by Lauren Carr
“I can do that.” She smiled broadly at being in charge of the interrogation of what was, after all, her case.
“Don’t get cocky,” Sheriff Sawyer warned with a good-natured grin while opening the door for them to move on to their interviews. “This is still my county.”
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you to be nice to guests?” She trotted ahead of Joshua out into the hallway, where she turned around to ask them, “Does Lipton know his old friend Russell is here?”
Sheriff Sawyer answered, “We’ve been keeping them separated.”
“I’d like to try something,” Cameron said. “It may help to move things along.”
“You have nothing to worry about, Russell,” his lawyer was telling him. “It doesn’t matter what that old woman recorded thirty-something years ago. You had no reason to kill your brother. Without any proof—”
The door flew open.
Philip Lipton and his lawyer started to enter, only to find Russell Null and his lawyer already sitting at the table.
Lipton and Null locked eyes.
While a series of emotions filled both of their faces, Sheriff Sawyer stepped in to apologize to Lipton. “They told me that this witness was in room three. Let’s try the one across the hall.” Urging Philip Lipton and his attorney backward into the hallway, the sheriff closed the door.
Russell Null’s face was white and his hands were shaking by the time the door opened again and Cameron and Joshua entered. They each carried a case file. Joshua also had a cassette player tucked under his arm.
“Russell, thank you so much for coming in this morning,” Joshua said in a cordial tone. Even though Russell Null was a suspect in two serious crimes, he could not forget that he was a county commissioner and they knew each other casually. Politics demanded that Joshua treat him with respect, which was something Cameron struggled with. “Have you met my wife, Cameron Gates?”
Russell shook her hand. “I heard you got married.”
While they took seats across the table, Joshua announced, “Cameron is a homicide detective with the Pennsylvania State Police.”
“Why is she here?” Russell’s attorney asked in a blunt manner.
“I’m investigating a homicide,” she replied. “We think that maybe your client might have some information pertaining to it.”
“In Pennsylvania?” the lawyer looked over to Joshua. “I thought this had to do with the double homicide of Russell’s brother and that hooker he was with at Dolly’s back in seventy-six.”
“It does,” Joshua replied. “I’d like for you to listen to a tape that was delivered to my home a couple of days ago. The date on this tape is February thirteen, nineteen seventy-six.” He pressed the button to play the tape.
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s your client,” Cameron told the lawyer.
A door slammed in the background while a younger man’s voice said, “This is a bordello. What do you think I’m doing here? How did you know I was coming?”
“That’s Virgil,” Joshua said before turning to Russell, “but I think you know that.”
“Be serious.”
“That’s Philip Lipton,” Cameron said, “an old friend of your client.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Russell asked.
“He knows exactly what he’s doing,” Philip said. “He’s sneaking around behind our backs to ruin our whole lives because of one stupid mistake we made on one stinking night, that’s what.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m doing,” Virgil said. “I’m making things right—once and for all.”
“Why?” Philip Lipton asked.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Virgil said. “Do you have any idea how many lives we’ve ruined? Ava. Toby.”
“We didn’t ruin anyone’s lives,” Philip said. “They did. They made their decisions on their own for how they wanted to live—or not live—their lives. It’s not our fault.”
“Like we made our decision to not take responsibility for the mistake we made,” Virgil said.
“You want to talk about ruined lives,” Russell cut off Philip to ask. “Then here’s a count of how many lives you’ll ruin if you go upstairs. Yours. Mine. Philip’s. How about Dad’s life when his two sons go to jail? And then, what about Suzie? She and I were planning to get married in three months. Think about that.”
After a long hesitation, Virgil said, “It was an accident. We know that. We need to tell everyone the truth about what happened. Otherwise, Toby’s death will be for nothing.”
There was the sound of movement, followed by the sound of a punch and a shriek.
“Stop it, Phil!” Russell yelled. “Let him go!”
