Chapter 14
AFTER MASON WAS gone, Stilwell went into the kitchen, took a Diet Coke from the refrigerator, and checked the pantry for something to eat.
There was little to choose from and that reminded him to ask Mercy to restock the shelves.
He found a bag of pretzels with a clip holding it closed and a Post-it Note saying the bag belonged to Ilsa.
It hit Stilwell then that she would probably never be back to the station.
Either the injury and recovery time would prevent it or the attractive injured-on-duty pension would make coming back a financial mistake.
He went into his office, sat down at the desk, and pulled up the sub’s cameras on his computer screen.
Stilwell switched to an interior camera.
The two men entered and Mercy greeted them, then turned them over to Mason.
The conversation was muffled because the two visitors stood with their backs to the camera and kept their voices low.
He did hear Mason ask for verification of the removal order from the magistrate.
One of the two visitors produced the document, which Mason read quickly.
“Do I keep this?” Mason asked.
The man’s answer was unintelligible no matter how many times Stilwell replayed it at various volumes.
“Then okay if I make a copy?” Mason said.
He must’ve received an affirmative response, because he got up and went to the copy machine.
Once he had a copy, he led the two men to the jail.
On the jail cameras, the men waited for Mason to unlock the cell.
They then entered and cuffed Kalas’s hands behind his back.
When Kalas was walked out of the cell, Stilwell had his best view of the visitors.
But the brims of their baseball caps hid much of their faces from the camera mounted in the upper corner of the room.
With each of the ICE agents holding one of his arms, Kalas was walked through the squad room and out the door. Stilwell called ICE agent Gordon back.
“I’m looking at video and I see two guys with ICE hats walking Kalas out of the station,” he said.
“Hey, after you called, I checked on this,” Gordon said. “As far as I can tell, it wasn’t us. I can’t find Kalas on the computer. That means either he’s still in transit or it wasn’t us.”
“Then keep checking the computer and let me know if he turns up.”
“Will do.”
“This is a murder of a law enforcement officer. They need to bring Kalas back here.”
“Got it, got it.”
Stilwell disconnected and stared at his computer screen while he thought about his next moves.
He didn’t know if he could trust anything Gordon said.
He could be lying about not having Kalas.
But if he was telling the truth, then Kalas had escaped.
In that case, Stilwell had just been cleared in one investigation of his actions only to face another.
While Mason would be the fall guy for actually allowing the prisoner to be walked out of the jail, the buck would stop with Stilwell as the station supervisor.
He would go back to the bench or worse just as the investigation of the missing hikers was picking up speed.
He couldn’t let that happen, but he also couldn’t ignore the possibility that Kalas was in the wind. He decided to start with a call to Ernie Simon at the homicide bureau.
“Stil, what’s up?” he said. “Did our guy confess his sins?”
“I actually have some bad news about him, Ernie,” Stilwell said.
“All I need on this case. Lay it on me, brother.”
“I was off today and went over to the mainland to visit Ramirez. While I was gone, ICE showed up out here and took Kalas.”
“Those motherfuckers—they didn’t know he’s our suspect?”
“We were only holding him on the ICE warrant, remember? They either didn’t know or didn’t care about our case.”
“That’s fucked up. Who gave him to them?”
“We had a deputy on duty. They had a transfer order from a magistrate. I can send it to you if you want to take a look.”
“What good would that do? This is some serious bullshit. Did you try to find out where they took him?”
“I called the agent whose name is on the hold and he claimed he didn’t know about the pickup. I told him we want Kalas back but I don’t know how motivated he’ll be to find him.”
“Text me his name and number. I’ll call him and light a fire.”
“Will do.”
“And give me the name of the magistrate. We might have to get him involved in producing the body.”
“You got it.”
“What I ought to do is leak to the Times that ICE stole the suspect in the murder of a sheriff’s deputy.”
“That might cause more trouble for you than them. There was something off about the pickup.”
“Like what?”
