“Tell us about Bob’s death. Did Mackenzie set him up?” Heather asked.
“No,” Cooper shook his head. “At least not that I’m aware of. What I told you before about the kids hating her and Bob threatening her in my office was true. I believe her when she said he came at her with the fireplace poker.”
“Let’s get back to William’s death. Whose idea was it to falsify the affidavit you signed claiming she knew nothing about the Will being changed?” Heather asked.
“Hers,” Cooper reluctantly admitted. “She kind of hinted around about it and I understood what she wanted. So, I wrote it and signed it.”
“Why?”
“Because you people were starting to investigate. You wanted to exhume the body. She insisted she had done nothing wrong but you wouldn’t believe her. You would want to use the new Will as motive.”
“Which it obviously is,” Anna said.
“Anything else?” Heather asked Max and Anna.
“No, that about covers it, for now. Let’s go talk in the hall,” Max said.
The three of them went back into the hallway and Max asked, “Do we have enough?”
“Certainly for an indictment. We can get old man Sutherland’s medical records and find out about his heart. Did he have a heart condition? It would be nice if we could figure out how she got the drug that killed him,” Heather said.
“What about the search’s for it that were done on the old man’s computer at home?” Anna asked.
“Good, circumstantial evidence and probably enough combined with everything else,” Heather said.
“We’ll keep digging,” Max said. “He,” Max continued referring to Cooper, “is gonna wear a wire and try to get her to admit something.”
“She’s too smart,” Anna said.
“It’s worth a shot,” Heather interjected. “We’ll make him do it. I can hold off on going to the grand jury. They don’t meet again for a week anyway. Set up the wire for this week yet.”
They went back into the interrogation room. While Anna called for a videographer to videotape Cooper’s story Heather told him about the wire.
“I can’t do that to her,” he said emphatically shaking his head.
Max leaned forward, he was now sitting in a chair right next to Cooper, and glared at him. He stayed this way intimidating Cooper until Cooper quietly asked, “What?”
“Get it through your head,” Max patiently told him. “Your little fantasy about running off to romp on the beach and live happily ever after with Mackenzie Sutherland is over. It was never going to happen anyway.”
“And if it did,” Heather said, “you would likely be her next victim.”
“I know,” Cooper quietly agreed. “I just hate to…”
“Tough shit,” Max said still staring at him. “We own you now. Until this thing is done you will do what we say.”
“That’s part of the ‘you will cooperate’ deal you made to stay out of prison,” Heather reminded him.
“You’re right,” Cooper reluctantly agreed.
THIRTY-FOUR
“How long before we get a copy of the disk?” Heather asked the video tech. They had finished taping Cooper’s statement and the man was gathering up his equipment.
“You in a hurry?” he asked.
“Yes,” Heather answered, a touch of irritation in her voice.
“Give me a couple of hours,” he indifferently answered. He knew he could have it done in thirty minutes or less, but did not like being bossed around. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Max saw what was happening and when the video tech left, Max excused himself to follow him.
“Hey, my man,” Max called out to the techie when he got into the hall. The techie turned around and Max hurried up to him.
“Hey,” Max said to him when he caught up with him. “Sorry about that. She can be a bit of a ball buster.” Max pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to him. “This is a murder investigation and we need the disk as soon as possible.”
The techie looked around the hallway, took the bill and put it in his pocket.
“Give me an hour,” he said.
Forty-five minutes later the four of them, including Cooper Thomas, were back in the interrogation room viewing the disk. When it was finished the two cops and Heather looked at Cooper.
“Is this an accurate portrayal of your statement?” Heather asked Cooper. “Is there anything you would like to add, delete or change?”
“No,” Cooper said after thinking for a moment. “I think it’s okay. You know,” he continued, “it’s almost a relief to have it over with. Now what?”
“Now you wear a wire and get Mackenzie Sutherland to verify your story,” Max said.
“Is that really necessary? I hate the thought of doing that to her,” Cooper said.
Anna was seated on Cooper’s right, leaned over and said, “The deal is you cooperate. Remember? Figure it out Cooper. You’re not going to run off and live happily ever after with Mackenzie. How many times do you have to be told this?”
“Cooper,” Heather gently said. “It never was going to happen.”
“I know,” he sadly said. “I just, well, I know her a lot better than any of you and I don’t believe she murdered Bill Sutherland and…”
“She did and we’re going to prove it,” Heather said. “Save yourself. Besides, you’re already in too deep.”
Heather turned to look at Max and asked, “The wire, when do we want to do it?”
“No time like the present,” Max said.
“Don’t you have enough to take to the grand jury now?” Cooper asked a little desperation in his voice.
“If we get an indictment before we get her on tape, she’ll never do it. We have to go at her first,” Heather said.
“Call her,” Max said. “Use your phone and give her a call right now. Tell her we came to see you again and you’re worried.”
“You want to come to her house and meet with her. No restaurant this time,” Anna said.
“Why? Wouldn’t a public place be better?” Cooper asked.
“Too many people, too much background noise. With our equipment, if you are in a quiet environment, we can pick you up and record you up to a half a mile, easily,” Anna said.
