Reilly 09 - Presumption of Death (43 page)

“He’s taking us on one by one,” Sam said. “You guys have that figured out yet? Ted, who you think that fire on Robles Ridge was aimed at?”

“Megan and me?” Ted said. “Our house site? Really? He could have burned down half of Southbank Road!”

“He told me forty-eight hours to pay up or he’s gonna do something worse,” Sam said.

“Well, I’m not paying a thing.” David again.

“That’s fine, you turn us all in. Then when Britta gets out of the hospital, who’s going to take care of her?” George said. “I got my family, you got Britta: Darryl, he’s got four little ones. Think about that before you go running off-” David made a strangled noise.

“If we pay him off, will he go away?” Darryl had started talking now.

“If we’d paid him way back after the second fire we wouldn’t be in this fix,” George said.

“We all agreed,” Sam said. “He had no right. All he was supposed to do was set a little brushfire, scorch up the model home a little-he could have hurt somebody burnin’ down the café. That was right in the heart of town! We couldn’t pay him after that!”

“We can’t pay him now either,” David said. “It’s just piling another crime on all of us.”

“But he’ll go away if we do,” Darryl said.

“He’s only hanging around out there waiting to collect. He doesn’t want to be here, he’s hot. We’re keeping him here,” Ted said.

“We have another problem,” Darryl said. “Tory asked me why I withdrew the first twelve-fifty.” The other men groaned. “She knows something.”

George said, “So that’s what Jolene’s been up to! I thought the kids were playing with my desk. It’s her. I’ll be damned.”

“Look. We have to pay him,” Sam said. “You should have heard him on the phone. He’s not reasonable. He said forty-eight hours and that’s it.”

“But, Jolene-”

“Be quiet a second, George. I want to ask David here a question. Now, David. You could pay out the twenty thousand balance we still owe him right now, end all this, save us all. It’s the simplest way, right?”

“That’s good. That’s good,” Darryl said.

David said in a tight voice, “He hurts my wife like that and I’m supposed to pay for all of you? No. No.”

“David, listen-”

“Hey, don’t go-”

“David!”

Debbie heard a car door slam and the car peeled out of the lot.

There was a long silence. Then Darryl said in a disbelieving voice, “He had my car keys. That was my car he drove off in.”

“Great. Now we’re totally in the crapper,” Ted said.

“Ted-”

“Don’t look at me, man, Megan knows all our finances and most of it’s her money and she’d figure it out in ten seconds.”

Darryl said, “Sam, what are we gonna do?” He sounded desperate.

“Keep your shirt on, Darryl, I’ll think of something. I’ll call him and tell him we need more time to get the money together.”

“He’ll do something else to us.”

“I said, I’ll take care of it. Now listen, all of you. The women can’t know about this. Don’t say anything or we’re all going to prison. Darryl, you hear me? Huh? Darryl?”

“What’d you bring that gun for anyway, Sam?”

Sam said, “I don’t know. I just feel like killing somebody.” Debbie had forgotten about the gun. She held on to a branch and closed her eyes and said a little prayer.

“Don’t scare him, you jerk,” Ted said. “I have to get home.”

“I’ll call you. Stay cool,” Sam said.

Megan said, “Is that everything, Debbie? All you can remember?” Maybe she spoke too sharply, because Debbie put the pitcher down and propped herself against the table and started blubbering again.

“Now, honey,” Jolene told her, “stitch yourself back together, because we need your help. Not a one of us can afford to have a nervous breakdown right now.”

“I’ll start,” Megan said. “They’re a bunch of selfish little boys. I checked our books. Twelve hundred fifty dollars withdrawn by Ted two months ago.”

Jolene said, “Mmm-hmm. George did the same. Tory?”

“Yes. He told me it was for something else.”

“Debbie?”

“Yeah.” A big tear fell into Debbie’s salt-rimmed glass. Her mascara was streaked all the way down to her lips.

“I think we can figure that David paid too. Serve ’em right to go to jail,” Jolene said. She looked around the table. “I know, I know. Now, George, he’ll die in jail. He’s sick.”

“I don’t know where to start. All the harm they’ve caused,” Tory said. “I decided to have the baby after all, and now this. Who’s going to buy the food for five kids?”

