Fallacy (Detective Jade Monroe 3) Read online

  After a ten-second pause for reverence, Dean slapped his hands together and said he was starving. He lifted up the top piece of bread and took a look at the lunch meat. “Only one slice of bologna?”

  “I didn’t have time to go shopping. Do you want cheese on it too?” Alice asked.

  He nodded as he unfolded the paper napkin and spread it across his lap.

  Alice walked to the refrigerator, pulled out a piece of cellophane-wrapped processed cheese, and handed it to Dean.

  “Here you go.”

  “Thanks, dear. It sure is a hot one out there today.” Dean wiped his brow with his forearm as he talked.

  “Then drink some tea. There’s plenty. It should be icy cold by now.” Alice lifted her glass and took a gulp. “It tastes delicious. You girls did a real good job.”

  “Thanks, Mama,” Mariah said. “We made it from scratch, Daddy.”

  Dean lifted his glass and guzzled the tea. “Yep, this definitely hits the spot. Southern-style sweet tea?”

  Mariah smiled and watched him drink. “Uh-huh.”

  He wiped his mouth with the napkin and balled it up. The fork clanked when he placed it on his plate. “Time to get back to work. I’m almost done with the wall hanging that’s going to Georgia. It’s coming around nicely. Come on out and take a look.”

  “I’ll be out in a few hours.” Alice watched as Dean walked out and the screen door slammed at his back.

  “How soon will it kick in, Mama?” Mariah asked.

  Alice glanced up at the clock. “If he isn’t dead by six o’clock, we’ll finish him off ourselves. We’ll gut him, then dump his body in the woods.”

  “Won’t we go to hell for that?” Mariah asked.

  “No time to worry about hell right now, sweet girl. Daddy’s a cheater and a man. He deserves to die.”

  “How do you know he’s a cheater?” Mandy asked. Her eyes were filled with fear.

  “Are you questioning me, girl?”

  “No, ma’am.” Mandy kept her eyes focused on the floor.

  “Good. There’s going to be plenty more after your daddy, and I’m going to need your help. That goes for both of you. We’ll ask God for forgiveness in church on Sunday and every Sunday after that. He’ll hear our prayers.”

  Mariah heaved a sigh of relief.

  Chapter 3

  Alice checked the time—four o’clock. Dean had been in the workshop since after lunch. “Mandy, take your daddy some more iced tea. It has to be real hot in that workshop. You come right back here and let me know how he’s doing.”

  “Yes, Mama.” Mandy pulled the bottle with the remaining antifreeze out from behind the slow cooker and poured all of it into a tall glass. She finished it off with iced tea.

  Alice heard the clinking sound of the spoon in the glass. “Stir it real good, honey.”

  She paced in front of the kitchen window and watched Mandy kick up dust as she walked across the driveway. Mandy carried the tea in her left hand and opened the workshop door with her right, then disappeared inside. Alice looked at the sky again—still sunny with wispy clouds. She was sure one of the clouds was shaped like an angel. The vision made her smile with relief. It had to be a sign that Dean was dead.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Mandy running back to the house.

  “He’s on the floor, Mama, and it looks like he threw up. He’s holding his stomach and moaning, and his eyes are rolled back in his head. How much longer will it take?”

  “We’re getting close. I’ll check on him in an hour, but for now, let’s watch TV. It will give us something else to focus on.” Alice set the stove timer for an hour.

  When the buzzer sounded, Mariah rose from the couch. With her chest out and her hands on her hips, she strutted through the living room like a peacock after answering most of the game show questions correctly.

  “Humph… I’m smarter than both of you put together.”

  “Watch that tongue, young lady. God strikes down the boastful, you know.”

  “Sorry, Mama. Can we check on Daddy now?”

  “I suppose it’s time. If he isn’t dead, we’re going to end his suffering, understand?”

  The girls nodded.

  “How are we going to do it?”

  “It is a workshop, Mandy. I think there are more than enough tools to choose from. Go put on some old clothes that you don’t care about. We’re having a bonfire later.”

