5 Alive After Friday (12 page)

He hesitated and then shrugged. “Nine mill, probably
a Glock.” He pointed at her. “I need that gun.”

“Of course, you do. Ryan Cramer still has it. He kept
the gun and put it in his office safe.”

For the first time the detective returned her
smile. He couldn’t bring himself to say thanks, yet he couldn’t hold back the
grin. “Forget I called you a smartass.”

She laughed, “You didn’t call me a smartass.”

“Well, I was certainly thinking it.”

“Forget I called you a hardass.”

“Okay. So, the husband is the prime suspect to
start with. And now you tell me he has a weapon. Maybe he was searching the
house for the money she embezzled.”

“No way. Why can’t you get it through your head
that our murders are connected?” She raised her voice, “I want that gun tested
to see if it was used to kill Boyd.”

“Get in line.” Dominic chuckled. “I want that gun
tested to see if he shot his wife with it.”

She said, “At any rate, I’m certain he’ll
cooperate and give you the gun.”

“Nice to know you’re certain, smartass. Except Ryan
Cramer is missing. We’ve already put out an APB on him.” He motioned to the
door. “Now if you don’t mind.”

The detective watched them walk away shaking their
heads. Then he picked up their business cards, took Martin’s card and sailed it
into his waste can. He slid open his center desk drawer and tossed in Sandy’s
card. He turned his attention to the file on his desk. After a minute, he
stopped, retrieved Sandy’s card from the center desk drawer and stared at it.
Then he carefully slid it under the glass on his desk immediately in front of
him.

T
hey had
left the session with Detective Dominic and were standing in the parking lot
outside the West Palm Beach police building. “Ryan Cramer taking off is a
shocker. I didn’t see that one coming,” Sandy said. “Have to think about what
that means.”

Martin said, “And Myra Cramer embezzled money from
Bristol Trucking.”

“Yet another surprise but easier to figure isn’t it?
She needed more money to keep a fire under the affair.”

“What’s our next move, Sandy?”

“Some planning.” She pointed across the street to
Dunkin’ Donuts. “How about coffee? I had a sandwich over there earlier. Suddenly,
I really need a doughnut. I can smell them already.” Then she remembered, “I’m
sorry, you haven’t eaten all day. You said you were hungry. Let’s find a nice
café, or something.”

“I’m okay. I’ll get a sandwich over there. I don’t
want to waste time hunting around in a strange neighborhood for a sandwich.”

It was a popular place busy mostly with takeouts
although there were officers sitting at the counter. A table toward the back
held a squad of cops. Sandy said, “I don’t kid around about cops and their
doughnuts. You never know what the guy has just faced on his shift, or what
he’ll face before he gets to go home.” She scanned the bustling shop, spotted
someone leaving a table near the window and cleared it.

“What do you want?” he asked. “I’ll get it.”

“Glazed doughnut and black coffee.”

After he came back, she attacked the doughnut
while he sipped coffee waiting for his egg sandwich. “You’re not pleased with that
detective’s attitude, I know,” he said.

“He doesn’t bother me that much. I’m making a
bunch of guesses and I’m not always right. His guesses carry more consequences.”

“You know, it’s strange that he doesn’t see any
connection between Boyd and Myra’s murder. Boyd’s dead and now Myra’s dead.
They were lovers and now both are dead. That would set off all kinds of signals
in my mind, if it were my investigation.”

“That’s a good way to put it, Martin. You should
have said that to him.”

“He was too busy ignoring you to bother with
ignoring me.” His name was called and he stepped over to the counter and
brought back his sandwich. “Dominic thought Ryan was guilty to start with. Now
the guy has taken off.”

“Myra embezzling money is rather startling although
it fits in with the life crisis the poor woman was going through. I don’t see
much of a mystery there. I’ll bet you a dime she started stealing company money
to finance the affair. Boyd expected money to keep coming around, and as his
interest in her lessened his price to stick around probably went up.”

“Cruel, but she’s not the first person to play the
fool over sex. And tossing the fact of embezzled money into this mess doesn’t
help. We didn’t want her to be an embezzler. We wanted her to be Jane.”

“We
really
wanted her to be Jane, didn’t
we?” Sandy said. “We aren’t as far along in our investigation as we thought. And
then she’s murdered and her house gets turned inside out. Someone believed she
had money hidden. Could have been the embezzled money they were after. It could
have been the payoff money.” She captured the last precious crumb with the tip
of her finger.

“Sister Gail might know something about this. You
need to interview her.”

“I don’t see that happening. Ryan kicked me out of
his office, and he saw her that night. He’d have given her the bad word on me.
Plus now, the cops are going to be talking with her.”

