Lou Mason Mystery - 01 - Motion to Kill (12 page)

“So wouldn’t you have to prove that something went wrong when it was manufactured?”

“Exactly.”

“So why didn’t you do that at the trial?”

“My expert witness said that the hook was made just like the design called for.”

“Then you’d have to prove that your own witness was mistaken, wouldn’t you, Mr. Mason?”

Ellen Philpott’s crazy act evaporated. Her country-cousin accent vanished. And her questions cut to the bottom line. Mason wondered if she was leading him along, hoping he would ask the right question and relieve her of the burden of outright betrayal.

“Not necessarily. Tommy’s employer turned the safety belt over to your husband the day of the accident. I didn’t see it until after I filed the lawsuit. If there was something wrong with the hook, he could have switched it for a good one and no one would ever have known.”

“Why, Mr. Mason,” she said, her drawl fully engaged. “That would be dishonest and deceitful. It would be the act of a man who had no honor.”

“Would it also be the act of a man who would dishonor a fine woman?”

Bending over, she reached beneath the pile of clothes and pulled out a metal cash box.

“Warren is a collector. He fancies bad women and bad hooks. I suppose a psychiatrist would have a field day tying those two passions together.”

She handed the box to him. It contained ten hooks just like the one on Tommy’s belt. Mason couldn’t tell one from the other. He looked up. She was sitting on the stool, her back to him, adding strong brushstrokes of paint to her canvas.

“Is one of these Tommy’s?”

“I don’t know. Warren used to brag about switching the hooks. He said lawyers weren’t very smart. These may not be the only ones.”

“Does your husband know you have this box?”

“I doubt it, since I found it hidden in his closet. I suspect it’s one of those personal things he keeps telling me he wants to stop by and pick up.”

“Mind if I keep the hooks?”

“So long as you hang Warren with one.” She turned toward him from her canvas, smiled weakly, and wiped a tear from her cheek. “Damn paint makes my eyes water. Good-bye, Mr. Mason.”

On his way to Sullivan’s funeral, Mason stopped at the engineering department at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Dr. Webb Chapman, the chairman of the department, had been his expert safety engineer at Tommy’s trial. He wasn’t in, so Mason left him the box of hooks and a note asking him to call.

The Ward Parkway Episcopal Church was a massive limestone cathedral more suited to the Old World than to Kansas City. It was filled with several hundred mourners, many of whom were attorneys paying their last respects before picking off Sullivan & Christenson’s clients. Somber greetings and heartfelt condolences couldn’t hide their burgeoning appetites.

Mason saw his aunt Claire signing the guest book when he walked into the church. She was tall and big boned. She considered her size an advantage. There was nothing diminutive about her, in either appearance or demeanor. He caught her eye when she turned around and she nodded in reply, waiting for him to make his way through the line and add his name to the book.

“Thanks for coming,” he told her.

“I didn’t know the man, but he was your partner, so I decided to show the family flag.”

An older woman employed by the firm as a secretary interrupted their conversation and embraced Mason. “He’s gone to a better place, to paradise,” she said.

“I never knew a paradise that didn’t have a snake in it,” Claire said after the woman peeled herself away.

“That’s not a heaven-bound theology.”

“So what? I’m not heaven bound. Just plant me in the ground and call it a day. If I do enough in this life, I don’t much care about the next. And, by the way, next time your senior partner dies, tell me before I read about it in the paper.”

“Sorry. Things have been a little wild.”

“The paper said the police are investigating. What’s going on?”

Mason leaned into her to muffle his response. “It looks like he was murdered.”

“By whom?”

“The official position is person or persons unknown. Only the living are suspected.”

“Including you?”

“Including me.” Mason spotted Sandra Connelly heading for the seats cordoned off for members of the firm. “I’ll call you later.”

Mason joined Sandra in the third row, behind the family. The Sullivans had no children. Pamela, Diane Farrell at her side, and an array of anonymous siblings, in-laws, and cousins made their black-clothed entrance as the congregation silenced itself.

