Rudolph Junkins and Rick Mercer of the Pennsylvania State Police detective division sat drinking coffee the following afternoon in a glum little office with paint peeling from the walls. Outside, a depressing mixture of snow and sleet was falling.
'I'm pretty sure this is going to be the weekend,' Junkins said. 'That Chrysler has rolled every four or five weeks for the last eight months.'
'Just understand that busting Darnell and whatever bee you've got in your bonnet about that kid are two different things.'
'They're both the same thing to me,' Junkins replied. 'The kid knows something. If I get him rattled, I may find out what it is.'
'You think he had an accomplice? Someone who used his car and killed those kids while he was at the chess tourney?'
Junkins shook his head. 'No, goddammit. The kid has got exactly one good friend, and he's in the hospital. I don't know what I think, except that the car was involved . . . and he was involved too.'
Junkins put his Styrofoam coffee cup down and pointed at the man on the other side of the desk.
'Once we get that place closed down, I want a six-pack of lab technicians to go over it from stem to stern, inside and out. I want it up on a lift, I want it checked for dents bumps, repaint . . . and for blood. That's what I really want, Rick. Just one drop of blood.'
'You don't like that kid much, do you?' Rick asked.
Junkins uttered a bewildered little laugh. 'You know, the first time I kind of did. I liked him and I felt sorry for him. I felt like maybe he was covering for somebody else who had something on him. But this time I didn't like him at all.' He considered.
'And I didn't like that car, either. The- way he kept touching it every time I thought I had him on the ropes. It was spooky.'
Rick said, 'As long as you remember that Darnell is the guy I've got to bust. No one in Harrisburg has the slightest interest in your kid.'
'I'll remember,' Junkins said. He picked up his coffee again and looked at Rick grimly. 'Because he's a means to the end. I'm going to nail the person who killed those kids if it's the last thing I ever do.'
'It may not even go down this weekend,' Rick said.
But it did.
Two plainclothes cops from Pennsylvania's State Felony Squad sat in the cab of a four-year-old Datsun pickup on the morning of Saturday, December 16, watching as Will Darnell's black Chrysler rolled out of the big door and into the street. A light drizzle was failing; it was not quite cold enough to be sleet. It was one of those misty days when it is impossible to tell where the lowering clouds end and the actual mist begins. The Chrysler was quite properly showing its parking lights. Arnie Cunningham was a safe driver.
One of the plainclothesmen lifted a walkie-talkie to his mouth and spoke into it. He just came out in Darnell's car. You guys stay on your toes.'
They followed the Chrysler to I-76. When they saw Arnie get on the eastbound ramp with its Harrisburg sign, they turned up the westbound ramp, toward Ohio, and reported. They would get off I-76 one exit down the line and return to their original position near Darnell's Garage.
'Okay Junkins voice came back let's make an omelette.'
Twenty minutes later, as Arnie was cruising east at a sedate and legal 50, three cops with all the right paperwork in hand knocked on the door of William Upshaw, who lived in the very much upscale suburb of Sewickley. Upshaw answered the door in his bathrobe. From behind came the cartoon squawks of Saturday-morning TV.
'Who is it, honey?' his wife called from the kitchen.
Upshaw looked at the papers, which were court orders and felt that he might faint. One ordered that all of Upshaw's tax records relating to Will Darnell (an individual) and Will Darnell (a corporation) be impounded. These papers bore the signature of the Pennsylvania Attorney General and a Superior Court judge.
'Who is it, hon?' his wife asked again, and one of his kids came to look, all big eyes.
Upshaw tried to speak and could raise only a dusty croak. It had come. He had dreamed about it, and it had finally come, The house in Sewickley had not protected