Chapter 11

 

By the time Cyrus and Max made it back to the Station, Rudy had left early for the day. No one knew anything about Mathers leaving the city jail and being transferred to CMC. At least, if they did know anything, they weren’t telling.

Cyrus decided it was a good time for them to check out Mike’s Cooper. They left the station and in ten minutes they arrived at the impound lot- a block of parked cars and a shack near the entrance. As they passed by the officer on duty Cyrus flipped his badge. The guard nodded for them to proceed.

Max pointed to the back of the lot and said, “It’s over there, last one in the farthest row.”

“Just my luck,” Cyrus said with a huff.

Even though the evening air was cool enough for a light jacket, Cyrus was sweating by the time they reached Mike’s car. He opened the driver’s side door and ran his hands along the white leather passenger seat, “Seat reeks with the smell of bleach,” he said as he sniffed his

“You think somebody’s trying to hide blood stains?”

“Well it is a white interior and the dirt shows up easily. I guess you could use bleach to keep it clean, not necessarily to hide blood stains. But I wouldn’t. It weakens the leather.”

“If the driver let that homeless guy ride around with him, he might have used it to get his smell out.”

“That’s kind of harsh, I feel sorry for that homeless guy. He probably belongs in a mental hospital.”

“I don’t feel sorry for him, and he’s not deranged. He’s a regular con artist.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was at the Quik Pik by the abandoned gas station. I can’t believe I fell for it, but I let him rip me off.”

“How’s that?”

“He said he might know where I could find the tow truck driver. He calls him Mr. Pony Tail. And he said he’d be willing to help me if I helped him. So I gave him a twenty and he took off.”

“Why didn’t you follow him and get it back?”

“I tried. He’s fast for an old bum. Anyway he ditched me, literally. Turns out there’s a large drainage ditch running under the 101 to the beach on the other side of the freeway. It’s just a couple hundred feet up the road from the convenience store. It’s like a small tunnel, just high and wide enough to walk through if you crouch down. He scooted through it to the other side fast as a cat. By the time I got to the beach, he was gone.”

Cyrus laughed and then he said, “You been watching too many reruns of Rockford Files. But thanks for trying.”

“That bum didn’t know anything anyway. Probably he was just hitching a ride from Mr. Pony Tail.”

“Maybe,” Cyrus said. Cyrus closed the passenger side door of the Cooper and walked around to the driver’s side. He bent down and ran his hand over the carpet. “This car is spotless; hard to tell it had been at the beach all day.” After putting on a pair of sheer rubber gloves, he ran his hand under the car seat and felt around. After a moment or two, he pulled his hand back out holding a piece of clear package tape.

“Interesting. I guess the forensics boys haven’t had a chance to look at the car yet.”

Max reached down and taking the piece of tape from him said, “Looks like there are a few blonde hairs sticking to it.”

“I’ll give this to Bernie to check out.” Cyrus said as he pulled a baggie from his pocket. As he stood up, he slammed the door shut, and leaned against the Cooper.

“ As clean as this car is there’s not much point in having a forensics team go over it anyway,” he said, “the only thing left to do is to check all the car washes between here and the impound lot and hope somebody saw them there. What time did the guard sign it in?”

“About an hour and a half after they left Rincon Beach.”

Max went to his truck, got out his laptop and checked out car washes on the way to the lot. “The Car Detox, Cyrus, gotta be,” he said, “You get off exit south Carpentaria exit and get back on the 101 a few miles north, the next exit up is the impound lot. That’s the only way they could have made it in that short of time and still cleaned out this car.”

They checked Car Detox, and two or three other car washes, but they could not find anyone who had seen anybody matching the description of the tow truck, the pony tailed truck driver, or the homeless man. As they drove back to Santa Barbara, Cyrus let out a deep sigh of frustration. “All we can do now is put out an APB on Mr. Pony Tail and hope someone recognizes him.”

 

The next day Cyrus sat at his desk and stared at the front page headline of the morning edition of the Santa Barbara Independent. It read the following: Mathers Pleads Guilty to MAN II.

He lowered his newspaper and looking at Max sitting across from him he said, “There isn’t a leak in the DA’s office, there’s an express pipeline to the Independent Editor’s office. They must have one of the Assistant DAs on the payroll.”  

Max shrugged his shoulders and continued typing. Cyrus read the article aloud. “Dana Mathers accepted a plea bargain agreement with the Santa Barbara District Attorney. Mathers pled guilty to second degree manslaughter and was sentenced to six years to be served at the California Men’s Colony near San Luis Obispo. He will be eligible for parole in two years…”

The article went on to describe the shock and disbelief of Dana’s parents and supporters. He continued reading the article silently, twiddling a yellow pencil between his thumb and forefinger. He took a sip of coffee and when he realized it was cold he grimaced disapprovingly and set it back down hard, making a loud clack. Before he could finish reading the rest of the news article, he raised his eyes at the sight of Rudy entering the office area.

“Congratulations, both of you. That was some fine police work.” Rudy stopped in the aisle between Max and Cyrus’s desk and held out his arms.  “You know this takes away a lot of the sting from losing that Nichols case.” Rudy raised his clenched fists over his head as he spoke. “This case is closed.”

Cyrus frowned and then he said, “What about the girl?”

Rudy approached the front of Cyrus’s desk, put his hands on its edges, leaned over, and said, “What girl?”

Cyrus tossed the paper onto his desk and sat up, “Kelsey Tanner, she was supposed to be a material witness and possibly a co-defendant. We haven’t interrogated her yet.”

