Julius Katz and Archie

by Dave Zeltserman

  It was a quarter to three when they finished their strategizing. Burke told Julius he was going to catch up with his camera crew and head over to Chinatown for an hour; that there were some lowlifes there that he wanted to spread the word to about any thirty-two caliber guns being sold and knowledge of any paid hits, but that he’d be back by four. Once he was gone, I applauded Julius lightly, telling him, “Bravo.”

  “You played that woman like a world-class concert violinist would play a Stradivarius. You knew Herston and her husband had nothing to with any of this. You brought her here only because you wanted a fee out of someone for solving this murder.”

  “Archie, you’re mistaken. While I might not believe it’s likely that Mrs. Herston or her husband are involved with this murder and attempted murder, I’m not certain of that yet, nor am I certain that her affair with Kingston had nothing to do with it. She and her husband need to be investigated.”

  “And you needed to squeeze sixty grand out of her. The money you already got out of Kingston wasn’t enough?”

  Julius exaggerated a look of hurt. “Archie, that’s unkind,” he said. “If I am able to eliminate her and her husband from suspicion without the police or her husband ever knowing of her affair then she’ll be getting value for her money, and I suspect even more value if I find that her husband is involved. Besides, all I squeezed out of her for myself is thirty grand, assuming I’m successful, and the fee that Kingston paid me was for a different matter than this investigation.”

  More of that tired argument regarding the money Kingston paid him and what his resulting moral obligations were. In case I hadn’t mentioned it yet, Julius could be as bullheaded as they come.

  “I still don’t get why you needed to investigate her,” I said, “I thought you had some sort of half-baked wisp?”

  “Which is still too ethereal for me to grasp,” Julius stated stubbornly.

  Before I could argue any further, the doorbell rang, interrupting us. I checked the outdoor webcam feed. Cramer stood outside and he didn’t look to be in a particularly happy mood.

  Chapter 18

  I’d never seen anything like it the way Cramer’s face went from a pale flesh color to red and then to a chalky white all within a matter of four point eight seconds. I tried searching online medical journals to see if I could find any articles explaining this phenomenon. Of course I knew the cause; extreme incredulousness mixed with an intense burst of rage, but still, I found it fascinating that a person’s skin color could change that fast and that dramatically.

  This happened while they were sitting in Julius’s office. Julius had already told Cramer about Paul Burke going from suspect to actively working the case with him, and also that Julius had given Burke’s camera crew carte blanche to record the upcoming proceedings that were to take place in Julius’s office. Those announcements left Cramer smiling in a funny way, as if he thought a practical joke were being played on him and he was waiting for the punch line. The rapid color changes happened when Julius told Cramer that he couldn’t show him the recording he made when he questioned Burke earlier.

  Cramer’s initial reaction to Julius telling him this was his mouth dropping open and his eyes confused as if he couldn’t quite process what Julius had said. When it finally hit him, that was when the color show happened. At first he was too flabbergasted to speak. When he finally could, he was so angry his voice came out as a choked whisper.

  “I trusted you, Katz! And you’re going to pull this stunt on me!”

  “And what stunt would that be?”

  “What stunt? Are you out of your mind? You promised me I could be there when you interrogated each of your six suspects!”

  “The situation couldn’t be helped,” Julius said calmly. “I’ve already filled you in on all the pertinent facts that I got from Burke, which is what I promised you.”

  “You promised me I’d be able to watch the recording you made of the two of you!”

  “No sir, I did not. I told you we’d see as far as that went. I could’ve lied to you and told you my recording equipment failed, or made up any number of other excuses. Instead I told you the truth, which is that I have my reasons why I can’t show you my recording. Why do you need to see it so badly? Do you have any reason to suspect Mr. Burke of committing either of these shootings?”

  “That’s besides the point—”

  “No it’s not,” Julius said, still keeping his tone calm as he cut Cramer off. “I am satisfied that my best chance of catching this person by my midnight deadline is by acting as I’m currently doing, which includes having Mr. Burke work with me. I need to ask you to trust my judgment.”

  “Like hell I will! With the stunts you’ve been pulling, I’m not about to trust you with another damn thing!” Cramer was seething now. For a moment I thought he was going to get out of his chair and take a swing at Julius. Fortunately for him that moment passed. It wouldn’t have helped his mood any with what Julius would’ve done if he had tried something like that, nor would he be feeling particularly good with his arm needing to be in a cast for six to eight weeks.

  Cramer took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down, and then added, “You can forget about me bringing any of those witnesses to you. You want to talk to them, you find a way yourself to bring them here.”

  “I will have to try to do that then,” Julius said with a shrug. “It’s a shame, though. Timing is critical with what I have in mind, and your current attitude is jeopardizing my ever catching this person. But I guess if you feel you’ll be able to solve Kingston’s murder by yourself, then that won’t matter.”

  That stopped Cramer in his tracks. His breathing grew shallow as he eyed Julius carefully. I was sure at that moment Cramer was thinking the same as me; that he would be giving Julius an out, and that maybe that was Julius’s intention all along. That if he now failed to meet his midnight deadline he could blame it on the police not cooperating with him.

