Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (31 page)

Ava sighed.

“
I asked a friend to drive
you,” Seth said. “The limo will get here early. You’ll have it all
day. Dale borrowed a suit. I thought the two of you could go
together.”

“
Who’s the driver?” Ava
asked.

“
Mike Roper,” Seth
said.

“
Valerie Lipson’s husband?
The painter?”

“
He used to drive limos,”
Seth said. “He knows the owner and can get a car when he wants. He
said he’d be happy to do it. He also got a car for Beth’s
parents.”

“
Did you go to the funeral
for the policewoman?” Ava asked.

“
I did,” Seth said. “So
did every cop in the state. I don’t know where Saint Jude is but he
better not show his face in some dark alley. Cops don’t like it
when you kill one of their own. But kill a cop and over forty kids?
We’ll be lucky to take him alive.”

“
That is if we can find
him,” Ava said.

“
I’m going to New Mexico
on Sunday to look at all his stuff,” Seth said. “I bet we’ll find
him.”

“
Delphie has no
idea?”

“
He’s somehow able to
cloak himself from her,” Seth said. “She thinks it’s that thing you
called the Devil. She has some experience with it. When you’re
ready, she might be a good person to talk to about
everything.”

“
I’ll do it after we find
him. You and me.”

He lay back and held out his arm to her
again. She lay down with her head on his shoulder. Ava fell silent.
Seth felt her shift away from him. He rolled over to see if she was
all right and found her asleep. He closed his eyes to join her. She
took a breath and rolled over to him.

“
I keep forgetting to tell
you,” Ava said. “I saw Bonita.”

“
Maresol told me,” Seth
said. “They are at peace. What a blessed relief.”

“
Bonita told me to tell
you to remember what you noticed but forgot,” Ava blinked her tear
swollen eyes. “Or something like that.”

“
I will remember what I
noticed then forgot,” Seth said.

“
Good.”

Ava put her head down on her pillow. When he
looked again, she was asleep. He was just drifting off when his
eyes popped wide open.

Bonita’s accident. The car. All that blood.
And…

Mortar dust.

Waffle shoe prints on the floor mats. He and
Bonita lived in a remodeled stucco house with sheet rock walls. No
exposed brick. He’d leaned down to touch the dust. Where had it
come from? He’d found the same dust in the truck.

Where did he see that again?

Northfield, second burial site. He gasped.
It was at the chapel burial site under the Castle. Third burial
site. His mind ticked through the other burial sites. Same waffle
foot print. Same mortar dust.

Mortar dust!

Seth felt a bolt of lightning run straight
through him.

He knew where Saint Jude was holding up.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FORTY-ONE

Dust

Saturday early morning — 3:25 A.M.

Careful not to wake Ava, he slipped out of
bed, grabbed his cell phone and went into the bathroom. After
dialing the Crime Scene Unit, he closed his eyes in a silent
prayer. How else could Saint Jude get around so easily? Avoid
detection for so long? This had to be it.

“
Crime Scene Unit,
Ferguson,” a male voice said.

“
Hey Ferg, it’s O’Malley,”
Seth said.

“
Seth! How’s Amelie?” Ferg
asked.

“
Alive. Trying to find her
footing.”

“
Poor girl. We heard what
you did about her stuff. Did her parents really sell her house and
her car?”

“
Politicians,” Seth said.
“They’re a breed of their own.”

“
After everything she went
through - losing her best friend, God knows what… torture… assault,
to end up hanging in that horrible barn… You’d just want to go
home.”

“
I would,” Seth
said.

“
What bastards,” Ferg
said. “We put together a little fund. It’s not much but maybe she
can use it for a down payment on a car. I heard a bunch of guys
were going to escort her to the funeral.”

“
Couple of cruisers,” Seth
said.

“
More than a couple. I
think every off duty officer is will be there,” Ferg said. “Are you
calling to make sure they get donuts on the way?”

“
No, but that’s a good
idea,” Seth laughed.