“That may be hard to do, since her father had her transferred to another hospital in Hawaii.”

Cyrus bit his lip to keep from shouting. “So you let a material witness leave the State in the middle of an investigation and don’t tell me?”

“I would have told you, but the DA didn’t even tell me she was gone until yesterday. Senator Dunbar was the one who asked the Governor to authorize her departure-imagine that, Senator Dunbar.”

“It must be nice to have friends up that high,” Max said.

“Anyway,” Rudy continued, “before I could inform you of Kelsey Tanner’s departure, Mathers took the plea bargain, and so it didn’t matter. Dana confessed to causing Tanner’s death in self defense-just like you said it was, Cyrus. The force used by Mathers in his defense was deemed excessive, and therefore the charge is second degree manslaughter.”

“Yeah, I know I read it all in the paper. Evidently reporters from the Independent have more access to the DA that we do.”

Rudy nodded, and then after a moment of awkward silence said. “Well, listen, you and Max have been through a lot the last couple of days, so I am giving you two the rest of the day off. How’s that?”

“Rudy,” Cyrus said, “how did you get Mathers to take a plea? It really doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“I didn’t get him to do anything. The DA hadn’t even interrogated him before he accepted the deal. That was a lucky break. He sure would have had a good chance of getting off without spending another day in prison if he had taken his chances with a jury. I can’t explain it either; maybe the guy has a conscience-it happens.”

Cyrus pointed the newspaper at Max. “What about our investigation?” Cyrus said. “We’re supposed to find the man who caused our squad car to flip over and killed that truck driver, remember?”

Rudy shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself, but I really think you two need to go home.” he said as he walked away toward his office.

Max stopped studying his computer screen and looked over toward Cyrus, “Boy, that’s a twist.” His voice reeked with sarcasm.

“What do you mean a twist?”

“I think you’re actually upset Mathers pled guilty. I thought you said you wanted to nail this surf bum?”

“He saved our lives, Max, I feel as bad as you do that he’s going to jail.  But don’t you see what just happen?”

“Yeah, we got a good collar and a conviction against a really nice guy who also saved our lives. I am not happy about it, like you say. But he confessed.”

“He sure did. Right after talking to his fiancée’s rich and powerful father.”

Max sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “I thought you didn’t like all those conspiracy theories.”

“I don’t, but there’s nothing theoretical about this conspiracy. Daddy Tanner figures out his daughter is involved somehow with murder of his son. He flies her to Hawaii, gets our superhero Dana to go to jail for her, and makes the whole case disappear. He probably offered Dana a nice job with his company when he gets out.”

“That’s Southern Cal for you-all the justice one man can afford. So there’s nothing we can do,” Max said as he sat up and then shut down his PC. “And I put out an APB on Mr. Pony Tail -I mean the tow truck driver. He’s the only suspect we have in the sabotage case.”

Cyrus wheeled around in his chair and rubbed the sides of his face with both hands.

Max persisted. “Let’s go get a beer down at Bombay’s. I can give you a chance to get even at pool too.”

“I thought you Christians didn’t drink?”

“Some don’t. I just make sure I never get drunk.”

“I don’t like to drink either. I don’t have enough brains cells as it is. Besides, my body hurts too much to play pool. You go ahead.” Cyrus said.

“A couple of beers will fix that, Cyrus. Having a beer or two after what we’ve been through-I think anyone would honestly count it as purely medicinal.”

Cyrus opened up the paper and pretended to be reading, hiding the grin on his face. “You should have been a lawyer or a car salesman. All right, the sabotage case is cold now, anyway. I guess I could play you right-handed this time Max.”

“What do you mean? You’re left handed aren’t you?”

Cyrus, tossed the newspaper back down, picked up a sheet of the prisoner out processing report he had filed earlier and began writing, right handed, of course. Max stared at him and made a frown.

“What an observant detective you are,” Cyrus said. “You’ve known me five years now and never knew I was right handed.”

“I am still going to run the table on you, let’s go.”

That evening, after their celebration at Bombay’s, Cyrus took a cab home. Max wanted him to stay and he put up a friendly protest over Cyrus’s departure, however he was intent on getting home before the start of a TV special which held for him a special interest.

The subject of the program covered the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999. Cyrus had volunteered to assist the beleaguered Seattle Police chief during that riot and he wanted to see what it looked like on the tube. Winning the majority of the pool games he played against Max put him in a good mood. The alcohol numbed the aches and pains in his back and neck, and took his mind off Dana Mathers.

It was around 5:30pm and still bright enough to see. The cab pulled over to let him out in front of his townhouse on Main St. As he reached over to pay the cabbie, he spotted through the driver’s front windshield a slim figure coming his way. He handed the driver the fare, got out and then walked toward his townhouse. The cabbie drove off cursing something in a foreign language and shaking his fist as he went.

Oblivious to the rants of the taxi driver, Cyrus headed for the walk way leading to his front porch. The slim, red-headed female called out, “Detective Fleming!” She staggered towards him, waving her hand in a frantic motion. She wore only shower shoes and a white, one-piece, uniform. For a moment Cyrus thought she may have been an escaped mental patient. When the young woman finally arrived a few feet in front of Cyrus, she stopped and then wobbled unsteadily. Cyrus recognized her. It was Kelsey Tanner.

As she was about to speak, she passed out. Cyrus caught her before she hit the pavement. He surveyed the area for anyone watching him. It would not do to have this scene plastered all over the morning papers tomorrow. With an easy, swift motion, he picked Kelsey up on his broad shoulder and toted her into his small townhouse.

