Fogbound: A Lin Hanna Mystery (12 page)

Fortunately,
Lin and Sue were able to have their fingerprints taken relatively quickly.
 
They’d arrived at the law enforcement
offices early prepared to go to work as soon as they’d finished their business
there.
 
The fingerprint technicians
saw them right away, but they weren’t able to talk to Deputy Winkler because he
was out of the office.
 
They
arranged to come back that afternoon.

Lin was happy
to finally arrive at the visitor center.
 
In spite of the fact that she’d not slept particularly well, the
peaceful atmosphere surrounding Linn Cove was relaxing.
 
The mist of the night before had moved
out fairly quickly.
 
While the woods
were still damp from rain, sunlight was drifting through creating a golden glow
among the leaves and highlighting the pink blooms on the rhododendrons. Rachel understood
about her being late; Lin had called her earlier to explain what had
happened.
 
Since the seasonal ranger
was already busy with visitors by the time Lin arrived, she decided to finish
up the few remaining files Ellie had been working on earlier.

Lin tried to
stay focused on her work, but her thoughts kept returning to the scary incident
of the previous night.
 
She was
convinced that Stefan Kovich was their visitor and he was indeed a troubled
man.
 
He seemed to be truly obsessed
with Ellie; somehow, he seemed to blame her and Sue for his current troubles.
 
It was probably true that Ellie might
never have come forward with her complaints against him had she not had their
support.
 
Now he was in trouble with
the law and faced the likely loss of his job at the university.
 
In addition, being a foreign national,
he could be deported because of these things.
 
The more she thought about it, the more
Lin realized that she and Sue really had good reason to be concerned about this
man.

She was sinking
deeper into such fearful thoughts when Rachel entered the office and,
thankfully, interrupted her.
 
“Glad
to see you finally made it.
 
That’s
scary, that fellow threatening you too.”

“Yes, it is,”
Lin replied. “It’s hard to stop thinking about it.
 
I’m sorry we got involved in all this.”

“I don’t know
how you could’ve avoided that,” Rachel said. “You couldn’t very well leave
Ellie injured and lying on the side of the road.
 
She could’ve bled to death, and when she
turned out to be a former student—someone whose family you
knew—well, I think it was pretty natural for you to try to help.”

Lin nodded her
agreement, “I just hope we can do something about this Kovich guy and his
threats.
 
The man seems seriously
troubled to me.
 
We’re talking to
Deputy Winkler this afternoon, so maybe there’s something he can do to put a
stop to his behavior.
 
Right now,
all I want to do is put all this behind me.”

“Well, I can’t
assure you of that, but I can suggest that you get outside and walk the trail
and the rest of the area around here to check on things.
 
The paths should be drier by now and we
need to make sure we’re monitoring our visitor activity.”

“And getting
outside will help me forget about all this, at least for awhile,” Lin smiled as
she grabbed her hat and a light jacket and prepared to spend some time
outdoors.

***

By four o’clock
that afternoon, Lin and Sue were sitting in Dave Winkler’s office.
 
They’d each driven straight there from
work and now they were reviewing the incident report that the officers had
completed the night before.

“This seems to
be accurate,” Lin remarked as she finished reading and returned the form to the
desk. “I just think the officers who came last night weren’t familiar with what
has gone before and how it all relates.
 
They felt we’d best talk with you.”

“I understand,
and they were right,” Winkler offered. “I agree with you that Kovich was most
likely your visitor, just as he certainly was last Sunday.
 
He may or may not be aware that Ellie
has left the area, but he has decided to shift his focus to you folks.
 
He’s thinking it’s your intervention
that has deterred his threats to Ellie and led to all his current problems.”

“And he’s
probably right,” Sue spoke up. “I’m not sure Ellie would’ve taken positive
steps to stop his intimidation without support.
 
The question is, what can we do about
him now?”

“Well, the
first step is to compare fingerprints on that cardboard note you got.
 
We have yours’ now, and his are on file
from his earlier arrest.
 
Unless he
wrote with gloves on, we should be able to determine whether or not he actually
created the note you received.
 
If
so, we can arrest him again.
 
In any
case, I want to question him further about the shooting case involving Ellie
and Pete.
 
I noticed in the note he
uses “too” when saying bad things can happen to you.
 
That certainly, doesn’t clearly link him
to the assault and killing earlier, but I can use it to question him further,
especially since that case is still open now. I can try to get a warrant to
search his home.
 
Ellie reported
seeing weapons there.”

“I take it,
then, that Eustace Hinson was not found to be responsible, even though he
confessed,” Lin queried.

“That’s
correct.
 
The old man is clearly
demented, and the court has ruled him incompetent; however, his inconsistencies
have rendered his confession invalid.
 
He has actually confessed to that shooting and a number of others, only
to come back the next day and say he never shot anyone, so who knows…actually,
I think he probably did shoot Pete and Ellie and maybe some of those other
folks as well, but I can’t use his confessions.
 
If we’re going to go in that direction,
we’ll have to uncover other evidence, so the investigation continues and Kovich
is now also on the suspect list in Pete and Ellie’s case.”

Lin was
curious. “If I may ask, what was determined regarding Mr. Hinson? What’s going
to happen to him now?”

“ It’s all
public record, now,” Winkler replied, “ He was found incompetent, but with no
criminal charges attached, his sons, Herman and Hiram, were named his
guardians.
 
The state is not going
to assume responsibility for someone in those circumstances.
 
