by Nero Blanc
Karen remained stony, so Al pushed on. “What can you tell me about Rob Rossi?” was his even response, and Karen’s face grew redder.
“He’s a patient of Dan’s—was a patient of Dan’s.”
“You’ve met him?”
“Yes.”
Al waited; when Karen didn’t continue, he added a probing, “But you hadn’t met all of Dan’s patients, so why do you know Rossi?”
“Former patients,” was the icy answer. “Dan’s dead, remember?”
This time it was Al who bristled. “If you’d come to us when the kidnappers first contacted you, Mrs. Tacete, there’s a chance your husband would still be alive. If, indeed, there were kidnappers.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Karen demanded.
“What it sounds like: that we have cause to believe the entire ransom situation could have been one big hoax.”
Karen stared at Al. “A hoax? But—”
“Someone wanted your husband out of the way, Mrs. Tacete. His death was a carefully orchestrated event.”
Karen’s mouth fell open; she didn’t speak, but her fingers began to loosen their steely grip, leaving white impressions on her bare arms. “What do you mean by ‘orchestrated’?”
It was Belle who answered. “Karen, I realize this is a hard concept to accept—”
But Dan Tacete’s wife was having none this placating attitude. “You’re telling me someone murdered Dan and just faked the kidnapping situation?”
“That’s right,” Al said, his eyes never leaving Karen’s face. “The kidnapping angle was only a ruse to throw us off the track.”
“But what about the money … and the instructions I was given?”
“You tell me, Mrs. Tacete; by your own admission, you’re the only one who heard this alleged kidnapper’s voice—as well as your husband’s.”
“You’re not suggesting I’m mixed up in this, are you?”
“I’m not ‘suggesting’ anything, Mrs. Tacete,” Al replied in an even tone. “I’m merely asking questions…. Now what can you tell us about Rob Rossi?”
“He’s a bartender,” she replied after a long moment of silence. “Dan said he worked at a local joint. A kind of grungy place. Dan was interested in the place from an ‘anthropological’ viewpoint. I’m not sure what he meant by that, but it was his term…. ”
“The bar is called the Black Sheep,” Al interjected. “So you went there with your husband?”
Karen shook her head. “No. I met Rob Rossi, but not there. In fact, I don’t recall the circumstances.”
“But you do know Rossi?” Al continued to push.
“Yes, I do,” Karen pushed back. “And I know Belle. And your good pal, Rosco, too. So what? Are you putting all my friendships under scrutiny now?”
“So Rob’s a friend?”
“Look, Lieutenant, I don’t know what you’re getting at here…. ”
“I’m just trying to clear up some loose ends, Mrs. Tacete. And one of them involves Rossi.”
“Well, I can’t tell you any more about him than I already have.”
Lever sat back and regarded Karen. He seemed to be making some private assessment of the situation. “It may interest you to know that the Black Sheep was also a favorite hangout of Frank O’Connell.”
But the information seemed to have no effect. “The same O’ Connell who tried to sell the Explorer?” Karen asked. “The brother of the receptionist at Smile!?”
“That’s right,” Al said.
Karen’s glance swept across the threesome seated at the table. “Are you telling me that he and Rob Rossi are involved in Dan’s death?”
Belle sidestepped the questions with one her own. “Karen, let me ask you something…. Did you ever suspect Dan of being unfaithful to you?”
Karen’s face flushed a brighter pink. She opened her mouth to speak, but immediately closed it.
“Did you?” Belle pressed.
Karen turned away. “Yes … well, not at first … but recently … yes, I did…. I don’t want to talk about this. I really don’t.”
“Did you know the woman’s identity?” It was Rosco who posed this question.
Karen shook her head in denial, then added a sarcastic, “I don’t suppose this hot little number is on your and your crony’s list of possible suspects, is she?”
“As a matter of fact, she is,” Lever answered, “And she’s confirmed that she had a relationship with your husband. It was his receptionist.”
“Bonnie O’Connell?” Disbelief rang through Karen’s voice. She stared at Al and then at Rosco. “Bonnie?”
Rosco nodded.