The minister invoked a boilerplate eulogy praising Sullivan’s many civic contributions, his devotion to family and church, and the tragic untimeliness of his death. When he left Sullivan one miracle short of sainthood, Mason figured they’d never met. Harlan Christenson spoke briefly but movingly of their years of practice and the brotherly bond that had held them together.

“What a crock!” Sandra whispered. “Harlan needed Sullivan, but Sullivan would have dropped him like a bad habit if he could have found a way.”

Mason turned toward her, but his eyes found Kelly Holt slipping into an empty seat across the aisle. She smiled at him as she sat down before looking away. He kept staring.

“My mother always told me it’s not polite to flirt at funerals. Who is she?” Sandra asked.

“Kelly Holt, the FBI agent who quit the bureau and landed in the Ozarks. What in the hell is she doing here?”

“Put your tongue back in your mouth before you ask her.”

“No subtly, huh?”

“Zero. And it doesn’t do much for my ego either.”

“Remember what your mother told you.”

Christenson finished, the organ played, and the congregation stood as the family followed the casket out of the church. Mason and Sandra left to join the procession to the cemetery and had reached their cars when Kelly caught up with them.

“Hello, Counselor. Got room for one more?”

Sandra stuck out her right hand. “I’m Sandra Connelly, one of Lou’s partners. We’re running the firm’s investigation into Sullivan’s death. Lou tells me you’re handling the Ozark end of things.”

“I wasn’t aware of the firm’s investigation. Perhaps we can help each other.”

Mason opened the passenger door to his car before their serve and volley moved to the net.

“I’ll just follow in my car,” Sandra said, slamming her door closed.

“What was all that about?” Kelly asked as he pulled into the funeral procession.

“I don’t think she likes you.”

“She doesn’t even know me. Do you?”

“What? Like you?” Kelly was bright, strong, and attractive. What wasn’t to like? She was also direct and Mason usually wasn’t, but he liked the question. “You’re my favorite former FBI agent turned sheriff.”

“Well, you’re not my favorite smart-ass lawyer. But I’m getting used to you. Now, what’s this about the firm investigating Sullivan’s death?”

“I’m not investigating Sullivan’s death. I’m trying to figure out how much trouble he left behind, and I’m starting to feel like the guy who follows the elephants around at the circus with a shovel.”

“How deep is it?”

“Stop me if I tell you what you already know. Your pal St. John sends his regards. Why didn’t you tell me you’d been investigating the firm?”

“Listen, Counselor. After all your talk about privileged information, you should be the last person to complain. But you may be able to help me.”

“With what? You still haven’t told me how you know that Sullivan was murdered. Tell me what’s going on. Then we’ll see who can help who.”

“Whom.”

“Are you always this annoying?”

“Are you always this insecure?”

“You just bring out the best in me.”

“Maybe I should have gotten a ride with your partner.”

It may not have been Romantic Comedy 101, but the banter was easy and the teasing friendly and promising.

“Okay, that’s enough combat for one funeral. Am I still a suspect?”

“I checked the damage to your car. One of my deputies took a report from a farmer who was hauling a truckload of hay down Highway 5 when some idiot tried to pass another car in a no-passing zone going the other way. The farmer said the idiot flew off the road just before he was about to get creamed.”

“You see? My story checks out.”

“Wrong. It doesn’t mean your story checks out. Passing in a no-passing zone makes more sense than your story that someone was trying to kill you. I could charge you with reckless driving.”

She smiled as she said it, which comforted Mason. It wasn’t the smile of a woman about to arrest him.

“Why didn’t the farmer come back to check on me?”

“He had to go home and change his shorts.”

“So I scared the shit out of him. Very cute. Have you been practicing your punch line all day?”

“Just since breakfast. Actually, the farmer does back you up. He said the other driver held you out in the wrong lane. And he did have to change his shorts. Did you?”

“Yeah. And I haven’t stopped since. Now, what’s the story on Sullivan?”

She faced him with a pure cop look that left no room for negotiation. “I want your complete cooperation.”

“Do I get yours?”

“To a point.”

