“Did your son have a job?”
Now the Hickams exchanged glances and after a short pause Mr. Hickam said, “He made a little money doing different things, but he wasn’t employed by anyone specific.”
Stallings nodded, slowly stood, taking a closer look at photographs on the wall. He said, “You have an attractive family.”
“Thank you. We tried to stay very close.”
Stallings noticed the Hickams’ daughter in some kind of clinical setting. “Is your daughter a nurse?”
Mr. Hickam shook his head and said, “She works part-time at a veterinarian’s office, keeping the books.”
Stallings moved to the gun collection, noting the man’s love of Smith amp; Wesson revolvers. One entire row of eight handguns were Smith amp; Wessons from the ancient model 10 to the much newer 686.
Stallings turned to Mr. Hickam and said, “If we have any more questions, can we come by and talk to you?”
Mr. Hickam nodded his head and said, “You just have to call ahead of time. You can see that we cherish our privacy.”
Stallings was beginning to wonder about that privacy and if the reasons for it had led to their son’s death. Something wasn’t right about this house.
FORTY-TWO
It’d been two hours since their interview at the Hickam house and still it was all Stallings could think about. They’d talked to the father of a young man who’d drowned while partying with some former high school friends. The man seemed very matter-of-fact and calm about the whole incident and had never suspected any type of conspiracy. He had accepted his son’s death and moved on with his life. Although they hadn’t been extraordinarily close, the father knew his son had never been involved with the fraternity and all details of the accident had made sense when the friends talked to the police.
Now Stallings and Patty were just finishing a sandwich at a Firehouse Subs off I-95. Patty looked up and said, “Are you still thinking about the Hickam interview too?”
Stallings nodded.
Patty continued. “It was just weird from start to finish. All that security. And the guns. It looked like the armory of midsized police department. Who has that many guns? Who puts them on display like that?”
Stallings nodded as he said, “I’m going over the same details in my head. This kid is definitely part of whatever is going on at the fraternity. He may have been the start of it.”
“What’s our next move?”
“Something tells me the first one of these fraternity brats we talked to, who was also the last one we talked to at the house, is holding out on us.”
“Bobby Hollis?”
Stallings snapped his fingers. “That’s his name. Bobby fucking Hollis. This time we talk to him my way.”
“And if he was telling us the truth?”
“I’ll apologize.”
“That’s quite a promise coming from you.” Patty nodded her head as if she was resolving herself. “I agree, this is too important to let some snot nose from the fraternity throw us further off track. But this time we’re in it together. And don’t you try to protect me from command staff if something goes wrong.”
Stallings’s phone rang and he dug it out of his pocket and flipped it open without looking to see who it was. He heard Sergeant Zuni’s voice say, “You guys need to come back to the D-bureau.”
“Why?”
“Something to do with IA.”
“Did they say what it was?”
Sergeant Zuni said, “No. Is there something you want to tell me about now?”
“Not that I can think of, but you never know how people take different comments.” He closed his phone and turned to Patty, saying, “We’ve got to get back to the office.”
“Why?”
Stallings just shrugged and said, “The usual.”
Lynn sat at an outdoor break area behind the main building of the Thomas Brothers supply company. She’d been on her cell phone for almost twenty minutes as she chatted with the nurse she’d befriended from the hospital in Daytona where Alan Cole was being treated. She didn’t rush the conversation and listened as the nurse told Lynn about her own family problems involving a teenage daughter who was smoking pot and skipping school. Lynn wasn’t so cold as to not care about the nurse’s problems. But the reason she’d spent so much time talking to her was she was the only one who ever gave her any information about Alan’s condition.
Lynn had explained that she was Alan’s pregnant girlfriend and that his parents didn’t approve of her. She didn’t want to cause drama and avoided coming to the hospital. She had just enough detail to make it sound right and had caught just the right nurse with a story.
After the nurse had finished telling her about her daughter’s most recent incident, Lynn said, “I had a few issues in high school too. It’s probably just a phase she’ll grow out of. My biggest problem now is the fact that Alan’s parents think I’m some kind of slut.”
The nurse said, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. They’ll warm up to you. Once they have a grandchild on the scene there’s no way they’ll be able to stay away. I’m just sorry you and I haven’t been able to talk in person.”
“You weren’t on duty the couple times I’ve been down there.”
“I’m sorry. I would love to sit and talk with you.”
Lynn said, “How was Alan today?”
“The doctor sees more activity. He’s conscious but not completely responsive yet.”
“I’ll come down closer to the weekend.”
The nurse said, “I’m off on Saturday so try to come either Friday or Sunday.”
Lynn thanked her and they said the usual good-byes. As she closed her cell phone, Lynn realized she had to avoid the nurse at all costs, which meant she’d be driving down to Daytona on Saturday. She had plenty to do to keep her busy until then.
Before Stallings had reached the main doors to Professional Standards, or, as most cops called it, Internal Affairs, he and Patty had been met by Senior IA Investigator Ronald Bell. As usual, he was dressed in some expensive suit and looked more like a maitre d’ than a working detective. That wasn’t the only thing that bothered Stallings about the fifty-year-old investigator. They had a long history. Stallings recognized that Bell had a job to do, but he didn’t like the way he went about it. When Jeanie disappeared three years ago, Bell had thought the circumstances of her disappearance were suspicious. In a way he was correct. But it was actually only the reporting of her disappearance that was suspicious. Stallings had been late reporting the missing teenager because Maria’s drug habit had gotten seriously out of control. By the time he was able to cope with his near-catatonic wife, almost a full day had passed before he realized Jeanie wasn’t around the house.
Bell had also been a little too zealous in his efforts to find some missing prescription drugs from the office. He had put Patty under the spotlight, and that had not sat well with Stallings. To his credit, Bell had apologized when the drugs showed up in an undocumented evidence locker, but Stallings still thought he was a prick.
Bell smiled and held out his hand like a slimy used-car salesman. “It’s nice to see both of you appear when you’re not under the gun for something.”
Both Stallings and Patty ignored his offered hand. Stallings said, “Cut the bullshit, Ron. We got things to do, and once again you’re wasting our time.”
“It’s Ronald.”
“Whatever. Why are you bothering us now?”
Bell let a sly smile slip over his face and said, “It’s not me this time. I have a visitor in my office who’d like to talk to you both. This time I don’t think you did anything wrong except being oblivious.” He turned and the two detectives followed him back through the offices of Internal Affairs into a rear conference room.
When Bill opened the door, Stallings saw a casually dressed man with a lean, hard look sitting on the far side of the table.
Bell said, “John Stallings and Patty Levine, this is Ed Wiley with the DEA.”