Fort Point (Maine Justice Book 2)

by Davis, Susan Page

  “Did you tell Nadeau we were asking?”

  “When Alison told me, the first thing I thought was that I had to call Tom.” Murphy shook his head. More damage control.

  “What did Tom say?” Harvey asked.

  “He was pretty upset. I told him to come over to my office, but he said there was something he had to do first.”

  “Who put the tape over Fairley’s mouth?” Harvey asked.

  “Philip did.”

  “You’re not just saying that because he’s already dead?”

  “No. He said it would keep the guy quiet until we were out of there. I think that’s how they caught Philip. He dropped his knife after he cut the tape or something. I’ll own up to the vandalism, but not to killing the guy. I didn’t do it.”

  Someone knocked on the door. Harvey opened it, and Mike and Eddie stood outside. Harvey went out, leaving Tony with Murphy.

  Eddie said, “I sent Sarah and Cathy away. Here’s the location.” He handed Harvey a folded piece of paper. “Arnie and the guys are back.” They were clustered near the door to the breakroom.

  Mike said, “The search is started. I put the description of Nadeau’s car and the plate number out. You want to send your men out on this?”

  “Do we have a chance of getting him that way?”

  “You got a better idea?”

  Harvey told them what Murphy had said, that he wanted Nadeau to meet him at his office. “But Nadeau said he had to do something else first.”

  “Destroying evidence?” Eddie wondered.

  “What’s Murphy told you so far?” asked Mike.

  “The burglary. You can watch the rest if you want.”

  “Let’s put these men out on the street. We’ll have someone watch Nadeau’s house, his office, and Murphy’s office, just in case. But he’s probably gotten wind of Murphy’s arrest already.”

  “Bad news travels fast,” said Eddie.

  “Take Nate,” Harvey told him. “Tell Arnie and Pete to go out, too. Who’s coordinating the search?”

  Mike said, “Charlie Doran in the com room. They’re bringing in an extra dispatcher. I’ll have them track your detectives.”

  “Thanks.” Harvey went back into the interview room. Tony started the tape recorder again.

  “Mr. Murphy, we’ve established that you took part in the burglary at Richard Fairley’s house. That may result in a manslaughter charge. Let’s move on to the death of Philip Whitney.”

  Murphy swore softly. “You know everything, don’t you? I couldn’t believe it when I heard about it. Tom and I had talked to him the day before. Philip was going to confess. He said he couldn’t stand it anymore. He was going to the police. Tom had it all worked out to protect us. He had Philip write this elaborate confession that wouldn’t incriminate us. Told Philip that if he really wanted to go through that again, so be it, just don’t drag us down with him. I relied on Tom a lot. It was my first big campaign. I told Tom that if the press got hold of it, my career was over, and he knew it was true. He said it was all set, Philip wouldn’t tell, but I kept saying, ‘How can you be sure?’ Then the next day, Philip was dead.”

  “Did you confront Tom about it?”

  “You bet I did. At first he tried to tell me he couldn’t help it if Philip killed himself. I asked him where Phil got a gun, and after a while he told me it was the gun from the burglary. I knew Tom had taken the gun at the beginning.”

  “So, he admitted killing Philip Whitney?”

  Murphy hesitated. “Not in so many words. But he didn’t deny it after that.” He swung around and faced Harvey. “Look, Tom has been my friend all these years, practically all my life. He’s done a lot for me. I can’t just…” His voice trailed off.

  Harvey didn’t say anything. Murphy put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands, leaning on them.

  “My lawyer should be here.”

  Harvey looked at Tony and jerked his head toward the office. Tony got the message and went out.

  “Let’s talk about the death of Luke Frederick,” Harvey said.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “He came down to the shore to talk to you the morning of the reunion. It wasn’t about his business.”

  “No. He insisted on talking to me alone, so Tom walked away, up the shore toward the lighthouse. Luke said he’d had enough, and he was going to the police. It was the same nightmare all over again. Only now I had more to lose. I begged him not to. He said I couldn’t stop him, and he wasn’t writing any white-washed confession the way Philip had so Tom could kill him. Only by that time, Tom had come back and was standing right behind him.” He closed his eyes. “I just … I was totally in shock.”

