Magic City Murder Page 10

  I could feel her nodding in agreement. “As long neither are the Titanic we should be good, right?”

  I chuckled. “I hope so.”

  We sat up and chatted for a while. I asked her about Stephanie buying Adderall from Cliff Dove. Eve said she had her suspicions because she would get home from the club and Stephanie would be wide awake, studying and very focused. I was worried about the Adderall Stephanie had been self-medicating with and the clonazepam that was found to have been prescribed to her. A stimulant and depressant counteracting one another could not have been a good thing. I was not a pharmacist so I had no idea of what kind of interactions those two drugs could have. Was it enough to make her feel like she was going crazy?

  Eve asked the inevitable question of what I used to do before I retreated to the woods to run a private investigator business from my cabin. I told her and she choked on her water.

  “Seriously?” she asked, wiping her face. “Like those guys on Mindhunter?”

  I was confused. “On what?”

  “It’s a show on Netflix,” she explained.

  I shrugged. “No idea. If it’s anything Hollywood related then no, probably not.”

  She was energetic as she waved her hands around explaining the show to me. “They’re these agents and they interview all these serial killers to figure out how their brains work, what motivates them, you know?”

  “Behavioral sciences. Probably about the folks who started that section.”

  “The Criminal Minds stuff right?”

  I sighed. “Sure.” I rubbed my eyes; it was getting late. “I worked drug cases though, I didn’t track serial killers.”

  “Oh,” said Eve, visually disappointed. “Did you like it?”

  I nodded. “At times it was great, other times was like following a horse around with a shovel trying to shovel his shit before it hit the ground. Some horses are faster than others.”

  “Did you arrest a lot of people?” she asked. People always wanted to know how many folks lost their freedom because of you.

  “Some. Not enough. And the ones we got didn’t go away for long enough.”

  Eve thought for a while. “Did you ever think about working other cases, like serial killers or terrorists?”

  I laughed. “Honestly, I was fine where I was. The drug stuff was pretty straight forward. The guys either had the shit on them or they didn’t. If you didn’t catch them one time, you just waited until the next. Solving murders is tough. You can’t recreate what happened and hope to catch someone saying something stupid on a recording device. Situations like this one with your sister, it’s all circumstantial evidence. Even if someone walked into the police department tomorrow and confessed, they would have to provide some details no one else could know to be taken seriously. It’s a tough business. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew with this one.”

  Eve shoved my shoulder. “Don’t say that. You’ll figure it out. You’ve got her phone, right?”

  I nodded. “I do, but I can’t even convince her sister, how am I going to convince another investigator or an attorney?”

  Eve shrugged.

  “Is there anything else you can think of?

  She scanned the room as if searching for an answer on the walls then shook her head. “No, not really.”

  I sighed and laid back down. “Well, there better be something very special on that phone then,” I said.

  Eve shut the light off and unzipped her sleeping back so we would have something to cover up with. The day caught up with both of us and we drifted away from reality and into our dreams.

  The next morning, I decided sleeping on the floor might have been a bad idea. My back was killing me, and my neck was not much better. I got up and attempted to slowly work out the kinks. Eve lay sleeping peacefully, her face on her pillow that was covered with a silk pillowcase.

  I crept into the kitchen and powered on Stephanie’s phone. The light was on but as they say, no one was home. “Shit,” I murmured. I thought for a moment about how to get the data off without turning it over to law enforcement who were unlikely to look at it anyway.

  I looked at the time and figured Noel would not be at school yet. After a few rings, he picked up. It was noisy, he must have been riding the bus. I explained to him about needing to get the information off the phone and he let me know I could probably use the laptop to do that. That was somewhat of a relief. At least there was hope of recovering something.

  Eve walked in the room and asked if I was hungry.

  “Who’s that?” asked Noel.

  I stammered. “Um, what? Sorry I didn’t catch that. I have to run but I’ll call you later.”

