s the maximum, unless we decide to take this concept onto a second case. But I’m not thinking in those terms, Laurene. This isn’t about televison, not really.”

Quietly she said, “I know what it’s about.”

“Thanks, Laurene,” Harrow said. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Laurene smiled and shook her head. “You want saved, you saw where the church was…. Notice you didn’t come in. Let me guess—last time you set foot in church was at the funeral. Right?”

“God and I,” Harrow said, “are not on speaking terms.”

“I been there. But God didn’t do this.”

“He didn’t prevent it.”

“No. No. But it was some sick monster that did this, J.C. And we need to find him, so he doesn’t do it to anybody else.”

“Amen,” Harrow said.

From his hotel room in Oklahoma City, Harrow called Michael Pall. The scientist seemed pleased to hear from the lawman turned TV star, and agreed to meet him in the hotel bar for a drink later that evening.

Harrow was already seated in a leatherette booth when Pall came in around seven. Only five-six, the middle-aged Pall was no Superman, but did resemble an aging Clark Kent with his black-frame glasses and thick comma of dark, dangling hair.

Then Harrow shook hands with the guy, and began to wonder if Pall—however short he might be—might be Superman, at that. He had a vice-like grip, and Harrow used a ploy taught to him by another cop buddy back in rookie days.
When confronted with a death-grip hand-shaker,
the cop had told Harrow,
just extend your forefinger.
This made it impossible for the other man to crush your hand. Harrow didn’t know all the physics of it, but damned if it didn’t work.

“Damn, it’s good to see you, J.C.—how long’s it been?”

“Something like ten years.”

“So why do you look just the same?”

“It’s a good thing Oklahoma pays you to go after the truth, Michael—’cause you don’t lie for shit.”

“Isn’t that, J.C.—I just don’t have much imagination. Just the facts, ma’am, like they used to say on
Dragnet.
”

“Watch it, buddy—you’re betraying both our ages.”

They smiled and got settled into the booth.

Though Pall said little, his résumé spoke volumes. For one thing, he’d been part of the team that brought peace to families by identifying victims in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. And, although it never played into the trial, he also had developed evidence that implicated Timothy McVeigh. He was slightly older than Harrow.

They ordered drinks and made small talk for a few minutes. Finally Pall asked, “Are you gonna tell me why?”