Return to Murder

by John Osipowicz

  “I was driving home late from work, and someone tried to run me off the road. I went into a ditch. It could have been a lot worse because it was around the hilly part of where I live. I just missed a drop-off. I could have taken quite a tumble. It happened so fast and it was dark that I didn’t see what the other car was.”

  “Now that I’m hearing this, I thought of two people right away it could be,” Todd said.

  “I bet it’s the same two people I thought of. Fontaine and Hyssop.”

  “Those are the people.”

  “Ever since I demoted the both of them, each day they stare daggers at me. Gregory would like nothing better than my demise so he could have full control; and Austin is a robot. He’ll do whatever Gregory tells him.”

  “I’ll pay a visit tomorrow to Fontaine. He’d be the main force behind something like this.”

  CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

  The next morning Todd rode the elevator up to the tenth floor of the Parker Building. As soon as he entered the corporate offices of WE-PACK he was met by Merry. She looked even thinner than she had been the last time he saw her a few months ago,

  “No use going down the hallway to Fontaine’s office. He didn’t come to work today. He never misses a day. I called his home, and his wife said he didn’t come home either last night. She said he and Austin were out celebrating a recent merger we made with Allied Van Lines. It doubled out truck inventory. Austin’s in his office. I already talked to him. He said they had a few drinks and then Fontaine drove away. That was the last he saw of him.”

  “I’ll talk to Hyssop.”

  The little man was dwarfed by his giant desk. A drone could easily land on it. And speaking of drones, Todd couldn’t help but think those thoughts about the bald man with the shifty eyes behind that desk. It was as if Hyssop was always waiting for some kind of calamity to occur and be told what to do.

  Todd sat down on the other side of the landing field. “Merry tells me that you and Gregory were out together last night.”

  “Yes, the merger we’d been working on for months finally got done. We’re now number three in the nation in moving capability.”

  “You told Merry that Fontaine left after a couple drinks.”

  “It was more than a couple. Gregory always outdrinks me; in fact he outdistances me in just about everything. We didn’t have dinner. He said he hadn’t been spending much time with his family because of our late hours with the deal getting close. He gave me a wave and drove off. I was a little worried about him with the drinking and driving because we were at a pub way out in the country. There isn’t much lighting on those rural roads. But I have enough worries just about myself. I’m not his baby sitter.”

  Todd left that side office and hadn’t gotten to the main lobby before Merry came running up to him. “I just got a call from the police. They found Gregory’s car in a ravine out past Lancaster. He was in it, dead. The preliminary report is that he apparently lost control and went off the road. His family’s been notified. The call to me was the second one. It’s awful. He had a wife and two teen-age kids.”

  Todd spend a moment consoling Merry and then drove out to the accident scene with the information Merry had been told. The body of course had already been removed, and the car was just being pulled up from the ravine. The officer in charge told Todd, “See those scrapes on the side of the vehicle. We couldn’t determine whether they were gotten earlier or during the tumble. The odd thing about them is that they’re indented into the frame. The brambles and branches on the way down would have produced more surface scratches. It’ll be difficult to prove either way, but we’re having forensics out here soon to give it a more thorough examination. Those look like paint scrapings on those scratches. Blue paint while the victim’s car is gray. We’ll see what the lab boys can come up with. That ravine is so far down that no one noticed the car until a farmer early this morning was giving his dog a run. The coroner thinks the death occurred sometime after eight o’clock last night.”

  “How about alcoholic content?”

  “That will take a few days. It didn’t look like the driver passed out from alcohol because the tire markings above show an abrupt turn to the right over the cliff. Passing out would have probably continued the car on its path for a few yards and then a gradual shift to the right. We’ll work on it.”

  Driving away from the scene, Todd thought about what kind of strange coincidence it was that there were two road accidents on the same night with one car going off the road and the other nearly occurring the same way. Both people, the victim and the survivor knew one person in common. Austin Hyssop.

