The Perfect Frame

by Beverly Clark

  “Then we should be prepared for a call from Bob.”

  Mack had seen the way Toni tensed when Matt mentioned his friend’s name. He knew she was remembering the last time Bob had arrested her. And the time before that when he’d had her under ‘protective custody’ in the hospital. “It seems inevitable, since he’s the one who suggested we talk to you.”

  “Toni, is there anything else that I need to know?” Matt asked.

  “No, nothing.”

  “I’ll try to find out what I can.” Matt glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to be in court in fifteen minutes. As soon as I know anything I’ll call you.” He looked at Toni. “You’re still staying at Mack’s, I take it?”

  “Yes, she is,” Mack answered and moved to usher Toni out of Matt’s office.

  Toni flashed Matt a smile of thanks as they left.

  * * *

  “What are you thinking, Toni?” Mack asked as he drove them back to his house.

  “About what could be in that file, and why Bob hasn’t contacted you about it.”

  “I was wondering the same thing—unless there’s nothing incriminating in it, or Warren hasn’t gone to him with it yet.”

  “He wouldn’t pass up the chance to make me look guilty. Do you really believe there’s anything in it that could implicate me?”

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I know it’s not a very comforting thought.”

  “No. It isn’t.”

  * * *

  After dropping Toni off at his house, Mack decided to pay a visit to the police station.

  “Mack!” Bob looked surprised when he walked in.

  “I thought you’d be coming to see me, so I came to you first.”

  “We tried contacting Toni’s father. And as you no doubt know, he’s out of the country and we weren’t able to talk with him because, in the tiny village where he and his wife are visiting, the telephone service leaves a lot to be desired. It may be days before he gets the message. Do you know when they’re expected back?”

  “I have no idea, a few weeks maybe.”

  “You want any coffee?” Bob asked. When Mack refused, he poured himself a cup and walked over to his desk and sat down. He pulled out a worksheet and cleared his throat.

  “We have four people we are seriously considering as suspects who could have killed Frank Clifford. They all have reasons for killing the man. At first it was assumed that he died from gunshot wounds, but it was later discovered that he had died from an overdose of heart medication. The thing is, he didn’t have a heart condition.

  “Now let’s go through a simple process of elimination. J. V. Townsend Jr., who is the president of Townsend’s, happened to be out of town the night of the murder. That would seem to discount his involvement. The interesting thing about him is that he knew about his wife’s affairs, and specifically the one she’d had with Frank Clifford. Although Clifford worked for Townsend, he didn’t fire him, which is hard to believe.

  “Next we have Nina Townsend, who is married to J. V. Townsend Jr., but is having an affair with Hank Warren who, like Frank Clifford, works for her husband’s company. She’d also had an affair with Clifford. She claims to have been with Hank at his apartment at the time the murder was committed. The question is, how could she have gotten hold of the drug that killed Clifford?

  “The third suspect, Hank Warren, works for Townsend’s and was Frank Clifford’s PA. Hank is vying for a promotion and is probably sleeping with the president’s wife in hope of using that to his advantage. The question is, did Clifford find out about the affair between Hank and Nina? Did he use it as leverage over Hank? This could be a possible motive for Hank killing Clifford. But did Hank have access to the drug?

  “The last suspect, Toni Carlton, who also works at Townsend’s and claims to have overheard Frank Clifford plotting to frame her for embezzlement, thus ruining the career she prizes. Toni’s father is a heart surgeon and she had access to the drug that killed Frank Clifford. She was found at the murder scene, along with a gun. She has no memory of the killing. The facts strongly point to her as the killer.

  “Did she shoot him or did she poison him? Or both? Still, there is something here that doesn’t add up.”

  “You’re hunting for something that will prove conclusively who the killer is and you can’t find it, right?”

  Bob smiled and put the worksheet back in his desk drawer. “Why did you really come here, Mack?”

  “I told you—”

  “I know what you told me, and I don’t buy it. You came to pump me for information. What do you want to know?”

  The intercom buzzed before Mack could answer, and Bob picked up the phone.

  “Yes. Send him in.”

  Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Hank Warren appeared in the open doorway. Underneath his arm he carried a file folder. “Jessup,” he said pleasantly. “You decided to go to the police first, huh?”

  “Why are you here, Warren?” Bob asked impatiently.

  “I have something you might find interesting, Lieutenant. It concerns a mutual friend of mine and Jessup’s and a company named ValueCorp International.” He handed the folder to Bob.

  Mack gritted his teeth. It was all he could do to keep from strangling the man.

  “If looks could kill, hey Jessup?” Hank taunted.

  “Don’t push it, Warren,” Mack snarled.

  “Should I consider it as another one of your threats?”

  “Have a seat, Warren, while I examine this,” Bob instructed.

  “I have to get back to the office, Lieutenant. If you need to ask me anything, I’ll be there until six o’clock. After that you can find me at home.” With one last triumphant smirk for Mack’s benefit, he moved to leave the room.