Joshua said over the sound of the struggle, “Philip Lipton attacked your brother here, didn’t he? Shortly before he and Ava Tucker were murdered.”
Philip Lipton’s eerily low voice came out of the speaker, “If you go up those stairs with her, I swear, you’ll be dead before morning. I’m not going to let you rip everything I’ve built out of my life because of one stupid night a decade ago! Do you hear me, Null! You tell her what we did and you’re a dead man!”
Joshua hit the stop button. “And he was … dead before morning, just like Philip Lipton said he would be.”
“What did Virgil tell Ava Tucker that got him killed, Russell?” Cameron asked. “What wrong did your brother die trying to fix?”
Russell’s eyes filled with tears.
“Russell Null had nothing to do with those murders,” the lawyer said.
“But he knows who did,” Joshua said.
“It wasn’t Philip,” Russell said.
“You don’t need to protect him anymore, Russell,” Joshua said.
“He killed your brother,” Cameron said.
“No,” Russell said.
“Don’t tell us it was you,” Joshua said.
“No, it wasn’t me either,” Russell said. “I was afraid Philip was going to kill him. Really. Yeah, he was serious when he grabbed Virgil. I thought he was going to break his neck. So when Virgil went upstairs with Ava, and Philip was so mad, I got him out of there. We came down here to New Cumberland to a bar and we drank to our lives coming to an end. Man, it was over as we knew it. I made sure I stayed with him because I didn’t want him going back to kill Virgil. We closed that bar, which I now can’t remember the name of—” He sucked in a deep shuddering breath. “Then we went our separate ways. When I got home, I found out Virgil was dead anyway. I stuck with Philip trying to protect him—” He swallowed, “and still he died. Somehow, I felt like it was—” With both hands, he wiped the tears from his eyes and face. “When Toby killed himself, Virgil was convinced that it was God punishing us for what we had done. I thought he was crazy. I mean, we took this guy from those he loved, so God was now taking away those we loved.” His voice squeaked. “Virgil could be such a pain, but I loved that little guy. And he was only doing what we should have been man enough to do in the first place—and still someone killed him.”
“What wrong was Virgil trying to right?” Cameron asked him again.
“Don’t say anything,” the lawyer warned him.
“We killed a man,” Russell said. “The first weekend in September back in nineteen sixty-six. It was like the last weekend of summer. Philip Lipton and I were best friends then. He was from Hookstown, and I was from here. We had met at a Boy Scout camp. Virgil and Toby Winter were only fifteen. They were in the back of the truck. We were all drinking and smoking weed out at Raccoon Creek. We were higher than kites. Philip was doing wheelies with one of the company trucks, whipping those two lunatics around in the bed of the truck. We were all laughing like a bunch of hyenas on one of those dirt roads cutting through the park, when suddenly, the truck smashed into something and it happened so fast. This body hit the hood of the truck and bounced over o
n the other side.”
The room was filled with silence.
“That sobered us up real fast,” Russell said.
“What happened next?” Cameron asked.
“Philip and I were both seniors in high school,” Russell said. “We had our whole lives in front of us. Philip was planning to be a doctor. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer. And there we were, all drunk and we had marijuana on us and we reeked of it. Toby and Virgil wanted to take him to a doctor, but we could tell by looking at him that he was already dead. Blood was all over. Philip said there was nothing we could do. We were right there at the lake, and with the sharp turns in the dirt road, people were wiping out their cars all the time and hitting trees. He made it sound so simple. Put the guy in the car and push it into the lake. Everyone would assume he had an accident.”
“Only that wasn’t what happened,” Cameron said. “Everyone assumed Douglas O’Reilly had committed suicide because his girlfriend was pregnant. He was a young man with a whole world of promise, too. His family was left destitute. His mother’s heart was broken. The girlfriend’s reputation was ruined, and she ended up becoming a call girl. The guilt drove Toby to commit suicide at the same lake where it all started.”
Collapsing onto the table, Russell sobbed into his arms.