“I’ll take the same point. Deal?” Kelly raised her chin and grimaced, giving him her no-deal look. “I don’t know who killed him or who tried to kill me, but nobody wants to find out more than I do. I can’t give up a client unless I’m not worried about being wrong. And you’re not going to tell me anything about St. John’s investigation that could blow his case. So we both know what that point is. We’re college graduates. If it gets tricky, we’ll work it out. Deal?”

She slipped out of her cop look and put on her punch-line smile. “Deal. Sullivan sustained a blow to the back of the head. Probably not enough to kill him or even knock him out. Water in his lungs proves he drowned.”

“That’s not news. What else do you have?”

“Cause of death was drowning, but he had a heart attack first. The coroner says it was probably drug induced. He doesn’t have all the lab tests back yet. But he does have one test back. Your partner was HIV positive.”

“AIDS?”

“Not yet. Just HIV positive. We’re not disclosing that information yet. I’ve got an appointment with the family doctor, Charlie Morgenstern, after the funeral, to examine his medical records.”

“Any more surprises—maybe a birthmark that turned up missing?”

“Close. He had needle marks on the inside of his left arm and the inside of his thighs.”

“Don’t tell me he was an intravenous drug user too!”

“Intravenous user of something. That’s what the lab tests are about.”

“HIV explains one thing. Sullivan was stalling on the physical for the life insurance policy to cover his death benefit at the firm. Now I understand why. I wonder who gave him the virus and who he passed it on to.”

“Spreading that news would not improve his sex life and might make someone angry enough to get even. The insurance policy is another motive. Who was the beneficiary?”

“Technically, the firm, since the money was to be used to buy out his stock. So I guess his wife ends up the real beneficiary. But what difference does that make? He never got the policy.”

“Maybe his wife didn’t know that. Maybe she only knew he had the death benefit.”

“Where do you go with the information on his HIV status?”

“Missouri Department of Public Health. Morgenstern had to report the HIV diagnosis. The state may have tried to track down his sex partners to notify them.”

The mental picture of Sullivan listing the names of his sex partners was too much. Mason would have bet money he asked for extra paper.

“Did you know Sullivan and my firm were targets of St. John’s investigation?”

“No. St. John wanted O’Malley. We knew about Sullivan, but nothing I saw pointed at him or your firm.”

“Well, something changed. St. John sent Sullivan a target letter naming him and the firm about six weeks ago. Then he served Sullivan with a subpoena for the firm’s records on O’Malley. Sullivan was supposed to turn the files over this Friday.”

“How did you find out?”

“Scott Daniels found the target letter and the subpoena in Sullivan’s office on Sunday.”

“That’s convenient.”

“Yesterday, Sandra and I met with St. John to buy some time on the subpoena. Your name came up when I asked about wiretaps. St. John said they weren’t tapping our phones. Then we found this in the phone on Sullivan’s desk.”

He handed her the bug.

“Too cheap for the bureau. This is strictly amateur stuff.”

“That’s what St. John said. I don’t think I’m on his Christmas list anymore.”

“Did you find any others?”

“I’ll know soon. Is that all I get from you, Sheriff?” he asked as they pulled into the cemetery.

“Maybe. Depends,” Kelly said as they stepped out of the car.

“On what? I’ll even buy you dinner.”

“On what my pal St. John wants.” St. John stood alongside his sedan a hundred feet away, motioning her toward his car. “I don’t think I’ll need a ride back. Dinner sounds great. I’ll call you next week.”

Mason congratulated himself on getting a date at a funeral and walked toward the grave site.

One thing Mason learned from Blues was to pay more attention to his hometown. After all, he was a fourth-generation resident in a city that at one time had been home to more hogs and whores than just about anyplace in the history of either commodity.

Kansas City was born as the last trading post before the pioneers’ leap into the Great American Desert, later known as Kansas. It survived its adolescence as one of the most wide-open, swinging, corrupt towns of the twenties and thirties and matured into a five-county metroplex straddling the Missouri-Kansas state line, bragging that it had more fountains than Paris and more boulevards than Rome.