“We’ve obtained a court order, Mr. Stone and I’m calling simply as a courtesy. Your presence isn’t necessary for us to search it, but it will save on the wear and tear to your front door, though, if you were there to unlock it,” Beals stated in a coldly official tone.
“I see. Well, I’ll do my best to be there, but I have a syndicated radio show depending upon my input and I’m not sure I can get away right now.”
“I understand, but it would be in your best interest if you were here, just in case there are any questions that arise. It would save you from having to come downtown to go over the issues later.”
“I understand, but my boss may not. I’ll do what I can. About what time are you planning to conduct the search?” Tyler asked.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that? We’re about a block away and should be there in about two minutes,” Beals stated.
“That doesn’t give me much notice but I’m on my way,” Tyler stated and hung up.
Tyler handed the script to his assistant and told her he would be gone for the rest of the day. Something had come up in regards to his wife’s disappearance and he had to go. As he walked past the receptionist, he told her the same thing. He asked that she give the big boss a heads up about it. Then he continued to the parking lot where he hopped into his car to head home.
He arrived to find the street in front of his house clogged with police cars, forensic pickups and panel vans. Dozens of officers were going in and out of his house as well as the garage in what appeared to be a well- orchestrated waltz. Detectives Beals and Williams were standing in the front yard, waiting for him to arrive. Tyler took several deep breaths before leaving his car and walked right up to the detectives.
“Good of you to join us, Mr. Stone,” Detective Beals stated as Tyler walked up. Out of courtesy, Tyler reached out and shook hands with the detectives before he started talking.
“I thought you were going to wait for me to get here?” Tyler inquired, looking past the detectives to the front door of his house where police investigators were walking in and out at will.
“They were gentle. They only had to punch the lock out, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to fix,” Detective Williams offered sarcastically.
“That’s easy for you to say, it’s not your door,” Tyler whined.
“You can sue us after we’re done,” Williams snickered.
“I may just do that. I guess you’re here because April must have been more persuasive,” Tyler said but changed the subject before he got too pissed off and said something he’d regret.
“It’s just routine, Mr. Stone. Can’t rule you completely out until we know everything we could possibly know,” Beals stated.
“Need my shoe size, too?” Tyler wisecracked.
“No, we already have it,” Williams curtly replied, and Tyler gave him a nasty look.
“So, how long have you owned the old Nova? ”Beals then asked.
“Oh, ah… a little over a year. I planned on restoring it, but first I have to find the time and the money,” Tyler replied. “It runs well, just needs body work.”
“I suspect you’ll get a life insurance settlement if you’re soon to be ex-wife should turn up dead before the divorce goes through,” Williams stated.
“She has a policy through her work and I’ve got one on her at my work as well. Together, they might add up to a quarter million dollars. Is that your latest theory? I killed her for the insurance money? Wouldn’t there have to be a body? You told me on the phone, no one knew where she was and she was still just a missing person. Has that changed?” Tyler asked knowing damn well it hadn’t. She and her lover boy were still buried under the garage floor.
“It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened,” Williams snarled. Tyler ignored him.
“No, her status hasn’t changed, why?” Beals inquired.
“I had a visitor on Saturday,” Tyler stated. When neither Beals nor Williams said anything, he continued. “He said his name was Nate Harcorte and he represented someone who was interested in Wendy’s disappearance because it coincided with the disappearance of Danny Conners, her current boyfriend. Isn’t his father in the mob?” Tyler asked.
“What’s his father got to do with it?” Williams asked.
“I’m a professional researcher and the guy on Saturday explained the connection while threatening me,” Tyler shared.
“Oh, why did he threaten you? Did he think you had something to do with the disappearance of your wife and Danny Conners?” Beals asked.
“He told me some statistics and claimed that was enough for him to pronounce me guilty. Said if I didn’t come clean with what I knew he’d be back and hurt me,” Tyler shared.
“So, what did you tell him?” Williams asked.
“The same thing I told you. I don’t know a damn thing and he should be talking to you about other suspects. After he threatened me, I told him if I saw him coming towards me again, I’d be shooting first, then asking questions,” Tyler explained.
“So, you think he was scared?” Williams asked sarcastically.
“Not at all. I need your protection from that lunatic,” Tyler stated, allowing a tinge of fear to show in his voice.
“That may be something we can arrange,” Beals commented without any enthusiasm.
“The other thing I wanted to let you know was, I was rummaging around in the attic and discovered Wendy’s two favorite suitcases are missing along with half of her clothes.”
“You just noticed they were missing this past weekend?” Beals asked, obviously not believing him.
“I don’t look in her dresser drawers or check her closets. Well, at least not until this weekend. I thought I’d get a head start on getting her packed up, so when the divorce papers hit her hot little hands, I could hand her her stuff and that way she wouldn’t need to darken my door again,” Tyler explained.
“I thought you hadn’t ironed out the details of the divorce yet?” Williams interjected.
