Presumption of Guilt (15 page)

27

T
his time, the Miami air felt less heavy. Dark clouds overhead kept the temperature lower, and Tommy hoped he’d be on his way home before the predicted thunderstorms arrived. Once again, he’d picked up a rental car and made his way to the home of Lisa Michaels. It had been only a little more than a week since Quince Michaels’s death, but his widow had agreed to meet with him.

He pulled up to Michaels’s home and rang the bell. After a short wait, Mrs. Michaels opened the door. Instead of the jogging shorts she’d worn when he first met her, she was now dressed in a black pencil skirt with a simple white blouse and a string of pearls around her neck.

“I appreciate you meeting with me,” Tommy said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.” She led him into the living room, then said, “Quince told me the reason for your last visit. I assume you’re here again about Molly?”

“For Molly. But about Quince.”

Mrs. Michaels nodded, as though she expected the response.

“I wish I didn’t have to bother you at a time like this, and I’m afraid my questions may disturb you.” He felt like an intruder, imposing himself on this woman at a time so close to her husband’s death. He rubbed at the knotted muscles at the back of his neck.

“It’s about the money, right?”

It took a lot to surprise Tommy, but that stopped him in his tracks. The last thing he expected to discover was that Lisa Michaels knew about the money. He’d come down to Miami to ask her to search Quince’s records, to try to uncover some information about the bank account in Belize.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m here to find out what you know about it.”

Mrs. Michaels’s shoulders had drooped, and her lips clenched as though trying to hold back tears. “You know,” she said, “most people assume I married Quince because he was wealthy. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I fell in love with him because I’d never met anyone else as warm and funny and caring as him—or, frankly, as handsome. He treated me like I was the most important person in the world. And not just because I have money of my own. He didn’t know I was wealthy until we’d already become a couple.”

Tommy cocked his head at her.

“My best friend and I started an Internet company straight out of college and built it up to a multimillion-dollar operation.”

Two surprises in as many minutes. It must have shown on his face, because Mrs. Michaels laughed and said, “Yes, not all pretty, tennis-playing women married to rich men are bimbos. Some of us actually have a brain.”

“I’m sorry. I never meant to imply you didn’t—have a brain, that is.”

“Relax. I’m used to your reaction when I talk about my business. We sold it seven years ago, fortunately before the economic bust, and made a killing on it.” As soon as she finished, her face reddened. “Oh, how awful of me. What a horrible choice of words.”

“It’s okay. It’s hard to think straight at a time like this.”
Beautiful, smart, and rich. How lucky could one man get? Not so lucky, I guess. He’s dead
. Tommy shook off his ruminations. There was work to do. “So, your money paid for this house?”

“No. Quince already had the house when I met him.”

“You said you knew I was here about the money. What did you mean by that?”

“Quince was very nervous after you left, but wouldn’t tell me why. We left shortly after you, for our tennis match. We played a foursome, with good friends, then went out for lunch and drinks afterward. I figured whatever was bothering him had passed. When we got home, though, he was still fidgety.”

“So he told you?”

“Not right away. But I didn’t let up. Finally, he told me about the jail. How he’d stolen money from the county by beefing up the bills.”

Tommy restrained the smile that threatened to erupt. Finally, confirmation. Not just from an ex-wife who might have been bitter toward her husband, but from a grieving widow. Tommy was certain Dani could use her testimony, assuming she agreed to come to New York for a hearing.

He felt himself relax and his eyes wandered over to the pool outside, the open water just beyond it. After a few moments, he turned back to Mrs. Michaels. “Did Quince tell you whether his partner was part of it? The scam?”

Lisa Michaels nodded. “Not at first. But, again, I pushed. He told me they were in it together. It was meant to be the big payoff after decades of hard work. Pay for a retirement in style when the time came.”

Now came the key question, the one that could lead to freedom for Molly. “Did your husband have any documents that showed Joe Singer was in on it?”

“Wait. I’ll be right back.” She got up from her chair and left the room. Tommy stood up as well and walked over to the French doors leading to the pool. He watched the boats glide by, small sailboats and large cabin cruisers and everything in between.

