The Boom Room (9 page)

“Good boy. Hopefully, there won't be any need for it today. But be ready.”

Both men longed to look up. Carolyn's apartment number was 4A. It could very likely be at the front of the building.

“Just be casual,” Pratt said as they entered. “Let me do the talking.”

Luck was with them, and the super was in.

“Police, ma'am,” Pratt said into the phone. “We need to get in.”

“Just a moment. I'll be right there.”

Pratt flashed his badge and
ID
when she came to the door. She stepped aside.

“We just want to talk to one of your tenants. Won't be a minute.”

Behind his back, Ellis crossed his fingers.

“Do you want me to come up with you?” she asked.

“Won't be necessary, but thanks for offering.”

The detectives got on the elevator and pressed
4
.

The elevator was old and slow. The building had clearly seen better days, judging by the graffiti. Still, it was clean and didn't smell of urine. Eventually, the doors opened on the fourth floor.

“Moment of truth,” Ellis said in a low voice.

“I'll take the lead,” Pratt said. “You back me up.”

Apartment 4A was down the short hallway on their left, next to a window that gave the hallway light. They moved forward quickly.

At the door, Pratt knocked. “Miss Tucci? Are you in there?” he asked loudly when he got no response. “Please open up.”

Nothing.

He turned to Ellis. “Break it down, but pull back or drop. I'll go through after.”

Ellis nodded. The door and frame were made of wood. Being young and strong, he splintered the door next to where the lock was with one good body blow. Since he was off-balance, he went through but quickly rolled to the side. Pratt came through right behind him, gun drawn and ready.

The living room was small and sparsely furnished, but the attention of the two men was immediately drawn to the body in the middle of the floor. A stream of blood ran across the wood and disappeared under a chair.

The dead person, lying flat on his back with a wicked knife in his chest, was Mike Master. Curled in the chair, looking dazed, was Carolyn Tucci. She had cuts on both hands and one on her right shoulder.

Ellis went to her while Pratt used the handheld to summon help.

“We need an ambulance. Make it snappy!”

Carolyn began speaking, her voice wobbly. “He came here. He was very angry with me. He had a knife. We struggled. I knew he would kill me.”

Pratt told Ellis to find some towels to help with the girl's bleeding. “And bring her a glass of water.”

Ellis soon returned with both.

Pratt asked her, “How did this happen?”

“I…I'm not really sure. We were struggling. He knocked me down. I kicked at him. After that, I don't remember anything.”

Sirens could be heard in the distance.

“Help is on the way, Carolyn,” Ellis told her. “The wounds aren't too deep. You should be okay.”

She turned to look at him. “You're sure? I'm so tired.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I was so stupid to think I could trap him. He was like a wild animal.”

“Everything will be okay now.”

Tears started falling from the girl's eyes. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “The nightmare is over.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Pratt and Ellis led Carolyn Tucci, barefoot, around the perimeter of the room to the paramedics waiting at the door.

Pratt told one of the uniforms in the hall to accompany the girl to the hospital. “And make sure you keep a close eye on her until you hear from me.”

“What was that all about?” Ellis asked. “The danger is over.”

“You don't get what's going on yet, do you?”

“What am I not getting here?”

“A lot. Come on. We're going back downtown. Let the boys do their work in peace.”

The older man pulled him over to the side of the hall to let the forensics team through. As the lead passed, Pratt pulled him aside, telling him to get prints off the body right away.

“And that glass on the side table. I want prints off that too. Some are Ellis's, but the others are the girl's. I need everything on my desk, like, right now. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure. Shouldn't be a problem, Pratt.”

Pratt borrowed Ellis's phone and was on it most of the drive back to headquarters. The younger detective remained mystified by his mentor's behavior.

On the sidewalk, Ellis stood in front of his partner, blocking the way. “What the hell is going on? Master is dead. We got our man.”

Pratt put his arm around Ellis. “Come upstairs with me. All shall be revealed.”

