Page 96 of Nightshade

“Who’s the victim?”

“The dead man was a guy who said he could take down a local gangster and the mayor if we made him a deal.”

“And you believed him?”

“I did, and I think so did somebody else.”

“I’m coming out with a team. Be ready to brief us.”

“I’ll be here and I’ll be ready.”

32

ONCE THE MAINLANDteam had assembled in Avalon, the investigation moved through the night. Stilwell was questioned repeatedly by two different pairs of detectives under Captain Corum’s command. Even Monika Juarez was questioned extensively. Eduardo Esquivel was brought to the island’s only twenty-four-hour clinic and diagnosed with a concussion to go with the deep laceration a metal bar had left across his forehead. His telling of what had happened in the jail would come later.

Corum’s investigators reviewed the video of Merris Spivak’s attack on Deputy Dunne the Saturday before, saw the intention in the assault, and understood what Stilwell had come to understand too late: that the violent attack was planned and that Spivak had wanted to be arrested and held in the substation so he would be in place should Henry Gaston come out of hiding and be jailed by Stilwell.

“I delivered him right to Spivak,” Stilwell said.

“There was no way you could have known,” Corum said. He quickly added, “At least that’s my opinion.”

Meaning that if a fall guy was needed in the case, Stilwell would still be the leading candidate.

The investigation stretched into Friday’s daylight hours, preventing Stilwell from picking up Judge Harrell at the harbor and getting him to sign the search warrant for the Black Marlin Club. Stilwell knew it was just as well. The rule of law required search warrants to be executed within forty-eight hours of a judge’s signature. That was most likely impossible now with the Gaston case dominating his time and attention. He decided he would wait until the new week, then go over to Harrell’s home court in Long Beach, get the warrant signed, and come back with Sampedro and Ahearn to conduct the search.

It was not ideal to delay one homicide investigation because of another, but the circumstances were dictating his moves. He explained this to Corum and then to Ahearn, who called after getting wind of what had happened at the sub. Stilwell wasn’t sure if he was calling to poke him about the situation he was in or simply to assure him that the Leigh-Anne Moss investigation was continuing on the mainland.

“We’ll keep it moving,” Ahearn said. “You fall in when you’re clear of that shit out there, and then we’ll search the club.”

Stilwell and the investigators hadn’t slept all night, and it was unlikely the town’s residents had gotten much sleep either. Two sheriff’s helicopters had been dispatched to the island to circle the town, beaches, and coastal waters in a cover-your-ass search for the wanted man. It was not surprising that Spivak was not located. He was either hiding or long gone.

What was also long gone was the external hard drive from the tech closet, and with it the recording of Stilwell’s interview of Gaston. With Gaston dead and the recording gone, any case against Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova would be in jeopardy. Stilwell had taken no notes during the interview because he knew he had a recording. A reconstruction of what Gaston said now, hours later, would invite a legitimate challenge if offered in court as evidence.

“We’re completely fucked,” Corum said when this problem was explained to him.

“Maybe not completely,” Stilwell responded.

He told Corum about the search of the cart barn he had conducted and about the saw handle that had tested positive for blood. He revealed that it had not yet been submitted for forensic analysis, and the captain agreed to personally take it to the lab and use his position to prioritize DNA comparison to blood from the buffalo.

“Even if it’s a match, it won’t get us far,” Corum said. “It solves the buffalo caper but not the murder of our cooperating witness.”

“It’s a start,” Stilwell said. “It gives us some leverage with Terranova. Maybe enough to flip him and move up the ladder.”

Corum nodded reluctantly. Stilwell had earlier briefed him on what Gaston had said about Terranova’s alleged relationship with the mayor.

“We’re staying away from that ladder until we have more evidence and it’s rock solid,” he said.

By midmorning the media was onto the story, led initially by Lionel McKey from theCallbut soon followed by reporters and camera operators from the mainland-based news channels and theLos Angeles Times.Since Spivak had escaped, the session in the courtroom next to the sub was over in a matter of minutes. Judge Harrell and Deputy DA Juarez handled a short docket of cases involving minor crimes in which defendants had been released without bail after arrest. Once court was adjourned and Harrell and Juarez had headed back to the boats, the media members were told to gather in the courtroom and await a press conference to be conducted by Corum.

McKey, the lone local reporter, was not happy about being lumped in with the carpetbaggers from the mainland. He started calling Stilwell’s cell phone every ten minutes. Besides being frustrated by the repeated calls, which he sent directly to voicemail,Stilwell was annoyed by the fact that McKey had somehow gotten his private number. Stilwell had never given it to him.

Finally, when the fifth call started buzzing his phone, Stilwell answered with a low but intense tone. He was sitting in the bullpen with several of the investigators working around him.

“Who gave you this number?”

“Uh, I… don’t really remember. I think you did, actually.”

“Nice try. I have no comment at this time, Lionel. And blowing up my phone with your constant calls and messages is not the way to make me want to talk to you.”

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