“When do you want to do this?” Cooper nervously asked while holding his phone.
“Right now. We can have you wired in a half-hour and be set up by the time you get there,” Max answered him.
“Okay, I’ll call her. But I still don’t believe she had anything to do with Bill’s death.”
“Wait a minute,” Heather stepped in and said. “Let’s be clear. We’re not looking to get her to admit to the murder. That would be nice but it won’t happen. We just need her to admit she knew about the Will being changed.”
“Should we even have him bring the murder up?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know,” Max said. He looked at Cooper and said, “Play it by ear. Bring it up if it seems like an appropriate thing to do.”
“Okay,” Cooper quietly agreed. “God I hate this.”
Less than an hour later, Mackenzie heard Cooper ringing the front door of the Crocus Hill house. Mackenzie agreed to see him when he called. In fact, she pretended to be somewhat eager to do so. Barely ten seconds into the conversation Mackenzie, through her phone, heard a chair scrape on a floor. This made her realize, or at least believe, Cooper had his phone on speaker. At least one other person and probably more, were listening in.
Cooper told her the police had been to see him again, and make him quite anxious. For the benefit of the listening audience Mackenzie seemed totally baffled as to why they would bother Cooper and had no idea what they hoped to find.
When the conversation was done and Mackenzie invited Cooper to come to the house she took a minute to think about it. Should she call Marc Kadella? Absolutely convinced Cooper would be wearing a listening device, Mackenzie decided to leave Marc out of it. Instead, she would handle
it herself and hopefully convince them she had nothing to do with William’s death. Having her lawyer attend would just make her look guilty.
“Hello, dear,” Mackenzie said when she opened the door. She offered a cheek for Cooper to kiss then led him into the living room.
“Can I fix you a drink?” she asked.
“Sure, scotch on the rocks,” Cooper said.
Less than a block away, fifty feet past the corner of the street Mackenzie’s house was on and across the street was a plain-looking Ford van. It was facing in the direction of Mackenzie’s house and inside were Max, Anna and a sound tech. Each of them wore a headset and could clearly hear the conversation while it was being recorded.
“No, you idiot!” Max said. “No alcohol. We should’ve thought of that.”
“Too late now,” Anna said.
“Here you are,” they heard Mackenzie say when she handed Cooper his drink. “Why are the police bothering you? I don’t understand.”
“They believe you not only knew about Bill changing his Will but it was your idea,” Cooper said. Obviously nervous, he took a large swallow of the scotch emptying the glass.
“Let me refill that for you,” Mackenzie said.
When she returned with the drink, while the two of them sat on one of the couches, the trio in the van listened with decreasing hope. For the next half-hour, and a third scotch, Cooper tried his best to get some, even vague, admission from her. Instead, Mackenzie, acting like the blonde in dumb-blonde jokes, parried every attempt by Cooper. She steadfastly avoided any knowledge of anything. By the time she was done, Cooper was starting to wonder if he was wrong about the Will and it was Bill Sutherland’s idea.
“She knows,” Max quietly said. “She knows he’s wired.”
“Or at least believes he is,” Anna said.
“Or she’s innocent,” the tech added.
Anna and Max looked at each other then the tech and simultaneously said, “No.”
Cooper finished his third scotch in less than forty minutes. He was already starting to feel a pretty good buzz. Still sober enough to realize Mackenzie was not going to bite, he decided to give it up.
The two of them sat on the couch chatting for a few more minutes. Mostly Cooper trying to find a way, through his alcohol addled fog, to casually bring up the Will again. He finally gave up, looked at his watch and announced he had to leave. Mackenzie took his arm and walked him to the door. She lightly kissed his cheek then decided to give the cops one last shot.
“What’s driving me crazy is this drug they found in Bill. The cancer drug they say caused his heart attack. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure that out; where it came from and how it got into his system,” she said directly into Cooper’s chest where she believed the microphone was.
“Huh,” Cooper said. “I don’t know. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Oh, please do!” Mackenzie said. “It’s been driving me crazy.”
Mackenzie stood off to the side of the window facing her driveway. She watched Cooper get in his car, back out onto the street and drive off. Satisfied he was gone, she went into William’s den and sat at his walnut desk. For the next fifteen minutes, as best as she could from memory, she wrote a verbatim transcript of the entire conversation.
The trio in the van heard them say good-bye and the door close behind Cooper. Anna and Max removed their headphones and Max disgustedly tossed his on the floor.
“That last bit – about the drug – that was a nice touch,” Anna admitted.
“Get us a copy, Arnie,” Max said to the tech.
“Just one?”
“Yeah, one’s enough of this little drama. Let’s go,” Max said to Anna.
Max had been pacing up and down the hallway for over thirty minutes. He was on the seventeenth floor of the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul. Occasionally he would take a seat on one of the benches but it would rarely last a full minute. Then he would be up and pacing again, almost twenty years as a cop and never this nervous about an arrest or indictment. Every time he walked past the courtroom door he would slow down and look at it.
