Murder in the Hotel: A Daniel Swift Mystery

by Penelope Sotheby

  “Absolutely your honor,” Daniel replied. “Dr. Farnsworth, you testified that you petitioned to commit Bill Levy due to erratic and violent behavior, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” the doctor replied.

  “What type of behavior would that be?” Daniel asked.

  “Mr. Levy was falling victim to unscrupulous characters, giving his money away to strangers and being violent with his family. Combined with the arcus senilis, that was more than enough to cause me concern.”

  “Dr. Farnsworth, are you aware that Judge Newton here next to you also suffers from arcus senilis?” Daniel asked. “You would not be saying that he should be committed, are you?”

  “Of course not,” the doctor said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “As I stated, it was a combination of symptoms…“

  Judge Newton cut Farnsworth off before he could finish his last statement. “I think I have heard enough. It’s clear to me that if I would have objected to being kidnapped and manhandled, along with having this thing in my eye, I likely would have been declared senile too. I am ordering that his hearing be recessed until such time that it can be reconvened at the Farnsworth Sanitarium. I want to hear from Bill Levy.”

  The judge excused the parties and let Dr. Farnsworth know that he expected to be at the sanitarium for the continuation right after lunch. Farnsworth agreed. Shortly after lunch, all the parties arrived at the Farnsworth Sanitarium and were led to a conference room. After waiting for more than twenty minutes for Dr. Farnsworth to join them, Judge Newton became irritated and got up to go and find him. Before he could leave the room, Dr. Farnsworth and two security officers entered the conference room.

  “It’s about time,” the judge said. “I know doctors think their time is more important than everyone else, but this stops with judges.”

  “I apologize Judge Newton,” Farnsworth replied. “I’m afraid we have a problem.”

  “What kind of problem?” the judge asked.

  Farnsworth explained that when he had arrived after the morning hearing, he went to speak with Bill Levy about the afternoon hearing. When he went to Levy’s room, one of the medicine attendants was lying unconscious by the open door to the patient room.

  “I immediately called security,” the doctor said. “It appeared that Mr. Levy had placed a bar of soap inside one of his socks, waited for the medicine cart to arrive and hit the attendant with his makeshift weapon.”

  “How did he get out?” Daniel asked.

  “He apparently disguised himself as one of the laundry men and slipped out with the linen truck,”

  “So a senile and incompetent patient formulated such a plan?” Daniel asked sarcastically.

  “I agree,” said the judge. “I am granting the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Mr. Levy, were he here, is ordered immediately released. Dr. Farnsworth, this is unacceptable, and you can expect contempt papers from my court.”

  The judge angrily left the conference room, followed by his court reporter. Levoir and the Kirbys stayed behind to speak with Dr. Farnsworth, while Daniel walked with Lindsay to their cars.

  “Any idea where Bill would have gone?” Daniel asks her.

  “No I don’t,” Lindsay said. “I cannot believe this has happened. Bill would have never hurt anyone. I don’t believe this.”

  “Well, he is free from confinement at the sanitarium. However, I do need to speak with him as soon as you hear from him. I want to make sure that his family does not pull anything underhanded like this again.”

  “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would have done without you both.”

  Chapter 8

  Twenty miles away from the Farnsworth Sanitarium, Bill Levy stood in a mid-priced hotel looking down at the body of the man who had been blackmailing him. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Lindsay.

  “Bill, is that you?” Lindsay answered excitedly.

  “Yes, sweetheart, it is me,” he answered.

  “Oh, Bill, I’ve been so worried. You would not believe what happened today.”

  Lindsay explained to Bill that when she returned from her trip, she learned about the commitment. The hospital would not allow her to see him, so she decided to hire an attorney.

  “I found a great lawyer. His name is Daniel Swift. He was very convincing in court, and I enjoyed watching him put your nephew and Joanna in their place.”

  She went on to explain what happened during the hearing and the continuation at the sanitarium. “When we got there, they told us you knocked someone out and escaped. Is that true?”