  Mack started after him, but restrained himself when he saw the challenge in Hank’s eyes when he glanced back at him. The bastard was waiting for him to do something stupid. When he realized Mack wasn’t going to rise to the bait, he left in a huff.

  “You’re finally learning to restrain that Latin-African temper of yours,” Bob said in mock astonishment.

  Mack ignored the jibe. “What have you got?”

  “I think you have some idea what’s in this folder. You came here to see if I already had it, didn’t you? And if you could find out what it might have to do with a certain lady.”

  Mack stood taut, waiting for Bob to confirm his worst fears.

  “You knew about ValueCorp International before you came here. You don’t have to answer. I can see it in your face. You really should have told me about this, Mack.”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s in it?”

  “It’s evidence, Mack. Only Toni’s lawyer will be privy to the information contained in here.”

  “Matt will be in touch with you sometime today.”

  “I could haul you in here for suppressing information.”

  “Are you considering doing that, Bob?”

  “No. But I warn you, Mack, I won’t hesitate to come after you if I find out you’ve been attempting to obstruct justice.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Bob.”

  “As long as we understand each other.”

  “We do.” Mack knew his friend would do just as he said because he’d done so in the past. The thought revived the old pain of Linda Hutton’s betrayal and his subsequent resignation from the police force.

  * * *

  Mack decided to go in to his office. But after only a few minutes, he found that he couldn’t concentrate. He swiveled his chair around and gazed out the window.

  “Need a friend?”

  Mack swung his chair around and gave his brother a cursory smile.

  “Your enthusiasm is staggering.”

  “I’m sorry, Marc. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “Lean on me, brother.”

  Mack laughed. “Like the song? I should have followed your advice.”

  “Am I hearing you right? My brother, the reve
red Mackinsey Jessup, considers his lowly associate’s advice to be worth something!”

  “Marc.”

  “What happened, Mack? Did Bob find out about ValueCorp International before you got around to telling him?”

  “You guessed it.”

  “It’s not like you to play the procrastinator, big brother. Is what’s in there as damaging as we feared?”

  “I don’t know. Hank Warren produced the file on ValueCorp International. I have a feeling that there is definitely something incriminating in it because Bob wouldn’t tell me anything. He’ll only share the information with Toni’s lawyer.”

  “And does she have one?”

  “Matt.”

  Marc shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, then she’s in good hands.”

  “The best. I needed to hear that. You do have your uses, don’t you, baby brother?”

  “Mack.”

  “Excuse me, my young apprentice.” He grinned. “Is that better?”

  Marc nodded his approval and smiled. Then his expression turned serious. “Things aren’t looking too good for Toni, are they?”

  Mack sighed. “Not at the moment.”

  “Be optimistic. Something will happen to turn things around.”

  “I hope so. I can’t lose her, Marc.”

  * * *

  As he sat on the love seat next to Toni in his living room observing his brother, Mack couldn’t contain his impatience any longer. “What did you find out, Matt?”

  His brother took another swallow of his coffee. “You still make the best cup of coffee in the family.”

  Mack rose from his seat. “Cut the bull, Matt.”

  Matt’s eyes never left Toni’s face. “Distribution papers were in the file.”

  Mack frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “I’ll tell you, Mack.” Toni rose from the couch and walked over to the window. “As you know, when a sum of money or securities are withdrawn from a fund or, in this case, a holding company, and used by the beneficiary, in this case me, there are papers showing a pattern of liquidation. What it means is since I am technically the registered owner, the trail leads to me. Right, Matt?” she continued, not waiting for him to confirm it.

  “I thought my stumbling onto the access code was a stroke of luck and I had uncovered Mr. Frank Clifford’s plan. But it wasn’t by accident; he meant for me to discover it. He evidently had disposed of just enough of the negotiable securities through this holding company and its subsidiaries that I supposedly own to incriminate me.”

  Toni turned away from the window to face them. “It was obviously one of the many signs he told me would surface before I was eventually convicted and sentenced to jail for embezzlement of company funds.”

  Mack didn’t like the way Toni sounded. Her manner was emotionless, detached. She was tuning him out, keeping him from sharing her pain, not letting him help arrest her fears.

  “He did it one better, though, don’t you think? He inadvertently outdid himself by conveniently getting murdered and leaving me to suffer the consequences. Isn’t that a joke?” She laughed.

  “Toni—”

  “Don’t worry, Mack, I’m not cracking up. I’m too damned angry to let that happen. I intend to fight this any way I can. I refuse to let that monster win.”

  Mack walked toward her and took her in his arms. “That’s my girl. For a moment I thought—”

  “I know what you thought.”

  “Now can we please sit down and discuss this calmly?” Matt suggested. “I have a few questions that need answers.”

  Toni sat down beside Mack. “All right, Matt. What do you want to know?”

  Matt took a file from his briefcase that had all the information he’d managed to get from the police and coroner’s offices. “We know Frank Clifford didn’t die from gunshot wounds, as was first believed. The coroner’s report confirms this. He died from an overdose of a cardioplegic drug. He was not a heart patient, so how this substance got into his blood, and who put it there, is the real mystery.

