Murder.com (25 page)

"Always has been," I
said.

"Oh, shut up," Kitty
snapped.

"Don't worry, my Kitty Kat, we're
going to remedy this problem for good shortly."

"You know what's funny," Imogen
said, laughing. "I actually thought you and Mike were an item. I
really did. His wife as much as told me that you two were having an
affair."

Ken gave Kitty a look and then
said, "That's preposterous."

"No, it's true," I said, latching
onto Imogen's ploy. "Kate told Imogen in the bathroom at Gramercy
Tavern that Mike and Kitty were having an affair. She saw them a
few times. Once at a restaurant and then checking into a hotel when
he was supposedly working late." The longer we could postpone Ken
pulling the trigger, the better.

I noticed a golf club leaning
against one of Ken's bookshelves. I could jump up off the couch,
lunge at Ken's hand to deflect any shot that he may have, grab the
club, and swing it at his head. I wasn't worried about Kitty. What
was she going to do, anyway?

Ken looked at Kitty, disgusted.
Had we started a lover's quarrel?

"Ken, this is ridiculous. I've
never been with Mike."

"She's lying, Ken," I
said.

"Shut up, Max," he said. Then
glared at Kitty. "I always thought you had a thing for him. What,
have you slept with everyone at this office?"

"You're listening to these two?"
Kitty asked. "Let's shoot them already and move on."

"Ken, you don't want to kill us.
You're not a murderer, you're a banker. Let's just pretend that
Imogen and I don't know anything and go our separate ways. I never
really cared about Ted anyway. I'm glad he's dead," I said, lying,
hoping to get him talking again. I didn't like where Kitty was
taking this conversation.

"Oh, but I do need to kill you,
Max, and your girlfriend over there too. You know I killed Ted. You
know I'm the man who killed Seth. You know I was the man who sent
those anonymous emails to you. You know way too much to live.
Granted, it's an unfortunate turn of events. Even for a sap like
you. Kitty, tie them up."

Ken handed a couple of plastic
restraints to Kitty. "Finally." She walked over to Imogen first and
told her to place her hands behind her back. Imogen defiantly
ignored her. "I said put your hands behind your back." Kitty
grabbed one of Ginny's arms and started pulling it behind her back
while Ken pointed the gun at Imogen.

"Get your hands off me, bitch,"
Imogen shouted, pulling her hand away from Kitty.

"She asked you to put your hands
behind your back nicely," Ken said. "Do it. If you don't, I'm going
to blow your pretty little head off right now."

"Imogen, just do what she
says."

"Listen to your boyfriend," Ken
said.

Kitty turned to me as she was
binding Imogen's hands behind her back. "You should have married
her while you had the chance."

"You'll be happy to hear that I
was just about to propose," I replied.

"You were, Max?" Imogen said,
shocked, as her hands were being clipped together.

"I was, Ginny. I even bought the
ring."

"You did!" Imogen started to cry.
"My God, Max, I'm shocked!"

"It's been in my underwear drawer
for the last few days."

"Terrible hiding place, Max,"
Imogen said.

"You didn't find it," I
said.

"Underwear drawer? Really, Max?
You could have done better than that," Kitty added.

"How were you going to propose?"
Imogen asked.

"Well, we were going to fly to
Whistler and ski for a few—"

"Enough!" Ken shouted. "I don't
want to hear this. Let's get them tied up so we can get out of
here."

"I want to hear it, Ken. Go on,
Dutch."

Kitty always loved a good story.

"As I was saying, we were going to
ski, and then on the last night I was going to propose over
dinner."

"Aww, how romantic." Kitty sighed.
"Ted never did anything like that for me. He proposed in our house
over coffee. Then he went into the office."

"That's sad," Imogen
said.

"Yeah, well, that's the price you
pay for millions."

"It didn't have to be that way,"
Imogen said.

It was now or never. Kitty would be handcuffing me
in a moment. If I was going to make a move, I had to act.

"I'm afraid it did, Miss
Whitehall—Ted had everything that I wanted, and now it's all mine.
It just took a little longer to get it than I had
planned."

"Kitty, can we get on with it?"
Ken said, motioning with his gun for Kitty to handcuff
me.

As she approached me, I started to
get up, and then the office door flew open, and in stormed the man
with the beard.

"Drop your weapon! Drop your
weapon!" the man with the beard screamed while accompanied by three
additional men dressed in suits. "Police! Drop your weapon or we
will shoot!"

Everything after that happened
quickly. Ken fired a shot at one of the men, and then the man with
the beard fired a shot into Ken's arm, at which point Ken's gun
fell, and in an instant he was surrounded by three of the men as
another man apprehended Kitty. Ken's bullet went directly into the
wall. He wasn't much of a shot.

The bearded man threw Ken onto the ground and had
him restrained in seconds.

"You shot me! You shot me! My
arm!" Ken was screaming in pain, to which the bearded man suggested
that he shut up or he was going to put another bullet into
him.

Kitty was facedown on the floor
with the policeman's knee in her back. "You're going to be sorry,"
she yelled. "Don't you know who I am, you filthy pig?"

"If you don't shut up I'm going to
hog-tie you. That'll give you something to squeal about," answered
the cop, holding up a pair of striped cuffs that he'd pulled out of
his pocket. He turned to Imogen and I. "It's an old good luck
charm. They'll fit great on her ankles."

Kitty stopped talking.

The men lifted Ken and Kitty up off the floor, and
the bearded man made his way over to Imogen and myself. One of the
other police officers began reading Ken and Kitty their Miranda
rights.

"You're behind this, aren't you,
Max?" Kitty asked.

"Quid pro quo, Kitty."

