The FBI Thrillers Collection

by Catherine Coulter

  “Dammit, yes. Let’s go!”

  “You don’t want a lawyer present?”

  “No, I just want you to hear the truth!”

  Delion gave him his Miranda rights, asked him if he understood, to which Milt spewed out more obscenities before he said yes, he understood his rights, to the tape recorder.

  “Okay, Milt, tell me what happened.”

  McGuffey said, “Look, Stuckey called me a couple days ago, said this guy down in LA wanted me to scare this broad at a priest’s funeral. Stuckey said he’d give me ten grand, but I had to do it in the middle of the service, for God’s sake, in front of hundreds of people, which sounded real stupid to me, but he said that was the way it had to be. I didn’t want to do that, but Stuckey had me by the short hairs, you know? I owe him money, some bad investment decisions, you know? So I had to take the job or he might have broken both my legs. But it was never murder, oh no.

  “Stuckey had a gun for me, and a silencer, and said the shooter had to be me, it just had to. When I asked him why, he laughed and said, ‘You look just right, Milt,’ that’s what the guy said. ‘You look just right, maybe even perfect for the role.’ Whatever the fuck that means.”

  He really did look just right, Dane thought. A good physical resemblance. Damn, nothing was ever easy.

  “You really expect me to buy this?” Savich said, lounging back in the uncomfortable chair, looking bored.

  Milt sat forward, clasping his hands in front of him, like he was ready to pray. “Look, Inspector, like I told you, I had to have the money. I had to pay off Stuckey or I was in really deep shit. Then there’s my disability and that jerk of a landlord is nearly ready to throw me out. Hey, I was just three days away from sitting on Union Square, leaning against the Saint Francis Hotel, begging for money. I had to take the job. A man’s gotta survive, you know? A man’s gotta pay off his bad investment decisions.”

  Delion had sat back in his chair, his arms folded over his chest, a sneer on his face. “You want us to believe that this guy specifically told Stuckey it had to be you because you just looked right? You were perfect for the role?”

  “I swear it. Hey, Stuckey told me the LA guy’s name was DeFrosh—weird name—you’d never forget that stupid name.

  “Stuckey said the guy faxed him a photo of the lady I was to give scare to, you know, shoot her just a little bit but not kill her, I wouldn’t ever do that. Yeah, the guy told Stuckey that the broad was homeless, but hey, she sure didn’t look homeless in the church, but what do I know? How would the guy in LA know about that? Stuckey didn’t tell me nuthing else, I swear it.”

  Dane looked down at Nick, who was as white as the bra he’d watched her pick out in their marathon shopping spree. It was just this morning. Amazing.

  Savich said, “What did you do with the photo he faxed of the lady?”

  “Stuckey has it, just showed it to me, then took it right back.”

  “What did it look like?”

  “She was coming out of this police station with that guy who’s standing beside her out there, you know, that dead priest’s brother. It didn’t look like no police station I’ve ever seen in San Francisco. Yeah, Stuckey’s got it. She’s a looker, I wasn’t about to forget her. Like I said, she sure didn’t look homeless in the church so for a while there I wasn’t sure it was really her.”

  The bastard took the photo in LA. Dane couldn’t believe it.

  “So you recognized the priest’s brother?”

  “Oh yeah, heard people talking about how he and Father Michael Joseph looked identical and it really shook some people up. Everybody was real quiet, you know? Everyone was focused on that guy and what he was saying. Lots of them were crying just listening to him. Then she had the nerve to move—no reason that I could see, she just lowered her head right when I pulled the trigger. Jesus, I could have killed her, but thank the good Lord that it went just like it was supposed to. Yeah, the bullet just grazed her.”

  “Tell us more about this guy from LA.”

  “I don’t deal with people I don’t know, at least usually, and neither does Mickey Stuckey. He said he knew the guy, knew he was good for the money. Hey, he gave me five thousand up front. He told me his name was DeFrosh—I already told you that. Really weird, man.”

  Milton McGuffey put his head down on his folded arms and began to cry again. Everyone heard him say over his sobs, “I don’t want to go to jail, but now I’ll have to do time just because I put a little crease in the broad’s forehead.” He raised his head. “I want Stuckey to go down. I never should have agreed to do it in the church.”

