John Puller 02 - The Forgotten Page 5

  He didn’t see anyone outside or passing down the street, either on foot or by car. The heat was really miserable, and maybe people took their siestas around now. He gazed at his watch. It was closing in on one p.m. He climbed out of the car, crossed the street, strode up the sidewalk to his aunt’s front door, and knocked.

  There was no answer.

  He knocked again, his gaze sliding left and then right, checking to see if her immediate neighbors had their curiosity antennae out. He didn’t see any prying eyes and he knocked once more.

  He heard no footsteps.

  He walked to the garage door and peered through the glass. Parked inside was a Toyota Camry. It looked relatively new. He wondered if his aunt still drove. He tried to lift the garage door, but it was locked down. Probably on an automatic door lift, he thought. No way elderly people were going to bend down and constantly jack up heavy overhead doors simply because they wanted to go for a drive.

  He walked to the side yard and his height allowed him to peer over the privacy fence. He saw a fountain in the middle of the small backyard.

  He tried the gate. It was locked. It was a simple latch, though; a bit of jiggling and it opened. He stepped into the backyard and walked over to the fountain. The first thing he noticed was the gouge in the dirt just outside of the stone surround that held the water in. He knelt down and studied the gouge and found another one parallel to it and about three feet away. He looked at the fountain. Someone had pulled the plug on the pump, because the water, designed to flow from the top of the fountain and into the lower pool, was not operating.

  He leaned over and studied the floor of the pool. There were loose decorative stones laid there, but something had disturbed them. Some of the stones had been pushed around to such a degree that the concrete floor of the pool was revealed. As he leaned closer he saw where one of the rocks from the stone surround had been partially dislodged and was lying on the ground. There was a mark on this stone. He looked at it more closely.

  Is that blood?

  He knelt down and studied the topography in relation to the back of the house. He noted the gouges in the dirt once more. Could they be from a walker? There were no footprints that he could see. The grass was wiry and pretty dry, so he wouldn’t have expected any discernible impressions. He leaned in closer and studied the pool. Maybe two feet deep, about six feet in diameter, with the water kept in by the low stone wall.

  His gaze swept around the rocks looking for any other marks. He saw no blood, no human tissue, and no hairs. He moved closer, peered down into the clear water, and once more observed the places where the stones had been disturbed.

  Puller stood and pantomimed falling into the pool, hands out to break his fall. One there, one there. Knees impacting the decorative stones too. He adjusted things a bit to account for a possible walker. He compared his pantomime with what he was seeing. Not an exact fit, but something had disturbed the stones.

  But unless she were unconscious his aunt could have rolled herself to the side and gotten her face out of the water. So, unconscious for some reason, facedown in the water. Two feet of it would easily cover her head. Death would have been quick.

  Then Puller shook his head.

  I see felonies everywhere. Dial it back, Puller.

  He had no proof that his aunt was dead, or hurt in any way. He might have been crawling around her backyard in the heat looking for evidence of a crime that had not even been committed. That’s what he got for investigating crimes for a living. He could also make them up out of whole cloth if necessary.

  Or even unnecessarily.

  Then he took a step back and received confirmation that something out of the ordinary had indeed happened back here.

  There were two parallel lines visible in the grass, like miniature train tracks where the grass had been pushed down. When he looked at another spot in the lawn, he saw another pair of parallel tracks. Puller knew what that meant. He had seen it many times before.

  He walked swiftly to the back door and tried the knob. Locked. At least his aunt was security- minded. But the lock was just a single bolt. It took Puller all of fifteen seconds to beat it. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him.

  The interior layout of the house seemed relatively simple. Straight hall from front to back, rooms off that. Stairs leading up, fore and aft, with bedrooms no doubt on the second floor. With his aunt’s advanced age he figured she might have a master suite on the main level. Puller had heard that concept was very popular in retirement communities.

