Darby McCormick: Fear The Dark Part 7

The Silver Moon Inn resembled one of those old-time prosperous banks built during the height of the mining boom three floors of weathered brick and Victorian-style windows, each with a fleur-de-lis above the keystone. Parking was in the back.

Darby stepped inside the dimly lit lobby and felt as though she had just slipped through a portal into an early-nineteenth-century gentlemen's club, the kind where old white men wore three-piece suits and carried pocket watches and sat around discussing politics and the matters of the day while smoking cigars and drinking single-malt Scotch served to them by white-gloved waiters. The ornate chandelier hanging over the well-worn leather club chairs looked like it had been rescued from some dank English castle. The small reception desk was made of old wood. Mounted on the wall behind it was an old-fashioned cabinet of pigeonholes, used to store the individual room keys. A banker's lamp glowed from the corner of the front counter.

Darby placed her box of files on the counter. Apparently the owner wanted to keep the whole Boardwalk Empire motif going, because she didn't find a computer, just a thick ledger, and, lying on its top, an antique-looking fountain pen and a small, pear-shaped bottle of black ink with a tuxedoed penguin on the front. The blue and red sticker for 'J. D. Humphrey Ink' had cracked and yellowed over time, and its edges had curled.

Darby found the hotel bell, but there was no need to press it; the door behind the reception counter had swung open. The woman who lumbered out had a braided grey ponytail and wore lots of silver jewellery. She looked exhausted, the bruised skin under her eyes hanging like black curtains. Darby a.s.sumed she slept in the back office: she had spotted a cot propped up against the wall before the door shut.

'Welcome to the Silver Moon Inn, Miss McCormick.' The woman saw the question mark in Darby's face and said, 'The FBI told me you'd be coming in sometime today. You're on the ground floor, Room 8.' She reached into a pigeonhole and came back with a key.

'An actual, physical key,' Darby said with a grin. 'I can't remember the last time I was at a hotel that used one of those.'

'The owner is real intent on maintaining the hotel's Old World charm.' The woman stepped aside and, turning, pointed to a rotary phone mounted on the wall behind her. 'That's the hotel's original phone.'

'Does that thing still work?'

'Absolutely. There's a company in Iowa that adapts all the old phones so they'll work with the new technology.' Then with a sly grin, she added, 'But don't worry, everything in the room is completely modern. My name's Laurie Richards. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything, Miss McCormick.'

Darby entered her hotel room, tired and sore, and wanting two things a long shower followed by a stiff drink.

The stiff drink wasn't an option, at least at the moment. The room didn't have a mini-bar, but there was a bar across the street, a place with a big wagon wheel in the front. As far she could tell, it was the only thing open in downtown Red Hill besides the Silver Moon Inn.

The country's never-ending economic recession seemed to have hit Red Hill especially hard. Taped to the inside gla.s.s windows of virtually every business she'd pa.s.sed on the way here were signs and handwritten messages on poster boards that read OUT OF BUSINESS or CLOSED PERMANENTLY. She hadn't seen a single Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts; there were no chain restaurants or big box supermarkets, hardware or department stores. Either gentrification had somehow bypa.s.sed Red Hill or big business wasn't interested in creating anything here, viewing the town as the equivalent of a toxic-waste dump, a place where nothing would thrive.

Darby placed the cardboard box of evidence files on her bed. Then she went back into the hall to retrieve her suitcase, forensics kit and briefcase, and used her foot to shut the door.

Her room had crimson-painted walls and a headboard and bedframe crafted from birch logs. It had recently been cleaned; she could smell lemon-scented furniture polish, and the vacuum cleaner had left tread marks in the soft carpet. The pair of windows on the far wall overlooked what appeared to be a dense section of woods, but it was too dark out there to see.

Darby hung her jacket inside the small closet and slipped out of her boots. She opened up the box, picked up a random file and opened it the Connelly family, who had been murdered last month. She flipped through the thick stack of pages, pleased to find that the Denver state lab hadn't skimped on crime scene photos.

Her encounter with Deputy Sheriff Lancaster hung in her mind like an uninvited houseguest. The only way to get him to leave before he took up permanent residence was to focus her attention on something else something productive. She sat cross-legged on the bed and removed the remaining evidence files.

The first murders had occurred just over a year ago, on 4 January. Eighteen-year-old Cynthia Gardner, home for the Christmas holidays, had stayed the night at a friend's apartment in Denver. When she went to her parents' house the next morning she found them seated across from each other in kitchen chairs placed at the foot of their bed. Her mother had been strangled, the T-shirt that she slept in ripped open to expose her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. A black garbage bag had been tied around her father's head. The Red Hill Ripper had waited until spring to kill the Bowden family. The Brazilian woman they employed to clean their house every two weeks had used the key given to her to enter. When she stepped over the threshold, an odour like spoiled meat and sewage hit her like a fist. After she vomited in the bushes, she used her cell to call the police. Martin and Heather Bowden had been killed the same way as the Gardner family.