“After you two were here last, I got to thinking. There isn’t any point trying to hold on to her. I mean she’s gone off to who knows where with her new lover, while I’m sitting around waiting to get screwed. So, I hired an attorney to handle the divorce. He’s looking out for my interests and we’ll serve her papers at the end of the week,” Tyler explained.
“Uh, Mr. Stone, your wife is missing. I doubt that there will be any way to serve her papers at the end of the week,” Beals stated.
“Come on, even her new boyfriend can’t be that rich. Who can afford to take off work for more than a month?” Tyler questioned, wanting to sound naive.
“Mr. Stone, do you know where Danny Conners lives?” Williams asked.
“I do now. That guy Nate Harcorte he told me he lives in the Sycamore Complex. I don’t know which unit is his but he lives there, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. What else did this Harcorte guy tell you?” Beals asked as he glared at Tyler, but he didn’t share that Harcorte had also visited April.
“He said that you had found Wendy’s body, which I didn’t believe, but is it true?” Tyler asked to try and sound innocent, naïve and just hopeful, thus reinforcing his non-involvement in his soon to be ex-wife’s disappearance.
“I see. No, we haven’t found your wife’s body. If we do, I’ll be sure to let you know right away,” Beals stated.
“He also said that the apartments looked staged. Whatever that means,” Tyler stated and watched both Beals and Williams as they gave each other disconcerted looks. Yeah, that had touched a raw nerve. “What? What did I say?” Tyler played it for all it was worth.
“We’re not at liberty to say,” Beals mumbled.
“Hey, if it’s about Wendy, I should be told. I am still her husband after all.”
“For the next five minutes,” Williams snapped.
“Detectives,” a forensic tech hollered from the front porch. Both Beals and Williams turned and started for the house. After a few steps, Beals stopp
ed, looked back at Tyler and said, “Mr. Stone, I think you should come along with us.” Tyler followed them into the house.
There were forensic techs in the living room crawling all over the floor. They were checking every nook and cranny as well as every book on the book shelf and coffee tables. The forensic tech led the detectives and Tyler into the kitchen where he had been working on the refrigerator. The tech stood next to the refrigerator for several moments letting the tension build, before proceeding.
“That carving knife you mentioned, Detective, I think I found it,” the tech stated as he opened the freezer. There, half chipped out of the ice that had melted over it, was the carving knife that Tyler had bought and forgot in the freezer.
“So that’s where I left it,” Tyler stated.
Detectives Beals and Williams both looked at Tyler and then back at the tech. Beals spoke first.
“Can you tell how old the ice is?”
“No way Detective, maybe if we were talking about glacier ice, but ice in a freezer? There isn’t any proven way to do that yet,” the tech stated.
“Too bad. When did you buy the knife?” Williams asked.
“I got them about six years ago, I think. Yeah, six years ago,” Tyler answered straight faced, ignoring the sarcasm.
“Should I dig it out?” the tech asked.
“Will you be able to lift any prints off it or any trace?” Beals asked.
“I doubt it. The ice will most likely pull off any trace with it when I dig it out. It’ll only be good for comparing to the wound marks, if you had a body with wounds in it,” the tech explained.
“Leave it for Mr. Stone to dig out when he’s not too busy,” Beals snapped then turned to Tyler. “Why don’t we check the drawers and the closets. You can show us where the clothes used to be,” Detective Beals added his own sarcasm.
“I can show you the drawers and closets but I don’t know what you mean by ‘where they used to be.’ There’s no big space or anything. There just aren’t as many clothes as before,” Tyler stated as he led the way to the master bedroom upstairs. He opened the drawers and the closet and then stood back.
Detective Beals looked into each of the spaces, then turned to Tyler and asked, “When did you notice the missing clothes, again?”
“I found her suitcases and clothes were gone when I started packing up her stuff, Saturday.”
“Mr. Stone, I’ve got to be honest with you. I looked in both of these spaces when we were here last and I don’t see the difference. In fact, if I was to be asked by the court, I’d have to say that they look exactly the same as they did the night we conducted the cursory search,” Beals stated curtly.
“Then that just goes to show you, she took the stuff before she supposedly disappeared,” Tyler stated, as if it were a foregone conclusion.
“That’s one way of looking at the situation. But it could also mean that nothing had changed here at all and you’re just trying to sell us on the possibility to deflect suspicion from yourself,” Beals stated.
“You were here, what? Two, two and a half weeks ago? You saw this and you don’t think it’s changed. I just saw this over the weekend and I’m sure that it has changed since I last looked in here, six to eight months ago. I suppose you looked in the attic and didn’t see her suitcases the last time you were here,” Tyler finally snapped back at the detectives.
“Mr. Stone, it’s our job to find out what happened and it’s going to get personal. It’s just the nature of the job,” Beals stated.
“I don’t get it. I had nothing to do with any of this crap Wendy is causing and yet I’m being viewed as a suspect in her disappearance. I’ve pointed out the things I find that show what she might have been doing and all you can do is claim I faked it, so I don’t look guilty. How the hell can I look guilty when I wasn’t involved? I was at work, remember?” Tyler snarled.
“The spouse is always a suspect,” Williams added.
