Bill Harvey Collection

by Peter O'Mahoney

  “And if she died, then the deal was 50/50. Ten million each, right? You’re saying that Bud killed her so that the charity could have kept ten million? That means he would have had to have known that Jessica was going to change the will.”

  “Jessica may have tried to convince Bud to change the will after she talked with Anna. We know that he was in the area, and he may have become angry at the thought of that.” Harvey took another long drink of his pale ale. “I get a bad feeling about that charity. There’s something not right with the place. I think that if we had a close look at their books, then we would see that Bud was very well paid, perhaps more than he should have been for his position. The photos hanging on the walls of his office showed that he takes holidays all around the world, in some very expensive places. He wouldn’t have been able to afford that off a veteran’s pension.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Very. But I need more information about Bud Morgan before I can make a considered decision. I want you to find out everything you can about him, his life, and his relationship with Jessica. I think he’s our lead.”

  Jack took out his phone, typing the notes into his latest app.

  Harvey shook his head at the use of modern technology. “I can’t believe that’s where you keep your notes. What if the phone turned off? You’ll lose all your notes.”

  “If the phone turned off, I’ll turn it back on.” Jack laughed. “You should embrace technology. You have to stop fighting against the tide and stop using stone tablets to take notes.”

  “Stone tablets have lasted for thousands of years. I can’t see the notes that you have made on that little piece of glass and plastic lasting past the next year.”

  “I sure hope that they don’t last that long. I don’t know what future archaeologists will make of my notes.” Jack laughed again. “Maybe future archaeologists will be data miners? Maybe they won’t be looking for bones in the ground—rather they will be looking for data in the cloud.”

  “I hope that isn’t the future of the Earth.” With a smile, Harvey took another sip of his beer. “Otherwise all they will find is how obsessed with porn this generation is.”

  “Ha!” Jack slapped the table. “Is there anyone else that you need me to investigate?”

  “There are two more suspects that we need to look at. Both of them are hiding something, but I’m not sure what. I want you to find out as much as you can about these men. Firstly, the next-door neighbor, Thomas Feeble, and then secondly, the other employee of the charity, Frank Matthews.”

  “Frank Matthews? Her former lover?” Jack questioned. “But what would Frank gain if Jessica passed away?”

  “He’s the sole benefactor of Jessica’s personal will. Not only does he get the apartment, but she had a small sum of money stored away, and maybe it was enough for Frank. Secondly, he works for the Recovering Veterans charity, who will benefit greatly from her death. As the deputy CEO, he had the legal authority to conditionally approve a change in the will, and Jessica may have talked to him about the change. That may have forced him into a corner. And as her former lover, he certainly had the means, and the motive, to murder Jessica.”

  “Jessica didn’t leave anything in her will to Anna?”

  “Nothing. Anna wasn’t even mentioned in the will. The will was last updated five years ago, and the full amount of the funds were awarded to her then-boyfriend, Frank Matthews.”

  “Ouch. I feel for Anna—that must have hurt her.”

  “Deeply. Even though they didn’t get along, they were still family. And Jessica was the last piece of family that Anna had left. Anna was there when the will was read out, and I could see the tears in her eyes. It was one last slap in the face for the young lady.”

  “What did the police find about Frank?”

  “Nothing, but they didn’t look. And rightfully so. To them, this is an open and shut case. Everything pointed towards Anna, which made it an easy arrest. Really, I would have arrested Anna if I was a police officer.”

  Jack typed more notes on his phone. “And the other one that you want me to investigate?”

  “The next-door neighbor, Thomas Feeble.”

  “What’s the angle on this guy?”

  “He’s the one that found the body, and when I went to talk with him, he was clearly hiding something. He was very evasive about the moments when he found the body.”

  “Motive?”

  “He hated her. Before she died, Jessica mentioned that he was very aggressive towards her. He’s in charge of the body corporate for the building’s residents and I can imagine that having to deal with someone like Jessica would have gotten on his nerves. He could’ve just snapped. He’s a man with a lot of pent-up resentment and that could have exploded when he went to talk with Jessica.”

  “What does he say happened?”

  “He said that he heard Anna and Jessica arguing, and he was about to go and check on Jessica to make sure she was okay. He states that the argument sounded very threatening. When he walked out into the hallway, Anna stormed out of the apartment and yelled at him. Anna then punched a wall, and she left via the elevator. He went back into his apartment and waited for an hour, but he said that out of worry for Jessica’s safety, he went to her apartment, and that is when he found the deceased.”

  “How did he get into the apartment?”

  “He had a key, which I find very unusual. There’s something more to Thomas Feeble, but I’m not sure what that is. I want you to find out everything you can about him.”

  Quickly, Jack conducted a search on his phone. “A quick check of Thomas Feeble’s Instagram account shows that he was very passionate about his apartment building. Every second photo is of the place. And every other photo is of his cats.”