“Dan couldn’t do better than her?” Karen sat down abruptly, her jaw clenching and unclenching in wrath, although it was clear her rage was no longer directed at her visitors but at her husband. “He was cheating on me with an idiot like her?” Karen looked at Belle. “How did you find out?”
“As Al said, it came directly from her.”
“She told you people. She admitted it to you?”
Belle nodded while Karen released a spiteful groan. “Well, that situation certainly must have thrilled her brother…. I’ll bet he was Johnny-on-the-spot to take advantage of that situation. Ready money … I can just picture it. So Dan was being blackmailed over his little honeybun, was he?”
“We don’t yet have evidence to substantiate that claim, Mrs. Tacete, but it may very well be the case.”
Karen shook her head. “Well, my bet says he was.” Then her open hand slammed the table. “That creep,” she swore, “giving away what belonged to Lily and me…. Giving it to some tramp and her druggie brother!”
“You already know that Frank O’Connell attempted to sell the Explorer, Mrs. Tacete,” Al stated. “What you possibly don’t know is that he drove it up to the Boston area the day your husband disappeared”—Karen hunched forward as if to interrupt, but instead remained silent—“where he had the car painted,” Al continued, “at Craigor Autobody.” Lever paused as if expecting a reaction to the name, but Karen made no move. “Craigor is an appointment-only operation. The paint job had been scheduled three weeks before.”
Karen shrugged; a bitter smile twisted across her face. “I guess the O’Connell duo has more smarts than I gave them credit for.”
“I was also told that Craigor had worked on the same vehicle prior to that time. Nine months ago, in fact. The person who brought it in was identified as Karen Johnson.”
“What?” Karen said as a bewildered look covered her face. “I … How? I don’t … know anything about—!” she insisted, but Lever overrode her.
“Who claimed she’d hit a deer … The owner of Craigor was told that she’d hit the deer up in New Hampshire, but on the drive back the steering seemed to be acting up, and she was afraid to continue on to Newcastle—which is why she’d stopped at the out-of-town shop. When O’Connell showed up with the same vehicle for repainting, the owner was then told that he’d returned because Craigor had done such good work earlier. Clearly you have more than a passing relationship with Frank O’Connell.”
“I know nothing about this!” Karen repeated.
“The Explorer’s registered to you, isn’t it, Mrs. Tacete?”
“You already know that, Lieutenant. All Dan’s cars are registered in my name. It was because he wanted me and Lily to have financial security, in case … in case … because the mortgage on this place and the lack of savings…” Then Karen’s head suddenly dropped into her hands. When she next spoke, her voice was a strangled moan. “They’re going to take my little girl away from me again, aren’t they …?”
Belle looked at Rosco who returned her perplexed gaze.
“That’s what you’re trying to tell me, isn’t it?” Karen looked up; her face had gone dangerously white. “That’s why you’re here. This has nothing to do with Dan.”
“Who is ‘they,’ Karen?” Rosco asked.
“The Feds … D.H.S…. the creeps who put her in foster care in th
e first place…. ” Karen batted tears out of her eyes, squinting hard, as if will-power alone could keep her from crying.
“Lily was in foster care?” Belle couldn’t disguise the shocked surprise in her tone. “Where was Dan?”
But Karen seemed not to hear the question. “She was only three months old, and those hags snatched her away…. three months old. I didn’t get to see my baby again until she’d already passed her first birthday.”
“But what about Dan?” Belle repeated.
Karen stared at her, her expression blank and confused. “Dan?”
“Yes. Where was he in all of this?”
Karen glared at an empty space above Belle’s head; then her focus dropped back to the table’s surface as though she were studying something written there. “It’s what the social workers wanted…. I promised them I was clean and sober, that I was going to stay that way, too, but it wasn’t good enough. They insisted I get a permanent job, but it was hard, you know, because my record wasn’t so hot. I’d done some things … well, not the kind of stuff you put in a resume … And then I met Dan, and we fell in love, and he wanted to marry me…. ”
“So … Lily isn’t Dan’s child? Is that it?” Rosco asked.
