Blast from the Past (A Mac Faraday Mystery) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Randi is going to be okay,” Archie reported to Mac on the cell phone from the waiting room at the hospital. “The bullet went through and through without hitting any vital organs. She should be out in a few days. How are things there?”

“Complicated.” In the squad room, Mac could see David being questioned by the chief of the local state police barracks.  “Ariel Richardson, aka Harper Cruze, was the one who had hired the assassins posing as FBI.”

“Self-defense,” Archie said, “If she hadn’t had killed him, he would have killed her.”

“Yeah, well, she isn’t exactly Miss Goody-Two-Shoes,” Mac said. “Dr. Reynolds, the man you saw killed, wasn’t having an affair with her. She and Alan Richardson set him up so that Cruze wouldn’t know who she was really fooling around with.”

“Those couple of…” Archie didn’t want to say the word.

“That’s what they are, all right.” Mac rubbed his tired eyes. “You can bet they’ll get immunity and protection. Alan Richardson has been collecting information for years to use as a get-out-of-jail-free card for this very purpose.”

“They’ll get theirs,” she replied. “If not here, then they will in the next world.”

“Hey!” The cheerful note in Mac’s tone came out as forced. “I haven’t told David about Finnegan being shot yet. Bogie told him about the standoff and shooting, but I asked that he let me tell him about Finnegan. So if she asks, tell her that he’ll be coming by to see her later. How’s Sari in all this?”

“She and Gnarly are inseparable. Hector took them to the Spencer Inn.” She sighed. “Another deputy from the US Marshals Office is on the way to take care of her. Sari’s still in the program. So the feds will be relocating her. The agent I talked to said there may be a couple, who so happen to be in the program, looking to adopt. They’re going to look through their records to find a good permanent home for her. That poor little girl. Both of her parents are murderers.”

“If we can get her to talk,” Mac said, “we can find out exactly what happened at the Dockside Café.”

Released by the two state police officers, David started to cross over to join Mac.

“I have an idea about that,” Archie said.

When Mac hung up, David said, “The media is going to have a field day. A police department took hostage by a distraught woman trying to spring her husband.” He patted Mac on the shoulder. “You did good. I’m glad you didn’t shoot her.”

“I don’t go around shooting everyone.” Mac slipped the phone into its case on his belt.

“It only seems like it lately,” David said.

Mac cleared his throat. “Meanwhile, at Spencer Manor, a witness in the witness protection program has been running a crime syndicate right under the government’s noses.  You do know that Finnegan is going to be the scapegoat in all this.”

“I imagine so.” He lowered himself into a chair in the reception area. “This certainly doesn’t look good for her.” Reminded of Randi, David took his cell phone out of the case on his belt. “The way the feds operate, there’s going to have to be a fall guy, and since she was Leah’s handler—”

“David…”

Seeing no messages, David looked up from his phone. “What?” He took a deep breath. “What other bad news do you have for me? Go ahead, make my day complete.”

“Leah shot Finnegan.” When David jumped to his feet, Mac placed his hands on his shoulders. “She’s okay. The bullet went through and through. She’s at the hospital now and Archie is with her.”

At a loss for words, David glanced around. He clasped his gun and equipment belt as if he were looking for something. In reality, he was unsure of what he needed to do. His men needed him there to lead them, but he yearned to go be with Randi Finnegan, who only the week before annoyed him to distraction.

“Would you like me to drive you to the hospital?” Mac looked over at the chief detective in charge of the scene who had been standing in ear shot to overhear their conversation.

“I got your information,” the detective said. “We’ll be in touch with additional questions.”

Free to leave, Mac ushered David out the door.

“Why do you think Nora Crump is lying about Gordon planting the poison?” David asked on the way to the hospital in Oakland, the next town over. Sitting in the front passenger seat of his cruiser, instead of the driver’s seat, he felt out of place.

David hated the silence that filled the air in moments like this. It seemed to suck up the oxygen in the nursing home when he tried to visit his mother. Everyone was afraid to talk as if their words could burst it. He asked questions to break the silence. “Because Richardson says they got into a fight over the bodyguard taking the cream from their table?”

“Exactly,” Mac said. “I remember what the Crumps were saying to each other when they were leaving. We overheard part of their fight through the agent’s wire. Gordon was asking her what she wanted him to do. She said she wanted him to be a man for once. She was upset because he let the bodyguard take the cream from their table. Why if it was meant for Cruze?”

“The fight could have been staged to give them an excuse to leave the scene,” David said. “But think about it. How would Gordon Crump have known Tommy Cruze was in Deep Creek Lake?”

