Chapter 13. Almost Heaven
ALMOST HEAVEN
WHITNEY
Though there were several months to go in my pregnancy and I’d already built a cradle for the baby out of a Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrel, it couldn’t hurt to get a head start on building the crib, too.
To that end, I drove to the home improvement store on Wednesday morning to buy wood slats, spindles, and finials.
I also bought lockable wheels for the legs so we could move the crib about easily.
I’d loaded the wood and hardware into the cart and stood in the paint department, debating between an elegant dark stain or more casual white paint, when my cell phone rang.
The caller ID indicated it was Detective Alonzo calling.
I tapped the screen to accept the call and put the phone to my ear, hoping she’d have good news.
“Hi, Detective. Did you make an arrest?”
“We did,” she said. “Quentin Sanderson is in custody. The shopping center cameras picked up his car this past Monday, as well as the Tuesday before. Three linemen from MTE saw his Charger speeding away a few minutes after Deputy Swisher passed them with his lights and siren on. Sanderson didn’t slow down when he passed their truck and he nearly clipped them.
Needless to say, the man who was up in the bucket had a few choice words to say about him. ”
Relief swept through me, relaxing the tension I’d held in my neck and shoulders since seeing Tyler dead on the ground at the barn. Thank goodness the investigation had been resolved quickly. “So, he did it, then. He killed Tyler Yee.”
I’d meant my words more as a statement than a question, so I was shocked when Detective Alonzo came back with, “No. Sanderson didn’t do it. He might have been responsible for Yee’s death, but he didn’t do the actual killing.”
“What are you saying?”
“Sanderson trailed Yee to the area. We could tell that from the cameras. But once Yee headed up the muddy drive to the barn, Sanderson turned into the shopping center and parked. He bought a coffee and took it to his car, but that’s it.
He sat in his car the rest of the morning until shortly after Deputy Swisher arrived on the scene.
Same with the Tuesday before. He just sat in his car and waited while Yee handled his business at the barn. ”
My head spun as if I’d inhaled paint fumes, but all the cans on the shelves around me were tightly sealed. “What does this mean?”
“At the least, it means Sanderson was still stalking Yee, despite the order of protection. But it’s possible he arranged to have Yee killed by one of his former associates from the nightclub.”
“But why?”
“Yee was dating Sanderson’s ex-girlfriend, Bianca. They lived together, in fact, along with her five-year-old son. Sanderson is the boy’s father.”
“He killed Tyler out of jealousy, then?”
“Possibly. I’ve spoken with Bianca. She said she broke ties with Sanderson when he was arrested.
She’d been trying to get out of the relationship for a while, but Sanderson threatened to sue for full custody of their son if she left him.
She was a stay-at-home mom with no income, and couldn’t afford an attorney.
Sanderson paid their rent and bills, and tossed her a few bucks for diapers or groceries when needed, but he didn’t give her control over any of his money.
Her family wasn’t in a position to help. They were barely getting by.”
How cruel for Sanderson to use their son as a bargaining chip and means of control.
I couldn’t imagine using my child like a pawn.
I’d want the best for him or her, no matter what sacrifices it required of me.
I fumed, my hands clenching so tight it was a wonder my phone didn’t crack to pieces in my hand.
Alonzo continued. “Bianca was arrested once for driving under the influence when she was in her early twenties, before she got pregnant. She admitted she used to be a party girl. She met Sanderson when she and her friends went dancing at the nightclub where he worked. Sanderson planned to use the DUI against Bianca and argue that she was a risk to their baby, even though she gave up liquor entirely once she found out she was pregnant and hasn’t touched a drop since—or so she says.
She didn’t want to risk losing her son, so she stuck it out even though she was miserable with Sanderson.
When he went to prison, she saw it as an opportunity to end their relationship and free herself from him.
She lay low, hoping he wouldn’t find out where she and their son were living when he was released.
She said she wanted nothing to do with him once she learned what he’d been involved in, the drugs and beatings and God knows what else. ”
“She hadn’t known?”
