by Paul Bishop
"Don't even think about it," she said through gritted teeth. "Just give me an excuse."
Vandermere froze in his tracks. Crow moved past Fey, careful to stay clear of her line of fire, and cuffed Vandermere.
"What's the meaning of this?" Janet Kent demanded.
"Search warrant, counselor," Fey said. She holstered her gun before tossing a copy of the warrant fact sheet on the bed. "I'm sure you're familiar with the concept."
One of the other detectives entered the room. "Look what we found," he said, holding up a man's shirt with blood on the collar and Anna Havilland's acting portfolio.
"Let's go, Vandermere," Crow said, pushing his captive toward the bedroom door. "You're under arrest for the rape and murder of Anna Havilland."
Fey started to follow Crow. She looked back over her shoulder at a shocked Janet Kent. "See you in court, counselor."
Assistant Deputy District Attorney Winchell Groom sat behind his desk. The office was utilitarian, much like Groom himself. Tall and rapier thin, the black skin of his shaved skull glinted under the fluorescent lighting. Arlene Lancaster, another, younger, DA leaned against the side wall watching Groom verbally fence with Gerald Shultz and Janet Kent.
"Our client is being framed by Elgin Tremayne." Kent made the statement in a fashion demanding it be taken as fact without further question.
"That's not what the evidence shows." Groom was unruffled. "Just insisting Vandermere is being framed accomplishes nothing."
Arlene Lancaster pushed herself upright with a shove of her shoulder. "Ms. Kent, is it possible your personal involvement with your client is hindering his defense?"
Gerald Shultz immediately responded before Janet Kent could get any words out. "I'm handling the criminal defense in this case. Due to the civil overtones, Ms. Kent is assisting me.
"Then you should know you need more than supposition and innuendo to support an affirmative defense," Lancaster told him. "There is a mountain of forensic, situational, and eyewitness testimony on the people's side."
"If you'd like to make a plea," Groom offered, "the people will accept murder-one with a life sentence."
"Out of the question," Kent said rising from her chair.
Shultz placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.
"We believe accepting a plea at this juncture would be premature," he said.
Groom made a gesture with his hands. "My door is always open."
Shultz stood up to follow Kent who was leaving in a huff. He almost bumped into her, however, when she turned on her heels in the doorway.
"This is far from over," Kent said, before storming on her way.
When they were out of earshot, Lancaster turned her head toward Groom. "She's wound a little tight."
"Tight enough to manufacture evidence?"
"Maybe," Lancaster said. "Perhaps we should get Croaker to find out."
Greta Martin, the office manager for Lionheart Pictures, took her coffee from the Starbucks service counter and carried it across to a small table. Fey and Crow walked across to join her.
"Hello, Greta," Fey said. "Do you remember us?"
Greta looked up. "Sure. You're the detectives."
"That's right. The district attorney's office has filed charges against Rafe Vandermere, but we need to ask you a few more questions."
Greta took a sip from her coffee. "It's a horrible situation, but what could I possibly tell you?"
Fey sat down in the chair next to Greta. "Vandermere's lawyers want us to believe Elgin Tremayne is attempting to frame their client."
"And you believe them?"
"Frankly, no. But I need to gather all the information I can about the situation, so the district attorney isn't blindsided in court."
"What do you want to know?"
Fey leaned back in her seat. This was the tricky part. "It appears to me there's more to the closing down of Tony V's than wanting to turn the space into offices."
Greta looked down at her coffee for a beat, fiddling with the cardboard holder.
"I have a good job with Lionheart," she said eventually.
"But?" Fey probed.
Greta appeared to weigh her options before continuing. Finally, she said, "Mr. Tremayne has some tax problems. He needs to sell the building. To do so, he needed to break the lease with Tony and Rafe."
"So he forced them to close down and get out?" Fey asked.
"Yes," Greta said. "But their lawyer got an injunction stopping the sale of the building until the civil suit is settled."
"So, why doesn't Tremayne settle?"
Greta took a long swig from her cooling coffee. She put the cup down on the table. "I said Mr. Tremayne had tax problems. What I meant was he has huge tax problems."
