by Gene Epstein
“What brings Philadelphia District Attorney's Office into this?”
“Hi, detective. This is Amanda Dillington. An old acquaintance of mine informed me of the tragic murder of Mrs. Moore. I just wanted to know if you could bring me up to date. According to him that he has been calling you almost weekly asking for information but has been turned down each time. “
“Your friend is Robert Snyder? He's the only one that's been calling me. No one else.”
“Yes. It is Robert Snyder and he told me of his relationship with Mrs. Moore and how tragic it was and still is for him.”
She confirmed.
“Did the son of a bitch tell you he's the sole benefactor of everything?”
Amanda was speechless. There was a significant hesitation before she replied. “Detective Harrison, I hope there's been progress over these past several months. Is there anything that you can share with me on a purely professional level that, I can assure you, will not go back to anyone.”
“So far we have found that there was no break-in. Whoever killed her was someone who had access to her house. We have not found any fingerprints different than those that were usually in the house or about the house. At this point, Robert Snyder seems to have the only motive.”
Amanda asked, "Why would he call you on a continual basis to see if you are progressing?”
“To cloud the issue!” The Detective answered.
“How about other people that you say had access to the house? Have you checked them out?”
“I have,” the detective replied, “and each had an alibi.”
Amanda was torn between her seriously wanting to believe in Robert and her instincts as an assistant district attorney.
***
Robert wished that he had never met with his accountant after going over his financial obligations to pay both the IRS and the State of Pennsylvania. Everything that he was just made aware of meant less and less money for him to the point that he would be in the same financial position as he was two years ago. His obligations, if delayed any longer, would mean penalties. Had he contacted an accountant for a recommendation prior to settlement the minimal advice would have been to postpone settlement until after the first of the year. That alone would have meant that his obligation to pay any taxes to the IRS would not happen until the following year. All accountants believe postpone, postpone. The accountant had requested that Robert bring his last few tax returns so that he could do everything if possible to somehow reduce his tax burdens.
Robert then realized that they were in his duffel bag that he had inadvertently left at Hampton Court the day that he removed his clothes and personal items from his apartment. But months have now passed and he had hoped that no one threw the bag in the trash believing it was unwanted.
Robert called Bill Spaulding's office to ask for the phone number of the new owners when the secretary told him that Bill was not there.
“Do you know where he is?” Robert asked.
The secretary informed him that he was on his way to his car collection in South Philly driving one of his new old cars. Robert knew that Bill kept a few cars in a building that he owned around Fitzwater Street and asked the secretary for the exact address since he wouldn’t be able to be reached on his car phone if he was driving one of his old cars.
Minutes later, Robert was on the way to Bill Spaulding’s garage. Once he arrived at the garage he was surprised to see that it wasn't a four or six-car garage but a very large building that at one time housed a soda bottling company that had since gone out of business. He knocked on the door and a young man opened it moments later. He informed the young man that he was not only a client of Bill Spaulding's but a dear friend.
“Come on in. Follow me.”
To Robert’s amazement he saw at least 75 automobiles, possibly more, lined up like soldiers and each with a sparkling finish. The interior was set up as a museum with gas pumps from the 30s, 40s, and 50s of all models and descriptions and signs from automotive dealerships that had gone out of business plus numerous mannequins dressed in uniforms that gas stations had for their employees during the same periods.
Robert saw the 65 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 111, the 1956 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing even the 1932 Cord four-door convertible but did not notice the 54 Eldorado convertible, which was his favorite car to drive
“Where’s Bill?” he asked the attendant. The young man asked one of the other employees who was polishing a 1937 Cord Phaeton who told him that he went to lunch driving a 1953 Corvette.
“Does anyone know where Bill has the ’54 Eldorado convertible?” Robert asked aloud so that anyone could hear.
From under the hood of one of the automobiles, he heard a voice yell back. “Yeah. He keeps it out at his home.”
He thanked the young man and told him to ask Bill to give him a call when he has a chance. He left closing the door behind him.
He then headed towards Hampton Court hoping that his duffel bag would still be leaning against the wall in the garage where he placed that the first day that moved in.
He pulled up to the entranceway and not knowing the new owners he reached for the telephone intercom box in the stone pier which was hooked up to the main house. Several times he could hear the ring but no one picked up. He was ready to leave a note in the mailbox requesting that someone call him about his duffel bag when he reached into the glove compartment of his car to take a chance to see if the gate opener worked. Like magic it did. The gate opened. He pulled up to the carriage house garage and tried the opener for that and it also opened. Obviously, the new owners didn't feel it was necessary to go to the trouble of having a service person change the codes. The garage doors opened and Robert became instantly and totally confused. There was the 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. But why in the world was the ’54 El Dorado there when his guys in the shop told him that Bill had the car at his house? Sure enough behind the left rear of the Cadillac leaning against the wall was his duffel bag exactly where he left it the first day that he moved into Hampton Court. He picked it up and closed the doors behind him then exited the premises still in a quandary.
