Flashpoint Read online

  ‘You need to pull yourself together, Robert. We need to get your story straight so it’s coherent.’

  ‘I know, it’s just—’

  ‘How many times did you see her alone?’

  ‘Twice. The first time was in her hotel room. We had room service and made out a little. That was all.’

  Microphones, video cameras …

  ‘How about the second time?’

  ‘A different hotel room. That was when we— When I couldn’t do anything.’

  Microphones, video cameras …

  ‘Why couldn’t you do anything?’

  ‘I don’t know. Why can’t you get it up sometimes? Maybe it was guilt. About Elise, I mean. But that’s why I got so hot and bothered in the first place. Our sex life hasn’t exactly been great. Since I had that little fling, I mean.’

  Your sex life isn’t very good since you stepped out on your wife so you step out on her again.

  ‘Now I want you to tell me everything you did so far today.’

  His expression said that I was tormenting him and he resented it. But he spoke with forced patience. This was the man of privilege talking to a hired hand.

  ‘She was supposed to be here waiting for me. I’d made the mistake of telling her how great our cabin is, so she asked if she could spend a night here. She said she liked waking up in the country. She even managed to con me into giving her a key to the place. I didn’t want to but I was in no position to say no.’

  ‘God, Robert, she was probably planting cameras.’

  ‘I’m not completely stupid, Dev. I finally realized you were right about her. I was going to surprise her. She thought we were meeting to have sex. But I was going to tell her that she could go to hell and that I wouldn’t stand still for blackmail. I was going to dare her to go to the media. I was ashamed as hell and thought I’d finally gotten my brains and my balls back.’

  He formed a fist to shake at the dark gods. ‘I was so stupid, Dev. I can’t believe how stupid I was.’ A sob; then the tears. Not for the dead woman. ‘All I can think of is what this’ll do to Elise. I never told you but she was in a kind of rest home last year after she had a hard time dealing with things.’

  ‘‘‘Things” being your affair?’

  ‘I’d give anything to take that back. Elise is … She had psychological problems as a child. She saw a shrink for most of high school and half of college. It runs in the family. Her mother committed suicide and she always blamed her father.’ He made a face. ‘The old man was in love with somebody else and about a week after he told her, Elise’s mother killed herself. With a gun. Elise got all her anxiety attacks and depression from her mother.’ Then, ‘And she’ll leave me now, for sure. She deserves to leave me.’

  More tears.

  I went out on to the porch. I had Ben Zuckerman’s number on my speed dial. His personal assistant answered.

  ‘Hi, Stephanie. It’s Dev Conrad.’

  ‘Hi, Dev. I hope you’re in the city. It’s such a beautiful day.’

  ‘Actually I’m upstate for the day. But it’s nice up here, too.’

  ‘I love fall so much. My favorite time.’

  ‘Mine, too. Say, Stephanie, is Ben there?’

  ‘Yes he is. He’s got one of our temps in with him. I can buzz him if you’d like.’

  ‘I’d appreciate that very much. Thank you.’

  The wait took about a minute and a half.

  ‘Hi, Dev.’

  ‘Hi, Ben. Listen, you’ve been to Robert’s cabin.’

  He laughed. ‘I got the worst hangover of my life the weekend I went up there, supposedly to fish.’

  ‘I can’t say any more than this: we need you to fly up here now. Take a private plane if you need to and charge it to us. There’s an airport nearby. Call me back when you have the arrangements made.’

  ‘Hey, Dev. You’re scaring me, and I mean it.’

  ‘Nobody’s more scared than Robert is.’

  ‘I’ll have to blow off a couple of very important clients.’

  ‘You know how badly we need this seat.’

  ‘Damn it!’ he said and took a deep breath. ‘I really am dreading this. I’ll be on a plane as soon as I can. Give me your cell number again, huh?’

  THREE

  Detective Frank Hammell stood with me on the porch as we watched a green Chevrolet two-door sedan come around the corner of the A-frame and stop. He and two of his uniformed men had been here for just over half an hour now. Bright yellow crime scene tape clashed with the more autumnal colors of the trees and grass.