  After changing clothes, they crossed the driveway, and Alice turned the handle on the creaky workshop door. Both girls followed at her back. Inside, the fiberboard walls were lined with tools hanging from hooks. A vise, numerous drills, and two table saws filled the center of the room. The blades of a knocked-over oscillating fan still whirred in the corner. Sawdust and metal shavings blew throughout the shop. The cord extended across the aisle and was tangled around a visible leg.

  “There he is, Mama.” Mandy pointed at Dean’s leg. “He’s still on the floor, but he moved behind the workbench.”

  “Stay put. I’ll see if he’s gone. Unplug that stupid fan.” Alice walked the narrow aisle between pieces of machinery and around the workbench to where Dean lay on the floor. She knelt over his lifeless body and pressed her index and middle fingers against his neck to feel for a pulse—there was none. Dried vomit and white foam caked the corners of his mouth, and his unblinking eyes stared at the fluorescent ceiling light. He was definitely dead.

  “Okay, time to get busy. Mandy, grab that wall art your daddy was working on and put it in the storage room. We’ll send it to the man in Georgia. A thousand dollars is a nice chunk of change. I don’t want that pretty thing getting blood on it.”

  “Blood?” Mandy stared at Alice as if she were speaking a foreign language.

  “Yes, blood. The three of us are going to rid God’s green earth of vile men that are unfaithful. They have to pay for their sins. Daddy was the first to go. Now help your sister carry that thing around the corner and grab a few plastic drop cloths too. Hurry up. We have to finish this tonight.”

  The girls returned a few minutes later with two plastic drop cloths.

  “Come on. Don’t dillydally. Give me a hand with your father. First, we’re going to put these sheets of plastic under him, so lay them out flat.”

  The girls did as they were instructed.

  “Okay, help me lift him onto the plastic.”

  The three struggled to lift Dean’s heavy six-foot frame. They rolled him the final two feet to lie in the center of the plastic sheeting.

  Mandy gagged. “This is disgusting.”

  “Pay attention and don’t think about getting sick. You’ll get used to it in time. Now grab some tools. We’re going to start cutting.”

  “What did Daddy do that was so wrong?” Mandy asked. “Did he have a girlfriend?”

  “He had girlfriends online, so he needed to learn his lesson. God didn’t put men on the earth to cheat.”

  Mariah spoke up. “I hate him, and I’m glad he’s dead. I’ll cut him up.”

  “Good girl. Look at the tools on the hooks and see what you can find.”

  “Mama, how are we going to live now that Daddy is gone?”

  “Your daddy made some fine artwork, Mandy. We’ll sell everything that’s in the storage room. My disability checks come on the first of the month, and they’re as sure as the sun rising every morning. Both of you girls are going to work too.”

  “We are?”

  “Yes you are. You’re going to do everything I tell you to do, just like Daddy said.” Alice noticed the tools in Mariah’s hands. “Those are fine choices, honey. Now, come down here real close and I’ll show you what to do.”

  Chapter 4

  “Give me a hug. I’m so proud of you.”

  Amber laughed when I insisted on a sisterly embrace as she got ready for her first day of school. She would graduate college with a major in criminal justice and a minor in psychology. With the online courses she had taken over the summer break, her psychology
requirements were almost complete. She could focus on the criminal justice side during this last school year.

  “I still have a long road ahead of me, Jade. There’s two more years of criminal justice studies while I’m going to the police academy, then I have to be a cop for a while. It may take another ten years before I become an FBI profiler, and that’s if there are any openings available at the time.”

  I shushed her out the door as I swiped at the air. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, get going before you’re late. Good luck. Text me when you have a free minute.”

