The Murders at Astaire Castle (A Mac Faraday Mystery) (13 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Gnarly’s barking was loud enough to wake up the residents of Spencer Point. Used to his barking at squirrels, birds, and low-flying aircraft; everyone had grown to ignore the protective shepherd. Yet, the frantic tone this morning brought some curious residents to their front porches when Gnarly, with his leash dragging behind him, ran past on his way to Spencer Manor.

Shrugging into his bathrobe, Mac threw open the door when Gnarly slammed into it. Tying the belt to her bathrobe, Archie was right behind him.

Instead of running in, Gnarly whirled around and ran back out into the driveway. When he saw that Mac had only come down off the porch, he ran back and jumped up to tag him hard in the chest.

“David’s not with him,” Mac said to Archie. “Something happened to him and Chelsea.”

She had already run inside.

“Call Bogie!” Mac yelled as loud as he could while running after Gnarly.

He didn’t get far before David’s cruiser, its lights and sirens going, pulled up alongside to him. “Get in,” Archie called to him out the window.

That was when Mac realized he was in his bare feet and wearing only his bathrobe. There wasn’t enough time to change. He saw when he climbed into the passenger seat that Archie was also in her bathrobe and barefoot.

“You know it’s illegal to steal a police cruiser,” he told her while they tailed Gnarly down the point, across the cove, and along the lake shore.

“So arrest me.” She slammed on the brakes when they came upon the scene. “Oh, dear, God!”

Chelsea was on her knees bent over David. Her leash dragging behind her, Molly ran up to Mac when he got out of the cruiser. Whining, she pawed at him before leading the way back to her owner.

“He’s been shot!” Covered in blood, Chelsea had taken off her jacket, folded it up, and was holding it against David’s side. It was already soaked with blood. She held it against David’s stomach with one hand while holding her cell phone to her ear with the other. “The police and ambulance are on the way.”

Mac knelt on David’s other side and pressed his hand on top of hers to stop the bleeding. He didn’t want to lift the coat to look at the wound for fear of allowing more blood to seep out. Glancing back at the cruiser, Mac saw that Archie was already on David’s radio. He could hear the sirens announcing the arrival of cruisers from both directions and an ambulance from across the lake. They were growing louder by the second.

A black cruiser tore around the corner from up the road and screeched to a halt in front of them. Shouting orders into his radio, Bogie jumped out of the cruiser and ran to them. “What happened?”

After assuring the emergency operator that officers were on the scene, Chelsea hung up her cell and tossed it to the ground next to her. “It was a silver Cutlass. Late model,” she said while applying pressure to David’s wound. “There was a car rental sticker on the rear bumper. Maryland plates. David shot out all of its windows.” She pointed up the road. “It went that way in the direction of the bridge.”

Bogie went back to his radio to relay the information.

“Good girl,” Mac said.

“I wish I got the plate number or saw the driver,” she muttered with tears in her eyes.

Mac grabbed her arm. His hand was covered with blood—David’s blood. “You got more than most people in this situation. Every little bit helps.”

The ambulance pulled up next to Bogie’s cruiser. Mac stepped back to let the EMTs get to work. He didn’t like that David was unconscious.
That’s not good—not good at all.

When ushered away, Chelsea let Archie lead her back to David’s cruiser where Bogie and Mac were waiting. Gnarly and Molly were in the backseat where Archie had gathered them up to prevent them from contaminating any possible evidence.

“What happened?” Bogie asked Chelsea again. “Tell me everything.”

“The car came up behind us.” She folded her arms across her chest. “David and I were running with the dogs. David was ahead of me and suddenly he dropped back behind. I remember at the time thinking he was letting me win—”

“Win?” Bogie asked.

“We were racing each other.” She swallowed. “I had noticed the car come up behind us but wasn’t really paying attention. David must have gotten suspicious when he didn’t pass us. I didn’t think about it at the time. David slowed down and I sprinted on ahead. Suddenly I heard all these shots—”

“How many?” Bogie asked.

“Seven,” she said with certainty. “David’s got two gunshot wounds in the side.” She pointed at the side of the road where Archie had parked. “This is where it happened. When the shooting started, I tackled Molly and dove into the ditch. When the car sped off, David came running up to me to see how we were. He didn’t even know he’d been shot. He thought it was Molly’s blood. When I realized it was him, he collapsed.” She looked at each one of them. “Who did this?