“None of us wants to turn them in, but what else can we do? There’s a man killing people left and right out there, it’s all their fault, and-”

“We could urge them to turn themselves in,” Tory said.

“I am not able to raise this with Sam, not alone,” Debbie said, still sniffling. “He won’t listen.”

“We could all meet with all of them-” Tory was still trying.

“They’ve already made up their minds what they want to do,” Megan said. “But they’re going to fart around until somebody else gets hurt. I could just pay the money.”

“After how he hurt Britta? How he-he sneaked up on poor Ruthie-”

The women were silent. Debbie poured them all another round.

“No way,” Tory said, and they all nodded.

“But-the kids? What about them?” Tory said. “What if-”

Jolene looked at her watch and said, “The girls get off that bus at two-thirty, and I’m going to be right there to meet them. So we better make a decision.”

“He gave the men until tomorrow,” Debbie said fearfully. “I think.”

“And then you know what he threatened to do. Take the children. I’m sure as hell not taking any chances. Now I have two more minutes, girls. Callie’s got her soccer practice after this and I’ll be right there on the field. Here’s what I think. I’m as mad at the men as anybody. But I’m not calling the police. I won’t do it to George.”

“We can’t trust the men to handle this,” Tory said.

“Call me,” Jolene said. She patted her hair and picked up her purse. “I’m so damn mad I can’t think.”

When Jolene had gone, the women kicked back for a couple of minutes. Finally, Megan said, “We need a lawyer. To advise us.”

She was thinking about the business she had built up, the clients, what would happen if Green River got a judgment against her and Ted’s community assets. She was feeling humiliated about the night before. Ted had wanted to be punished-if she had it to do all over again, she’d have punished him for real when she tied him to the bed, she’d have beat the shit out of him.

She had never felt so wounded. “My boon companion,” she said, choking up, and put her hand over her eyes.

“Not you too, Megan, we need you to stay strong,” Tory said. “I think you have a good idea. If we could get somebody right away. Because our children are in danger.”

“How about the lawyer who’s defending Danny’s friend?” Debbie said. “She’s a criminal lawyer. I liked her.”

“But-wouldn’t she have a conflict of interest? She already has a client-”

“Maybe not,” Megan said. “She could consult with us confidentially, and if she can’t help us, she’d at least have to keep her mouth shut about the consultation.”

Tory said, “I vote we call her.”

“Me too,” Debbie said. “She’s probably in court right now.”

“We’ll leave an urgent message,” Megan said. “Now, meantime, if any of us talks to the men, it’ll all blow up even worse.
Capisce,
Debbie?”

“I’ll just watch TV and go to bed. I can do it.”

“I’ll pretend I’m sick. I am sick. Sick of Darryl not growing up,” Tory said. “Do you want me to talk to Jolene?”

“Yeah. I’ll call the lawyer,” Megan said.

The medical examiner, Dr. Rittenhauer, took the stand after lunch on the second day of the prelim. She was young, with a pleasant face and a practical haircut, and a recent medical degree from Columbia. She gave Wish a curious look and then turned to her papers. A very well-prepared lady, Nina thought. Nina hadn’t found much wrong with the autopsy report either, but she did have a couple of subjects she couldn’t wait to explore.

After the preliminaries, Jaime asked, “Did you perform the autopsy on the decedent later identified as Daniel Cervantes?”

“I did.” Nina pulled out her copy of the autopsy report, and Dr. Rittenhauer kept a hand on her own copy.

“Please summarize the autopsy findings for the court.”

“Certainly. The most conspicuous feature presenting externally was massive flame burns over about eighty percent of the skin. The burns penetrated very deeply into underlying musculature and internal organs in places. As I noted, this made it impossible at first to determine ethnicity, weight, nourishment, or age. We were able to tell that the body was that of a male over six feet in height. Almost all the clothing was burned away. However, we had an immediate break. As we turned over the body I noted that the posterior side had not been burned.”

“Go on.”

