Chapter 24
STILWELL WENT DOWN a hall to the barracks. It was a spacious room that slept six in three sets of double bunks. As with the sheriff’s deputies assigned to Catalina, many of the CIC rangers lived off island and used the bunks between their twelve-hour shifts.
The room was empty, but Stilwell heard a toilet flush, and Middleton came through the door of the lavatory, buckling his belt.
He was six feet tall with the ruddy complexion that seemed standard with most of the rangers Stilwell knew.
He was in his late thirties with reddish-brown hair and green eyes.
To Stilwell, he looked normal. That is, he looked like a guy who was ready to tell you about the feeding habits of the mule deer, not like a man hiding an impenetrable darkness.
“Stil, I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?” Stilwell responded.
“I was supposed to get back to you about the records on the search four years ago for Angela Metier.”
“Or I was supposed to check back with you about it and here I am. Did you find anything?”
“I found some stuff, not a lot. Nothing that I think will break the case.”
“That’s okay. You never know what will break open a case. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“It’s in my locker.”
He walked over to a wall of lockers and started working a combination with his back turned to Stilwell.
Stilwell shifted to his right so he could catch a glimpse of the inside of Middleton’s locker when he opened it.
“So, how’s the case going?” Middleton said.
“Uh, well, it’s not really my case,” Stilwell said. “Homicide overtown has it. They’ve got me running errands—like picking up reports from you.”
Stilwell saw a ranger jacket on a hook in the locker. Not much else. No photos or keepsakes like cops often have in their cubbies. There was a shelf, and Middleton took a thin file off it and turned.
“I couldn’t find much,” he said, handing the file to Stilwell. “Mostly just search sectors and lists of volunteers. I think the actual investigation was handled by you sheriffs.”
Something about the way he said you sheriffs carried a touch of hostility that Stilwell had heard before when he sat across the table from criminals.
“Yeah, I checked our files already,” he said. “Not much there.”
He gestured toward the open locker.
“Doesn’t look like you bunk here,” he said. “You got a place in town?”
“No, I got it better,” Middleton said. “I got a girlfriend who has a place in town. I heard you got the same setup.”
“Not exactly,” Stilwell said.
“Well, that’s what I heard,” Middleton said.
Stilwell looked down and opened the file. The first page was a call sheet. Names and numbers of the citizens who searched for Angela Metier. Seven entries down, he saw the name Tash Dano and the cell number she still used.
He closed the file.
“You heading up to Eagle’s Nest now?” he asked.
“Yeah, Mick wants me to go back,” Middleton said.
“It’s the seniors there, right?”
“Uh-huh, some kind of retreat where they all sit around and talk about getting off the island. They don’t know how good they got it here.”
“I need to go up there and talk to a kid. Can I ride with you?”
“Uh, yeah, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to take you back down.”
“I’ve got a two-way. I’ll have one of my guys come get me.”
“Okay, then, you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
On the ride up in Middleton’s 4Runner, Stilwell tried to keep the conversation casual, but he had a purpose to his questions. He knew he had fifteen minutes until they reached their destination and he wanted to make the most of it.
“Your girlfriend, she’s a local?” he asked.
“Not originally,” Middleton said. “But she’s been out here twelve years. I guess the only way to ever be considered local is to be born here. Otherwise, you’re an overlander.”
“True. She also a ranger?”
“Nah, I don’t fish off the company dock. She’s a bartender.”
“Which place?”
“The Buffalo Nickel.”
“My favorite bar. If she works there, she’s either Gwen or Melissa.”
“Gwen. Funny, I don’t remember seeing you in there. And I end up there two, three times a week. Have to kind of keep my eye on her, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, she’s an attractive woman. You think you’ll stay?”
“You mean stay together?”
Stilwell laughed.
“No, I’m not trying to get that personal. I meant stay out here on the island. Working for the conservancy.”
“Oh, well, I like it out here, but there’s no advancement. There’s the captain, two shift supervisors, then all of us rangers. I have an application in with the state and hope to get off this rock as soon as something comes through.”
“Where will you go?”
“Wherever they send me. I won’t really have a say. But I’d love Malibu. That way I’d be able to keep the girlfriend, because it’s close to here and she’s never leaving the island.”
“I got one of those too.”
“You’re with the harbormaster, right?”
Stilwell realized he had opened a door to his personal life and that was a mistake. He tried to talk his way out of it without letting on that he thought he might be speaking to a serial killer.
“Uh, interim for the moment,” he said. “Her job, I mean. She’s waiting on the city council to decide between her and an overlander.”
“Oh, she’ll get it,” Middleton said. “Locals always have the inside track.”
“Hope so.”
Middleton parked the 4Runner next to two vans and two other 4Runners at the Eagle’s Nest clearing.
“Why do you need to talk to a kid up here?” Middleton said.
“It’s part of a vandalism investigation.”
“You must miss working homicide.”
“How so?”
“You know, you were working murders and that was important. Now you work vandalism.”
“Vandalism is important to the victim.”
“Yeah, but I mean important to you. You were after big game before. Now, what—high-school students? What did this kid do, break a window or something?”
“It’s a little more involved than that. But, hey, thanks for the ride.”
“You sure you have a ride back?”
“I’ll work on that now. By the way, when I get up there, I might need to take a few photos—if I’m right about something.”
“Roger that. Do what you gotta do.”
They got out and Middleton went back to work with the two other rangers. Stilwell keyed the mic on his two-way.
“Base One, come back.”
Soon he heard Mercy say, “Go ahead, boss.”
“Check the deployment screen. Who is closest to Eagle’s Nest?”
There was a pause while she checked.
“That would be Deputy McGowan.”
“Is he on a callout?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Copy. Out.”
Stilwell radioed McGowan and asked him to come pick him up at Eagle’s Nest. He then clipped the radio to his belt and walked up to the clearing. He saw about twenty-five kids sitting on the ground in a circle. Many were wearing shirts or ball caps with the school’s colors: yellow and blue.
Marquez’s grandson was easy to spot. He was the one wearing shorts and a large white bandage wrapped around his right calf.