| |
“Why would anyone want to do this to Dennis?” Dr. Vance, the medical examiner asked, after pronouncing the man dead.
“Any idea of how long ago this happened?” Hawke asked. He’d sent the city cop, Profitt, to see if anyone nearby had heard a gunshot.
Deputy Alden wandered about the crime scene taking photographs.
“The body is still warm and rigor hasn’t set in. I’d say the shooter was here within the last two hours.” The doctor started to pull off her gloves. She stepped back to the open door and grasped the victim’s left hand. “He’s made a fist.”
She opened his fingers. A piece of crinkled paper fluttered to the ground.
Hawke picked up the paper. It was the phone number he’d asked Brooks about. He turned the paper over. A name was scrawled across the back.
Travis Needham.
How could the man still have a phone from this county when he was the D.A. in another county? Hawke pulled an evidence bag out of the kit on the ground next to the vehicle and put the note in the bag.
“That must have meant something to you,” Deputy Alden said, motioning to the bag.
“It’s what got him killed.” Hawke pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts for Donner.
“I heard you have another homicide,” Donner answered.
“It ties in with Sigler.”
“How?” The detective questioned.
“I asked the victim about the number that Sigler called the night he died. It was a private number.” He went on to tell the detective about the number being registered to the county.
“When I called, it was a female voice, but the note in our victim’s hand says the number belongs to Travis Needham, who was the assistant D.A. to Lange up until eighteen months ago.”
Donner whistled. “You have quite a puzzle going on there.”
“You want to hear the kicker. Travis Needham took Lange’s wife with him when he left.”
“You think this Needham and Lange’s ex are trying to ruin him?” Donner asked.
“I don’t know. But why? Needham is a D.A. now in Marion County, and I heard the ex-Mrs. Lange is pregnant, something she wanted. It doesn’t make sense.” This conversation was stalling what he really had to do. Notify Dennis Brooks’ wife. “I have to go talk to the deceased’s wife. You should send someone to talk with Needham and see if he still has the phone.”
“I’ll get a detective in that area on it in the morning.” Donner ended the conversation.
Another thought struck Hawke. Had Dennis said anything to Terri when he went to her for the phone number?
Hawke scrolled through his phone and called Sheriff Lindsey.
“This better be good,” Rafe Lindsey said.
“It’s Hawke. We have a homicide. I know this person was in contact with Terri Wordell, the D.A.’s receptionist. She may be in danger. Can you put a car on her house tonight? I’m going over to find out if she knows anything as soon as I talk with the victim’s spouse.”
“I’ll get a car over there immediately.” Sheriff Lindsey disconnected.
Hawke entered his vehicle and looked up the address for Terri. She lived a mile out of town toward Prairie Creek. The opposite direction of the Brooks residence. The vehicle from the funeral home pulled into the parking lot as he exited.
Deputy Alden would do a good job getting all the evidence. Hawke had a feeling there would be little. It appeared whoever killed Dennis Brooks had walked up and shot him when he rolled the window down. He also had a suspicion the bullet would match that of the one that killed Sigler.
«»«»«»
Hawke drove out of town toward the Wordells. As he’d figured, telling Mrs. Brooks her husband was a homicide victim hadn’t been easy. He’d waited until a neighbor came over to stay with her before he left. The children were small enough they didn’t understand their mother’s outburst or why Daddy hadn’t come home.
He hated having to tell the survivors a member of their family had been taken from them. Whether it was by violence or a car accident.
It was after nine. He’d clocked in overtime once again. It was becoming a daily thing lately.
The porch light was on. Two vehicles sat in front of the house. The county car sat at the end of the driveway.
Hawke pulled up and a light went on at the barn he passed. That was a good way to indicate to the deputy on surveillance if there was someone sneaking around.
He stepped out of the pickup and walked up to the door. The muffled sound of a television could be heard from the other side. He knocked on the door.
A dog barked from inside.
“Shhh. Shhh, Curly,” Terri said.
The door opened. A large man stood on the other side of the screen door. The light behind him was dim, hiding his features.
“Mr. Wordell, I’m Trooper Hawke. I’d like to come in and have a word with your wife.”
The man opened the screen door and backed up.
Terri had her arms around the neck of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. “Trooper Hawke, what are you doing here?” She released the dog and walked over to him.
“When Dennis Brooks came to you today and asked for my phone number, did he tell you why he needed it?” Hawke wanted to ease into the ‘you may be in danger.’
“Only that you had said you’d be back with a warrant and never returned.” She studied him. “Why didn’t you ask Mr. Lange for the warrant? I know Judge Vickers is out of town.”
“I’d like to tell you, but you may already be in danger.” Hawke stepped back as her husband, a man a good two inches taller than him, broader and younger, moved between them.
