Otter Under Fire (27 page)

Otter frowned. “Didn’t you say they mortgaged their house a couple of weeks before they were murdered? And Charlotte didn’t take the money?”

“Yes they did and no she didn’t.”

“What if they had taken out the money for both children to get their gender identities fixed? Maybe they didn’t like the gender assignments that their parents picked out for them?”

“That’s possible,” Joel said, “A little crazy, but not outside the realm of possibility.”

“Not all transgendered children kill their parents, even if the parents don’t like their lifestyle.” Troy said.

“True, but this one kills on an agenda.” Otter said, “It’s a screwed up agenda, but it makes sense to her.”

“I think Otter is right, and I’ll tell you why in a minute.” Joel said, “I was called to the murder in Detroit and verified that it was done by Charlotte, but she had disappeared again. My crew and I,” he waved to Troy and Graham, “were officially brought on to the case when it was determined that Clark was murdered.”

“When was that determined officially?” Michael asked.

“Shortly after Otter started making noises to Susan,” Addison said. “Susan and I looked at the evidence and the coroner’s report and I saw something that Joel Buchanan needed to see. When he got here he verified right away that we had another of Charlotte’s murders.”

“When Otter told Susan about Marvin Jones, Addison and I flew up to Detroit to look things over and verified he was another one. So we had to figure out how they all were related and maybe we could catch her.” Joel continued.

“So I knew I had to meet Otter. I convinced Susan to introduce us.”

“I knew what you were up to,” Susan said, “I think I knew even better than you did what you were looking for.”

“Be that as it may,” Joel cleared his throat as Graham snickered, “She turned out to be invaluable. She had the list and figured out the code. She got this laptop, “he gestured to the machine on the table, “and even got into that. I’ll bet that right now she knows who the killer is.”

“Well who is it, Mackenzie?” Michael asked.

“It’s Mitch,” Otter told Michael and then she looked up at Joel, “but you knew that already.”

“And when did you figure that out?” Joel asked her.

“When I was talking to him and he told me that Ron Defray had asked for some time off, which is why he was missing. Defray wouldn’t do something like that quietly. He’d send an e-mail to everyone bragging how he was going to be gone fishing or hunting or whatever. When he took his time off, he wanted people to
know.
” She paused a moment. “And I remembered after I realized he was the kidnapper, that he had had Defray’s vape pen in his pocket at the ball. That’s what I had seen while I was dancing with Graham but couldn’t place.”

“I figured out something was wrong when he spoke at the ball,” Troy said, “His accent is definitely not Rumanian.”

“He didn’t know what Cal de Lemn meant,” Michael asked. “I showed it to him as part of a project and he didn’t know what it was. If he was from central Europe, he would have known.”

“You knew?” Otter asked her boss.

“I suspected for quite a while, but wasn’t sure.”

“What made you suspect him? I could have been the imposter.”

Michael snorted out a laugh. “You both were supposed to have degrees in metallurgy. Only one of you knew the difference in the age cycle of 2024 versus 7075 aluminum and the free machining capabilities of 303 instead of 321 stainless.”

“Ah, ok,” Otter said.

“She works metals and engineering into everything,” Tempest said. “I think it’s in her blood.”

“Mitch came to your shop and applied as a general manager.” Joel said to Michael, “and you were impressed by his resume.”

“Yes, I was.”

“You didn’t know that is was a stolen identity. His papers were good.”

“They were.”

“So what we think happened was this, she made friends with Clark. She has always liked guns; it makes sense she would belong to one of the most exclusive gun clubs in the valley. She invited him to her club with her and Clark was impressed.”

“Until he saw ‘Jameson Pennell’ on the identity card that Mitch presented at the club.” Otter said.

“And Clark was a busybody; he loved to pry into people’s lives.” Michael said.

“Clark was also dying,” Troy said. “His cancer had come back. He hadn’t told anyone yet, but he didn’t think he would live much longer.” He looked around the room. “I got his medical records and talked to his doctor.”

“I think he had his periodic table made out already,” Otter said, “I think it was his personal way of keeping score on everyone, a way to have a private laugh once in a while. He worked his mystery code out and jumbled everything up with the table and clues he already had worked out so that if Mitch got into his computer, he wouldn’t know what it was.”

“He had an adopted nephew that was brilliant at software, so he used the software to snoop on Mitch and other people in the shop. He found Marvin Jones and met up with him. Clark found out from Marvin Jones that Mitch was female in high school and not from Rumania at all.”