Ellis refused to move. “Just tell me one thing first.”

“Sure. Fire away.”

“Is Carolyn Tucci a goddamned suspect?”

“Yes.”

“How the hell is that possible? And how did I completely miss it?”

Pratt laughed. “Those are questions two and three. I promised to answer only one. Come upstairs.”

McDonnell was waiting in his office. “What the hell is going on, Pratt?”

Gordon was also there. “What is your clown prince doing with you, Pratt? He's supposed to be on leave.”

The jolly mood began to seep from Pratt's face.

“You weren't here, Flash, and I needed to make a quick decision. Ellis knew where Carolyn Tucci lived and was close by. I grabbed him.”

McDonnell frowned. “Pratt, can you assure me we're not going to have any problems because you included someone whose brother is involved in this case?”

The detective sat down on one of the chairs facing his boss's desk.

“No problem whatsoever. Mike Master was dead when we got there.”

“Did you get her statement?”

“No. We sent her off to hospital. She had a few cuts on her hands and left shoulder.”

“Defending herself from her attacker?”

“Maybe.”

“What the hell do you mean, Pratt?”

Everyone else's expressions held the same question.

“All will be revealed after the hospital's got her patched up—when she's brought in to give her statement.”

McDonnell's phone rang.

“Yes…I figured as much…No, I'm not exactly sure what's going on…I understand that…Yes. I will call you as soon as I have a handle on where we stand…Right.
ASAP
.” He hung up. “That was the press office. The lobby is flooded with media. They're all demanding to know what's going on.” He leveled his gaze at Pratt. “Would you mind telling me just what the hell is going on?”

“I hope to be able to tell you that in a few hours.” Pratt stood up wearily. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare some things for the last act in this little drama. The other two band members are waiting in one of the interview rooms. I need to talk to them.”

“Now you're saying the girl is involved in these murders?” Gordon nearly shouted. “Where did you come up with such a stupid theory?”

Pratt stopped in the doorway and smiled. “On Facebook.”

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Carolyn Tucci wore a look of abject misery as she was led into the interview room. Pratt and McDonnell were sitting at the far side of the table. In the next room, Gordon, Ellis and Cheevers were looking on from behind a two-way mirror.

“Why did you drag me out of the hospital? Haven't I been through enough today?” she asked, obviously annoyed.

Pratt ignored her questions. “Thank you so much for coming down.”

“But I don't want to be here!”

“Just the same, we appreciate you assisting us. I have a few things that need clearing up. Just minor questions, really. May I offer you a coffee or a cold drink? Perhaps a sandwich?”

“I don't want anything. I just want to get out of here.”

Pratt said soothingly, “I understand that you've been through a lot.”

“Been through a lot? I should be dead. Someone tried to kill me today! How do you think that feels?”

“Why don't you tell me?”

“I don't believe it.” She put her head down on the table and moaned, then looked up. “Why don't you just leave me alone?”

“We will, Carolyn, as soon as we straighten out a few things. We came to your apartment and found a person who'd been stabbed to death. You were the only other person there. We have to be certain about what happened. You told us you couldn't remember.”

“I still can't. Master came at me with a big-ass knife. The next thing I know, he's dead and you've just broken down my door. I have no idea what happened in between.”

“It did look like self-defense.”

Tucci sat up straight. “Looked like self-defense? It
was
self-defense. That madman tried to kill me!”

“Did he?”

“Are you saying I made this whole thing up?”

“I'm trying to get to the truth.”

McDonnell tapped Pratt on the arm and got to his feet, and they left the room. Pratt followed him to the observation room next door.

“Where are you going with this?” McDonnell asked.

“Yeah,” Gordon chimed in. “I'd like to know that too.”

McDonnell pointed a finger at him.

“You know what, Flash? Just shut the hell up if you can only make stupid comments.”

Pratt looked through the mirror into the next room. Carolyn was slumped back in her chair, eyes shut.

