Borderline

by Joseph Badal

  By the time she had dressed and driven to the restaurant, she was so stiff she had to swivel in her seat and, like an eighty-year-old, plant both feet on the street to get out of her car. Her legs, arms, and back ached. She’d overdone the exercise routine, but, for some reason she couldn’t fathom, she felt great. It seemed to have jolted her mind and body with endorphins and given her a feeling of self-worth she hadn’t experienced in years.

  Barbara saw Susan pull into a parking spot a few spaces beyond her own. They walked to the restaurant together.

  “You limping?” Susan asked.

  Barbara laughed. “I found out I’ve got muscles in places I never knew about.”

  “Sounds like you started your exercise program.”

  “It’s a self-torture program.”

  “Come on, partner, lunch is on me. We’ll celebrate the new you.”

  “We can celebrate the new me, but, as I told you on the phone, lunch is on me. The lunch tab will be my atonement for the shitty way I treated you yesterday.”

  “That’s an awfully cheap penance to pay.”

  Barbara laughed and squeezed Susan’s arm. They entered Savoy and were led to a table next to a window in a corner of the now mostly empty dining area. Susan ordered a salad and the lamb shank; Barbara settled for a salad.

  “Okay, Barbara,” Susan said, “what do you have on your mind?”

  “Tell me again about your theory of coincidences.”

  “There are no coincidences; only idiots who can’t see the truth.”

  Barbara nodded. “I think it’s no coincidence that Victoria Comstock and Nathan Stein were murdered within a week of each other.”

  “Agreed. But what’s the common denominator?”

  Barbara threw up her hands. “Hell, that’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.” She counted off possibilities on her fingers. “Victoria and Stein were promiscuous. They were intimate with each other. They had lots of enemies.”

  “Sure, we know Victoria had enemies, but who hated Stein?”

  Barbara shrugged. “We know complaints were filed against him with the Medical Association. There might be men out there who discovered their wives or daughters received extracurricular counseling sessions from the good doctor.”

  Susan nodded and gave Barbara a “go on” gesture.

  “And then there are the women Stein screwed. Any one of them could have turned on him.”

  “Oh God,” Susan said. “I’ve never worked a case before where the list of suspects includes half the names in the telephone book.”

  “Then let’s narrow the list down a bit. What’s the connection, other than sex, between Comstock and Stein?”

  “I don’t know if we can exclude sex in finding a connection,” Susan said. She looked down at the tabletop. Her hair fell in front of her face. After a few seconds, she brushed her hair back and smiled at Barbara. “We’ve got to get a complete list of Stein’s patients.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “I haven’t figured that out yet, but I assume we shouldn’t ask Salas to get us a court order.”

  CHAPTER 44

  Barbara sat in a living room chair at Susan’s house and nursed a glass of iced tea. She made herself as comfortable as possible, considering that every time she moved, one muscle or another threatened to seize up. She watched Susan pace from one end of the room to the other while she read Barbara’s notes. Susan did her best thinking on the move. Next would come a reiteration of all of the information they had. Susan was a methodical thinker who needed to repeat things out loud. It was slow and tedious, but it worked for her.

  Susan suddenly stopped. “You know, Marge Stanley makes a great suspect in both murders. She hated Victoria Comstock for multiple understandable reasons. Her daughter was getting it on with Nathan Stein. If I were Connie’s mother and learned my daughter was in a sexual relationship with her psychiatrist, I’d go ballistic. Sounds like there was pretty strong motive for Marge in both cases.”

  Barbara shifted in her chair. “Yeah, but we don’t know if Marge was aware of the sexual relationship.”

  Susan paced again. But after a minute she plopped down into a leather couch. “I still can’t buy Marge as our perp, even with the motives she had. This is a good, hardworking woman who seems to have been able to cope with whatever shit life threw at her. I think we need to get Salas to talk to the D.A. about releasing her.”