Fey stood in the office of head filing deputy Owen Overmars. Winston Groom perched himself on the rolled arm of a leather couch next to Arlene Lancaster as Fey and Crow reported on her findings.
"We talked to an IRS investigator I know named Craven," Fey told the lawyers. "He said Tremayne is about to be put under indictment for tax evasion."
"And selling the building could forestall the situation?" Overmars asked.
"The building is Tremayne's largest asset," Crow said. "He needs to sell it before it is seized."
"Okay," Overmars said. "So you've found a reason for Tremayne to want to get Vandermere and his partner, but what good does having Vandermere in jail do him?"
Fey began to pace slowly. "What if Tremayne's best-laid plans went south on him? What if Tremayne manipulated Vandermere into attempting to rape Anna Havilland— wanting to catch him in the act?"
Winston Groom made a face. "You're thinking, if it happened that way, then maybe something went wrong and Tremayne didn't get there in time?"
Arlene Lancaster nodded her head, seeing where Fey was leading. "If Tremayne had caught Vandermere in the act, he could have forced him to drop the civil suit."
"Probably," Fey said. "Then he could sell the building and deal with his tax problems."
"Or make a run for the border," Crow said from his position leaning in the doorway.
"You have a nasty mind," Overmars told him. "But even if it was a set-up gone wrong, Vandermere is still guilty of rape at the very least."
"Only if Anna Havilland wasn't a willing participant," Arlene said.
Overmars and Groom exchanged a glance as this sunk in.
"Okay," Groom said. "But how do you get from there to murder?"
Fey shrugged. "When everything went south, perhaps Anna Havilland did too. Maybe she turned on Tremayne— threatened blackmail, forcing him to kill her."
"If this was my idea," Groom said, "you'd be throwing a feminist fit."
"Maybe so," Fey said, smiling. She'd worked with Groom for a long time and liked him.
"Wait a minute," Overmars interrupted. "There's something that doesn't fit. What about the scratches on Vandermere's face?"
"We haven't got that figured yet," Fey admitted. "But give us time."
"Maybe we can let Vandermere explain," Groom said. "We'll get Shultz to agree to an interview after the arraignment."
The courthouse interview room was cold and featureless. A scarred wooden table sat in the middle of the room surrounded by several rickety metal chairs. Owen Overmars had suggested letting a male interview Vandermere, so Winchell Groom was sitting across the table from the prisoner. Gerald Shultz sat next to his client. Arlene Lancaster and Janet Kent hovered off to the side.
"Chicks like her are all the same," Vandermere was saying. "They'll do anything to get into the movies."
"Movies you have nothing to do with," Groom said.
"Since when is it a crime to lie to somebody to get into their pants?" Vandermere asked.
"Since you started tying them up to do it," Groom fired back.
Gerald Shultz entered the fray. "Isn't moralizing about sexual kinks between consenting adults counterproductive at this point?"
Vandermere leaned forward. "We were having fun. I d
idn't rape anybody, and I didn't murder anybody." There was no modesty in the man.
"Then what did happen?"
Vandermere slumped back in his chair. "When I found out about the rape charges, I knew this had to be a scam."
"Why?" Groom asked.
"Elgin Tremayne's lawyers found out about my past record. They've been trying to use it against me ever since to get the civil suit dropped."
"How did you know where Anna Havilland lived?"
"From the portfolio she gave me at the hotel. I went to confront her, but when she opened the door and saw me, she went off the deep end—screaming and stuff."
"Let me guess," Groom said. "You grabbed her to calm her down, and she scratched your face."
"Yeah," Vandermere nodded. "And then I got the hell out. She was a psycho, but she was alive when I left."
"Your lawyers are working very hard to convince us you've been framed," Groom said. "But as far as I'm concerned it's a pretty pathetic effort."
Vandermere's eyes flashed. "I swear I didn't kill the girl."
"You've admitted to raping her. If you didn't kill her, who did?"
"Wait a minute," Shultz jumped in. "Mr. Vandermere has not admitted to rape."