  Noel tried to stop me, “Hey, wait a se-.” The phone hung up.

  “Who was that?” asked Eve.

  It was a little hard to hang up on someone when they were in front of you. “My son,” I answered.

  She smiled. “How old?”

  “16,” I replied. As I did, I thought of Eve’s age and again felt like a dirty old man.

  Eve had a few more questions about whether Sonia and I got along after breaking up and what it was like being so far away from Noel. She did not pry too much though and kind of let things be.

  She had a few breakfast biscuits with eggs in the freezer she heated up for us. I asked her about the club and how long she had been doing it. Eve said she was surprised it had taken me that long to bring it up. She was forthcoming and said it had been a little less than a year. She had a few jobs on campus while she studied but she got deeper in debt and nothing outside of school seemed to work with her class schedule. At least nothing that was going to bring in a decent amount of cash to where she could support herself and save money. Eve had planned on going to law school, which Stephanie had encouraged. Her eyes watered as she stood in silence. She leaned against the counter and put her face in her hands, crying.

  I put an arm around her to comfort her but the sobs grew harder and she collapsed to the floor, shaking and wailing. It hit me that Eve had probably never worked through the grief that came with a sudden death. All I could do was hold her until she was done, which was a helpless feeling, but it was nothing compared to what that young lady was going through.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Eve got up and disappeared into the bathroom to collect herself. I dialed up Polazzo to see what my options were for this cell phone that did not work.

  “Hey, where is your client?” she asked.

  I looked in the direction Eve had walked. “Um, why?” I asked.

  “Her house was torched last night. The deputy fire marshal probably wants to talk to her. Oh, and if she didn’t do it, she would probably like to know.”

  I stood with my mouth agape. “Torched? She’s in the middle of moving, why would she burn her own shit?”

  Polazzo sighed, “I don’t know, maybe there’s forensic evidence she was worried about or maybe she was depressed and didn’t like the place.”

  “It seems a bit quick to come up with that conclusion, and I’m certain she has an alibi for last night. What time did it happen?”

  “Sometime after midnight,” said Polazzo.

  “Well, there ya go, she didn’t do it. She was with me,” I explained and then immediately wished I hadn’t.

  There was a pause. “So, you were with a client until after midnight? Is that normal?”

  “Depends on the client,” I replied. “I’ll make sure she talks to whoever you need her to talk to, but it’s fine. You got anything else on that front or can I get to the reason I called you?”

  Polazzo gave me the name of the deputy fire marshal who Eve needed to speak with. “OK, now what is it?”

  “I need a favor,” I said, seriously.

  The coroner did not take it seriously and laughed aloud for a few seconds and then waited for me to continue. When I didn’t, she said, “Oh shit, you were serious. Do you need an alibi too?”

  “No, I think I might need a Cellebrite.”

  “Whos
e phone do you need dumped?” asked Polazzo.

  “Stephanie’s.”

  She gasped. “Really? Where did you get that?”

  I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “It’s kind of a long story, but it’s banged up and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get into it. My son thinks I might be able to sync it with her laptop or something, but I’m kind of doubting my abilities.”

  “Well, definitely try that first, because I’m not sure if anyone is going to touch it without having some kind of case open. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head that has one except maybe the feds.”

  I nodded to myself. “Yeah, I was afraid you might say that. I’ll see what I can come up with.”

  “Don’t forget to have York call the fire marshal,” said Polazzo.

  I hung up and Eve appeared. She was looking better than a few moments earlier, but I was going to probably change that. “You might want to cancel your movers,” I said.

  Confusion swept over her face. I explained what had happened to her house and the tears started again. I held her and assured her everything would be okay. How exactly, I was unsure, but I believed it and hoped Eve did too. Any insurance money would be tied up with the ownership of the house issues that would take months to sort out. I told her to look for used furniture and I would help out. She made it clear she did not want my money which was refreshing and frustrating simultaneously. Her apartment complex had a laundry room so she could use that for a while at least.

