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Puller two-fingered out his cred pack and held it up, ID card fir
st, 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 filled 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.
It was such a total disconnect for Puller that he looked around for a camera, seriously wondering for a few moments whether he was being punked.
He glanced at Landry, who was walking next to him. “I?
??ve never seen a police station quite like this one.”
“What’s so different about it?” she asked.
“You been in any others?”
“A few.”
“Trust me, it’s different. I was looking around for a valet outside and a place to order a drink in here before I teed off for a quick round of nine holes. And I don’t even play golf.”
