Blood Red Sundown: Evil Begins (25 page)

“TERRY THERE’S A
Miss
Cassandra Jones on the line for you.”

“Tell her I’m out.”

“She said you would say that and to tell you to get your
butt on the phone.”

He laughed, thinking she is one tough cookie.

“Hello Cassandra. I’m pretty busy right now. I’ve fallen
behind because a certain lady has been dominating my time.”

“That’s fine Terry, I wanted you to know that I’ve decided
to invest my money with another agency. I informed your boss already to save you
the time and embarrassment. He was very apologetic, but when I told him the figure
he became angry. I must warn you he was not angry with the me.”

The click was deafening and a prelude of things to come.
His boss opened the door, walked in, and stood over the desk glaring at him.

“Terry, I just got off the phone with one of your clients.
She claims you mislead her and handled her and her portfolio unprofessionally. You
just lost us a two-million dollar account.”

Before Terry could start his excuse he heard, “I have
two words for you if you want to keep your job.”

“Find it!”

LON LOOKED AT
the red
stains on the bed and on the dress at the foot of the bed and determined them to
be red wine. She obviously had been lying here, and fell asleep spilling the contents
of the glass. There was another partially filled glass on the tray with a half-empty
bottle.

“How much of that bottle did you drink and can I assume
the other glass was for her live-in son and lover who was in the room with her,
he asked out loud?”

Based on the ruffled bed clothes and indentation on the
pillows he assumed they had both been on the bed. William apparently departed leaving
her the note of his planned return later that night.

Anne entered and Lon went over his observation with her.

“What a mess this family has created through the years.”

“How do you want to handle this, Lon? I don’t think we
want to mess with calling it anything but an accident. It is strange that somehow
they both fell and died that way. Is it possible that one or the other planned to
end the affair in this manner?”

“With this guy’s family tree anything is possible. My
one problem with this suicide is that he died before I could prove him guilty for
his wife’s death. And, we still don’t know the extent of their involvement in this
whole scenario. I believe the Senator and his mother killed the old man and his
lover and I believe they covered up the mother’s drunken driving incident by letting
the natural assumption that she was the dead body in the burned auto go out in the
press to the public. We need to find out how a woman of her stature stayed undiscovered
all these years. I have demonstrated continually to you my super detective intuition
and it is telling me the senator is responsible for Marie’s death.”

He paused in thought looking directly at Anne, then added,
“I think for police protocol it would be best if we stop the search right now to
protect ourselves and secure a warrant to search this palace. I’ll get started on
that, while you put in a call to the chief. We need his approval for our actions,
due to the sensitivity of this whole mess. If you need me over the next hour, I’ll
be at the courthouse working on the warrant.

Lon looked at the portrait over the bed. For one moment
he thought she was smiling more than a minute ago. On an impulse he lifted the Mothers
pillow and after slipping on a latex glove he picked up a prescription bottle with
the senator’s name on it. It was a prescription for sleeping pills. That answered
his question of why she spilled the wine. She fell asleep with the glass in her
hand. Why did she take sleeping pills? He placed the bottle in an evidence bag.

Slowly scanning the room, he saw the door that he recalled
Beth Radford described having gone through in her search of the mother’s room.

I’ll wait for the warrant, he decided. Opening a drawer
he moved the gloves and saw the key. He picked it up and placed it in his pocket.

Hitting number one on his phone, he was connected to
the big guy and briefed him on their actions.

“Now listen Lon, I need you to be both selective and
somewhat secretive on what you say or do on this Radford matter. I’m going to have
a press conference at one o’clock. I want you and Anne to be there. This incest
crap that went on—we keep under our hats. It does no one any good to let that out.
You agree?”

“I have no problem with that chief. It really has no
bearing on the case other than proving to me that he was the kook I felt he was.”

“Okay we agree then. I’ll see you at one.”

STEPHANIE DECIDED THAT
on the next occasion she was having lunch with Len she was going to make sure that
he understood there was never going to be anything between them, but friendship.
It came later in the day in the cafeteria when Len arrived a few minutes after she
sat down at a table. He was talkative, as usual, and finally the time was right
to tell him her thoughts when he asked her to accompany him to an outdoor concert.

“Len, I want to be completely honest with you, I welcome
you as a friend, but if you have anything more than that in mind, it’s out of the
question.”

“Hey that’s alright by me Doc. We can just be friends
and go to the concert together. What do you say?”

Before she could respond a nurse walked up and suggested
that she should see what was being shown on the TV.

