BLONDE DECEPTION - The Logan Files

by Marshall Huffman

  He walked to the furthest van and boarded. The driver was outside talking to a cute woman transportation driver. He didn’t even look at Winegardner when he got on. He sat down in the first seat and laid his broom on the floor and scooted it under the seat. ‘Come on, come on,” he said silently under his breath. He wanted to get moving.

  He looked out the window and to his surprise saw detective Nelson walking down the island, looking in all the vans. ‘Damn it, let’s go,’ he silently screamed. No such luck. Nelson was headed for his van. He ducked down and when Nelson stepped inside he jumped up and hit him in the chest with the mop bucket. Nelson went sprawling out of the bus and on to the sidewalk.

  The driver started for the door but he closed it, jumped in the driver’s seat and slammed the van in gear. He raced as fast as traffic would allow around the terminal and towards the Airport Expressway. Which way? I– 495 or just keep going? He was going too fast for the turn off he decided so he raced straight towards the city.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Logan reached the end and started back. He saw Randy start up into one of the vans then come crashing out with a bucket of some kind in his hands as he fell back onto the sidewalk. The driver ran towards the van but was too late as it raced off. Logan sprinted to where Randy was picking himself up.

  “Son of a bitch,” Randy professed.

  “It was him,” Logan said.

  “The bastard smacked me with a mop bucket and took off,” Randy said, dusting his pants off.

  “Our car is just over there,” Logan said, pointing to the Delta terminal.

  Neither man had much energy so they just jogged to the car. Randy got on the radio and informed the base. He gave them a description of the Avis shuttle. Logan was driving but when they got to where the Airport Expressway crosses the I-495 bypass, he had to make a decision. Go west on I–495, south in I-495 or stay on the Airport Expressway, heading east.

  He went straight east, toward downtown. He figured if Winegardner was really hauling ass, he wouldn’t want to take an off ramp at any speed. Randy was giving directions and location on the radio while Logan raced ahead.

  “I see him,” Logan yelled excitedly, tromping the gas pedal all the way to the firewall.

  Randy called in the location as Logan closed in on the van. Winegardner could see the police car closing. That damned Logan, he thought. How did he know I would come this way? What the hell am I going to do now?

  Just then as he looked in the mirror, he clipped the median divider, the steering wheel snapped hard, yanking it out of his hand. The van climbed higher on the curb and the top-heavy van tipped up on the right side wheels. It stayed that way for several yards before it finally toppled over. Sparks flew as it skidded down the highway, parts and broken glass showering the other cars nearby. One car hit another and a chain reaction started. Parts of cars were flying everywhere. The van finally ground to a halt on its side.

  Logan and Randy watched as it reared up on its side.

  “Looks like a Joey Chitwood Show,” Logan said.

  “Who?”

  “Nothing,” Logan said, realizing Randy was probably too young to remember the stunt drivers at the fair shows.

  They watched as the van finally tipped over and slid down the highway. Several cars ran into to one another, trying to avoid the careening bus.

  When it came to a halt, Logan said, “Well, he certainly tried harder.”

  Logan screeched to a halt and they got out and walked up to the front of the van. Winegardner was slumped over, hanging from his seat belt. The air bag had already deflated. He wasn’t moving.

  Randy headed back to the car to call for an ambulance and support. Logan got down on his knees and reached through the broken glass. He felt for a pulse. He had one but it was weak. The last thing he wanted was for him to die before he got some answers.

  Randy came back and said, “They are sending a lifeline copter and accident control is on the way.”

  “Good. I don’t want this sucker to die on us.”

  “Should we get him out of the van?”

  “I think we should leave him. His pulse is weak and I don’t like the way his neck is cocked. We could do more damage than good. No fire or gas spill, let’s just wait for the professionals to extract him.