“Says she didn’t have a clue. He’d come home with bruises or bloody knuckles sometimes, but he’d claim he’d been injured dealing with a rowdy patron at the nightclub.”
It was a plausible explanation. He purportedly worked as a bouncer, after all.
“Bianca met Yee when he was doing research for an article on the nightclub arrests. He showed up at the place she’d shared with Sanderson as she was packing up to move out.
Bianca told me they immediately hit it off.
She convinced Yee to kill the story. She feared there might be repercussions.
Somehow, Sanderson later learned that Bianca was in a relationship with Yee and that they were living together.
She thinks Sanderson might have staked out her parents’ house and followed her back to Yee’s condo without her realizing it.
She said she tried to be very careful when she visited her family.
She’d take multiple Ubers and cut through shopping malls on foot in case she was being trailed, but he must’ve managed to follow her anyway. ”
“What a creep.”
Alonzo issued an “mm-hmm” in agreement. “He’s got some exceedingly seedy connections, any of whom wouldn’t think twice about ending someone’s life for a pack of cigarettes.”
I pondered the situation aloud. “If Sanderson had hired a hit on Tyler Yee, wouldn’t the cameras on the shopping center have recorded the killer’s vehicle going down the drive to the Pittman property?”
“The only cars that drove down that muddy road Monday morning before Yee was killed were yours and his,” she said.
“The cameras picked up two vehicles Saturday evening after dark, but we couldn’t get license plates, makes, or models on them.
It was too dark. The cars came back up the road shortly before midnight.
My guess is that it was teenagers looking for a place to party. ”
She’d evidently reached the same conclusion I had about the empty beer cans and liquor bottle in the hayloft. “Do you think the killer might have come up the gravel road behind the cow pasture?”
“I considered that,” she said. “It ends at a paved road on the adjacent parcel of land. If there were any tire tracks on the asphalt, the rain washed them away.”
My mind went to the cute collie, Ruby, who liked to run along the fence when cars went by. I told the detective about the dog. “If someone drove along that back fence, the dog might have picked them up on her collar camera.”
“I’m aware of the animal cams,” she said.
“I saw the screens when I went into the Victory Garden to ask about accessing their security camera footage. The owners of the restaurant told me the animal cameras are live feeds only. The footage isn’t recorded because it’s only meant for entertainment purposes for their patrons.
Even if it had been recorded, it probably wouldn’t have been useful.
None of the stationary cameras on the chicken coop, pig pen, and other enclosures face the back of the pasture.
The owners told me their dog doesn’t like water and had been hiding from the rain all morning in her doghouse. ”
The timing of the storm was certainly a very unfortunate coincidence. Or was it?
Again, I wondered about Deborah Holt and that chicken feather.
With the animals taking refuge from the storm inside their barns and sheds, she would have had been able to sneak over to the stable without being seen on the screens inside the restaurant.
Maybe it wasn’t tire tracks the detective should have been concerned about, but footprints instead.
Still, while Deborah had an easy opportunity to kill Tyler Yee, did she have a motive?
And would someone who embraced peace and nonviolence toward animals throw her principles aside to murder a human being?
“At this point,” the detective said, “all we’ve got on Sanderson is stalking.
That’s only a Class A misdemeanor. The most the court can slap him with is eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail, plus a twenty-five-hundred-dollar fine.
We can’t get him for aggravated stalking, which would have gotten him one to six years in prison, because that charge requires that he knowingly violates an order of protection.
He didn’t know there was one in place. The executed order hadn’t been served to him before he trailed Yee to Leipers Fork. ”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. “What now?”
“We’re going back through Sanderson’s cell phone and e-mails to see who he’s communicated with recently.
He’d be in violation of his parole if he contacted anyone from the nightclub’s drug network.
We haven’t seen any evidence of that yet, but he could have a burner phone somewhere we don’t know about.
Techs are searching his apartment. With some luck, we’ll find something that directly connects him to Yee’s murder. ”
“You’ll let me know if you do?”
“Of course. You’ve been a big help, Whitney.”