The Bone Tree (54 page)

Caitlin took a deep, fearful breath, then expelled it. This morning she had told Penn that she would be working in Natchez all day. Admitting that lie might make him furious, but given that this was about Tom
and
Valhalla, she couldn’t refuse. She only hoped that their discussion wouldn’t require her having to tell Penn she’d met Tom secretly last night.

She held out her hand to Carl.

Carl passed her the phone, then clambered forward again to talk to Danny.

“Penn, this is Caitlin.”

At first there was only silence. Then Penn asked her to hold on, thinking she’d somehow called him and broken in on his connection with Carl. It took a while to convince him that she was in fact
with
Carl, and already in a helicopter not far from the land Penn wanted searched. She could hear the anger in his voice, but she also knew that was nothing compared to the rage he would feel if he learned she had kept Tom’s location from him.

“Did you drive down there by yourself?” he asked.

“No. Jordan came with me. It was on her way to the New Orleans airport.”

“Jesus. You realize Kaiser has no idea she’s with you?”

“Yes, but is that really the issue right now?”

“You’re right. Has McDavitt decided whether he’ll do the flight for me?”

She gestured forward at Carl, and he came back into the cabin and took the phone from her.

“Penn, Danny says he’ll do it. But this is a big favor, bro. I don’t think
I’d
do it except that I don’t think you’ll ever get a warrant to search that place. Not unless it’s a federal one, and you might not even get that.”

Carl nodded at whatever Penn answered.

“We can’t take the girls with us,” he went on. “Danny says no way. If we find something and have to set down, they can’t be any part of it. Even if we don’t set down, we might have to fly straight back to the departmental helipad. . . . Right. I’ll call you when we’re on our way. You want Caitlin back? . . . You sure? . . . Okay. Out.”

Carl stuffed the phone back into his pocket and shrugged in apology.

“It’s all right,” Caitlin said. “Finding Tom’s more important than anything else right now.”

“The problem,” Danny said in the headset, “is what to do if we find him. He’s still wanted for killing a state trooper.”

“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Carl said. “Let’s get these ladies back to their vehicle.”

“Just a second,” Jordan said.

“Yeah?” Carl asked.

“We don’t have to go all the way back to the car. Set us down by that fisherman—Mose. He can help us find the X on the map while you guys search Valhalla.”

Carl didn’t look wild about this idea. He did not want to have to explain to Penn that he’d let her go searching for the Bone Tree with only Jordan and an old man to protect her. “It’d take too long to find Mose.”

“No, it won’t,” Danny said from the cockpit. “He keeps a two-way radio with him for emergencies. I can call him right now. If Mose answers, I can set down on a little tussock, and you can hop right into his boat.”

“Great,” Carl muttered.

FIVE MINUTES LATER, DANNY
McDavitt flared the chopper and settled his skids onto a little hummock of earth at the center of a big black pool. Mose Tyler stood his boat off at a safe distance while the JetRanger’s rotors buffeted the mirrored surface into a stinging hail of icy droplets.

As they prepared to exit the chopper, Carl said, “I don’t think Penn will appreciate me dropping you two into this swamp with only Mose Tyler for protection.”

“Penn’s not in charge of this hunt,” Caitlin told him. “I am. And we’re both carrying guns.”

“Show me.”

Caitlin reached into her bag and pulled out the 9 mm Springfield Penn had bought her a month earlier.

“You know how to use that?”

“Yep. Dr. Cage taught me.”

Carl looked at Jordan. “I guess you’re an expert with that nine mil I saw earlier?”

Jordan smiled. “I hit what I aim at.”

“Well, then. I guess you two can handle anything but a platoon-sized assault. But I’m still going to give you one of our departmental walkie-talkies. About all you can do with your cell phone down here is play games on it, or run down the battery while it pings for a tower every minute.”

“I’ve gotten a couple of bars down here before,” Danny interjected. “Depends on where you are, weather conditions, who your carrier is, a lot of things. Leave them on just in case.”

“In case of what?” Jordan asked. “In case we find ourselves in a
Deliverance
-type situation?”

Carl laughed appreciatively. “I’ve got a feeling you could handle that just fine.”

Jordan jumped out of the chopper, and Caitlin followed. The shock of the ground jolted her bones, but she managed to keep her feet. As Danny lifted off and beat away toward the west, Caitlin waved for Mose Tyler to bring his boat in.