By now there were several lawyers hanging around, prosecutors waiting to present a case, defense lawyers hanging around for news on behalf of a client. Max knew most of them, including the defense lawyers. Even in a large metropolitan area the criminal bar was relatively small.
Cooper Thomas had been called about a half hour ago. He was the final witness to present. Max himself had testified and it was through him and the M.E. that most of the evidence was submitted.
Just as Max had reached the far point of his pacing the door opened and Cooper came out. Max stopped and waited for Cooper to come to him.
“Well,” Max asked.
“Went fine,” Cooper said. He had the look of someone who had done something unpleasant and was glad it was over.
“Did the jurors ask you anything?”
“A couple did. Minor stuff just to clear up something,” Cooper told him. “Can I take off?”
“I don’t know. I guess so. Did Heather tell you anything different?”
“No,” Cooper said.
“Then I guess you can go.” Max said. “Oh and Mr. Thomas, thank you. I mean that.”
Cooper turned back to him and angrily whispered, “I still don’t believe she did it.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Max quietly said.
Max watched Cooper walk to the elevators and after he was gone, turned back toward the courtroom doors. As he did so, Heather Anderson came out, saw Max and headed right for him.
“Got it,” she smiled, holding up a sheet of paper. “First degree. Cooper leave?”
“Yeah, he did. When do I get to arrest her? Should we call her lawyer and have him surrender her?” Max asked.
“That would be the decent thing to do but we’re not going to. People already believe rich people get all the breaks. Go sit on her house. Give it a while and if she leaves pull her over and slap the cuffs on her. Tow her car and bring her in the front.”
“Where the TV cameras are waiting for her?” Max asked. Personally he did not like pulling that stunt. It was for political points and Max had no interest in embarrassing anyone to help a politician.
“I’ll have it set up. I’ll call you when we’re ready. If she hasn’t left the house by then go knock on her door and get her.”
Carolyn Lucas did not even bother to knock on Marc’s door. Having heard about the arrest on the radio she immediately went to get him.
“You better get out here,” Carolyn said.
“Why, what’s going on?” Marc asked as he started to get up from his desk.
Carolyn didn’t bother to answer him. She stood back as he went through the door and noticed Sandy turning on the TV. Within thirty seconds the entire office was crowded in front of the screen. They were treated to a continuous loop of Mackenzie Sutherland in handcuffs being led into the police department.
The phone rang. Marc beat Sandy to it and answered it himself.
“Yes, Heather. I’m watching it now,” he said. She started to apologize but he cut her off.
“I’m not even mad about it. Getting mad at a prosecutor for pulling this stunt is like getting mad at a five-year-old for stealing cookies. They both know better but do it anyway. I’ll be there in a half-hour. Nobody, and I mean nobody, says a word to her. And I want her arraigned this afternoon.”
He listened for a moment then said, “I know you’ll oppose bail but the judge will set it anyway. I want my client out of there today!” and he hung up the phone.
Marc went back to his office, grabbed his suit coat and a briefcase. As he hurried toward the exit he said, “Carolyn, give Maddy a call and see if she can meet me at the downtown police department.”
“Will do,” Carolyn said.
“You want some help?” Barry Cline sincerely asked him.
Marc paused for a moment then said, “No, I can do this. But I’ll let you know. I’ll prob
ably want some help with jury selection.” Barry was a very good trial lawyer himself. He and Marc often worked on cases together.
“Let me know,” Barry said as Marc left.
THIRTY-FIVE
At the time of her arrest, Mackenzie Sutherland was going to the Life Time Fitness center for a workout. She had an appointment with her personal trainer and was anxious to keep it, if for no other reason than to get out of the house for a while.
Mackenzie backed out of her driveway while opening the driver’s side window. It was going to be a perfect mid-September, late-summer day and the fresh air pouring in felt good as she drove away from her house. She was barely a block from home when she saw the flashing lights of the unmarked police car in her rearview mirror. Mackenzie immediately realized who they were and what they wanted.
“Hello, Detective,” Mackenzie said to Max Coolidge when he leaned down to talk to her through the open window.
“Good morning, Mrs. Sutherland,” Max politely replied. “Ma’am, would you shut off the car please and step out?”
“Certainly,” Mackenzie said and complied.
Anna Finney stepped forward, turned Mackenzie around, placed Mackenzie’s hands on the BMW, then quickly frisked her for weapons. Anna then retrieved her gym bag and checked it also.
Max then told her about the warrant for her arrest for the murder of William Sutherland. He read her the Miranda warning and asked if she understood her rights.
“Yes, I do and I have a lawyer…” she started to say.
“We know, ma’am,” Max smiled. “You can call him when we get you downtown. Until then we will not ask you any questions and I suggest you keep quiet until you talk to Mr. Kadella.”
With Mackenzie handcuffed in the backseat of their car, Max and Anna waited for the tow truck to impound the BMW. While they waited Max made a call to Heather Anderson to bring her up to speed. Heather informed him they were all set and he could bring her in anytime.
Marc Kadella Legal Mysteries Vol 1-6 (Marc Kadella Series) Page 205