  “I don’t think now is the time to go into that, Lindsay. Something has happened. Something serious. I need you to meet me at the usual place.”

  Lindsay agreed, and after they hung up the phone, Bill opened the hotel room door and looked out. The door opened into an outdoor courtyard filled with a pool, lounge chairs, and plants. Not seeing anyone, he slipped out of the door and headed toward an exit. At the same time Bill was leaving the hotel room, Tony Pachaeo noticed him. Tony had been a janitor with the Wind Swept Inn for the past three years. He was not usually in the courtyard in the middle of the day, but someone had kicked over a decorative jar filled with sand. Tony was carrying it to the back of the hotel when he noticed the laundry man leaving the first-floor room.

  Chapter 9

  Kristie Starr walked into Daniel Swift’s office with a stack of files and phone messages. She noticed that his dress socks and shoes were peeking out from under his desk, and looked out the large window to see if she could tell how long ago he had left. Kristie knew that when Daniel needed to clear his mind and think through a case he would roll up his pants, slip on his sandals and go for a walk along the beach.

  The hearing had been two days ago, and he had been unable to contact Lindsay Gill. The body of a man had been found in a room in the Wind Swept Inn on the outskirts of Key West, and a man fitting Bill Levy’s description was seen leaving the room. With the disappearance of Bill Levy, the body and now the radio silence from his fiancé, Lindsay, this case was getting stranger by the minute.

  Kristie had just finished making a fresh pot of coffee and adjusting the day’s schedule when she heard the electronic bell from the front door. She looked up expecting to see Daniel when Jason Hunter, the firm’s private investigator, walked in.

  “Good morning,” Jason said to Kristie as he walked towards Daniel’s office.

  “He’s not in there,” she told him.

  “Where is he at?”

  “Thinking,” Kristie said with a wink.

  “Got you. Well, I’m not getting sand in these shoes, so I’ll just enjoy some of that coffee I smell until he gets back,” then helped himself to a cup. Kristie watched as he poured a substantial amount of sugar into it.

  “You know, one day all that sugar is going to catch up with you,”

  “Probably,” he said, taking a sip. “But not today. Anyway, considering what I do for a living, I doubt it is the sugar that’s going to do me in.”

  “Well that is just an awful way to look at it,”

  “Calm down Starr, I’m joking. At least I know when to take a few risks. You and your boy out there could learn a little something from that, don’t you think?”

  “Mr. Hunter, I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about,” Kristie said, blushing.

  “Sure you don’t,” he replied just as the electronic bell on the front door chimed once again. Daniel had stopped outside to shake the sand out of his sandals before walking inside. This had become a habit after about two dozen times of Kristie complaining about the sand he was bringing into the office.

  “Yes, Kristie, I have de-sanded,” he told her before looking up and noticing Jason. “Glad you are here, Jason. Do you have anything for me on Bill Levy?”

  “Not too much, but I did find a few things out. For one, Lindsay Gill is definitely missing. I pulled her cell phone records. The day Bill absconded from the asylum Lindsay�
�s cell phone received a call from a cell phone registered to Bill. The phone call lasted for about twenty minutes.”

  “That must have been an interesting twenty-minute conversation,” Lindsay remarked.

  “I suspect she was filling him in on everything that had happened. And if that was him leaving that hotel room with the dead body, he may have been filling her in on a few things too.”

  “Do you think Lindsay might be in some kind of trouble?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. I seriously doubt that Bill would have hurt her. I cannot be sure about anyone else, but it seems reasonable that wherever Bill is at, Lindsay is there as well. Unless we find them, we may be at a dead end.”

  “Not yet,” Jason said. “I did say that I found a few things out. It turns out that the dead person is a man named Sean Oprah, and he did have some type of connection with Bill Levy.”

  “What connection?” Daniel asked.