STANDING OUTSIDE THE
room where John Kaiser probes in vain at Snake Knox, I try to maintain my composure in the face of a painful reality: yesterday, when Caitlin made love to me at my house on Washington Street, she did not do it out of desire, but because I had raised the possibility of sending Stone and Kaiser in search of the Bone Tree. Instead of answering me, she removed her pants and made sure that my newest brainstorm evaporated quickly and completely. She knew then that she planned to spend today searching the Lusahatcha Swamp, and she would only be doing that if she had a lead on the Bone Tree that she didn’t tell me about. I suppose I can’t resent this, since I’ve held back most of the Kennedy information, but the idea that she could—and did—manipulate me so easily is more than a little troubling. It begs the question, how many times has she done that before?

Taking a deep breath, I open the door to the interrogation room, walk through, and become part of the movie being recorded on the video camera’s cassette.

“Hello, Snake,” I say amicably.

Knox looks over at me with the flattened lips of a smile, but his eyes are ice cold. “Well, well, Mayor Cage is in the house. You look more like your daddy every year. Minus the beard, of course.”

Kaiser glares at me, waiting for an explanation of my interruption.

Now that I’m physically in the room with Snake, it’s difficult to remember that our real target is Sonny Thornfield. Because this smug bastard clearly knows everything we want to know. He knows where my father is, at this moment. He knows who killed Viola Turner. He knows who murdered all those civil rights victims, because he was there himself when most of them died. He may even know who really killed John Kennedy.

But he’s never going to tell us.

Ignoring Snake’s chatter, I motion for Kaiser to follow me outside
so I can tell him about Jordan and Caitlin’s airborne adventure. When he hesitates, Snake says, “Did you hear Mister Kaiser say he thinks my crew killed President Kennedy? I think he’s angling for a book deal, Mayor. Can you help him out any?”

“I can probably get
you
one, Snake. But you’d better write it quick. You can’t keep the profits from a book written in prison.”

Kaiser follows me into the hall and shuts the door behind us.

“This better be serious,” he says. “Don’t tell me Claude Devereux has shown up to spring the Eagles?”

“No. But you’re not going to like this. Jordan isn’t on her way to New Orleans right now.”

Kaiser tenses himself for bad news. “Where is she?”

“She and Caitlin sneaked down to Lusahatcha County to hunt for the goddamned Bone Tree. They’re flying around in a chopper with two guys I know.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.”

“You know I’m not. Don’t worry, these guys are deputies. Carl Sims is a former marine sniper, and Danny McDavitt was a decorated chopper pilot in Vietnam.”

Kaiser shakes his head in exasperation. “I had a feeling she was up to something, but she played it damned cool.”

“Same here. Well . . . now that you know, why don’t you get back in there and finish up with that asshole so you can move on to Sonny Thornfield?”

“I will. But remember what I said: I can’t rush it with Snake. Every minute I spend with him buys me another minute with Sonny. I’m going to spend at least fifty more minutes with him.”

I try to look downcast, and it works.

“I’m sorry, Penn. I know you want your father home. But you know a plea bargain is a slow process.”

I nod. “Yeah, I get it.”

The FBI agent pats me on the shoulder. “Thanks for telling me about Jordan. Snake got to me a little with that threat.”

“I saw.”

Kaiser clucks his tongue. “That means Snake saw, too.”

After he returns to the interrogation room, I count to ten, then hurry to find Sheriff Dennis’s utility room.

The big man is waiting for me two corners down the hallway. Drafting behind his broad back, I move down a second hallway, then take a sharp turn into a concrete-floored area that stinks of disinfectant and old vomit. Dennis turns right, into a cul-de-sac, then opens a door to a dim, ten-by-ten room crowded with cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, and mops. Unshielded pipes and conduit run along the walls and hang from the ceiling. It is to one of these ceiling pipes that Sonny Thornfield has been chained by his wrists. His dark Creole skin cannot hide the nearly bloodless state of his face. This man is a quivering mass of fear, which makes me wonder what Walt said to him during Sheriff Dennis’s absence. Thornfield actually looks relieved to see me as Walt looms at his side.
Does Sonny think I’ve come to rescue him?
Walker closes the door behind us, then takes up a position behind me.

“Thank God,” Sonny almost whimpers. “Help me, Mayor. This guy’s crazy! He already tried to torture me a couple of days ago.”

