One Murder Too Many Page 13
Kari hated to give up anything to her most avid competitor, but this could turn out to be a much bigger story. ‘OK, Scott. I’ll get with Jason and we’ll start looking into this right away.’
‘We’re in trouble. Big trouble!’ Gloria ranted at Tony. ‘That snoopy reporter was spying on me last night.’
‘You mean Kari Underwood?’ Tony was shocked. ‘But how could she know anything?’
‘That lying little sneak claimed Dom had run her off without a word, but he must have told her enough to make her curious about us. He might even have given her something to safeguard for him.’
‘The photos!’ Tony deduced fearfully. ‘Say this isn’t happening.’
‘Tell Lincoln he needs to search that woman’s apartment. We have to find those pictures.’
Tony hesitated. ‘Uh, Chock doesn’t want to risk going to her place again. He figures the cops will be watching it now.’
Gloria drummed her fingers on the desktop, emerald eyes flashing as she worked her brain for ideas. Suddenly she ceased moving, even breathing. Tony’s eyes widened at the way she froze in thought.
‘What?’ he whispered, terrified of whatever shocking scheme she might have decided upon.
Gloria returned to an earthly plane, a hard set to her features. ‘There’s only one thing that will stop this investigation in its tracks. We need to tie everything together neatly and put an end to it.’
‘Huh?’ Tony was completely baffled. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘We didn’t order the murder of Dom and Juno,’ Gloria asserted. ‘And we had nothing to do with Hector Gomez being shot and killed either.’
‘Where are you going with this?’
Gloria put her radiant, intense eyes on him. ‘This was all Chock Lincoln’s doing. He deserves to face the death penalty for his crimes.’
‘Yes, Glory honey, but if the police grab him, he’ll rat us out in a minute!’
‘Not if he doesn’t get the chance.’
Tony backed away from her desk. ‘I … I can’t kill anyone. I could never do that!’
Gloria regarded the wimp with a combination of disbelief and disdain, as if she was sharing the room with the dumbest creature on the planet. However, she hid her disgust and asked, ‘Do you still have the stuff from Dom’s place and the guns Lincoln used?’
‘Of course. I’ve got them hidden away where no one will find them.’
‘Then this is what I want you to do.’ She leaned forward, a grim determination on her face. Tony cringed at her somber demeanor, knowing he dared not defy this woman. Whatever her plan, he would do exactly what he was told.
Kari arrived at the precinct and found Jason with Detective Grady. They had been discussing the shooting from the previous night. Kari brought a new element to the table.
‘Blackmail?’ Grady was skeptical, after hearing her story. ‘Someone probably sent that note to try and promote a host of new suspicions and keep us from finding out the truth.’
‘What if it is the truth?’ Kari asked. ‘What if the killer was looking for blackmail materials of some kind?’
Jason looked at the note. It had been run off on an ordinary printer but he did take notice of one thing the others had missed. ‘It’s only an opinion, but this note appears to have been written by another solicitor, or someone intimate with a person in that profession.’
Grady and Kari both stared blankly at him for several seconds. ‘Enlighten me,’ Grady spoke first.
‘Notice the wording of the last sentence – it reads one of our DDAs. A person outside the judicial system would have stated one of the state’s DDAs or simply noted a DDA was involved.’
‘It could have been a grammatical mistake,’ Grady indicated. ‘The author of this could have been in a hurry and not given much thought to the syntax he used.’
‘Or it could have been the most natural way of writing the note.’ Kari sided with Jason. ‘If it was an unconscious admission….’ She didn’t finish, but studied Grady for his honest reaction.
‘This is an election year,’ Grady pointed out. ‘The contest for district attorney has been heating up for a few months now. Anything that might harm Gloria Streisand’s grip on her office would be welcomed by Paul Hanson’s camp.’
‘You think this could have come from him or one of his supporters?’ Kari wanted to know.
