Cloaked in Blood (35 page)

Johnny shook his head.  “Devlin’s
back.  I’ve had him keeping an eye on a few things for me out
of sight.  He’s checking on that call, and processing the roof
of the Hanging Gardens right now.  If somebody was up there
watching the sniper, I want to know about it.”

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

Johnny’s face twisted with
exasperation.  “We haven’t exactly had two minutes alone,
Chris.  I think it’s obvious why I didn’t want to say anything
when Crevan was around.  I can’t trust him not to tell Helen
everything he knows out of some misguided sense of sibling
loyalty.”

“I’m still a bit confused about why you’re
cutting her out of this, Johnny.  All along, even when I’ve
had reservations about dragging her back into the fray, you’ve
disagreed.  And for the record, I don’t think she agreed with
how you sent her away earlier.”

“I know she didn’t.  She won’t like it
that I’m keeping her out of this, Chris, but I have no choice
anymore.”

“You aren’t going to explain to me why you
feel that way, are you?”

“I can’t yet,” Johnny said.  “It’s just
too inconceivable.”

“If you saw someone else in Henderson’s
apartment tonight, you need to tell me.  It’s not safe for
only one man to know this thing, Johnny.  What if something
happens to you?”

“You trust Devlin.  I know he’d do
anything to protect Helen, even if that thing meant keeping her in
the dark.”

“But you think I’d tell her?”

“I’m afraid,” Johnny admitted.  “I’m
terrified for her, Chris.  For the time being, let’s just
leave it at that.  Get the warrant for Henderson’s
apartment.  I’m heading back over there to meet Devlin. 
When you get it, call and meet us there.  I promise, I’ll tell
you what I saw then.”

Baffled, Chris watched him leave, unsettled
by the outright secrecy Johnny displayed when he lied – by omission
at least – to David Levine.  Inconceivable, he’d said. 
He couldn’t mean that he didn’t trust David Levine.  Yet what
else could be more inconceivable than Helen’s mentor being involved
in this somehow?

Devlin stood at the edge of the roof of the
Hanging Gardens Assisted Living.  From his vantage point, he
had a clear view of the building across the street.  The area
itself was completely clean.  Not a speck of evidence existed
that anyone had been up there watching for a kill shot from the
dead assassin.  No discarded water bottles.  No smashed
cigarette butts.  Nothing that would be worth dusting for
prints.

Johnny approached from behind.  “Any
information on that call to 9-11?”

Dev nodded.  “Untraceable cell
phone.  The call lasted fifteen seconds.  It was a man’s
voice.  He said,
somebody just fired a gun on the roof of
the building at 2240 Casino Way on Hennessey Island.  I saw a
flash of light.  Send an ambulance.
  He hung
up.  Dispatch called the division on Hennessey Island, and the
cops arrived to investigate within five minutes.”

“And they found our victim Brent
Koehler.”

“Yeah,” Dev said, “though it was another
thirty minutes before they discovered the body.”

“Even though he cited the roof as the
location of the shooting?”

“Uh-huh.  Cops searched the building
floor by floor for any suspicious activity on the way up. 
They found nothing until they reached the roof.”

“Chris is getting the warrant for
Henderson’s apartment.”

“Johnny, are you sure about what you think
you saw?”

He nodded.  “I know what I saw. 
He was there, Devlin.  He was there, and he already knows that
Henderson is dead.  Why pretend he wasn’t in Darkwater Bay
yet?  What the hell is he really doing?”

“You said Helen’s been suspicious
lately.”

“She has.”

“Why would Levine be hiding what he knows
about this investigation?”

Johnny started pacing.  “I’ve been
wracking my brain trying to figure that out, Dev.  I suppose
it could be because they lost Datello, and he’s afraid of what
might happen if he shows up here.”

“I thought we were convinced that Datello
isn’t quite the demon we once assumed.”

“He isn’t.  Well, at least I don’t
think he is.  Helen’s convinced.  Ordinarily that would
be enough for me, but she’s way too close to all of this to be
objective.  In fact, she’s done her best work when the case
isn’t too personal for her.  Sometimes I wonder if on some
level she didn’t know all along that Crevan is her brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“That case in January, Underwood.  When
he outed Crevan like that in a room full of cops, I don’t
know.  Something happened, and she never told me the
truth.  I can tell when she’s lying to me.”