“What do you mean Terri is in danger?”
“We have a deputy sitting at the end of your driveway. Dennis was murdered tonight.”
Terri gasped and ducked under her husband’s arm and clung to his waist. “How?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t go anywhere alone. He didn’t tell you anything but whoever killed him may not know that.” Hawke took a step toward both of them and looked them both in the eyes. “Were you working at the office when Travis Needham was the Assistant D.A.?”
“No. That was my grandmother, Anne Detmier. I took over when she retired. I’d helped out through high school and then went to business college and came back.” She rubbed a hand up and down her husband’s arm. “Is my grandmother in danger, too?”
“No. Can you tell me who might have seen Dennis in the office today?”
“He walked in right ahead of Thomas Ball, the investigator. He went into his office then came back out and went into Ms. Wallen’s.”
“All of this happened while Dennis was asking about my phone number?” Hawke wrote all of these movements into his logbook. “How did he know to come to you for my number?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because you’re law enforcement and we’re the D.A.’s Office?”
“Thank you. I’m sorry to bring you bad news. Stay inside the rest of the night. And don’t go anywhere alone until we get this solved.”
“Don’t worry. I help with construction jobs this time of year. I’ll take some time off and make sure I’m with her.” Mr. Wordell dropped a kiss on her head.
“You can’t sit in the D.A.’s Office,” she said.
“We’ll talk about it later.” The man released his wife and walked him to the door. “Thank you for warning us. Dennis was a nice enough guy. He didn’t deserve this. How is his wife taking it? I went to school with her.”
“Not very well.” Her tear-streaked, shattered face flashed in his mind.
“Good luck getting whoever did this.” Mr. Wordell closed the door.
Hawke slid into his vehicle, drove out and had a few words with the deputy, and drove home.
«»«»«»
Tuesday morning Hawke drove to the State Police Office and walked into Sergeant Spruel’s office.
“I’m going to be working on the two homicides. The first person I’m talking to this morning is D.A. Lange.”
“Are you sure that’s wise considering Judge Vickers isn’t here to get any warrants? And what about the Price guy who was duped by Sigler?” Spruel stood, walked to the door, and closed it.
“He wasn’t in the D.A.’s Office yesterday when Brooks asked for my phone number.” Hawke paced from one side of the ten by ten room to the other. “Brooks knew who the number belonged to. He knew I had to go to Lange for the warrant. He must have figured Lange wouldn’t give me the warrant and decided to help me. Donner said he’d send someone to talk to Needham about his phone. I’d rather go myself...” He glanced at his superior.
Spruel shook his head. “That’s unwarranted hours. Someone in Marion County will conduct the interview.”
Hawke knew the sergeant was right, but he preferred seeing suspects reactions when they were questioned. Many times that was more telling than the answers they gave.
“Talk to Lange, but don’t accuse him. Be subtle. Use the self-control you show when interviewing suspects.” Spruel leaned back in his chair. “Don’t ruffle the D.A.’s feathers. We might need his help for other matters.”
Hawke nodded and left the office.
“Which unit are you patrolling today?” Sullen, another Fish and Wildlife Trooper, asked.
“None. I’ve got two homicides I have to clear up.” Hawke planted himself on the chair in front of his desk.
“Homicides? Since when are you a detective?” Sullen walked up beside him.
“Since a person I talked to yesterday ended up dead last night.”
“Brooks.”
“Yeah.” Hawke hit the monitor button on his computer and glanced at his fellow trooper. “Did you know him?”
“He was related to my wife. In a distant way. Why?”
“Would he go to the authorities with information or try and blackmail someone?” He’d thought about this all night. Why had Brooks gone to the parking lot to meet someone? Had he hoped to make something from the sale of the information?
“He was as law abiding as the pope is religious. He’d have only given information to someone he felt would do the right thing with it.” Sullen studied him. “Why?”
“I don’t understand what he was doing in the high school parking lot with the information I had asked him about gripped in his hand. Who lured him there?”
“Could he have thought you’d meet him there?” Sullen asked.
“How? Why would he think I’d be there? He left a message on my phone when I was out patrolling. When I tried to return his call is when I discovered something was wrong.”
Sullen slapped him on the back. “Can’t help you there. Good luck.” He left through the back entrance.
Hawke wasn’t sure what he would look up. He doubted any forensics had come back on Brooks. The link was the D.A.’s Office. Or the county court... Terri said Thomas Ball had seen Brooks in the office asking for his phone number.
He typed Thomas Ball into the government database. He’d been the Wallowa County District Attorney’s investigator for as long as Lange had been in office. The man hadn’t had any trouble with the law. Did he work for the county or for Lange? Could the man have killed Sigler and then Brooks protecting his boss?
A talk with the investigator might be in order, along with Lange.