“According to Alan Richardson,” Mac answered, “Cruze decided to come out at the last minute after Archie killed two of his men. The desk clerk says the Crumps had made their reservations over a week ago and checked in the same day Cruze arrived in town. Another question. How did Gordon Crump know Cruze was going to be at the Dockside Café?”

“If Nora is lying, then Leah killed Tommy Cruze,” David said. “She had to recognize Tommy Cruze, who was demanding to meet with Bonito, who no one knew was dead. Cruze was probably starting to figure it out, and picked the Dockside Café for a reason. When Cruze walked in, Leah freaked and poisoned him.”

“Two problems with that.” Mac ticked off on his fingers. “One, Richardson admitted in his confession that he suggested the Dockside Café.  Two, he also states that the poisoned cream came from the Crumps’ table. Nora says her husband planted it for Cruze, which brings us back to how did Crump know Cruze was in Deep Creek Lake and going to be at the Dockside Café? Nora Crump isn’t telling us the truth and I hate it when witnesses lie.”

David sat back in his seat. “We’re right back to square one.”

Mac held up a finger. “We still have one witness left to question.”

With a warm hug, Archie greeted David in front of the hospital’s reception desk. “Randi’s going to be okay,” she assured him. “She’s resting now.” She led him over to the waiting area to sit down.

“How did this happen?” David asked her.

“She sneaked up on Leah while she was sending a text and read it over her shoulder,” Archie said while taking her cell phone from her purse. “I guess I wasn’t the only one suspicious of her.” She handed the phone to David. “I had made a clone of her phone. She was sending out a message to the rest of Bonito—her—people to scatter and lay low.”

David looked up at Mac. “After the ambush last night. When Randi got home, Leah must have learned about how it played out and realized that the phone she had been forwarding her texts through had been discovered.”

“She risked one last message to tell her people to lay low until after she was relocated,” Mac said.

“She had become addicted to the power,” Archie said. “She probably could have gone on to her new identity with no one ever being the wiser if she hadn’t risked sending out this last message with hope of continuing to run the mob after being relocated.”

“Leah killed Ray Bonito and took over his operation,” Mac said. “But was she behind the poisoning at the café, and Gordon Crump’s and Mary Catherine Skeltner’s murders?”

“I really can’t think about this anymore.” David stood up. “I need to see Finnegan.”

Archie’s glance at Mac told him that he was obsessing again. He was so focused on catching the culprit in the latest series of murder to strike Spencer, Maryland, that he had forgotten that their friend had almost been killed. Leaving Mac alone with his thoughts, Archie escorted David down the hallway to where Randi Finnegan was asleep.

Funny. I never really pictured Randi Finnegan as David’s type.
Finding the apprehension he felt at the thought of David becoming involved with the US Marshal unnerving, Mac paced the waiting room until he found himself staring out the window at the park across the street without really seeing it.

In the brief time that they had known each other, David had always been involved with beautiful, leggy, curvaceous women who were eager to please the handsome, slender young man with deep blue eyes. He had no problem attracting women. It was those that he chose to go beyond a one night stand who either got him into trouble or ended up breaking his heart—sometimes both.

With her abrasive manner and plain looks, Randi Finnegan was nothing like any of David’s past conquests. Recalling his latest love, Yvonne Harding, a leggy, blonde beauty queen who had broken his heart by moving to New York for a network anchor news show, Mac reconsidered his position.
A change in pattern may do David some good.

“Why would Mary Catherine Skeltner’s murder be connected to this?” Archie’s voice broke through his thoughts.

Mac whirled around and grabbed his gun before realizing it was Archie who had come up behind him.

“I guess we’re both jumpy,” she said.

“We have reason to be.” Mac took her into his arms to give her a hug. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you.”

“You can’t be everywhere at once,” she sighed against his chest. “Besides, I had Bogie, Hector, and six armed men who basically tore apart the house while barging in. We’ve got some redecorating to do … again.”

After they sat down, she repeated her question about Mary Catherine Skeltner.

“In both murders, the suspect was wearing a hoodie and riding a silver bike,” Mac said. “Nora Crump claims that the killer said the hit on her husband was for Tommy Cruze. That’s what makes it appear as if all three murders are connected.”

“But,” Archie argued, “Mary Catherine Skeltner was tossed down a flight of stairs.”

“Bashed in her head and snapped her neck,” Mac said with a nod of his head, “to make it look like an accident.”

“Hired killer,” Archie said. “The hit on Gordon Crump certainly sounds like a hired gun. Maybe both Nora Crump and Russell Skeltner hired the same assassin to take out their spouses. He could have worked for Tommy Cruze.”

“But who is this black hooded, bike-riding killer?”