An hour later, after Kelsey Tanner awoke, Cyrus got up from his easy chair and walked over to her, “It’s all right now,” he said, “This is Mrs. Leighton, my mother’s nurse.”

The short, plump, grey headed woman, who was kneeling beside the sofa next to her, placed a cold towel across her forehead and gave her a kindly, cragged, smile. Mrs. Leighton raised her bulging frame with some difficulty until she was upright. She made a soft grunt and went into the kitchen. After a moment, she came back and put a large glass of cold water on the table next to the couch. She said goodbye to Cyrus, nodded to Kelsey, and started to leave the room.

Before she made it to his door, Cyrus caught up to her and with a quiet voice said, “Mrs. Leighton, if it’s all right with you, I wish you would stay.”

“Oh yes, Cyrus, I don’t mind. I admire a man who considers appearances and protects the reputation of a lady. Your mother would be proud.” She walked over to the other side of the living room, next to Cyrus’s library shelves, and pulled out a small paperback, The Private Patient, a PD James Mystery novel. Sitting down in a small chair next to a small inn table, she opened the tattered volume and began reading.

Reaching up to her forehead, Kelsey removed the cold compress and sat up. Cyrus sat down next to her on the couch.

“My father kidnapped me and brought me to Hawaii against my will,” Kelsey said. She paused to catch her breath, and then she put her hand to her chest, “I don’t have any heart condition. He paid a doctor to keep me sedated. I have been on and off some kind of sedative for the last two days.”

“How do you know you don’t have a heart condition? The last time I saw you, you were stretched out flat on a gurney. You looked like you had something wrong with you then.”

“I had an anxiety attack, not a heart attack. I just fainted. Anyway I know there was nothing wrong with me because they weren’t treating me the way they treat heart patients. I’m an RN at Memorial and I often work in ICU, so I know what they usually do. I had no X-rays, no heart monitoring equipment-nothing. My Dad paid off the doctor to keep me away from Dana.”

“Then what were the needle marks on your arm from?”

“One IV for fluids and nutrients and one for drugs, good thing the nurse fouled up and put an IV for fluids and nutrients in each arm or I’d still be in Maui General.” 

“You don’t have to sneak out of hospitals. They can’t keep you there against your will,” Cyrus said. A tone of wariness laced through his words. A pretty face in trouble always made him suspicious.

“I know that, I’m a nurse. But I knew my Dad had all the hospital staff paid off, including security. Once I came to, I pulled the IVs out and looked around for my clothes-no luck. My father must have taken them. So I made my way to the nurse’s lockers. I stole a uniform and slipped out.”

“So how did you get to Santa Barbara without ID or any money?”

“I found a library about ten blocks from the hospital. I used the computer there to buy an e-ticket for a one-way flight to Santa Barbara and retrieve a copy of my driver’s license; I have a Nevada driver’s license and a California license. I walked three miles in these shower shoes to the airport. It made removing my shoes for security pretty easy. I stank the whole way. I wished I had been able to find a clean uniform to steal in that locker room. I know the poor guy sitting next to me on that flight to Santa Barbara wishes I had as well.”

“Didn’t we all.” Cyrus said, scrunching up his nose and backing away a little.

“I got your address out of the phone book website then ran it on Map Quest. So now after twenty-four hours of no food and very little sleep here I am.”

Mrs. Leighton put her book down and stood up, “I’ll go to the kitchen and see what I can fix for you, Kelsey. Cyrus, do we still have the leftovers from last night’s meal?”

“Yes, Mrs. Leighton, I haven’t been home all day, so I am sure they are still there.”

“Do you like roast pork, green beans, and mash potatoes?”

“Oh, yes, that sounds great, thanks Mrs. Leighton.”

“How about you, Cyrus?”

“Yes, I’ll take a plate, thanks.” Cyrus got up from beside the couch and walked across the room and stood next to the entertainment center. He put a DVD into the player and turned on the television.

“Was I boring you?”

“No, you’re not boring me-yet. I am just anxious to record this special FrontPage program about the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999. I was there you know.”

He crouched down in front of the DVD player and punching buttons in order to set up the timer.

“FrontPage, don’t you mean Frontline on PBS?” Kelsey said.

“No, I ordered it from FrontPage Magazine; PBS would never air a TV show that was fair to the police or anyone associated with law enforcement. To those people we’re always the bad guys.”

“Oh,” Kelsey said.

He stood up from the DVD player and turned around to face her, “You know, those Anarchist creeps would heave full coke cans at us and then run back into the crowd of innocent tourists. They learned that tactic from their terrorist friends in Iraq. Human shields are the coward’s weapon of choice.”

He turned around and tweaked the volume knob on the DVD player until the theme music was inaudible. “We can still talk,” he said facing her again; “I don’t need to turn up the sound to record.”

Kelsey leaned back against the arm of the couch and sighed. She reached over to a bowl of fruit on the night stand beside her and took an apple.

“So why did you choose to visit me?” Cyrus said.

“Well, I’ve been kidnapped.” She replied and then took a bite of her apple. Between chews she continued, “You’re a cop, so I thought if I told you, you would do something about it.”

“If you want to file kidnapping charges against your father you need to go down to the station. Besides, I’m a homicide detective. I don’t do kidnappings.”

Cyrus sat down beside her on the couch. Kelsey put her apple down and for several silent moments they watched the TV screen. Throngs of protestors carrying large white signs and wearing gas masks covered the smoke filled streets.

“So when are you going to tell me why you’re here?” Cyrus said.