“The body, when I first saw it, was on its left side with the arms drawn up in a pugilistic attitude, common in burn victims. However, Monterey County sheriffs reported that when found on the mountain, the decedent lay on his back in that position. There had been a fire that had passed over him, but it didn’t burn the body so severely that it could get to the back. Therefore, when we turned it over, we saw clothing and skin. I was then able to identify the decedent as a young male, probably Hispanic, no particular identifying marks on the skin. He wore the remains of an army camouflage jacket, a white T-shirt, and jeans. Also the remains of a pair of steel-shanked boots were still on the feet. Around the waist, under the jacket, we found the remains of a black leather belt with silver conchos attached.”

“What kind of condition was this belt in?”

“In the back, good condition. There were six conchos still attached in back. In the front, the belt was burned but was still in one piece. There were four conchos, and two more were missing. CVPD did not locate those in the vicinity.”

Salas, Nina, and Jaime all scribbled a note.

“What else could you determine from the exterior of the body?”

“The hair in front had burned away. However, in back there remained hair on the scalp that was long and black. No scars, tattoos, moles in back. In front, impossible to determine. You have the autopsy photos, correct?”

“Yes, thank you, they are in evidence by stipulation. What did you do after this initial evaluation?”

“We attempted to take fingerprints, without success. We also took photos for identification. I then began a detailed examination of the body. Charring from direct contact with flames was extensive in front. We are talking about fourth-degree burns, which are incinerating injuries extending deeper than the skin. In general, however, the skin was burned away in front, with muscle exposed and ruptured. Unburned skin had a seared and leathery consistency. There was a partial skeletonization of the face due to soft tissue being burned away. Portions of the outer table of the skull had fallen away in the right frontal region.”

“And the clothing had been destroyed in front?”

“The camouflage jacket was made of cotton, which transmits more thermal energy than polyester, and provided almost no protection. The undershorts were of polyester, which protected the genitalia to some extent.”

“Which is how you knew immediately it was a male.” Paul was grimacing.

“Yes. Our dental consultant came in at that point and prepared a dental chart and took X rays of the remaining teeth to attempt to identify the body. When he was finished, I began examining the skull area. I observed some heat fractures on the skull.”

“What else, if anything, did you observe with regard to the skull?” Jaime said.

“I observed a severe linear skull fracture in the parietal area, obviously an impact injury. The fracture was several inches long and the skull had been slightly deformed by the impact of the object. I took photographs and called Detective Crockett to see if any objects near the body had been collected that might have been impact objects. Detective Crockett brought over a Canon camera with the remains of a long strap, a surprisingly heavy camera. I tried fitting it in various ways and found that the base fit the injury. At first I was puzzled because even though it was heavy I wondered how hitting the skull with a camera in your hand could cause such a severe injury. Then I tried swinging the camera by a portion of the strap. This added considerable impact velocity.”

“And what, if anything, did you conclude regarding-”

“Before I could come to any conclusions I completed the autopsy, including weighing and examining the internal organs. I was interested in the possibility of carbon-monoxide poisoning, what is sometimes referred to as smoke-inhalation injury, but the skin in back didn’t exhibit the cherry-red coloration I would expect and the subsequent lab tests confirmed there was very little CO in the blood. I also checked very carefully for soot around the nostril and in the trachea. There were only traces.”

Dr. Rittenhauer sat back. Her face said, There you have it.

Jaime said, “Those were your major findings?”

“Yes. I can go into much more detail if you have particular questions.”

“I think we have enough of a factual basis. I would now like to ask you some of the conclusions you may have come to pursuant to the autopsy.”

“Very well.”

“Could you identify the body?”

“Not as a result of the autopsy. I was informed that a report had been made of a missing person and for the first two days was working on the assumption that the victim might be Mr. Whitefeather. Apparently the shoes were a match to Doc Martens Mr. Whitefeather was known to wear. However, the next day, I believe it was, the uncle of the victim came in. He was able to make the identification based on the remains of the camouflage jacket, the concho belt, the long hair, the general build and height, the color of skin in back, and other factors.”

“And that identification was?”

“That the victim’s name was Daniel Cervantes.”

“All right. Could you determine whether the victim was alive at the time of the fire?”

“That’s difficult. It’s hard to tell if burning occurred before or after. There was no inflammatory reaction, which might tend toward an assumption that the burns took place after death. I would expect soot and perhaps some evidence of internal burns to be found around the breathing passages if the person was breathing at the time of the burn and for the CO level to be higher. I therefore concluded that the burns occurred postmortem.”