“He must have been ecstatic,” Otter said, “all that dirt on one person in one trip.”

“Should have done his research,” Graham said, “He would have also found out that she was a dangerous killer.”

“Maybe he didn’t care,” Susan said. “He was going to die anyway.”

“Possibly, but he met with Mitch when he got back from meeting Marvin and they went out shooting one last time as planned. Either Clark slipped and told Mitch something, or straight out decided to blackmail him.” Otter said, “Either way, Clark wasn’t afraid of him, he let Charlotte walk up to him and shoot him in the head.

‘Clark started to tell me something just before he left on that trip.” Otter continued, “Raymundo started pounding on my door about a shipping crisis and Clark changed his mind about telling me.”

“Marvin posted on his Facebook page that a co-worker of his old friend came by and was going to get them to meet sometime soon,” Troy said. “It was only on there for a short time before his family took it down.”

“So Marvin unwittingly sealed the death warrant for both of them,” Graham said.

“So it seems,” Joel said. “We believe he has taken and possibly murdered Ron Defray, but we don’t know why. He has also tried to frame Mr. Defray for a theft at AzTech, possibly to throw suspicion off of him.”

“So why do you think he was so anxious to work with me?” Otter asked Michael.

“Part of the reason was that he liked working with you,” Michael said, “He always said he learned something from you every day.”

The whole room paused to consider that statement.

“And he could keep an eye on her,” Joel said. “See if she was getting suspicious. She said she didn’t think Clark killed himself, he may have wanted to know how far she was going to push that.”

“He insisted several times that Clark was a suicide and we never knew what people were thinking.” Otter said.

“He was certainly right about that,” Graham said.

“Then Charlotte scoped out Otter’s house,” Joel continued, “and apparently encountered her security system.”

Tempest and Otter grinned at each other.

“One day you will have to show me that whole system,” Addison said. “We have reports of some kid apparently trying to go over a wall in your neighborhood. He ran for a police car screaming ‘
La araña grande!!
’
[10]
as loud as he could. His eyes were as big as saucers and he was a white as a sheet. It took the uniforms an hour to calm him down and they couldn’t get him to go back and show him what he had seen.”

“Maybe he was on some kind of drugs,” Tempest said demurely, “I hear that spice or bath salts will make people see things.” Otter wouldn’t meet her eyes and tried very hard not to make any noises.

“Can any of this be proven?” Michael asked, “Can he be arrested?”

“We have a couple more things to show you and then we need to construct a plan of action.” Joel said.

“What about Mitch’s wife?” Otter asked.

“We think that it’s probably his sister pretending to be his wife, she’s kind of in the background,” Joel said. “We don’t know if she’s a part of this of her free will or not.” Troy said.

“We’ll find out once we have them in custody,” Addison said.

“Tempest and Susan have been working with Troy and Graham and together they found out about Mitch Balan, the real Mitch Balan.”

“He was an engineer and manager at one of the places where Charlotte worked. He disappeared about the same time she did. Here is a picture of what he looked like.”

Joel looked at Troy and Troy clicked a few things on his keyboard. A picture of a tall blond man with cold blue eyes stared out of the photograph on the white board.

“Mitch Balan wasn’t liked very well by his co-workers. By all accounts he was extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, but had absolutely no people skills. When he left a work place, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.”

“Is that a trend with your industry?” Tempest asked. “Is everyone an asshole?”

Michael laughed out loud. “Not everyone,” he said, “but a lot of them, that’s true.”

“So the real Mitch Balan was a cold personality,” Otter said.

“That’s definitely not the Mitch I know,” Michael said.

“We think Charlotte killed Mitch and took his identity. It made it easier for her to become him and get steady employment.” Troy said.

“How do you know she killed him?” Otter asked.

“Because the four of us figured out some probabilities,” Graham nodded to Susan and Tempest, “and decided on a couple of locations where Charlotte would have most likely left the body. Troy and I went up to Detroit and a cadaver dog found it on the third try.”

“And it was most definitely Charlotte’s handiwork.” Joel said.

“What kind of mark are you talking about? You’ve mentioned it before.” Otter asked.

“Have you seen any of the symbols for the intersex movement?” Joel asked her.

“I’ve never really looked.”

