Jailbait

CHAPTER 1

Thursday, the 30th of November

Jim Otis felt no particular pleasure in coldcocking Tommy Meineke with the barrel of his Wyatt Earp .44. The kid just had it coming.

The blow was hard enough that Otis could almost hear the kid’s brain bounce off the inside of his skull. But he hadn’t hit him as hard as he wanted. He didn’t even draw blood.

Knocked off the chair, Tommy hit the floor on his shoulder, unable to break the fall because of the handcuffs.

Shit! said Tommy. You son of—

Don’t finish that, Tommy. I’ll hit you again.

This was a lie. Otis was finished beating on Tommy Meineke. Normally, he wouldn’t have touched the punk. Lately, though, he was inclined toward angry outbursts. He grabbed Tommy under the arms and helped him back into the chair. The lump above the kid’s ear was swelling impressively.

Christ, that hurts, said Tommy.

During his time on the Chicago force, Otis had always left the room when his fellow officers were tuning up a suspect. Once or twice, he had even stepped in and stopped a beating. Tommy Meineke, however, had powers to bring out the brute in almost anyone. Francis of Assisi would have been tempted to kick him in the nuts. The kid’s latest outrage was ripping off two little girls who came up with the bright idea of selling hot chocolate at the ninth hole of the Hercules Hills Golf Course. There were still a handful of diehards playing the course—at off-season discount rates—during the snow flurries of mid-November.

Otis couldn’t understand golf, even on a sunny day in May. He agreed with Mark Twain’s judgment on the topic. He’d tried the game, but gave it up in his teens when he figured out he could throw the equipment farther than he could kick the goddamn ball. Jeff Kozlowski, one of Otis’ few friends in town, had tried to entice him out onto the course, but Otis never went further than meeting Jeff at the clubhouse for a beer.

You’re lucky, the police chief growled at Tommy, I don’t just turn you over to those two little girls’ fathers.

Tommy glowered up at Otis, but held his tongue.

How much did you score, anyhow?

Score?

From the two little girls?

What two little girls?

Otis swung his gun hand back, prepared to smack Tommy once more on the skull. Tommy cringed and cracked.

They had a few bucks, he said.

There was no evidence of this. Tommy was penniless by the time Otis had found him at the Red Rooster, a roadhouse bar east of town on Highway 33.

As Otis yanked Tommy to his feet, he heard a siren. The tone told him that it wasn’t Earl Schober, his deputy. This was an ambulance. A moment later, it flew screaming past the police station’s Main Street window. For an instant, the ambulance’s twirling light sent waves of garish crimson ricocheting around the walls.

Goddammit, said Otis.

He sat Tommy back down and fired up the radio.

Earl! Earl! Where the hell are ya?

No response. Earl was probably outside his cruiser, dealing with whatever sent the ambulance hurtling through downtown Hercules. Earl carried a mobile phone that was typically useless because he kept forgetting to charge it.

Jim Otis muttered to himself as he took hold of Tommy and led him toward one of the two cells in the rear of the station.

Tommy, I’m leaving you while I go find out what the hell’s happening out there. You plan to do anything to piss me off while I’m away?

What the fuck can I do inside a fuckin’ cell?

Don’t ask. Don’t think about it, Tommy. Just lay there.

Yeah, well, fu—

Don’t say it, Tommy.

Shit.

After slamming the cell door, Otis went back to the radio and tried Earl again. No dice. He left the office lights on but locked the door, and hurried to the ancient Ford SUV that served as the town’s spare patrol car.

Before following the ambulance’s path westbound on Main, Otis tried Earl’s cell phone.

After four rings, a surprise: Yeah?

Earl!

Oh, hey, Jim!

Otis waited a beat.

Oh, shit, did I forget t’call in?

Otis waited another beat.

Hey, jeez, chief, I’m sorry. It’s just that—Jesus. It’s a real mess out here.

Out where, Earl?

Oh yeah, right. Hercules Hardware. There’s been a stickup! And a fire!

Earl made this announcement with a sort of reverence, as though the Virgin Mary had descended from Heaven and landed on Highway 33. Hercules didn’t record many stickups.