  “What was it that shocked you so?”

  Murphy looked at Harvey, then at the tape recorder. “Tom hit him with a rock, and he fell down in the water. I wanted to pull him out. Tom said I was crazy, and to just walk away. We looked around, and there was no one else on the beach. I looked up the path, and I thought someone was up there.”

  “Who was it?”

  “I didn’t know then. His back was to us. But later I recognized Martin Blake by his clothes. He said to me he knew my secrets. When he said that at lunch, I was scared, I admit it. I said to Tom after, ‘He knows,’ but Tom said, ‘No, he doesn’t.’ But Martin had a camera with a long lens. I said to Tom, ‘What if he’s got pictures?’ I was just sick. Alison thought I had a headache. It was all I could do to stay and talk to people. I kept looking toward the water, wondering if the body would go floating past. I started once to walk back to the picnic area and look to see what showed from up above, but Tom said, ‘Don’t be stupid. Stay away from there. If someone goes down there and finds him, you act surprised. If not, so much the better if he floats out to sea.’”

  “So, what did you do?” Harvey asked.

  “I went home.” Murphy covered his face with his hands.

  “And Tom went after Blake,” Harvey said.

  “I don’t know. I swear I don’t know.”

  “But you’ve thought about it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Sir, I can let your wife come up here to see you for a minute if you wish, with an officer in the room. Then I’ll send you down to the booking area. They’ll place you in a holding cell. When your lawyer arrives, he can see you down there.”

  Murphy swore softly. “I can’t go through with this.”

  “Your statement is videotaped, sir. I’ll have it typed up so you can sign it, but we’ll need to have you testify, too. You might get consideration for your cooperation. I can’t guarantee it. There may be conspiracy charges.”

  “I never did anything. I was in that house that night, but that was all.”

  “Thomas Nadeau did a lot of damage control for you, sir. He may have taken your words at Fort Point as instructions to do away with Blake.”

  He swore again.

  Harvey said, “Then there’s Luke Frederick. Conspiracy to conceal a crime. He might have lived if you’d raised the alarm immediately. He had water in his lungs, sir. Have you thought about that these last three weeks? About how you might have saved his life?”

  Tony came in. “Mrs. Murphy and the lawyer are here.”

  Harvey told Murphy, “You can see your wife. When she goes, Officer Winfield will put the handcuffs on you and take you down to booking.” Tony nodded.

  Harvey went out, and Alison Murphy and the overpaid lawyer went in past him.

  The lawyer immediately asked for privacy with his client. Harvey told him he could have it downstairs, as soon as Mrs. Murphy left. Baxter went back in, and soon he and Alison came out, with Alison sobbing. Tony led Murphy out in handcuffs, and they all went to the elevator. Harvey called Terry to tell him they were on their way down.

  Mike came out of Observation.

  “Nice job, Harvey.”

  “Except the killer’s still loose.”

  “You’ll get him.”

  The office was empty then, exc
ept for Paula, Mike, and Harvey.

  Mike said, “Ryan Toothaker was up here. I sent him away with a scrap. Told him we were tying Murphy and Frederick to the cold case burglary. Didn’t mention Nadeau. Hope you don’t mind. It’ll give him something to write up tonight.”

  “Sure. Guess I’ll go check with Charlie in the com room,” Harvey said dejectedly. Mike went upstairs.

  It was twenty minutes to five. Harvey hung around the com room for a while. Charlie assured him they would overlap all the stakeouts and field units when the shift changed. Harvey went down to Records and waited in the hall. When Jennifer came out, he told her he might not make it for counseling.

  “Should I call Pastor and cancel?” she asked.

  He remembered the bridal shower. “No, don’t do that. I’ll try to get there. If I’m late, maybe you can have that session with Mrs. Rowland.”

  She blushed a little. “Call me if you’re going to totally miss it.”

  “Okay. I’d better get upstairs now.”