  I thought about the note Clark had received last week as I began my day. Kyle and Dan had checked for fingerprints and DNA but found nothing. When nothing happened over the weekend, we chalked the note up to some nut job trying to agitate the sheriff’s department. None of us found it very funny. With crimes slowing down due to the August heat wave and not many drunk driving or domestic disturbance tickets to hand out until Labor Day, I had already put in for a day off, which gave me the coveted three-day weekend. We all deserved a personal day now and then, but we had to do it sparingly. With my dad coming to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, I wanted to save my weeklong vacation for his visit. I’d keep my fingers crossed that nothing would go haywire during his stay.

  With the holiday weekend right around the corner, another deck party was in the works, and I wanted the yard to look perfect. I needed to do a little backyard beautification.

  Several bobby pins were pinched between my lips. I pulled them out one by one and used them to secure my wayward strands of hair. The rest was snugged back in a bun. My sunglasses were momentarily hooked through the neckline of my tank top while I headed into the garage to get what I needed.

  With the bright overhead fluorescent tubes lighting my way, and my gardening supplies organized neatly on the garage shelves, I quickly found what I needed.

  Snippers, hand spade, gloves, and a garbage can. I think that’s it. I put my tools in the garbage can, closed the garage door, and headed to the backyard to trim the perennials and pull out the spent annuals. My cell phone and police scanner always sat within my reach.

  The sun beat down and stung my back as I worked. I felt droplets of sweat run from my hairline down to the nape of my neck. An hour had already passed. A few minutes of shade and an iced tea would hold me over for a while. I climbed the five wooden steps to the deck and untied the strings that kept the patio table umbrella closed. With a few turns of the crank, the green and tan umbrella opened and spread much-needed shade across the deck. The potted plants almost sighed with relief.

  I went inside the house, and the coolness from the air conditioner swept across me and gave my arms and legs instant goose bumps. I tried to convince myself to lounge in front of the TV, but I still had more work to do. Instead, I grabbed a bottle of tea then deliberately lingered in front of the open refrigerator door for a minute, taking in the refreshing chilled air. I cracked open the plastic bottle top, threw the cap in the trash, and returned to the deck. I closed the slider behind me.

  At the shaded table, I kicked off my purple gardening flip-flops and rested my bare feet on the closest chair while I enjoyed my tea. I studied my pockmarked right foot. The dog that bit me during an investigation a month ago did a number on my foot, and I had the scars to prove it. The doctor said I was lucky the dog missed my Achilles tendon. After learning why, I agreed.

  The scanner squawked to life when a call came in. I always had it tuned to our local North Bend sheriff’s department frequency. I turned the black volume dial up higher and heard the code I always dreaded. A 10-79 came in—notify coroner. The location wasn’t a home but the Kettle Moraine County Park off Highway G, only three miles from my house. I was sure I’d hear sirens soon. That park was a three-hundred-acre county park filled with hills, valleys, fishing ponds, and numerous trails spanning different lengths and levels of difficulty. Near the parking lot was a splash pad and a playground for kids. Everything else leaned more toward the outdoor enthusiast. Hikers, mountain bikers, runners, snowmobilers, and cross-country skiers in the winter months all enjoyed the benefits of that vast, wooded park. I assumed a poor soul had a heart attack on a trail, especially in this stifling heat. It sounded as though several deputies were already dispatched to the scene.

  I wondered why an ambulance wasn’t dispatched first. Somebody would have had to pronounce the victim dead to call for the coroner—unless it was blatantly obvious.

  I called Jack’s desk out of nothing more than curiosity. August had been slow so far, and I was thankful for that.

  “Hey, partner, what’s going on?” I asked when he answered his desk phone on the second ring. He had been closing out old cases and filing paperwork for the last few weeks.

  “Hi, Jade. Not sure yet. How’s the gardening going?”

  “Hot. I took a break and heard the 10-79 on the scanner. Do you think somebody had a heart attack out there in this heat?”

  “Maybe. Hang on a sec.”

  Jack put me on hold, and I listened to light jazz for at least two minutes before he came back to the phone.

  “Sorry, that was Jan. Ebert and Silver are on the scene. They called for forensics along with Lena and Jason.”

  I perked up. “What for?”

