by Una Tiers
How long are the associate judges contracts Fiona?”
“I don’t think they’re standard. I think some are two years long and others are more. But I’m not certain. I guess they could be less too.”
“You mean that’s political too?”
I shrugged. “But couldn’t he transfer her out of the division? Traffic court seems easier to handle since the cases have to be shorter.”
“We know he never tried to. It sounded like he was fond of her. They spent a lot of time together and he was divorced. You asked about romance and we aren’t looking at that one way or the other because they’re both adults. But even if she was cheating the system, she could have been likeable.”
Here is my black and white view of things, I thought, people are either good or bad.
“How did she get appointed in the first place?” I grumbled.
Chapter Thirty Two
”Really David, I could make a business out of canning the red herrings you toss around.”
“No, I’m serious,” he stressed.
I didn’t believe him.
“It started well before King was ever a judge,” he started.
I settled back in my seat.
“When you were looking at the appellate cases, we decided to interview some of the probate clerks, they are a wealth of information.”
“It started when Peur worked as an attorney for the downtown West Trust Company. We think that’s where she met Requin, when she appeared in court on accounts. She was part of a team. Reports are that she didn’t move up in the company because she didn’t work very hard.
Then her grandmother died and Peur inherited her entire estate. Are you awake Fiona?” he teased.
“Peur inherits,” I said wondering how long this could take.
“But, the rest of the family said she tricked the grandmother into signing a document that she couldn’t understand.”
“Who sued?”
“Her grandmother had three children, Peur’s mother, and two uncles.”
“Her mother?” I laughed.
“There was a lot of money at stake,” he said.
“Do you know how much?”
“A half a million dollars.”
That was real money, I thought.
“The grandmother was living in a nursing home in a special memory loss unit in Evanston for five years before she died. She wasn’t doing well. The grandmother needed help with almost everything, food, medicine, bathing and dressing.
She confused who was alive and who wasn’t. She talked to her mother who had been dead for thirty years. She said her husband, who died ten years earlier, was on a business trip.”
“How did Peur trick her?”
“She threw a birthday party for the grandmother and afterwards, the grandmother signed a new will leaving everything to Peur.”
“Odd timing,” I said out loud.
“Yes, first it wasn’t her birthday, and second Peur didn’t invite anyone else.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Maybe she wanted the grandmother to think no one else cared. She was pretty easy to trick.”
“That’s really mean,” I mentioned. “Where did you get all of this information?”
“I drove up to Wisconsin and had a talk with the attorney who represented the family.”
“Did they win?”
“No, he said he could only talk about what was in the court file but the case has bothered him for years. He said he had a pretty successful practice. He started in insurance defense work and then opened a private office. He said he did a lot of probate work and liked it.
He said he was practicing law for forty years and never had a problem with a judge. After they filed the case, it took three years to get to trial.
He said Peur’s attorney dragged things out, and he assumed the judge was being lenient but would still rule on the facts.
The first day of trial, Peur’s attorney filed an emergency motion for a continuance because a witness was not available.”
“That would warrant a continuance?” I balked.
“Ross, the attorney for the family, said the guy just presented it as they were about to start, and it happened so fast he was shocked. He asked that they proceed with the opening statements to use the time, but the judge said he felt a continuance was warranted.”
“The next trial dates were a few months forward, the next time there wasn’t a court reporter and the defense refused to go forward without one.”
“Did he use the county reporters or a private one?” I asked.
“He said the clerk was supposed to schedule a county reporter. The judge chewed the clerk out in front of everyone and the woman was so upset, she transferred to another division of the court.”
“So there was nonsense of one kind or another. Peur’s attorneys filed motions, asked for breaks, wanted to leave early.”
“What did the doctor for the plaintiff say?”
“Dr. I. Ternist treated the grandmother at the nursing home for five years. She said the grandmother had dementia and hallucinations. She said she confused people and thought her three children were in grammar school. She didn’t want to take her medications and had all sorts of quirky behavior. She said Peur used to take her grandmother out of the facility in the evening and when she returned, the grandmother was agitated and combative. She said the grandmother wouldn’t understand what she owned or who her current family members were. She said she mixed up people who were dead for years. She said the medication would also make it harder for her to understand financial documents. In her opinion anyone could come in, make up a story and ask the grandmother to sign papers.”
“Did he talk about the doctor for the defense?”
“Oh yes, you’ll love this Fiona. Peur hired a guy who never met or treated the grandmother. He wasn’t an MD but a DO, a doctor of osteopathy. He only looked at her medical records after she died. He said dementia waxes and wanes. He said the grandmother was very close to her granddaughter, that, in his opinion was evidenced by the birthday party. I am trying to remember the name or title for this guy.”