He pushed his plate away. “I noticed you didn’t
mention her existence to Dominic. That would have saved him some time. Why
didn’t you tell him? Right now at the start he has no idea of who comes and
goes in that house.”

“I confess. I kept Gail to myself, because I was annoyed
with him and feeling obstinate. I don’t like myself when I get like that. But he
sneered at my information. And if I’d mentioned Gail, he’d have told me to stay
away from her, as well. You noticed he brushed aside my simple request to phone
Bristol Trucking and get me Boyd’s current address. I was hoping for more
cooperation. Okay, I’m a smartass, I should swallow my annoyance, phone and
tell him about Gail.”

“Yes, you should have mentioned her.”

“I was hoping to get Ryan on my side and then have
him introduce me to Gail. I’d be more likely to get something useful out of
her.”

“That might not happen now. He’s a fugitive.”

“Something else I’d like to try, right now. Let’s
drive over to Bristol Trucking in your big black car and find out what address Boyd
has been giving his employer. If Dominic won’t get me the address, I’ll get it
myself.”

“He told you to stay away from Bristol.”

“Maybe I misunderstood him.”

“Yeah, right. First you need to drive me to the police
vehicle pound and get my big black car released.”

Within the hour, Martin skidded his car to a stop
directly in front of the entrance to Bristol Trucking. And, just in case
someone inside had missed their dramatic arrival, Sandy and Martin jumped out
with a great slamming of doors. He was standing by the car trying his best to
look menacing, when Sandy hurried over to him. “Tell them you need Boyd’s
address as part of the investigation.”

“Me? I’m not going in there!”

“Don’t you want to practice? Go on. They’ve seen
me out here. They’ll assume we’re investigating the embezzlement.”

“What if they want to see a badge?”

“Tell them that as a citizen you’ve a right to his
address under the Freedom of Information Act.”

“What?”

“I’m kidding. Just give them a hard look that
says, ‘Now we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way.’ Or
maybe it’s the easy way first and then the hard way, whatever. And don’t smile.”

“Should I snarl?”

“Snarling’s good. Loosen your tie and unbuttoned
your suit jacket.”

“I could stick my hand in my coat pocket as though
I’m carrying heat.”

“It’s not
carrying
heat, it’s
packing
heat. How long you been a hood?”

He squared his shoulders and stepped out as if
he’d just been named mobster of the year. Within three minutes, he was back out
smiling. “They jumped to attention in there. They fell all over themselves
getting the address.”

“No one messes with Marty Bronner, if they know
what’s good for them,” she growled out of the side of her mouth. “Okay, drive
me back to my car while I check out his address.” She brought up the Palm Beach
County assessor’s office on her tablet and typed in the address.

She read from the screen, “The home address Boyd
gave his employer is listed to a Tonya Rhodes. You suppose Boyd was living with
her? Let’s see if the Criminal Database has anything on this woman.” She phoned
Jaworski in Park Beach, told him about Boyd being connected somehow to a Tonya
Rhodes and gave him her address.

Jaworski said, “Any chance she’s Jane? Maybe they
pulled off the extortion together. Maybe you just solved the Lagoon Park murder
for me. Hold on a minute...I’m checking.”

Martin said, “It doesn’t mean Tonya is his
girlfriend. She could be his old-maid aunt.”

Jaworski came back on, “Hold on, here’s her
record...interesting. Tonya Rhodes is not clean, Sandy. Did big time. Five years.
Kentucky Correctional for Women. Manslaughter.”

“How about that? Convicted of manslaughter.
Remember they once arrested Boyd for assault. They do make a dangerous pair. One
more thing, Eddy. Can you send a shot of her driver’s license to my phone? I
need her photo and physical description.”

She hung up and waited for the download to come
through.

Martin had heard part of the conversation while
driving. “Sounds as if Boyd was making out with Myra while living with Tonya.
Makes you wonder if one girlfriend was aware of the other. Perhaps Tonya is the
jealous kind of girlfriend and shot Myra to get her out of her boyfriend’s life.”

Her phone rang with the license information
download. She studied the photo.”Geez, this is Tonya Rhodes? I just met this
woman yesterday! This is the gal who runs the Nationwide Driving School.”

Her phone rang again.

When she answered the voice said, “Ryan Cramer
here, can you talk?”

She was startled and held the phone over so Martin
could hear. “Ryan! This is unexpected. How’d you get my number?”

“You left your card with me in my office. I’m
sorry I kicked you out. You said you were trying to decide if I was complicit. I
didn’t realize you were investigating my wife’s embezzlement. I want you to
know that I had nothing to do with that.”