  He had made it clear from the start that he considered me at best a nuisance. I’d warned Robert three different times that after his brief explanation of how he’d come to find the body he didn’t have to say anything else until his lawyer showed up. He’d given me the name of a local attorney who was also a strong political supporter of his. He felt she could handle things until Ben got here.

  ‘There she is,’ Hammell said, watching a woman get out of the Chevy. ‘She’s a pretty one. And if you don’t think so, just ask her.’ His spiteful tone suggested a lot but since it was in code I didn’t know what he was talking about.

  Her name was Jane Tyler. Everything about her, from the cut of her blue suit and starched white blouse – and certainly including her pretty, freckled face – suggested that she was a smart, confident woman who’d be good in a courtroom. This impression faltered for just a moment when her blue eyes met Hammell’s.

  She came up onto the porch toting a slender briefcase. She nodded to each of us and then said, ‘Hi, Frank.’

  ‘It’s Detective Hammell these days, Jane. You should’ve figured that out for yourself.’ He was a tall man who might have played basketball in his high school days. At least, the graying crew cut suggested something like that. He wore a gray suit and black tie and blue shirt. He kept squeezing one of those little rubber balls that help your grip get more deadly.

  ‘All right, Detective Hammell. I’d like to talk to the senator if I may.’

  ‘Then this is the man you want to talk to. He seems to be giving the orders.’

  I put out my hand and we shook. ‘I’m Dev Conrad. I work with the senator on his campaign.’

  A good, open Midwestern smile. ‘Oh, yes. He talks about you all the time.’ Then to Hammell: ‘Detective Hammell, I’d like ten minutes alone with Senator Logan. And since I imagine you’ve got a couple of men inside I’d like to request that they wait outside while I talk to him.’

  ‘Why, hell yes, Jane. You and this Conrad are making my work easy for me. All I got to do is take orders and not worry my pretty little head at all.’

  For the first time her blue eyes showed concern. ‘Detective Hammell, I’m not asking for anything irregular and we both know you don’t have to go along with it. If you’re against it just say so.’

  ‘Now how could I say no to a former family member?’

  This time her look was one of exasperation. A soap opera was playing out but I still didn’t know the plot.

  He moved from us to the door and said, ‘Carter and Banes, get out of there right now.’

  As he spoke another car came around the side of the house. This one was a new silver Buick and had a doctor’s tag on the license plate. Probably the medical examiner.

  The two uniformed men came out of the house. Both of them carried small evidence bags. All the bags were filled. ‘Our good friend the lawyer needs to talk to the senator.’

  Neither of them showed any particular emotion. They were likely competent officers doing their job. They didn’t seem to share their boss’s enmity toward Jane. In fact, one of them was bold enough to nod to her and offer a whisper of a smile.

  I heard one or maybe two vehicles making their way down the slope leading to the house. The place was getting busy.

  ‘You better get in there right now,’ Hammell said to Jane. ‘You know how Doctor Wilhelm hates to be kept waiting.’ His moderately civil tone surprised me.

  J
ane hurried inside.

  The man who came up on the porch appeared to be in his fifties with graying hair that had once been red. He wore a V-neck blue sweater with a button-down white shirt underneath. Jeans and tan cowboy boots. Somewhere he’d bought himself a pair of mean green eyes, maybe at a gun shop. It was hard to imagine him comforting a patient.

  Even before Hammell had had time to introduce him, Wilhelm leaned into the detective and grinned. ‘Looks like I’m gonna get the senator I want after all. Sorry about that, Detective Hammell.’ Hammell grunted but said nothing. Then Wilhelm glared in my direction. ‘Who’s this?’

  ‘Logan’s consultant.’

  His hand went out. I took it automatically. Shockingly weak for such a medical cowpoke. I wanted to punch him in the mouth.

  ‘A little joke there, Conrad. My name’s Tag, by the way.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘I’d never let my politics interfere with my job.’ He was covering his ass in case I wanted to give the press his name and repeat what he’d said. ‘Well, I’d better get in there.’