Armed? asked Otis. He started the Ford and activated the lights, but left the siren alone. He hated the noise.

Yeah, chief. Armed robbery! They used a gun!

Anybody shot?

Jesus, yeah! Jeff Kozlowski.

Shaken by hearing the name of his friend, Otis banged the curb while doing a U-turn on the deserted main drag. He punched the accelerator. As usual, the old Ford responded reluctantly.

Hurt bad?

Dunno, chief. He’s conscious and the EMTs just arrived.

Okay, Earl. Good. You know what to do. I’m there in five.

Earl kept talking but Otis stopped listening. Earl’s bulb tended to flicker, but he had taken the basic forensics course from the State Police. He knew better than to touch anything or trample around in puddles of blood.

Otis pocketed his phone and radioed the state cops, sharing the news that they had a crime scene to investigate. Trouble is, Earl had mentioned fire.

Otis pushed the old Ford ’til the engine started knocking.

Halfway to Hercules Hardware, which Jeff Kozlowski had relocated from downtown to the new commercial strip out on 33, Otis passed an unmistakable motorcycle roaring in the other direction. He peered at it in his rearview, suspiciously, ’til it was out of sight. The biker, Peter Yates, wasn’t doing anything illegal—except going too fast. At this stage in his life, speeding was the least of the young man’s transgressions. Yates was a case of arrested development who regarded bar fights as humanity’s highest calling. He was also dabbling in the county’s main cottage industry—painkillers, cheap heroin and crystal meth.

In a town like Hercules, there were always kids—like Peter Yates and, for that matter, Tommy Meineke—who’d been set loose by indifferent parents forsaken by an overburdened school system, and hostile to almost any form of Christian outreach. Their management somehow always devolved to the local lawman, whose choice was to either step in as a kid’s last resort or join the forces of despair and put him in a cage. Peter was nineteen now and headed for Hell on his Harley. But Otis didn’t see him yet as a lost cause. In a way, he kind of liked Peter for his unflagging penchant for experimentation. The kid kept trying new ways to screw up, and succeeding at it. Eventually, Otis hoped that Peter would screw up a screwup so completely that he’d accidentally accomplish something positive.

Otis didn’t think that would happen tonight. Peter was driving dangerously fast and carrying a passenger. Otis couldn’t see who it was, only her hair whipping in the wind. But riding with Peter could get you killed, especially if you weren’t wearing a helmet, which the girl was not. This wasn’t illegal either. It was just stupid.

Peter Yates disappeared and Otis shrugged him off. Peter, tonight, was the least of Otis’ worries. Jeff Kozlowski might be dying out there.

The glow of fire and a dozen dome lights brought Otis back to focus. He pulled off Highway 33 into the Hercules Hardware lot. The LED bar on Earl’s cruiser was flashing away. All the ambulance lights were spinning epileptically. The Fire Department had responded with two engines. A mixture of permanent firefighters and volunteers were working to douse a blaze that looked—at first glimpse—as though it had consumed one entire outer wall of the building. Right behind Otis, Fire Chief Clete Thompson arrived, siren screaming, lights twirling.

Shit, said Otis, as he climbed out of the Ford, looking through the throbbing glare for his deputy. It’s party time.

Otis nodded at Chief Thompson, but that was all. Since the election, during which Clete had supported Leonard Snell, the two chiefs hadn’t been sociable. Even before the election, Thompson had been barely cordial to Otis. The fire chief was a born-and-bred Herculean. Otis was an outsider, from a big city, in another state, which rendered him triply dubious in Thompson’s eyes.

While Thompson scurried past Otis toward the smoldering fire, Otis went to the ambulance. Two EMTs were hooking Jeff Kozlowski onto an IV line. Jeff was conscious, but deathly pale and shocky-looking.

Otis leaned close.

Jeff, it’s Jim Otis. How ya doin’?

Jeff grunted, his eyes rolling, one arm pounding the stretcher weakly. The other arm was bandaged and bound. He had taken at least one round in the shoulder or upper right chest area.

Who’s that? said Jeff.

He doesn’t recognize me, said Otis.

He’s in shock, dude, said the junior paramedic.

