40. I’m Going to Find You
FORTY
I’m Going to Find You
Harry
H arry stood in Roy Farrell’s living room, letting the feeling of dread that had been creeping since he gagged his way through walking up to a very dead Farrell in his car move over him.
The living room was clean. Not just tidy, clean .
Floors vacuumed. No dust on the furniture. Even the fucking pillows were fluffed.
The kitchen, an entirely different story.
Dirty dishes in the sink. A full dishwasher that hadn’t been started. Crumbs and spills on the counter. Coffee forming mold in the coffeemaker.
Same with the bedroom and laundry room.
Unmade bed. Dirty clothes on the floor. Overflowing hampers in the laundry room.
Harry didn’t move even as Rus made his way into the house.
They exchanged a glance, and Harry stayed where he was as Rus conducted his own inspection.
Eventually, Rus came to stand at his side.
“Theresa says carbon monoxide poisoning,” Rus shared.
“She’ll find sedatives in his stomach.”
“She will?”
Harry crouched.
Rus crouched with him.
Harry pointed under the couch. “Karl missed one.”
“Fuck,” Rus said, and Harry knew Rus saw the little blue pill there.
They both straightened.
“Struggle in here,” Rus caught on quick and started to run it down. “Farrell in shit shape, Abernathy got him subdued, forced the pills in him, waited for him to go unconscious, took him out to his car, started it up. Death would seem like suicide, even the sedatives wouldn’t bely that. You find a note?”
“Nope.”
“No note. Man’s got children. He’d explain. Clean in here, the rest of the house is a mess,” Rus kept on. “He swept away prints, DNA, but he wasn’t smart enough to go through the rest of the house. Instead, this is like a neon sign that says, ‘something happened in here.’”
“Theresa notice any bruising that might indicate he was in a struggle?” Harry asked.
“She didn’t say. But she was just strapping him to the gurney when I arrived. She’ll find out more when she gets him on her table.”
Harry stared at a living room that was far less attractive than the one his mom and dad left him and Winnie, even if it was less dated.
Roy Farrell had cheated on his wife repeatedly. She kept taking him back. Until she couldn’t hack it anymore.
She left, taking the kids with her.
Through water cooler talk, Harry knew Farrell fought for full custody, just to be an asshole, and bitched about it constantly, because attorneys cost a fortune.
In the end, they shared custody, and that was all Harry knew about it, especially the last nearly four years when Farrell had been out of the department.
Then again, there were two kids’ rooms in that house, and it didn’t look like they’d been touched in years. Doing the mental math, his son was close to graduation, his daughter also in high school, and both rooms were still little kids’ rooms no teenager would be caught dead in.
It didn’t take an investigator’s power of deduction to theorize that the kids were about as fond of their dad being a cheating loser as their mother was. They got older, they found ways to stay away from him.
Farrell ended his life working security at Box and Save, MP’s big box store. He was head of it, but it had to be a pay cut. It was definitely a status drop.
Could be, he just couldn’t afford to feed three mouths when he was so intent to stuff so much into one.
“You have a look at those bank statements?” Rus asked.
Harry turned to him. “Abernathy’s?”
Rus nodded.
“Been kind of busy, what’d you see?”
“Consistent deposits. Cash. Five hundred here, a thousand there. Nothing the IRS would ask questions about. But also not on any schedule. Sometimes months would go by, nothing. Then there’d be random deposits for a few months, then nothing again. Though, over the years, that shit was adding up.”
“To what?”
“Last count, around forty K.”
Harry whistled.
“I called the bank. Asked them to dig back further, give me everything they got,” Rus said.
“Bribes?” Harry asked.
Rus shrugged. “My guess, yes. We’ve heard no word he had alternate employment, unless he took cash under the table. Though, why the man would be stupid enough to deposit them, I have no idea. But if that’s the case, he’s been on the take or hiding income from the IRS for at least the last seven years, even after he quit the department and before Ballard was killed.”
Abruptly, Harry felt his throat close.
Now he knew what it meant when that shoe dropped.
They’d been working together long enough, Rus instantly went alert.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Even after he quit?” Harry asked back.
“Yeah. Actually, there were more then.”
“And before Ballard was killed?”
Rus fell silent.
Then his body jerked when his mind hit the same plain Harry’s was on.
“Get on the bank, Rus. Expedite that shit,” Harry said.
“Saw a picture of him,” Rus replied. “Dark hair. White guy. Beard.”
Dark hair, white guy, always wore a beard.
Goddamn it.
“He’s shit scared,” Rus said quietly.
“He’s shit scared,” Harry agreed.
“Cheryl Ballard is even more scared. She knows.”
“She knows,” Harry stated.
“And if he can find her, she’s next.”
“Yep. She’s next,” Harry said. “I’ll talk to Theresa. If there’s anyone in line before Farrell, I’ll owe her a marker to get them bumped. I want Farrell’s death declared a homicide. I want it everywhere we’re looking for Karl Abernathy as a person of interest in four homicides. I want the Dietrichs’ son to understand we’re now worried for their safety, and they need to come in so we can see to it. I want Cheryl Ballard’s next of kin to know the same thing. And I want Dern, Patterson and Bakshi back in my interrogation room.”
“Abernathy’s also wanted for two cases of sexual assault, along with five of attempted sexual assault.”
At this news, fury coursed through Harry’s body, and he had no choice but to stand there and let it burn down deep.
“Abernathy committed the robbery at the Dietrichs’ behest,” Rus spoke the words out loud.
“He committed the robbery,” Harry agreed.
“He framed Sonny and Avery.”
“He framed Sonny and Avery either because Dern was involved and wanted it that way, or for the reason he tracked Sonny and Avery to Idaho, something Dern knew nothing about. Because Karl thought Sonny saw him at the Dietrichs,” Harry confirmed.
“And he killed them there,” Rus repeated.
“Yup.”
“And he’s been blackmailing the Dietrichs since then,” Rus kept running it down.
“Mm-hmm.”
“He left the gun with the bodies so if they were found, the Dietrichs would be tagged, because this asshole is all about the frameup and covering his ass,” Rus continued.
“Right again.”
“The prints on the gun will be one of the Dietrichs’, because it was their gun, and he wouldn’t have wiped it in order that he could tag them if it came down to it.”
Harry nodded.
“He told Cheryl, somehow Muggsy found out, Muggsy wanted in on the action, that was going to be his big payday.”
“And Karl took him out, Roy covered for him, and now Karl is cleaning up after himself,” Harry finished it.
“Fuck,” Rus said.
“Oh yeah,” Harry agreed.
Rus walked away, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
Harry crouched again and looked at the little blue pill.
“I’m going to find you, you motherfucker,” he whispered.
Then he stood and prowled out of that fetid house right to his cruiser.