The detective cleared his throat. ‘I think we might be making a big deal out of a single word. That said, blackmail would explain how come Dom and Juno had a lot of extra money lately, and why someone would search their house and steal their phones and computer.’
‘And the part about a DDA?’ Jason queried.
‘Dom worked in the same state office building with Gloria and her assistants. He might have found some papers in the trash that were supposed to have been shredded. He could have overheard or seen something incriminating. Most people tend to ignore a janitor.’
‘It would also explain why a paranoid person would be trying to frighten Kari away from the investigation,’ Jason conjectured. ‘They probably think Dom told her something that would lead her to uncovering the reason for the blackmail.’
‘But they didn’t tell me anything of importance,’ Kari insisted. ‘They practically threw me out of their house.’
‘Someone thinks differently,’ Jason said.
Kari removed the notepad from her purse. ‘I wrote down everything I could remember, but Dom used so much gangsta slang I couldn’t understand but every third or fourth word.’
Grady took a moment to look at her notes. ‘Looks like poppycock to me too,’ he agreed.
‘Even so,’ Jason said. ‘Let me study it for a bit and see if I can make some sense from it.’ He tore the page from Kari’s notebook, folded it and stuck it inside his jacket pocket.
‘Ham is talking to Rick Cory as we speak,’ Grady told them. ‘He is hoping Radar – his street informant – will know something about last night. Soon as Ham gets back we’ll do some looking into this blackmail note. Without anyone knowing who sent it or who is involved, we can’t do much.’
‘We’ll do a little snooping of our own,’ Kari said. ‘As the note was sent to me, I have every right to pursue the lead.’
Grady didn’t try to talk her out of it. ‘Take the Brit with you,’ he said drily. ‘I don’t know if that will help you stay out of trouble or get the both of you in deeper, but at least you’ll have company.’
They left the police station and Kari headed for her car.
‘Do you have a plan?’ Jason asked.
Kari smiled and said, ‘Yes.’
The captain groaned and began to rub his temples as if suffering a migraine headache. ‘Tell me this isn’t happening,’ he complained.
‘Blackmail is what the note claimed,’ Grady responded. ‘Underwood and the Brit are on the scent. I went through the bank statements and phone records of Dom and Juno again. If they got a payoff from blackmail there should be a lot of cash, but I can’t account for more than a couple thousand dollars. Add to that, the money they did deposit was over a period of several weeks.’
‘They could have had a stash in the house,’ the captain suggested. ‘Maybe the killer found it.’
Hampton grunted his doubt. ‘Doesn’t fit the crime scene. There wasn’t a single room untouched, meaning the shooter didn’t stop searching until he had gone through the entire place. It would appear he didn’t find what he was looking for. Plus, why take the computer and phones? Might get a few bucks for a laptop, but phones are worth practically nothing.’
‘Couldn’t this also mean Juno knew about the drug connection?’ Captain Mercer questioned. ‘And wouldn’t passing that information along to the reporter make her a target?’
‘I’m sure she isn’t lying or holding anything back from us,’ Grady assured him. ‘Any information about the cartel, she would have recognized it. Blackmail, on the other hand, could be anything Dom might have said, some trifle she didn’t even pick up on.’
The captain was thoughtful for a time. ‘We need a judge to sign off on us checking on this DDA angle. Considering the note implicates one of them, we need to pull their phone and bank records.’
‘Westmoreland is eager for us to find his boy’s killer,’ Hampton reminded the captain. ‘I’ll bet he would give us the go ahead without involving the DA’s office.’
Grady frowned. ‘Do we dare go around her, Capt’n? She is not going to appreciate that kind of tactic.’
‘This concerns someone on her staff, Grady. I think it’s better if we leave her out of it for the time being. If something jumps out at us, we can clue her in for any further investigation.’
Hampton gave a nod. ‘We’ll head over and talk to Judge Westmoreland. Considering this may be a motive for his son’s death, I don’t think there will be any problem.’
‘Keep me posted, gentlemen,’ Captain Mercer said. Then he walked back toward his office.