“What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t come all this way and go through all you went through, just to tell me your Father’s kidnapped you, did you? You could have gone down to the station and filed a complaint or just gone back to your apartment and forgot the whole thing. You didn’t need to see me about that. There’s something else, isn’t there?”

“I can prove Dana is innocent.” She raised her head, looked into Cyrus’s eyes, and continued, “And what’s more, I want you to find my brother’s real killer.”

“Dana confessed to killing your brother, I don’t see-”

“My father tricked him into taking that plea. Dana said you’d help us. He helped you didn’t he?”

“Yes he did. I feel bad about it. He saved my life and the life of my partner, and to show how grateful I am, I put him in jail.” Cyrus said. “But I can’t work miracles, Kelsey. It’s very difficult to overturn convictions of suspects who confess to the crime they commit.”

“I read in the paper that you had a lot of evidence against Dana.”

“That’s right,” Cyrus said, “We had means, motive, and opportunity. Hackneyed expressions, but nonetheless true-as our captain likes to remind us.”

“The souvenir bat was the means, right?”

“That’s right, it had Dana’s fingerprints all over it and …” Cyrus caught himself and stopped.

“Mike’s blood, right?”

“Right. Look Miss Tanner I know you have been through a lot and you need to get something to eat and then maybe you should talk to-”

“I had the bat.” Kelsey said with an even tone of voice, as if she were telling someone the time of day. “Dana couldn’t have killed Mike.”

Cyrus’s facial expression stilled. He studied her face and held her gaze for several moments.

“Why would I lie about that?” Kelsey said, “I am incriminating myself, aren’t I?”

Cyrus got up, walked over to the coat rack and got his notebook and pen out of his jacket pocket and then sat back down next to her.

“So Dana gave you a blue souvenir bat with a black handle, big deal,” Cyrus said, “There are hundreds of bats like that all over Southern California.”

“Not with the initials DM hearts KT carved in the knob.”

“Wait a minute.” Cyrus walked back over to the coat rack by his stereo and got out his cell phone. He dialed in the number to the bailiff and when he answered Cyrus said, “Thurston I need you to verify something for me- it’s important.”

“What? I am getting ready to go home,” Thurston replied.

“I need you to look at the murder weapon for the Mathers case. Check the end of the bat handle and tell me what is inscribed there.”

“Fine.”

After several minutes Thurston said, “It has a heart and there are initials. K, T, and O, M.”

Cyrus hung up. “How’d that bat end up at Rincon Beach?”

“I don’t know for sure. That’s why I came to see you. I am a nurse, not a detective.”

“Right. So why were you in possession of the bat?”

“Dana gave it to me for protection a couple of weeks ago.”

“Did anyone else see him give it to you?”

“No, don’t you believe me?”

“You’re not exactly an impartial witness. For all I know you’re making up this whole story. Why’d you need protection?”

“I was worried about getting mugged walking through the hospital parking lot at night. Dana tossed the bat into the back seat of my car. The next day I bought some pepper spray. Men are so stupid. I wasn’t going to walk around the hospital carrying a bat.”

“So if you had the bat, and if you didn’t kill your brother, and it ended up at the beach, you must have given it to someone.”

Kelsey shook her head and fell silent. They sat and watched the TV screen for several minutes before she answered him.

“Two days after Dana gave me the bat,” Kelsey said, "Mike took my car up to Half Moon to have it smogged at my Dad’s repair shop-we get a special break because of my Dad. That was the last I saw of it. When he brought the car back the bat was gone.”

“What was the name of the repair shop?”

“Auto MD, it’s listed in the phone book.”

“Where were you the morning your brother was killed?”

Kelsey took the last bite from her apple. She took her time chewing it; when she was finished she tossed the core back into the bowl. She sat up, sniffed her arm pit, and made a face. Looking as though she didn’t consider him worthy of her attention, she turned toward him and said, “Why would I want to kill my brother, Fleming, I loved him?”

She brushed back her hair with her hand. Her eyes reddened and tears flowed from their corners. Her face paled. After a few silent moments the muscles in her face stiffened. She threw back her shoulders and said, “Your witness said she saw a tall blonde hide the baseball bat. I read it in the paper. Do I look like a tall blonde to you?”

"No, but you had the bat. Which means Dana still had access to it. Maybe you made up this whole story about him lending it to you for protection. Maybe you miss Dana and want to get him out of jail and marry him. After all, if you marry Dana, you inherit TANOCO. And Mike’s no longer around to stop you.” Cyrus was sure she was telling the truth. But he’d been sure before with pretty women and been very wrong. It wasn’t her he distrusted, it was himself.

 “My father told you about the will, I suppose,” she said. “Mike couldn’t have stopped me from marrying Dana. You’re not only rude, you’re stupid. What’s more he didn’t need to stop me to get TANOCO. I renounced my portion of the will a day before Mike was killed. It was a deal I made with him to get him to leave Dana and me alone. Dana didn’t know about the money, or TANOCO, or my father, until after Mike was dead. He thought I was a nurse, and a poor one at that.”

“You still have not answered the question: where were you that morning when Mike was killed?”

“I was at work.”

“We checked with your co-workers and none of them could vouch for your whereabouts.” Cyrus looked down at his pad and jotted down notes as he spoke.

“They were probably busy with a patient. Nurses aren’t like cops, we have to do more than drive around in a squad car, eat doughnuts, and bother people with ridiculous questions.” She laid her head on the arm of the sofa, her eyes were half closed. Cyrus assumed it was the after effects of the sedative. Her breathing grew louder.