“
What do you need,
Seth?”

“
I’m wondering if you
could send one of your guys to check out something,” Seth said.
“It’s an old crime scene. I’m sure you have new cases to work
on.”

“
Is this for Saint
Jude?”

“
I think so,” Seth
said.

“
That bastard killed a
cop, kidnapped Amelie,” Ferg said. “There’s not a guy who wouldn’t
drop everything to get whatever you need. Just ask.”

“
There’s a car in Impound.
I need a sample taken from the floor mat. It’s a long shot that
it’s still there, but…”

“
We specialize in long
shots,” Ferg said.

“
That’s what I thought,”
Seth said.

“
Blood or body fluids?”
Ferg asked.

“
Dust,” Seth said. “I need
to know what kind of dust.”

“
I’ll tell you what,” Ferg
said. “I’m about to clock out. Impound is on my way home. I’ll take
one of the guys coming on. We’ll get your sample and he can bring
it back. You should have your results by six or so. What’s the case
file?”

Seth rattled off the letters and numbers of
the case file.

“
Your wife’s car?” Ferg
asked. “Let me check something. Hang on.”

Seth closed his eyes when Ferg put him on
hold. His heart raced and his body tensed for action, but his eyes
sagged with exhaustion. One minute turned to two and then ten
minutes. Seth looked at the cell phone to see if it was still
connected.

“
Sorry that took a while,”
Ferg said. “I had to wake up the dust guy. He’s coming
in.”

“
Can you get the sample?”
Seth asked.

“
Oh sorry,” Ferg said.
“After Amelie’s team found Saint Jude’s DNA in the car, they sent
us out to do our thing. We cleaned that car out from top to bottom.
We found more body fluids – you know, what you’d expect with two
little kids. Let’s see…”

Ferg began listing off everything they found
in the car. Seth’s eyes shot to the ceiling with a silent prayer
for patience.

“
Sorry,” Ferg said. “That
was more than you asked for.”

“
Front Passenger floor
mats?” Seth asked.

“
Yep, got that,” Ferg
said. “That’s why I called our dust guy in. We have three kinds of
dirt and dust. But he hadn’t gotten to the sample yet. It’s an old
case and…”

“
You guys have had a lot
of scenes to process,” Seth said.

“
And we’re down Amelie,”
Ferg said. “She and her team could power through this crap. Anyway,
the dust guy’s on his way in. He should be here in a half
hour.”

“
Great.”

“
I have a photo,” Ferg
said. “It’s just a dusty mat but I’ll send it to your phone. Do you
want to see the other floor mats?”

“
Sure.”

“
Ok, the photos are on
their way. You should have them in a minute,” Ferg said. “Anything
else?”

“
Nope that’s it,” Seth
said.

“
I’ll tell you what,” Ferg
said. “I’ll stay until the dust guy is done. I’ll call you when
he’s finished analyzing the samples.”

“
You don’t have to stay,”
Seth said.

“
I insist,” Ferg said. “I
don’t want him to get lost or confused or stuck on something that
doesn’t matter. What are you going to do when you get the
results?”

Seth was silent.

“
You’re going to get the
bastard. Aren’t you, Magic O’Malley?”

Seth didn’t reply.

“
Nope, I’m staying,” Ferg
said. “I’ll call dispatch and let them know you’d like some donuts.
Lamar’s right? Talk to you in a couple of hours.”

Ferg hung up the phone. Seth set his phone
on the bathroom counter. For a moment, he stood in the dark
bathroom trying to gather himself. He used the toilet, took a drink
of water, and then crept out to the bedroom. He did his best not to
wake Ava when he slipped under the covers.

“
Everything okay?” Ava
asked.

“
Perfect,” he
said.

She gave him a slight smile and fell asleep
again. Unwilling to give up any more of his life to Saint Jude, he
forced himself to sleep. Two hours later, his cell phone rang.
Getting up, Seth went into the bathroom.

“
O’Malley?” Ferg
asked.