  Delion said, “You didn’t realize there would be cops there?”

  “Stuckey told me there’d probably be a couple there, but if I got my timing right, I’d get away, no problem. Damned bastard, that Stuckey. I really want him to go down, he set the whole thing up.”

  Savich said as he himself smiled down at McGuffey, “Yes, he’ll go down, all right, Milt, just as soon as we catch him.”

  McGuffey’s jaw literally dropped open. He stared at Savich for a very long time.

  He said, “Shit, man.”

  Then he yelled at the top of his lungs, “I want a lawyer!”

  Delion looked over at Savich, who was speaking to Lieutenant Purcell. They heard her say she’d already put out an APB on Mickey Stuckey, aka Bomber Turkel, the most creative of all his aliases. Delion said, “That guy is something else, Dane. He’s your boss?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been in his unit for about five months now.”

  “Smooth as butter,” Delion said. “I was thinking about letting you have a go at Milton, but he knew you, knew you weren’t a cop, so that wouldn’t have worked. And there was Savich, looking ready, even smiling a little, and I knew he had something up his sleeve. He did good, didn’t he?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “His wife, her name is really Sherlock?”

  Dane nodded, smiled. “Yes, they’re quite a team.”

  “You know,” Delion said, “I’ve been in court with Sherlock’s dad. Now there’s a tough, high-powered dude. Defense lawyers hate his guts. They bitch about having the rotten luck to end up with the only law-and-order judge in San Francisco. Cops love him, needless to say.”

  “Yes,” Dane said. “Too bad that Milton McGuffey isn’t a bit more stupid. The DA’ll have trouble proving attempted murder. We need Stuckey. At least Milt verified—and it’s probably the only thing he said that was true—that the guy who hired him lives in LA and his name’s DeFrosh. Damn, Milton isn’t the killer, Delion.”

  “Yeah, I know, but we’re getting there, Dane. I’m going to call Flynn, tell him what happened. He’s gonna love it that the creep who set this all up told Milton his name was DeFrosh.”

  Dane said, “Maybe he thinks we’re slow—DeFrosh even rhymes with DeLoach. What is he trying to prove? Is it his goal to get up close and personal with us? Or maybe he just wants us to believe that Weldon DeLoach is the killer?” Dane stopped when he saw Nick leaning against a wall, actually against a gray file cabinet since there was no wall showing. “Hey, you okay, Nick?”

  She said as she lightly touched her fingertips to the bandage on her forehead, “In this case, it really does look worse than it really is. I’m okay, just resting a bit.”

  Delion said, “I don’t know, Nick. I think you look kind of cute. In a pathetic sort of way. If you want a safe house now, I’ll bet the lieutenant will spring for it.”

  Dane said, “No, I’m keeping her with me. Are you in, Delion? We’re all going to LA tomorrow.”

  “I’m ahead of you, boyo,” Delion said. “I already called Franken. He said there was still no sign of Weldon. He’s got everybody looking for him, but he doesn’t hold much hope of finding him. Since the police are looking, too, maybe someone will see him. Franken’s going to meet us at the studio at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. He’s got some video of Weldon DeLoach.”

  “We’ll finally see what the man looks like,” Nick sai
d.

  “Yep,” Delion said. “And there’s lots of stuff to go over with Flynn. He’s got a small army of people working on the personnel lists, interviews, checking alibis, possible motives. We’ve got a lot to tell him as well.”

  He looked over at Savich and Sherlock and rolled his eyes. “More Feds. It always starts with a single Fed—sort of like reconnaissance—then you look up and the Feds are converging, multiplying like rabbits until soon they’re everywhere and they’ve taken over. Hey, FBI Director Mueller will be out here before long. He comes from here, you know. Hey, you guys coming with us to LA?”

  “Count us in,” Sherlock said, coming to stand by Nick.

  Savich said, “What’s this about the gun that killed Dane’s brother being like the two possible guns in the Zodiac killer case? What was that—some thirty years ago?”

  “Ain’t that a kick?” Delion said. “It’s got our ballistics guy, Zopp, nearly drooling he’s so excited, telling one blonde joke after another.” At Sherlock’s raised eyebrow, he grinned. “Yeah, Zopp says blonde jokes help his synapses fire. But you know, it has to be a coincidence, has to be.”