  “You found that out just then?” Harvey enquired.

  “Technology is amazing. A lot of the groundwork for investigating is done on this trusty little piece of glass and plastic.” Jack waved his phone in the air. “All I have to do is a quick search and I can find out more in five minutes than I could in five days on the ground. An investigator’s legwork has turned into his finger-work.”

  “That’s why I don’t have any social media accounts.” Harvey shook his head again. “I don’t need to show the world that I’m living my life the way I want.”

  “You’re so stuck in the past.” Jack scrolled through the information at his fingertips. “I can imagine that if Thomas is so passionate about his building, then he wouldn’t be very happy if Jessica didn’t want to cooperate with the body corporate requests. Perhaps he was passionate enough about his building to kill for it.”

  “Perhaps.” Harvey shrugged. “We also have the problem of a missing camera. Both Anna and Frank knew that Jessica had placed a hidden camera in her living room to spy on the cleaner, Manuel.”

  “There is no mention of a hidden camera in the police report.”

  “No, there isn’t. And Anna couldn’t find it when she went back to the apartment, which means that the killer would have had to remove it. And for them to remove it, they had to know it was there in the first place. There are four people who could have known it was there—we know that Anna and Frank knew it was there, but Manuel could have found the camera, and Thomas would have known about it. Also, I imagine that Frank told Bud where the camera was. Bud didn’t look surprised when Frank mentioned it, which means that he already knew about it. If we find that camera, we find the killer.”

  “And if we can’t?”

  “Then we need another option. I want you to compile a file on each of those three suspect men. They’re our best chance of getting Anna off this charge of murder. Even if they aren’t guilty, we should be able to find something that will throw reasonable doubt over Anna’s guilt, and that is all we need in the courtroom.”

  “So, our big play is finding the real killer?”

  “It is. But we have to focus on finding enough doubt around Anna’s guilt.”

  “Remember the David Connel
ly case?” Jack asked.

  “I do.”

  “That was much the same,” Jack reminisced. “All the evidence pointed to the defendant. There was a weapon, a motive, even a witness, but you got him off because you were able to smoke out the real killer on the stand. Is that the play you’re going for here?”

  “It’s the only play we have got. Everything else points towards Anna. The only thing we can do is force someone on the stand to break. I’m confident that we can do that.”

  “You want all three of these men on the stand?”

  “I do.”

  “And then what are you going to do?”

  “I guess that will depend on what you find. If you can find something, anything, that can give me a whiff of guilt, I can make things happen in the courtroom. I can force anyone to crack under enough pressure.”

  “What makes you so sure that Anna didn’t do it?” Jack asked once he finished taking notes.

  “The look in her eyes.”

  Jack almost spat out his drink. “Are you serious? The look in her eyes? I know that you love to read body language and that’s your specialty, but you think a girl is innocent because of a ‘look in her eyes?’”

  Harvey took another long sip of his pale ale. “I have stared at enough killers to know when they’re guilty. Killers have a different look in their eyes. They have a look of guilt, anger, and uncontrolled desire all rolled into one. I know that look. The innocent ones look scared beyond belief because they think the system has failed them.”

  “Would you like my opinion?” Jack finished the last of his beer.

  “Of course.”

  “I think you’re blinded by breasts,” Jack stared at the ample breasted girl standing next to the bar. “It’s happened before. You always think the pretty ones are innocent. You always get sucked in by their breasts. And Anna is a mighty fine looking girl. Are you sure that you’re not being blinded by beauty?”

  He laughed. “Maybe. Maybe, Jack.”

  “That’s not all either—you’re also blinded by tight hips and long legs.” Jack leaned forward, lowering his tone of voice. “And if she’s a killer, then she might do it again.”

  CHAPTER 11

  The police files were hole-proof.

  For hours, Harvey slugged through the police documents, looking for one small mistake in the report to exploit. This was an easy case for the police as evidenced by the clean paperwork. Even a man on the street would consider Anna their prime suspect. They had evidence, a motive, and witnesses that place Anna at the scene of the crime at the right time.

  All he needed was a missed piece of paperwork, or the wrong date recorded somewhere. That’s all he needed; one crack in the paperwork to manipulate.

  But there was nothing.

  Harvey had an uncomfortable relationship with the men and women in blue. He had enormous respect for the work that they did, and he knew that they risked their lives every time they stepped out onto the streets of L.A.

  While he had personality clashes with individual members of the force, he had the highest regard for their professional choice. It took a specific type of person to risk their lives for the good of the community.

  But he knew that the police hated him. He had even seen a dartboard with his face on it in the office of one particular detective.

  For any criminal defense attorney to do their job properly, they had to look for holes in the professional work of the LAPD. A defense attorney had to do the best for his client, and sometimes that meant pushing hard against what the police have risked their lives to achieve.

  To do what was right, he had to play the game.

  Carefully, Harvey read line after line of the murder report with trained focus.