With his cowboy hat pulled low and his expression grim, Walt Garrity certainly looks the part of the professional torturer.

“Listen to me, Sonny,” I say. “I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer every one. Nobody’s ever going to know where I got my information. I promise you that much protection.
But
—if you don’t answer, Captain Garrity there is going to do whatever is necessary to make you talk. Is that clear?”

“Just tell me what you want! My heart can’t take no more strain, Mayor. I don’t know nothing anyway.”

“I hope that’s a lie, Sonny. For your sake.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to know where my father is.”

Sonny’s eyes go wide, and he looks from me to Dennis, then back. “I don’t know! The last time I saw him was Tuesday night. Him and this fella here kidnapped me from my fishing camp. They tortured me in a van, and then they killed that trooper!” Spittle flies from Thornfield’s mouth in his panicked state. “I don’t care about that trooper, ’cause Deke Dunn was an asshole anyhow. But this’un here wanted to kill me afterwards! Thank God Dr. Cage made him take me to the hospital. Doc’s a good man, and I know you are, too.
Please
don’t let him hurt me. I’ve got grandkids, and my heart can’t take it. I already had one coronary this week. I can’t stand no more, I swear.”

One glance at Walt tells me Sonny is telling the truth about Tuesday. But my gut says he’s lying about my father. Unfortunately, he’s not lying about his heart condition.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Sonny. But I will. And you’re right: you could have another heart attack at any moment. If you don’t want to die for Forrest Knox, you’d better tell me where Dad is. I don’t care about any of the rest of it. Tell me the truth, no matter how bad it is. Is my father dead?”

The old man shakes his head, on the verge of tears. “No . . . he ain’t. At least I don’t think he is.”

My heart leaps and begins to pound. “Tell me where he is!”

“Forrest took him last night. Doc was hiding out at that colored lawyer’s place in Jefferson County. But Snake didn’t want to come in here without some kind of insurance. He was worried about some kind of setup, something like that planted meth, I guess.”

“So what did he do?”

“We took the doc back from Forrest last night.”

“Where is he now?”

“You swear to God you won’t tell Snake or Forrest I told you?” Sonny’s eyes go to Dennis. “They’ll kill me, Sheriff. Ya’ll will just go get the doc and say you found him, right? If I tell you where he’s at, will you do that?”

“There’s no ‘if’ to you telling, Sonny,” Walker says from behind me. “
Talk.
”

“Okay, I’m trusting you. Dr. Cage is at my little fishing cabin on Old River.”

I can scarcely believe this. Old River is less than ten miles from where we stand. “Are you lying, Sonny? Are you trying to stall me?”

“No! I swear by Jesus!”

“That’s where we picked this guy up Tuesday,” Walt says. “There’s no legal record of the place. We found it using a GPS tracker.”

“Who’s guarding my father?” I ask Sonny.

“Nobody! We’re all here. I swear, Mayor, he’s just tied up good.”

“Is he hurt?”

“He ain’t in the best shape, but he’s breathing.” Thornfield’s voice betrays how little confidence he has in his captive’s well-being.

“My truck’s outside,” Walt says excitedly. “Let’s go get him.”

“Wait,” says Sheriff Dennis. “What do we do with Sonny meanwhile?”

“Nothing yet.” I’m surprised by the emotionless tone of my own voice. “I’ve got one more question. Who killed Viola Turner, Sonny? No bullshit. Your life depends on it.”

The old man’s chin and lips quiver as he shakes his head. “I don’t know. I swear to God, Mayor. Snake might know, but I don’t.”

I’ve watched too many suspects lie to be fooled by Thornfield’s false sincerity. “You’re lying. Make him tell me, Walt.”

Sonny’s eyes bulge as Walt grabs a long, wet towel, throws it over the pipe, and quickly ties a knot. With the dangling end he ties a second knot around the hanging cloth, making a functional noose.

“Oh, no, now,” Thornfield cries, starting to weep. “My heart’ll blow out if you lift me up there! I don’t know nothing about that nurse, I swear.”

I lean forward until my eyes are only inches from his. “Who killed Viola, Sonny? I know you saw her die.”

Thornfield is too terrified to retreat from his lie. He shakes his head like a thousand suspects I’ve seen driven into a corner, clinging desperately to what they believe is their only currency.

“Lift him up there, guys,” I say coldly.

