“With Vern Pearce, his partner,” Boulder said.
“Henry Wade is now the only surviving officer.”
“Henry quit the job and crawled into a bottle after Vern shot himself,” Boulder said. “Not many people talk about it. A few old bulls say it was the case, the boy getting shot, all that crap.”
“Wade’s a private detective now, working for Don Krofton,” Quinn said. “You guys should check to see if Krofton was at the scene that day.”
“I think you’ve watched one too many bad movies, Ethan,” Perelli said.
Quinn shrugged and opened his briefcase.
“Not long after Sperbeck’s release from prison, he staged his own death. Then Henry Wade just happens to follow the ‘dead man’ to a bank where Sperbeck had some sort of transaction. It’s all here. I was surveilling Wade.”
Quinn held up a disk from his video recorder.
“Don’t you move.” Boulder waved a uniform over to keep Quinn company while he took his detectives for a short walk.
“What do you make of Quinn’s shit, Grace?” Boulder said.
“There’s a lot at play here. Look at the facts. Sperbeck’s our guy for Sister Anne, Sharla May Forrest, and Brady. And Sister Anne visited Sperbeck in prison.”
“But some twenty-five years ago,” Perelli said, “after the robbery, she enters the convent, with over a million. It has to be a link. And her real identity is not what she claimed, according to the Mirror. Maybe she was holding the money for Sperbeck.”
“But somehow, Sperbeck thinks Rhonda Boland’s husband owes him,” Boulder said. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“The pieces are there. They just don’t line up yet,” Grace said. “Like why did Sperbeck kill Sharla May?”
“That one seems obvious,” Boulder said.
“Right,” Perelli said. “It was around the time of his release. Remember, Roberto Martell pimps her date with Sperbeck at the Black Jet Bar. Leon likely couldn’t get it up, so he took it out on Sharla May. When I worked vice the ex-cons always had problems with hookers because prison messed them up.”
“That seems the most likely scenario for Sperbeck doing Sharla May,” Boulder said.
“Okay,” Grace said. “That brings us back to Quinn’s crazy theory on Sperbeck and corrupt cops being involved in the heist.”
“I think we have to ask Henry Wade some questions.” Boulder looked at his watch. “First we gotta move fast to get that alert out and hold a news conference. We’ll do it right here.”
Grace nodded and walked away to be alone as she thought of Brady Boland and her two homicides. This was so damn complicated. Nothing made sense.
Everything was at stake.
Was Jason’s father caught up in this?
Chapter Sixty-Three
T he snow-crowned peak of Mount Rainier rose before them from the Cascade range. They were somewhere between Elbe and Ashford, eastbound on 706.
After leaving Seattle, they didn’t speak. Jason’s old man listened to those sorrowful Johnny Cash ballads and stared at the lush forests rolling by.
As if the truth were out there and he was in desperate pursuit.
Jason feared his father was driving headlong toward a mental breakdown, like the time he showed up drunk in the Mirror newsroom. Man, he had to do something, anything to avoid it.
His old man was carrying a gun now.
“Dad, you’ve got to talk to me! Tell me what’s going on!”
His father adjusted his grip on the wheel. His jaw tensed but he refused to answer.
“Dad, tell me the truth about you and Leon Sperbeck.”
“Reach under your seat.”
Jason’s hand felt around, finding the paper bag and the glass-hard problem inside as he produced the unopened bottle of whiskey.
“Give it to me.”
“Dad, no.”
“Give me the damn bottle.”
The liquid swished as he handed it to him. His father opened his window and threw the bottle away. Jason heard it smash into the ditch behind them.
“I’m doing this sober,” he said. “Vern and I get to the call and we come on Sperbeck. Dead cold. Fleeing with a gun in his hand. This thing all goes down in seconds. Seconds. But it feels like slow motion because my heart’s going like a jackhammer.
“Sperbeck’s cornered. We’ve got him. We draw down on him, order him to drop his weapon, get on the ground. Out of nowhere, this boy steps from a store looking for his mom. Sperbeck locks his arm around the kid’s neck, drilling his gun into the kid’s head.
“He’s eight years old and he’s looking at me. Scared out of his mind. Vern’s shouting tactics at me. There’s no time to do anything, we’re spreading out, edging closer, one of us is going to get a shot at Sperbeck.
“We’re screaming at him to drop his gun, let the kid go. But Sperbeck’s scared, he knows he’s going down and he’s going to take all of us with him. I could see the boy’s eyes. He’s staring at me, they’re wild, like someone who’s fallen from a cliff.
“Vern’s closing in on the left, I’m closing in on the right. Sperbeck’s sweeping the boy back and forth but he knows he’s exposed on one side and we’re going to take him.
“That’s when we hear sirens. Backup is coming fast. Time’s up.
“Sperbeck makes his move and it happens, he swings to one side, taking a shot at Vern. Vern finds cover but Sperbeck pins him, fires again, missing Vern both times, but somehow the kid has broken free.
“The boy’s eyes are huge as he runs directly to me. Over the kid’s shoulder and down my sight, I’ve got a bead on Sperbeck and see him take aim toward me and the kid who’s between us.
“The boy’s large in front of me running at me and I’m screaming for him to get on the ground, waving him down as I see Sperbeck’s trigger finger pulling.
“I fire.
“It’s loud, there’s muzzle flash and smoke, so I don’t see until it clears and the boy’s on the ground. Bleeding. My gut convulses, Vern jumps Sperbeck, cuffs him, and I go to the boy.
“The kid’s eyes were wide and he was searching mine. His jaw started to move and he made these soft breathing sounds as the sirens got louder and I held him. He was warm but so still. I held him until everything drained from him and the paramedics came and I’m on the ground holding him and his warm blood is all over me and Vern is shouting and the paramedics are shouting and the sirens, the damn sirens, are wailing and somebody started screaming.
“The boy’s mother, who got separated from him in the department store, is shrieking and punching me. Later they told me that I wouldn’t give the kid up, that I wouldn’t let him go, and it was true because I knew that if I held on to him then he wouldn’t leave this earth, he’d still be alive to grow up and live a good life and I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of mine knowing that I’d killed him.”
His old man swallowed.
“I still see his face. I’ve always seen his face because I’ve never been able to forgive myself.”
Jason turned away as his father exhaled slowly.
A few miles later, they saw a sign pointing the way to Wolf Tooth Creek, and they turned off 706 and into the backcountry.
“What happened afterward, Dad?”
“Vern swore I missed and that Sperbeck had actually fired at the same time. That Sperbeck killed the kid
