Chapter 7
Willie and Elmer Urrey were shooting crap on the floor. Willie was on a winning streak, but Elmer did not seem to care. Willie just pocketed the earnings.
Elmer got up and looked out the window.
"Get out of there!" Willie shouted. "Somebody might see you."
"It doesn't matter. They already know that I am in the area. I am now the bait in Sabrina's trap... And I am not sure is the trap will spring before I am swallowed..."
"You going along with her?"
"What other choice do I have? No one else wants to help. I can't expect Megan's help, not after Phillip was shot because of me.."
"What about Barnabas?"
"I don't think he wants to. Not since Philip showed up.. And even if he wanted, how much is the help of someone who a couple of years ago didn't even know who Eliot Ness was?"
Willie looked at Elmer, noticing something wrong for the first time..
"You are smoking two cigarettes at the time!"
"What?"
"You keep one in your mouth and one in your hand, and keep switching them."
"Does it matter?" Elmer shrugged "Either I'll make it or I won't. Most likely I won't. And to top it, I am spending my last days with a bunch of cuckoo birds... If I knew it was going to end this way..
"You'd have kept your paws off the money, eh?" Willie did not like being called a cuckoo bird."
"Maybe. God, to end like this...like a rat in a trap. Having to choose between hit men, and good, upright citizens who would kill me if they thought that they could get away with it... I mean, you would kill me, wouldn't you? Life would be a lot easier if I was not around."
"We don't have as easy a life as you'd like to think. I could tell you stories."
"Megan has already told them. And you still have it easy. Look at Barnabas, for instance. Out there, how long do you think it would take him to come down with a fifty dollars a day habit? That's another reason why I kept to the dried stuff. But he, he probably make the acquaintance of every drug known to law enforcement, plus several new ones. And risking muggers each time he went out... trying to get hold of some money. Owing money to loan sharks. The things I know..."
"You did not know enough to keep your hands off the Mob's money." Willie reminded him.
"I thought I could pull it off."
"You thought" Willie was losing his patience. Had he been like this, once? "Well, think this. Nobody asked you to come here. Nobody asked you to take that money. There is no reason why we should help you. We have enough problems of our own. They are not as fancy as yours, but we have them. And now Phillip Todd is in the hospital with bullets meant for you."
"I'm sorry"
"You are not."
"You are right" Elmer sighed " All I can be is scared."
Barnabas watched Phillip Todd as he lay unconscious in his hospital bed He looked older, and not only from years. He ran his hand over Phillip's forehead. Sorrow and pain had etched that face...
"I wonder what you have gone through since you fell off that cliff" he said softly "I wonder what you remember of us. What do you remember of Megan? Do you hate me for it? Will you and I ever be able to make our peace? Could you still love Megan? She loves you. In spite of everything she loves you."
"He won't come out of it yet." a voice said behind him. "The doctor told me so. Want to talk about a problem I have?"
Barnabas turned towards George Brant, the sheriff.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Sleeping Beauty here."
Barnabas followed George into the hallway.
"How do I quash his confession? I know that he didn't kill Paul Stoddard. But how do I go about proving it?"
"I wouldn't be in much of a hurry to release him. There seems to be people around who want him dead.".
"You know something about it?"
"No, but it seems that since he was shot."
"You know something, but don't want to tell me. I hope you realize how dangerous it can be. But I know that when Megan comes back she'll drag the information out of you."
"There is nothing I know really..."
"Keep it up, you are doing fine. Just remember that you are a civil servant now, and your actions reflect on the Federal Government and on Maggie. You don't want a scandal..."
"Why not talk with Sabrina?"
"Is she in this too?"
"I mean, she has more experience in this things. She has some experience about the Mob..."
"Is the Mob involved in this?" George screamed.
"Not that I know of. I said it as an example..."
"Pray that it is so. I'd hate to see you wearing cement overshoes. I hope, for your sake, that you stop giving me the runaround before it's too late."
"Talk with Sabrina. She can tell you more than I can."
"If you want it that way." George shrugged He wasn't going to get information out of Barnabas today. Tomorrow he may tell more. "What about Paul Stoddard's murder?"
"You want to know who really did it?
"Jeb Hawkes, Carolyn's late husband. He had the opportunity and the motive. Paul didn't want him around his daughter, so he removed him. As for means, I looked at the lab's findings. There was a strange chemical found in Paul Stoddard's wounds. One of those long technical names that you need an expert to say them right. They found the same substance in the Todd's house before it burned down," George looked hard at Barnabas "Somebody ought to have told you the value of not destroying evidence. Anyway, that chemical was only fond in Jeb Hawkes' room. By a fluke, they had taken fingerprints of that room - to be thorough, in case it turned out to be the scene of the crime. There are Paul's fingerprints there, which could be expected if he was meeting the man who insisted in dating his daughter. There were some of Phillip's and Megan's. It was their house. There were some of yours. But none of Jeb Hawkes. Jeb Hawkes did not have fingerprints... What kind of creature was he?"
"When did I give you my fingerprints?"
"Every time you touched anything within my reach. Anyway, if it wasn't for Phillip's confession, I could pin the crime on Jeb Hawkes."
"Jeb threatened to kill Megan if he didn't confess."
'Nice guy. He was the one who...gave it to you the second time."
"Yes."
"And you still let him marry Carolyn."
"In the end he turned against his people and helped us."
"What kind of creature was he? I know that he wasn't human. I had only to look at the M.E. reports on both autopsies. Paul Stoddard, and Sheriff Donovan. The way they were clawed, no human being could have done it. And the chemical in their wounds rules out somebody like Chris. So you see, I have all the evidence I need to convince myself. But to convince a jury... You cannot take Paul Stoddard's ghost into the courtroom. We have to go with what is acceptable to the DA. And Phillip's phony confession is acceptable to the DA.
"There is a witness who can help us break that confession."
"Who? Nicholas Blair. He was there and knows what happened. He might testify in exchange for immunity, both for that affair and for the land scam in Florida. I'll have Willie withdraw the charges against him." Barnabas sighed "And with luck, that will be the end of the story."
"I am not so sure. I have a feeling that anyone who can do what Jeb Hawkes did to Paul Stoddard won't die as easily as that. And, anyway, that does not solve the riddle of those slugs the doctors took out of Phillip's body."