"Screw you, Max."

"A favor for a favor. I'm a quick
learner too."

"I should have killed you when I
had the chance," Ken said, grimacing in pain.

"You should have stuck to
investing in companies. Murder doesn't suit you."

The bearded man walked over to me.

"Mr. Slade, allow me to introduce
myself. Detective Tim Connolly, NYPD. It's nice to finally meet
you." He extended his hand.

I shook it. "Detective, I can't
tell you how happy I am to see you, but what took you so long?" I
said.

"We were listening outside the
door. We have his office bugged. I wanted to make sure he spilled
his guts before we broke up the party. I hope you weren't
scared."

"Scared? No, I enjoy getting
bitch-slapped while being held at gunpoint by deranged
psychopaths."

The detective started to laugh.

"I was scared!" Imogen
admitted.

"I'm sorry, Miss Whitehall. I
wasn't going to let anything happen to you."

"I wish someone would have told
me. Max!"

Then he turned to me. "Sorry about
the face, Max."

"At least I've got a story to go
along with this cracked cheek," I said.

"Drama. Max, it's just a bruise,"
Imogen pointed out.

"Well, it's always rewarding when
things go as planned," the detective added.

Imogen was confused. "What? Plan?
What are you—"

"Miss Whitehall, it's a pleasure
to meet you, finally, as well. I've been watching you for some
time."

"Max, you knew about
this?"

I turned to Imogen with a guilty
look on my face. "Not the whole time, my dear."

Detective Connolly continued,
"When you both moved into your brownstone, Detective Carrington got
in touch and I kept an eye on you two in the city. He's an old
college buddy of mine. Wanted to make sure you two were safe. Max,
over here, caught me once, tailing him."

"I thought you were going to kill
me," I said.

"That was him?" Imogen
asked.

"Quite the contrary. I was making
sure that you weren't in any danger. You gave me a good run for my
money."

"Fear can do that to
you."

The officers had finished reading Ken and Kitty
their rights. They were escorted out of the room, leaving Imogen,
Detective Connolly, and myself alone.

"So, now what?" I
asked.

"You guys are free to
go."

"I mean, what happens to Mike and
the others?"

"Well, Detective Carrington and
the NYPD detectives took Mike down to the station. They'll question
him for a bit just to make sure he's clean and didn't know
anything. He might be an asshole, but he's no killer."

"Actually, he kind of grew on me,"
I admitted.

"I bet his wife doesn't feel the
same way," Imogen added.

"Oh, Mrs. Miller, she's down there
too. They'll be back at their home later tonight."

"I'm sure they'll have a lot to
talk about," I said.

Detective Connolly laughed. "Wait
until we tell them that Ken's the killer. That will really knock
him for a loop. And as for the dynamic duo, they'll be spending
some time in custody—well, until the trial. Then off to prison, I
would imagine. Why two people with everything would risk it all is
beyond me."

"Love?" I asked.

"Ah, love, the ultimate motive,"
Imogen added.

"I bet this is going to make the
papers tomorrow. I can see it now: 'Murder.com – The
Multimillion-Dollar Love Triangle,'" I said.

Connolly laughed. "Yes, this is
too good to pass up. Hey, one more thing, Max—you did good. Real
good. Thanks."

I nodded.

Ginny and I accompanied Detective Connolly to the
station. When we arrived, he escorted us over to his office, where
we were introduced to the other detectives that were working the
case. They were all smiling and chatting with us as if we were all
intimate friends.

"Don't worry, we never bugged your
house," one of them said after relaying a story about some of the
other stings they'd been on.

"We just kept eyes on you,"
another added. "Connolly couldn't do it twenty-four hours a
day."

Finally, John Carrington walked in.

"Max," he said as he approached.
"And the always lovely Miss Whitehall."

"John," I said. We all shook
hands.

"Well, well, well…the little
engine that could. That's what you are. All your poking and
snooping paid off."

"Hey, he didn't do it alone, I'll
have you know," Ginny said.

"Oh, I know, Miss
Whitehall—without you none of this would have happened."

Imogen smiled.

"Why didn't you tell me Detective
Connolly was following me?" I asked.

"Now, Max, how quickly you forget.
You were our number one suspect. Do you think we would just let you
walk away without knowing where you were every second of every day?
I had a gut feeling that you didn't do it, but, well, let's just
say I'm glad Connolly owed me a favor. And if you knew he was
following you, would you have done all of the things that you did?
Followed Kitty? Met with Mike? Went—"

"You mean he followed me to
Kitty's house?"

"He sure did."

"I never saw him."

"Of course not. He's good at what
he does. Oh, how did I forget—do you remember those
emails?"

"Yes."

"Well, we were able to trace those
to the BMC office. Right to Ken's computer, or I'm pretty sure it's
Ken's computer. We'll find out after the tech guys get a hold of
it."

"So you knew it was
Ken?"

"We bugged his office a couple of
weeks ago, right along with Mike's, but they didn't mention a
thing. When you ID'd him with Kitty we had a good hunch, as did
you, but when he spilled his guts tonight, well, it doesn't get
much better than that. You know, some smart guys are pretty
dumb."

"And what about Williams? Am I off
the hook?"

Carrington chuckled. "He wasn't
happy when we pegged Ken as the killer. It kind of took the wind
out of his sails. I don't know what's going to happen to him, but
he risked a lot of capital on bringing you in. The brass isn't too
happy about it."

I couldn't say I was broken up
when I heard the news. Sergeant Williams was an asshole that was
willing to lock me up for no good reason. Maybe it was the risk
taker in me or the betting man in me, but I hoped that he wound up
on the street. That would serve him right.