Turning Angel

I’m immediately prompted for a password. Another folder gives the same result. Desperate for some clue to Marko’s inner psyche, I look down at the floor, into some drawers that were ripped from the computer desk. Between the drawers, lying amid cracked CDs and DVDs, is a USB flash drive similar to the ones in Kate Townsend’s shoe box. This one is a Sony, about a half inch wide and three inches long.

As the sirens fade into silence out front, I plug the flash drive into the USB port and copy the formerly hidden folders onto it. Then I dismount the drive, shove it into the instep of my shoe, and run downstairs to the driveway.

”Stop!“yells a male voice. ”Police! Put up your hands.“

I can’t see the face of the officer in the driveway because a floodlight on the side of the Wilsons’ house is backlighting him. But I see the gun in his outstretched hands.

”I’m Penn Cage! I made the 911 call.“

”Reach slowly into your pocket and take out some ID.“

As I obey the command, I speak in the calmest voice I can muster. ”The bodies are in the sunroom out back. Paul and Janet Wilson. They have an exchange student living with them, but he’s not here. He’s involved in the drug trade, and the killer tore his room apart. He lives over the garage.“

The officer moves toward me and checks my ID, then follows me back to the sunroom. He’s Natchez PD, not a sheriff’s deputy, and I’m glad for that. While he surveys the crime scene, two paramedics with a gurney arrive, followed by more uniformed cops and a plain-clothes detective named John Ruff. I’ve talked to Ruff five or six times, but never in a professional capacity. Usually I see him at the softball field. Like me, he has a daughter who plays.

”This is something, huh?“ he says in a soft voice.

”I can’t believe it, John. After what’s already happened?“

Ruff nods and steers me away from the patrolmen to question me. I answer his questions as fully as I’m able, but the shock of seeing three murder victims in one day is taking its toll on my concentration. The vagaries of fate and chance are hitting home as well. Paul and Janet Wilson must have been attacked only seconds after I hung up with Paul. If I hadn’t pulled over to maintain good cellular reception with Mia, the couple might still be alive. Or I might be dead…

While Ruff questions me about the immediate past, a memory from my more distant history intrudes. It was here, on Espero Drive, that the first homicide that ever touched me personally occurred. A divorced young schoolteacher was raped and brutally murdered one night while her four- and seven-year-old daughters slept in the house. Her killer wasn’t a depraved stranger passing through Natchez, but a fifteen-year-old boy with whom I had played often. I was seventeen at the time, and while I understood both rape and murder, I’d never heard of the two being united in the way I would come to know so well later, when serial murder became an American obsession. But what shocked me most deeply-and likewise the town-was that such a crime could intrude upon our placid little universe at all. Even now, twenty-six years and infinite blows of disillusionment later, the spectacle of Paul and Janet Wilson cut to pieces in their own home seems more like a stunt mounted for Punk’d rather than reality. As I recite my narrative to Detective Ruff, I keep expecting Paul and Janet to get to their feet, wipe the fake blood from their clothes, and burst out laughing. But they just lie there, bad sports about the whole thing.

At last Ruff runs out of questions and tells me I’m free to go. As I rise to leave, I hear a commotion in the front of the house. Angry voices, all male, the volume steadily increasing. I hear what sounds like a scuffle, and then a red-faced deputy charges into the sunroom. My fists tighten involuntarily. It’s the black-haired deputy who stole the fingerprints from Drew’s private bathroom while Drew gave his blood for the DNA test. Deputy Burns, I remember, or so Chief Logan guessed after I described the guy.

”You better straighten out those boys at the door!“ Burns yells at Detective Ruff. ”Or they’ll wind up in the county jail!“

Ruff squares his shoulders at the shorter man. ”What the hell are you talking about, Burnsie?“

”Sheriff Byrd is commandeering this crime scene. That’s what I’m talking about.“

Ruff glances at me, at his men, then back at the deputy. ”You been smoking something from your evidence room, Burnsie? Didn’t you notice this house is in the middle of Natchez? That makes it our jurisdiction.“

Before Deputy Burns can reply, two more deputies appear behind him. This makes it a fair fight: three county officers versus three from the city. The paramedics are staring in amazement and anticipation. They’ve already declared the Wilsons dead, and are only waiting for the police photographer to complete her work.