"I told you," Vandermere said. "The sex was consensual. Kinky maybe, but consensual. She asked to be tied up."
"No jury is going to buy that line," Groom said.
"She thought she could get into the movies by taking care of me," Vandermere insisted.
"Where did she get the idea you ran a casting couch?"
"Beats me." Vandermere's grin was goading.
"But you didn't dissuade her?"
"Would you?"
"Yes, I would," Groom said. After a pause, he resumed. "So, what happened next?"
"I told her to meet me Sunday in the lobby of the Century Towers. When I suggested we go and take some pictures, she jumped at the idea."
"Why did you go to Tony V's?"
"I live in a room over the new restaurant. Like I'm really going to take a chick there."
"Okay, so what happened at Tony V's?"
"The locks had been changed, so I jimmied the door. Then I waited out front."
"How did Anna react when there weren't any cameras?"
"She didn't. She knew the score."
"What score? Sex now, movie part later?"
"Hey, she got into it. Anything I wanted. When I was done, I split."
"Quite the gentleman."
Vandermere shrugged. "I didn't need no grief."
Groom pushed open the door to his office, allowing Arlene to enter ahead of him.
"I don't get the point," Arlene was saying. "You could tell Vandermere was lying. His lips were moving."
"The point is, Shultz wants us to drop the murder charge and offer a plea on the rape."
"On the basis of their dreamed-up conspiracy?" Arlene was offended. "Vandermere hasn't even copped to the rape yet."
"Come on," Groom said. "You were there—that's what they were hinting around."
"You think they're that desperate?"
"Don't you? We go with what we've got, and a jury will slam-dunk Vandermere. It's going to take a magician to produce an affirmative defense."
Arlene pursed her lips. "I'm not so sure. I'd like to ask Croaker to take a direct run at Elgin Tremayne."
"You're asking her to spend ten dollars on a five dollar job. Go with what we have and move on."
"Not yet. I want to be sure Tremayne isn't a card hidden up the defense's sleeve."
While Crow did his usual supporting the wall trick, Fey sat opposite Elgin Tremayne at one end of a low couch in Tremayne's office. Susan Lawrence was also present. Fey fleetingly wondered if Lawrence and Tremayne were sleeping together despite their thirty-plus-year age difference.
"Sure I've got tax problems," Tremayne said in response to Fey's question. "Doesn't everybody in business?"
"Not everybody is about to be indicted by the IRS," Fey said.
"We are prepared to deal with any tax evasion allegations," Lawrence said with a lawyer's glib assurance.
"I would love to sell the building," Tremayne said. "It would free up a lot of cash, but the civil injunction is not the end of the world."
"No?" Crow asked bluntly. "I hear your company is in the dumper."
"All independent film companies are in the dumper," Tremayne assured him with a chuckle. "At least until the next deal comes along. It's typical Hollywood bookkeeping."
"I take it, you have the next deal?" Fey asked.
"I have three straight-to-video teen sex-and-slasher flicks ready for release." Tremayne scattered a collection of stills onto the glass top of the coffee table in front of the couch. Fey leaned forward to examine them.
"Not exactly material for the art house circuit," she said.
"Who cares as long as they make money?" Tremayne came back.
Susan Lawrence touched the photos before adding her comments. "Overseas feature release will recoup the production costs. Domestic, Canadian, and video sales are pure profit."
"The IRS bloodsuckers know the money is coming," Tremayne said. "They're simply saber rattling to make sure they get their share."
Fey picked up one of the stills and studied it. "Is that who I think it is?" she asked Crow, handing him the photo.
Crow grunted in recognition.
"What's the matter?" Tremayne asked.
Crow handed him the photo. Susan Lawrence moved around to look over Tremayne's shoulder.
"Is that a photo of Tiffany Bannister?" Crow asked.
"Yes, that's Tiffany," Tremayne said. "Terrible actress, but big boobs. She gets impaled on a marlin spike halfway through Hatchet Harvest."
Fey and Crow returned with their bounty to Owen Overmars' office. Winchell Groom and Arlene Lancaster were summoned to join them.