  The night patrol sergeant, Brad Lyons, flagged him down as he passed through the foyer. “Officer Bard was just going up to your office for her assignment.”

  Harvey walked over to Elaine Bard, who stood by the elevator. He knew the patrol officer by sight, but not well, since they worked different hours and units. She was nearly Harvey’s height and attractive, with reddish hair and green eyes.

  He fished in his pocket for the paper Eddie had given him and put it in her hand. “Here it is. You’re prepared to stay all night to protect the witness?”

  “Yes, they called me. I brought a bag.”

  Brad said, “Her relief will come on at 2 a.m., and we’ll change it again at 8 a.m. You’d better give me the location, unless you want me to call you at two in the morning.”

  “Mill Pond B&B, Room 7,” said Elaine, before Harvey could say anything. He had planned to tell Brad to have the relief call him at 2 a.m.

  “This is strictly confidential,” he said, looking at them.

  “Of course,” said Brad.

  “Definitely,” said Elaine. “Now, what am I dealing with?”

  Harvey walked out to the garage with her, explaining that Sarah had settled the witness at the B&B an hour or two previously. “It’s a very important witness for a sensitive case,” he said.

  Elaine nodded soberly.

  Harvey decided she needed fair warning. “Her ex-husband, whom we believe is a four-time murderer, is at large. So far as I know, he’s not aware that the witness is here in the city, and we need to keep it that way.”

  “No problem,” she said.

  “Elaine, be extra careful. Don’t open to anyone.”

  “Got it.”

  She unlocked her car door.

  “Maybe we should put another officer with you.”

  “I’m already late relieving Sarah.”

  Harvey let her go with some misgivings. He went back upstairs and drank coffee and watched the tape of Murphy’s interview. Then he went over Joel Dixon’s and Cathy Wagner’s and Matt Beaulieu’s statements. He was sure they had Nadeau cold, if they could just find him. Mike came in at quarter to six.

  “I just came from the com room,” he said. “Nothing yet. You ought to send the Priority guys home. You may need them tomorrow.”

  Harvey called Charlie Doran, and the dispatcher told him they’d had a lot of complaint calls because they had the highway buttoned up tight, with road checks at all the exits and entrance ramps. Harvey smiled. Finally he had a case important enough to snarl up the traffic on 295. The chief had ordered it, not him, so he didn’t have to take the blame. It felt good.

  “Can you contact my guys and send them home?” Harvey asked. He gave Charlie the list: Eddie and Nate in Eddie’s truck, Pete and Arnie in Arnie’s car.

  “I’m heading out,” Mike said. “Sharon will be hopping mad because I’m late again.”

  “None of us wrote our reports tonight.”

  “Get them to me Monday. I’ll expect Nadeau’s arrest to be the highlight.”

  As Mike left, Harvey’s cell phone rang. Eddie.

  “I’m staying on this thing, Harv.”

  “Better go home, Ed.”

  “Nah, we’re going to get him tonight. Nate’s staying, too.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In my truck, at the subject’s house.”

  “Real exciting surveillance, I’ll bet. If I get wind of anything better, I’ll call you.”

  Harvey sat down with a mug of coffee and started typing his report. The phone rang.

  “Harvey, this is Lyons. Are you working with the state police on this thing?”

  “We’re sharing information on the Frederick case. Why?”

  “No, I mean on the witness protection thing. Were they going to send another officer over there to help Bard?”

  “No.” The hair was rising on the back of his neck.

  Lyons swore. “We may have blown it.”

  Harvey jumped up, picking up the telephone. “What happened?”

  “Loose lips, that’s what. Apparently one of the clerks heard Bard tell me the 10-20 when you were down here. She said the state police called a minute ago to check on a Mrs. Wagner’s location because they were supposed to send a trooper over to get her. The secretary said something like, ‘Is that the witness they’re protecting?’”

  “Don’t tell me,” Harvey said. “I don’t want to hear it.”