  “So what?” Cramer asked with a petulant scowl, but he was still eyeing Julius cautiously. “With the stunts you’re pulling why should I think you’re going to catch this guy? And yes, I mean guy in the generic sense, so you damn well better not try to correct me!” He sniffed to show how injured he was by Julius’s actions. “With what you’re doing, why shouldn’t I believe there’s a better chance of you leaving my investigation in shambles than you actually catching this generic guy?”

  “Let me explain myself to you then,” Julius said, his tone like ice. “I do not like being shot at. I also do not like the precedent being set that I can be shot at with impunity. I also do not like that I am a virtual prisoner in my home because someone is out there skulking about with the intent to shoot at me if allowed another opportunity to do so. You are wrong if you believe I am not doing everything I have to to catch this person.”

  For a good minute Cramer clamped his jaw shut and sat staring at Julius in such a way that I imagined steam coming from his ears. Reluctantly, though, he gave in. He wasn’t happy about it, but he gave in because he had no choice in the matter.

  “Katz, I’ll bring them here as promised,” he said, his voice surprisingly not the raspy croak it usually was but instead calm and with a fair amount of timbre to it. “I’ll be here when you question them, and by God, if you don’t do as you promised there will be consequences.”

  He left then without bothering to say what the consequences would be. Once he was gone, I remarked to Julius that he was back to calling Julius by his last name.

  “I wouldn’t be too worried about it,” I told him. “He’s probably just grumpy after being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night last night. I can’t blame you for that stunt you pulled not letting him watch the recording of you and Burke. It probably would’ve gotten his blood pressure going, plus you’d be losing out on a twenty-five grand bonus from Herston. If you had asked I could’ve edited out all references to her, but—”

  “That’s enough, Archie.”

  I listen
ed to him. From his tone I knew if I didn’t stop I could find myself taking another nap, and I didn’t want to miss the show that was coming.

  Chapter 19

  First up was Gail Kingston. When four o’clock came, she had the seat of honor across from Julius, while Cramer and two other cops sat in back and Burke sat in a chair that had been moved up front so that it was maybe three feet from Julius’s. This had been prearranged while they were strategizing. Burke wanted them to look like equals while they questioned the suspects even if he was planning to defer to Julius, plus this way both of them would be seen in the shot. Julius agreed to this, and so one of the chairs was moved up front. Rounding things out were Cantrell and DiNatale, who stood off to the side and tried to be as unobtrusive as possible, even though that didn’t stop Cramer from periodically glaring at them, at least for the first fifteen minutes. Then he seemed to forget they were there.

  Gail Kingston, now a widow, was dressed conservatively in black, and unlike her other visit to Julius’s office, wore no makeup or jewelry. Two days ago her skin had seemed tightly stretched across her face; now it was almost as if it was sagging. There was a haggardness about her, and to me she didn’t look as if she had slept much the other night either. My money was on her. She had both opportunity, motive and means to commit the murder. And I didn’t put much stock in Burke’s assessment. I didn’t think she’d have any problem shooting someone up close and personal. I filled Julius in on the pertinent facts from my profile, including that she owned a licensed thirty-eight caliber pistol. Maybe it wasn’t a thirty-two, but it meant she knew something about guns, especially how to fire them. I also told him about the five thousand dollar withdrawal she made, which I was now thinking was used to buy an untraceable thirty-two caliber revolver.

  Gail Kingston had already declined Julius’s offer for refreshments. Burke had a Rolling Rock and Julius was joining him, having one also, although he drank his out of a glass while Burke drank from the bottle. Cramer and the other two cops, like Gail Kingston, declined Julius’s offer, even for water. For several minutes Julius sat and stared at her, I guess trying to look deep into her eyes to read her guilt. It was a good thing for him she wasn’t wearing sunglasses. She wasn’t doing very well under his glare, and after a while began pulling nervously at her fingers. Finally she met Julius’s eyes and asked if there was a purpose to this.

  “Of course,” Julius said. He was gruff. “And that’s to discover who murdered your husband.”

  She wilted a bit at that, but forced herself to meet his gaze. “By sitting here and staring at me? That’s how you plan to find out who killed Ken?”

  Julius shrugged. “Possibly,” he said. “But never mind that for now. The other day when I questioned you about what I thought was obvious hostility on your part, you told me that I was mistaken, that I had misread you and that you were instead worried about your husband being late, because as you told me he was never late. Do you remember that?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “I found that interesting,” Julius said. “Your demeanor didn’t change once I explained that your husband wasn’t late as you had thought, but instead would be joining us a half hour later, nor did it change once it became apparent that he really was late.”

  “I didn’t know what was going on,” she muttered out of the side of her mouth, her lips barely moving.

  “Really? Once he didn’t show up at two-thirty like he was supposed to, I would’ve thought if you were truly worried about him that you would’ve tried calling him.”

  “I left that for you to do.”

  Julius gave her a skeptical look. “Please,” he said. “Don’t treat me like an idiot. I’m not one. There was no concern or worry on your part. You made that obvious, both by the way you acted and by not even asking me if I had any idea why your husband failed to show up.”

