Tax Assassin (7 page)

“
The spect matches the one
you ran from the 1913 case?” Seth asked.

“
I don’t have it in front
of me, but I’d say it’s close,” Ava said. “I’d have to see our scan
to be sure, but I’m pretty sure McGinty’s 1995 murders match the
spect signature of the case in southeastern Colorado.”

“
From 1913?” Seth
asked.

Ava nodded. Seth fell silent. He refilled
her cup without asking and set the pot down. She smiled at his
mistake; he was too lost in thought to notice.

“
What?” she asked when she
couldn’t stand waiting any longer.

“
Assuming your 1913 case is
the first, you’re looking at a little less than a hundred years,”
Seth said. “At four a summer, you’re talking . . .”

“
Four hundred murders,” Ava
said.

“
Good Lord.”

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SEVEN

Seth nodded to the security guard sitting at
the entrance to the Denver Central Library. He looked around the
main lobby before walking to a wall plaque to figure out where he
needed to go. Hearing a gurgle, he looked down at the infant he
carried in front of him in a maroon sling. She looked up at him and
he smiled. Sandy had called to say that her baby, Rachel Ann,
seemed a little sick and might be getting her first tooth. Rather
than send her to daycare, he said he would take her for the day. He
put her pacifier back in her mouth and she pulled it out. Smiling
at Rachel, he took the escalator to the fifth floor to the Western
History and Genealogy Center.

“
O’Malley!” A man’s voice
came from the office behind the counter.

“
Les,” Seth
said.

“
Jeez, man, I heard you
were dating some sweet young thing, but don’t you think that’s a
little young?” the voice said.

Seth laughed.

“
Just a second,” Les
said.

When he heard a woman say, “I am not
speaking to that man,” he turned his back to the office to look out
at the Western History and Genealogy Center. He had called before
coming down. The head librarian had made sure Jocelyn was here when
he arrived. That was all he would guarantee. Les and Jocelyn argued
back and forth in a low, unintelligible rumble.

Seth took Rachel out of the sling. Rachel
had wide blue eyes, light blonde curls, and her grandmother’s big
smile. Like her grandmother, Rachel’s delicate beauty covered the
heart of a lion.

He looked up when an elderly woman stormed
out of the reference librarian’s office. Her stiff walk was as
tight as the bun on her head and support stockings. Rachel tugged
on his hair. She laughed when he looked back at her.

The woman stopped in place.

Happy to have his full attention, Rachel
showed him the new trick she’d learned from her elder brothers and
sisters. She clapped. Before she could stop herself, the woman
drifted over to them.

“
She looks just like Andy,”
the woman whispered.

Knowing better than to say anything, Seth
nodded. The woman sniffed.

“
Did Andy get a chance . .
.?”

“
They met once, when she
and Sandy met,” Seth said. “Just a few hours before she
died.”

“
I know I don’t have a
right, but . . .” The woman looked up at Seth and
held her arms out. “May I?”

He smiled and set Rachel in her hands.
Rachel clapped.

“
She just learned to clap,”
Seth said. “She’s pretty happy about it.”

“
That’s very good,” the
woman said.

“
This is Rachel Ann,” Seth
said.

“
Nice to meet you, Rachel
Ann.”

Rachel put her hand on the woman’s cheek as
if she wanted her to say her name.

“
I’m Jocelyn,” the woman
said.

Rachel looked at Seth as if he was to
facilitate the introduction. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
the head librarian peek out of his office.

“
Jocelyn is the Colorado
historical librarian,” Seth said to Rachel. “She knows everything
about anything that happened in the state. She was a good friend of
your grandmother, Andy Mendy, and . . .”

He leaned forward as if he was telling
Rachel a secret.

“
She doesn’t like me
much.”

Rachel looked surprised and looked at
Jocelyn. The librarian gave a tear-filled laugh.

“
Did you bring her to
soften me up?” Jocelyn asked.