“There is one that is the combination of male and female.” He said. “It’s a circle with a crossed line on the bottom like a female and an arrow shooting off toward the right at an angle like a male.”

“Oh yeah, that’s been around for quite a while.”

“Charlotte carves that symbol in body part of every one of her victims. Most of the time it’s so deep it goes into the bone.”

“Eww, I hope they were dead at the time,” Tempest shuddered.

“So far that seems to be the case,” Joel said, “but it’s been on every one I’ve seen.”

“So do you think she’s making a statement for all transgender people?” Otter asked.

“No, I think she’s a deranged killer who is using that for an excuse.” Joel said.

“So now what?’ Otter asked.

“Now we get a warrant for Mitch’s arrest,” Addison said, “and to search through his home.”

“What do we do in the mean time?” Michael asked.

“I’ll signal you once we have her in custody,” Joel said. “Then it will be safe for you to go back to the shop.”

“It still doesn’t feel right,” Otter said to Tempest once they were home.

“How is it supposed to feel?” Tempest said, getting ham and cheese out of the refrigerator to chop up for salad.

“More satisfying,” Otter said. “Mitch just doesn’t act like a cold blooded killer.”

“I’m no expert,” Tempest said, “But I don’t think cold blooded killers have any kind of sign or special jewelry that tells you that they’re crazy and dangerous.”

“That would be cool though, like those medical alert bracelets that people with medical conditions wear. It would have a flashing red light so everyone near them would know.”

“Then everyone would want one,”

“Probably, but I worked with Mitch, often in a high pressure situation, he didn’t act like someone who was deranged,” Otter said, pulling out fixings for her own salad. “If he cracked under pressure, AzTech would definitely bring it out in him.”

“But you pointed him out as the killer yourself,” Tempest said, “You must have thought so at some point.”

“I know. It makes sense, but it doesn’t on some level. He left a trail that points to him, but it doesn’t feel right.”

“Let me know when it does,” Tempest said. “Because right now, I won’t feel safe until he is in jail. He was looking at our house.”

“But he didn’t actually see it,” Otter said absently, “You know how the security system works.”

Otter woke the next morning to a text from her Aunt Carole, reminding her to get a flu shot. Aunt Carole was a fanatic about flu shots since a friend of hers had gotten heart damage due to a nasty flu virus. The friend had to get a pacemaker and Aunt Carole had a new cause. Otter rolled out of bed and groaned. She would have to send a copy of proof to her aunt sometime in the next week to get off the nag list.

She had gotten a call from Joel, Mitch was secure in a cell, but they hadn’t found the sister or Ron Defray. Joel said that Mitch kept telling them they were crazy to put him in jail--and they didn’t understand what was really going on.

Otter fed her cats and wondered where Ron Defray was. She sincerely hoped he wasn’t dead. Whatever he was like, he didn’t deserve to die. She had a quick breakfast and then dressed in her jeans, polo shirt and work boots.

It was dark at 5am since it had turned to autumn, and Otter called Annie as she got into her car.

“What is this I hear? You had Mitch arrested?”

“I didn’t, the police did.”

“I hope you plan to give me the details on our way in.”

“I suppose I don’t have any choice, do I?”

“No, not really,”

Annie got into the vehicle, practically vibrating with excitement. She was the only adult Otter had ever met that could jump up and down while still sitting in her seat.

“OK, now spill it. All of it, every last detail.”

“The real Mitch Balan is dead, theory is that our Mitch killed him and stole his identity. He then applied for the job as general manager here at AzTech. Clark found out that Mitch had a different name on another identification card and started snooping. Mitch killed Clark when he figured that Clark was too close to the truth.”

“Poor Clark,” Annie said, “You know I always had a hard time believing he was a Mormon.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he was such an unpleasant person-- you know what I mean. Most Mormons are nice people. He was even born in the church, and he still came out a pain in the ass.”

“Maybe some characteristics are just genetic. It is possible he couldn’t help himself.”

“I think he was basically ornery and he was compelled to be a decent human being by his religious teachings. He was brought up to be a nice person, but he took it out on the world that he wasn’t allowed to be nasty.”

“That’s as good an explanation as anything else,” Otter said. “Whatever it was, it got him killed. He messed with the wrong person.”

“Yeah and caused all kinds of trouble in the shop. Does anyone know where Ron Defray is?”

“No, we didn’t find Mitch’s sister and we didn’t find Defray. Joel says it’s possible he killed them both.”

