Haunted (Michael Bennett 10)

I allowed the older kids to sit out on the dock and just do what teenagers did. That group didn’t worry me much.

My phone rang, and I knew before I picked it up off the table who it was. I wasn’t expecting the phone to ring, but only one person would call me at this time of night.

I looked at Mary Catherine as I held the phone to my ear and said, “Hello, Sandy. What’s gone wrong now?” I meant it as a joke, but as soon as I heard her voice, I knew it wasn’t funny.

“Mike, I need some help.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I am for now. But there’s a crowd growing outside city hall. They’re upset with how things went with Dell Streeter at his arraignment. Tom Bacon has got them riled up. A couple of them are armed.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Mary Catherine understood instantly what was going on and gave me a kiss on the lips. All she said as I slipped out the door was, “Please be careful.”

“I always try to be careful.” I gave her a wink, hoping it might lighten the mood. It didn’t do much.

Once I was on the road, racing down Route 2 toward town, all I could think about was Sandy having to face an angry crowd. As I pulled into the lot, I could see around ten people in front of her. She was at the top of the five-step stairway leading into the tiny city hall.

I was shocked to see several men holding rifles and several others with handguns in holsters on their hips. Then I remembered I wasn’t in New York City anymore. Maine is an open-carry state. No one was breaking any laws. At most, some local jurisdictions made it illegal to discharge firearms within the city limits. It was still unnerving.

As I walked up to the rear of the crowd I heard a heavyset man wearing a neatly trimmed beard and holding a Remington 30-06 rifle yell out, “How can you tell us you’re doing everything you can when Dell Streeter is free to come and go? Who knows how many people he’s killed? My Marjorie disappeared two years ago. That might be her body they haven’t been able to identify yet. And you want us to be calm?”

Sandy kept her cool and looked directly at the man. “Look, Anthony, all I can tell you is we’re doing the best we can. No one around here has ever seen anything like this. The case against Dell Streeter isn’t closed. We’re trying to develop more evidence against him.”

Anthony said, “That’s not good enough.”

Sandy said, “Arguing about it out here isn’t going to help anything. What if we all go over to the firehouse and sit down and try to discuss it?”

Someone shouted from the middle of the crowd, “There’s nothing to discuss. Dell Streeter needs to pay for what he did.”

Then Tom Bacon said, “I don’t think you’ll be able to do much to stop us, Detective Coles.”

That’s when I said from the rear of the crowd, “I bet both of us together could stop more than half of you. Anyone want to try your luck?”

I could tell by the way all the heads swiveled toward me that I had caught everyone by surprise. I could also tell that no one wanted to try his luck.

Chapter 70

It only took a few minutes to get everyone settled in the training room of the firehouse. The fire chief didn’t look like he appreciated being woken for something short of a three-alarm fire. But when he heard what Sandy had to say and saw the group of armed men milling around in front of the station, he opened the side door.

Most of the fifteen folding chairs set up in the training room were filled by the crowd that had been outside. They weren’t all men. There were four women. Each of them was armed as well.

I leaned against a table that held half a dozen CPR dummies and let Sandy run things.

The guy who’d spoken outside, Anthony, said, “For all we know, you take your orders from Dell Streeter. You’re not doing us any good here. I’m not even sure why we have our own police department. The state police could cover the town more effectively. Maybe we don’t even need them.”

One of the women said, “Aside from writing a few tickets and harassing us about stupid shit, the cops here don’t do anything. Here’s the first chance for you to be useful, and you blow the case.”

Sandy, ever the professional, let the woman finish her thoughts. Then Sandy said, “As I said before, the case against Streeter is not closed. It is an active investigation. I promise you we’re working on it day and night. I haven’t spent five hours at home since those kids went missing.”

Tom Bacon said, “But you’ve had time to visit your boyfriend out at the Ghost House. A couple of people have seen your car out there.”

“I’ve stopped there. I think I ate a meal or two with his family. But I’ve been focused on this case. And frankly I don’t appreciate the innuendo in your comments.”

This was not the same town I’d seen at the Fourth of July parade. The town that greeted all its police officers and showed them respect. This town had fallen into an anti-cop mind-set. This had nothing to do with a police shooting, either. Suddenly I realized how much people needed a reason or an excuse for the tragedies they suffered. The cops were convenient scapegoats.

Sandy tried to reason with the crowd, but people were done listening. I watched silently as everyone started heading out the door.