"Tiffany Bannister is the girl who went to the theatre with Anna Havilland," Fey explained.
"How did you recognize her?" Overmars asked. He was looking at the publicity still Fey had brought from Tremayne's office.
"You're a guy. You're only looking at her exposed chest," Fey said. "It's her hair."
"Her hair?" Overmars asked.
"It's a girl thing," Fey said. "I've been thinking about getting my hair cut, and her hairstyle in the photo caught my eye."
Arlene Lancaster laughed. "You go, girl. I know exactly what you're saying."
Fey smiled. "When we interviewed Bannister, her hair was a mess, and she wore no makeup. She wore a soft collar around her neck from a recent car accident. I wouldn't have recognized her as the actress in the publicity still if I hadn't been sure I'd seen the hairstyle before."
"Where?" Groom asked.
Fey picked up a remote control and pointed it at a TV/ VCR set-up on a shelf in the corner of the office. "Watch," she said, and pressed the play button.
The screen of the television lit up with the video of the security tape from the Century Towers Hotel.
Crow suddenly moved forward. "There," he said, pointing.
Fey froze the frame. "That's her standing off to the side. Anna and Vandermere couldn't have seen her, but the camera picked her up from the opposite angle."
"I still don't see how you recognized her," Overmars said.
"I didn't until after I saw her hairstyle in the publicity still. It's done the same way on the security video."
"Talk about magic tricks," Arlene said.
"There's more," Fey said.
"I can't wait," Overmars told her.
"We checked on Tiffany's traffic accident. There was a report at West Traffic because of the injuries. It occurred the day of the rape after the time on the hotel security video," Fey said.
"Where?" Groom asked, knowing the answer.
"Halfway between the Century Towers and Tony Vs."
Fey and Crow had convinced a reluctant Tiffany Bannister to talk to them at her apartment. Tiffany sat on the couch wearing her neck brace. Fey went straight for the jugular.
"Tiffany, can you explain your presence in the lobby of the Century Towers Hotel on the day Anna Havilland was raped?"
"I wasn't—"
Crow held up the security video. "Before you answer, we should explain that you appear on the lobby videotape."
Tiffany looked shocked and took in a deep breath. Tears burst from her eyes.
"Anna wasn't supposed to get raped. I thought I could stop him."
"What do you mean?" Fey asked.
Tiffany sniffled. "When Rafe approached us in the theatre parking lot, he didn't recognize me. He only had eyes for Anna."
"You knew him?"
"We'd never been introduced, but I'd eaten at Tony V's with some of the cast from Hatchet Harvest. They all knew about his rape convictions, it was common gossip, and Rafe told me to stay away from him."
"What happened in the parking lot?" Crow asked.
"Rafe laid this crap on Anna about being a producer. I told her he was feeding her a line, but she thought I was jealous."
"Why didn't you tell her about his rape record?"
"I don't know. I thought—"
"Yes?" Crow pushed.
"I knew Mr. Tremayne was having problems with Rafe. I thought I could follow them. If Rafe tried to rape Anna, I could video it, and then stop it before it went too far."
"Why?" Fey asked.
Tiffany cried even harder, her words difficult to understand through the flow. "I thought—" she gasped for breath. "I thought, I could trade the tape to Mr. Tremayne for a big part in his next film."
Fey ran her hands through her hair as she slid into the passenger side of the detective sedan after leaving Tiffany Bannister's apartment.
"Why does everyone in this town want to be rich and famous?"
"Don't you?" Crow asked. He started the car and pulled away from the curb.
"No," Fey said. "And certainly not like that. Can you imagine allowing a friend to be set-up by a known rapist?"
"She was blinded by ambition," Crow said. "She thought she could stop the action before it got out of hand."
"It was already out of hand."
Crow looked over at Fey. "She certainly didn't plan on getting into an accident on the way to the rescue."
"I can't believe you're defending her."
"I'm not. I just don't see how it changes anything. Tremayne didn't put Tiffany up to the ruse. The set-up was Tiffany's own decision."