“No,” was Karen’s leaden response. “No, she’s not…. I used to think he’d saved my life, you know? I used to think we could still make it work. That I could make it work. What a laugh.” She tightened her lips in a silent grimace while Rosco, Al, and Belle sat straighter in their chairs and shared a long and troubled look.
“What about family?” Belle asked at length, and Karen’s head jolted upward as though she’d been slapped.
“Family? Me? Don’t make me laugh. If I never see one of those cretins again, it’ll be too soon. Lily’s my family, and that’s it.” But no sooner had these fierce words been spoken than Karen’s shoulders again sagged in defeat. “We were all set, Lily and me. It was clear sailing, until all this happened. But now we’ve been left with nothing. Nothing except those damn toys of his.”
“Which are worth a fair amount,” Rosco offered in a quiet tone.
“What a prince he was! A house mortgaged to the hilt. No savings; nothing!” Karen burst out. “You know something? That brother of his that I was never introduced to? The one I kept trying to call when my dear husband went missing? Dan told me the guy refused to see me because of my past. Because his saintly little brother had married beneath himself! Why would Dan have told him all that junk in the first place? Why would he have done a crummy thing like that?”
It was with heavy steps that Belle and Rosco and Al returned to their cars. “Do you think she’s telling the truth?” Lever asked when they were out of earshot of the house. “Something seemed very off there.”
“You mean about Lily’s background?” Belle asked.
“No, that part struck me as true. It’s the rest of it that bothers me: her denial of the first Craigor job, her dancing around her relationship with Rossi and O’Connell, even her seeming surprise at learning that Bonnie was the other woman in Tacete’s life…. How about you, Poly—crates? What’s your read on the situation?”
“If she’s lying, she’s a real pro, Al. But we know that whoever pulled this stunt off was very slick, and experience tells me that—”
Belle spun on the two men. “If you two aren’t the most cynical—”
“It’s happened before, Belle,” Lever said, holding up his hands in a gesture of truce. “Karen’s got one heck of a motive. She knew her husband was being unfaithful—”
“Well, I believed her,” Belle insisted, although even as she made the statement, her forehead clouded in perplexity. “We didn’t ask if Dan had a life insurance policy…. ”
“Now who sounds cynical?” Al asked. But no sooner had he spoken than his cell phone rang. He grabbed it from his belt and said, “Yes, Abe, what’s up?”
Al nodded several times as he listened to the voice on the other end. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he finally admitted as he released a long, unhappy breath. “Okay, Abe … Yup … Which means we’re back to square one on that third set of fingerprints on the Vette …? Yeah, I’m on my way in…. See you in a half hour.” Lever clicked off and turned to Rosco and Belle. “I’ve got bad news, and I’ve got bad news. Which do you two lovebirds want to hear first?”
“Doesn’t sound like much of a choice you’re offering, Al,” was Rosco’s caustic reply.
“Smart boy.” Lever cocked his head to one side. “You remember that big robbery that occurred the same night Tacete’s car was torched? Abe was at that site while I was enjoying my fun-filled chitchat with Carlyle?”
“You mean when Papyrus was hit?” Rosco said.
“Correct-o, Poly—crates. It turns out our Frankie was involved. He left his fingerprints all over the store’s safe; which just happens to be twenty miles away from where the Corvette was torched—at basically the exact same time.”
“Which means that Frank couldn’t have killed Dan.”
“Not unless O’Connell was capable of being in two places at once. Our dead puzzle-man just got himself an alibi.”
CHAPTER 36
The sun had almost set, and Munnatawket Beach was in the process of turning a gentle coralline hue that simultaneously reflected and softened the more vivid colors of the sky. The ocean’s expanse had become a pale crimson, the foam on the breaking waves was strawberry-pink, and the light beaming into Belle and Rosco’s faces was so rosy and healthful that it made them appear rejuvenated and carefree rather than anxious and careworn.
“So now the Feds and Abe have confirmed that the fingerprints on the Corvette belong to none other than Rob Rossi—which, in turn, is currently inspiring a major manhunt for a guy whose previous notoriety was how fast he could open beers…. ” Belle was thinking aloud as she walked, head down and heedless of the beauty of the evening.