  He passed a laundry room, small den, and the kitchen and found the master suite off that. He finally arrived at a large family room that opened off the foyer and was visible from the kitchen over a waist-high wall. The furnishings were heavy on tropical motifs. There was a gas fireplace surrounded by stacked slate on one wall. Puller had checked out the Panhandle region and discovered that the lows in the middle of winter rarely crept down into the thirties, but he could understand his aunt, who hailed from the snowy Keystone State, wanting to warm her bones with a cozy fire that didn’t require chopping wood.

  He noted the alarm panel next to the front door. The green light showed that it was not on, a fact he already knew because the alarm had not gone off when he had opened the back door.

  There was an abundance of photos—mostly old ones—on shelves, consoles, and occasional tables set around the family room. Puller studied them one by one and found several of his old man, and him and his brother in their respective uniforms with their aunt Betsy. The last of these was from when Puller had joined the Army. He wondered now where the break in the family had come but couldn’t quite put a finger on it. There were also quite a few photos of Betsy’s husband, Lloyd. He’d been a little shorter than his wife, his face was full of life, and there was one picture of the two of them in which Lloyd was wearing his Army greens from World War II. Betsy was in her WAC, or Women’s Army Corps, uniform. The way they were gazing at each other in the photo it looked like love at first sight, if there was such a thing.

  Puller heard it before he had a chance to see it.

  He stepped to the window and drew the curtain back just a fraction of an inch. Ever since his tours in the Middle East he never revealed more of himself—physically or emotionally—than was absolutely necessary.

  The police cruiser pulled to the curb and the driver killed the engine.

  No sirens, no lights; the two cops inside were obviously in stealth mode. They climbed out and drew their guns, looked around, their gazes inching to the front of the house.

  Someone had seen Puller in the yard, maybe going into the house, and had called the cops.

  The male officer was bald and burly, the same one he had seen earlier. Next to him was his female partner. She was two inches taller and looked in better shape. He was thick and muscular up top but light in the legs. Too many bench presses and not enough squats. He looked, to Puller, like a washout from the military, but he obviously couldn’t be certain about that. Maybe it was just the condescending nod the man had given him earlier.

  The guy held his nine-millimeter awkwardly, even unprofessionally, as if he had learned how to do it by watching TV or by sitting on his butt at a theater to see how action stars handled their weapons. She carried hers with perfect control and ease, her weight balanced equally between both legs, her knees slightly bent, her silhouette angled to the side to lower her target profile. It was like a Pro-Am tournament pairing, thought Puller.

  If his aunt was dead and there had been an investigation, he sure as hell hoped bald and burly hadn’t been heading it up. That had screwup written all over it.

  Puller decided to cut to the chase, mainly because he didn’t want the guy to accidentally shoot himself. He slipped a photo from its frame and slid it into his shirt pocket. Then he walked to the front door, opened it, and stepped out into the brilliant sunshine of Paradise.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Freeze!”

  The order came from the woman.


  Puller obeyed the command.

  “Hands over your head,” added her partner.

  “Do you want me to freeze or put my hands over my head?” asked Puller. “Because I can’t do both. And I’m not looking to get shot over a misunderstanding.”

  The two cops moved closer, one to his right, one to his left.

  Puller noted that the woman watched his hands, while the guy was glued to his eyes. The woman was right. Puller couldn’t kill with his eyes. But his hand could pull a weapon and open fire within a second without his eyes moving an inch.

  She said, “Put your hands over your head, fingers interlocked. Then down on your stomach, legs spread, facedown.”

  “I have an Mu in a rear belt holster. And my Army creds and badge are inside my front pants pocket.”

  The two cops made the mistake of glancing at each other. Puller could have shot them both dead in the two seconds they took to do that. But he didn’t and so they would get to live another day.

  “What the hell is an Mu?” asked the male officer.

  Before Puller could answer the woman said, “Army’s version of the Sig P228.”