“It’s weird; I would never think of Mitch as a cold blooded killer, he just didn’t seem the type.”

“What type would that be?” Otter asked.

“I would have expected a lot more dark vibes from him. You know some evil in the air when he was around. There was never any feeling like that.”

“Oddly enough, I know what you mean. I said the same to Tempest last night. She said they didn’t put flashers on crazed killers, there was no way to tell.”

“I have to disagree,” Annie said. “I know when I’m around bad people, I can almost smell it.”

“I have a date with Joel tonight, maybe I’ll find out more.”

“I have a little present for you,”

“Thank you, but it’s not my birthday.”

“Nothing like that, I saw this at the toy store when I was in there with the girls. I know you’ve always wanted one, so I spent the three dollars.” She produced a sparkly magic wand with a star on top of it out of her bag.

“Oh, now that is cool. I have really needed one of these.”

“You can’t see it properly right now, but when you get it in the light it has all this glitter in the handle that floats in some kind of gel. It looks very cool.”

“I’ll put it up in my office right away. So what prompted you to get me a gift?”

“You’ve been under so much pressure lately; I’m surprised you don’t snap.”

“What is it they say? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?”

“Just how strong do you want to be?”

“Strong enough to get to the weekend,” Otter said.

The shop was quiet. Word had gotten around and people were silent and speculating. The official word was that Mitch was a person of interest, nothing more.

Otter had a standard answer for every question. Mitch was working under a stolen identity and the police had evidence. She didn’t know what else to say.

She swung into her routine and sparked enough energy in people to get the shop moving. Parts were worked and shipped, people did their jobs. Out of habit, Otter kept glancing over her shoulder looking for Mitch. He may have been planning to kill her, but she missed him all the same.

“Ottermagic,” a cheerful voice said on the company land line after lunch. “I have a couple hundred pounds of steel I need right away.”

“Juan, how are you doing?” Otter said, pleased to hear his voice.

“’Bout the same, ‘bout the same, I need some of your magic again, Chica.”

“Well, someone just bought me a magic wand; I’m all ready for you.” She took a picture with her phone and sent it to him.

“It’s some 4340, two hundred one pound blocks. I need them to retrofit a couple of buggies. Can you do it?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to,” Otter said with a swagger in her voice, “This is a piece of cake.”

“On its way, you’ll see it tomorrow.”

“Got it,”

“Call me as soon as it’s ready.”

“Will do,” she said, happy to do something normal for a change.

“Nice wand,” Juan texted to her, “it suits you.”

“We can’t find Ron Defray,” Joel said. “We don’t know that he’s been murdered, but there is no reason to believe he is alive—other than we haven’t found his body.”

“What about Charlotte’s sister?” Tempest asked.

“No sign of her either.”

“Does she have a name?” Otter asked, “You keep referring to her as ‘the sister’, she must have a proper name.”

“Of course, she does,” Graham said. “Her name is Victoria.”

“Victoria Patricia Robinson Pennell to be exact,” Troy said. “Why?”

“Don’t you find it interesting that both children were given girls’ names that could easily convert to masculine?” Otter said while she fiddled with the laptop. They were back in the conference room of Apollo Institute, Otter, Joel, Graham, Tempest and Troy.

“Yes, it’s interesting,” Joel said, “but they hadn’t decided on which way they were going to go, so it makes sense.”

“They raised them as girls,” Otter said, “But prepared them for the future in case they decided to be boys. That sounds pretty open minded to me. Like they were willing to let their children make the choice.”

“Or they were going to wait and see which characteristics each child would display before they decided for them,” Tempest said.

“We’ll probably never know,” Troy said, “I don’t see Charlotte breaking down and confessing to anyone. She’s still demanding her release; she says we have the wrong person.”

“I brought the laptop back,” Otter said. “I was hoping we could get through the program and learn all of Clark’s secrets.”

“Since you got through the first section,” Graham said, “We should be able to figure out the rest.”

Otter booted up the computer and stared at the screen for a moment. She fiddled with a few numbers and codes and then typed in Zircon 40. The creaking door sounded again and the cursor blinked at her.

“All mimsy were the borogoves; and the
mome raths outgrabe.”
[11]

Clark’s voice came out of the speaker and gave Otter chills.

“Greetings Mackenzie, thank you very much for making the effort to figure out my codes—I assume that since you are listening to this, I am now deceased.”