Both stood and walked to the far side of the lunch room.
Several people were standing staring at the set. The first name she heard was Senator
William Radford the third.

“Dead! Did I hear him say the Senator was dead, Doc?”

He looked at Stephanie who was definitely stunned by
the news.

They listened as the reporter stated that he was found
in his estate home beside the body of his mother. It appears that they committed
suicide together.

“Mother, what do they mean with his mother? She died
years ago in a car accident.”

The reporter paused. “Ladies and gentlemen this story
continues to become more and more unbelievable. It seems the senator’s mother has
been hiding in a secrete room for years horribly scarred from an auto accident that
had, at the time of the accident, reported her dying at the scene. A press conference
is scheduled for one o’clock. Stay tuned for what should be an interesting ending
to a tragic story.

Len looked at Stephanie and seeing her teary eyed expression
touched her shoulder. She turned and they walked back to their table.

LON AND ANNE
entered
the downtown government building and saw Leo Trent standing at the entrance of the
press room. He smiled as he saw them approaching. “Hey you two, how’s this for a
shocker. Old mommy’s boy bit the dust with his mommy by his side.”

His comment rubbed Anne the wrong way, and she let him
know she thought it inappropriate. He looked at Lon confused and then apologized
to Anne as they continued on into the front stage area. The chief’s face lit up
with a relieved look in seeing them approaching the stage steps.

“Why, do you two always have to cut it so close?”

Lon loved it when the chief admitted that he needed him,
even if it was in a roundabout way.

A bare minimum of the facts were expressed to the members
of the press and other pertinent facts were hidden, by necessity, for the ongoing
investigation. Questions of where had the mother been, the fathers suicide and other
details were ignored on the pretense each were still under investigation.

Lon and Anne then stepped to the microphone and answered
questions that directly involved them. As the chief was calling an end to the session
they stepped out a side door and went to the car hoping to avoid contact with any
reporters.

Once en route, Anne held up the warrant. Lon gave her
a fist pump and said in a bold attempt at impersonating John Wayne, “Well good work,
pilgrim.”

He waited for Anne to give her approval. She simply waved
her hand in a rocking motion, declaring it so-so.

“You're a tough audience partner. I guess I should have
done The Godfather.

They drove up to the door of the palatial estate of the
Senator.

“This is quite the place partner, I wonder if the senator
had a will,” he asked as they walked around to the back of the house.

“If not, Anne said, the state of California is going
to be very happy.”

As they walked, Anne looked up and pointed to a strange
add on dormer on the second floor. It did not seem to match the lines of the home.

“Why, with a big beautiful home like this would you have
an albatross like that sticking off the back?”

“Come on, let’s get inside and start the search. I am
anxious to search the mother’s room.”

Before walking up the staircase they stood quietly staring
where the two had been found. The scene had apparently been released as the tape
barrier was gone and the floor had been cleaned.

“Do you think they jumped or did one pull the other over
the railing,” Lon asked?

“WOW,” LEN SAID
breaking
the silence between them at the table. “It just seems too incredible.”

Stephanie could not believe that it could possibly be
true either.

“I talked with him last night, Len, just before he would
have arrived at his home.” She stood to leave and Len stopped her with a repeat
of his question.

“How about the concert Doc, are you in?”

“Get the details to me and we can discuss it further.
Right now I have to finish my rounds so I can leave early to meet my realtor and
do what I don’t really feel like doing. But, finding a house is top priority, so
I’m committed.”

She left contemplating her commitment to his invite.

He watched her then turned back to the TV which was still
discussing the death of Senator Radford.

“Serves you right,” he said.

TERRY WAS UNSURE
of
the correct approach to the problem he had created with Cassandra. How would she
receive him if he stopped by and apologized? His decision was to stop by and assume
they were still an item and their disagreement had nothing to do with their business
arrangement. I’ll marry her tonight if necessary to keep my job, he thought.

Knocking on her door he anticipated the worst, but was
surprised when she politely asked him in with a smiling face. His sales experience
was at the ready and in his state of mind he was sure he could sell the queen her
own jewels.

He kept quiet and allowed her to totally abuse him with
her ranting’s offering only a few rebuttals and then remained quiet until she was
ready to hear what he came to say. He agreed to the terms she required in their
relationship, but expressed his disapproval of requirements that he felt unnecessary.

“I can’t be that type of person, Cassandra. I need my
space once in a while. You can understand that can’t you?” She nodded, yes.