“So you don’t have an alibi that someone can verify?”

“We have to use badges to get in and out of ICU. I always swipe my badge when I leave; it’s logged on the hospital computer automatically.”

Cyrus felt something warm touch his shoulder. He looked around to see Mrs. Leighton standing over him with a worried look on her face.

“Cyrus, dear, I think you need to stop. It’s time for Kelsey and you to get something to eat. It’s getting late and I need to get some rest as well. After we finish eating, I will see Kelsey off to bed. She’s staying here, of course. That’s not a request. Then I am going to the den and lie down on the couch.”

“O.K. Mrs. Leighton, I was finished anyway,” Cyrus said.

After they had eaten, Mrs. Leighton went to her house next door and brought back a pair of clean jeans and shirt for Kelsey. Kelsey got up, took the clothes, and walked off toward the bathroom without a word. Mrs. Leighton followed behind. Cyrus sat back in his chair. He felt the pain from the car wreck rifling through the fog of his beer buzz and wreak havoc on his head and shoulders.

He stood up, got his notepad out of his coat pocket and made a note to have the hospital computer log checked. He got a bottle of aspirin and a glass of water from the kitchen, walked over to the TV, and turned it off without even looking at the screen. The recording was finished, but he didn’t much feel like watching anything. He took a couple of aspirin, sat back down in his chair, and fell asleep as soon as he shut his eyes.

The next morning, Cyrus woke up with a stiff neck. He picked up the remote and turned on the TV so he could see what he had recorded. He fast forwarded past the introduction and began normal play when he got to the images of black hooded men ripping a newspaper kiosk from the sidewalk. Carrying it to the front of a bank window, they heaved it and laughed when the large, steel box punched through the Plexiglas and set off the alarm.  Through the dense smoke surrounding everyone, the camera zoomed in on the image of one of the black hooded protestors. Only her eyes and a small portion of her nose were visible, the rest of her face was covered with a translucent face mask. “And what is it that your group, Black Bloc, hopes to achieve?” The reporter on the TV asked her.

Her skin was caramel and she spoke with a Jamaican accent, “We oppose the war pigs and their plans to exploit indigenous peoples. We oppose the mass murder of innocent animals,” she said and then raised her fist in the air. Cyrus stared at the screen with his mouth opened. He’d seen those eyes before- shimmering, toffee colored, disks. But he couldn’t remember where.

Kelsey slept on the couch, snoring lightly. Cyrus scanned back to the beginning and replayed the scene. Before it was over, Kelsey woke up, threw off her blanket, and sat up. She raised her arms, yawned, arched her back, blinked her eyes at the TV a few times, and then she pointed to the screen and said “Who’s that?”

“She’s a member of Black Bloc, a violent anarchist group. They were responsible for a lot of damage during the 99 WTO riots. They made all the peaceful protestors look pretty bad.” Cyrus got up from his chair and turned off the DVD player. Picking up his pad from the end table next to his easy chair he sat back down. Time to go back to work.

“Did anyone else have access to your car?”

Kelsey leaned back and let out a long sigh. “I already told you, Mike took the car to the garage for me to get it smogged.”

“We checked the bat for fingerprints. Yours must be the ones we couldn’t identify. The eyewitness’s fingerprints didn’t match, not even close.”

“You wrong, I never touched the bat. You may also have my fingerprints.”

“I’ll arrange it with Thurston. Tomorrow good?”

“Fine, besides, Mike wasn’t the only one who had access to my car.”

“Who else?”

“My father, that’s who else, Mike drove the Volksy to Half Moon near Big Sur to see Dad that same evening. I let him use it since I was working all night. He had just as much of an opportunity to take Dana’s bat as Mike. My car is a convertible and Mike usually put the top down when he drove it.”

Kelsey’s green eyes welled up with tears as she spoke. She put her trembling hands on either side of her head and sighed, “My brother is dead,” she said, “Dana is in jail, and my father held me in a hospital by force.” She sobbed quietly, tears streamed down her face. Kelsey stopped crying and looked up at Cyrus with narrowed red eyes, “Who told you about the will?”

Cyrus shrugged his shoulders, “No one told me, I guessed. There’s always a will.”

Mrs. Leighton came into the living room from the kitchen and announced that coffee was ready.

“Thank you Mrs. Leighton, we’re just finishing.” Cyrus figured she had been listening to them for several minutes now. Once she liked someone, she became their guardian. Mrs. Leighton turned away and retreated back into the kitchen. Cyrus was certain she was listening and waiting for a chance to return and save Kelsey. Mrs. Leighton confirmed Cyrus’s opinion of Kelsey as good and loyal person. Not many people could impress her.

Kelsey looked over toward Cyrus and said, “Does she always dote on you like this?”

“Yes, she’s like a second mother.”

“Ha!” Kelsey said, “No wonder you have trouble with your weight. Two mothers and the doughnuts. It’s not healthy you know.”

Cyrus’s bit his lip and waited for anger to subside. Because of all she’d been through he’d let her insult him, but more than one fat joke a day was all he could take. “Just for the record,” he said, “I never eat doughnuts, just danish.”

“Dana told me about your jaunt up the stairs at Rincon Beach that night,” she continued. “He said he had to wait at least ten minutes for you to hobble up the stairs.”

“I am not unhealthy,” Cyrus said, slapping at his notebook with his pen. “I am a lot older than Dana. And if you think I am going to feel bad about being beaten by a professional athlete in a footrace up a flight of stairs you’re crazy. Anyway, what’s your point?”

