Chapter Thirty #2
“I’m okay. He must have punched me. All I remember is turning around, groceries in my hands, and he was there. His face. Then I woke up in the trunk. You need a statement.”
“We’ll get to that. Plenty of time for that. If they clear you, somebody’s going to take you home. First, Jamie’s fine, not hurt. Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“He was coming to the house, saw Dubecki carrying you, dumping you in the trunk. Dubecki shot at him, twice. Missed twice.”
“Oh my God. He could’ve been—”
“He wasn’t. We wouldn’t have been so close behind him if Jamie hadn’t called it in. Jamie’s bringing Zorro, and calling Zoey. They’re going to stay with you.”
He took her hand, held it in both of his. “I don’t know when I’ll get home. I’ve got chief-of-police shit to do.”
“I get it. I’m a cop’s girlfriend. Make that fiancée. I’m okay, Gideon. I heard your voice.”
“My voice?”
“When I panicked. When I woke up in the trunk and panicked. I heard your voice. Not a victim, a survivor.”
Overcome, he brought her hand to his lips, held it there. “I love you. We’ll talk about all the rest, but I love you.”
He signaled to one of the paramedics. “I need you to take a look at my fiancée.”
When Arden got home, both Jamie and Zoey waited under the portico. She’d barely stepped out of the car when Zorro came running.
She dropped down to hug him as he lapped at her everywhere, sang to her. “I’m okay, we’re all okay. Were you scared? I was scared, too, but we’re all okay. Let’s go inside.”
She grabbed Zoey’s hand, wrapped an arm around Jamie, who put his head on her shoulder.
“He shot at you. Gideon told me.”
“I was too far away to get to you. Oh, your poor, sweet face.” He swiped tears away from his own.
“Jamie got your purse, your groceries, and most importantly, Zorro.” Zoey squeezed her hard. “You dropped your keys, too, and we have them. We used them to get it all inside.”
“I made soup, it’s on the stove. And Nick’s making the brownies you like, and—and there’s fresh bread. He’ll bring them down. I just have to let him…”
When his voice broke, he shook his head. “Sorry, I’m a mess.”
“I could really use that soup, but before anything I need a hot shower.”
“I’ll go up with you.” Zoey took her hand.
“I’ll keep the soup on warm. Arden.” Jamie stroked gentle fingers on her bruised cheek. “Just tell me he’s locked up.”
“Under guard at the hospital. I’ll tell you everything after I shower and get dry clothes.”
“We’re staying,” Zoey said as they started upstairs. “Jamie, Nick, and I. Gideon doesn’t know when he can get back, so we’re staying in your guest rooms.”
“I know you’re worried, but you don’t need to worry now. I’m okay. I’m going to stay okay.”
“That’s right, you damn well are, but we’re staying tonight. I was going to do a full family video call—they don’t know yet—but I’ll do it while you shower and change. Seeing you banged up will upset everyone. I want them to know he’s in custody, and we’re here with you.”
Gideon met Brill and Venmar at the hospital.
“Hello, Columbus.”
“Chief.” Brill held out a hand first. “My partner and the newest contender for the Indy 500.”
“Good to meet you.” Venmar shook Gideon’s hand. “What’s the status?”
“He’s in surgery. She broke his jaw, and he lost a few teeth. Plus, when he hit the road, he’d been taking a leak. His dick took some damage.”
“No shit.” Brill grinned. “How?”
“Why don’t we have some crappy hospital food, and I’ll tell you?”
Over a passable meal, he gave them what he’d pieced together on scene, then backtracked to the beginning and the identification at the hotel.
“Smart enough to have the car painted, keep switching plates, getting new fake IDs.” Venmar shook his head. “But stupid enough to think, and he had to believe it, he could take Arden to the place in Washington State and, what, live behind some sort of force field that blocked out law enforcement?”
Gideon shrugged. “He got everything he wanted, one way or another, his whole life. Except whatever woman he decided he wanted at any given time of that life.”
“The shrinks will have a field day,” Brill commented.
Gideon’s face went to stone. “He’s legally sane.”
“Bet your ass,” she said, “and he won’t slip through that crack again. Two women are dead who shouldn’t be, and he did everything he could think of to cover his tracks.”
“What we know,” Venmar continued, “is that his mom’s the one who pushed and convinced him to take that crack before. She’s not alive to do that now. And what we’ve got? It wouldn’t fly a second time.”
“He’s done. I’m hoping we don’t have to work around you to take him back to Columbus. Matricide, it’s the big one.”
“If I pushed to keep him here, try him here for Arden over that, I’d lose. But I’d like a conversation with your prosecutor.”
“Consider it done.”
As Brill spoke, Kim walked up.
“He’s in recovery.”