“I’m not exactly investigating the embezzlement—”

“I knew nothing about it until Myra confessed to
me last night.”

“I think the embezzlement is the least of your worries,
Ryan.” She screwed up her face, looked over at Martin and shrugged. “So, you
were with Myra last night?”

Ryan answered, “Yes, she came over to Gail’s place
all upset. Told us she was in a jam and asked for our help. With her cheating
on me I wasn’t really in the mood to help. After she left, I drove up here.”

“Ryan, I guess you know the police are looking for
you.”

“Damn, I was afraid it would come to that. Now
what do they want with me?”

“You didn’t think the police would be looking for
you? Where are you?”

“Disney World.”

“Having fun? Universal Studios also is popular
this time of year.” She glanced over at Martin and gave her head a slow shake. “Ever
cross your mind the police might want to talk with you?”

“I suspected they might but I didn’t want to be
bothered by a bunch of questions.”

“Those pesky police can be so bothersome.”

“I had nothing to do with it. Myra got herself
into that mess.”

“Well, you need to come back and explain that to
them.”

“Are they likely to believe me? Can you help me?”

“Well, running away doesn’t increase your
credibility. Why Disney World?”

“I’m not in the actual park. We have a timeshare nearby.
With all that’s been going on, I thought I should just get away.”

“Take a little break and leave your worries
behind, huh? I thought you were a bright guy. What you’re doing is crazy. You
need to turn yourself in voluntarily. Get yourself back here ASAP. Phone me
when you get in town, if you like, and I’ll go with you to the police station. That
always looks good.” He should do it and it would earn her some points with Detective
Dominic, if she walked in with the fugitive. “Tell me you’re coming back. How
long does it take?”

“Around two hours on the turnpike. I suppose
you’re right. Okay, I’ll come back.”

“Phone me again as soon as you get back in town.” She
hung up and gave Martin an exasperated look. “You hear that? He doesn’t see
where it’s that big of a deal to run and hide.”

“Think he’ll show?”

She explained what was said on the phone. “He
doesn’t seem to understand the seriousness of ducking out after his wife’s
murder. It’s as though he doesn’t know she’s dead.”

“Perhaps he doesn’t. From what I just heard, he
left town because he was upset about being dragged into the embezzlement
affair. Myra could have been killed after he left.”

“You might be right, Martin. That would explain
his bewilderment on the phone. It was as if we were talking about two different
things.”

“So, if and when he shows, you’ll go with him to
turn himself in. He’ll be sitting in an interrogation room for the rest of the
night. I think this is a suitable time for me to duck out of Palm Beach and go
back home at least for a day. I want to check on my father, and I’ve work
piling up at the office.”

“Good idea. There’s nothing for you to do here
right away. Go home and sleep in your own bed tonight. I’ll drive back up to
Park Beach late today or tomorrow. I’ve two hours to kill before Ryan gets here.
It’ll be late before he lines up an attorney, and we get him turned over to
Dominic.”

“You’re not going to get out of here tonight. I
wish you hadn’t agreed to meet him. Why did you volunteer? You’re not thinking
of representing him.”

“Of course not. When he shows up, I’ll tell him he
needs to find someone. My thought is he walks into that police department with
his own lawyer. He’s been through quite bit, is really suffering right now and
about to be hit with the shock of losing his wife.”

“That’s all true but it wasn’t your obligation. I
can’t believe you’re just going to sit around for two hours. Something else is
going on in that kinetic mind of yours. Are you going to share all this with
Dominic?”

“Share all what?”

“Don’t play innocent, Sandy. There’s an APB out on
Ryan and you just talked to him. You have to tell Dominic. You have to keep
feeding him information, even if he blows you off. It’s the only way you’ll win
him over. You know that both Myra and Ryan confided in Gail, and Dominic isn’t
aware that she exists. Now you also know about Tonya Rhodes, who might have
wanted Myra out of her boyfriend’s life. What have I left out?”

“He as much as said he doesn’t care what the
smartass knows. I’m going to wait and see if Ryan shows up. But you’re right,
at some point I need to tell Dominic what I know about Gail and Tonya.” She
frowned pulling her eyebrows together. “Except if Tonya were Jane, she’d have
reacted badly and with considerable surprise to see her former hostage walk in
on her. I want to talk to some neighbors around her home. We’re thinking she’s Boyd’s
girlfriend. We could be wrong, and she’s just a relative or something. I want
to know more about her anyway. My impression is she could plug Myra without
even flinching. She’s a little older than Boyd and seems to be a tough lady with
a lot of guts. At some point, I want to talk with her directly.”