Cameron leaned across the table. “Russell, Virgil said in this recording that he wanted Toby’s suicide to mean something. Don’t you want Virgil’s murder to mean something? Finish what he started. It’s not too late to make things right.” She slid her notepad across the table to him. “Write down what happened that night.”
When Russell reached for the notepad, his lawyer’s hand came down onto the pad to stop him. “What’s he going to get in return for his confession?”
“How about peace of mind?” she replied.
Joshua and Cameron met Sheriff Curt Sawyer out in the hallway.
“Did seeing Russell Null shake up Philip Lipton any?” Cameron asked Curt.
“Yeah,” Curt said. “How did Russell Null react? He looked like he was going to pee his pants.”
“Just about,” Cameron replied. “He confessed to Douglas O’Reilly’s vehicular homicide.”
“But he claims he and Lipton were together getting drunk while Virgil and Ava were being killed,” Joshua said.
“They must have compared notes on that,” Curt said. “Because Lipton is singing the same song. He says they were closing Marie’s lounge here in New Cumberland after Virgil told them he was coming clean with Ava.”
“Russell couldn’t remember the name of the bar,” Cameron said. “If they had compared notes, he would have known the name of the bar.”
“We’ve run out of suspects for Ava’s and Virgil’s murders,” Joshua said. “It has to have been them.”
“Maybe they did it together,” Curt said.
“I can’t believe Russell would have killed Virgil,” Cameron said. “He is genuinely distraught about it, and he’s rejecting his lawyer’s advice and coming clean about O’Reilly’s death.”
“I agree,” Joshua said.
Curt folded his arms across his chest. “What’s his story for killing O’Reilly?”
After Cameron reported what Russell had told them and written in his statement, the sheriff chuckled. “That’s not the story Lipton told.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s he saying?” Joshua asked.
“It was the same about them going to Raccoon Creek. Smoking weed and getting drunk. Then, when it comes to getting behind the wheel, Lipton claims Russell let Virgil drive and that it was Virgil who killed O’Reilly. Lipton also says it was Russell’s idea that they dump the body and car in the lake because he was afraid of what his father would do. When Lipton said he wanted to tell the truth, Russell threatened him with bodily harm.”
“One of them’s lying,” Cameron said. “I think it’s Lipton, because he was the aggressor in that recording.”
“Problem is,” Joshua said, “you have no proof of who was driving.”
“They were all there,” Cameron said. “I say I take them both in.”
“They’re pointing their fingers at each other,” Joshua said. “Without being told who was driving and who made the decision for the cover up, the jury isn’t likely to convict either one.”
“With both Virgil and Toby dead, you have no other witnesses to confirm either man’s statement,” Curt said. “I don’t envy you.”
Shaking her head, Cameron stuffed her notepad into her valise. “There is one other witness I can talk to. Toby Winter committed suicide over this. He had to have told his mother why. You said there was a suicide note.”
“No one knows what he wrote in that note,” Joshua said. “It’s been forty years, and Lorraine’s told no one. What makes you think that old biddie is going to tell you?”
“You’re not the only one who’s an artist at manipulation,” Cameron said. “Even if she won’t tell me what he put in the note, he must have told her something about what had happened to have made him so distraught. Maybe when he did that, he told her who was driving.”
“I doubt it,” Joshua said.
“It’s worth a shot.” She kissed him quickly on the lips. “I’m going to go see her. Wish me luck. I’ll call you after I talk to her.” With a wave of her hand, she ran down the hallway. At the door, she stopped to call back to Joshua, “Love you,” before heading out the door.
“She really is a firecracker,” Sheriff Sawyer told Joshua with a sigh.
Fighting the grin on his lips, Joshua replied, “She most certainly is.” Arching an eyebrow, he turned to the sheriff. “How are things with Tiffany, the pole dancer?”
The sheriff’s chuckle held a wicked note. His cheeks turned pink. “She’s a firecracker, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“ … Do you hear me, Null! You tell her what we did and you’re a dead man!”
