Cliff Roberts Thriller Box Set

by Cliff Roberts

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Mr. Conners, I’m Detective Beals and this is my partner, Detective Williams. We’re here to talk with your son, Danny. Is he working today?”

  “Why do you need to know?” Anthony Conners, owner and CEO of Conquest Trucking, asked in reply.

  Detective Beals gave Detective Williams that look again before answering Mr. Conners. “Well, sir, his name has come up several times in regards to a possible missing person case we’re working.”

  “How so?” Conners then asked.

  “He’s an acquaintance of a woman by the name of Wendy Stone, who also happens to work here. When we came in, the receptionist mentioned that Wendy hadn’t been to work all week. Since we have it from other outside sources that your son and Mrs. Stone were more than just co-workers, we’re wondering if your son might know where Mrs. Stone is,” Detective Beals stated.

  “Well, I doubt they’re together. Danny plays around, way too much. I’m always telling him to watch his back because he’ll chase any good looking woman and many of them are married.”

  “So you’d say your son’s a bit of a player, then?” Detective Williams asked.

  “I ain’t saying any such thing. He’s just too quick to sow his oats is all. Now, if you’re through, I’m busy.”

  “I’m afraid we have a few more questions,” Beals said. Neither he nor Williams budged an inch.

  “Well, let’s have it. Like I said, I’m busy.”

  “Sure, is your son working today?” Beals asked.

  “No.”

  “Has he been in at all this week?”

  “No.”

  “Is he on vacation?”

  “No.”

  “I see. Has he called in sick?”

  “No, he hasn’t been in all week, he hasn’t called in and he’s not on vacation. Does that about do it, Detective?”

  “Almost, but not quite,” Williams chimed in now. “Any idea where he might be?”

  “How the hell should I know? He’s not a kid anymore, and I don’t keep tabs on him. He comes and goes as he pleases.”

  “Interesting. How does that affect the work here at Conquest Trucking?”

  “Doesn’t cause any concerns at all. He’s not in a critical position. One of the perks of having your old man own the place.”

  “What make of car does your son drive?” Beals then asked.

  “Ah… he’s got a new Chrysler 300. It’s black on black.”

  “When was the last time you saw your son?” Williams asked as he stepped over to the window and looked out at the parking lot. There wasn’t a black Chrysler 300 in the lot that he could see from there.

  “He stopped by the house on Saturday. He wanted some advice on buying a foreclosed home. I told him he should talk with our attorney and our private banker before he committed. I also told him I wouldn’t buy a house right now unless it was foreclosed and he could get it at a huge discount.”

  “Does your son own a home?” Beals asked.

  “He rents an apartment overlooking the river in the Sycamore Club complex. If you want the address, the receptionist can get it for you.”

  “One more thing before we go, sir. Does your son take off frequently without calling in?”

  “Like I said, he’s not critical here. So, who says he’s missing?” Conners asked.

  “He’s not been reported missing. Mrs. Stone has been reported missing and his name has come up a few times as someone she’s involved with. So, we naturally wanted to talk with him, only no one seems to know where he is either. If he should happen to check in, could you please ask him to contact us? That way we can stop wasting time trying to find someone who isn’t lost,” Beals stated.

  “So, who thinks Mrs. Stone is missing?”

  “Her sister does. She hasn’t seen her since Saturday and as you well know, she hasn’t been to work this week. I take it she isn’t critical, either?” Williams asked.

  “If I were you, I’d be talking to the husband. Isn’t the spouse usually the prime suspect in the case of a wayward wife’s disappearance?” Conner’s commented.

  “Yes, and we have,” Williams stated without adding anything to it.

  “Thank you for your time, Mr. Conners. We’ll be in touch if we learn anything new,” Beals stated as he and Williams walked out of Conners’ office.

  On the way back through the office to the front door they stopped and had the receptionist write down Danny Conners’ address. Once out in the car, Williams started the conversation with sarcasm.

  “He certainly was warm and fuzzy.”

  “He’s been indicted twice for crimes involving fraud in interstate commerce, though he hasn’t been convicted. He won a multimillion dollar settlement over the last indictment, something about violating his civil rights. I was surprised he didn’t send us to his lawyer.”

  “He wasn’t too helpful, but you can tell he’s pissed at his son for skipping work and not calling.”

  “Danny boy is the head of logistics, he routes shipments all over the country. I’d bet when he isn’t here, the old man has to do it and that would piss me off, too.”

  “So, what do you want to do now?” Williams asked.

  “I think we’ll drive by Danny’s place and see if he’s home or if anybody has seen him lately.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Williams said.

  Before Detectives Beals and Williams had even reached their car, Mr. Conners had his attorney, Jackson Bender, on the phone.

  “Jackson, I want you to get that private eye we used last year. I need to find out where my son is and if he’s with a woman who works for me by the name of Wendy Stone,” Mr. Conners stated.

  “Is Wendy married?”

  “Yeah, he’s being stupid again.”

  “Are there any special instructions?”