“That’s the question of the day,” Archie said.

Chapter Twenty-Three

They all cringed when Sari, after licking a tongue full of strawberry ice cream from the cone, held it out for Gnarly to do the same. Surprisingly, even though the German shepherd could have taken the whole two scoops from the top of the cone, he behaved gentlemanly and only took his share to allow the little girl to take her lick before offering him the next.

And so on and so on the two best friends ate their treat on the sofa in the reception area of the police station while the grown-ups conspired in Bogie’s office.

The federal marshal assigned to take custody of and be in charge of Sari until she was placed with a new home watched the dog sharing the cone with the little girl with complete amusement. Sari and the grandmotherly agent had hit it off like old friends from the start after the woman had showed up at the Spencer Inn with a bag of toys and goodies.

Archie came out of the office and crossed the area to sit in Tonya’s desk chair across from the little girl.

“Sari,” Archie began, “are you enjoying your ice cream?”

Sari nodded her head while taking her next lick before holding out the cone to Gnarly for his turn. “Gnarly likes it, too.”

“I see that.” Archie glanced over her shoulder at where Mac was watching from inside the doorway of the office. He gestured for her to continue with the questioning as they had discussed. “Sari, did you tell Gnarly about all that excitement at the café the other day?”

Sari’s eyes met hers.

“You know, Gnarly works for the police. Maybe if you told him what you saw, he could help to catch the people who hurt those people.”

“Mommy did something bad,” Sari said.

Startled by her directness, Archie said, “Did your mother ever discuss the bad things she did?”

“I listened,” Sari said. “She told me that Daddy did really bad things. But I think she did, too. She kept a lot of secrets. Sometimes she would forget I was there and I’d find them out.” She cocked her head at Archie. “Did Mommy kill anyone? My Daddy killed people. Did she kill people, too?”

With tears in her eyes, Archie nodded her head. “But you do know that killing people is wrong, don’t you?”

“That’s what Gnarly says.”

“Gnarly told you that?” Archie asked with a smile that didn’t quite come off.

“Gnarly’s really smart about stuff like that.” Sari patted his head while gazing into his eyes. “He led me out of the house through that secret room when Mommy went crazy. He’s my best friend.”

Behind her, Archie heard Mac mutter, “Secret room? What secret room?”

“Secret passage out of the manor,” Bogie whispered. “Robin had it installed when Archie moved in.”

“I think Gnarly wants you to tell him what you saw that morning at your mommy’s cafe,” Archie was saying, “the morning that those people died.”

Sari eyed Archie over the top of her ice cream cone. She then held it over for Gnarly to take his lick. “I saw you out the window eating a croissant that Mr. Faraday bought for you,” she told the German shepherd.

She took her lick. “Then Mr. Skeltner came up to Mr. Faraday and made fun of him before coming in and ordering an espresso like he does every morning.” She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “I don’t like Mr. Skeltner. Do you, Gnarly?”

Gnarly lifted his paw and bowed his head as if in agreement before taking his lick.

“He never looks at people when he talks to them,” she said while he took a lick from the strawberry ice cream. “My Daddy would never look at people either. I find that when someone doesn’t look at you, you can’t trust them. Mommy used to look at me. Then, she stopped. That was when she became like Daddy—all secretive and stuff. What do you think, Gnarly?”

Gnarly rose to a sitting position. His head now towered over Sari. She sat up so that their eyes could meet.

“That’s what I think, too,” Sari said with a nod of her head.

“What else happened, Sari?” Archie asked.

The little girl continued talking to Gnarly. “Mommy was making Mr. Skeltner his espresso and he went into the dining room and was looking out the window at the lake and doing his stretching exercises, like he does every morning. He puts his hands over his head and bends over and touches his toes. A lady runner came in and stood there and looked at him. Mom didn’t see her because she was making the espresso. Mr. Skeltner then took a bunch creams from out of his fanny pouch and put them on a table. Then he dumped the creams that were in the bowl into his pouch, and put his creams in the bowl and put it on the table.”

Gnarly cocked his head at her.

“Yeah,” Sari said. “Weird. Why did he take our creams when he had his own?” She shrugged. “So then, Mom was done with the espresso. So she gave it to Mr. Skeltner. Then, the lady runner’s husband came in and Mr. Skeltner left. After she was done with Mr. Skeltner, Mom took them to their table and the lady wanted to sit at the table where Mr. Skeltner left his creams.”

Gnarly let out a yap.