  Puller eyed her with interest. She was about five-seven, with blonde hair pinned up tight with a clamp at the back. Her build was slender, compact, but she moved with a dancer’s grace and her hands looked strong.

  He said, “If I could reach very slowly in my front pants pocket I’ll show you my creds and badge.”

  This time the woman didn’t look at her partner. “What unit?”

  “The 701st out of Quantico, Virginia,” he answered promptly.

  “CID or MP?” she asked.

  “CID. I’m a CWO.”

  Before her partner could ask she translated: “Chief warrant officer.”

  Puller looked at her curiously. “You former military?”

  “My brother.”

  Puller said, “Can I get my pack out?”

  “Do it really slowly,” said the guy, tightening the grip on his gun.

  Puller knew that was the exact wrong thing to do. An overly tight grip meant you would increase your error rate about thirty percent or more. But he was more concerned that the guy would mess up and accidentally shoot him.

  “Two fingers in the pocket, that’s all,” said the woman. “And keep your other hand on the top of your head.” Her voice was firm, direct, even. He liked that. Her nerves were definitely not running away with her senses, unlike her partner.

  Puller two-fingered out his cred pack and held it up, ID card first, badge second. The CID’s one-eyed eagle symbol was unique.

  The two drew close enough for Puller to simply hand the pack to the woman while the man kept his drawdown on him. He actually wished it had been the other way around, because the guy looked wound tight enough to shoot all three of them dead.

  She lifted her gaze from the cred pack, checking the photo on there with the man himself, and said, “Okay, but I’m going to have to take your sidearm as a precaution until we sort this out.”

  “Small of my back, belt holster.”

  She moved behind him while her partner took a step back and lined Puller up in his iron sights.

  She gave him a quick but efficient patdown, her hands flitting over his backside, then down and up the insides of his legs. Puller felt his shirt being lifted up. Then she slid the pistol out of the holster and a moment later she stood in front of him, gripping his pistol by the muzzle and pointing it downward.

  She said, “We got a call about a break-in. What are you doing here?”

  “This is my aunt Betsy Simon’s place. I came down here to pay her a visit. No one answered the door, so I went in through the back.”

  “Long way to come, from Virginia,” said the man, with his gun still aimed at Puller’s head.

  Puller didn’t look at him but spoke to the woman. “Can you ask your partner to holster? Accidents can happen.”

  “The cred pack’s legit, Barry, and he’s unarmed now. You can stand down.”

  “John Puller,” said the woman. “And your aunt was Betsy Simon?”

  He nodded. “And you are?” He had glanced at her nametag, but the sun’s glare made it impossible to read.

  “Officer Landry, Cheryl Landry. That’s Officer Barry Hooper.”

  She handed him back his cred pack.

  “Any idea where my aunt is?” asked Puller. Landry looked at her partner nervously.

  Puller caught the look. “I saw some interesting things in the backyard. Did something happen back there?”

  “Why do you think that?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Clues around the fountain. And I saw tracks in the grass back there where a gumey had been wheeled in and out. I’m assuming that gumey was carrying someone. Was that someone my aunt?”

  “We were first responders,” said Landry quietly.

  “To what exactly?”

  “The lady who lived here drowned in the little pool back there,” interjected Hooper.

  His partner shot him a reproachful glance and said, “It seemed to be an accident. I’m sorry, Agent Puller.”

  Puller stood there trying to take it all in. In a way, he was not surprised. In another way he was flummoxed. He had been hoping that the victim was someone other than his aunt.

  He asked, “Can you walk me through what happened?”

  Hooper snapped, “We’re responding to a B and E right now and you’re it. We’re not standing here jawing with you. We should be cuffing you and reading you your rights.”

  Landry looked at him. “He’s right. We don’t know if your aunt was Betsy Simon. And we don’t know what you were doing in her house.” “Photo in my shirt pocket. I took it from the house.”

  Landry slid the photo out, looked at it.