  “No, not at this time. Just find him and then I’ll let you know what to do. Have your man check out what the police have on Danny’s case. Actually, the case is about Mrs. Stone. Her sister has reported her missing, according to Detective Beals. He also said she last saw her sister on Saturday of last week.”

  “When was the last time you saw Danny?”

  “Saturday afternoon.”

  Okay, Mr. Conners, I’ll get him on it right away.”

  Detectives Beals and Williams spent the afternoon walking Danny Conners’ apartment complex, knocking on doors. It was a wasted effort, since most people weren’t home and anyone who was home, claimed they didn’t see a thing. However, the neighbor in the apartment right next to Danny’s was fairly sure he had heard noises on Sunday night. Things like doors opening and closing and someone moving about. As far as what time he heard the sounds, he wasn’t too sure—maybe ten o’clock but it could have been earlier.

  He and his wife had been at a barbeque all day and had a little too much to drink, so they were in bed when they heard the sounds. The detectives made a note but also noted that it wasn’t relevant or reliable.

  The next day, they were informed by dispatch that the County Impound Yard had brought in a Chrysler 300, black on black, registered to Danny Conners. They’d found it in the train station parking lot. It had been there a week without having paid the parking fee and the license plate matched the one they had put out an APB on. They stopped at the impound yard next to check out the car, while waiting for the forensic team to arrive.

  “That one is down row K. You’ll find it about halfway down, on the left hand side. Here are the keys,” the impound clerk stated, as he handed over the car keys.

  “Where did you get the keys?” Williams asked.

  “The tow driver found them in the ignition.”

  “I see,” Williams replied.

  “He also said that the car doors were unlocked.”

  “Really?”

  “That’s what he said.”

  At the car, the two detectives first verified that the car was indeed Danny Conners’ car. The registration and insurance they found in the glove box matc
hed. Along with the keys, Danny had apparently left his cell phone in the car as well. It was in the console between the seats. They found nothing else that was obvious to the naked eye. They left the keys on the driver’s seat and the cell phone in the console untouched, so that the techs could try to raise fingerprints off them. Williams had Beals noted that there wasn’t any house key on the key ring, only the ignition key for the car and two smaller keys that appeared to go to small locks, like the kind kids use to lock up their bikes.

  “Isn’t that interesting?” Williams asked.

  “What’s that?” Beals replied.

  “The car was found with the car keys inside and someone was in Danny Conners’ apartment on Sunday night,” Williams stated.

  “Yes, it is interesting since Danny doesn’t seem to be around.”

  “And who doesn’t take their cell phone with them when they take a trip? Why would he leave it in the car at the train station?” Williams questioned.

  “It is strange that he didn’t take his keys or his phone with him.”

  “How probable do you think that is? I mean what are the odds that a guy takes his house key with him on a trip, but leaves his car keys behind in the ignition of his unlocked car.”

  “I don’t know, but I’d guess the odds are really long,” Beals stated.

  “Yeah, really long odds,” Williams concurred.

  “So, where do we go from here?” Beals asked.

  “I’d like to go to the train station and see if they still have the video from the security cameras for last weekend; and then, I think we need to get a search warrant for Danny Conners’ place.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right, but on the way to the train station, let’s stop at the office and get the warrants started for both Conners’ and Jennings’ apartments,” Beals suggested.

  At the train station, it took several minutes to get through to the security guard on duty. They didn’t need a court order for him to provide them with copies of the tapes. They were evidence in a murder investigation.

  “Look, Mr. Gibbons, call your supervisor and get his permission to show us the tapes from last weekend and do it now. If you continue to refuse to help us, we’ll be forced to arrest you for obstruction of justice. Now am I making myself clear?” Detective Beals stated in a calm relaxed voice while Detective Williams leaned on the console that held the monitors for the station’s closed circuit system, staring menacingly at the man.

  “Look, I want to help you, but the memo from the director of the Metro Transit Authority was clear. Absolutely no one, it said, no one, is to be allowed to view or copy any tape or portion thereof, from any security camera on MTA property without a court order. It’s out of my hands, guys. If I show you the tapes, I get fired. I need my job.”

  “Last chance, Mr. Gibbons. Call your supervisor now, right now!” Beals snarled, and finally Gibbons took him seriously. Gibbons made the call and immediately handed the phone to Beals.

  “Hello, who am I talking to?” Detective Beals asked.

  “I’m Mr. Gibbons’ supervisor, John Harkness. Who is this?”

  “This is Detective Beals of the City Police Department. We’re seeking some cooperation from your department. We’re investigating a possible double murder and your man has refused to allow us access to the video tapes from the past week.”

  “Well, Detective Beals, I can’t help you any more than Mr. Gibbons can. We’re under strict orders from the director not to allow anyone, for any reason, to view any tapes or portions of the tapes without a court order. We’ve had far too many fly by night attorneys sue the MTA over minor incidents and use our tapes to twist the situation out of context. I’m sure you understand.”

  “What I understand is that you are obstructing a possible murder investigation. So, let me make this clear to you, Mr. Harkness. If Mr. Gibbons doesn’t release the tapes to us immediately, I will be forced to arrest him and place a warrant for your arrest as well.”

  “What for?”