  “Oh there’s a great idea. You really think Salas will be happy to hear from us? I seem to recall he was the one who suspended us.”

  Barbara shrugged. After a second, she said, “Maybe Marge hit her limit—with both of the victims,” Barbara said.

  “Humor me,” Susan said. “Let’s assume the same person killed Victoria Comstock and Nathan Stein. And that person had been wronged by both victims.”

  “Okay. But, we’ve got no one who shows up on both of our suspect lists, except good old Marge and Connie Alban. If we agree Marge knew nothing about Connie’s relationship with Stein, then we can’t show motive for her in his murder. That leaves Connie.”

  “Man,” Susan said, “this was tough enough without our being suspended. I sure wish we had those DVDs we found at Stein’s place. Maybe someone on one of Stein’s disks could also be tied to Victoria Comstock.”

  Barbara moved to the couch and sat next to Susan. They went through the list of names they could remember from the DVD case labels, but couldn’t connect any of the others to Victoria, based on the information they had.

  They remained slumped on the couch and stared at the blank television screen as though they expected to find something helpful there. Then Susan popped to her feet. “I just remembered there’s one more reason for the lieutenant to be pissed off at us.”

  “What now?”

  “Is the car locked?”

  “Sure.”

  “Let me have the keys.”

  “On the table by the door. I assume one of these days you’ll reveal what’s on your mind.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Susan said. She was gone for a couple of minutes, then returned with three DVDs.

  “What are . . .? Didn’t we turn over all the disks we found at Stein’s?”

  “Remember, the pillowcases were so stuffed, I had to put these disks in my purse. Later, I took these out of my bag and tossed them on the backseat.”

  “No one will believe that was just an innocent mistake.”

  “Well, then we might as well see what’s on them.” Susan hit the POWER button on her DVD player and inserted the disk with PAULA on its label. Before she could hit PLAY, Barbara’s cell phone buzzed.

  “How was the workout?” Shawn Navarro asked.

  “I’m a little sore.” Before he could respond, she added, “I’m a lot sore.”

  His laugh gave Barbara a warm feeling that eased some of her aches and pains. “I thought you’d be interested in knowing Marge made bail. She’s on her way back to Farmington.”

  “She made bail on a murder charge? That’s a little unusual.”

  Shawn said, “The DA letting her out on bail tells me the charges against her will either be dropped soon or reduced to a lesser charge, maybe withholding evidence. She should have told you she had gone out to the Comstock place.”

  “Yeah, she should have,” Barbara said. “That was stupid.”

  “What are you up to?”

  “Trying to solve two murders.”

  “You are suspended, you know?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “You live dangerously. Need some help?”

  Barbara put her hand over the telephone mouthpiece and whispered to Susan, “It’s Navarro, the private investigator. You have any problem with him coming over here. He knows a lot about some of the people on our suspect list.”

  “Sure, why not?” Susan whispered back. “I can be the chaperone for you two.”

  Barbara grimaced at Susan before she gave Shawn directions, then she settled back onto the couch. “Let’s see wh
at’s on that disk.”

  Susan pressed the PLAY button. After a few seconds of scrambled picture, an image of a thirty-something woman popped onto the screen, a beautiful redhead with a perfect figure. She sat on Stein’s bed, propped against the headboard. The camera shot was from somewhere beyond the foot of the king-sized bed and also showed two to three feet of carpet on three sides of the bed. “Nathan,” the woman called out in a plaintive voice, “where are you?”

  “Probably adjusting the sound on the recording equipment,” Susan muttered.

  Stein suddenly appeared in the picture. He wore what looked like an Oriental silk robe that ended at his knees. He stopped beside the bed and looked down at the woman. He held two wineglasses, each half-full of white wine. He handed one glass to the woman and said, “We should have a toast. It’s been at least a month since we’ve been together.”

  “I missed you, Nathan. You’re always so busy.”