  “Hmmm,” Sherlock said. “Yeah, it’s a coincidence, but it’s a strange one.”

  Delion said, “Hey, Sherlock, you as tough as your daddy?”

  “He likes to think so,” Sherlock said, and smiled real big. There were three other inspectors standing close by, grinning like loons at her.

  “Local cops really like her,” Savich said, and just shook his head, and Delion thought, Boy, that guy’s proud of her.

  Savich said, “So you don’t mind if we tag along to LA with you, Delion?”

  “More the merrier,” Delion said. “Hey, Lieutenant, any word on Stuckey yet?”

  “Not yet, but we’ll get him.” Lieutenant Linda Purcell looked around at all the assembled homicide inspectors and said, “Everyone saw how Savich worked the guy around? How he got Stuckey’s name out of him?”

  There were boos and hisses from the cops. A couple of inspectors threw some peanuts.

  Before Dane left, Delion motioned him aside to tell him that Nick’s fingerprints weren’t on file.

  “Hey, at least we know she’s not a criminal.”

  “I already came to that conclusion for myself,” Dane said.

  SEVENTEEN

  LOS ANGELES

  Jon Franken, assistant director of The Consultant, said, “We couldn’t find any photos, but as I told you on the phone, Inspector Delion, we did find something every bit as good.” He flipped a switch on the video feed and pointed. “That’s Weldon—second guy on the left, the one just standing off to the side, arms crossed over his chest, watching everyone be idiots. He watches a whole lot, just stands back in the shadows, claims it gives him ideas. Whatever, he does have brilliant ideas.”

  “Freeze it,” Dane said and looked at Nick as the screen held the image. The fact was she already looked frozen. She had to be afraid, looking at the man who very possibly hired Milton McGuffey to murder her, the man who might have killed his brother. Dane lightly touched his fingers to her forearm. “Nick?”

  “I don’t know, I just don’t know.” She turned to look up at Dane. “Maybe the bone structure is similar.” She shrugged. “It’s pretty scary.”

  “I know. Now, Nick, I want you to forget the hair, the tan, the eyes—it could all be cosmetic alterations. Study his face, the way he moves, how he talks using his hands.”

  She said finally, “Maybe, I just don’t know. I just can’t be sure. He looks so different.”

  Delion said, “Milton McGuffey—would you have spotted him if he hadn’t shot you?”

  “You want brutal honesty here? The answer is I’m just not sure. Probably. Yes, I probably would have said something.”

  Flynn said, “From everything you’ve told me, the reason our perp selected McGuffey is because of the way he looks—that is, he looks a lot like him. Now, Mr. Franken, you still don’t have a clue where Weldon DeLoach is.”

  Franken shook his head. “Sorry, like I already told you, he’ll be here when he wants to be here. If he’s in LA, he’ll be coming around. Weldon is a man of very set habits.”

  “Mr. Franken,” Nick said, “has Mr. DeLoach always looked like this? Darkly tanned, really light hair?”

  “Why, yes,” Franken said. “As long as I’ve known him. And that’s about eight years now. Why do you ask?”

  Dane said to Nick, “If our guy is DeLoach, then when you saw him, he was most certainly wearing a wig, contacts. As for losing the tan, I’m not sure how that would be done except with makeup.”

  “But why would he bother?” Nick said. “He sure didn’t expect me to be sitting in the church.”

  “Yeah, but he would have seen a lot of people while he was in San Francisco. Maybe the disguise was for any- and everyone.”

  Franken said, rubbing his elegant long fingers over his chin, “I don’t think Weldon DeLoach is the murderer. He—he’s just not the type to kill anyone. As I told you before, it’s just not in him.”

  Dane remembered Wolfinger had called DeLoach a weenie. “You mean you believe he’s a coward?”

  “No, nothing like that. It’s just—no, not Weldon.”

  Nick said, “The killer wanted McGuffey to look like him, Dane, and that’s why he hired McGuffey to kill me. So he has to be dark and really pale-skinned.”