  “Something is going on, and it sounds bad. Jan asked Ebert twice to repeat what he told her.”

  “Which was?”

  “A young man walking the trails caught a glimpse of something red and a bad odor about forty feet off the path. He bushwhacked in and found a dead man. According to the caller, parts of this guy have been removed.”

  “What the hell? I’m coming in.”

  “No way. Clayton, Billings, and I can handle it. It’s your day off.”

  “Not on your life. I’ll be at the park in ten minutes.” I hung up and ran inside to change clothes before Jack could protest further.

  I backed out of my garage five minutes later and took off down the street. The sight in front of me when I arrived at the park made me groan. The playground and splash pad overflowed with moms and kids. That splash pad was a favorite among the children in the area and the perfect place to cool off on hot days. The parking lot was jam-packed with cars, and I saw two patrol cruisers at the very end of the lot. I radioed Silver to find out which trail head I would take to get back to their location. He told me to take the 2.5-mile Glacier Trail. From the parking lot, it would be the farthest trail to my left. I acknowledged the directions and headed back. The sound of wilted, dried-out leaves crunching under my feet told me how the heat had taken its toll on the plant life in the area. Dead shrubbery and drooping flowers were everywhere. A hundred yards in, and after going up and down a few hills, I saw the too-familiar yellow tape. The area was already cordoned off, and Ebert stood inside the police tape keeping curious eyes at bay. He looked surprised when he saw me walking up the trail. I leaned down and slipped under the tape.

  “Don’t you have the day off?”

  “Not anymore. What have we got?”

  I noticed Ebert’s forehead sparkled with perspiration. I was sure mine did too.

  “You’re the first one here besides Silver and me.”

  Ebert pointed at a young man standing about thirty feet from us on the trail. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. He wore a day pack and held a bottle of water. He was dressed in a pair of loose-fitting tan hiking shorts that went to his knees, an olive-green T-shirt, and a tan baseball cap that had Sandstone Creek, Colorado embroidered across the front in navy-blue thread.

  “He’s the guy that called it in. Name is Will Collier.”

  I nodded. “Did you get a statement from him already?”

  “Yeah, but he didn’t have a lot to say. Smelled something bad, saw red, and went in to investigate. He said he threw up about five feet from the body, just so you know. It’s a hell of a scene, Jade.”

  “Understood. I’m going to talk to him for a bit. Is the other side of the trail blocked?”

  “Yeah, the tape is
up, and Silver is detouring people to a different trail. We might need more help keeping people back.”

  “Go ahead and call for more deputies. I don’t want the public beyond the play area by the parking lot.”

  I walked over to Will Collier and introduced myself. He shook my hand. I could see distress in his eyes as I talked to him. He looked to be on the verge of breaking down.

  “Will, I understand how upsetting it is to come across something like this. I’m sorry you had to be the person who found this individual, but we appreciate the fact that you did and called it in. How long ago did you come across him?”

  He pulled off his cap and rubbed his head with his open hand. “I’d say less than a half hour ago.”

  “Did you touch anything on the body?”

  “Hell no, I mean, no, ma’am. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. It’s going to be etched in my mind forever.”

  “Unfortunately it probably will.” I saw the crew approaching. “Can you give me a few minutes, Will? I see my colleagues coming. If none of them need to speak to you, you’ll be free to go. I’ll be right back.”

  The guys were getting the rundown from Ebert. I walked up and waited for a pause in the conversation.

  “Hey, guys, I spoke to the witness for a bit. Do any of you need to ask him anything? If not, I’ll get his information and cut him loose.”

  Jason spoke up. “As long as he didn’t touch the body, we should be good. If we need any more from him, we’ll give him a call.”

  “Roger that. I’ll get his address and phone number.” I walked back to Will. “It looks like you’re good to go.” I pulled my notepad and pen out of my pocket. “All I need is your address, phone number, and spelling of your last name.”

  He gave me his information, and I directed him to leave under the tape nearest Ebert. I shook Will’s hand once more, and he left.