“Yeah, 98.8 per cent of the time they do it. That’s what Harcorte said. But I’m not part of the 98.8 per cent. I didn’t do it. Now, when will you be done making a wreck of my home all because my soon to be ex-wife has run off with her lover?” Tyler demanded.
“It’ll be done when it’s done,” Williams stated curtly.
“I’ll be in my car,” Tyler stated and stomped off to his car.
Beals and Williams watched Tyler stomp off. Once he was out of earshot, Williams made the first comment.
“He doesn’t act guilty.”
“No, he acts like he is completely unconcerned,” Beals replied.
“Yeah, he’s involved somehow, but we got nothing to link him to anything.”
“It’s just too pat. But the apartments were so poorly staged it was almost laughable,” Beals stated.
“The only evidence we have says April murdered Danny and that she poisoned herself. We have no idea where the body is and as far as Wendy Stone is concerned, she’s just missing.”
“You forgot we have circumstantial evidence that suggests that April and her sister weren’t getting along and that they were sharing Danny Conner as a boy toy,” Beals reminded him.
“Like you said, it is circumstantial and it’s not too convincing, especially if the information about Harcorte gets introduced in court. With so many loose ends, I doubt the DA can even get this into court,” Williams offered.
“So what? We throw up our hands and throw in the towel?” Beals asked.
“It isn’t the first time we couldn’t find the killer and it won’t be the last. Once the public defender gets some face time in court, April Jennings will be free to go unless we start building a solid case against her. We have to discount the other crap and go with the knife and the circumstantial evidence that points to her.”
“You’re right. It’s come down to what we have for evidence and she’s unfortunately the only one who we can link to anything.”
“Okay, I guess we can wrap it up then. Let the forensic guys know we’re good here,” Beals stated and walked back through the house and out into the backyard. He walked around the yard looking for whatever and finding none of it. In the end, he stood looking at the garden, marveling at the effort it had taken to grow such beautiful plants.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After the arraignment was delayed a day to give her appointed counsel time to get up to speed, the Assistant District Attorney, Amanda Bellinger, met with Beals and Williams at seven a.m. at the county court house on Tuesday.
They went over the details of the case, explaining where they had found the knife covered with her fingerprints and what forensics was saying was most likely Danny Conners’ blood. They also pointed out that April’s clothing was covered in blood spatter that again was most likely Danny Conners’.
They reviewed the photos of the shredded clothing and the large knife stuck in the dresser. Though they didn’t even discuss the fact the knife didn’t come from the same set as the murder weapon or that neither Jennings or Connors owned knife sets that did.
They covered the numerous items linking the three of them in a possible lover’s triangle—Wendy Stone, Conners and Jennings. They explained how Wendy’s lover had been Jennings’ lover, until Wendy stole him away, and how Wendy’s husband had also been Jennings’ lover, before Wendy stole him away, as well.
They went on to explain how Jennings had been found behind the wheel of her sister’s car, suffering from a non-fatal poisoning, which they believed was self-inflicted.
The vial of poison had been found in Jennings’ purse, along with what was believed to be the prepaid gift card she had used to purchase the poison from a Southeast Asian pharmacy.
There were also two cups of cola-flavored soda found in Conners’ kitchen, along with a partially drunk beer also laced with the poison. They didn’t dwell on the fact the cups of soda had no trace evidence like fingerprints or lipstick smudges on them.
Assistant District Attorney Bellinger complained it wasn’t the type of evidence they liked
to have when they charged someone, but the knife, blood spatter and the confession were solid pieces of evidence. A body would have been better, but the knife, blood and confession should be enough to get a conviction in regards to the murder of Danny Conners.
The murder of Wendy Stone was a different story. It was entirely circumstantial and based wholly on conjecture. They would ignore her until such time as they found more evidence, like a body.
At nine a.m. the arraignment of April Jennings took place, and she was bound over for trial for the murder of Danny Conners. Bail was set at a half million dollars.
Beals and Williams waited until one o’clock to have April brought to their offices for interrogation so she could have time to reflect on her situation and maybe become more forthcoming. She, of course, was no longer willing to trust them, and to no one’s surprise she had her attorney join them for the interrogation.
“It’s good to see you again, Detectives,” April’s attorney, Jennifer Hunter stated as she stepped into the room behind April. Ms. Hunter was by far the best Public Defender in the state. She was one of the few in the Public Defender’s office with real experience and the savvy to know how to use it. She was a real thorn in the police department’s side.
Behind her back they called her Lilly Loophole, because that seemed to be all she was interested in—finding a loophole through which she could get her clients released. It didn’t seem to matter to her that more than ninety-five percent of her released clients ended up back in the system within a month or two.
“Counselor, I’d like to say the same but I’d be lying,” Williams spoke up before Beals could.
“See, I told you they hate me because I get my clients off. Especially when the case is so flimsy, a butterfly fart would tear it apart,” Ms. Hunter told April, who smiled at the suggestion the case against her was so poor.
The two women took a seat across the table from Detective Beals, while Detective Williams stood in the corner behind him as usual.
Cliff Roberts Thriller Box Set Page 28