Chapter 14: Bang ‘n Bolt - Lucidity

MADDEN WAS SWEATING. HE’D STRIPPED DOWN TO HIS WHITE V-NECK undershirt and was standing in a hole almost to his waist. He and J.J. had taken turns digging out a section about four feet wide and five feet long. They were down about three feet when the technician said they should be close and Madden told J.J. to get out of the hole so he could take over. A few minutes later he chopped into the hard ground with his shovel, took away a chunk of earth and spotted what looked like a lighter-colored rock.

He put on a pair of blue latex gloves he’d stowed in his pocket, asked Dupuy to hand him the smaller hand shovel, then got on his knees and began to dig carefully around the object of interest, alternating between the shovel and his fingers.

“Dude, that’s a bone,” J.J. declared, peering into the hole from his haunches.

It was. It was long and thin. Possibly a rib, Madden thought, clearing more dirt along its contours.

“You getting this, Carolyn?” he said, without looking at Dupuy, who was behind the camera.

“Camera’s recording,” she said. “Time is eleven seventeen.”

An inch to the right of the bone he caught the edge of another fragment and gingerly began to clear around it. Soon they were looking at a short row of thin curved bones, what appeared to be a rib cage.

“This is freaking me out a little,” J.J. said. “I didn’t think it would. But I’m freakin’ a little here. What if it is her?”

Madden wasn’t going to say anything but he was freaking a little, too. It can’t be this easy, he thought, momentarily seduced by a vision of yellow crime scene tape and television crews crowding the sidewalk opposite the house. He promised himself he’d be humble. This isn’t about me. I’m just finishing what the MPPD started. We said we’d find Stacey Walker and by God we have.

“How far are you going?” Dupuy asked.

“’Til I’m sure we’re looking at human remains,” he said.

They both knew that meant finding the skull. But Dupuy was clearly becoming antsy. As a former prosecutor, she’d have preferred doing the handoff to law enforcement sooner rather than later. They’d have to get a forensic team in here and if they were looking at some sort of blunt-force trauma, Stacey’s skull might be in fragments. You didn’t want to be poking around with a shovel—even a mini one—with a situation like that.

“I think he strangled her,” J.J. announced. “My money’s on that.”

“The only way you’d know that is if he crushed her windpipe,” the ground-radar technician pointed out. He was standing behind J.J., sipping some sort of vitamin-water drink.

“Well, if everything else got ruled out, you’d have to go with that,” J.J. said.

Madden looked up from the hole and glared at them. “I’d like to remind you both that we’re filming here.”

Just then he heard the faint ding-dong of what sounded like a doorbell. He couldn’t tell if it was coming from their house or the neighbor’s.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

“What?” J.J. said.

They waited a few seconds, listening. When the bell sounded a second time J.J. still didn’t hear it but everyone else did.

“Doorbell,” Madden said, alarmed. They hadn’t brought a tarp to cover the hole, which was stupid.

“Maybe it’s Shelby,” Dupuy said. “Who else knows we’re here?”

“You want me to find out who it is?” the technician offered. “I’ll go look around the side. Where I brought my machine in.”

Like a lot of homes in the area this one had a side gate that led to the backyard through a short, narrow fenced-in alleyway.

“Yeah, go,” Madden said, laboring to get out of the hole. “Quickly, please.”

By the time he’d put his dress shirt on and tucked it into his pants the doorbell had rung another two times and the technician had returned from his reconnaissance mission.

“Cops,” he said in a low voice.

And almost as soon as he said it they were pounding on the door, announcing themselves. “Palo Alto Police Department. Open the door, please.”

“Let me handle this,” J.J. whispered. “You guys keep the baby quiet. Carolyn—that’s your name, right? Go inside and take your clothes off.”

“Take my clothes off?”

“Yeah, get naked. I’ll talk to them for a minute. And then you come to the door.”

“Naked?”

From the way his eyes moved up and down her body, he seemed ready to roger that, but then restrained himself. “Grab a sheet or towel or something,” he said. “You’re cheating on your fiancée. I Airbnb’d the place. That’s the backstory. Go.”

“I take it you’ve done this before,” Madden heard her say as she headed toward the house.

“Who do you think coined the term Air bang ‘n bolt?”

“I didn’t know it was a term.”

“It’s not something I’m proud of.”

They disappeared into the house, leaving Madden and the technician in the backyard.

“Am I going to get in some sort of trouble for this?” the technician asked.

Madden held a finger up in front of his mouth, shushing him. Muffled voices. J.J. speaking, the police responding. A minute later Dupuy’s voice joined the conversation. Some laughter, everything seemed to be going well, and then the sliding door opened and Dupuy came out dressed in nothing but a T-shirt that came down just below her panty line. Madden’s eyes opened wide, the technician’s jaw dropped a little.

“They want to see an Airbnb receipt,” she whispered, going over to the stroller to check on the baby. “Any paperwork we can show them?”

Madden had the lease agreement in his sport jacket draped around the patio chair. He went to the coat and fished it out of the inside pocket.

“I’ve got a copy of the lease,” he said quietly, unfolding the sheets of paper. “But Shelby’s name is on it. What do you think?”

“I think they know we’re looking for Stacey,” she said. He looked up from the lease and saw that she was now bending down to check on the baby, causing the T-shirt to hike up precariously on her body. “They say a neighbor called to report some suspicious activity. But I’m getting the vibe someone tipped them off.”

“Well, we’re not letting them in,” Madden said. “They’ll have to get a warrant.”

She took the lease agreement from him. “I’ll keep them out,” she said. “But call Shelby and tell him to get over here. We’re going to need him.”

“Did they know who J.J. was?”

“Not until he told them. They knew me, though. Apparently one of them was the arresting officer in that dog-napping case I worked on last year. Fancy that.”

Madden winced a little. “Sorry.”

“There is some good news, though,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“I get to regret having sex with J.J. Carradine without having had sex with him.”