“Will he be able to talk?”
“Doctor said in about an hour. They reset his jaw, his nose. She also busted his left eardrum.”
“That’s a fucking shame,” Brill said.
“Isn’t it? He’ll need a couple implants.” Kim tapped her teeth. “I didn’t ask how many stitches, but they called in a plastic surgeon for that.
“Beck is taking first guard shift. Hawk went back to the station to deal with some of the paperwork. We thought you might want to call in Nat to get into the laptop. She’s the best we’ve got on the cyber.”
“I’ll do that. You should go home.”
“I’m heading back to the station, Chief, to work with Hawk. I’m invested. We all are.”
“I’ll be in after I talk to Dubecki.” He glanced at his watch. “You’ve got time before closing to order pizza for whoever’s in the house. It’s on me.”
“I hear that. Good work, Chief.”
“Back at you, Officer.”
“You’ve got a good team,” Venmar commented.
“A good team, and Riverbend’s a good town. Now, I hope I don’t have to work around you to interview Dubecki on today’s incident before you have a crack at him.”
Brill lifted both hands. “We wouldn’t dream of getting in your way.”
Just over an hour later, Gideon stood looking down at the man in the hospital bed, the bandaged face, the blackened eyes that held nothing but rage.
Dubecki had to speak through his remaining teeth. “I’ll have your badge.”
“Right. Dustin Dubecki, this interview is being recorded. Do you understand your rights as were read to you?”
“I understand I have the right to tell you to fuck right off. I was attacked, viciously, and you have me cuffed to a hospital bed?”
“Who attacked you?”
“Arden Bowie. I want her arrested.”
“Arden Bowie attacked you? Was that before or after she escaped from the trunk of your car where you dumped her after you attacked her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We were going home, to my retreat in Washington State. She went crazy, hit me with a hammer or something. She suffers from a mental imbalance.”
“It was a lug wrench, which she retrieved from the trunk where you put her after you knocked her unconscious. Do you often take women home in the trunk of your car? Or, I should say, your mother’s car. Which you stole after you murdered her back in Columbus, Ohio.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dustin looked away. “My mother gave me that car to make the trip, to pick up Arden and go home.”
“Did she give you the car before or after you killed her?”
“Before—I didn’t. You’re trying to trick me.”
“You attacked Arden Bowie before, again in Columbus, Ohio.”
“That was a misunderstanding, nothing more than a spat, a lovers’ spat.”
“You admitted to the assault.”
“Under duress. I had an incompetent, corrupt lawyer and an incompetent judge. Now, I’ve driven for weeks, through storms, and—”
“Like the one in Colorado where you killed Hailey Parkinson?”
“I have no idea who that is. I want to talk to Arden. I want you to take these handcuffs off me, arrest her for being such a bitch. And I want to talk to her.”
“None of that is going to happen. You checked into the North Western Hotel in Riverbend using false identification.”
Dustin made a pff sound. “Just a joke. I wanted to surprise Arden. Go get her. Now. Do your goddamn job!”
More rage, Gideon thought. Still in the eyes, but spreading so under the bruising, against the bandages, his face reddened with it.
Didn’t like being told no. Being told no enraged him. So push on that button.
“You seem to be under the impression you can give orders. You can’t, and, seeing you killed her, Mommy’s not here to make it all better.”
“You’re an idiot. I never hurt my mother.”
“You took her jewelry after you killed her. It’s in the luggage she bought you, the luggage you left at the North Western.”
“Moron! She gave me all that. She was done with that asshole Lester and didn’t want the crap he gave her, so gave it to me. Somebody must have broken in after I left, strangled her. Lester! That asshole Lester because he realized she was leaving him.
“I never said she was strangled.”
“Yes, you did! You did, too.”
“The record will show otherwise. You beat and strangled your mother, stole her jewelry, her car. You hit her account up for a few thousand at an ATM the morning after you beat and strangled her.”
“Did not. You can’t prove it.”
Gideon gave him a wide grin. “Wanna bet, Dustin? Or is it Jesse? Maybe you like Samuel now?”
Studying him, Gideon took a chance. “You really paid out the ass for those IDs, and now they’re useless. The guy who made them? In custody and singing your name.
“We’ve got your laptop, your phone, too. We’re getting all kinds of good stuff out of them. The kind that’s putting you in a cell forever.”
“You can’t go through my personal property! I have rights!”
“That’s not one of them. Jesus, you’re stupid. You’re not even pathetic, Dustin. You’re nothing. You’re finished. Arden’s laughing at you right now.”
“She better not be! She better not be or she’ll be sorry.” The cuffs jangled as he pulled against them.
“Who’s going to make her sorry? You?” Gideon baited him with a grin designed to insult. “How?”