“No point, really, I just think it’s a shame that you let yourself go. You’re not a bad looking guy and Dana’s no athlete either, you know. His left leg is still lame. He can’t bend it very far and he still out paced you up the stairs.”

Cyrus had never been complimented and insulted at the same time before. And the compliment was pretty weak-not bad looking. He didn’t know what to say back so he shut up and went over his notes. He just never liked running or even walking fast. Besides she was comparing him to one of the world’s top athletes. Dana Mathers could out run a lot of people, even in his lame condition. He looked down at his pad. “Say that again.” he said, his pen hand trembled as he spoke.

“I didn’t mean to insult you,” she put her finger to her chin and continued, “Come to think of it, I did. But Detective I shouldn’t have-”

“No, no, go ahead. It’s all right. What did you say about Dana being lame?”

“Yes, his left leg, it’s his knee. The nerves that control the movement of his left knee never fully healed.”

Cyrus stared at a blank page in his pad. He replayed that night when he saw Dana hopping up the stairs at Rincon Beach in his mind. Cyrus remembered how he couldn’t bend that knee more than a couple of inches. That means Briana was wrong, or lying, and Dana may be telling the truth, he said to himself. She had told him she saw a blonde-haired man with a scar on the back of his neck run toward the driftwood to hide the bat and then run up a flight of stairs. She distinctly and emphatically said the word run-twice even. She should have noticed if he had a limp or game leg. He couldn’t understand why Briana would lie about it unless she really was part of a plot to frame Dana. And what about the tape? The dark-skinned girl with the golden eyes. Was that Briana parading around with Black Bloc? Yes, of course, that was her. If she still was a member of Black Bloc, maybe she had a motive for killing Mike Tanner and framing Dana. One thing was certain; Dana Mathers wasn’t the blonde Briana saw standing over Mike Tanner.

“I believe you, Kelsey,” Cyrus said, “Dana Mathers didn’t kill Mike Tanner.”

“You’re a strange man, Cyrus Fleming,” Kelsey said, “Why’d you change your mind?”

“Because I believe you. I know you’re not lying about the bat.”

“So now you have evidence Dana is innocent and we can get him out of jail.”

“You know this is not going to be easy, right?”

 “Yes, I know, Dana’s confessed to the crime. But you have new evidence. If you give the new evidence to Dana’s lawyer, can’t he overturn the conviction?”

“Maybe he could, after I verify your alibi, and after I prove that you really had the bat, we would have a case based on circumstantial evidence. The judge may not consider that enough. And there’s one other thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You want to find Mike’s killer don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Better to have the conviction stand for at a day or two. That way the real killer doesn’t destroy evidence or leave town before we find him.”

“That will be up to Dana,” Kelsey said.

Cyrus nodded.

“The coffee is getting cold, Cyrus,” Mrs. Leighton said, standing in the hallway leading to the kitchen. She took Kelsey by the hand and led her away. Cyrus followed behind. She had made pancakes, plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip. The sweet smell of the blueberries mixed with the bacon normally would have stimulated his appetite; however his churning stomach tempered his enthusiasm for any kind of food. What a waste, he thought.

They all sat down to breakfast and Mrs. Leighton said a long grace which included a plea to the Almighty to give Kelsey and Dana the strength they needed to overcome the challenges ahead and that the people around them would soften their hearts and come to their aid. Cyrus knew that last part was meant for him. Mrs. Leighton had obviously been won over by Kelsey’s strong character. He knew, because she had made the blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, not just the plain ones. They were an honor reserved for close kin and special guests.

“Would you like a pancake, Cyrus?” Mrs. Leighton asked.

He weighed the idea of passing up her request and then he remembered the last time she cooked him a meal and he told her he wasn’t hungry. He regretted that decision sorely. Weeks passed before she spoke to him again and his mother lectured him on his insensitivity to Mrs. Leighton’s feelings every time she saw him for at least a month after. So he just smiled and nodded yes. Despite his queasy stomach, he forced down a couple of blueberry pancakes.

When Kelsey had finished eating, Mrs. Leighton got up and took her plate, “I’ll get you a couple more, dear,” she said to Kelsey and then she glared at Cyrus.

“Oh, thanks, Mrs. Leighton but I have to get going. I need to try and get a call through to Dana and see if I can get a… a special kind of visit with him.”

“Full contact,” Cyrus said.

Mrs. Leighton got her two more blueberry pancakes anyway. When she set them down she smiled at Kelsey and then she said “Don’t worry dear, Cyrus will get you in to see Dana won’t you, Cyrus?”

“Yes, Mrs. Leighton,” Cyrus said, “I am going there to see him anyway. I’ve a few questions to ask him.”

While Kelsey got herself ready for the trip to CMC, Cyrus called Max. He filled him in on what he’d learned from Kelsey Tanner.

“What are we going to do?” Max said, “Reopen the case. Give your evidence to Dana’s lawyer and have him overturn the plea?”

“I am not sure. I’ll talk to Martinez and see what he thinks. The evidence we have so far may not persuade a judge to overturn his ruling. It’s all circumstantial. We need to prove that Dana didn’t have access to the murder weapon and that our eyewitness was either lying or mistaken. Even that may not be enough to convince a judge to overturn a case the defendant has already confessed to.”

 “So we do nothing?”

“I didn’t say that. We’re at a dead end on the sabotage case right?

 “Right.”

“Then this investigation is part of the sabotage case. That way there’s no problem about jurisdiction either.”

“So how does Mike’s murder connect with the sabotage of the cruiser?”