“Just the way they did it. The pickup order is from a magistrate in the Southern District.”
“That’s weird. Does it look legit?”
“Yeah, it looks legit, but the deputy only made a copy of it, he didn’t keep it, so I’m not looking at the original.”
“All right, send me that too. I’ll talk to the captain about what he wants to do. Anything else happening out there? I heard you were cleared back to full duty.”
“I was, and thanks for whatever your part was in that. So, anything you need from out here, give me a call.”
“Right now, what I need is our prisoner back. How do you think they got him off the island?”
“Helo, government boat—take your pick if they were legit. If not, they could have just jumped on the Express. You want me to try to run that down?”
“Um, not yet. Let me see what I can find out first.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll get back to you.”
“I’ll be here.”
Stilwell was satisfied that he would be able to operate until it was determined whether Kalas was in federal custody or had escaped.
After the call ended, he got up and stood in front of the map of the island that was mounted on the office wall.
It showed the island’s established hiking trails and campgrounds as well as their elevations.
As he looked at it, he pulled out his cell and called Tash.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked.
“I need to ask you another TCT question,” he said.
“Sure.”
“Just looking at a trail map here. You said you think the third leg would be at the gulch.”
“I do, yes.”
“That looks like it would work if you went straight from the second to the third leg. What if you were breaking it up? Hermit Gulch would be kind of hard to get to, wouldn’t it?”
“Hmm. You mean like on different days or visits?”
“Exactly.”
“Then I guess it would depend on what kind of hiker you were. You know, experience level and skill, equipment, all that stuff.”
“Okay, let’s say experienced. Pretty highly skilled. Top-of-the-line equipment.”
“Then probably you’d start at the campground at Black Jack Mountain on the third leg. If it were me, that’s where I would start.”
Stilwell ran his finger along the trail on the map until he found Black Jack Mountain.
“Okay,” he said. “And how far would you plan to go from there in a day?”
“It depends on how often you stop to rest or eat or just enjoy the views,” Tash said.
“But if it were me, I’d get to Soapstone Quarry.
It’s not that far, but it’s pretty rugged up there.
And high. Soapstone’s only a few miles, but they’re slow miles.
A lot of switchbacks. But if you’re ambitious, you could go all the way down to Little Harbor. ”
Stilwell followed the trail with his finger to Little Harbor on the back of the island.
“And you can get a ride up there to Black Jack?” he asked.
“Sure, easy,” Tash said. “You can arrange it. Why are you asking about the TCT?”
“I wasn’t out here then, but do you remember Angela Metier, the hiker who went missing about four years ago?”
“Of course. I helped look for her. Is there something new?”
“No, not really, but I’m looking into that case.”
“Don’t get obsessed like Lionel.”
She was referring to McKey, the reporter for the Call. They had grown up together, attended twelve grades of school together, and Stilwell wasn’t really sure how close they were.
“Why is Lionel obsessed?” Stilwell asked.
“I don’t know,” Tash said. “He just wrote about it a lot when they were looking for her up there. He seemed to care more about her than your predecessor did.”
Stilwell had inherited the post on the island from an investigator named Dan King who’d treated the assignment as a punishment and therefore did little to integrate himself into the community and generally got low marks in the protect-and-serve part of the job.
Stilwell changed the subject.
“Are you still off tomorrow?” he asked.
“I am,” Tash said. “You want to go up there and look around?”
“I was thinking about it. Just to get a feel for it. But only if you would be my guide.”
“Love to. We should go early, though. When you’re up that high, the sun is superhot by midday.”
“Fine by me. I’m off tomorrow and I can go up anytime.”
“We also need to register with the conservancy and get passes.”
“Can you handle that?”
“Yes, and I’ll put together a pack tonight. We’re going up and back, right? No camping?”
“No camping. I’ll need to get back.”
“Deal. When am I going to see you tonight?”
“I’m heading home in a little bit.”
“Me too. See you then.”