  Todd couldn’t imagine Austin, the definition of milquetoast, plotting something like this. However, he had been taught long ago not to go by appearances.

  Todd drove quickly back to the Parker Building, and the company parking lot. If Austin had done these deeds, it was late last night and he had to get to work this morning. He probably wouldn’t have had time to take his car in for repairs. However, that would be done soon, so Todd was doing to do a little rushed forensic work himself.

  In the company parking lot the spaces for Fontaine, Hyssop, and Krismas were all marked with their names for an ego-boosting. Of course Fontaine’s space was empty. Hyssop’s car was a light blue Acura. Merry’s vehicle was a bright yellow. She had told Todd she had not had the car washed after the near accident. Todd examined the driver’s side door and bumpers of Krismas’ car. Sure enough there was blue paint flecks on two separate spots.

  Todd had some regular mailing envelopes in his car. He scraped off the blue from Merry’s car. That went into one envelope. Todd then examined the passenger’s side of Austin’s car. He could see streaks of both gray and yellow, ever so small on that side. A second envelope for the gray, and a third for the yellow. He sealed the envelopes. Then he took photos from his Smart Phone of all the areas that looked affected. He didn’t know really whether this evidence would hold up in court, but at least he had established an unbroken chain as he dropped the envelopes and pictures off with his own forensic people. Depending on what the other forensic lab found, possibly both sets of evidence might be enough to convict.

  Todd was beginning to think that the passive Mr. Hyssop wasn’t really so passive after all. With the merger, he possibly saw unlimited future opportunities for himself. Todd had a worrisome thought. Since Austin had already tried once to kill Merry would he try again, wanting all the company profits for himself?

  He drove back to the WE-PACK offices to warn Merry. However, her secretary said that she had gone to her river-front, high-rise condo to discuss the future of the company with Mr. Hyssop.

  Uh oh, thought Todd. That condo probably had a balcony. The secretary gave him the address, and he drove like a wild-man toward the Delaware River.

  Merry’s condo was on the eighth floor, plenty high up for a killer fall.

  The door to 811 was not locked. Todd burst in to see the both of them out on that balcony, each with a drink in hand enjoying the view. He ran toward that opening yelling to get back inside.

  Merry was startled. “Todd, what in the world has gotten into you? You burst in here like a crazy person.”

  Without explanation he grabbed her and pulled her back into the apartment. “We don’t want any accidental falls, do we Austin?”

  “Merry, why don’t we call Security and have this man removed,” Hyssop said. “He obviously has lost his mind.”

  “You’ll be losing your freedom, Austin, when the courts get through with you.”

  Merry was still alarmed. “Todd, you’re acting so strangely. Austin and I were soon going out for some dinner and a show. State your business and please leave.”

  “You’ll be going out with the man who tried to kill you last night. He succeeded with Fontaine.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Merry.”

  “Todd, you’d better explain yourself.”

  “Your date hasn’t had time to get his car repaired. I’ve taken
samples from his car and compared them to both your vehicle and Fontaine’s car. There’s a match in both cases. His car has paint from both cars, and both cars have paint from his car. Our lab already did the matching. An arrest order is being prepared. I’ve come to take Austin in.”

  Todd was certainly exaggerating. No lab work had been done. The back log was immense. It could be weeks but Austin didn’t know that.

  “Austin, is he telling the truth?” Merry was merry no longer.

  The gun was in Hyssop’s hands before Todd could react. “You’re just too smart, aren’t you, Henson? Yes, he is telling the truth. All these years I’ve been the slave to Jessup and Fontaine. And now you, Merry. The master-slave relationship hasn’t changed. I’ve put up with so much that I now deserve it all.”

  “So you killed Billy, too?” Todd said.

  “I wanted to, and I should have, but I didn’t have the guts. I even bought some rat poison. I was going to put it in his drink, but I couldn’t go through with it. But now we’re one of the top companies, and it can all be mine. All I had to do is eliminate some lives.”