  She had lost whatever timidity she might’ve shown earlier and was now glaring coldly at him, her blue eyes like ice chunks.

  “So I was annoyed with him as you first suspected,” she said. “So I didn’t want to admit that to you. So what?”

  “Why wouldn’t you admit that?”

  “Why?” she asked. “I’m in a room with people who knew Ken. I didn’t want to say something like that in front of them. So instead I put on a good face and tried not to bad-mouth my husband in front of them.”

  “Okay,” Julius said, accepting that, or at least accepting the possibility that she wasn’t still lying to him. “Possibly admirable. But why were you so annoyed with him?”

  Her bottom lip started trembling then. Her mouth pressed tightly together as she fought back the tears. She fumbled with her pocketbook and took out a handkerchief, which she used to dab at her eyes. Julius sat back and waited. Maybe this was an act on her part, maybe it wasn’t. I couldn’t tell with her, and I couldn’t tell from Julius’s reaction what he thought. I tried researching papers from the John Hopkins Medical Center website on psychopathic personalities, and all I came away with was that this could be an act or it could be genuine. I just didn’t know. While a few tears had popped loose, she mostly kept the floodgates from bursting open.

  “My husband was murdered only two days ago,” she finally forced out, her voice a wreck. “Don’t you have even a shred of empathy? Do you really need to ask me these questions?”

  “Madam, if you’re not involved then you will have my sympathies,” Julius said, curtly. “But not now. Now is the time to catch the person who did this, and if you’re not involved I would think you would want to do whatever is necessary to see me do that. If you are involved then the best I can suggest is for you walk out of here immediately, because if you lie to me or try to deflect my questions, it won’t help you a damn bit. One more time. Why were you so annoyed with your husband?”

  If she was guilty, she wasn’t about to take Julius’s advice, for she didn’t get up and leave his office like he had suggested. Instead, she sat where she was and continued to meet his stare, her cheeks going from a pale white to showing a flush of pink as she did so.

  “I was annoyed with Ken because he wouldn’t tell me what his meeting at your office was about,” she said. “That’s why I left the condo when I did. I found it too infuriating to stay there with him. Are you happy?”

  “No, hardly,” Julius said, nor did he look happy. “I told the police that your husband hired me for a publicity stunt. That was a lie. He hired me because he suspected that you were planning to kill him and he wanted me to investigate.”

  Her only reaction to that was her eyes narrowing and her mouth shrinking to a tiny oval. “You’re lying now,” she said, her voice a harsh whisper.

  I expected an explosion out of Cramer from this, and was surprised to see only a hard smile and nothing else. Maybe Julius called him this morning from the third floor to warn him about this ploy, or maybe the way he smiled was just him telling himself that he had been right all along about Julius being full of it. In any case, he kept his composure. Burke also kept his. He had been sitting enigmatically through all of this, and his only reaction to Julius’s announcement was his eyes widening by as much as an eighth of an inch.

  “I’m afraid not,” Julius said with his best poker face. “I’m sure you must’ve been wondering about the other people invited that day. Your husband suspected you of having an affair with one of them.”

  She cracked then. Not a dramatic crack, but still, a hitch showed for half a second along the side of her mouth, and it was a dead giveaway, and she knew it. She didn’t try arguing with him. She knew it was pointless. Cramer picked up on this and his expression became more intense as he stared at Gail Kingston. Same with Burke.

  “No accusations of me lying now?” Julius asked.

  She didn’t answer him. I don’t think she was capable of it right then. Still, Julius waited for a good ten-count before he continued.

  “It only took a few minutes of observing the dynamics between all of you to know which one you’re involved
with,” Julius said. “Would you like to come clean?”

  Her face had drained of its color, and she seemed incapable of responding to Julius. I analyzed the recording I made Thursday during their meeting, as well as the profiles I had built for all of them, and I got it. Once I was looking for it, it stood out as bright as day. I said the name to Julius, and he signaled with a scratch alongside his nose to let me know that I was right.

  “This was mostly from his behavior,” Julius confided in her. “He displayed an almost dismissive haughtiness towards you that was so far beyond any normal social conventions that it was clear to me there was something going on between you two, as well as the way you passively accepted his extreme rudeness.”

  “So I was cheating on Ken,” she said, finally finding her voice, although she didn’t sound very good, almost as if she were being strangled. “You’re still lying that Ken ever suspected me of wanting to kill him.”

  “Whether he truly suspected you or simply told me that he did, I can’t say,” Julius admitted. “But you still picked a man whom he despised. Herbert Richardson.”

  Burke made a loud snorting noise at the sound of Richardson’s name as if something had caught in his sinuses. He apologized for his unintentional outburst. I doubted whether Gail Kingston noticed the noise or his apology.

  “You know why I did it,” she told Julius, her voice still a strangled whisper. “Ken was cheating on me, so I wanted to hurt him by picking someone he hated and found repulsive in all possible ways. Yes, I wanted to hurt Ken. I wanted him to know that if he cheated on me, I could do worse by sleeping with someone like Herbert. But I certainly didn’t want to kill him. As much as I hated him for what he was doing to me, I still loved him.”