  “Bill had recently written Sean Oprah a check for twenty-thousand bucks. It was cashed on his account at Key West Central Savings and Loan a couple of days before Bill was committed to the Farnsworth Sanitarium.”

  “Twenty-thousand dollars?” Daniel said. “That’s not pocket change.”

  Jason agreed and went on to explain that the check was not cashed in person by Sean Oprah, but by a woman named Kate Paglio. She showed up at the bank with the check and a notarized letter from Sean giving her the authority.

  “How could you have possibly found all of this out?” Lindsay asked.

  “I’m charming. Well, that’s at least part of it. I hung out at the sanitarium talking to some of the patients and orderlies. I found out about Bill Levy’s nephew. That guy and his wife are a real piece of work, let me tell you.”

  “Yeah, I could tell that from the hearing,” Daniel said.

  “Anyway, I found out they were trying to commit him because he was supposedly giving away all his money to strangers. So I did a little digging, found out he had an account at Key West Central Savings and Loan and used my charming personality on the tellers.”

  “How long did that take?” Lindsay asked with a devious smile on her face.

  “Not as long as you might think. By the way, when you see my expense report, I had to open a savings account.”

  “The truth comes out,” Daniel said smiling. “What about this Kate Paglio? Anything on her?”

  “As a matter of fact, it turns out that she was Sean Oprah’s wife,” Jason replied. “She has a few priors, but nothing major. Looks like she may have had a drinking problem at some point, but cleaned up after she and Sean got together.”

  “When was that?” Daniel asked. “When did they get together?”

  “Funny you should ask. I traced them back to about three years ago, but before that, I only found Kate. I could not find anything on Sean Oprah before he married Kate.”

  “Interesting,” Daniel remarked. “It looks like there is a connection between the dead guy and Bill Levy, so I’m not counting out his presence at the scene. I think we need to go and talk with Kate Paglio.”

  Jason agreed and gave him contact information on where to find her. “You want me to go with?” Jason asked. “No, I want you to keep looking for Bill Levy. Kristie, I need you to stay here in case Lindsay calls or shows up.”

  “Fine,” Kristie said. “But you make sure you let me know where you are and what is happening.”

  Daniel gave her a smile and a wink before heading off.

  Chapter 10

  The contact information on Kate Paglio led him to a small apartment complex about three miles from the hotel where Sean Oprah’s body was found. He parked his car in a lot across the street from the complex. It was older but still neat and well kept. There were twenty-two apartments on two floors, and he was looking for 8A. He walked through the middle courtyard and found the right apartment. Daniel pulled out his phone and texted Kristie to let her know where he was before knocking.

  When the door opened, Detective Andrew Barclay was standing inside the apartment. Daniel took a slight step back in surprise.

  “Swift, of course, you got the murder suspect out of the loony bin,” Barclay said. “What are you doing here?”

  “Nice to see you too detective. Let me go ahead and correct you. Mr. Levy had already left the Farnsworth Sanitarium, but that is irrelevant as the judge in the case recognized that he should have not been there in the first place.”

  “Sure,” the detective said with a slight snarl.

  “What do you mean the murder suspect?” Daniel asked.

  “I mean that Bill Levy was seen leaving the hotel room where Sean Oprah was found dead. And he seems to be on the run. So, yeah, he is a murder suspect. The top suspect. You wouldn’t know where he is now, would you?”

  “No, I do not. That’s why I’m here. I’d like to talk to Kate Paglio.”

  “How did you find her?” the detective asked.

  “I have a good PI.”

  “Well good luck. She was three sheets to the wind when I got here a while ago.”

  Daniel entered the small but neat apartment. The living room was comfortably furnished with a plush couch, leather recliner, and flat-screen television. He could see into the kitchen and noted several bottles of liquor on the counter. Kate Paglio sat in the leather recliner with a large glass of amber liquid. Despite the comfortable temperatures outside, she was curled up in a blanket with red, swollen eyes.