  It wasn’t long before they heard sirens in the distance. Logan looked up and could see a chopper headed their way. He hoped it was the lifeline, not some damn news crew on the way. Traffic was totally at a standstill as the chopper hovered a few feet above the ground, blowing up a tornado of dirt and shattered glass. Finally it touched down and the medics came rushing over to the van.

  Logan let them extract him before asking, “Is he going to make it?”

  “Think so. His clavicle is fractured and he has some internal injuries but I think he will make it,” the medic said as they loaded him on a backboard and into the helicopter.

  Logan and Nelson left the cleanup to the traffic squad and headed to the hospital. They knew they didn’t have to hurry. Winegardner wasn’t going anyplace soon.

  CHAPTER FIFTY- SEVEN

  Logan looked at Winegardner as he lay in the hospital bed. Even with tubes of various fluids going in and out of his body he had a look of arrogance. His face was bruised and he had a cut on his nose. His left wrist was in a soft cast. His eyes were closed but he knew Logan was standing in the room.

  “Can he talk?” Logan asked the doctor who was standing just inside the door of the dim room.

  “He can but he isn’t very pleasant to deal with. He has snapped at just about everyone that comes into contact with him. He wants a lawyer. He has told me that every time I come in the room.”

  “Thanks, we’ll keep it brief but I do need to talk to him. It shouldn’t take more than two or three minutes” Logan said.

  “Be my guest and good luck. I think I’ll just go put his bed pan in the freezer for a little longer,” he said softly to Logan, smiling.

  Logan walked over to his bed. Winegardner didn’t open his eyes, he just lay their breathing. His skin was pasty and it accentuated the bruises on his face and arms.

  “Dr. Winegardner. I would like to have a word with you.” Logan said. He knew he was awake from his breathing.

  Winegardner opened his eyes slowly but didn’t look over at the Detective.

  “I want my lawyer,” he said in a soft voice.

  “Well, you certainly have that right but let me tell you a few things. If nothing else we have you on multiple charges and they will stick. The list is growing and we haven’t even finished digging yet. We know for a fact that you attacked and attempted to kill Dr. Ryan. He is alive and he has identified you as his attacker,” Logan said.

  Winegardner’s eyes flickered slightly and he turned towards the Detective.

  “I want my lawyer,” was all he said.

  “Marcia Burton is also going to help us nail you. You had better think this over before you go calling for a lawyer. I am your best hope of helping you get out of some of the mess you have gotten yourself into. You know that when the attorneys enter the picture it will be out of my hands. I can no longer help you,” Logan said.

  “You can’t do a thing for me. It’s already out of your hands. Get my lawyer. It’s my right,” he said, raising his voice.

  “I’ll have them bring you a phone.”

  “What are you charging me with?” he demanded.

  “Don’t worry, let your lawyer handle that,” Logan said and left the room.

  He wanted the DA to handle that part. He went down the hall to Dr. Ryan’s room. A throng of people were outside the door. At first Logan was concerned that something had happened to him but they were much too happy. He then realized it was a group of his relatives and Robin Jackson. He didn’t see the two girls.

  “Hi Mrs. Jackson,” he said, extending his hand.

  She grabbed him and gave him a big hug.

  “I think he is over the worst part. He still can’t talk yet but he is a
lert and doing much better. They are going to put in a pacemaker next week if he stays stable,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.

  “That’s great. I am so happy for all of you. I just wanted to let you know, we got the guy,” Logan told her.

  “You did?” she exclaimed and hugged him again, “That is wonderful. I can’t wait to tell Terry.”

  Logan blushed as the others were watching, “I just need Terry to confirm who it is. Can he do that?”

  “Sure. Let me get the girls out of the room and we can ask him. He is probably tired of them jabbering nonstop anyway.”

  A few minutes later they were standing beside Ryan’s bed and she had her hand wrapped around his finger. The doctor looked much less pensive this time, Logan noticed.

  “Hi Dr. Ryan,” Logan said. Terry squeezed Robin’s finger twice.