“David’s put a lot of people away,” Bogie said. “He’s got more than one enemy.”

“Hollister,” Mac said. “He threatened David yesterday afternoon. I was there.”

“Raymond Hollister?” Bogie asked. “He gave Ol’ Pat a real hard time because Pat accused him of having something to do with the murders.”

“He told David that he wasn’t going to put him away for these murders,” Mac said. “I’m going to talk to him.”

“I’m going with David.” Chelsea shoved Mac out of the way to run to the ambulance where they were loading David into the back. Molly jumped out of the open window to go with her. When Gnarly tried to follow, Archie blocked the window with her body to stop him.

Mac climbed into the driver’s seat of David’s cruiser.

“Hold on, Mac.” Bogie grabbed the door to stop Mac from closing it.

“Don’t tell me that I’m not authorized to question a murder suspect, Bogie,” Mac said. “I’m on contract with the Spencer police department. This is an attempted homicide. So I’m allowed to question Hollister. As for not putting him through a wall, I know how to control myself. If you want to monitor me, Bogie, then you’re more than welcome to come along. The question is, who’s going to stop you from putting Hollister through a wall.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Bogie said.

“Then what?”

“I was going to tell you go home and get dressed,” Bogie said. “Hollister might respect your authority more if you were wearing pants.”

Back at Spencer Manor, Mac changed into a sports jacket over slacks. As Bogie had pointed out, he wanted to exude authority when trying to capture whoever it was that tried to kill David.

When he came out of his changing room, Mac found Archie sitting on the edge of the bed. Gnarly was lying on the bed with his head in her lap. There were tears in her eyes while she stroked Gnarly’s head.

“Hey,” Mac said in a gentle tone.

Aware of his presence, Archie wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Gnarly sat up.

Mac knelt in front of her. “David’s going to be fine. He’s a fighter.”

She forced a smile to cross her face. “Shouldn’t I be telling you that?”

“I know it,” he said. “I’ve worked with people like David my whole life. They don’t go down that easy.”

“Someone tried to kill him.” She squinted at him. “David. Your brother. My friend.
Our
friend. Why?”

“Like Bogie said,” Mac shrugged, “David’s put a lot of bad guys away. Whichever one it is, we’re going to get him.”

Archie grasped his shoulder. “I want to be there when you do.”

“Hey, Mac!” Bogie called from downstairs where he had let himself in after getting his officers working on the scene of the shooting.

Mac and Archie followed Gnarly down the stairs. Mac sucked in a deep breath when he saw Bogie holding his cell phone. He had just taken a call. “Any news on David?”

“Chelsea called from the hospital,” Bogie said. “One of the nurses told her that David wasn’t hit twice. It was a through and through. The bullet went in at the front of his waist on the left side and went out the back. Five bullets are missing from David’s gun.”

“Chelsea heard seven shots,” Archie said.

“Shooter shot twice,” Bogie said. “One went through the chief, so it’s still out there. That’s two slugs from the perp’s gun that we need to find. Our people will be looking for them while I’m with you, Mac. I’ve got to make sure you don’t kill our chief suspect.”

“Would I do that?” Mac asked.

“I’m not so sure I wouldn’t,” Bogie replied.

Hector Langford and Jeff Ingles were waiting for Mac and Bogie in the lobby of the Spencer Inn. Their greeting was brief before Jeff asked about David’s condition.

“Still no word,” Mac said. “What room is Hollister in?”

“Four-eleven,” Hector said. “I’ve had my people doubling their surveillance of Hollister ever since you called.” He escorted them to the elevator. “According to his registration, he was driving a rental car, a silver Cutlass.”

Mac smirked over at Bogie. “It’s him.”

“Now don’t do anything rash,” Jeff warned Mac. “The guests get upset when you beat up fellow guests.”

The elevator doors opened. Mac and Bogie stepped onto the elevator while Jeff held the door for them.

“The car isn’t in the garage.” Hector stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for the floor. “But Hollister is in his room. I’d like to think we would have noticed if he had left the Inn since we were keeping an eye on him.”

“He couldn’t exactly drive it into the garage all shot up,” Bogie said. “He could have ditched it down the road and walked in a side entrance.”

“We’re checking the security footage now,” Hector said. “Room service delivered breakfast to him twenty minutes ago.”