  There were numerous cases around the country where medical examiners had been bought off. Most notorious was the case of the Chicago-area detective who’d allegedly murdered three of his four wives.

  ‘You’ll need to hold off ten minutes, Tag. Jane Tyler’s in there.’

  ‘Tyler? What the hell’s she doing here?’

  ‘The senator asked Mr Conrad here to get her. They’ve got some hotshot lawyer flying in from Chicago and she’s holding down the fort until he gets here.’

  ‘She’s about as cold a little bitch as they come.’ The word cold was, I suspected, attributable to the possibility that he’d hit on her and she’d spurned him. Why, here was a stud popular enough to be both a husband and a player – how could she turn down a prize like him?

  An ambulance pulled into view, followed by another squad car. And right behind them, still coming down the slope, was another vehicle that was soon enough revealed to be a Channel 8 van. Like Jane and Wilhelm, they’d all have to park outside the yellow tape.

  ‘You have any ideas yet, Frank?’ Wilhelm asked.

  ‘Not yet. Way too soon. I’d like to talk to the senator but our friend here doesn’t think that’s a good idea.’

  A man and woman in white came up from the ambulance. Hammell checked his watch and said, ‘Jane Tyler’s got four more minutes in there. We’ll just wait.’

  ‘This is really bullshit, Frank. I’ve got a lot to do.’

  The ambulance woman rolled her eyes when Wilhelm said this. He was clearly a beloved figure in medical circles.

  Jane beat her deadline by a couple minutes. She walked out with her briefcase and glanced around at the new arrivals. When her eyes stopped on Wilhelm her face tightened perceptibly. Then, ‘Detective Hammell, the senator would like to talk to you but I’d like to be with him when you do.’

  She was being polite. She had the legal right to be with her client.

  But a cop is a cop. ‘That’s fine. But I want to do it at the station.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Yes, I am. For one thing, Tag has to get in there, and for another the ambulance folks have to do their job after he finishes.’

  A hefty man in a Bears jersey with a camera on his shoulder was shooting an attractive blonde woman in a tan Burberry who was talking into a hand-held microphone. The reporters who’ll go on to better gigs are the ones who know stories like these are the ones that will get them there. So they play it big.

  ‘I’d like to speak to Mr Conrad for a second,’ Jane said.

  ‘Then you can do it around the corner of the house, lady, because I’m going inside right now. Some of us have more important jobs than covering up for a lying politician.’ Wilhelm didn’t wear righteous indignation well at all.

  Hammell nodded and Jane led me down the steps of the porch and a few feet around the house.

  ‘The senator would like you to drive over to his house and explain to his family what’s going on.’ She was good at reading faces. ‘It’s a terrible job and I told him that. But what he’s afraid of is that Doctor Wilhelm will call the senator’s brother, James, and all the information will come from those two. They’re big friends.’

  I couldn’t help myself. ‘Wilhelm and James? Man, that James sure is a loyal guy.’

  I was graced by the warmth of her smile. ‘I shouldn’t comment.’

  ‘You just did.’

  ‘Anyway, they really need to hear everything from somebody they trust and like. Elise and Maddy despise James. And Doctor Wilhelm started hitting on Maddy as soon as she turned eighteen. They all go to the same country club. The board there warned him he’d be kicked out if he kept it up.’

  I thought of Elise’s angry and anguished face when she’d spotted Tracy Cabot at the fundraiser. I was afraid to think about how she would react to this. All I could hope for was that she was stronger mentally than she appeared.

  ‘To be fair, I have to tell you something about Wilhelm. He’s a wonderful doctor. My brother was in a car crash and we thought he wouldn’t live through the night. Wilhelm saved him through surgery. His problem is with younger women, and one of these days it’ll catch up to him.’

  ‘I still don’t like him. But I’m glad you told me he’s competent.’

  ‘More than competent. He’s very good. Now, I need to tell the senator that we have to go to the station. He’s not going to like it.’

  ‘I can come along if you want.’

  She humored me. ‘Anything to get out of going to tell Elise and Maddy, huh? I don’t blame you for that. They’re very sweet people and they deserve a lot better than this.’