“
Sandy thinks her first
tooth is coming in,” Seth said. “She asked if I would keep an eye
on her. Rachel and I are old friends. She came two months early. We
had a hard fight to keep her with us.”

Jocelyn’s eyes scanned Seth’s face. She
nodded as if she understood.

“
Why are you here?” Jocelyn
asked.

“
I wanted to look at the
tax records from 1913,” Seth said.

“
Death of the tax agent?”
Jocelyn asked.

“
How’d you guess?” Seth
asked.

“
The CBI looked into it a
few years ago,” Jocelyn said. “Why are you interested?”

“
I’m following up on a case
for an old friend,” Seth said. “Might be a link to the tax agent’s
death.”

Jocelyn’s mistrustful eyes watched him as if
he was a deadly snake.

“
You know, Sandy has all of
Andy’s belongings,” Seth said. “It’s taken a while, with the baby
and everything, but I think she has a few things for you. We
weren’t sure . . .?”

“
Like what?”

“
Old photos, mostly,” Seth
said. “A few concert photos; there’s a cute one of you and Andy
performing outside . . .”

“
Probably The Pops,”
Jocelyn smiled. “We played coast to coast in ’69 and ’70. You were
redoing high school.”

Seth smiled. Rachel made a loud “Bah!” and
Jocelyn looked back at her.

“
She likes to talk,” Seth
said. “Sandy has her husband’s kids and her teenage brother and
sister. Rachel’s used to lots of chatting.”

Jocelyn smiled at Rachel and then squinted
at Seth.

“
The death of the tax agent
is one of my favorite stories,” Jocelyn said. “Did you know
that?”

“
Not until Les told
me.”

“
What do you want to
know?”

“
Anything you know,” Seth
said. “Never know what might lead us to the killer.”

“
You think the person who
killed this guy is still killing people?” Jocelyn asked.

“
Yes, Jocelyn, I think the
same person is killing people across the country,” Seth
smiled.

“
Zombies?”

“
Vampire
probably.”

“
I thought zombies were the
thing now.”

Seth smiled.

“
How many
people?”

“
I know of sixty,” Seth
said. “I’m guessing maybe four hundred over the last hundred years
or so.”

“
Four hundred people.”
Jocelyn’s voice went low with disbelief.

Seth smiled. She watched him for a moment
before seeming to come to some decision.

“
I’ll only help if you
agree to one thing,” Jocelyn said.

“
What’s that?”

“
You have to come in and
tell your personal story, warts and all, on record – audio, video
and what not – for the library,” Jocelyn said. “You’re a living
legend, Seth.”

“
Done.”

“
Oh, and you have to tell
me what happens,” Jocelyn said. “I always hate not
knowing.”

“
I’ll take you to lunch,”
Seth said.

“
With Sandy and the
baby?”

“
I’ll ask her,” Seth said.
“She only met Andy the one time. She hasn’t met any of her mother’s
old friends. The whole thing is a little . . .
confusing. I bet she’d like to meet you.”

“
Good. Follow
me.”

Jocelyn picked up Rachel, tucked her on her
hip, and took off across the library floor. Seth had to hustle to
keep up. Jocelyn pointed to a large, heavy book of maps.

“
That one,” Jocelyn
said.

Seth picked it up and they trotted over to a
small study room. Seth set the book on the table with a thud.
Jocelyn stood by a chair until Seth realized she wanted him to pull
it out for her. He did. She sat down with Rachel.

“
Take a seat,” Jocelyn
said. “Did you bring a recorder?”

“
Don’t need one,” Seth
said. “I’ll remember.”

“
You’ll remember?” Her
voice wasn’t unkind, but relayed her disbelief.

“
I remember everything,
Jocelyn,” Seth said.

“
Everything?” Jocelyn eyes’
flashed with compassion.

Seth pursed his lips and nodded.

“
I’m sorry.”

“
That’s why I drank so
much,” Seth said. “To forget.”