  “So it was you running me off the road last night?” Merry said.

  “You’re a better driver than I thought. It helped that Fontaine had a few drinks. He wasn’t so lucky to get control back after I bumped him. I didn’t know exactly how I would dispose of you, my dear after my miss, but now an opportunity presents itself. Very carefully take you gun out, Henson and throw it down at my feet. The police tomorrow will uncover the affair you and Merry have been having. But then she wanted to end it and you couldn’t take it, so you pushed her off this balcony and then killed yourself. It’ll take a little arranging, but I can pull it off.” He picked up Todd’s gun. He pointed it at Todd’s chest. “First the suicide.”

  The flower pot crashed down on his head. He fell flat on his face.

  “I hated ruining these flowers,” Merry said, still hold a shard of the pot. “They’ve thrived very well out in the open air.”

  “Good job, Merry.”

  “You’re the one who got the proof.”

  “Well, I was a bit ahead of myself. None of that has been proven in the lab yet, but I have submitted it, and let’s see what the forensic people on the scene can find. Both of us have heard Austin’s confession. That will be good enough to put him in jail. The evidence will be ready by trial time.”

  “I was foolish, Todd. I was falling for the guy. I think I felt sorry for him, and I always knew he was interested in me. But maybe he was simply interested in taking over the business.”

  “I don’t know, Merry. I think he was attracted to you. You’re a pretty interesting person, especially the way you handle a flower pot.”

  CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

  With Austin securely in jail, Todd still had Billy Jessup’s murder to solve. He believed Austin’s disclaimer about not having the will to kill the man, even when he had the poison. The police eventually found a full canister of the poison in Hyssop’s apartment. Perhaps he would have eventually used that on Merry.

  Before she said good-bye to Todd that day, Merry gave him a bit of new information.

  “Just a couple months ago, I hired a new accountant. He’s already saved me thousands of dollars. Billy was just not very good with money. What he also uncovered was a promissory note from Billy’s lawyer, Baker Briggs. It was buried in among Billy’s mountain of documents that he never organized. The note was for $240,000.”

  “Wow, that’s definite money.”

  “I don’t know how it all came about. After Billy died, Briggs quit being the company’s lawyer.”

  “No wonder. He might have thought that note would never be called in. Stuff can get lost during estate transfers. That would be enough money to kill a person for. I will have a talk with Mr. Briggs.”

  “Billy was always a sucker for a sob story. He often lent out money, but you’re right that’s a big amount. I know Briggs had a fairly good law practice. I don’t know how he could incur such a debt.”

  Todd got some quick insight into possibly how the debt happened. Briggs’s secretary said her boss had taken a day off to go down to Atlantic City for some casino playing. He would be in tomorrow.

  Todd decided it might be better to visit the site of the debt crime, so he asked her what Briggs’ favorite casino was. Two hours later Todd was walking into Caesar’s looking for the dice tables. The secretary said Todd could recognize her boss by his big hair. Merry had his business card with his picture on it. The hair took up a lot of the photo.

  The rest of the man was also large, possibly even three hundred pounds as he bent over the table and gave the dice a roll. Todd watched him for twenty minutes, not winning at all. However, he wasn’t going to stop, which was probably his fatal flaw. Todd decided to stop the bleeding.

  “Mr. Briggs. Philadelphia police. I need a word with you.”

  “Can’t it wait? I know my luck will start turning around.”

  “No, it can’t wait.”

  They moved into a lounge area and each sat on a bar stool. “I’d like to buy you a drink,” Todd said, “if you promise to not go back to that dice table today.”

  “I can’t promise you that. Just tell me what you want.”

  “You will be very sad to learn that your promissory note being held by the estate of Billy Jessup has been found. With accumulated interest you now owe the company WE-PACK $310,000.”

  Todd had just thrown a figure out there. He didn’t even know if there would be interest asked for on the note.

