‘Actually,’ I call out after him, ‘that sounds great.’
Robert turns around, beaming, and I feel a pang that makes me hesitate. It’s still not too late. ‘Let me throw on some clothes,’ I say, and turn back inside the room, shutting the door. What the hell am I doing?
Alone in the room, I stand frozen. I see the calendar on the desk, the days marked off. I count backwards and forwards. The indisputable fact of August 18th circled. The last day I spent with Nate. I broke up with him before I left for college. He was upset and we ended up in bed together. One last time.
I shrug off my bathrobe and throw on a pair of jeans and a sweater. Grabbing my keys and a jacket I pause to pick up the calendar and throw it in the trash.
Robert’s waiting patiently outside. I take his arm and follow him out into the night.
Sheriff Nate Carmichael guilty of leading brutal home invasion that left a young girl fighting for her life.
The Ventura County Sheriff, 42, was shot dead last night, along with his two conspirators, including deputy Sheriff Jonathan Safechuck, 28.
Carmichael, who had recently transferred to Ventura from Long Beach, was assigned to lead the investigation into the armed burglary that took place in Ojai on the night of May 8th. The victims, Robert and Ava Walker, were home with their 12-year-old daughter, June, when three masked men burst in with guns and demanded they open the safe.
During the assault Robert and Ava Walker were both beaten and their daughter, June, received life-threatening injuries after being shot. While in intensive care and under armed guard two further attempts were made on the young girl’s life, both of which have now been attributed to a third suspect, Calvin Williams, a former school friend of Carmichael’s. Both men grew up in the area and it’s believed that they conspired to target the Walkers, who were well known within the community.
Carmichael, a member of law enforcement for nineteen years, moved swiftly to arrest and charge Robert Walker with conspiracy to commit fraud, claiming that the Internet entrepreneur had hired known criminals to carry out the attack in order to claim on his home insurance policy. The motive appeared to hold water when details of Walker’s bankruptcy emerged, however Mr. Walker has since been released from prison and all charges against him have been dropped.
The Walkers’ older daughter, Hannah, 22, was kidnapped by Safechuck and Williams after overhearing them discussing an attempt on her sister’s life. Details of her rescue have not yet been released by the police. However, Mrs. Walker is believed to have been present at the time and sources indicate that she shot at least one of the suspects. No arrest has been made.
Carmichael had been the subject of at least one internal investigation into corruption, but no charges were pressed. Police believe that Carmichael, who had significant gambling debts as well as unpaid child support, had been shaking down drug dealers and other criminals over the course of his nearly two decades on the job and have begun an investigation. They are also digging through previous case files of unsolved burglaries.
The Sheriff’s department is not seeking any further witnesses and declined to comment until a full investigation has been carried out.
Euan Shriver
Chapter 54
10 WEEKS LATER
The news vans are still gathered outside the hospital. We’re the gift that keeps on giving, I suppose. As stories go, it’s a good one. Better than OJ, one Hollywood producer told me. Two officers of the law guilty of corruption, burglary, murder, kidnapping; a bloody, dramatic showdown in the woods that left two dead; an innocent man released from prison and reunited with his family; a front-page image that continues to circulate of Hannah wrapped in a foil blanket being helped away from the scene of the crime by paramedics.
I’ve heard that a cable network is making a true crime show out of what happened and that they’re basing it on the article that Euan Shriver wrote for the LA Times.
And Jonathan? the FBI asked. What role did he have in all this? Did I know he was having a relationship with my daughter Hannah?
Yes. I was aware. It was my belief that he’d preyed on her, a vulnerable, traumatized girl, so that he could find a way to get close to the family, so he would be the first to know if June regained consciousness and if she remembered anything. What other reason could there be?
When I heard Jonathan was dead I didn’t feel anything. I still don’t. If I had to do it again I’d aim for his head.
Hannah was interviewed too, of course. They wanted to know everything about her relationship with Jonathan and how it had come about. Did he instigate it or did she? Had he ever mentioned Calvin Williams to her? Had she ever had cause to be suspicious of him or his behavior? Why had they abducted her? What happened to her during the time she was held – a minute-by-minute breakdown. Who was the ringleader? Who sent the text from her phone? What was the dynamic between them all?
I sat with her, alongside our lawyer, as she gave them her statement. She had no idea Jonathan was involved, or Nate. She had never heard either of them mention Calvin. She and Jonathan had been seeing each other casually after meeting at the hospital. Calvin sent the text from her phone.
She found out that Jonathan was involved in the robbery when she overheard him talking to Calvin outside the hospital, saying something about June, about needing to get in there and do it before it was too late. When she confronted them, demanding to know what they were talking about, Jonathan grabbed her and wrestled her into the van.
Yes, she thought they were going to kill her. She overheard them fighting
