It Takes Two to Strangle (25 page)

“So let me ask you this, Mr. Ljubic,” Margaret said. “If Victor McElroy was also wearing gloves when he handled those items, how do we know that he, and not you, used the shears to cut the clothesline and choke Lirim?”

The question threw Toma into a rage and he started shouting obscenities at Margaret.

Gerry pressed the stop button.

Damon stood and rolled his neck in a circle. “If things happened as Toma described, that would explain the multiple ligature marks and the timing of them.”

“I know,” Gerry replied. “And so did Margaret. She wanted to scare him and she can be a little vindictive at times. But it was a valid question.”

“Can you play the rest of the tape? I want to hear his answer.”

“There’s not much more. The gist of Toma’s tirade is that the police are idiots and the system is corrupt if we can’t convict Victor based on his statement and finding the murder weapon.”

“Did Toma still have the paper bag?” Damon asked.

“He did. Later, after we calmed him down, he pinpointed the location for us. The bag was in a desk drawer at his liquor distribution warehouse. The Baltimore police retrieved the bag for us yesterday afternoon. Toma said he saved it as a bargaining chip. He figured he’d need it if the police arrested him so he could point a finger at Victor. He also wanted to keep it in case Victor approached him—he thought he might need it to save his life.”

“If Victor tried to dig up the bag after the police left the crime scene, I can only imagine how freaked out he must have been when he found that it had disappeared.”

“No kidding,” Gerry said. “He must have gone crazy. If not for Toma, it would have been a good move on Victor’s part to hide the bag. He couldn’t take it too far away because every extra minute he was out of his own trailer, he risked one of his bunkmates waking up and noticing that he was missing. But he had to assume that the police would search every trailer on the premises so he couldn’t hide it in there.”

“So it would have worked if Toma hadn’t seen him.”

“Possibly. We searched the playground and everywhere else in the vicinity of the fairgrounds for evidence, but we weren’t digging holes.”

“Toma didn’t say that he saw Victor cut the clothesline. Did he say it off of the recording?”

“Margaret asked. He said he didn’t see Victor cut a cord. But based on where the clothesline was kept, Margaret and I think Victor cut it during the thirty seconds he was out of Toma’s line of sightright before entering Lirim’s trailer.”

“I assume the paper bag still had the shears and clothesline in it.”

“It did—a pair of very distinctive heavy-duty electrician’s shears with red vinyl handles and a three-foot length of nylon clothesline. Our lab techs are fast-tracking the analysis. We’re still waiting for official confirmation, but the unofficial news is tremendous.”

“Should I open the champagne?” Damon asked.

“Now’s as good a time as any,” Gerry replied. “But just one glass. I want to stay lucid.”

Damon popped the cork and poured the bubbly over the dregs at the bottom of their wine glasses.

“The shears still had particles of the clothesline attached to the blades so we know that those shears cut the ligature,” Gerry said. “And the three-foot length of nylon cord visually matches the clothesline we collected from the fairgrounds over a week ago. Of course, the lab will confirm all of this, but I have no doubt.”

“That’s great,” Damon said.

“But that’s not the best part. I snapped some digital photos of the shears, and Margaret and I took them to the Big Surf folks in Manassas last night. We individually pulled aside ten full-time carnival workers, including the three who shared a trailer with Victor, and showed them the photos. We asked if they had seen the shears before. And if so, where.”

“They were Victor’s?”

“You got it. All three of his trailer mates and six of the other seven immediately said they were Victor’s shears. He kept them with his personal gear and used them for odd jobs around the carnival.”

“What about the one who didn’t recognize the shears?”

“She looked nervous. She probably put two and two together and decided lying to the police was safer than pointing a finger at Victor. Either way, we have more than enough to sic the prosecutor on him.”

“Are you going to bring him back to Arlington for trial?”

“Definitely,” Gerry said. “We’ll try him on Lirim’s murder here. The attorneys will figure out all of the charges and then decide in what order to bring them. I’m sure he’ll stand trial both here and in West Virginia.”

Gerry excused himself and went to check on Trina. Damon felt bad for her. Gerry had been working around the clock for a week and a half and when he finally had a bit of respite, Damon was monopolizing his time. But Gerry had invited him over. And they had unofficially worked hand-in-hand to solve the case.

Gerry returned and left his study door cracked open.

“Is everything okay?” Damon asked.

“It couldn’t be better. I just wanted to give Trina a kiss and thank her again for being so understanding of my recent work schedule.”

Damon was sure it had been difficult for her, not only to be apart from her husband but also to stay strong knowing that he was searching for a murderer.

“Do you think Victor will confess now that you have the weapon?” Damon asked.

“I can say with almost absolute certainty that he won’t. Margaret and I drove out to West Virginia at five o’clock this morning. She took another shot at Victor.”

Gerry certainly had been busy. He had spent at least seven hours in a car today driving to Morgantown and back.

“He didn’t admit to anything?” Damon asked.

“Not a thing, but we don’t need a statement to convict him.” Gerry sat back down and pressed his hands against his thighs. “In fact, he didn’t say a word. Between the time we questioned him about Hannah Roscoph and today, he found a lawyer. The defense attorney instructed him not to say anything.”

“That’s pretty common, right?”

“It is. And the lawyer needs time to figure out what exactly his client has done. Victor’s looking at charges of accessory to kidnapping, child abuse, accessory to distribution of child pornography, first degree murder on Lirim and possibly even a charge of accessory to murder for Tabby’s death.”

Damon held out his fist and Gerry gave it a mild-mannered bump with his own.

“Do you think Victor was trying to keep Lirim from implicating him in Tabby’s death?” Damon asked.