Yeah, I see, said Otis. Gonna die?

Not if I can help it, dude.

Call me ‘dude’ again and I’ll arrest you.

Oh, sorry, d—

Where you taking him?

Roger Steinbeck, the Fire Department’s senior EMT, and a thorough professional, intervened. The Mayo, in La Crosse.

Otis nodded and climbed out of the ambulance. The Mayo was farther than the county hospital, but properly equipped to deal with gunshot wounds. He looked for Earl Schober.

When he found his deputy, just inside the entrance to the hardware store, he realized that the firefighters had, as he feared, wiped out any vestige of a workable crime scene. Otis muttered a curse.

Sorry, chief.

Not your fault, Earl, said Otis, scanning the toppled shelves, trampled floor and filthy puddles.

Looks like our miscreants started the fire to destroy evidence, said Earl.

Miscreants?

Otis waited. Earl went on.

They shot Jeff and left him inside. He was unconscious, he said. He coulda burned up.

How did he get out?

He didn’t, said Earl. Not ’til I got here. The fire hadn’t got to ’im yet.

Hearing no answer to this statement and sensing Otis’ impatience, Earl gave his report.

It wasn’t long. Earl said the robbery had been reported—to the firehouse—by mobile phone from someone driving by on 33. Apparently, the perp, or perps, had pushed into the store when Jeff was closing up, sometime after 9 pm. The cash registers were cleaned out. Earl had found Jeff on the floor, beside an office safe, still locked. Earl guessed that the robber, or robbers, had ordered Jeff to open the safe. He said no, prompting the gunman to panic and shoot the place up. Earl said there was evidence of at least five shots. One round hit Jeff in the right collarbone. Then, as the bad guy, or guys, sped away, they fired a couple of rounds into the LP gas storage cage outside the store.

Lucky it was mostly empties, said Earl. They only blew up one full tank. Otherwise …

Yes, said Otis. Kaflooey.

Goddamn right.

So, Earl, your analysis?

Earl smiled shyly, flattered that the chief of police was asking his theory of the crime.

Well, sir, said Earl. A coupla guys passin’ through maybe, lookin’ for a soft touch, y’know?

Okay. Go on.

Well, they’re out here on 33, right? Not much traffic, ’cause it’s a weeknight. They see lights still on at the hardware and no cars in the parking lot, right? Maybe they see Jeff in there, all by his lonesome. They turn in, stick him up, shoot Jeff and, just for spite, blow the gas tanks as they’re pullin’ out.

Jim Otis nodded. Probably.

Earl Schober swelled a little. Otis liked Earl too much to tell him he was full of crap.

If the job had been pulled by transient lowlifes, they’d want to be six counties away before anyone got wind of the heist. Otis checked his watch. It was 9:45, barely a half-hour since the alleged holdup. Otis’ call to the State Police had triggered an alert to every county force within a hundred miles. If the perps were in a car, on roads that led away from Hercules—of which there were few—they were inside a net they were unlikely to escape.

But there were no transient lowlifes and they weren’t on the road. Jim Otis knew that.

He wondered who, in Hercules, had reason to shoot Jeff Kozlowski, stage a fake robbery and set a fire that was probably intended to kill him. This was hard to figure. Jeff was one of the best-liked men in town.

But even nice guys have a little dirt under their nails.

Jim Otis walked the scene, went inside the smoky store for a quick look-see and stood with Earl Schober, watching the firefighters soak, bash and rip the hell out of Jeff’s livelihood. But no clues bounded over to Otis and wagged their tails. Otis told Earl to stick around ’til the last ash was cold. Then Earl should go home to bed.

Otis patrolled the length and breadth of the town before heading to his cabin. Nothing, as usual, was moving, except for the traffic in and out of the seven bars on Main Street.

CHAPTER 2

Jim Otis, lately, was given to brooding. He was doing this as he pulled up in front of his cabin and looked around. Beyond the black willows on the shoreline, stripes of moonlight danced on the surface of the lake. If not for his mood, he would have smiled at the sight.

He should have left her, standing there outside the little stadium, shivering in the cold.

He thought about her as he entered the