  I went to my car wondering about her relationship with Detective Hammell. Speculation on the soap opera kept my mind off Elise.

  FOUR

  The mansion was a Shingle-style home with a gambrel roof that lent it a Victorian look. It had always been referred to locally as ‘the mansion,’ even though it really didn’t qualify as one. The Logans had liked the fact that it was more than a century old, despite all the renovations it had required before they moved in. The lovingly-tended lawn stretched from the top of the hill on which the house sat all the way down to the rural gravel road below. The driveway was paved and widened in front of the house.

  Mrs Weiderman answered the door. She was a tall, somewhat overweight woman with pure white hair worn short and one of those sweet faces that grandmothers order online right after they get the news about the forthcoming child. I had seen her raise hell with reporters, nasty drunks at parties and anyone who spoke ill of any of the Logans, James, unfortunately, included. After she opened the door she stood smiling at me. ‘One of my favorite people.’

  ‘Let me say the same. How are you, Mrs Weiderman?’

  ‘Well, I suppose I’d be even happier if I was thirty years younger, forty pounds lighter and fifty times smarter, but I guess I’m doing all right. Now get in here and let me get you some coffee. Are you hungry?’

  The house was quiet, though somewhere I could hear a muffled TV. Once she’d brought me into the living room she sat me down and said, ‘I believe you take it black.’

  ‘Thank you. I could use some coffee.’ I heard the anxiety in my voice and caught myself. ‘When it’s as good as yours it doesn’t matter what time it is, Mrs Weiderman.’

  It was a large room of framed Monet prints, comfortable deep- red matching couches and chairs, a stone fireplace large enough to roast a buffalo in and a grand piano in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto the forest. There was a dry bar tucked away; I had taken advantage of it quite a few times.

  I got up from my chair, sat down again and once more got up. I was just sitting down again when Mrs Weiderman brought me my coffee and said, ‘Maddy wants to see you, too. I told you last time I think she has a little crush on you. They’ll be down in a few minutes.’

  I thanked her then stood up again. This time I went all the way o
ver to the grand piano and stared out at the woods. Whenever I got into trouble with my folks as a boy I imagined that I could run away and live in the forest. I never had a clear sense of what I’d do there, especially after nightfall, but eating leaves and tree bark sounded better than facing my parents’ disappointment.

  When I heard them I turned around and saw that they knew. They didn’t know what, but they knew it would be bad. Maddy wore a tan crew-neck sweater, jeans and merrily striped socks; Elise was in a white blouse, black cardigan and jeans. Her feet were in black slippers.

  ‘I’m almost afraid to hear, Dev. I have to tell you that. You could have phoned – Maddy and I both know that this is going to be terrible.’

  Maddy and Elise sat on a couch in front of the fireplace. I sat in the chair opposite them.

  ‘I called Dad’s cell,’ Maddy said. ‘A strange man answered and then let Dad talk. Dad said he was being taken to the police station and that he loved Mom and I very much. And that you were coming over to explain everything.’

  So they did know some of the details in broad stroke. A police officer answering and a father telling a daughter that he was being taken to the police station was ominous.

  The more difficult part for me would be telling Elise about Tracy Cabot.

  ‘I want to say right upfront that I believe he was set up by somebody to make it look as if he murdered someone. We all know Robert and we know that he would never kill anybody.’ I tried to establish my professional and moral authority but I doubted they even heard me. They wanted the facts.

  Elise was ahead of me. ‘Someone was actually murdered?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘My God, Dev. A murder. I can’t believe it. Who was it?’

  ‘A woman.’

  ‘A woman?’ A subtle shift in her expression and tone of voice. She was figuring out the elements of the equation here. A woman, the police and Robert.

  ‘Was this a woman Robert knew?’

  ‘Only slightly.’

  ‘I see.’ And she did see. All too clearly. ‘Where did this happen?’

  ‘At the cabin.’

  ‘Our family’s cabin?’ She emphasized the word ‘family.’ ‘Where Maddy and I always ride our bikes? Where Maddy had her birthday parties when she was a little girl?’