‘I don’t know, Ham,’ Grady whispered. ‘Now we don’t trust the DA? Who’s next, the Governor?’
Hampton snorted. ‘Could happen. I didn’t vote for him.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THEY HAD TO wait a few minutes, but Paul Hanson agreed to meet with Kari and Jason. They entered his office and sat down in standard chairs on one side of Paul’s finely polished executive desk. He reclined back in an leather-bound executive’s chair and offered a greeting smile.
Paul wore self assurance like his tailor-made suit, with cool, speculative eyes and the impassive expression of a high-stakes gambler. A man in his forties, clean shaven, still a full head of hair – neatly combed, but not professionally styled – he was a little above average in looks and appeared physically fit.
‘So, Miss Underwood,’ he greeted. ‘We meet at last.’
‘I’m flattered you know who I am.’
A practiced smile displayed perfectly straight, immaculate teeth. ‘You needn’t be coy. I am well aware of your part in bringing the Coin Killer to justice.’ His eyes shifted to Jason. ‘And you are her British counterpart.’
‘Jason Keane,’ he introduced himself.
Paul reached across the desk and shook his hand. Sitting back, he noticed the bulge under Jason’s jacket and offered him a perplexed look. ‘A visiting police officer from the UK who carries a gun? What kind of mission are you on?’
Jason made a dismissive gesture. ‘The local detectives thought my being armed might be prudent. Miss Underwood has been targeted twice lately.’
‘Yes, I heard about the shooting at the parking garage.’ After a moment he grasped the second incident. ‘And the attempted burglary at the West Jordan apartments – that was you who nearly caught the prowler?’
‘Yes,’ Jason replied. ‘Had I been armed at the time, I could have arrested him.’
‘So,’ Paul said, proceeding to the purpose of their visit. ‘What can I do for the two of you?’
‘We’d like to know why you sent this letter to me,’ Kari said confidently, holding out a copy of the bribe note. ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’
Paul took the paper, glanced at it and regarded her thoughtfully for a short time before answering. ‘Why should I send something like that to you?’
‘Because anyone wanting to discredit or investigate Gloria Streisand would know you have the most to gain should there be a scandal among her deputy attorneys.’
‘Very astute … and accurate.’ He praised her deduction, shocking them both. ‘The letter was delivered to me in the same fashion as I had it passed along to you.’
Kari swallowed her surprise at his confession and forced her voice to work. ‘Why me?’ she managed in little more than a squeak.
The man gave her an impassive look. ‘You said it yourself, I have the most to gain if this is true. Accordingly, it would be unethical for me to instigate an investigation on my own. I mean, what if Gloria herself should be implicated of complicity or wrongdoing? It would look like I had used this incident as an underhanded way to win the election.’
‘So you thought of me?’
He stated, ‘I knew you were the one reporter who would take the note seriously and see if there was any substance to the claim.’
‘This could be from anyone who was jealous or vindictive toward the DA or any of her deputies,’ Kari said.
Paul again paused, as if considering a number of options, before he selected the proper response. He was undoubtedly good at his job, weighing each word before speaking.
‘If I had thought this was a malicious prank, I would have filed away the letter as an unsubstantiated rumor or slanderous refuse. But I happened upon an oddity some days ago that piqued my interest.’
‘Something that could be related to blackmail?’ Kari inquired.
Rather than declare a determination about the matter, he continued with his story. ‘A career criminal named Chock Lincoln, who had been recently paroled, was picked up with a gun on his person. It was a clear violation of his parole and I would have expected to see him before a magistrate and be returned to prison.’ Paul shook his head. ‘Instead, the charge was dropped and he was released without a hearing.’
‘Perhaps the circumstances….’ Jason began.
Paul gave his head a second shake. ‘I looked into the matter. Mr. Lincoln claimed he was in fear for his life. Hence the need for a weapon.’
‘That could be true,’ Kari indicated.