Rosco didn’t bother to respond. They’d been analyzing Abe’s newest discovery for the past twenty minutes, which was why they’d driven to the beach. As similar seaside trips had done many times in the past, this evening’s ocean air and sand-between-the-toes stroll was intended to clear their brains and give them a much-needed time out, as well as providing Kit and Gabby with ample opportunity for stick and ball chasing.
“So Frank wasn’t involved in Dan’s death, but Rob was…. ” Belle continued to mutter while Rosco picked up an ancient and now salt-soaked tennis ball and heaved it back down the beach from whence it just had been retrieved. Both dogs tore after it, sending up small clouds of russet sand in their wake.
“I guess you wouldn’t want to fetch a stick if I threw it, would you?” Rosco said to his wife. He raised a piece of driftwood in the air. “On your mark—”
She looked at him in bewilderment. “What?”
“I said, I guess you wouldn’t like chasing after this.”
“Chasing after …?”
“Never mind. It was a joke.”
“A joke?”
Rosco shook his head. “As in, what I said was supposed to be amusing.”
Belle frowned in thought. “You’re not comparing me to one of our four-legged friends, are you?”
Rosco chuckled. “To both of them, actually. When have you known either of those two to relinquish something they’re wrestling with?”
“Is this a hint to get me to stop talking about murder accomplices?”
“Boy, is your brain clicking tonight.”
“Very funny.” But instead of following Rosco’s suggestion, Belle returned to her examination of the Tacete case. “If Rob killed Dan, and Frank had a legitimate—or not so legitimate alibi—then was Rob setting Frank up to take the fall? Look like the guilty party? Ergo: Did Rossi strangle Frank?”
“Belle, this is supposed to be a relaxing walk.”
“It is, isn’t it? I know I’m relaxed.”
“Liar, liar. You are not. Your shoulders are tensed; your forehead is in knots.”
“Well, this is a knotty pr
oblem,” was her swift reply, “not the least of which is how all these suspicious characters are tied together.”
“Well, let’s see, there’s the Karen connection,” Rosco offered.
“You mean as the mastermind behind her husband’s murder?”
“It’s happened before. And by her own admission a little over an hour ago, we know that Karen comes from a less than savory background…. ”
Belle deliberated quietly as Rosco continued his thought. “I realize Karen told us otherwise, but what if she knew all along that Dan was sleeping with Bonnie? What better way to hurt Bonnie than to pin Dan’s death on her brother—and then have the brother killed?”
“By Rob?” Belle asked.
“Sure, why not? Al and Abe have connected him to the Corvette…. And you just mentioned him as Frank’s potential murderer.”
Belle released a slow and pensive breath. “That’s an awfully evil scenario, Rosco.”
“Homicide isn’t generally applauded for its niceties.”
Belle cocked her head to one side. “Thank you for reminding me.”
“Don’t mention it.”
She sighed again while her brain went back into high gear. “Why stop there, Rosco? Why not toss Jack Wagner into the witches’ brew, too? He could have been lusting after Karen … and then connived to get Dan out of the way for good. Jack must have realized Bonnie and Dan were an item; maybe Wagner even knew the sordid truth about his partner’s less-than-peachy marriage. Perhaps he convinced himself he was rescuing the lovely Mrs. Tacete.”
“If Wagner killed Dan. Which, I admit, is still not out of the realm of possibility.”
“Or he found someone to do his dirty work for him. Namely, Rob Rossi. We know Rob spent some time at the Smile! office. Wagner certainly had the opportunity to approach him.” Belle picked up a stick and began doodling in the damp sand while Rosco accepted the tennis ball from the triumphant Kit and threw it again. As before, both dogs took off like a shot.
Belle wrote FRANK, then drew a line joining it to BONNIE, and another connecting them both to ROB. She squinted at her work. “Wait, I’m forgetting CARLOS and ED…. So much for my tidy triangle…. ” She added those names, rubbing out lines and creating new ones, and in the center of the circle drew a poor facsimile of a sheep.