Different Degrees a Caleb Joyner Mystery

35 the wages of sin

JUST ONE MORE AFTER THIS ONE! THANKS FOR READING!

35 the wages of sin

“He was one bad man,” Ranch said, pointing to where the gunman’s body had fallen. “Roberto Iglesias Sanchez wanted for the murder of six gang bangers in LA. He allegedly took them out one by one in a single night last September. The police ruled it as gang killings and didn’t spend a lot of time on it. Now here he is in my backyard.”

“You realize all the paperwork that you just caused us Caleb?” Red asked. “When one of these wanted guys appears we have to fill out papers for the FBI, for Homeland Security, for the Highway patrol and for the LA boys. Man it’s going to be a long evening.”

It was already five o’clock. We had been grilled for more than four hours by Ranch and Red and before them, a series of patrol cops. I hadn’t seen Kristina or her brother for the last three hours as they had separated us among the cemetery’s various rooms to take each of our stories. I worried about her, wondering how she was doing physically, wondering how all this death in a matter of days would affect her psychologically.

“Well Joyner, all your stories match up. It was a self-defense killing clean and simple. So I guess you can go.” Ranch said, handing me my .38 that the patrol officers had taken.

“Great,” I replied. “I hope you weren’t too hard on the others.”

Neither one of them said anything, their eyes looking down at the ground as if trying to come up with a way to tell me something that they feared I’d take hard. Then Red found some words. “Caleb, about your girl.” He paused for a moment as if the words he had found were too sharp and a moment of silence might dull them a bit.

“Yes, go on.” I urged him.

“Well it looks like she may have been involved with the Hanes killing.” He looked at me apologetically.

“What do you mean by involved?” I asked, reluctantly letting the words roll off of my tongue.

“She and Hanes were going out with one another when he had the affair with her brother’s wife,” Ranch answered truthfully. “We just found out that it was her when we revisited one of Hanes’ neighbors and instead of saying that his girlfriend was a blonde or purpled, she described her as having a bad leg. A further sweep of his apartment yielded a picture of him and,” Ranch pointed over to where Kristina was seated,  “Her.”

I followed his finger and looked at Kristina sitting with a woman patrol officer. She had her head down as if in shame. I didn’t know what to do but I had this enormous sense of wanting to protect her, to save her, for I knew that she was innocent.

“She confessed, Caleb,” Red added. “She says that she killed Hanes with the .22 and that she also killed Edmundo saving your life. Says that Hanes came to her brother’s apartment pleading with her to take him back. He pulled out his gun and said that he was going to kill her and then kill himself. So she shot him in self-defense and fled for the farm.”

“Come on Red. It doesn’t add up.” I began, knowing that I had to save Kristina from herself. “The coroners report said that he was shot from behind, low as if the killer was crouching. Her story makes it sound as if she was face to face with him as if in a lovers quarrel and he pulls out his gun. That means she would have shot him in the chest, not the back.”

“She says she killed him, Joyner. If not her then who?” Ranch asked.

“It was the kid, Ranch.” I told him without hesitation. “The blonde boy.” He looked over at the kid standing, numbly staring at the ground as a county social worker was talking to him.

“That little boy killed Charles Hanes?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Come on Joyner, you’re going to have to do better than that.”

“Think about it Ranch. The kid is the perfect size. The coroner said the bullet was fired from below as if the shooter was crouching. The kid standing would be the same height as an adult crouching.”

“Doesn’t mean that he killed Hanes,” Red interjected.

“The kid has a thing for Kristina,” I retorted. “I could see the jealousy in his eyes when I put my arms around her.”

“So what? Any guy would be jealous of her.”

“I think Hanes came over and the kid was there listening at the door. He saw Hanes pull out a gun threatening Kristina. So the kid ran in and shot him.”

“How’d he get the gun? It was reported stolen years ago.” Red asked.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”

Ranch looked over at the kid and then Kristina’s downcast form. “Okay Joyner. We’ll do it your way. Red, you take the kid. I’m going to have a nice talk with Miss Toler.”

I watched them walk over to Kristina and the blonde boy and thought about life and death. Hanes had loved Kristina but also wanted Jessica. Did he love her as well? Was it love of a different degree or was she just an opportunity, an adventure that cost him his life? The wages of sin is death, as Ruth would say, and in this case it was doubly so.