Page 102 of Nightshade

He nodded and they proceeded to the door, still holding on to each other as though nothing could ever split them apart.

Before they got there, the sound of a cell phone ringing stopped them. Stilwell looked back at the body on the floor. He could see light from a phone protruding from the left pocket of Spivak’s pants.

Stilwell went back, grabbed the tissue that Tash had used, pulled the phone free, and put it on the floor. It saidUnknown Calleron the screen. He hit the Accept button and put the call on speaker.

The caller said nothing. Stilwell thought he could hear the faint sound of music in the far background.

“Baby Head, I know it’s you,” Stilwell said. “Your man is dead… and I’m coming for you next.”

There was silence on the line for a few seconds and then the caller disconnected.

35

CAPTAIN CORUM WASnot happy about having to spend another night and day on Catalina heading up the investigation of another death. His team included two of the investigators assigned to the murder of Henry Gaston, but this time they were supplemented by two deputies from the officer-involved-shooting team. Stilwell and Tash Dano were questioned separately and repeatedly. Stilwell conducted a walk-through of the crime scene with the investigators, from the rocky shoreline where he had come out of the water to the interior of the trailer where the body of the man he had killed was still lying on the floor.

From the start of the investigation, neither Corum nor Stilwell was concerned that there would be any verdict other than that the shooting was within department policy. The only issue was in Stilwell’s decision to carry out the rescue of the abducted woman on his own, without calling for backup until it was over. Corum told Stilwell he would likely receive a suspension for this move.

At one point Corum took a phone call and stepped away from the investigators to speak quietly. The call was short and Corum did more listening than speaking. When it was over, Corum pocketed his phone and nodded to Stilwell to join him.

“That was Mayor Allen,” he said. “He wants me to take you off the island. Permanently.”

“I bet he does,” Stilwell said. “What did you tell him?”

“Not much. I said I’ll consider that at the conclusion of our investigation.”

“He’s going to be sweating when we pick up Terranova and put the squeeze on him.”

“If we find Terranova.”

Stilwell knew that Corum had put two of his investigators on finding Baby Head and taking him in for questioning. So far, they hadn’t even picked up his trail.

“A guy like him, he had an escape plan,” Stilwell said. “He was probably on the mainland when this thing went down.”

“Well, we don’t have much of a case against him, do we?” Corum said.

“He ordered Spivak to grab Tash, I know it. He was the one who called to check that it was done.”

“And we can’t prove any of that.”

“We have the saw handle.”

“Yes, we have the saw handle, but it doesn’t prove a thing when it comes down to what happened to Gaston and what happened tonight. If we can find him, we’ll see what we can get out of him.”

“He’ll just lawyer up,” Stilwell said. “We need to charge him. Put him in a cell.”

“Then we’ll need more evidence.”

Stilwell shook his head. He was frustrated but knew that Corum was right—and that he was just as frustrated.

“I’ll get more,” he said.

Corum pulled his phone and checked a text.

“Not now, you won’t,” he said. “You’re on the bench until this investigation is over. And they’re ready to do the formal interview at the substation. I’ll have Ramos take us over.”

Fifteen minutes later Stilwell was sitting in front of two OIS investigators, Batchelor and Harrington, in the interview room at the substation. It was the formal, on-the-record sit-down, and the story he told here would be locked permanently into the file. This would be the interview that was referenced should any legal action occur following the shooting.

While Corum watched on the feed in the dayroom, Harrington did most of the talking and questioning. It was now late Saturday morning and they had gleaned all they could from the scene and evidence. Stilwell knew from past experience that this was where things could become adversarial. Despite operating on one hour’s sleep over the past two days, he believed he was ready for it.