  “It’s quite a few years old, but if you saw my aunt I don’t think she’s changed that much. And I look pretty much the same, with a few more lines. And our names are listed on the back.” Landry studied the picture and the reverse side and then let Hooper look at it.

  “It’s him, Barry,” said Landry.

  “Still not conclusive to me,” retorted Hooper. Puller shrugged and took the photo back. “Okay, so let’s go down to the station and straighten it out. I was heading there anyway after I finished looking around here.”

  “Like I said, the lady fell and drowned in her little pool,” said Hooper. “Accident all the way.”

  “Medical examiner confirm that?”

  Landry said, “Haven’t heard. Autopsy should be done by now.”

  Hooper said, “It was an accident. Lady fell and drowned. We checked the scene out thoroughly.”

  “Yeah, that’s what you keep saying. What, are you trying to convince yourself it’s true?”

  Landry added, “That’s what it looked like all right, Agent Puller. I can understand it’s hard to accept a tragedy like that, but it happens. Especially with older folks.”

  “And Florida has more than most,” added Hooper. “Dropping like flies every minute of every day.”

  Puller turned to look at him and took a step closer to the man to accentuate their differences in vertical prominence. “Except they’re not.”

  “Not what?” said Hooper, looked confused. “Flies. And in case you didn’t know, autopsies reveal about twenty-five percent of the time a different cause of death than the one everybody thought it was.”

  “We can go down to the station,” said Landry in a placating tone. “And straighten things out, like you said.”

  “You want me to follow you or go in your car?” asked Puller.

  “It’s not a choice. You go in our ride,” said Hooper, before Landry could speak. “With your hands cuffed and your rights read.”

  “You’re really going to arrest me?” asked Puller.

  “Did you break into that house?” Hooper shot back.

  “I went in to check on my aunt.”

  “Why didn’t you call the police if you were concerned?” asked Landry. “We could have fil
led you in.”

  “Maybe I could have, but it’s not my way of doing things,” replied Puller.

  “Army have the luxury of letting its guys just bop around the country doing their own stuff?” said Hooper. “No wonder our taxes are so damn high.”

  “Even the Army lets its guys have some R and Rtime, Officer Hooper.”

  “We’ll leave your car here,” broke in Landry.

  “You ride with us, but without the cuffs or the rights read.”

  “Thanks,” said Puller, as Hooper eyed his partner darkly.

  “But if your story doesn’t check out,” she warned, “that all changes.”

  “Fair enough,” said Puller. “But after you find out I’m legit, I’ll need to see my aunt’s body.”

  He walked toward their cruiser. “Let’s roll,” he called back over his shoulder.

  The two cops slowly followed.

  CHAPTER 11

  The Paradise police station was located two blocks off the beach in a two-story stone and stucco structure that had an orange terra-cotta roof and a pair of palm trees out front. It sat next to a Ritz-Carlton hotel and looked more like a country club than a place where cops went to get their patrol assignments and cruisers to go hunt criminals.

  As Puller climbed out of the police car and looked around he said to Hooper, “Did you purposely locate in the high-crime area to keep watch over the criminal element?”

  Hooper ignored him, but placed an arm on Puller’s elbow to shepherd him into the building. Apparently Hooper was under the impression that Puller was in custody and the only things missing were the cuffs over his wrists and a Miranda warning ringing in his ears.

  The place inside looked much like the place outside. High-dollar, clean, orderly. In fact it was the cleanest, most orderly police station Puller had ever seen. The personnel working inside pristinely delineated office spaces barely looked up as the trio came in. Their clothes were starched, spotless, and looked to have been fitted by a veteran tailor. No phones were ringing. No one was screaming for his lawyer or declaring that he was innocent of all trumped-up charges. No uncooperative prisoners were puking on the floor. No fat, sweaty cops with major B.O. and pissed-off attitudes were waddling down the halls in search of a myocardial infarction in the form of a vending machine stuffed with chocolate and sodium.