“Again, what do you mean?”

“I wondered at the time why she wasn’t
outraged that Scott Madden gunned Underwood down the way he
did.  And then she went on the record stating that she thought
he had some sort of psychotic break when he realized that Underwood
killed his nephew.”

“It’s plausible,” Devlin said.  “Isn’t
it?”

“With Helen?  Of course it’s
plausible.  Her lies are always extremely plausible. 
That’s what makes her so gifted at deception.  And she has
this… skill.  People
want
to believe she’s telling the
truth.”  He cast a disparaging glance at Devlin.  “Don’t
bother denying it.  She did the same thing to you.”

“True,” he said.  “I had a rather rude
awakening in that department.  But to help someone get away
with murder?  I just don’t see it.”

“Think about it.  Wendell might’ve been
convicted for a crime he didn’t actually commit, but he was far
from being an innocent man.  Look what she did about
that.”

“Are we sure Wendell wasn’t part of this
human trafficking ring?”

Johnny’s cell phone rang.  “Yeah.”

“It’s Chris.  I’ve got the
warrant.  I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Devlin and I are on the roof.  We’ll
wait for you.”

“John, I don’t know if that’s such a good
idea.  When I talked to Judge Hathaway, he asked why the FBI
and OSI aren’t working together to coordinate their search
warrants.”

“Shit!” Johnny hissed.  “Lights and
sirens, Chris.  Get here as soon as you can.”

Chapter 35

Johnny had fifty officers from Darkwater Bay
and the state police barricade the neighborhood and seal off the
tenth floor of the assisted living residence.  “Nobody up here
without my express authorization.  I want the other tenants
evacuated.  Get their families down here to pick them up,
whatever you have to do.  Understood?”

Devlin nodded.  “And what about
Levine?  If he shows up with federal agents, how are we going
to keep them out?”

“Call me immediately.”

“Johnny, is it safe for you to go in there
alone?”

He pulled out his phone again and called the
scene commander and reissued his orders.  “Understood? 
Nobody gets to the tenth floor but Chris.  Nobody.”

“Sure thing, commander.”

“Let’s break down the door,” Johnny
said.

“What happens if you find the body where you
think you saw it?”

“I guess we’re arresting David Levine on
suspicion of murder.”

Devlin blew out a slow breath.  “That’s
gonna cause a stink, Johnny.”

“I know what I saw.”

“Yeah, you saw him in the apartment, shining
a light around the place a good two hours after we know that
Koehler was killed.  If somebody was watching and saw that the
kill shot from that roof didn’t hit Henderson, he could’ve been
upstairs witnessing from the roof, hurried down to this apartment
and killed Henderson and left before the neighborhood was crawling
with police again. Hell, he might’ve made the call to emergency
services after he killed Henderson, not when he saw Koehler
die.”

“So why was Levine in that apartment?”

Devlin shrugged.  “I’m not saying that
this doesn’t warrant an official conversation with the man, but
arresting him?  Let’s be cautious here.  That concern you
had about Helen being too close to this case could apply to you
too, Johnny.  She’s your wife after all.”

“For now at least,” Johnny muttered under
his breath.

He raised one foot and slammed it against
the door.  The frame splintered, and the deadbolt popped out
of the cheap wood holding it in place.  Johnny and Devlin
pulled their weapons and slipped inside the apartment.

“Office of the Special Investigator,” Johnny
announced.  “Lyle Henderson, we’re here to serve a search
warrant.”

Silence.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Devlin
said.

“Hit the lights.  He should be on the
other side of the room, on the sofa.”

Devlin shined a flashlight along the wall by
the splintered door and flicked the light switch.  The room
was bathed in a soft white glow. 

Johnny stalked across the empty expanse
toward the sofa.  “Son of a bitch.”

“Is he there?”

“Take a look for yourself,” Johnny
said.  He already had his phone out dialing.  “Hey, Ken,
it’s Johnny Orion.  Hate to bother you again so early, but
we’ve got another case we’d like CSD to process for us.”