  “Can’t help it, baby. My patients need me.”

  “I need you, too,” she said pouting and added, “I need you much more than your other patients.”

  Stein leered at her. He placed his wineglass on a bedside table and slipped the knot on his robe, dropped it to the floor. “I know you do, baby. I’ll try to make it up to you.” He had a tattoo of a coiled snake in the talons of an eagle on his left shoulder blade. He sat on the bed next to the woman, also with his back against the head board. “Why don’t you show the doctor how much you missed him?”

  Susan sat forward. “And I thought Manny was well-equipped. Stein was huge.”

  “Manny’s . . . .” Barbara shook her head as though to clear it of unwanted thoughts. “Shush,” she said, “the plot is about to thicken.”

  The woman placed her glass on the table on her side of the bed. She crawled over Stein, kissed his chest, and slowly moved lower. Stein stared at the camera the entire time.

  CHAPTER 45

  “Did you recognize that woman?” Barbara asked.

  Susan shook her head. “You know, according to Bill Clinton, that wasn’t really sex.”

  There was a knock on the door. Susan jumped up to let Navarro in. She followed him back to the den and behind his back shook her hand to indicate she thought Navarro was hot. He sat on the couch with Barbara. While Susan went to get him a soda, Barbara briefed him on what they’d been doing.

  “You come up with any connections between the two murders?” he asked.

  “All the women on the DVDs are listed only by their first names. We just watched Paula somebody, but we don’t know who she is beyond that.”

  “You have more DVDs here?” Navarro asked as Susan returned to the room and handed him a cold can of Coke. “Thanks,” he said.

  Susan picked up another of the disks from the top of the TV, but didn’t look at the label. “Let’s see what this baby has to offer.” She ejected the PAULA DVD and replaced it with the new one. “This is the one I took out of Stein’s player.”

  The video began with a shot of Stein’s heaving, naked back. The eagle-and-snake tattoo seemed to writhe as Stein moved. There was no question about what he was doing. Squeals, grunts, and heavy breathing filled Susan’s small den.

  “That’s the psychiatrist?” Navarro said.

  “That’s our boy,” Susan said. “Psychoanalyzing another patient.”

  The couple on the screen suddenly rolled over. The woman was now on top, her back to the camera. She had short blonde hair and very white skin. She seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. She squealed as she raked Stein’s chest with her nails. Synchronous groans now sounded on the TV and the couple moved together as though they were practiced lovers. When they climaxed, the woman clung briefly to Stein, then rolled off him.

  “Sonofabitch!” Navarro shouted “It’s Connie!” He grabbed the remote control from the coffee table and fumbled with the controls until he managed to hit the OFF button.

  Barbara thought it odd that Navarro seemed to be more angry than surprised.

  Navarro jumped to his feet and looked at Barbara. “Connie’s just a kid,” he growled. “That bastard!” Then he seemed to see Barbara’s surprise. More calmly, he added, “I guess Marge had more to be concerned about than just Victoria.”

  “We found a bunch of DVDs in Stein’s closet,” Barbara said. “Connie’s name was on several of them. She must have been one of his favorites.”

  Navarro’s face reddened. He opened his mouth as though to respond, then closed it. After a few seconds passed, he said, “I know, from conversations with Marge, that Connie had problems. But her own doctor . . . doing that to her”—he pointed at the now-blank screen—“the emotional damage of that betrayal is monstrous.”

  “Stein had a TV and DVD player in his bedroom,” Susan said. “That disk was in the player. The thing that’s weird, someone busted the TV screen.”

  “Obviously, whoever busted the set didn’t like what was on the disk,” Barbara said.

  “But why leave the DVD?” Susan asked.

  Barbara hunched her shoulders. “I don’t get that either. Maybe Stein walked into the room, surprised his killer. The killer took care of Stein, then fled, but forgot the DVD.”