“The lady runner wanted the creams that Mr. Skeltner had left,” Sari said. “I know because she got real mad when those bunch of men came in and the one took them. Her and the funny smelling man didn’t have their coffee yet because the man said Mom’s coffee wasn’t fresh enough because it was twenty minutes old. But the men took Mom’s coffee even though it was old, and the one took Mr. Skeltner’s cream. That was when the lady runner got real mad at her husband and called him a wuss—what’s a wuss?”

Gnarly barked his answer.

“Oh,” Sari responded like she understood him. “You’re not a wuss, are you?” With that, she presented Gnarly with the remainder of the ice cream cone.

Mac turned to David, Bogie, and Special Agents Delaney and Bennett. “Not only did Skeltner have his wife killed, but he also tried to kill Gordon Crump, and ended up killing Tommy Cruze and his bodyguard by accident. Gordon Crump took double cream in his coffee. He would have been killed instantly if he hadn’t insisted on Leah making a fresh pot. When Skeltner failed to kill him the first time, he completed the job the second time.”

“And Gordon’s wife pointed the finger at the mob,” David said, “to divert suspicion from Skeltner.”

Garrett County Prosecutor Ben Fleming swung the golf club to send the ball sailing across the grass to land with three bounces on the green. A pleased smile crossed his face before he turned to Mac and David. “How old is this witness?”

David bowed his head to look down at his feet. “Six years old.”

“And she only talks to Gnarly.” Ben chuckled. “Plus, she’s in the federal witness protection program.”

“Her mother is dead after shooting a federal agent,” Mac agreed, “The US Marshals are placing her with another couple who are in the program who have been wanting to adopt a child. Once she’s sent to live with them, there’s no way the feds will risk bringing her back to testify at trial.”

“So she’s worthless.” Ben dropped his club in the golf bag. “Maybe she made up the stuff about Skeltner planting the poison to protect her mother.”

“Who happened to be secretly running a big crime operation,” David said.

Mac said, “Russell Skeltner is a killer.”

“Is that what your gut is telling you, Mac?” The prosecutor slung the strap of his golf bag over his shoulder.

“My gut has never let me down yet.”

“We can’t get a search warrant for Skeltner’s house for traces of the strychnine based on your gut.” They walked as a group across the golf course in the direction of Ben’s golf ball. “And don’t even think of trying to put Gnarly on the stand to testify to what she told him,” he joked. “That’s hearsay.”

Disgusted, but not surprised, Mac and David failed to connect to the humor.

“Listen.” Ben stopped to place his golf-gloved hand on his hip. “I believe you, too. Something in my gut always said Skeltner was a snake. But, he’s good buddies with Bill Clark, a town councilman. Try to implicate him in this murder with what you have now, and you,” he pointed at David, “will be shooting your career in the foot, even if you are best buds with Mac here. Have you got anything?”

“A bicycle,” David said. “A silver bike matching the description of the one the witnesses saw at the Skeltner place was found at the Santa Fe Grill and Cantina after Crump’s murder. A couple said they saw the shooter ride up on it before the murder. No fingerprints were found on it. Forensics is looking to see if they can find anything else.”

“Have you questioned Skeltner about the Crump murder?” Ben asked.

David and Mac glanced at each other.

“I don’t want to question him until I have something more solid,” Mac said.

“And I don’t want to go looking for a search warrant until you have something more solid, either.”

“How about DNA?” Mac asked. “Is that solid?”

Pausing, Fleming turned to Mac. “That is very solid. Tell me more.”

“A contact lens was found in Mary Catherine Skeltner’s bedroom,” David said. “She did not wear contact lenses. Neither does Russell Skeltner.  The victim had hair under her fingernails. Forensics collected a woman’s DNA from both the lens and hair. We need a suspect to match it with.”

“Then get one,” Fleming said.

“We’re working on it.” Mac scratched the back of his head. “We need to find a connection between Russell Skeltner and the Crumps.”

“Bogie and Archie are digging into their backgrounds right now,” David said. “They couldn’t find anything between Russell and Gordon Crump, so we have them looking for a connection between Russell Skeltner and Nora Crump.”

“Are you thinking they were having an affair and decided to do away with their spouses?” Fleming asked.

“Isn’t that a classic motive?” Mac grinned.

“So far, we’ve had no luck proving they’ve even met,” David said with a frown.

“Keep digging. If Skeltner is a killer, I want him out of Spencer.” The prosecutor’s expression softened when he turned to Mac. “How’s Archie?”

“She’s fine,” Mac said, “especially since Cruze is dead. All of the fed’s sources are saying the contract died with him. Now that they seem to have wiped out Bonito’s men and their virtual leader, Archie’s in the clear. It looks like she can leave the program.”

Fleming smiled. “Good news for you both.”

“Yes, it is.” Mac glanced over at David, who shot a smirk in his direction.