“Can I have this?” Louis asked.
Delp pushed the envelope across the table. “Go ahead. There are plenty of copies.”
“I’ll need to talk to the reporter.”
“Can’t. He croaked last winter. Heart attack. Guess that’s what twenty years covering cops will do to you.”
Louis was staring at the photographs of the Lacey twins.
“Too many guns, that’s what I think,” Delp said, shaking his head. “People here love their guns. Kids here get rifles when they lose their baby teeth.”
Louis looked at Delp. “You’re not from here, are you?”
“Hell no,” Delp said. “I’m from Detroit and I’m just trying to get back there as fast as I can.”
Louis stood up and pulled on his jacket, picking up the envelope.
“So, what you going to do about Lacey?” Delp asked.
Louis didn’t answer as he started for the door.
“Hey! You let me know!” Delp called out.
Louis hurried back to the station. In the locker room, he quickly changed into his uniform and went right to the files. He tugged at the drawer labeled NOVEMBER 1979. It was locked. He would have to wait for Dale.
He went to his desk, taking the envelope Delp had given him. He spotted his glasses, hanging from the pencil holder where Ollie had left them. He put them on and opened the folder.
There were four articles. The longest was the one he had seen in Dot’s with the headline and two photographs.
BY ARNOLD ROGERS
Argus Staff Writer
LOON LAKE — Two teenagers were killed and a third taken into custody after a routine raid on a tourist cabin by city police here Wednesday.John Andrew “Johnny” Lacey, 16, and Angela Lee Lacey, 16, of 476 Manetta Dr., were shot by police after the teenagers fired on the officers who had tracked them to a remote cabin on north Loon Lake, owned by David and Glenda Eden of Dearborn, Michigan Police had been searching for the teens who were believed to be involved in a gang terrorizing tourists in the resort town.
It is believed the teens were using the cabin as a hideout. According to Chief Brian Gibralter, officers ordered the teens to surrender and after firing tear gas into the cabin, the teens opened fire on the five officers outside. Chief Gibralter said that John Lacey ran from the cabin and was killed during a scuffle with Officer Jesse Harrison, when Harrison’s gun accidentally discharged. Lacey’s sister, Angela, was shot and killed when she fired on the officers.
Cole Lacey, 12, was found hiding in a closet and was taken into custody. John Lacey, according to Chief Gibralter, was the suspected leader of a teenage gang centered in Oscoda County that has been responsible for a series of burglaries of tourist cabins in the area. Police are investigating whether the gang was also involved in the robbery of a convenience store July 24. During the robbery, the store clerk, Denise Lawicki, 22,was beaten.
The outcome of this episode is very distressing for all involved,”said Chief Gibralter.“The deaths of the two young people were tragic and unfortunate. There will be an review of the incident to assess that the officers involved acted within normal procedure. However, all evidence points to the fact that these men had reason to fear for their lives and acted out of self-defense.”
Helen Lacey, the mother of the three teenagers, refused to speak with this reporter.
Louis set the article down. No mention of dear old Dad. He went through the remaining three articles. One was a follow-up that offered no new information. The second was a short story saying the “internal investigation” revealed no wrong doing on the part of the Loon Lake officers. The fourth article was an overwrought feature on teenage gangs, pegged to the Lacey kids. The headline was WHEN GOOD KIDS GO BAD. It was filled with stock quotes from psychologists and juvenile authorities speculating on the sources of teen violence. But the reporter had taken the trouble to track down Duane Lacey and ended her story with the neat coda: “For the Lacey children, the seeds of violence were sown in the home. Their father, Duane Lacey, is currently incarcerated in Marquette State Prison, serving the seventh year of his fifteen-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon.”
Louis felt a tightening in his chest. Christ, why had no one told him about this? Gibralter had directed him to go through the case files but why in the hell hadn’t he thought of Duane Lacey as a potential suspect? And Jesse…he had been at the raid. Why didn’t he say anything?
Louis read again the last paragraph of the feature story. All right, it said Lacey was in prison. So had the fax from the department of corrections. But the fax could have been wrong. He knew prison records were routinely screwed up, especially computer records, which were often inputted by clerk convicts.
He had not double-checked it. Shit, what if the record was wrong?
He felt a trickle of sweat make its way down his back under his shirt. He glanced up at the clock. It was still too early. The DOC wouldn’t open until eight.
“Morning, Louis.”
Louis turned to see Dale coming in from the locker room, heading straight for the coffee machine. Dale started to the coffeepot. “Hey, how come you didn’t make the coffee yet?” he said. “But then again you don’t do such a great job anyway, no offense.”
Louis was silent. Finally, Dale looked up and saw Louis’s stony expression. “Something wrong?” he asked.
Looking into Dale’s pink face, Louis realized suddenly he was angry. He was angry at Dale. He was angry at Jesse and Gibralter. He was angry at all of them for not telling him about the raid on the cabin. And he was angry at himself for not double-checking.
“Louis? What is it?” Dale asked.
“Nothing,” he said, turning back to his desk. “I need a file,” he said.
“Sure, no problem,” Dale said cautiously, “Just let me get the coffee — ”
Louis spun around. “Just give me the keys. I’ll get it.”
Dale stared at him for a moment then reached in his pocket for the keys. Louis came forward to get them, almost grabbing them from Dale’s hand. He unlocked the cabinet and started sifting through the files. He couldn’t find the one for the raid.
“Where the hell is it?” he muttered.
Dale came up behind him. “Let me find it. What do you need?”
Louis turned to face him. “November, 1979. John and Angela Lacey. Those names ring a bell?”
Dale looked confused. “I’ll find it.” He held out a mug of coffee. “Three sugars. Hey, what happened to your hand?”
Louis ignored him, took the coffee and went back to his desk. He felt a small wave of guilt as he watched Dale hunt through the file drawer. He probably had nothing to do with the raid. But right now, Dale was lumped in with the rest of the department. What the hell was going on here? Was it just the ineptitude of a small-town department? He couldn’t believe that; Lacey was too logical a suspect, in prison or not.
Dale came over and handed him a thick file. It was labeled LACEY, JOHN. A. #79-11-543.
“I brought your mail, too,” Dale said, dropping some envelopes on the desk and backing away.
Louis put on his glasses and opened the file. On top was the three-page crime report that listed suspects and victims along with their personal information. The reporting officer was listed as Chief Brian Gibralter, #1. Louis began to read.
On November 23, 1979, at 16:05 hours Officer Thomas Pryce (see supplemental report #2) observed suspect #1, a twelve-year-old white male juvenile, identified as Cole Lacey, walking along the 1400 block of Lakeside drive. When Officer Pryce attempted to stop Lacey, the suspect ran south approximately one hundred yards to an unoccupied cabin located at 1387 Lakeside Drive. Suspect entered the cabin.