  “He said ‘no’ for some reason,” she said looking confused.

  “How about just Terry,” Logan corrected.

  “Yes,” Robin said, smiling. She got it.

  “I just need to ask you a couple of questions. Can you handle that?”

  “Yes,” she said for him.

  “Good. First, was it Dr. Winegardner that attacked you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you confirm that this is the man,” Logan said, holding up a picture of Winegardner.

  “Yes.”

  “Will you testify to that fact in court?”

  “Yes.”

  “Excellent. We got him. He tried to run but we got him in time. I’ll fill you in when you are up to it,” Logan said, and patted Ryan’s shoulder.

  “Yes,” Robin repeated and smiled at Terry.

  * * *

  “Logan, if you don’t mind, please lay this all out for me,” Alice Anderson said, sitting in her office.

  Her office was large and tastefully decorated. It had a touch of class, just like she did, Logan thought. He liked working with Anderson. She was a good DA and he trusted her. Unlike others he had worked with in the past, she seemed less concerned about her political career and more about seeing that justice was done. She was tough as well. She always went for the jugular whenever the situation dictated.

  Logan took a deep breath before starting in, “Sharon Lewis started the whole thing. Sex and blackmail were her preferred tools. She had been blackmailing professors from the beginning so that she could get on the honor roll and land a good job. She was too lazy to try to earn it so she went about it the easy way, offering sex or blackmail as an alternative.

  She had been successful until she ran up against Ryan. We have now discovered e-mails to Dr. Winegardner from her threatening to go public with the whole mess unless he could get Dr. Ryan in line. Winegardner had discovered Lewis a year before when another male teacher tried to stand up to her. He convinced him it was better to just give her the grade and move her on. He didn’t want to have this brought out in the public. Then came Ryan’s refusal.

  Winegardner decided to lean on the department chair but Terry didn’t back down. Winegardner knew his tenure as president would certainly be over if this all got out. To make things worse, she started making additional demands on Winegardner. At one point she wanted to be one of the valedictorians at graduation. It was simply too much and he decided Lewis needed to be stopped once in for all. He enlisted the aid of Dr. Pratt to lure Sharon to her house.

  We don’t know what he said that got her to help but it must have been something he had on her. We believe he killed Lewis and dumped the body. When Sharon’s ex-girlfriend started making noises, Winegardner got Pratt to shoot her or he did it himself. It was supposed to look like a suicide but we could tell it was staged. For reasons of his own, he decided Pratt had become a liability and he wanted to tie up loose ends. Maybe she panicked or wanted out. She may have tried to use what she knew as leverage. That we don’t know yet.

  Whatever the reason, he killed her and then went to Ryan’s house and tried to kill him. It would have been all wrapped up neatly with no loose ends to come home to haunt him except he didn’t get the job done on Ryan. Now he was forced to run. He sold his car and his valuables and headed for the Cayman Islands. We have since found out that he had a substantial amount of money stashed there. I think when we get done digging we will find a good deal of it came from the University coffers. It looks like he had a contingency plan in case it all went wrong. It did. You know, for an educated man, he wasn’t all that smart.”

  “All of this over a grade?” she asked.

  “Not a grade. His image and the University. Because she had been successful in having sex for an A with many of the professors, and of course, Pratt, she had them over a barrel and he knew it would do incredible damage to not only the reputation of the University but to his as well. He was the captain of the ship, so to speak,” Logan told her.

  “But still, enough to kill over?”

  “He had worked all his life to get into the position he was in. His world was going to come crashing down just because of one student. It isn’t the first time someone thought they didn’t have another recourse. Husbands kill wives; wives kill husbands rather than get a divorce. You can’t account for what is going to set someone off like that,” he said.

  “You just never know do you?” she said, shaking her head.

  “I haven’t been able to figure them out, that’s for sure. I’ve been doing this for a long time and people never cease to amaze me. There is no common denominator. Age, education, gender, economic status, nothing is ever a common factor.”