“The two other boys in the band told me some interesting things,” he began slowly. “They didn't say anything earlier, probably out of a sense of loyalty. The long and short of it is, Carolyn was playing both Jamie Clark and Mike Master. She's not what she seems.”

Pratt went back to the interview room. Sitting at the table across from Carolyn, he waited until she finally looked up. McDonnell slipped in but stayed near the door.

“Carolyn,” Pratt said, “I have Fedrano and Blair down the hall. They've been telling me about you and Jamie Clark and Mike Master.”

“What did they tell you?” she sneered. “They don't like me. Everything they've said is lies.”

“Did you sleep with Mike Master last night?”

“I wouldn't do that to Jamie.”

“Even though you tried to sneak out quietly, both of the other band members saw you leave. They also heard you earlier in Master's room.”

“All lies!”

“Would you submit to a vaginal swab to prove that?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay. I was with Mike last night.”

“The fact is, you've been with him many times, haven't you? Don't bother telling me they're lying. They've signed statements confirming it.”

Again a pause. “Yes…”

“Earlier today, I found another knife at The Boom Room. It was attached to the speaker magnet on one of the band's amplifiers.”

“So? What does that have to do with me?”

“Quite a great deal. You see, while the knife had been wiped clean of fingerprints, there were a number of other prints and smudges on the speaker magnet.” Pratt raised his voice. “None of them were Mike Master's, but they were all from the same person.”

Carolyn's eyes were big. “Jamie?”

Pratt shook his head. “No. You. You put that knife there.”

“I didn't!”

“Then how did your prints get there?”

“I don't know. I must have touched the magnet on Mike's amp sometime at a rehearsal or something.”

“I didn't say it was Mike's amp, so how could you know that?”

“I just assumed—”

Now Pratt's voice was stern. “You put it there on purpose. You needed to get rid of that knife so it wouldn't be found when we searched. You thought it would be undetectable there, and you were almost right. You nearly got away with it.”

“Lies! All lies!”

“You stabbed Joseph Lewis like you promised Mike you would. He wanted to take over the band, but to do that, he needed to get rid of Jamie. So you had to make it look as if Jamie had done it. That's why you used the second knife to kill Lewis. If you'd used Jamie's—which you'd taken earlier—you would have wiped off all his prints when you wiped off yours. You needed Jamie's prints on that knife. After Lewis was dead, you carefully stuck Jamie's knife into the wound to get blood on the blade. Then you chucked it under the photocopier. You had to hide the fact there was a second knife.”

“You're crazy! Why would I do that? I love Jamie!”

“No, you don't. You latched on to Jamie because you thought he'd become famous. Then you found he didn't have the same fire in his belly that Mike Master had. You said you knew nothing about Mike Master's past, but you knew all about it. Lying with you after sex, he told you his whole story, didn't he?”

“He told me he once killed someone, but I didn't believe him.”

“Then, after you'd done just as he'd asked, you found out Master had lied to you. I'll bet it was something like, ‘What do you know about managing a band, Carolyn? That's a laugh! I've spoken to Carl Thomson. He's going to be managing Rotten Attitude. He actually knows something about managing a band.' I'll bet that really stung, didn't it? Master had set you up and used you. He was very good at stuff like that.”

Carolyn started to speak, then flopped back in her chair, glaring at Pratt.

He continued speaking.

“You had an ace up your sleeve though, didn't you? All you had to do was plant a little bug in Jamie's half brother's ear. Jamie had told you he was a straight-arrow cop. He'd make sure Mike Master got his due. Master's knife was still where you'd hidden it, but then we didn't find it. You'd hidden it too cleverly. So today you took matters into your own hands. You set Master up. You were lying in wait for him at your apartment. You stabbed him with the hunting knife you took from his room last night. Then you made it look like he'd attacked you. All you had to do was wait for us to show up with the idea we were saving you from a psychopath.”