“I’m back.”

Tommy turned around and returned to the sofa where Lisa Michaels again sat, now with a collection of documents spread before her on the glass-topped table.

“What are these?” he asked.

“The proof you needed. After Quince died, I rummaged through his files. I’ve pieced together what they are.” Mrs. Michaels picked up one document. “This is a partnership agreement for a new company they set up while they built the jail. They called it MS Assets. It’s a dummy company—it didn’t do any work, just held they money they poured into it. You can see from reading it over that Quince and Joe were the only partners. If one died, the assets went to the survivor.”

She held up another set of papers. “These are the bank records from Allegiance Bank in Belize. The account was in the name of the partnership. It shows the signatories were Quince and Joe and lists each as the beneficiary of the other. It also shows when the deposits were made—all between twelve and fourteen years ago. A total of fourteen million dollars.” She sat back with a smile on her face. “I assume these will help free Molly Singer.”

Now it was impossible to hold back a smile. He was ecstatic. It was just what Dani said they needed to prove someone else had a motive for murdering the Singers. And then it hit him. It all pointed to Quince Michaels as the murderer. He was the one who’d benefit if Joe Singer died. He’d collect double the bounty, his own and Joe’s.

“Mrs. Michaels. I appreciate you sharing this with me. I have to say, though, it raises questions about your husband’s role in the Singers’ murders.”

“No, you don’t get it. Until you came last week, Quince never linked their murders to the jail money. He always hoped it wasn’t Molly but, after she’d been convicted, assumed it was. When I pushed him on the nature of your visit, and he told me about the possible connection with the jail money, he was scared. More frightened than I’d ever seen him.”

“Well, he was probably afraid that it would all come out and he’d be arrested.”

“No, that wasn’t it at all. He was afraid of the others.”

Tommy did a quick calculation in his head. If Quince and Joe together pocketed fourteen million dollars, and everyone in on the scam took equal amounts, that meant three other people were involved. “The others? Did he tell you who?”

“He refused. Said it was too dangerous for me to know.”

Lisa’s testimony would guarantee Molly a new trial. Tommy spun the wedding band on his left hand, nervously preparing to ask his final question.

“Would you be willing to come to New York and testify in court about everything you’ve told me today?”

“Absolutely.”

Relieved, Tommy said, “You’re very brave.”

“No. I’m very angry.” She took one more piece of paper from the pile on the table. “This came yesterday. It’s the coast guard report of the explosion on Quince’s boat. It wasn’t an accident. Someone tampered with the gas line.”

C
HAPTER

28

D
ani needed more. Lisa Michaels’s testimony would help a great deal, but was it enough? She wished she could demonstrate actual innocence. Go into court with the name of the real killers, wrap it all up with a nice bow. But who? Quince Michaels? He would have been the logical culprit. After all, since Quince benefitted financially from Joe’s death, he had a motive for murdering the Singers. Lisa Michaels was adamant, though, that Quince was afraid of someone himself. And now the coast guard had ruled his death a homicide. No, it seemed more likely that the same person who killed the Singers murdered Quince Michaels as well. And tried to kill her.

She took out a yellow pad and wrote on it a list of witnesses against Molly. A few classmates from school and her boyfriend, Finn. He’d seemed surprised when Dani suggested his father had been involved in a theft. As far as she could tell from her interview, he’d only been a scared teenager doing what he thought was right. The medical examiner testified as to the cause of death. Nothing to attack there. The assistant sheriff on the case described the scene. Bob MacDonald had questioned him thoroughly on the lack of forensic evidence tying Molly to the murders. No place to go with that. And then the most damning evidence of all—Molly’s confession. It didn’t matter that she’d recanted the next day. The jurors had glommed on to her admission and decided that an innocent person wouldn’t confess no matter what deprivations she’d been put through.

Dani turned to her computer. A few years back HIPP computerized its records and now, with a few clicks, Dani could research all the cases the office had handled. She typed in “false confessions” and spent the next hour reading. When she finished, she put in a call to Derek Deegan, an expert witness.