“Good question.” Cyrus gave Max a laundry list of tasks to complete while he took Kelsey up to CMC. He wanted him to check out her alibi and her story about her will. He could try to find out about her medical history, but that probably wouldn’t be possible and maybe not even necessary. If her father was lying about her heart condition it would be easy to prove and Kelsey would more than likely offer to give them access to her medical records.

A full contact visit was not easy to come by at CMC, especially for a violent felony offender whose cell was on the west end of the compound.  Dana was sitting on the couch in the visitor room, watching TV, when Cyrus and Kelsey entered. He got up and gave Kelsey a hug and kiss that lasted a while.

“Dana,” Kelsey said after he released her, “I was worried I’d never see you again.”

“I thought you would never want to see me again,” Dana said.

Cyrus walked around them and into the room. Sitting down on the chair across from the couch, he surveyed the surroundings. The plain walls were painted over with a thick, oily, white coat to cover up the graffiti and the cool, spotless, room smelled of bleach and pine sol. The chair felt flimsy to Cyrus and he dared not lean back for fear of it coming apart. He turned his attention to Kelsey and Dana.

Kelsey took Dana’s hands and held him close. “I know you’re innocent,” she said. Looking over at Cyrus she continued, “And so does Cyrus.”

Cyrus gave Dana a small wave of his hand.

“I am very sorry about Mike,” Dana said.

Kelsey hung her head, let go her embrace, and then walked across the room and sat down on the couch. Dana followed behind her and turned off the TV before he sat down next to her.

“Thanks,” he said to Cyrus, “I knew Kelsey would be better than me at convincing you I’m innocent.”

“It was the message, not the messenger. How are you holding up? Everything O.K.?”

“I am fine. After spending three years confined to a wheel chair, prison is no big deal. So what did you want to ask me?” Dana said.

“What did you and Jack Tanner talk about when he visited you in city jail.”

“We talked about Kelsey.”

“What did he say about her?”

“He said she was deathly ill and he was afraid that if she had to go to court, she wouldn’t make it.”

“Is that why you took the plea?”

Dana shook his head. “No, I didn’t believe him. I knew better. Kelsey’s very strong. There’s nothing sickly about her.  I was scared for her about something else.”

“Go on.”

“I remembered that the last time I had the bat was when I gave it to Kelsey.”

Kelsey turned to him with a look of surprise and said, “So you thought I killed Mike?”

“You told me on the beach that day you had a plan to make Mike stop bothering us.”

“And you thought that was the plan? Wow.”

“I know I am a knucklehead. I saw how you reacted when we found Mike. I shouldn’t have even-“

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t know. Besides that, I do feel responsible somewhat for Mike’s death. Maybe I should have left you alone Kelsey. Maybe I am just being selfish-“

“Stop it,” Kelsey said as she caressed his cheek with her hands, “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Kelsey leaned back against the thin couch cushion and sighed. “Dana dear you really need to work on your compulsion to save everyone except yourself,” she said, “You’re driving everybody crazy.”

“Good point,” Cyrus said, “You know you can probably get a new trial. With your celebrity status the jury surely let you go.”

“I don’t want a new trial and I am not afraid of jail. I am hoping you can find the real killer and keep Kelsey out of this mess.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Max is checking out Kelsey’s story right now. If she’s telling the truth, which I believe she is, then she’s in the clear.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You can tell me about your conversation with Jack Tanner.”

Dana hung his head, his face paled.

Kelsey combed Dana’s hair with her fingers, and then she took his hand in hers. “What’s wrong?” she said.

“I gave your Father my word, I wouldn’t tell anyone about our conversation.”

“I wouldn’t feel guilty about that,” Cyrus said, “What Tanner asked you do to was unethical and illegal. What did Jack Tanner talk to you about?”

“He said that he believed me when I told him I didn’t kill Mike.”

“Really?” Cyrus said as he jotted down some notes. “Did he say who he thought it was who did kill Mike?”

For a few moments everyone sat quiet. Cyrus ran his hands through his hair and sighed. Then Dana spoke again, “He said he wasn’t sure but he thought it might be someone or some group trying to get him to sell off TANOCO.”

“Did he say why they would kill Mike?” Cyrus said.

“He told me he thinks they killed Mike as a warning to him that he better cooperate.”

Cyrus gave Kelsey a sharp look and said, “You know anything about someone taking over TANOCO?”

“No, this is the first I’ve heard of it,” she said.

Cyrus retrieved his small notepad and pen from his jacket. Kelsey and Dana sat in silence while Cyrus wrote down notes for several minutes. Once he finished, he said, “You know Dana, the bat wasn’t the only reason I thought you were guilty.”

“What else?”

“You weren’t telling me the truth that day at the beach when I picked you up.”

“I don’t understand, what do think I lied about?”

“When I asked you when the last time you saw Mike was, you told me it was at Surfer’s Park in Ventura the day before. I didn’t believe you. I still don’t. Are you holding something back?”

Dana’s face froze and the room fell silent.

Cyrus waited several moments, and then he said, “You can tell me the truth. You’re already in jail. I am trying to help you get out, remember?”

“Stop protecting people and tell Cyrus the truth, Dana,” Kelsey said.

Dana finally spoke. “Yes, I lied.” he said, looking down at the floor, “I lied to you about that. I saw him that morning at Rincon Beach about an hour before I picked up Kelsey. I only went there to warn him, not kill him.”

“Warn him about what?” 