Robert was getting visibly upset. Did his friend and lawyer lie to him? Why was the ’54 Cadillac Eldorado in the garage when his employees said that it was parked at Bill Spaulding's house? He thought that the best thing would be to confront Bill Spaulding.
Chapter 11
After receiving a call from the assistant district attorney Amanda Dillington, Detective Harrison started looking through his file which was sitting beneath a half a dozen other current cases. He realized that they had little or nothing to go on, nor any evidence and he had more pressing things, therefore he had been neglecting the murder investigation of Mrs. Moore. If he had been more thorough he realized that he would've picked up the information that Mrs. Moore left her entire estate to Robert Snyder and not Robert Snyder voluntarily telling him about it when he never asked.
He then found the information regarding Victor, the groundskeeper, and called some of the other neighbors he worked for trying to locate him. After three calls one neighbor Ted Johnson who lived in a small estate on the same road confirmed that Victor was there. Harrison asked Mr. Johnson to please tell Victor to remain there that he was on the way over.
In this file was also information regarding William Spaulding, the attorney who had an alibi as to where he was that entire evening. Harrison had placed a call to his house a couple of days after the murder took place and spoke to a woman who said she was Mrs. Spaulding and she verified that he was there from early that evening until he went to work the next day.
He was too frustrated trying to get through and make sense of the housekeeper, Stasha, and really never followed up with anything regarding her. He never realized that Stasha was supposed to get the information about Aleksander, her boyfriend. Then there was the physical therapist, Joanne, who he had only spoken to on the phone just one time. Since Mrs. Moore had lost her keys did the physical therapist take them
and possibly give them to someone to rob the house? Could Victor have come back into the house using the key that he had or give it to someone? Did the housekeeper pick up the key and pretend that she was hysterical seeing the dead body? He was hoping that he could put this together one way or another without any interference from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. He was recently criticized one time by his peers for being lax in following up important cases and he didn't want this one to bite him in the backside when his retirement was less than one a year away.
Harrison got into his black unmarked sedan and headed to meet Victor. As he was nearing the neighbor’s house, he passed Hampton Court on his right. In another quarter mile or so was the property where Victor was working. He saw someone on a Kubota tractor with a frontend loader pulling a tag-along trailer. His first thought was That must be Victor.
The young man was wearing headphones. Harrison tooted his horn three times quickly to get his attention, but no luck. He did it again leaning on the horn a little harder and that definitely worked. The young man turned around. It was in fact the young man that he interviewed at Hampton Court. When Victor walked over to the detective’s sedan, Harrison reached out to shake his hand.
“Victor. There were some things in my report that Detective Simpson noted in his follow up that need to be answered. The first concern is that when we did a background check on you it seems that you have four different addresses in the past two years none of which matches your driver’s license nor your Social Security card information. Please explain this. “
With a Spanish accent, Victor tried to explain and opened his wallet to show Detective Harrison that he has a new address pointing out to the address he had written on a business card from a real estate agent. Then Victor explained that the places that he lived had multiple families sharing one apartment and he rented a room for himself from one of them.
“They no stay there long. They get better job and go somewhere else. So I find new place myself,” he tried to explain. "I now live here. I want my own place with no other peoples.” He showed the business card once again.
Victor then reached into his back pocket and unfolded a two-page apartment rental lease agreement in his own name. The Detective looked over the lease and noticed something a little unusual. For security deposit, it showed one-year rental paid in full in advance.$6000. He wondered where did this laborer get $6000 to pay one year in advance?
He then asked Victor for the name of the previous landlord where he lived; however, he did not know since he paid his rent for the room to the person that leased it. Without success, Harrison was ready to leave when he said, “Victor, tell me about your arrest two years ago.”
“I no arrested. Never. Maybe you got some other Victor?”
Harrison wondered if that may be the case and said his goodbyes telling Victor to call his office no later than two weeks from today leaving him his business card.
Next to find Joanne. She had made just two physical therapy visits to Mrs. Moore at the same time Mrs. Moore was aware that her keys had disappeared. When he returned to the office he had Detective Harold Simpson bring him the folder with whatever information he found on the therapist, Joanne Lawrence. Detective Harrison was embarrassed to see how thin the file was. It was basically her name, address, telephone number, and a synopsis of the conversation that Simpson had with her.
It read as follows: "Contacted Joanne Lawrence who said that she was home with a friend and had only visited Mrs. Moore on two occasions. She denied ever taking the house keys and was sorry to hear that she had been murdered.”
“That’s it?” Harrison looked at Simpson with a pissed off expression on his face. “It looks like you spent two minutes on this.Find out where she is. And do it now. Top priority!” demanded Harrison.
Detective Harrison knew that everybody dropped the ball here including himself. He could see why people around him we're getting upset that he just was looking at the clock for retirement and wasn't doing the excellent work for which he had been known for close to twenty years.