As soon as she hung up, Tommy stepped into her office. “Hot off the press,” he announced.

“What’s that?”

“The report of the forensic accountant.”

Dani felt a sense of excitement. This could be the missing piece they were waiting for. They already had testimony that showed Quince Michaels and Joe Singer pocketed far more than they should have for the jail. But Ellen Michaels’s testimony could be discredited as that of a bitter ex-wife. And although Quince Michaels told his widow that he’d skimmed money from the jail project, it was possible the judge could exclude it as hearsay. Even though they had records of the dummy company and bank records, they needed more to prove the money in that account came from the jail and not something else. Dani prayed the accountant found that proof.

“What’s it say?” she asked.

Tommy sat down at her desk and passed over the report. “Our guy didn’t just match up each contractor’s invoice to the bill submitted to the county. He went back to each of the contractors and subcontractors to confirm the invoices. In many cases, when he showed the owner the bill, he scratched his head and said it wasn’t the bill he’d submitted to Quince and Joe. In at least thirty instances the original bill was doubled, even tripled, by Quince and Joe before they submitted it to the county.”

“How did they get away with that?”

“It was even hard for our accountant to spot the changes on the invoice, and he was looking for it. They did a damn good job.”

“That’s great. It’s just what we need. And they were able to charge an extra thirty-five million by doing that?”

“There’s more.” Tommy smiled his Cheshire cat grin, the one that always signaled to Dani he’d hit the jackpot. “That accounted for close to ten million, but he couldn’t find four of the subcontractors. He searched every state record and came up with zilch. And those four contractors accounted for payments of over twenty-five million dollars.”

“Maybe they’d gone out of business. It’s been twelve years, and the building industry has suffered in the last four or five.”

“Yeah, that’s what he thought at first, but when he combed through back records for the ownership of those companies, in each case they were owned by a different company.”

“So. Isn’t that fairly common?

“Maybe. But in this case it was done to make it harder to track down the true owner of the company. He hasn’t been able to track down three of them, but the fourth company is owned by MS Assets, and we know through Lisa Michaels that Joe and Quince were the owners. It’s the very same company that had a Belize bank account with deposits of fourteen million dollars.”

Dani took in Tommy’s information. “Wouldn’t the state have discovered the phony companies?”

“They were clever. The state auditors flag a company as suspicious if it has a residential address, or a PO box for receipt of payments, instead of a commercial address. Each of the dummy companies rented commercial space for the period of the build, hired a receptionist to receive mail, then closed the doors after the audit was complete. Since there was nothing suspicious about them, the auditors didn’t check further.

“One other thing,” Tommy continued. “Our accountant spoke to someone at the state comptroller’s office—they do the audits—and he said it’s easier to get away with a fraud if they have someone at the county who’s in on the scheme.”

“Like Reynolds,” Melanie said.

“Yep.”

On its face, the information was great. It validated the testimony they had. Slam-dunk grounds for a new trial. Yet Dani wasn’t ready to celebrate.

Tommy sighed. “Okay, Dani. Why don’t you look happy?”

“Because it probably means there are at least three other people who owned the other phantom companies, and they were stealing money as well. And if we introduce this information at trial, those people will know we’re on to them. Or at least on their trail. It’ll send them hiding for cover, and then we’ll have no chance of identifying the real killers.”

Dani felt torn. Her goal—HIPP’s goal—was to free wrongfully convicted clients. Finding the real perpetrators in the process was gratifying, but not their job. With DNA evidence, they rarely found the real culprit, but at least when DNA from the crime didn’t match their client, exoneration routinely followed. But here, there was no DNA to exonerate Molly. They had evidence that Joe Singer and Quince Michaels, and likely three others, fraudulently benefitted from the construction of the Hudson County jail, which created a motive for one of those others to murder the Singers, but the jury would need to believe that Joe Singer was about to tell the authorities of the crime and he was murdered to silence him. The evidence they’d uncovered so far should be enough to get them a new trial. But was it enough to get Molly acquitted?