‘Lincoln had a reputation for always working alone. His record is two pages long and filled with a number of offenses. But he did not double-cross anyone, had no gang affiliations, and he was serving time for armed robberies and car theft. His victims were not the sort to seek violent retribution. In other words, I could see no justification for him to be carrying a weapon. There were no grounds for dismissing the charge.’
‘Who managed to get the offense withdrawn?’ Jason inquired.
‘DDA Martin,’ Paul replied. ‘He is Mrs. Streisand’s …’ he hesitated before adding, ‘… number one assistant.’
Kari said, ‘You think Lincoln may have had some kind of leverage on Martin and forced him to drop the charges?’
‘Let’s just say I didn’t agree with the decision to let a violent felon walk free,’ Paul acknowledged. He explained that Gloria had suggested the leniency was to prevent any racial bias charges; then he handed back the letter. ‘And that is the reason I took this blackmail idea seriously. I have to wonder if Lincoln’s release and the note are in some way related.’
‘Do you have the original piece of mail?’ Kari asked.
‘I had both the paper and the self-sealing envelope dusted for prints. There was nothing on the standard page of paper and the only prints on the envelope belonged to my secretary, from when she found the letter in our box. It had no stamp, so it was hand delivered.’
‘Then you have no idea of who might have sent the letter?’
‘None whatsoever,’ Paul replied. ‘I’m sure they chose me because I am running against the current DA. Whoever it was didn’t want to contact the police … or perhaps they thought I would give the letter more credence than the police.’
‘You do have the most to gain if Mrs. Streisand should be found guilty of a cover-up of some kind,’ Kari implied.
Paul grinned. ‘And that is exactly why I sent the note to you. I can’t appear to be unscrupulously trying to dig up dirt on my opponent. That could cost me the very votes I need to win the election.’
Kari thanked him for seeing them and she and Jason left his office. Once outside, she locked her arm in his and headed for her car.
‘What are your thoughts?’ she asked, after a short way.
‘That politics are no different in the States from what they are at home.’
She laughed. ‘People are the same everywhere. It’s all about greed, power an
d individual motivation.’
‘We still have no idea as to who this blackmailer is, what the blackmail entails, and what he or she intends to gain.’
Kari said, ‘We need to know if Dom and Juno were involved in this somehow. Being a janitor at the state building, Dom had access to sensitive papers and information.’
‘There is also the money he and Juno had been spending lately,’ Jason added. ‘And someone did tear apart their place looking for something.’
‘That’s as much as we know, Detective Inspector Keane. What’s our next move?’
‘Give our detective friends a call about where the blackmail note came from and visit Juno’s sister again?’ Jason offered.
‘You read my mind.’
He grinned. ‘I am compelled to admit it makes remarkable reading.’
Hampton used his size to intimidate Ernie, towering over his desk, hands on his hips, as if he would snatch the man from his chair and start shaking him like rag doll.
‘You had to wonder why Chock Lincoln was given a walk on a concealed weapons charge!’ he bellowed. ‘You are the man’s parole officer!’
‘He said he worked out some kind of deal,’ Ernie whimpered impotently. ‘I don’t ask questions – I just do my job!’
‘We did a little checking and discovered your brother-in-law had a DUI a few months back.’ Grady took over. ‘It would have been his fifth time for being caught driving under the influence. It usually means jail time after the third offense.’
‘How did he get off … again?’ Hampton joined in. ‘Why did the DA’s office give him a pass?’
‘My sister has four kids, Detectives.’ Ernie made the excuse. ‘How is she going to take care of the family with her husband in jail?’ He took a breath and added, ‘He’d have lost his job, his house, his insurance, everything!’
‘A drunk driver kills someone every forty-eight minutes in this country, nearly eleven thousand deaths a year.’ Grady stated the latest published facts. ‘We’re talking innocent men, women and children. They lose more than their freedom for a few months, or their jobs and insurance … they lose their lives and the lives of their loved ones!’