  “You’re probably right, Nick.” Dane asked them to zoom in to get a close-up of Weldon DeLoach, which Franken did. Wolfinger had said DeLoach was around thirty. Well, he didn’t look thirty. He looked forty, maybe more. He looked like he’d lived hard, that, or certainly a lot of stress. According to other writers interviewed, he wasn’t a cocaine neophyte. “But those years are over,” one of the lighting guys had told them. “Weldon hasn’t done bad stuff in a long time. He’s been really straight.”

  DeLoach’s dark tan really stood out against his white shirt and white pants. His eyes were a pale blue. He had thinning hair—nearly white it was so blond.

  Dane said, “Do you have anything with Weldon DeLoach speaking?”

  “Why?” Delion said. “Nick never heard him speak.”

  “Maybe she’ll recognize some of the moves he makes when he’s animated and speaking. Besides, I want to hear his voice, too.”

  When Franken ran some more footage, there was Weldon DeLoach at a birthday party being held on a set, giving a toast. He had the softest voice Nick had ever heard, soft and soothing, without much expression or accent. She studied him carefully—the way his arms moved, his hands clenched and unclenched around a cup of booze he held aloft as he spoke, the way he held his head.

  When it was over, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t be sure. But you know, if the San Francisco police can catch Stuckey, maybe he’ll identify DeLoach’s voice.”

  “Good idea,” Dane said, and jotted it down in his small notebook. “Could you give us a copy of the tape?”

  Franken nodded, said, “No problem. You’re really hoping that Weldon DeLoach is the madman who’s copying the scripts for The Consultant, aren’t you?”

  “Fact is,” Delion said, sitting forward, “when we find him, we really want to sit down with him and have a nice cozy chat. We’ll see.”

  “It’s not Weldon,” Jon Franken said again.

  “Now, Mr. Franken,” Flynn said, “you said the first two episodes of The Consultant were Mr. DeLoach’s scripts, almost exactly, right?” Dane noticed that Flynn’s left hand always moved slightly up and down when he concentrated, as if he were dribbling a basketball.

  “Yes,” Franken said, “DeLoach was really excited about the series.” His cell phone rang and he excused himself. When he came back, he said, “That was my assistant. She said one of Weldon’s friends just told her that Weldon was going up to Bear Lake to spend time with his dad. Said he was going to take at least three weeks and he wanted to do some fishing, too. His father’s in a home up there, Lakeview Home for Retired Police Officers.”r />
  Delion said, “You mean DeLoach’s father is a retired cop?”

  Franken said, “Yeah, I guess so. I do know his dad’s been there a long time. Once Weldon told me that his father was confused most of the time.”

  Flynn said, “We already knew Weldon didn’t ask the people here at the studio or anyone else to make him any airline reservations. If he did fly somewhere, we would have found a record, what with all the security.”

  “Bear Lake,” Delion said thoughtfully. “That’s up in the Los Padres National Forest, isn’t it? In Ventura County?”

  “That’s right,” Flynn said. “Just an hour north on I-5, over the Tejon Pass. Well, maybe more, what with our godawful traffic.”

  “And that means, of course, that DeLoach could have easily driven up to San Francisco anytime he wanted. And Pasadena,” Nick said.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Flynn said.

  “Thank you, Mr. Franken,” Delion said, rising. “Detective Flynn’s people have interviewed all the other writers and employees of The Consultant. Everyone checks out, at least on the first pass, which is admittedly shallow. Oh yes, Mr. Franken, where were you last week?”

  Jon Franken was gently swinging his foot with its Italian loafer tassel falling to one side, then to the other. He raised an eyebrow, but answered readily enough, and with good humor, “I was right here, Inspector Delion. I’m working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at present. Very long days.”

  Delion nodded, then turned away, saying over his shoulder, “Oh yes, what’s the name of Mr. Frank Pauley’s wife? You know, the one who plays the girlfriend on The Consultant?”

  “Belinda Gates.”

  “We’d like to speak to her. And the star of the show, Joe Kleypas.”

  “Of course. Watch it with him, Inspector. Joe isn’t always mellow, particularly when he drinks. He’s got quite a temper, actually. If you accuse him of being a murderer, his smile might just drop off his face.” He looked Savich and Dane up and down, smiled to himself, and said, “Of course, it would be interesting to see what would happen if he went at it with you guys.”