“A controlled expert witness?” I offered.
“That’s it, ” David shook his head. “How can a doctor give an opinion based on medical records?” he asked.
I shook my head in response.
“Well, this guy Dr. Steven, said dementia waxes and wanes and that if the grandmother knew it was her birthday, she would understand she was signing a will.”
“But it wasn’t her birthday?”
“Ross said the doctor didn’t care. When it came time to cross examine this guy, the doctor said he had to leave. Ross said they lost another day filing motions to force him back to court.”
“Who else testified?”
“The family testified, two uncles and the daughter, Peur’s mother. They said they saw their mother twice a week, so she had a visitor every day. They said she didn’t talk on the phone and often asked about people who were dead. They said when they visited, she didn’t recognize them and said she had three small children who were in school, even at night.
A nurse testified that the grandmother didn’t know her name, couldn’t tell how old she was and used to ask for towels until she didn’t have room to put them in her dresser anymore. The nurse said she thought the nursing home was a resort and that she was in charge of making the meals. She said it was very sad because she thought the grandmother suffered.”
“Did Peur testify?”
“Yes, Peur said she was her grandmother’s favorite. She said no one else visited and that her grandmother begged her to write a new will and so on and so on.
Ross said they presented nothing. He was sure Judge Requin saw through the nonsense and was giving Peur and her lawyer their day in court. He saw it before. But this time, Ross was on the losing end of the maneuvers.”
“What about an appeal?”
“He talked about it, but the family was against continuing. They wouldn
’t even meet with the appellate lawyer he recommended. Apparently Peur’s attorney suggested a settlement, which was dropped as soon as the time for an appeal passed.”
“I don’t suppose he filed a JIB (Judicial Inquiry Board) complaint against the judge?”
“No, he said he thought about it quite a lot. But he was close to retirement and had about twelve other probate cases pending. He knew those cases would suffer if he made a complaint. He still regrets a lot of his decisions. The turning point may have been the family’s refusal to continue.”
We were both disgusted and hadn’t even talked about the murder too much yet.
“Anything else?”
“There was a preprinted order closing the file and a receipt from Peur for over Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.”
“Wow.”
“Do you know when Peur was appointed as an associate judge David?”
“A year after the trial ended.”
“Did she pay him to throw the trial or to get her appointed as a judge?”
“That’s an interesting question, we think it could have been a partial bribe and maybe she blackmailed him later to get appointed to the bench.”
“Can you find how much she paid Requin?”
“What line do you report bribes on the 1040?” He said without a smile.
You see we are back at the Al Capone theory of unreported illegal income.
Over dinner, our conversation was about the problems in our legal system, we took most of our food home because we were both talking.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Our conversation turned to murder as soon as we were back in the car.
“Back at the ranch,” David whispered, “Judge King had a judge in probate who couldn’t do the work. He may have discussed it with Requin, the other judges said they were close.”
“And Requin was the presiding judge for a while, so maybe he asked if Requin made any moves to get rid of her when he was the presiding judge,” I added.
“David, who was the presiding judge before Requin?” I asked.
“I don’t know why?” he asked.
“I thought I saw another coincidence.” Forgetting things was a wee bit scary as young and beautiful as I think I am.
“We had more information from one of the clerk’s,” he teased.
“What?”
“On Monday, the day they found Judge King’s body, Requin left the court house just before his ten o’clock call started. The clerk said a whole court room of lawyers were screaming since Requin said he would hear the double call.
We also learned that about the same time Judge Requin left the Daley Center, someone signed into Judge King’s safe deposit box at the bank.
“How could someone go into his vault? Wouldn’t they need ID or the key?”
“We think it was someone who used the vault enough to be recognized. If they handed the key to the clerk, the clerk would pull the records for that box. Maybe he just signed Judge King’s name.”
“Was it Requin?”
“We’re not sure yet,” David admitted. “And later, Judge Requin cleaned and packed Judge King’s office, where he could have found extra house keys.”
“So he broke into the condo?”
“He could have or Peur could have. Remember someone signed your name at the hospital to collect his personal possessions.”
“How did you know that?”
“I called and talked to the legal department but they are still trying to find the receipt, it seems to be missing.”
“If Requin was the one who went into the safe deposit box, why would he take the will?”
“We think he panicked. Remember, this was hours before they announced Judge King’s death. Judge Requin only knew he wasn’t at court when the morning call was starting. And maybe he called the apartment,” David added.
“And whoever emptied the box also had the stock certificates. And someone sent them to Springfield to the Unclaimed Property Office,” I added.
“Who picked up his things from the hospital?” I asked.
“It would almost have to be the murderer, who else knew he was taken to the hospital? The person came as the shift was changing and maybe took both copies of the receipt.”