He presented a copy of the file to a young rookie. “Run a background check on this and make sure it's totally thorough. Also if there's any other names that pop-up as being associated with them, do background checks on them.”
Harrison looked at all everyone who was there or had access pinning a 3x5 index card with each name to his bulletin board.
Less than 30 minutes later the rookie detective gave Harrison a file that was larger than the entire file covering everyone in or around the investigation.
“I'd like to put my foot up Simpson's ass. What kind of detective worth his salt would not have done a complete criminal background check on her? I don't see a background check on anyone.” Harrison was frustrated that he let all this slip by under his watch. He was yelling out loud to himself.
From the records he was looking at, it was clear that Joanne Lawrence not only could have ‘dirty hands’ but that she was arrested twice during a drug bust investigation, although she was subsequently released. Her arrest occurred when she was living with a known drug dealer, Chaz Galloni. He was previously arrested multiple times; however, each time witnesses changed their story.
“That's Simpson. That dumb piece of shit! How in the world could he have not checked this out?” A totally frustrated Harrison was talking to himself once again.
“Simpson. Simpson. Get your ass in here now!” yelled Harrison and Detective Harold Simpson came running from his desk 50 feet away.
“If I wasn't here for close to 20 years I could see how my superiors, after looking at such a piece of crap follow up on a homicide, would want to throw me out. Tell me why I shouldn't report you?” Harrison questioned.
“Teddy. I went over this with you a few months ago and you were upset about something personal and told me just to finish it up and go home,” Detective Simpson stated. “I just did what you told me to do. Tell me what you want me to do.”
“Bring her in here as soon as you can. We've got plenty of questions for her,” instructed Detective Theodore Harrison.
Simpson picked up the file and brought it over to his desk. He placed a call to her which was not answered. He left a message on the answering machine. “Miss Lawrence. This is Detective Harold Simpson. I need just a minute of your time to clear up some confusion regarding the ongoing investigation of Mrs. Jacqueline Phyllis Moore. Please call me as soon as possible. Thank you.” Simpson hung up.
Chapter 12
“Good afternoon. This is Robert Snyder calling for William Spaulding.”
“He will be with you in a moment, Mr. Snyder,” the congenial secretary informed Robert.
“Hi, Robert. What's going on in your fascinating new life?” inquired Spaulding.
“Bill. I'm really confused. I went to look for you since your secretary thought that you were at your shop where you have your old cars stored. One of your employees told me that I just missed you, that you just took a 1953 Corvette out for a test drive and lunch. I was amazed seeing all the gorgeous and rare automobiles that you have there. Here I thought that you told me that you had four or five car…. Anyway, I saw the ’65 Rolls Royce, the ’32 Cord, and the ’56 Gullwing Mercedes but I didn't see the ’54 Eldorado. One of the guys yelled from under the hood of a car that it was at your house,” Robert rattled off.
“So?” Bill asked.
“So, I went to an accountant’s office that had been recommended to me to go over my tax returns for this year and was shocked. I don't want to digress but he told me that he needed some of my past tax returns to see if he could save me taxes when I realized that they were in my duffel bag which I left at Hampton Court in the garage. I then drove back to Hampton Court. I pulled up and picked up the intercom to call for permission to enter and no one answered. I tried to call three times and still no one responded. I took the remote out of the glove compartment of my car and it opened the gate. I pulled up to my old apartment and did not want to enter the house. I tried
the remote for the garage door and it still worked. In the back corner on the right side of the building was my duffel bag. I was shocked seeing right next to it was the 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible which one of your employees said was at your house.”
Bill Spaulding responded, “I left the car there since I didn't have enough space for it in my garage on Fitzwater Street and the new owners were fine with me leaving it there until I had room. Whoever told you that just assumed it was at my house.”
Robert was relieved hearing that and understood that it certainly made sense.
“Do you know that I may wind up with absolutely nothing after paying the inheritance tax to both the State of Pennsylvania which they already took at settlement and what I might owe IRS?”
“Honestly Robert, I never had any thoughts about the ramifications of the transaction affecting you tax-wise. It never came into my mind.”
“Forgive me for jumping to conclusions,” Robert apologized.
“No problem,” Bill said.
Robert felt mentally relieved knowing that his friend, agent and attorney had been forthright all along. After that Robert placed a call to his accountant leaving a message on his answering machine informing him that he had his previous few years of tax returns which showed minimal income and asked when can they meet?
While waiting to get a meeting together with his accountant he placed a call to Amanda Dillington. She also was not in her apartment and he didn't want to bother her at work.
“Call me when you get a chance. Looking forward to getting together.” Robert left the message on her answering machine and 30 seconds later Amanda called him.
“That's pretty quick,” Robert said as soon as he heard Amanda's voice.
“What’s pretty quick?” she asked. Robert told her that he just left a message on her answering machine and she just called back. Amanda explained to Robert that she is still at work and didn't get any message. She told him that she was calling to see if he was in the mood for dinner when she actually wanted to confront him for never mentioning that he was the sole beneficiary.