The Night Stalker_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [100]
The chief was giving me the company line. He wasn’t going to haul Cheeks in and question him, but he was willing to humiliate me. I folded my hands in my lap, and waited him out.
“Look, Jack, I need help,” the chief said. “Heather Rinker and her son are gone, and I don’t have a single clue as to where they might be. You’re the expert at finding missing people. Help us find them, will you?”
“I can’t,” I heard myself say.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m under arrest.”
“Cheeks has said he doesn’t want to press charges. I’m willing to give you a pass. In return, you’ll help us. Do we have a deal?”
I’d broken enough laws to have myself put away for a long time. The chief had to be pretty desperate to let me skate. I glanced at Burrell, then back at him.
“Deal.”
“Good.” The chief leaned forward in his chair, and clasped his hands in front of his face. “Let’s play pretend for a minute. If this was your investigation, what would you do?”
I stared down at my jailhouse flip-flops, and gave it some thought. Jed had spoken to Heather right before she had disappeared. According to LeAnn, her son had asked Heather to get something for him to eat, and probably knew where Heather had gone.
“I’d do everything possible to make Jed talk,” I said.
“We tried that,” the chief said. “Our best interrogators have worked him over, along with an interrogator from the FBI. Jed won’t say a word.”
“Jed hates cops. You need someone who isn’t a cop,” I said.
“Any suggestions?”
“How about his mother?”
“LeAnn Grimes left town, and her cell phone is turned off.”
“Any other relatives?”
“They’re all dead.”
The room fell silent. Jed Grimes didn’t have many fans, except for one. I pointed at the phone sitting on the chief’s desk.
“Let me make a phone call,” I said.
“To who?” the chief asked.
“His priest.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Dialing information, I obtained Father Kelly’s phone number in Starke. I called the number, and a woman answered who identified herself as his wife. She was polite, and gave me the number of his parish office in town. I called it, and let the phone ring a dozen times. Father Kelly answered sounding out of breath.
“I was just leaving for the prison to be with Abb,” Father Kelly said. “What can I do for you?”
It took me a moment to realize what Father Kelly meant. He was Abb Grimes’s priest, and was going to be at Starke Prison when Abb was put to death.
“I’m calling about Jed,” I said. “I think he might be able to lead the police to his missing wife and son, but he’s refusing to talk to anyone.”
“Do you want me to talk with him?”
“Yes.”
“Consider it done.”
I asked Kelly to stay by his phone at the parish, and told him someone would call back soon. Kelly promised to be there and hung up. I handed the chief the phone.
“Put Jed into a room with a telephone, and leave the rest to me,” I said.
I went downstairs to the booking area and retrieved my clothes and personal items. A long line of perps was waiting to be processed. Looking in their faces, I saw the same desperate look I’d seen in my own reflection a short while ago.
I changed clothes in a bathroom and dried my gun with the hand dryer. I came out to find Burrell in the hallway. She led me outside the building to the smoking area. It was free of smokers, but she still spoke in a whisper.
“Listen, Jack,” she said. “I spoke to a couple of older detectives who work in Homicide. Evidence in murder cases just doesn’t disappear. If Cheeks destroyed those slippers and sleeping medication, other detectives in the department knew about it.”
“You think there was a conspiracy?” I asked.
“Call it an agreement to look the other way.”
“Why?”
“Maybe they wanted to make sure Abb Grimes got the death penalty. Didn’t you?”
I would have been lying if I’d said that I hadn’t wanted Abb to be put to death for the crimes he’d committed. But wanting an evil person to die, and destroying evidence that proved he was crazy, were two entirely different things.
“Not that badly,” I said.
We went inside and headed to the basement. While one of the interrogation rooms