I thought I would jump to the bottom line, “So you’ll charge Requin with accepting a bribe?”
“More than that, he’ll also be charged with attempted murder.”
“I missed something.”
“I didn’t get to everything. Um. Fiona?”
“Yes?”
“You won’t repeat what I say, agreed?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s go back to the reception where Judge King got the award.”
If this continued to drag on, I could ask him in for coffee.
“Remember the mystery cheesecake we found in the reception pictures?”
“Yes the one that wasn’t sliced and wasn’t covered in chocolate?”
“Yes,” David answered. “And was a different plate than the ones the caterer used.”
“We learned that Requin is an amateur baker.”
“And he baked the cake with peanuts to kill King?”
“Yes, he sometimes asked for a plain plate at receptions. So he knew about the allergy,” David added.
“Who spilled the beans about the cake?”
“I interviewed the judges again after we got the pictures from the reception. When I asked Judge Fullhammer about the cake at the judge’s table, he said Judge Requin baked it.
Fullhammer said everyone thought it tasted like it was burned. Judge King left the table just after they passed the homemade cake around. We think King was going to inject the epinephrine, Requin followed him and the other judges had the cake removed.”
“Why didn’t he mention it before?”
“He didn’t think it was important and didn’t want to embarrass Requin. Remember they stick together.”
I nodded.
“The cheesecake was especially made for Judge King. This came from you Fiona.”
“From me?”
“Remember when Claude dropped you off at the bookstore one evening?”
“Sure.”
“Why didn’t you tell him you were going to the liquor store?” he laughed.
Wouldn’t you know that would come back to haunt me? I laughed.
“I’m trying to set a good example, he’ll learn about liquor on his own as an attorney.”
“After he dropped you off he was going to join you at the bookstore but noticed you went to the liquor store.”
“You interviewed Claude? I don’t remember even introducing you?”
“After you left the store, Detective Claude Eng went in and interviewed the clerk you talked to and learned about the Baking Store.”
“Detective Claude Eng.” I repeated. Now it fit. His shoes were different, I felt safe with him, he wasn’t high strung like most law students. He reminded me of David. They both used the word, “perpetrator.”
“He isn’t a law student,” I commented pointlessly.
“He is, he attends part time and also words for…”
“Homicide,” I finished.
“Anyway at the Baking Store he learned there were peanut flours and extracts. The clerk remembered someone was asking about disguising the nutty flavor and the clerk told the customer about allergies.”
“Why would the clerk talk about that?” I asked.
“He happens to have the same allergy.”
“Do you think it was Requin?”
“Yes, the clerk identified him from his picture from the reception.”
“So Requin killed him and not Peur?”
I pictured Judge Requin mixing a huge bowl of batter with an enormous gavel wearing his judicial robes. Then I modified his outfit to black and white striped judicial robes and imagined him dancing to Jailhouse Rock while stirring the batter.
“Judge Requin made the peanut tainted cheesecake and he also insisted that King take a few ch
ocolate covered strawberries home from the reception. King declined, probably because he wasn’t feeling well. So Judge Requin gave Judge Fullhammer the doggie bag with the strawberries saying Judge King wanted them. But, once they got to their building, King suggested Fullhammer take them for his wife.
She noticed the peanut butter flavor immediately.”
“Why didn’t she say anything?”
“She didn’t know about the allergy.”
“What about Judge Fullhammer?” I asked.
“He didn’t know either.”
“So the caterer made an awful mistake and brought strawberries with peanuts,” I asked.
“No, the caterer stood his ground that the strawberries were covered in pure chocolate. He insisted nuts were not in any food. Later he called and said that a few days before the reception they had calls asking about the desserts for the Water Club Reception. He said the callers wanted to know if they were serving chocolate covered strawberries.”
“So where did they come from?” I asked.
“We canvassed the candy specialty stores near the Daley Center. Judge Wizard said Judge King loved them. She said when he was first appointed he bought a box of them for her.”
“And?”
“We found a place on Wabash that makes them to order. There are variations galore, white or dark chocolate, sprinkles and other decorations. They had two orders for chocolate peanut butter covered strawberries that were picked up the day of the reception.”
“Two orders?”
“Yes, but although we showed them the pictures of the judges, they didn’t recognize anyone. They say the place is crazy busy at lunchtime. The cook who makes them only remembered that there were two identical orders for the same day both requesting chocolate peanut butter covered strawberries without the swirl.”
“Did they pay cash?”
“Yes.”
“But if King gave them to Fullhammer, he didn’t eat them.”
“It’s our theory that the strawberries were Requin’s back up plan in case King didn’t eat the tainted cheesecake at the reception. But remember that there were two special orders,” David reminded me.