  “Or maybe the killer was one of Stein’s lovers,” Navarro offered. “She went into a jealous rage after she saw the doctor with another woman. A jealous lover would have had no use for this DVD. The last thing she would want to keep is a disk of Stein with another woman.”

  “Oh, man, from the number of different names on the disks we took downtown, that theory just boosted our number of suspects by dozens,” Susan said.

  “If your theory is correct,” Barbara said, “wouldn’t the jealous lover have searched Stein’s place for other disks? She might have guessed Stein had secretly recorded their liaisons as well.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Navarro said. “She could have panicked, or maybe it never occurred to her that Stein had also recorded her.”

  “I hate to bring this up,” Susan said, “but who would be more upset about seeing Connie in bed with Stein than Connie’s mother?”

  “As long as the police try to pin the murders on Marge, the real killer’s trail will get colder and colder,” Navarro said with an edge to his voice.

  “Okay, let’s try to focus on other possible suspects before we go back to Marge,” Barbara said. “You’ve come up with two theories about the busted TV—that whoever busted it was someone who was specifically angry about Stein’s relationship with Connie, or someone who was in a rage about Stein being with another woman.”

  “Oh jeez,” Susan said, “I’ve got a headache. We still can’t eliminate Marge.”

  Barbara expected Navarro to react angrily. She was relieved when he simply shrugged and said, “You’re right.”

  “What about Connie’s boyfriend, Hector Nicastro?” Barbara asked.

  “I talked with him when I worked for Marge,” Navarro said. “Seemed like a nice kid. He idolized Connie.”

  “One of the DVDs was labeled CONNIE & HECTOR,” Barbara said.

  “They were both in bed with Stein?” Navarro asked incredulously.

  “We don’t know,” Susan said. “We got suspended before we could view all of that DVD, or most of the others, for that matter. What we did see only showed Connie and Hector.”

  “Why don’t we question Marge and Hector about the disks, see what sort of reaction we get,” Barbara said.

  “And if they deny knowledge of them, what then?” Navarro asked.

  Barbara sighed. “I hate to say it, but then we’re dead in the water. Again. There’s no way we can get to see those other DVDs we took from Stein’s house. And, even if we could, how could we identify the women without access to Stein’s files. That’s the only way I can think of to match the names on the disk labels with names in his patient files.”

  “We could print out head shots of the women from the disks and show them to Stein’s secretary,” Susan offered. “If they’re patients, she would surely know who they are.
”

  “I don’t know if she’ll cooperate,” Barbara said.

  “Or we could put the women’s faces on television and ask for help from the general population,” Navarro said with a smile.

  Susan and Barbara laughed together. “I can see that happening.” Susan said. Then she added, “And here’s another cheery thought. What if the other women on the disks weren’t Stein’s patients?”

  Barbara groaned. “I guess that’s always a possibility, but I’d bet big bucks they all are. His medical practice was the perfect vehicle to recruit vulnerable women.”

  “Maybe I could help you with Marge and Connie,” Navarro said. “I don’t think they’d want to talk to a cop.”

  “Connie’s never met you,” Barbara said. “She hid in that barn behind the Comstock place so you couldn’t find her. Why will she talk to you?”

  “I met with Hector. We got along fine. Maybe he’ll break the ice for me with her.”

  Barbara had already begun to feel uncomfortable about showing Navarro the DVD. Sure, he had assisted them early on with information about Victoria. But he was still a civilian. She glanced at Susan, who shrugged as though to say, “Whatever.” Barbara nodded and looked at Navarro.

  “Okay,” she said. “But on the condition you do nothing without our approval.”

  He smiled. “Wouldn’t even consider it.”

  CHAPTER 46

  Susan suggested Navarro call Marge Stanley and ask whether she knew about Stein’s video recordings. “I could listen on the extension. You know her better than we do. You might be able to tell if she’s lying. I know it’s not much to go on, but I think the best thing we could do for her is to clear her of suspicion.”