Walt grabs Sonny by the shoulders and positions him beneath the noose. Sheriff Dennis steps around me in the tight space and grabs the old man by the waist.

“Jesus,
no,
” Sonny pleads. “
Don’t do it!
”

Sonny screams, but I lose the sound when the door behind me flies open and bangs against the cinder-block wall. When I turn, I see John Kaiser staring wide-eyed at us with a combination of amazement and disgust.

“Have you lost your fucking minds?” he asks.

Nobody answers.

“Let go of him, Garrity,” Kaiser orders.

Walt doesn’t move.

With calm deliberation, Kaiser draws a pistol from an ankle holster and aims it at Walt’s head. “Step away, Captain. Anybody reaches for a weapon, I’ll fire. Does anybody doubt that?”

“Do what he says, Walt,” I say softly. “Walker, you too.”

“Hey, I’m done,” Dennis says, dropping his hands from Sonny’s waist.

After a tense few seconds, I hear the slap of wet cloth on Sonny’s head as Walt drops the noose.

“Everybody out in the hall,” Kaiser says, backing out of the doorway. “
Now
.”

We step into the hallway, but Kaiser doesn’t stay with us. Instead, he moves into the utility room and closes the door. I hear muffled voices inside.

“We done stepped in the shit now,” Walker says. “If only he’d waited another minute before busting in there. Goddamn it.”

“If we wait here, Kaiser might arrest us,” I think aloud. “We know where Dad is. We’d better get going.”

“It’s his word against ours,” Dennis snaps. “He can’t arrest us. This is my department.”

“Don’t kid yourself. He’ll do it. Normally, he’d call in the state police, but Kaiser’s not about to do that. Forrest and Ozan might show up in response. But it doesn’t matter. Walt, you’ve definitely got to get out of here. You’re wanted for murdering a cop. I’ll call you as soon as I’m outside.”

Walt nods, then trots up the hall and disappears around the corner.

“I guess we’re standing our ground?” I ask Walker.

As the doorknob of the utility room rattles, I whirl, and the sheriff jams something into my back pocket.

Kaiser steps out of the room and glares at Dennis. “Sheriff, I’m taking custody of all your prisoners until such time as the governor can make a determination about your fitness to continue in office. You will either confine yourself to your office or go home for the day. I suggest the latter.”

“You’ve got no authority over me,” Walker says. “It’s your word against mine, and unless you call the state police, you can’t do a thing. And you don’t want to call them.”

An odd smile touches Kaiser’s lips. “Sheriff, a wanted cop killer just fled the premises and you made no attempt to arrest him. That’s dereliction of duty. You may have noticed that Forrest Knox is not here to challenge federal authority today. I suggest you take a page from his book.”

Without waiting for Walker to respond, Kaiser turns to me and says, “You’re done here, Penn. Go home to your daughter.”

“John, they’ve—”

“I don’t care what they’ve done! You can’t torture people. You know that. This is a perfect illustration of how unhinged your father’s situation has made you. Don’t make me jail you, Penn. Go home.”

“I didn’t see any cop killer in here,” Sheriff Dennis says.

“Louisiana,” Kaiser mutters. “I guess it never changes after all. Get out of my sight, both of you.”

WALT, SHERIFF DENNIS, AND
I huddle between a CPSO inmate van and a mobile crime-lab trailer. Sheriff Dennis is burning with rage and frustration, but Walt looks ready to roll.

“I’ve got Dr. Elliott’s truck and plenty of guns,” he says. “Let’s go get Tom.”

“Did you get the phone I put in your pocket?” Dennis asks me.

Reaching into my back pocket, I pull out a StarTac cash phone. “Whose is this?”

“I took it off Deputy Hunt this morning. I think he was using it to talk to Knox’s people. I’m thinking it might be a line to Forrest himself.”

“Did you try any of the numbers in it?”

“There’s only one. Nobody answered.”

“Where’s Deputy Hunt now?”

“I had my nephew lock him up at the gun range. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to handle him.”

“Go get him. Take him somewhere that no one could possibly find him. If Forrest knows he’s been taken, he’s already got men trying to kill him. We may need Hunt before we’re finished.”

“Don’t you want me to come to Thornfield’s cabin with you?”

“Walt and I can handle it.”

Walker hesitates, then nods. “If that’s how you want to play it, okay. Call me if you need me. And be careful.”

As the sheriff trots away, Walt starts toward Drew’s truck.