Once more, Joshua hit the stop button on the cassette player. He had listened to the recording four more times in hopes of uncovering some clue of who killed Ava Tucker and Virgil Null.
Larry Van Patton had a point. Rachel Hilliard didn’t have a motive at that time to kill Ava, unless there was a motive no one knew about.
Russell Null and Philip Lipton alibied each other. Unless they did it together.
They were holding Russell Null and Philip Lipton while waiting for the arrest warrants from Pennsylvania. But if either or both of them had committed murder on his turf, he wanted to know.
Could Russell Null be playing us? Won’t be the first time a killer played the inconsolable relative of a victim.
With a deep sigh, he collapsed his head into his arms and closed his eyes.
I’m missing something, and I think it’s on this tape.
“I guess you’re waiting here for this.” Sheriff Sawyer came into the conference room where Joshua was playing the tape. After draping a leg over the corner of the table, he gave Joshua a copy of the message they had received from Washington. “The FBI got the warrant for Rachel Hilliard’s DNA. They’re running a comparison to the blood from the knife now.” He handed Joshua another report. “In the meantime, forensics had already run the blood from the crime scene through the database. No match.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Joshua picked up the run down on the analysis of the blood. “It’s from a female. So that eliminates Null and Lipton as suspects for Dolly’s murder.” He lowered the report. “It’s very suspicious that Lipton checked out the evidence box for Ava’s and Virgil’s murders as soon as he became head of the forensics lab, especially since he seems to have an alibi for the time of the murder.”
“He says it was because Virgil Null was a friend and he wanted to see if he could find something,” Curt said.
“And a jury will buy that.” With a groan, Joshua slumped in his seat. “It could very well be true. Working on murde
r investigations all the time, even if he had bad feelings toward Virgil, curiosity could have made Lipton want to look into the case.”
“Dolly was blackmailing him and Null,” Curt said. “He probably thought that if he could find the real killer, it would get him off the hook.”
“Which brings us back to who killed Dolly.” Joshua picked up the forensics report on the blood and the DNA profile. Reading the toxicology report, his eyes narrowed. “That’s interesting.”
“What is?”
“Drugs they found in the blood,” Joshua said. “They found a mixture of drugs commonly used to treat osteoporosis and dementia.” He glanced up at the sheriff. “Could Rachel Hilliard suffer from dementia?”
“I thought it was a job requirement when running for political office,” Curt replied with a grin.
“Crazy? Yes,” Joshua shot back. “Dementia? Not so much.”
“Suffering from dementia is not the type of thing you publicize,” Curt said. “Want me to call Washington to see if we can get someone to ask the congresswoman?”
“It would save time.”
While Curt hurried out the door, Joshua pressed the button to play the tape again. This time, he rewound it to the beginning to catch any phrase that might have escaped him before.
It started to come together.
“ … How did you know I was coming?”
“Be serious.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
“He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s sneaking around behind our backs—”
Joshua sprang up from his chair and out into the hallway, where he collided with the sheriff who was on his way into the conference room.
“Well, it’s not Rachel Hilliard,” the sheriff announced with a grumble. “She has neither osteoporosis nor dementia.”
“I didn’t think so.” Joshua pushed past Curt and ran down the hall to throw open the door to the interrogation room where Russell Null was cooling his heels with his lawyer. “Null!”
Russell Null and his lawyer jumped at Joshua’s abrupt entrance. They both looked frightened when Joshua slammed his hands down on the table. He was breathing hard when he asked, “On the tape of you and Lipton confronting Virgil that night at Dolly’s, Virgil asked you a question that neither of you answered. How did you know he was going to see Ava? Virgil didn’t tell you that he was going there because Lipton said so himself on the tape. Virgil was sneaking behind your backs—because he knew you two, especially Philip, would stop him. So who told you? How did you know he was going to tell Ava about killing Douglas O’Reilly?”