  “Mrs. Paglio, my name is Daniel Swift. I am an attorney and would like to talk to you about your husband.”

  “An attorney?” she asked. “Why would I need an attorney?”

  Her words were slurred and it was apparent that she was unaware of what was happening. Daniel wondered what information she had been able to give Detective Barclay. He considered asking but thought better of it.

  “I’m not an attorney for you. I represented Billy Levy on a civil matter.”

  With the mention of Bill Levy’s name, Kate jumped up out of her chair. Her drink spilled to the floor and she looked menacingly at Daniel. She started to say something, but had lost her train of thought and fell back to the chair.

  Kate began softly crying. “I don’t want to talk about Bill Levy,”

  “Why did he give your husband money?” Daniel asked her. “Do you know him?”

  “All I know is that my Sean is gone. He is gone forever, and nothing will bring him back.”

  Kate looked down at her glass and, seeing it empty, threw it across the room. It shattered by the television, sending small shards across the living room and into the kitchen. Detective Barclay looked sharply at Daniel.

  “I think it might be best if you left,” the detective told Daniel.

  “Kate, do you want me to leave?” Daniel asked. “Or can you tell me a little bit more about Sean’s relationship with Bill? I’d like to see if I can help figure this out.”

  Kate looked at him, stood and walked into the kitchen. She pulled down a new glass, put a few pieces of ice in it and filled it three-quarters of the way up with whiskey. “I thought this was the only thing that would help. It used to be until I met Sean. He helped me. He made me better.”

  She took a small sip and put the glass down. “It’s not helping. Maybe some revenge against the monster who took my Sean from me will.”

  “Kate, I think revenge is a harsh word right now,” Daniel said.

  “No it’s not. Mr. Attorney, I would like for you to leave. Detective, I will cooperate in any way you need me to if it helps put Sean’s killer in prison. Or better yet, in the execution chamber.”

  Detective Barclay thanked Kate Paglio and followed Daniel out. Daniel decided that at this point it would not hurt to try and find out what, if anything, Kate had shared with the detective.

  “So did she give you any insight into Sean Oprah’s relationship with Bill Levy?” Daniel asked.

  The detective smiled broadly. “Even if she did, what makes you
think I would tell you?” he asked.

  “We are trying to find out the same thing here. We both want to know what happened.”

  “Maybe, but we want to know for different reasons,” Barclay said, walking away from Daniel to his car.

  Daniel gave a frustrated sigh and walked back to his car. Before he started the car to head back to his office, he decided to text Kristie again. When he looked at his phone, he noticed he had missed a text and phone call from her. He dialed the office.

  “Law Office of Daniel Swift,” he heard Kristie’s voice say. “How may I help you?”

  “It’s me, Kristie. What’s up?”

  “Daniel, it’s about time. I got a call from Lindsay. She and Bill are in Atlantic City and want to talk to you.”

  “Did she leave a number?” he asked.

  “No, she said they would only talk in person. She left information on where you could meet her and said she would call back to set up a time. I know you’re going to go, so I’ve already called Jason to go with you and made flight reservations. You leave in three hours.”

  Daniel loved many things about Kristie, and one of those things was how she got things done.

  “That’s my girl.”

  “And don’t you forget it. Jason will meet you at the airport with the ticket information. Go home and grab your overnight bag.”

  Chapter 11

  Daniel hung up the phone and hurried home. He grabbed a small leather duffel bag and threw in a change of clothes and some toiletries. An hour later he arrived at the airport lobby and found Jason. They went through security, found their gate and still had 45 minutes before boarding.

  “Let’s grab a beer,” Jason said. “You can tell me all about your trip to see Kate Paglio.”

  They sat in the airport bar closest to their gate and ordered drinks. When the bartender handed them the ticket, Jason pushed it to Daniel. “You can either pay for it now or later on my expense report,” he said, smiling. Daniel pulled out some cash and laid it down. He told Jason about his meeting with Kate and run-in with Detective Barclay.