“I’d put my money on it,” Gerry said. “Assuming Clara can be believed, when Lirim met Toma and Clara on the elementary school playground the day before the murder, Victor was watching from the woods. Lirim probably asked Victor to spy just in case things got rough and he needed back-up. Victor may not have been able to hear the conversation, but he saw Toma push Lirim and get in his face so he knew something was happening.”

“And that’s why Lirim and Victor went to downtown D.C. that same night,” Damon interjected. “To discuss the situation.”

“That’s what Margaret and I think—Lirim told Victor that Toma and Clara knew about the pictures and they suspected Lirim in Tabby’s death. If Toma or Clara told the authorities in West Virginia that Tabby not only found the pictures but found them right before her ‘accident,’ Lirim would be in a bind. Sheriff Anbani would have enough ammunition to reopen the case and investigate Lirim with full force. If Anbani was able to implicate Lirim in Tabby’s death, then Lirim could turn on Victor if he played a part in Tabby’s murder or cover-up.”

“Lirim would have brought down Victor to get a plea bargain,” Damon said.

“Exactly. So Victor killed Lirim to eliminate all connection between him and Tabby.”

“Other than the paint from his truck.”

“Yes,” Gerry said. “But if the paint was all a prosecutor had, it would have been impossible to convict Victor for Tabby’s death. Especially if he stuck to his story that he was well over a hundred miles away on the night she died.”

Damon stood and leaned against the desk. “Will you be able to prove that Victor was in Morgantown when Tabby was killed?” he asked.

“I’m not sure whether the prosecutor will have enough circumstantial evidence to convince a jury. But even if it doesn’t stick in court, Victor will never see daylight again anyway after he’s convicted on Lirim’s murder and the charges involving Hannah Roscoph. Still, Margaret and I spent the entire return drive from Morgantown today discussing why Victor would help Lirim kill Tabby.”

Damon looked at Gerry with interest.

“Two possibilities,” Gerry said. “One is that Lirim paid him to help. Tabby didn’t change her will before she died, so Lirim received about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He could have given Victor a share of that money. The other reason is that Lirim probably told Tabby that Victor served as the cameraman in Hannah Roscoph’s photo shoot. So Victor had an incentive to silence Tabby as well. Even though she told Lirim she didn’t want to tell the police, Victor couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t change her mind.”

“Sounds right to me.” Damon paused. “You must be exhausted, Gerry.”

“I am,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’m taking a week’s vacation, and Trina and I are headed to the beach at Ocean City.”

Damon congratulated Gerry again before departing and whispered into Trina’s ear as she hugged him goodbye at the door, “Make sure he rests for real while you’re away.”

Chapter 24

Damon decided to walk home even though Gerry lived a half mile from Damon’s duplex. He had drunk enough wine and champagne to feel the effects—he could fetch his car in the morning.

The nighttime air was clammy and after several minutes, perspiration began to drip from his brow. He looked at his watch when he passed by his mother’s townhouse. It was just before eleven but the lights were still on.

He knocked and within seconds Lynne Lassard-Brown opened the door and laughed. “I knew this would happen.” She called over her shoulder, “Rebecca, we’re caught in the act.”

Damon followed his mother inside and saw Rebecca on the sitting room love seat holding a cup and saucer. She was wedged between two large cardboard boxes overflowing with clothing. Lynne took a seat on a chair that normally resided in the dining room.

“Your mother invited me over for a cup of tea,” Rebecca explained before Damon could question her presence. She rose to her feet. “You look like you need a comfortable seat, Damon. I’ll get another chair from the dining room.”

Damon held up a hand. “How about I move these boxes, and we can sit together like civilized people,” he said and cleared them away.

“Cup of tea?” asked his mother.

“No thanks. Since when do you invite my friends over?”

“Since never,” Lynne responded. “But Rebecca and I had a good time the other night at the Kennedy Center and I thought it would be nice for us to get together again. I called you, too.”

“Sorry, I was over at Gerry’s,” Damon said.

Rebecca leaned forward. “Anything new with the case?”

Damon exhaled. “It’s over.” He gave the two women in his life a truncated description of the final turns of the murder investigation. Damon was finally able to clue Rebecca in to the fact that the police found evidence of two separate strangulations.

“It makes so much more sense now,” Rebecca said. “After you told me the police arrested Toma but the case wasn’t over, I have to admit I was frustrated. Not with you, Damon, but I couldn’t piece the story together because I didn’t have the full picture.”

“I can imagine how aggravating that must have been,” Damon said.

Lynne Lassard-Brown smiled. “I hope this means that poor girl in California won’t have to testify and go through her living hell again.”

“I hope not, either,” Damon said. “Gerry thinks Victor will be tried here for murder and in West Virginia on the charges involving the girl. If he’s convicted in Arlington first, maybe the West Virginia prosecutors will show some mercy and conduct the trial out there without her live testimony. They have the recording that the Morgantown sheriff made.”

“At least some good came out if this,” Rebecca said. “Not only does she get closure, but so does your new sheriff friend in West Virginia.”

“True,” Damon responded, making a mental note to call Ravi Anbani the following day to congratulate him. “And Gerry solved his first murder case. I know he’s thrilled.”

“With a little help from you,” he mother chimed in.

“Very little,” Damon said with as much humility as he could muster. “I’m going to head home now. It’s been a long night.”

“Maybe you can walk Rebecca home,” Lynne said.

“Sure. Are you ready, Rebecca?”

“Just let me just put my tea cup in the sink,” she said and weaved her way through Lynne’s clutter to the back of the narrow townhouse.

Damon grinned at his mother and shook his head.

“Can’t blame me for trying,” she said and kissed him on the forehead.

After a brisk walk in a comfortable silence, Damon declined Rebecca’s invitation inside for a drink. He watched her disappear behind the front door and wondered yet again if he should capitulate and start dating Rebecca.