He walked toward her and took her hands in his.

“Look from now on if you have a problem with me going
somewhere, we will discuss it and come to a mutual agreement, fair enough?”

Cassandra softened her expression and moved toward him
placing both hands behind his neck and pulled his lips against hers. He responded
not out of his, I knew I could win her back approach, but with a renewed desire
for her that surprised him. She immediately felt his response and began to undress
him.

“I found it, boss, he thought.”

“LOOK AT THE
size of
that bed, Lon. It’s huge!”

“He sure knew how to live right. This bedroom is fantastic.
It is every man’s dream workshop.”

He waited for Anne’s response, but she chose to ignore
him and walked out of the room. He followed her down the hall to the mother’s room.

Anne went right to the bed and stood staring at the stain
now turned brown.

She picked up the opened bottle of wine and the prescription
vial on the night stand.

“Wine and sleeping pills, that’s quite a combination.”

Lon acknowledged her comment, but had walked to the door
leading to the closet. The doors were pocket type and opened to a huge walk in area
loaded with clothes and shoes. It was exactly as Beth Radford had described. Advancing
to the back shelf he reached up and grabbed the large hat box Beth had described
and handed it to Anne.

“Take it into the bedroom where you have more room to
spread out. I’m going to search in here a little more.”

He began to spread hangers and pull out stacks of clothes
on shelves. Nothing here he thought. He turned off the lights and joined Anne who
was intently reading.

“Listen to this, Lon.”

Anne began reading a newspaper article relating the suicide
details of the husband and his lover. She then picked up another paper describing
the horrible car accident that had killed the mother.

“However the two of them worked out the mother’s fake
car death, it worked superbly. She received the burns to the face we saw on her,
but survived. When William was the first to arrive on the scene, he must have decided
to protect his mother’s reputation as she had been drinking and would have been
responsible for the other woman’s death.”

“She may as well have been dead, hiding all these years
in this museum, don’t you think? I can’t even imagine someone thinking of such a
thing. Do you think Marie knew about this and agreed to the cover up?”

Lon didn’t respond, but picked up the black case and
pulling the key from his pocket opened the lock and removed several items. They
found the photo that the senator’s ex-wife had described showing the father and
his tattoo. The stack of business papers were set aside and Lon continued to shuffle
through other interesting items.

Anne picked up a small red book that Lon dropped on the
bed. It turned out to be a small dated calendar used as a journal.

“Bingo, she said.”

She pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“Listen to this Lon.”

If you are reading this, I and my son are most
certainly dead. I have always planned our deaths to be together. I write these
things only to ease my conscience for the actions the two of us willingly
participated in. The details in this journal are meant to explain and hopefully
help everyone understand what led us to indulge in this nontraditional life
style. We do not seek forgiveness simply understanding.

Adrianna J. Radford

Their long incestuous affair was described and defended
in great detail and left no doubt in the minds of both detective’s that the husband
of Adrianna and the father of William had been a very evil man.

Reading on, Anne read the confession to the murder of
the father and his lover. She explained how they had drugged them and placed them
in the running car in the locked garage. They had previously made it known to friends
that the two of them were going to be out of town for several days. Making sure
people bore witness to their departure, they secretly returned early to fulfill
their plan. Once the deed was done they traveled back to their out-of-town location.
When they returned to the house a few days later they reported the bodies to the
police. It was a perfect plan and [WE WERE NEVER SUSPECTED], was written in large
letters. They had been dead for two days while we were out of the area.

“Well that answers part of the questions you wondered
about, Lon.”

“Yep, but one still remains, Anne. Who killed Marie?”

Anne continued to read and it told of the mother’s displeasure
in her son’s choice of lovers and wives.

“Do we make this part of the report Lon? This is pretty
heavy stuff and I don't see how it can do anyone any good to know this trash.”

She waited for his response. He was in a trance like
state.

“Something is missing, he said as he came out of his
trance. Think back Anne, to Nevada and Beth describing to us about finding this
case in the closet. She described most of the contents and I remember something
caught my attention. Do you have your notebook?”

Anne picked up her bag and took out her log. Thumbing
through, she found her notes from the interview with Beth Radford.

“Here it is. Beth described newspaper clippings, photos,
personal papers, legal documents, a blond wig and a pair of …”

“That’s it. Where’s the blond wig she mentioned?”

He stood up and went back to the closet and began searching,
this time with a more determined purpose. He pushed on the closet walls and then
the shoe rack and the wall moved.