Talk of a possible serial killer had spread through the small town. Jim and Elaine Lima had installed new locks on their doors to protect them and their twin sons, Brad and Alex, who were in their senior year at Brewster High. Brad hadn't been home that night; he had been away on a ski trip when the Red Hill Ripper killed his brother and parents the week before Thanksgiving.

Three weeks later, John and Lisa Connelly and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Stacey, were found dead by John's sister, who had arrived from San Diego to spend Christmas and the New Year with her brother's family.

No s.e.m.e.n was found at any of the crime scenes or on the bodies. The medical examiner found no evidence of penetration. The b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the female victims showed extensive bruising, the result of having been pinched and twisted.

Darby spent most of her time on the bedroom pictures. With the exception of the victims, the crime scenes were nearly identical: same plastic bindings and duct tape; same seating arrangement; and the same black garbage bag tied around the father's or husband's head. The killer had entered the home by cutting a hole through a window or sliding gla.s.s door.

Darby arranged the bedroom photographs on the quilt and stared down at them, willing a thought to come to her. She paced around the room, thinking. She could see only carnage and desperation.

Darby pinched the bridge of her nose and blinked her eyes several times, trying to get some moisture into them. Then she arched her back and stretched. She was thinking about heading into the shower when she recalled the bar across the street, the one with the big wagon wheel out front. Samantha Downes had worked at a bar called the Wagon Wheel Saloon.

The shower could wait. Darby picked up her jacket and headed back out.

17.

The Wagon Wheel Saloon was one of those local tourist traps designed to give people an authentic old-time cowboy experience: duckboards covered with green sawdust; oak timber beams and wood walls festooned with antique six-shooters; and black and white pictures of cowboys, miners and settlers; wood-bladed ceiling fans; and a long, handcrafted mahogany bar with bra.s.s poles, its top polished to a high shine.

The dining area, which made up the entire left side of the room, consisted of a dozen or so tables covered with red and white checked tablecloths. About half were occupied, either by elderly couples eating in silence or by haggard-looking couples who were unwinding after work or enjoying some peace and quiet away from their kids. They all looked like what she called the 'G.o.d Bless America Crowd' people who, she suspected, listened to country music and went to church every Sunday, organized bingo fundraisers and did potluck get-togethers with other couples. An archway in the corner led to a room with a pool table, and, on the other side of it, a jukebox swirling with neon colours.

Darby approached the lone man standing behind the bar, at the far end, loading draught beers on to a waitress's circular carrying tray. He had a bowling-ball-shaped head and greying brown hair thick with some sort of styling product designed to give him that I-just-got-out-of-bed look.

She leaned against the bar, waiting for him to finish, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a group of men seated at a nearby table stop their conversation and take turns checking her out. They didn't go about it surrept.i.tiously, either. All five of them turned and gawked. Three continued to stare brazenly, one pretended to be busy with his phone, while another raised his beer in salute and winked at her. He had cold blue eyes and a promising future as a wife beater.

Had the Ripper sat at one of these tables, watching Samantha Downes delivering drinks and food? Had she ever waited on him? Had they talked? Or had he, like the majority of s.e.xual predators, watched her covertly, circling her like a shark and collecting information?

The bartender stepped up to her. He wore a black polo shirt, the sleeves stretched around biceps the size of grapefruits, and he had a blue and red tattoo of a snake along his right forearm.

'If you're here to eat, you can go on and grab a seat.'

'The owner around?' Darby asked.

'Why, you looking to buy?'

Darby showed him her federal ID.

The man sighed heavily. 'I was wondering when you guys were going to show up,' he said.

'Why's that?'

'You're here to talk to me about what happened to Sammy Downes, right?'

'You already heard what happened?'

'Yeah,' he said sadly.

'From who?'

'Everyone's talking about it. And it's posted on the Item's website. That's our local newspaper, the Red Hill Evening Item.'

Then she remembered: a young-looking photographer had snapped pictures of the black body bags being removed from the house while a reporter from the Red Hill Evening Item, a chubby man with a full beard and a tweed jacket, got a brief statement from Ray Williams. They had been the only two onlookers who had showed up at the house.

'I am the owner, by the way. J. D. James Doherty.'

She shook his hand. 'Darby McCormick. How well did you know Samantha Downes?'

He shrugged. 'As well as an employer can know his employee, I guess. She worked for me for five months? She was ' His thoughts drifted for a moment. Then he leaned forward and gripped the edge of the bar. 'Sammy was the kind of kid you're always rooting for, you know? Smart, worked hard, had her s.h.i.t together. Good kid, quiet, kinda kept to herself.'

'And pretty.'

'That too.' He sighed heavily and then was quiet for a moment, locked on a private thought. 'G.o.dd.a.m.n waste.'

'Any guys ever bother her?'

'There were guys who hit on her guys her own age. If someone was bothering her, she never mentioned it to me.'

'What about an older guy, forties or fifties, who came in here alone and asked to be seated at one of her tables, maybe asked questions about her? Someone who might've given you or one of your employees or customers a bad vibe?'