  “I’ll figure it out. I don’t know how but it’ll be okay like you said. I’ll start calling some friends and seeing if they have anything I can buy or borrow,” said Eve.

  I told her I needed to head back home to try to download Stephanie’s phone and reminded her to call the deputy fire marshal. She nodded. I hugged her and kissed her forehead before leaving.

  On my way out, I drove by where her house once stood. About half the house was gone, but oddly enough the front of it still stood. It seemed like a western movie set when they only used the fronts of buildings for filming.

  I wondered if Cliff Dove had set the fire. Maybe he and some of his friends had come back for revenge and when they found an empty house, they decided to torch it. A twinge of guilt hit me in the stomach. Shit, had I caused this?

  My thoughts were the only company I had for the two hours back to the cabin. The drive seemed to take no time at all as I was lost in a perpetual state of contemplation during most of the journey. I had let my anger overcome me and had been reckless. If my actions had caused Eve to experience more suffering, I would be miserable. I don’t know if she could forgive me. The questions and uncertainty were worse than any scenario I could put together in my head.

  Back at the cabin I quickly found the laptop and tried to sync the phone to it. I should have written down what Noel had told me because I felt like a monkey trying to work out a math problem. I must have clicked the right thing at some point because something started happening. Whatever happened, it did so quickly. I called Noel because it did not look right.

  “Hey, kid. You just get out of school?” I asked.

  There was lots of noise again in the background. “You can tell I’m on the bus and you obviously get some sick joy out of me riding it.”

  “Not at all,” I said. “But your mother probably does.” I described the things happening with the computer and the phone.

  He listened in silence to my explanation. “I think it’s wiped,” he said.

  “Wiped? What, the phone?” I asked.

  “Yeah, from what you’re describing it doesn’t sound like there’s anything on it. Like someone did a factory reset.”

  I covered the phone and yelled, “Fuck!”

  “You still there?” asked Noel.

  “Yeah, just a little frustrated. I thought this was going to explain some things, but it’s just given me more questions.”

  “Sorry it didn’t work,” said Noel. There was a hint of concern in his voice.

  I chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, I appreciate you helping. Tell your mom I said hi. She doing okay?”

  “I guess. Same stuff.”

  I hung up the phone with Noel and poured a drink. The evening wasn’t so cold, so I put on my coat and hat and walked outside. The sun was setting and turning the sky into a canvas of violet and plum bleeding into peach and fire with wisps of marshmallowy vapor. For just a moment, I forgot everything I worried about and everything I feared and just stared at the sky.

  Chapter 10

  Some people say when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. I used to be that type of person. I would face challenges head-on and try to see the positive in situations. Now, I retreat to nature and use solitude to recharge my batteries. It had become part of my typical behavior since moving to Montana. If I faced a challenge in an investigation or if Sonia had done something to piss me off from the other side of the country, I would detach. I’m not sure if it was the healthiest way of coping, but it didn’t include drinking or drug abuse so I figured it must be somewhat alright.

  I took my snowmobile out in the morning and rode to the far side of the lake. The temperature had dropped overnight so it was in the teens when I headed out. I took my camera and found a comfortable place in the trees against some rocks where the wind would not be so cold. I could handle cold temperatures but if it was windy or rainy, forget it.

  A nice smooth rock was the back of my makeshift chair and the snow below it my cushion. I sat and waited. The air always seemed especially clean in winter. The snow covered the land giving it another form of purity, covering the dirt and grime beneath it. It smothered the ground and the human structures built above. The trees swayed, the water in the lake moved along the bank not far from me but was otherwise frozen in place. The hood of my coat was up and my arms crossed in front of me. The camera sat in my lap, tucked under my coat to keep it warm. I breathed in the calmness and after a few minutes of watching the ripples on the water, I dozed off.