“
Go,” Seth
said.

“
You want to talk to the
kid,” Ferg said. “He’s pretty proud of himself.”

“
Sure,” Seth
said.

“
Detective O’Malley,” a
young man’s voice came on the line. “I have your results. First,
I’d like to say what an honor it is to work with you. Particularly
on this case.”

“
What did you find on the
passenger floor mat?”

“
What I would expect. You
know, clay, potassium, phosphorous, that kind of thing. Regular
Denver garden soil,” the dust guy said.

“
You’re sure?”

“
Not so fast,” the dust
guy said. “I also found sand and lime, with a trace of
cement.”

Seth focused on slowing his breathing to
remain calm.

“
You found
mortar.”

“
Yes, sir,” the dust guy
said. “I was just about the say that. Not just mortar. Really old
mortar.”

“
Thank you.”

He was about to hang up when he heard the
young man’s voice still speaking.

“
I’m sorry I missed that,”
Seth said.

“
I was just saying that I
found the same thing at the other sites – the one under the Race
Street house they call the Castle, the barn in Brighton, the Platte
River site… There was even a sample from the old site on
Northfield. You know what’s weird?”

“
What’s weird?” Seth
asked.

“
I thought the mortar must
have come from the Sand Creek Greenway bunker. There’s so much
concrete and mortar there,” the dust guy said. “But my boss told me
to make sure for Magic O’Malley. Oh, sorry. Is it all right that I
called you that?”

“
It’s just a name,” Seth
said.

“
Oh, okay,” the dust guy
said. “At the Sand Creek bunker? There’s mortar and sand and lime
and cement but it doesn’t match these other samples. That’s how I
know this sample is old mortar. The stuff at the Sand Creek
Greenway bunker is different, newer. They built Stapleton Airport
in what…”

“
1928, 29,” Seth
said.

“
Right,” the dust guy
said. “This stuff is older than that. I can’t carbon date it but
I’d say it’s maybe turn of the century or older. You see, they used
to take limestone and burn it in small kilns. You always get a
little trace of the wood or coal or coke used as fuel for the kiln.
Not to mention the fact that they’d dump the quicklime into a pit
or metal trough and soak it for days or sometimes years. From that
they made lime putty which they used to make mortar. Lime putty
always has traces of metal or whatever in it.”

“
Mortar?” Seth hoped to
stem the history lesson.

“
Right,” the dust guy
said. “Mortar is made from sand, lime and cement, well clay too.
This lime has tiny traces, really miniscule; I only found it on the
spect… If you didn’t have a spect, you’d never find it. Well and
you’d have to know what it was when you found it.”

“
What is it?” Seth
asked.

“
I didn’t say?” Seth could
almost hear the young man blush over the phone. “Iron. And coke –
not like Coca-cola…”

“
The fuel,” Seth
said.

“
Right,” the dust guy
said. “It’s in the lime. This mortar was made before the turn of
the century.”

“
And Sand
Creek?”

“
They started using
hydrated lime products around 1910,” the dust guy said. “It wasn’t
until the 1930’s that they came out with pressure hydrated
dolomitic lime. We know that most of the mortar and cement found at
the Sand Creek bunker was created in the late 1920’s which matches
the building of Stapleton.”

“
Except you found a sample
of this old dust there?” Seth asked.

“
That’s exactly right,”
the dust guy said. “In the walk areas.”

“
Thank you,” Seth said. He
heard rustling in the background.

“
Pretty good for a kid,
wouldn’t you say?” Ferg asked.

“
Amazing,” Seth
said.

“
Dispatch has taken care
of your donuts,” Ferg said.

“
Lucky me,” Seth
chuckled.

“
Hey, you’re not going to
go yourself,” Ferg said. “Are you?”

“
Go myself?”

“
Get Saint Jude,” Ferg
said. “In the first place, he’ll kill you as sure as look at you.
Plus, everyone wants in on this arrest. You’d be unpopular around
here if you go kill him yourself.”