J. D. was shaking his head the entire time. 'I've been racking my brain about that all day,' he said. 'Is it possible someone like that was in here? Sure. But if he was, I didn't see him. Believe it or not, this place gets hopping, and when it does I'm b.a.l.l.s-to-the-wall. You should ask Evelyn. She's one of my waitresses. Evelyn Roy.'

He pointed to a short woman dressed in tight black jeans and a black polo-style shirt who was in the process of transferring red baskets of onion rings and barbeque chicken wings with cups of blue-cheese dipping sauce from her carrying tray to a table where two middle-aged women were seated. Both women had round faces and wore oversized sweaters to hide their ample curves.

'Evelyn can give you a better idea about Sammy,' he said. 'I didn't know her beyond the employeremployee relationship. She was a great worker, showed up on time, never gave me any guff.'

'What about the Red Hill Ripper? What's the scuttle-b.u.t.t around town?'

'The scuttle-what?'

'The gossip. Your employees and regular patrons, friends, people you talk to, what are they saying?'

'I hear some people are trying to take out home equity loans to get burglar alarms installed. G.o.d knows I've changed my locks. I've got two kids. My wife makes me sleep with a baseball bat next to the bed.'

'What about you? What do you think's going on here?'

He shrugged. 'Who knows? I haven't given it much thought. The main thing on my mind is how to keep my head above water, financially. I know that sounds cold, but, well, I'm being honest. Something to drink?'

Darby ordered a Maker's Mark. When he returned with the gla.s.s, she gave him her business card, along with a twenty, and told him to keep the change.

The waitress, Evelyn Roy, was twenty-two and wore a lot of foundation to try to hide her blemished skin. She had a degree in English and, like Samantha Downes, was having trouble landing what she called 'a real job'. The young woman couldn't recall seeing any older men who had given Samantha trouble or had come in there alone and watched her.

Evelyn said she didn't know Sammy that well. 'She was kind of not shy but private,' she said. She had a high-pitched nasal voice and a small chip along the bottom of a front tooth. 'I kinda got the feeling she was under a lot of pressure.'

'About what?'

'Money? A boyfriend? Who knows?' The young woman shrugged. 'Like I said, she was private.'

Darby gave the woman her card and then took her gla.s.s to a bar stool near the front windows. She sipped her drink, trying to sort out her thoughts about the day; but they were scattered, like pieces of a ceramic jar that had been dropped from a great height. She couldn't find enough shards and fragments to form a coherent thought.

She watched an older couple sitting at a nearby table. They were huddled together, sharing an iPhone and looking at the screen where a toddler was holding up what looked like a crayon drawing. At first Darby thought the couple were looking at a picture; then she realized they were talking via Skype or FaceTime.

Seeing the toddler made Darby think about David Downes again, that moment when he realized that he was going to die listening to his daughter begging for her life. Darby finished the rest of her drink and then went back to the hotel to make a careful study of the case files.

18.

Darby had been going through the files for an hour when the hotel phone rang.

'h.e.l.lo?'

'We've got a debrief scheduled tomorrow morning at eight,' Ray Williams said. 'Autopsy's at 2.30, in Brewster. It's about a 45-minute drive to the ME's office.'

Darby filled him in on her conversation with Sally Kelly.

'Guy with a bad smell, huh?' Williams said. 'That's a great tip. We'll put out an APB on a fart.'

'I met Lancaster tonight.'

'My condolences. Where did you meet him?'

'Inside the Downes house.' Darby explained what had happened.

A long silence followed after she finished talking.

'Your guy Nelson was scared s.h.i.tless,' Darby said. 'I wouldn't be too hard on him.'

Williams said nothing. She could hear him breathing heavily on the other end of the line.

'I talked to Nelson afterwards,' Darby said. 'A few minutes after I left, Lancaster came up and cornered him. Told Nelson he was going inside to take a look around, and that if Nelson called you or opened his yap to anyone he'd find himself on the breadline with his pregnant wife. That's a direct quote. Guy's a cla.s.s act.'

'That he is.' Williams sounded like someone was squeezing his windpipe.

'Bottom line is that Lancaster took advantage of the situation and bullied his way inside,' Darby said. 'If you're going to be p.i.s.sed at anyone, it should be me. I shouldn't have lost my cool.'

'Teddy brings out the best in people.' Williams sighed. 'Forget about it. You get the copies of the forensics reports?'

'I'm going through them right now.'

'You eaten dinner yet? There's a place across the street from your hotel, the Wagon Wheel Saloon, that ain't half bad. Got good burgers.'

'I was just there.'

'How about a drink?'

'I think I'm going to call it a night,' she said. 'How about a rain check?'

'Sure.' He sounded disappointed. 'You change your mind or if you need anything, call me at the station. I'll be here for at least a couple of hours doing paperwork. You got my numbers?'

'Coop gave 'em to me.'

'Well, goodnight, then.'