  My own snoring woke up sometime later. It must have been no more than 30 or 40 minutes since my eyes had closed. I heard several steps approaching around me from behind. I sat still and waited. Something exhaled hard enough for me to hear and then more footsteps. A small herd of mule deer sauntered through the woods, munching on the occasional twig. They paid me no attention as they walked past within feet of my still body. After what I thought to be the last of the herd had passed me and was about 20 feet away, I slowly took out my camera and began snapping pictures. The herd casually drank from the water in front of me and continued on their path

  Spotting animals in the wild and getting close to them still gave me an adrenaline rush. There was something special about seeing creatures in their natural habitat rather than on television or in a zoo.

  The adrenaline was wearing off which made me sleepy again. I sighed and leaned back against the rock that was much more comfortable than I thought it would be. I began to question whether I was equipped to handle investigating Stephanie’s death. After a few moments, I realized that I was absolutely not the best person for the job and did not have the resources needed, however, I was the only one who had an interest.

  My thoughts turned to Eve. I had no idea what I was doing with her. There was something about her that drew me to her, it probably didn’t hurt that she was young and gorgeous. There was some sort of untapped potential within her. In a way she reminded me of myself at that age, working a job I didn’t want to work just trying to get by until something better happened with my life. None of my past jobs involved taking my clothes off though. No one wanted to see that though in my younger days I was fairly muscular. I didn’t judge her for it and hoped she would get into something else because it seemed dangerous. When you make a living off of teasing people, sometimes they get a little too attached.

  The morning was waning, so I took out a cigar and lit it. I wasn’t concerned about animals smelling it anymore since I had got some decent photos of the deer. They w
ould end up on my computer in an album. I never did much else with them. In Red Lodge, there were a few art galleries where people sold outdoor photography and paintings. Trying to put something in one of them never interested me. Even when I looked around at the artwork, I could appreciate it, but after a while, all the photos of moose and bears started to look the same.

  Bears were something I saw little of at my cabin. Though the previous spring I had a small encounter with what I thought to be a male black bear that was a little too interested in my trash. I yelled at him and clapped my hands which did not seem to faze him. I got closer and continued doing the same thing which earned me a bluff charge. It was the bear equivalent of someone raising their fist and acting like they’re going to hit you. I had heard about it but not witnessed it firsthand so when he did it, I just about shit myself, and then having realized what he had done, I promptly slapped him in the ear. He finally became startled enough to run off. I only guessed it was a male because females seemed less curious and more aggressive if cubs are around. Never fuck with mama bear.

  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t recommend approaching any wildlife to the average person. But I guess I’m just as guilty of animal instincts as a dog who wants to guard his yard. My don’t give a shit attitude was seemingly becoming worse with age. It was yet another reason that moving to the middle of nowhere was probably better for everyone.

  Sonia was a good mama bear. She put Noel at the forefront of all of her decisions, sometimes to her detriment. The fear of someone discovering she was lying when she had driven her work vehicle home drunk and losing her job had made her tell the truth. Had she lost her job, she could not provide for Noel. Her short-sightedness had, unfortunately, ended my career prematurely, but I blame myself for that. I had decided within the past year that if she ever apologized, I would gladly accept it and let her know I didn’t blame her. That, however, was not a conversation I would seek out willingly.

  When I thought of her, I remembered how we were early on in our relationship, young and fun and full of energy. As the years went by, we kind of quit trying. We didn’t go out of our way for each other anymore. I quit buying flowers for no reason other than to make her smile. She quit asking about my day and started complaining about hers. We were an old married couple without the legally binding piece of paper. I’m not sure why we never got married other than neither of us felt the need and hardly ever even talked about it. If Noel had not come along, we might not have even been together for as long as we had been. Though we had grown apart, it did not make either of us a bad person and we were still co-parents. I needed to do a lot better on that front. I had spent enough time sulking and surviving. There’s only so long you can feel sorry for yourself before you must look up and realize you’re the only one who gives a shit.