  Lyons told him anyway. “She said it. Mill Pond B & B, Room 7. Just like that. I heard her, and I couldn’t believe it. I grabbed the phone and said, ‘Who is this?’ and they hung up. Harvey, I’m sorry.”

  “That clerk is fired, you hear me? Fired!” Harvey slammed the receiver down.

  He took three deep breaths. He didn’t even have the phone number. He grabbed the phone book and started looking, but his fingers and his eyes wouldn’t coordinate, and he dropped the book on the floor. He pulled out his cell phone and punched Eddie’s code, praying while he waited for him to answer.

  “Thibodeau.”

  “Eddie! You remember the witness location you gave me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Get over there now! Someone’s breached security.”

  “On the way.”

  Harvey sat down and looked up the address. He called Charlie in the com room. “Charlie, send units to 114 Bingley Lane stat.”

  “That’s near the chief’s house.”

  “Send anybody close over there. And alert Officer Bard her location may have been leaked.”

  Harvey hung up and punched Mike’s code on his cell phone.

  “Mike, they blabbed the location downstairs, and I think Nadeau’s got it. It’s on Bingley Lane. Are you near there?”

  “What the Mill Pond B & B?”

  “Yes, yes, Room 7. What’s your ETA?”

  “Thirty seconds.”

  Harvey shoved the phone in his pocket, picked up his jacket and vest, and ran for the stairs. Even he was closer than Eddie had been, but Eddie would have quite a start on him by now. Lyons looked up anxiously when Harvey entered the foyer.

  “Give me a car,” Harvey said.

  “Are you driving?”

  “I don’t think I can right now, I’m so mad.”

  Brad yelled, “Clifford!”

  Thirty seconds later, Joe Clifford and Harvey were in a marked unit, heading for Mike’s neighborhood. Charlie Doran’s voice came over the radio, telling Captain Larson to call in.

  “Larson,” he said a moment later. “What’s up, Charlie?”

  “Officer Bard isn’t responding to my page.”

  Harvey clenched his teeth. Joe had the blue lights flashing, but sirens up close give Harvey a headache, so they kept that off. The radio band was full of noise now. Charlie had called the closest units to the target area and was pulling the outlying ones in tighter. The checks on the highway entrances closest to the target were turned into blockades.

  Mike came on the radio. “This is Chief Browni
ng. Officer down at the Mill Pond on Bingley. 10-57. Subject has been here. The owner reports a male went upstairs. They heard a shot, and the man came out with a woman four minutes ago. No description of the vehicle.”

  Charlie instructed all units to watch for Nadeau’s car, describing it again. Joe drove as fast as he could safely. Harvey decided to trade speed for the headache and switched the siren on to clear the street ahead.

  The sun was still well above the horizon, and visibility was good. He had his glasses on, and he made out a blue light ahead, coming toward them. A black Mercedes with tinted windows came tearing along in the other lane, way over the speed limit. Nadeau’s car. Right behind it was Eddie’s truck, with the siren screaming and the light going.

  “That’s him!” Harvey yelled, and Joe made the first safe U-turn he could and took off after Eddie and Nate. Harvey cut the siren so he could hear the radio better. Nate’s voice was on the air, calling in a chase in progress, with the location. Nadeau got on Route 25 and headed west out of town toward Westbrook, and Eddie’s truck followed. Charlie Doran called ahead and got Westbrook police out there in front of them.

  Harvey and Joe stayed on Eddie’s back bumper until they heard that Westbrook was throwing spike mats down up ahead, then they backed off. Eddie kept hounding Nadeau, but Harvey knew he was prepared for a quick stop. Several other units were behind them now.

  Oncoming traffic disappeared, and he knew Westbrook’s road block was in place. They gave Nadeau some space between the spike mats and the blockade beyond them. He saw the police vehicles and the row of mats at the last minute. Eddie’s brake lights came on. Harvey couldn’t see past his truck very well, but Nadeau hit his brakes and tried to go over on the shoulder, hitting the mat with the driver’s side tires. Harvey prayed he wouldn’t flip the Mercedes. He hadn’t seen Cathy Wagner when the car whizzed by, but he was sure she was in there.