  “What! That can’t be right.” Briggs’ eyes bulged out further than they had already done with the possible thyroid condition. The guy was a hospital bed waiting to happen. Today he happened to be playing in a smoking section, and so far during Todd’s interview had spent most of the time coughing.

  “It’s exactly right, Mr. Briggs. I’ve just come from talking with the firm’s owner, Ms. Krismas. You owe her company that amount of money, and she’s calling the note in. If you don’t pay, you go to jail.”

  “I don’t have that amount of money.”

  “Then why the hell are you continuing to gamble?”

  “I enjoy it. I’ll be a big winner yet. How can that note still exist? Billy is dead, and the company changed hands. Past debts don’t carry over.”

  “You’re wrong about that. Possibly that’s what you hoped when you killed Billy.”

  “Killed Billy?” A full minute of coughing. “Why would I do that?”

  “Exactly for the reason you just stated. Your debt would be forgiven with his death. For being a lawyer, you just don’t know the law. Or you just hoped the note would get lost.”

  “I didn’t kill Billy. He was generous to me when I needed money. He would have lent me more. Why would I have killed someone who would keep lending me money?”

  He had a point there. “It could be that Billy stopped the money pipe-line to you and wanted you to start paying up.”

  “That didn’t happen. Tell me the date Billy was killed. I can’t remember.”

  Todd told him.

  “I think I was here during that week. This casino owner is a friend of mine.”

  “He would be, Briggs, because you’re lining his pockets with the green stuff. He’s what every casino owner loves: a loser.

  “The reason I mention that is I can get him to give you access to his surveillance tapes for that time period. I think I was here all week because contrary to your thinking I did have a small winning streak the week before.”

  “Let’s go do that. If the tapes show you were here that night, it will eventually prevent me for arresting you for murder.”

  Todd sat in the manager’s office, looking at the tapes for that day and night. He took five hours before and after the time the coroner thought Billy was murdered. There was Briggs, first at the card tables, shifting to the dice bin, and then finishing the morning at close to six A.M. at the slots. He could not have been in two places at once.

  �
�The evidence seems to show you did not murder Billy Jessup. The problem that remains is the money you still owe his company.”

  “I’m a lawyer. I’ll fight it.”

  “Do you have enough money to go through the entire legal process?”

  “Well, no.”

  “How much money do you have in the bank?”

  At first Briggs did not want to answer.

  “Come on, Briggs, own up to it.”

  “$2900.00. But I have a case coming up in two weeks that could net big money.”

  “I’m sure it will be winner just like you’ve been a winner here in Atlantic City. Wise up, Briggs. The current owner of Billy’s company, Ms. Krismas has offered a deal. If you stop gambling immediately—that means tonight—she will forgive the interest part, and you can pay her a thousand dollars a month until your debt is cleared. She has authorized me to make that deal with you.”

  Briggs looked out onto the casino floor. There was pain in his eyes. “All right. I’ll do the deal.”

  “I’m going to follow you back to Philly, and I’m leaving word with the pit bosses here if they see you back here again they are to phone my cell and the deal is off. You then will absolutely go to jail. Are you understanding me?”

  “I understand.”

  Todd did what he said and followed Briggs to a row home in South Philly where he watched him go inside. He then waited a half hour in case Briggs decided to drive back down to the Shore. One time ten minutes later Briggs did peek through his front window to see Todd still sitting there in his car. Ten minutes later the lights went out in his house. Todd drove home.

  The next morning when Todd told Merry about the deal she said, “I didn’t authorize you to make any deal.”

  “I know that. I also know your nature, which isn’t too far from Billy’s. You probably would not have had the guy pay anything back.”

  “I was thinking along those lines.”

  “Now you’re going to get a thousand dollars a month from the poor sap. He will be paying you almost forever, but hopefully it will keep him from incurring any more debt with anyone. My dad and I have never been very close, but I remember him always telling me that a person should be responsible for his actions. I was simply trying to make Baker Briggs a responsible person.”