The Mercedes Coffin

The back door to the house was also locked. Decker knocked hard, but the noise elicited no response. He checked the windows. The shades were down. Nothing seemed awry: no broken glass, no locks that seemed jimmied, and no signs of forced entry.

He gave himself a moment to think.

The sun was climbing higher. Decker could feel the heat on the back of his neck. Competing with the ravens’ calls was the buzzing of insects: the hum of dozens of gnats, the drone of bees foraging for pollen, the high-pitched whine of mosquitoes. And the flies…lots of flies.

He swatted the pests away from his face and regarded his surroundings. A splintered chaise longue with a faded cushion sat on a patch of crabgrass. A few small trees languished around the fence of Vitton’s property. There was a Weber barbecue that looked in pretty good shape. A white plastic table and chairs were off to one side. The top of the table was thick with dirt and bird droppings.

When Decker returned his attention to the house, he noticed that a heavy fu

That was not a good sign. Investigating further, Decker was hit with a strong whiff of decay, violently sparking his olfactory nerve.

He exhaled forcibly while holding back a gag.

He knew why Cal hadn’t answered the door.

He called 911.

THE RULE WAS by no means foolproof, but generally women took pills and men ate the gun.

Calvin Vitton had done both.

The shot had, among other things, taken out the old cop’s eye. His mouth was agape, and his other eye was wide open. An open vial of oxycodone was spilling its contents onto the blue bedroom carpet. Near the pills lay a half-dozen empty beer bottles. His right hand had been singed with powder burns and blood spatter. The.32-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun was lodged between the bed frame and the wall and had landed about two inches from Cal ’s knee. Blood had turned the white sheets red and was still dripping crimson onto the carpet.

The old man had thin gray hair with blue eyes, although the remaining one looked black because the pupil was dilated and fixed. He had been wearing a white shirt and a pair of jeans. His feet were bare. Rigor had set in; lividity was pronounced. Although a warm temperature could speed up the biological processes-and it had been sweltering inside when the Simi Valley cops had busted inside-Decker had a sense that the deed had been done shortly after the phone call.

Two coroner’s office investigators-a woman and a man-were about ready to wrap the stiff body in plastic. The crime scene photographer had done his job. A tech was dusting for fingerprints, but almost everyone agreed that it looked like suicide. Cal had taken booze and pills to self-anesthetize. Before Cal totally passed out, he put a gun to his head…more to his face. Or maybe his hands slipped and that’s how he took out his eye. There were powder burns around the affected area, but there was also powder scatter. The investigators thought that the nose of the gun had been fired from about a half foot away.

Simi Valley was an incorporated city of Ventura County, and although it contracted out to the county for fire, the city was patrolled by its own police department. The detective assigned to the case, named Shirley Redkin, was a pixieish woman in her fifties with short black hair and round dark eyes. Suicide was worked under a homicide detail until the coroner made his ruling. She flipped over the cover on her notebook, and then pointed to the open vial. “First the pills, and when that didn’t happen, he went for the gun.”

Decker said, “It looks kind of staged.”

“Yeah, there is something a little overly dramatic about it with the pills and the booze and the gun. But killing yourself is a very dramatic act.”

“Of course.”

“Can we go over the phone call one more time?” she asked Decker. “I keep feeling I’m missing something.”

“Join the club,” Decker told her. “I never got a sense that the guy was ready to pop himself. More angry than upset.”

“Angry about what?”

“That I wanted to go over the Be

“But every homicide cop has a number of cold cases.”

“This one was very public…played out in the papers. To a guy like Vitton, maybe it represented failure.”

“Why would he shoot himself now?”

“Maybe he didn’t want to feel humiliated if the case got solved.”

“Was he obstructionistic?” Shirley asked.

“He clearly wasn’t interested in digging up bones. Maybe he was more involved than he was letting on.”

“Meaning?”

Decker threw up his hands. “ Cal was known as a guy who played it close to the vest. His own partner said it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Maybe someone paid him off not to look too carefully into the homicide. If his dirt got exposed…that might drive a lonely man to pull the trigger.”

“Anyone specific in mind for the payoff-if there was a payoff?”

“No, just talking in generalities. I’ll look a little deeper into Cal ’s life, starting with his ex-partner, Arnold Lamar.”

“He sounds like someone I should talk to.”

Decker gave Shirley Redkin his phone number. She said, “How close are the two of them?”

“I think they were very close once, but they each went their separate ways. But he needs to be told. I’d like to call him up after you’re done with me. Do you mind if I break the news to him?”

“Go ahead. What I’d like is for him to come down to the station for a chat.”

“I’ll set it up. This afternoon sound okay, Detective?”

“That sounds fine, Lieutenant.”

“Mind if I sit in?”

“Fine with me. Maybe we’ll both learn something.” Shirley closed her notebook. “The cold case must be very important for a detective lieutenant to devote so much time to it.”

Decker smiled enigmatically. “I do my job; I’ve got no complaints. Life is good for some of us. Then there are guys like Cal Vitton who harbor different opinions.”

CHAPTER 9

WHAT?” MARGE SHRIEKED.

“You heard right.” Decker was sitting in the cruiser, parked two blocks away from the crime/suicide scene. The air-conditioning was going full blast, but because the car wasn’t in motion, it wasn’t as cool as it could be. He was sweating under the collar. Talking to Marge over the line, he was trying to keep his voice even, cop style, and then he wondered why. The tragedy of the situation demanded emotion, yet after all these years on the job, it was somehow respectable to be blunted.

“Oh my!” Marge was still registering shock. “And it looks like suicide to you?”

“The gun was fired at close range. He dulled his senses with drugs and booze. The big question is how and if it’s related to the Be

“Well, this certainly changes the complexion of the investigation.”

“It adds another layer. What’s on your agenda?”

“Oliver and I have arranged a lunchtime meeting with Phil Shriner. That way it doesn’t take too much out of our working day.”

“Was he cooperative?”

“Not bad. We’ll know more once we talk to him. I do have a question for you. I’ve located the correct Darnell Arlington and he’s willing to talk to me about his high school experiences and Be

Decker said, “Set it up, Marge, and I’ll figure something out.”

“You’re sure?”

“Not a problem. One of Rina’s inherited paintings recently sold at auction for big bucks. We’re feeling flush.”