“Creepy,” Tempest commented.

“I knew that I didn’t have very long--my cancer came back with a vengeance and my doctor said I had very little time left. So I cobbled this all together to right a few wrongs and to stop someone who is really evil.

“I know you’ve rolled your eyes over some of this, but I assure you the secrecy was important. I needed to find out what Mitch was up to and why he was using a fake identification. I got a picture of his I.D. at the gun club with my phone.”

A picture of the Scottsdale club identification card came into view with Jameson Pennell printed on it. Next to it was an Illinois driver’s license with Mitch’s picture and the name of Jameson Pennell.”

“Damn,” Graham said, “We hadn’t gotten quite that far.”

“I used my nephew’s talents and did a search for Mitch with facial recognition software. I found out he wasn’t Rumanian and he wasn’t even a guy.
She
went to high school in Michigan and I found her friend and I’m going to meet with him soon to look at pictures and make sure I have the right person. Then I have an appointment to go shooting with Mitch and I’ll ask him what is going on. If I don’t survive to make that meeting, you need to look into it.”

“So was he expecting to be murdered,” Otter asked nobody in particular, “Or did he think his cancer would get him first?”

“And to prove to you that Mitch isn’t all he pretends to be, take the name that I have paired with Hydrogen and ask him if he knows what it means. It means wooden horse in Rumanian and he won’t know that.” Clark continued.

“Yeah, we figured that part out,” Troy said to the laptop, “Tell us something new.”

“There is a key sewn into the dragon toy I left with this laptop. Please see that it gets to my wife along with the small paper that tells where the safety deposit box is. The rest of my financial papers are in there that will help her take care of our family in my absence.”

Graham took the dragon and began to examine it.

“Whatever Mitch is up to, you have to stop him,” Clark said. “He seems to be keeping a young woman captive as his wife.” Clark’s voice became outraged. “He says she is his wife, but he never lets her speak and keeps a very close eye on her. I toyed with the idea of going to the police, or Michael about all of this, but I didn’t have enough proof. I hope you can find out the truth and save that young lady from that creep.”

“Doesn’t care for transgender individuals,” Joel commented.

“Possibly,” Otter said, “I just don’t think he liked any one thing about the situation and he was probably very frustrated that he couldn’t prove anything.”

“Try not to be judgmental about the way I conducted this investigation,” Clark went on, “I did the best I could with what I had. With any luck at all you and possibly Michael will get this figured out and justice will be done. Thank you Mackenzie, for taking the time to figure this all out and I pray that you have more success than I did.”

“Found it,” Graham said, holding up a key and a small fold of paper. “There was a little pocket sewn into its side.”

“Well that section seems to be done,” Otter said and she typed in another code. “Let’s see what he says about Nolan.”

They spent about an hour going through all the names and numbers until they wrung every excuse, every pathway that Clark had to give from the data base.

“Just one more to go,” Joel said looking at Otter. “His wife,” he perused the list of names. “She’s the only one left.”

“I think that’s one we need to play for her,” Otter said after they all listened to it. “He left thing on there that she’s supposed to hear.”
Like locations of all the legal documents,
Otter thought. Finding out that the laptop was more of a last will and testament was a bit of a letdown.

“So are we going on a field trip, teacher?” Graham teased.

“I think it’s about time to go and see Tonya,” Otter said. “She needs to know what Clark was doing.”

After a phone call and a brief chat with the widow, they piled into Troy’s SUV and drove to see Tonya McCartney.

Tonya sat on her couch and fingered the key that they gave her. She had tears running down her face.

“I don’t understand any of this.” She said.

“Clark knew that our general manager was doing something suspicious,” Otter explained, “so he tried to find out what Mitch was up to. He coded all his information on the blackmail sheet—except it wasn’t a blackmail sheet. It was a type of encrypted sheet with all the employees on it. He only blackmailed four or five people as far as we can tell.”

“But why?” She asked tearfully.

“Because he wanted to get into the personnel records and look at Mitch’s file. Clark was trying to find out the truth about him.”

“I don’t understand why he didn’t tell Michael or the police,”

“I think it was because he was dying and he didn’t think he had enough proof. He was running out of time and he wanted to make sure justice was done.”

“He could have told me,”

“He was afraid he would put you in danger, “Joel said gently. “He didn’t want anything to happen to you or your children.”