“
Did it work?”

“
Not really,” Seth
said.

Jocelyn put her hand over his and gave it a
squeeze. He nodded.

“
Shall we?” Jocelyn
asked.

“
Please.”

EIGHT

“
What do you know about
property taxes?”

“
Nothing,” Seth said. “I
think my mortgage pays them via escrow. I don’t know; Sandy set it
up. Should I call her?”

Jocelyn smiled.

“
I’m a drug addict and
alcoholic,” Seth said. “Money and I don’t mix.”

She chuckled, and he shrugged.

“
I meant the property tax
system.”

“
Nothing,” Seth
said.

“
I’ll keep it relevant,”
Jocelyn smiled at Rachel. “Ulysses S. Grant declared Colorado a
state in 1876. Property taxes were instituted that
year.”

“
So fast?”

“
Yes,” Jocelyn said. “They
looked around to see who could fund the new state and build all
these nice buildings, and realized the railroad had to come through
the state. The first property taxes were on the railroad and big
business. The original tax board was created in 1876 and in 1877 a
court ruling gutted the power from the board.”

She looked up from Rachel to see if Seth was
listening. He gave her an affirming nod.

“
Anyway, there was a lot of
this and that – create a board, disband a board, and on and on.
Typical Colorado,” she said. “In 1913, the State Tax Commission was
created. This second board brought property taxes to regular
people. 1913 was the first time residents and landowners –
individuals – were taxed and the first time anyone had assessed the
value of Colorado property.”

“
How much was Colorado
worth?”

“
I don’t remember
everything,” Jocelyn smiled.

He smiled in return.

“
Have you heard of the
Great Blizzard of 1913?” Jocelyn asked.

“
Maybe,” Seth
shrugged.

“
Forty-five point seven
inches dropped between December 1 and 6. It’s the greatest amount
of snowfall from one storm,” she said. “The storm blanketed the
western part of the state with snow. Georgetown was the hardest
hit, with more than seven feet of snow. They say there were
twenty-foot drifts.”

“
That’s a lot of
snow.”

“
More than twenty million
tons of snow,” she nodded. “Transportation completely stopped;
buildings collapsed under the weight of the snow; people and
livestock died. They didn’t have snow-moving equipment. They had to
dig their way out with shovels and strong backs.

“
Do you have one of those
fancy phones?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“
Well, you can look up the
photos online,” Jocelyn said. “They lined up the wagons and
shoveled snow into them.”

“
And the tax agent?” Seth
asked. Rachel said, “Bah!” and waved her fist.

“
Yes, ‘Get to the point Ms.
Jocelyn,’ Rachel says,” Jocelyn chuckled at the baby. “Your
grandmother used to say, ‘Oh Jocelyn can go on and on.’”

Seth smiled.

“
The tax agent set out from
Denver on the first of November. His goal was to work his way
through the larger ranches and end up in Trinidad by Thanksgiving.
His family met him at the Columbia Hotel downtown.”

Seth had the sense that these little details
were important. He leaned back to take it all in.

“
His name was Paul Bradley.
He was the younger brother of Peter Bradley. Heard of
him?”

Seth shook his head.

“
Peter Bradley was an
industrialist who specialized in fertilizer, lumber, and heavy
machinery. He was the silent partner in importing and breeding
Arabian horses in the US. Lived in Boston,” Jocelyn said. “He sent
his brother out to Colorado to buy timber and grazing land, get in
good with the mining operations to sell machinery, and see what
else he could invest in. That’s officially why he sent his
brother.“

“
His letters indicate that
he actually sent his brother to Colorado to create a pipeline for
his horses. Paul Bradley took the tax agent job as a way of getting
to know ranchers all over the state. As you can imagine, no one was
all that happy about having foreign horses here in
Colorado.”

“
As a tax man, he would be
out on the ranches,” Seth said. “He’d know what ranches were ready
to fold, where the virgin timber was . . .”