Devlin drifted over to the windows. 
“He might’ve seen someone watching him from here, Johnny,” he
called over his shoulder.

“Uh-huh.”

In the reflection in the glass, Devlin
watched Johnny pull down the lower eyelid on Lyle Henderson’s
corpse.  “Petechial hemorrhaging?”

“I’m no medical examiner, but that’s what it
looks like to me.”  Johnny peeled Henderson’s lips back
gently.  “And that little flap of skin that connects the lips
to the gums is torn, top and bottom.  He’s got blood pooled in
his mouth.”

“Somebody smothered him and he fought
back.”

Johnny cursed softly.  “They’ll need to
bag his hands.  There could be blood and skin under his
fingernails.”

“Or maybe he couldn’t get to any soft tissue
under that expensive suit Levine was wearing,” Devlin said.

Johnny had his phone out again.

Devlin listened, cringing at the angry words
spoken.

“If you breathe so much as a single word of
this to Helen, I will see to it that you’re fired, Maya.”

Dev heard her raised voice for only a moment
before Johnny continued.  “Lyle Henderson is dead.  I
want you here to pick up the body.  I want his autopsy done
immediately.  Not a word of this to anybody, Maya.  I
mean it.  This is my wife’s safety we’re talking about, and if
you care about her as much as I think you do, you’ll understand how
serious this is.  Somebody is getting rid of the
evidence.  Helen is evidence.”

No more yelling, but Maya clearly was
talking again.  Johnny listened in silence.  “Well, I
never thought about that, but you’re right.  If she’s
evidence, so is Crevan.  And before you start railing at me,
no, he’s not here, he knows nothing about this, and I’d rather keep
it that way at least for the time being.”

Johnny glanced at his watch.  “It’s
almost six right now.  I’ll still be here when you
arrive.  We can discuss it then.  Forsythe is already on
his way with a team to process the crime scene.”

When he stuffed his phone back into his
pocket, Devlin chuffed out a grunt.  “It complicates
everything, doesn’t it?  How she wormed her way into
everybody’s affections.”

“It really does,” Johnny said.  “Which
is why this is so hard, believe me.  She certainly hasn’t done
anything to really inspire so much loyalty.  She lies. 
When she’s not lying, she’s secretive.  She gets angry and
cuts people out of her life.  You can’t get anything from her
unless she’s backed into a corner and has no other option but to
trust somebody else, and even then, she never shares quite
everything, does she?”

“How do you plan to keep Crevan out of
this?”

“I think it’s time I ask him to camp out and
stand guard over my very deceitful wife.”

“And if she ropes him into helping her go
off and close this case on her own?”

“Between Helen, Wendell and
Danny
Datello
, I’m sure she’s already off figuring everything out on
her own anyway.  Did I mention that she went back out to
Dunhaven and questioned Jerry Lowe again?”

“Twice,” Devlin grinned. 

“At least if I’ve got Crevan with her, I
know at least one person with some actual legal authority can
prevent things from getting out of control.”

“We hope,” Devlin said.

Johnny’s phone rang again.

“What is it?” he paused and pinched the
bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger.  “Keep him
from coming up.  I’ll be right down.”

“Levine?”

Johnny nodded.  “Stay here with the
body until CSD and Winslow arrive.  I’m getting answers from
Levine.  One way or another.”

I clicked off the call and shoved the phone
into the back pocket of my jeans.  Fingers of light barely
stretched over the eastern sky.

“We have to go now, Danny.”

“Are you
sure
this is the right thing
to do?”

One eyebrow arched. 

Datello cursed.  “Helen, I don’t like
this.  Maybe we should wait for Orion to come back and tell us
what’s going on.  Why in God’s name would you trust a single
thing that David Levine tells you?”

“Because Johnny
is
trying to cut me
out of this investigation, and you and I both know that he’s on the
wrong track.  If David hadn’t called, I’d have no idea what’s
going on.”

“If he told you the truth.  And why in
the world would Johnny have a whole block on Hennessey Island
sealed off, even to the FBI?”

“Because he listened to you and to Dad and
to me when we got paranoid about David lying to me about you and
Franchetta and just about everything else my wild imagination could
conceive.  Whatever made him suspect David is simply flat out
wrong.”