  His eyes had scanned over a lot of police reports, but this one was the cleanest he had ever come across. There was nothing for him in there.

  “Perhaps Jack was right. Maybe I am blinded by breasts,” he mumbled to himself. “Maybe Anna is guilty.”

  He placed the police files back on his desk before gazing out the window. He really didn’t like losing. He had never enjoyed it. When he lost his first court case, he spent weeks at his local bar, almost becoming part of the furniture. His entire ego was based on winning, and he couldn’t handle the fact that his opponent was better than him. It didn’t matter that Harvey was defending a petty thief who was clearly guilty, he felt he should have won.

  His mother was a very competitive woman, and she never let him win any games when he was younger. His desire to win was born out of a need to show her how capable he was. That competitive spirit never ceased in his mother, and the card games they had were legendary.

  “Kate,” Harvey called out to his secretary.

  With blonde hair flowing gently over her shoulders, Kate eased into the room. “Yes?”

  He appreciated Kate’s slender figure in his doorway for a few moments before questioning her. “What is it about Anna that you dislike so much?”

  Thinking carefully about her response, Kate closed the door behind her, resting on the chair opposite Harvey. “Some girls are trouble. You can tell right away. Anna… she seems like a girl that knows what she wants, and all power to her, but I think that she seems quite single-minded about getting everything that she desires. And if she doesn’t get what she wants… then look out. She’ll create trouble.”

  “You think she’s fiery?”

  “Absolutely. You can’t travel the world alone as a young girl without being able to defend yourself. I would say that she can mix it with the best of them and I’m sure that she has had many fiery exchanges over the years.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Can I say something honestly?”

  “Of course.”

  “Sometimes… well, you’re drawn in by a girl’s looks.”

  He laughed out loud. “That seems to be the theme of today.”

  She smiled. “Just be careful with how you approach this. She might not be innocent. I would hate to see you put it all on the line for one lost, little woman.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I mean it. You once told me how important it was not to become emotionally attached to a case. You have to be able to keep your distance from this. If you step back and look at the whole picture, all of the evidence points to her guilt. She had every reason to kill her aunt, and she has the temper to match. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she was there that afternoon.”

  “I can see it in her eyes, Kate. She isn’t lying to me when she said that she didn’t kill her aunt.”

  “Oh, Bill.” She sighed. “A pretty girl flutters her eyes, and you think she’s innocent.”

  “Just because you don’t like her doesn’t mean that she’s guilty.”

  “And just because you like her, doesn’t mean that she’s innocent.”

  Harvey looked away to the law books that line his wall, avoiding eye contact.

  Shaking her head slightly, Kate began to make her way out the door, before turning back to Harvey. “Don’t forget that you have a date tonight.”

  “I’m not going.”

  “Bill, I spent so long trying to find you a good date this time. The woman that I have set you up with tonight is beautiful and funny, and really, really nice. She’s a little bit loud, but you can’t have the perfect package. You can’t spend your whole life cooped up in here trying to defend guilty little girls. You have to go out into the world and meet people.”

  Since the death of his wife four years ago, he had avoided dating. Although he was ready to meet someone, he could not bear the thought of uncomfortably sitting opposite someone he knew nothing about.

  It was the third attempt that Kate had made, and Harvey had avoided all of them.

  “I don’t like blind dates,” he explained. “It’s never a nice experience. I see no point in it.”

  Harvey wanted to tell Kate that he didn’t want to date because of his feelings for her, but he couldn’t. For a man so confident and in contro
l, he couldn’t tell the woman he adored that he liked her.

  “You’re a very handsome man. You’ll make a woman very happy one day. But you will never meet the right woman if you only sit in this office. You have to get out there. You have to do something different.”

  “And how many successful dates have you been on since your divorce?” he asked.

  “It’s a little more complicated for me.” Kate shook her head. “I have a gorgeous son that I need to think of as well. I need to think about my son when I’m dating someone. I can’t just go out there and grab the first hot guy I see. That would be easy. I also have to think about what sort of stepfather he will be. That makes my selection process a lot harder.”

  “In all of your dates, I haven’t heard one good story.”

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  She wanted to tell Harvey that she hasn’t found the right guy on a date because her perfect man was right in front of her, but she didn’t know how to tell him. She needed Harvey to show that he was ready to start dating before she could do that.

  “So, what’s your excuse this time?”

  “I have work to do on this case. I have to review these files.”

  Kate groaned. “I’ll let Belinda know that you’ve canceled the date.”

  “Thank you. And please, no more dates for a while.”

  “Yes, boss.” She sighed again. “And I’ll help you review some files on this case.”

  Harvey smiled. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

  “I would rather be here.” Kate quickly sent a text message to Harvey’s canceled date. She walked to the cupboard in the corner of the room, opened the door, selected a bottle of red wine and two glasses from the hidden bar. “What can I help with?”