Jeff’s tone was pleading. “Mac, please don’t go in there like a bad-ass and shoot up our guest. It’s not good for the Inn’s reputation when people staying here get killed by the owner.”

“Am I allowed to shoot back if he shoots first?” Mac asked.

“How about if you fire a warning shot first?”

“Warning shot?” Mac chuckled. “Do you have any idea how expensive bullets are nowadays? I don’t fire warning shots. In my book, murderers aren’t worth the cost of wasted bullets.”

Raymond Hollister was wearing his bathrobe when he answered the door. Recognizing Deputy Chief Art Bogart from years before, the silver-haired businessman stood up tall and stuck out his chest. He sucked in his lips to form a thin straight line. “Why do I have a feeling this isn’t a social visit?”

“It’s not,” Bogie said. “May we come in? We have a few questions.”

Raymond Hollister made no move to invite them inside. “Your police chief questioned me yesterday. I told him that I would come by the station this morning with the name of his killer. Obviously, you bunch of incompetents are too impatient to give me a chance to get dressed.” He tightened up the belt to his robe.

”Attempted murder has a detrimental effect on a man’s patience,” Mac said.

“Attempted murder?”

“Someone shot Chief O’Callaghan this morning,” Bogie said. “That’s what we want to talk to you about.”

Hollister opened the door wider and stepped back into his room. They followed him inside. Hector closed the door behind him.

“I’ve been here in my room since I spoke to O’Callaghan yesterday.” Raymond Hollister sat down at the table where he had been eating his breakfast of three eggs over easy, pancakes, and bacon, plus a tall glass of tomato juice that stood half-empty. “You can ask around. It isn’t like there’s a lot to do in this boring little resort town.” He resumed shoveling hungry forkfuls of egg into his mouth. “Besides, why would I want to kill Chief O’Callaghan?” he asked with his mouth full.

“You tell us,” Mac said. “You did threaten him yesterday.”

“I did not,” Hollister scoffed.

“Yes, you did.” Tempted to grab the man by the front of his bathrobe, Mac stood over him. “I was there and saw you.”

“Clearly, that was a misunderstanding.” He drained the glass of tomato juice and wiped his mouth with a napkin before continuing. “Why would I want to kill the man who had the power to arrest the person who murdered my most successful author?”

Jeff gently pushed Mac away from the guest. “First of all, I would like to say that we are very sorry for any inconvenience we’re causing you by this interrogation. I only hope you understand how important any information you can supply us can be. If you didn’t try to kill Chief O’Callaghan, which I really don’t think you did, maybe you know who did.”

With a forkful of eggs poised to toss into his mouth, Hollister said, “Probably the same person who killed Damian Wagner.” He shoved the eggs into his mouth. After withdrawing the fork, he used it to attack the pancakes.

“Care to share this person’s name with us?” Mac asked with a sarcastic tone.

“Of course,” Raymond Hollister said with a choked voice.

“Who?” Bogie asked.

Raymond continued to cough. His face turned red while he tried to form words.

“He’s choking!” Jeff yelled.

“On eggs?” Mac asked.

Hector grabbed Hollister in a bear hug and tried to apply the Heimlich maneuver with no success. In seconds, Raymond Hollister turned blue and collapsed to the floor.

Bogie and Hector laid him on the floor while Jeff dialed for emergency. “We need an ambulance at—”

“He’s dead!” Bogie announced.

“Maybe it was a heart attack,” Hector said.

“I don’t think so,” Mac said.

“Has the world gone mad?” Jeff yelled while holding his cell phone up. “No, we have a dead body up here in four-eleven—not the parking garage.”

“Parking garage?” Mac turned from the dead man on the floor to Jeff, whose eyes were huge. His face was drenched in sweat. “What is it?”

“The emergency operator said that they’re already sending an emergency unit here to the Spencer Inn to answer a call for a dead body found in the parking garage.”

The cell phone on Hector’s hip rang. While they all watched, he answered it. “Hello,” he asked in a hesitant tone. “Yeah, I know. Any idea who… I’ll be right there.” He hung up.

“Two deaths here at the Inn?” Bogie asked.

Hector nodded his head. “Our people found her while searching for the car. Her body was hidden in a maintenance closet—looks like she was strangled. Her clothes, hotel ID and security pass were all missing.”