  “For obstruction of justice! This is a possible double homicide case and the video tapes may well hold evidence in regards to those murders. Now, is Mr. Gibbons going to cooperate or do the two of you go to jail?” Beals barked at the guy over the phone.

  Williams pulled out his handcuffs and started tossing them back and forth between his hands just to make Mr. Gibbons nervous. After a brief moment of silence, Mr. Harkness came back on the line and asked to talk to Mr. Gibbons. After a minute, during which Mr. Gibbons said, “Yeah, at least ten times,” he hung up and looked at Detective Beals.

  “He said to do it, but I have to have both your badge numbers and business cards before I can do so,” Gibbons stated.

  “Here, it’s all on the cards.” Beals and Williams both tossed their cards onto Gibbons’ desk.

  “Do you want to watch it here or back at the station house?” Gibbons then asked.

  “We’ll take it to go,” Williams smirked.

  As they left the building, Williams commented. “I guess that’ll end up with the Captain balling us out for being too overbearing.”

  “Not if we get something off them. By acting out back there, we saved three to five days in this investigation which is already cold, because our prime witness was in a drug-induced coma. Add that to the fact she is confessing to killing a guy who is alive, and we reduce her credibility,” Beals stated.

  “If this job was easy, everybody would do it,” Williams snickered.

  “This job is easy. All we ever do is ride around and wait for someone to make a mistake. Just one mistake is all it takes and we look like heroes.”

  “Yeah, but not everyone makes that one mistake,” Williams offered.

  “Lucky for us, most of them do,” Beals said with a wry smile.

  CHAPTER NINE

  They spent the next morning sitting in a small room watching the train station videos with one of the electronics techs. Gibbons didn’t do them any favors when he handed over what he called ‘all the tapes’ from the last weekend. It turned out they should have been more specific about what tapes they wanted. Gibbons just downloaded every camera’s video together in one long track without spacing or location info. By doing so, it was forcing them to possibly have to watch a couple of hundred hours of tape to find what they hoped would be there.

  Shortly after getting started, Beals nodded off and Williams started bugging the tech to find a faster way to get through the mess of videos. He explained what they were looking for and that it probably happened at night. The tech then came up with fast forwarding the tapes at ten times their normal speed through all the daylight scenes and watching for the dark spaces which were exterior night videos.

  After two hours, Detectives Beals and Williams left it for the tech geeks and went to see about their warrant for Danny Conners’ apartment. It wasn’t ready yet. So, they set about cleaning up their notes and typing out the whole thing in report form to put in their workbook. By then the tech called. He’d found what he thought they were looking for.

  The video showed a Chrysler 300 arriving at the train station at five a.m. on Sunday morning. It matched the description of Danny Conners’ car and was parked in the same spot his car was found in.

  They watched for almost five minutes before anyone left the car and when they did, the detectives were disappointed. A person, apparently a man, based on size and the way he walked, slipped out of the car carrying a plastic bag over his shoulder.

  Despite every adjustment the tech made, they were unable to see the man’s face. He’d been smart about leaving the car. He or she wore a hooded sweatshirt and walked with their head down. Then, instead of walking to another car left in the train station parking lot, he walked off down the street where it was dark and the camera couldn’t follow. Detective Beals pressed the tech to try and find an angle that allowed them to see where this guy went, but after an extensive search, he couldn’t find any video that showed anything more.

  “So, what do we have now?” Williams a
sked as he and Beals sat down at their desks.

  “We’ve got nothing. For every piece of evidence that points one direction, we’ve got at least two more pieces of evidence that point two other directions,” Beals groused then decided to look at the case from a different angle.

  “Okay, here’s what we know for sure. A woman suffering hallucinations due to poisoning crashes her sister’s car and slips into a coma. When she wakes up four days later, she confesses to killing the man she claims poisoned her and her sister. Only the man isn’t dead and her sister is missing.

  “The same man she has confessed to killing just happens to be the husband of the missing sister and they’re divorcing. This same sister is having an affair with a co-worker, who has a reputation for being a bit of a player and he’s missing as well.

  “By coincidence, the husband just happens to have been a boyfriend of the woman claiming to have killed him, before he married her sister.” Beals took a second to catch his breath before continuing, while Williams sat silently listening.

  “Okay, where was I? Oh, yeah, the missing man’s car is found at the train station, unlocked, with the keys and his cell phone inside. The surveillance video from the train station shows an individual parking the missing man’s car there, but he’s smart and hides his identity when he leaves, so we can’t get a good look at him.” Beals took another deep breath and Williams interjected.

  “So, for all we know, the guy who parked the car at the train station could have been Danny Conners.” Beals nodded and continued.

  “The husband, who is about to be divorced by the sister of the woman who was in the drug-induced coma, has an iron clad alibi and doesn’t come across as having had anything to do with anything, despite the claims of the poisoned woman. In fact, he’s the man she claims to have killed. As for the soon to be ex-husband having contact with his estranged wife, he claims not to have seen her for several weeks. He has no idea why the poisoned woman would be claiming she was at his home on the Saturday night in question. His alibi puts him at work, when she claims to have been there,” Beals concluded.