Dana lifted up his head, “I tried to warn him about the FBI watching him,” he said, “Roger Martinez told me about it. He told me the FBI was sure Mike had something to do with the arson fire in Laguna and that the FBI believed that Mike knew where Jeff Moon was hiding out.”

“Jeff Moon? You mean the firebug who torched the car lot?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“Why would you care whether or not Mike was caught by the FBI?”

“Mike and I didn’t get along, but I didn’t hate him.” Dana said, “Besides, he’s Kelsey’s brother, so whatever happened to him affected Kelsey and me as well. I wanted warn him to do him a favor. I was trying to get him to quit bothering me about his sister.”

“So after you told him about the FBI investigation was he grateful?”

“No”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, but he acted crazier than ever. He totally ignored what I told him. He said he knew the FBI was watching him and he didn’t care. By the time they caught up to him, he said, it would be too late anyway.”

“Too late for what?”

“I didn’t ask him; I didn’t want to know.”

“Then what happened?”

“He lunged at me again just like the day before at Surfer’s Park. I just grabbed his hands and pushed him to the ground. He’s kinda small, you know. I’d never hit him.”

Cyrus shook his head slowly. His faced flushed red and he clenched his pen so hard it cracked.

Dana’s eyes grew wide and then he said, “What did I say?”

Cyrus let out a long sigh. Then he said, “So just like that, Mike lunged at you?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about?”

“Briana said she heard either you or Mike shout out something that sounded like Dee.”

Dana sighed and then he said, “All right, all right, I didn’t want to tell you in front of Kelsey.”

Kelsey put her hand on Dana’s shoulder, “It’s okay, Dana, stop worrying about everybody’s feelings and worry about yourself. You have to tell Cyrus everything or he won’t be able to help us.”

“Mike told me that he had given Deidra her old job back.”

“That made you angry?” Cyrus asked.

“Of course not, but then he said he was going to make her a staff editor. I couldn’t believe he was being so nice to her and I knew there was some kind of catch. Then he said if I didn’t stop going out with Kelsey he was going to convince Deidra to marry him. He was using her to get to me. I sort of lost it and I threw him to the ground. I warned him again to stay away from Deidra. Kelsey knows how I feel about her. It’s nothing romantic, or sexual. I put her through a lot when I was in the hospital and I couldn’t stand the idea of Mike exploiting her like that.”

“Look, you have to start telling me everything the first time I ask you. Don’t you understand how suspicious you look when you cover for everyone?”

“Cyrus is right, Dana,” Kelsey said while she rubbed Dana’s shoulder.

“You don’t remember seeing him with your blue handled bat, do you?”

“No. After a few moments of me holding him down, I let him go, and then he ran up the stairway to the parking lot. By the time I got to the parking lot he was gone, thankfully. I headed for Memorial Hospital to pick up Kelsey.”

“That’s all you talked about?”

“That’s all,” Dana said.

Cyrus leaned back in his chair and tossed his broken pen into a nearby waste basket. “Do you have any idea why someone would want to frame you?”

“No, I’ve been racking my mind over it the last two days and I can’t think of anyone I’ve angered enough to want to destroy me like this, especially since my accident at Rincon. I’ve lived a pretty solitary life since then, just Kelsey and me.”

“How about before your accident? Somebody holding a grudge against you?” Cyrus said.

“Oh you mean from surfing. I had no enemies. Besides, it’s been a long time since I competed.”

“What about Deidra? You said yourself you put her through a lot.”

Dana nodded his head and said, “Yes, but we are still friends.”

“She accepted the breakup without complaint?”

“Well, it was hard for her I’m sure. I wasn’t exactly subtle about it, being so bummed out and all. But I saw her at Ventura Park the day before Mike was killed. We had a nice conversation and parted friends.”

“She came to visit you at the city jail, before you were transferred. What did you two talk about?”

“She said she just wanted to show her support and she told me she believed I was innocent. The only reason she was there was because she was worried Kelsey might believe I killed her brother. She didn’t want me to be alone. She’s not the jealous type.”

“Are you sure? She is tall and blonde. Maybe that was her the eyewitness saw standing over Mike.”

“I’m sure, Cyrus,” Dana said, “I even told her about Kelsey and I getting engaged and she said very sincerely that she was very happy for me. And I believe her.”

“Deidra Jones is a very nice person,” Kelsey said. “I remember when Dana was in the hospital recovering from his paralysis, she came by to see him almost every day for six weeks.”

Cyrus sat up straight and then leaned forward in his chair, “How about at work? Anyone there have a grudge against you?”

“I’ve only been at Chevron a year as a geophysicist, two years as an intern. I don’t think I’ve ticked off anyone, especially anyone who knew Mike.”

“Who did you know at Chevron who also knew Mike Tanner?”

“That would be Kwan Li, she’s a good friend of my father,” Kelsey said.

“That’s right, Detective,” Dana said.

“My father told me Kwan Li is very happy with Dana’s work,” Kelsey said and then she took hold of Dana’s hand, “He also told me Kwan Li considers him the best geophysicist who’s ever worked for her.”

Getting up carefully out of his rickety chair to leave, Cyrus looked at his watch and then motioned to Dana to stay seated, “I’ll leave you two alone now; you have about an hour left on your visit, Kelsey.”

“Where are you going?” Kelsey said.

“I am continuing my investigation. I’ll probably pay a visit to your father and ask him about that hostile takeover bid at TANOCO. The Ombudsman will take you home and I already put in a word for him to keep his eye on Dana.”

“I don’t need it,” Dana said, “Do I?”

“Just a precaution. Whoever sabotaged the squad car wasn’t after me or my partner; they were after you.”