Emboldened by the appearance of his comrades, Deputy Burns continues. ”Sheriff Byrd’s the chief law enforcement officer of Adams County. The city’s part of the county. That makes everything his jurisdiction. He can take over any crime scene he deems necessary for public safety, and he already told me that these murders will be investigated by the sheriff’s department. End of story.“

John Ruff draws himself to his full height and puts his hands on his hips. ”Burnsie, if you or your buddies touch anything in this room, you’re gonna find yourself in a world of shit. You’ve already contaminated the crime scene by tromping three men through it without any need. Now get your ass outside and wait for the sheriff and the chief to work this mess out.“

Unbelievably, Deputy Burns lays his right hand on the butt of the automatic in his gun belt. ”If you want me to arrest you, I will,“ he says in a bellicose tone, nodding as though to convince himself.

The paramedics blanch.

John Ruff is clearly outraged, but he’s also reluctant to escalate this argument into an armed confrontation. After fifteen years working with seasoned professional cops in Houston, I have no patience for this kind of crap. I step in front of Ruff and address the deputy in a strong voice.

”Look over there,“ I say, pointing at the Wilsons’ bloody corpses. ”Do you see those people?“

”You stay out of this, Cage,“ he snarls.

”Look at them!“I shout. ”They were murdered less than ten minutes ago. Are you investigating the crime? No. You’re standing here obstructing the investigation, bowing up for a fight like some junior high redneck. There’s an enemy in this town, Deputy Burns, but it’s not the police department. You and Ruff are after the same thing-or you should be-and your boss’s small-town political bullshit shouldn’t have a thing to do with this crime.“

The deputy’s chin is quivering, but whether from shock or anger, I can’t tell.

”You’re not looking at them!“ I yell, unable to control my frustration. ”How many murders have you seen like that in your career, Burns? One? None? You think a single person in this town gives a damn about Billy Byrd’s feud with Chief Logan? You leave that crap back at the station and do your work!“

The deputy’s gun is out of its holster now. He’s not pointing it at me, but it’s plain that he’d like to. ”I’m puttin‘ your ass under arrest!“ he yells, spittle flying from his mouth. ”Goddamn big-city lawyer!“

I hold out both hands. ”Go ahead, Deputy. Arrest me. Arrest me, and in thirty days I will have your ass. “

”Penn?“ Ruff says, gripping my shoulder from behind. ”Take it easy, now. Seeing these bodies got you upset. But don’t be stupid.“

I know Ruff is right, but under the gaze of the Wilsons’ dead eyes, I cannot rein in my anger. ”You think these bodies upset me?“ I take a step toward Deputy Burns. ”I was an assistant district attorney in Houston for fifteen years. I’ve seen more murder victims than you will in your whole career. I’ve sent twelve men and women to death row. You want to arrest me? Clap ’ em on. You just be ready to take the heat for it.“

The deputy’s face has gone from scarlet to gray, but he still gets out his handcuffs. He’s trying to fit one around my wrist when Sheriff Billy Byrd swaggers into the room.

”Whoa there, Tommy boy,“ he says in the voice of a poor man’s John Wayne.

”Sheriff Byrd?“ sputters Burns. ”This crazy sumbitch-“

”I heard him,“ says the sheriff. ”You just leave him be for now.“ Byrd glances at Detective Ruff. ”Did you get a statement from Mr. Cage, John?“

The detective nods warily.

”Okay.“ Byrd shifts his gaze to me. ”You’re free to go.“

I start to ask him about the jurisdictional dispute, but then I remember the flash drive concealed in my shoe.