  “Can we prove he actually killed Sharon Lewis?”

  “I’m sure we can. We searched a work shed behind his house and found blood and hair that matched Sharon’s DNA. We also found a wooden mallet that had her skin on it. It’s what he used to beat her with. His car had blood in the trunk, under the spare tire and it’s a match as well. So was the rope we found in the shed. We have more than enough I think.”

  “I have to ask, your search warrant was good for the shed?”

  “You bet. I’s dotted and T’s crossed. We got a separate one just for the shed, and the grounds, just to make sure,” Logan said.

  “I figured you would Detective Logan. That’s why I like the way you handle your cases,” Anderson said, “What about Pratt?”

  He killed Pratt to make sure she could never turn on him to save her own skin. If push came to shove, she could have had him over a barrel too. I don’t think she realized how desperate he had become,” Logan said.

  “Can we prove he killed her too?”

  “I’m sure we can. It’s not as neat as Lewis but we have strong forensic evidence. We have his DNA from the house and from under Pratt’s finger nails. He has a scratch on his nose that came from the fight we suspect. His ring is consistent with the mark on Pratt’s face. I think we can take him down for that one. We also tracked the knife back to an internet store. It was on his favorite list of sites on his computer, or so I am told. We checked and he is the one who ordered the knife. We have a copy of the order receipt.

  “So he planted the knife at Pratt’s place?” she asked.

  “We can’t be totally sure of that. She could have been hiding it for him or had it for some other reason. Maybe insurance to use against him is case it went all wrong. We just don’t know for sure.”

  “And the wig you found?”

  “Pratt bought it. We can’t figure out why exactly. She doesn’t fit the description of the person buying the gun, even with the wig. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that it was Winegardner in drag. We had a sketch made and showed it to Landgraves. He thinks it was the same person but he isn’t a hundred percent sure,” Logan said.

  “So he killed Adriana Thompson?”

  “Maybe. It was him or Pratt. Which one we won’t know unless something more turns up. At this point it could have been either of them,” Logan said.

  “What else?” she asked.

  “We also have the attack on Terry Ryan. Marcia Burton’s testimony
will help as well. She can link Winegardner directly to the crime and cover-up. And we have the hard drive from his computer with the emails from Lewis. Add that to the fact that he cashed in everything he owns, including his car and he was off to the Cayman Islands where he had stashed money and I think you won’t have any problems. He may get away with the murder of Thompson,” Logan said honestly.

  “I’d like to get him on all three but I guess we will have to see how it plays out. So far all we have charged him with is attempted murder on Ryan and a few minor charges like attempted flight, grand theft auto…those kinds of things. I’m going to wait on the murder charge until I see how my talk goes with him and his attorney,” Alice said.

  “No get out of jail free cards,” Logan said, looking her directly in the eyes.

  “No get out of jail cards. He is going down. I intend to seek the death penalty. I hope I can get him on all three charges of murder one. I want to see this bastard burn,” she said.

  Logan was pleased. As he left the meeting with the DA he saw Carrie Brown was sitting on the balcony ledge. A herd of reporters and television cameras were set up down below. She had her note book in hand. No use dodging her, Logan thought. She was just as tenacious as he was; besides he had promised her she would get the story first.

  “Spill your guts Logan,” she said as he walked over to her.

  “Come on, we might as well have lunch first. I know you, it will be hours before you are finished with me.

  “You are going to spill them,” Carry said, tapping her note pad with a pen.

  He did.

  * * *

  As expected, his trial was a media spectacle. The judge had to order a change in venue because it created such a stir. It was almost a year from the date of his arrest when the case was actually tired. His lawyers kept asking for a continuance and trying to have him released on bail but the judge was hearing none of it. Winegardner refused to make a deal with the DA, even at his attorney’s urging. He thought he would be able to talk his way out of almost any involvement. He was going to lay it all on Pratt.