It falls to his family to care for
him.
 
They have to bear the burden,
not the state.” Winkler shook his head as he spoke.

“I take it
they’re not happy about that,” Sue remarked.

“You’d be
right.
 
The Hinson’s live marginally
at best.
 
They can’t afford to put
their father in a facility where he can be looked after.
 
They could try to get him help through
Medicaid, but that’s a lengthy process involving doctors and government bureaucracy,
neither of which they’re likely to want to deal with.
 
You have to understand some of these
mountain folk.
 
They don’t like to
deal with such, and generally, are not very adept at such processes.
 
I expect the old man will just sit at
home and someone will have to take time off from scratching out a living to
look after him.”

“Maybe they can
find some help,” Lin suggested, “maybe through social services or
something.
 
Someone to help them
with the process.”

“If they’ll
ask,” Winkler said, “If they’ll ask.”

Sue brought the
subject back to their situation. “When will you know about the fingerprints?
When do you think you’ll be picking Kovich up again?”

“I’ll be
checking with our technicians right after I finish here with you ladies.
 
Hopefully, I’ll be able to let you know
something this evening.
 
If the
prints are a match, I’ll pick Kovich up right away.
 
The judge will likely revoke his bail if
it’s established that he’s continuing his threatening behavior.
 
All I can do is promise you I’ll be in
touch as soon as I know what’s happening.
 
Meanwhile, your place will continue to be on our patrol list.”

Lin and Sue
expressed their thanks to the deputy and rose to leave. “We’ll hope to hear
from you soon,” Lin said as they exited the office.
 
Frankly, she didn’t have much faith that
being on a patrol list would sufficiently protect them.
 
She hoped Kovich would be back in jail
sooner rather than later.

***

About eight
o’clock that evening, the phone rang at the house.
 
It was Ellie calling to report on the previous
day’s hearing. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to call you last night.
 
We made some stops on our way back and
were late arriving at home.
 
My Mom
said it was too late to call.”

Ellie was
shocked when Lin told her about the threat they’d received the night before. “With
me gone, I thought that would end,” Ellie said. “I’m so sorry.
 
I feel like I brought all of this stuff
down on you.”

“Don’t worry
about that,” Lin tried to reassure her. “You’re not responsible for a disturbed
man’s behavior.
 
Hopefully, he’ll be
taken care of soon.
 
Now tell me
about the hearing.
 
We got the
results from Deputy Winkler but how did it go from your perspective? ”

“OK, I guess,”
Ellie offered, “I did my best and told the truth.
 
I’m afraid the questions I raised led to
the judge not holding that old man responsible for what happened to me and to
Pete.
 
His sons were none too
happy.”
 
Ellie went on to describe
an ugly scene involving the Hinson brothers who created quite a disruption in
the courtroom. “The judge threatened to have them both arrested if they didn’t
stop.
 
If he hadn’t they’d probably
still be arguing.”

“So, they
finally calmed, down?”
 
Lin asked.

“Yes, but when
they were leaving I heard them muttering about the whole situation.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if they made
more trouble for someone.”

And all of that
could fall into our laps too, Lin thought.
 
Maybe they won’t find out whom else they could blame for Ellie’s
testimony.
 
We have enough to
contend with now without adding anything more.

As she ended
her conversation with Ellie, Lin realized that Sue was talking to someone on
her phone.
 
She went into the
kitchen to join her just as the conversation drew to a close.

“That was Dave
Winkler,” Sue explained. “Bad news about the fingerprints. The cardboard was so
wet that all the prints were smudged and nothing could be identified, not even
ours.
 
That means Kovich is still
free for now.
 
Deputy Winkler did
say he was going to try to get a warrant to search his apartment and check the
weapons.”

“And I had
hoped we could sleep well tonight,” Lin replied. “I don’t think the Hinson
brothers know about us or they might blame us for Ellie’s testimony that led to
their father being placed in their guardianship.
 
That gives us something else to worry
about.”

“Let’s hope
they don’t find out then,” Sue said, “Now I think we need more coffee and
cookies.
 
We deserve a chance to
unwind from all this.”

The next day, a
Saturday, passed calmly and pleasantly.
 
Both Lin and Sue worked, feeling happy that they could finally settle in
to their volunteer roles.
 
As luck
would have it, the uncertain weather returned on Sunday, just when they had
another day off.

“I wish it was
as sunny as the last few days have been.
 
I’d been thinking about another day out on the Parkway, maybe hiking some
of the shorter trails,” Lin complained as they viewed the rain from their
window during breakfast.

“I’m just as
glad for a rainy day,” Sue grinned, “seems to me the last time we played
tourists we opened quite a can of worms.”

Lin couldn’t
deny that. “I guess we can enjoy the rest of a Sunday at home then,” she
responded. “I think I’ll do some laundry and try to finish my book.”

“Me, I’m going
to get on the Internet and do some more research about those cases.
 
I really want to try to find some common
threads to explore further.”

 
Shortly after breakfast, Sue headed down
to her basement office leaving Lin to her own devices.
 
She put in a load of laundry and then
took her book to the comfortable sofa in the living room, but she had a hard
time getting settled into reading.
 
She realized that she hadn’t talked to Neal in several days, but it was
still too early to make a call to Arizona.
 
I’ll definitely call later, she thought.
 
Talking to him always improves my mood.
 

She’d just
gotten into her book when her phone rang.
 
It was Dave Winkler.

“What leads you
to be working on a Sunday morning?” Lin asked.