  “Toni’s father is a retired heart surgeon. The possibility that she may have gained access to this drug prior to the murder is in question. We need to go over the night of the murder. Tell me everything you can remember, Toni. It says in the police report that you sustained a head injury and had to be taken to the hospital.”

  “That’s true.”

  Matt switched on a tape recorder. “Start with when you decided to go see Clifford.”

  When she’d finished, Matt wrote down some things on his legal pad.

  “You don’t remember what happened after entering Clifford’s apartment?”

  “There are blanks I can’t account for. The first thing I recall is hearing sirens and loud voices. It was as though I awakened on a movie set, and all the lights suddenly flashed on and the cameras started rolling and the action began to unfold. It all seemed so unreal. Frank Clifford lay dead on the floor, his chest covered with blood.”

  Matt arched a brow. “What about the gun?”

  A distant searching look came into her eyes. It was as though what she sought was just beyond her reach, too elusive to grasp. “I don’t know how it got there.”

  “And you haven’t remembered anything else about what happened?”

  She shook her head. “Not really, only bits and pieces that don’t make any sense or connect.”

  Matt studied the police report. “In essence fifteen to thirty minutes can’t be accounted for.”

  “That’s about the size of it.”

  Matt frowned. “The time element could very well be the determining factor in this case since we’re dealing with drug poisoning as well as a shooting.”

  “Couldn’t Hank Warren or Nina Townsend have done it just as easily?” Toni asked.

  “I intend to look into all the possibilities.” Matt glanced at Mack. “Helping to run down those possibilities should give my brother plenty to do.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “What have you found out about Nina Townsend, Marc?” Mack asked his brother the next morning at his office.

  “That she isn’t the ditsy woman she’d have everyone believe. Mr. Townsend met her in the hospital when his father had a heart attack six years ago. And get this, she was working as a nurse’s aide.”

  “And Townsend fell head over heels in love and married her. He tried to reform her, kind of like Professor Higgins did with Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.”

  “But with no fairytale ending.”

  “It wasn’t long before she started playing around on him,” Mack said bitterly.

  “Man, I know you were burned badly, but—”

  “It’s in the past, Marc,” he tersely interrupted.

  Marc frowned. “Is it? Have you really got all the pain and betrayal out of your system? Feelings are feelings, Mack. Can they truly be forgotten on demand? I don’t think so.”

  “I’ve learned to put them in perspective.”

  “And if this miracle really did happen you have Toni to thank, right?”

  “Yes, she’s shown me a side of relationships I no longer believed existed.” He cleared his throat. “Now, about Nina Townsend. Would she have knowledge of the drug you mentioned?”

  “Yes, she would, considering that the cardiac floor was where she was assigned as a nurse’s aide. It makes her as much a serious suspect as Toni.”

  Mack’s brows furrowed in curiosity. “How did you find this out?”

  “I talked with the Townsends’ maid, Cara Benitez. I think she has a thing for her boss. She was more than a little eager to reveal all she knew about her employer.”

  Mack rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I picked up on her dislike of Nina Townsend when Bob and I paid a visit to the mansion. You know what this means, don’t you?”

  “I know what it could mean.”

  “Maybe I should give Bob a call.”

  “Maybe it’s Matt you should call first.”

  Mack glanced at his broth
er as if seeing him for the first time. “When did you become so smart?”

  “I have you for a teacher. Don’t you think it was inevitable that some of your best qualities would eventually rub off on me?”

  Mack shook his head at the Jessup arrogance he saw gleaming on his brother’s face.

  Just as he reached for the phone to call Matt, it buzzed, and he picked it up.

  “Matt! I was just going to call you.”

  “I need to see you and Toni in my office right away.”

  Mack’s face molded into an alarmed frown. “What is it, Matt?”

  “I can’t explain it over the phone. I will when you get here.”

  “Matt, I—” He heard the dial tone. Mack snatched the phone away from his ear as though it were a snake that had sunk its fangs into him. A chilling foreboding slithered down his spine. He thought about Toni and all she’d gone through, and knew it was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He knew he couldn’t shield her from whatever it was his brother had to tell them, but God, how he wished he could.

  “I take it there’s a break in the case?” Marc inquired.

  “Yes, evidently,” Mack answered grimly and rose from his chair, heading for the door. “Have Daffy organize my desk. The two of you can finish up.”

  “Consider it done.”

  * * *

  As they drove in silence to Matt’s office, Mack shot quick glances at Toni from the corner of his eye, wondering what was going through her head. Her expression had remained blank since he’d picked her up from the house to take her to Matt’s office.

  “The news doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, Toni.”

  “I know what you’re trying to do, Mack, but how can you expect me to believe that?”

  “We don’t know anything yet.”

  “How did Matt sound when he told you to bring me to his office?”

  Mack hesitated.

  “See, you have to admit that he didn’t sound very optimistic.”

  “Here we are,” he said, relieved to call a halt to the discussion. He didn’t want to answer her because what she said mirrored his own feelings much too closely.

  Matt met them personally at the door and ushered them into his office. His secretary had left for the day, he explained.