by Wally Duff
“Is there a woman drug rep involved with this?” he asked.
“Yeah, kind of. We used to play a lot of tennis together until Kerry was born.”
Eddie and I played tennis together growing up. He knows my game. “She any good?”
“Truthfully, she kicks my butt most of the time.”
Eddie knows how competitive I am. “How’re you handling that?”
“I hate it, but she also plays golf.”
“Got it. She’s better at tennis, but you kill her in golf.”
“Yep.”
“How does she like that?”
“She doesn’t. She hates to lose more than I do, which is why we make a good doubles team.”
“Sounds like my kind of woman, but is she looking for a husband? If she is, I’m not in the market right now.”
“She’s not. Her only concern is her two kids and keeping her job.”
“Two kids? Might be a deal breaker.”
“Both are in college, so not to worry.”
“Can’t hurt to meet. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“You get married again.”
“I think I should wait on that a while, don’t you?”
65
Thursday, it rained again, so we were at Molly’s home for playgroup. Some of the kids watched a Dora DVD. The rest ran around her family room and played with the other toys.
“What are you guys going to do for Halloween?” I asked.
“It’s next Tuesday, right?” Molly asked.
“It is,” Linda said.
“I’m gonna keep the two younger ones at home while I pass out candy,” Molly continued. “Greg will take two older ones out to terrorize the neighborhood.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said. “We’re going to reverse it. Carter will stay at home. Kerry and I will go out for as long as she lasts.”
We did this a year ago, and she made it to the house next door. Mrs. Newens had dressed up as a ghost and unintentionally scared Kerry, so we went home. I hoped we would do better this time around.
“Howard and I always attend a Halloween bash at my parent’s country club,” Linda said.
I wanted to ask who would take Sandra out to trick-or-treat, but Linda has at least one nanny, so I had my answer.
Cas looked out the window and didn’t seem interested in the discussion.
“And other news,” I said. “Eddie is flying here on Saturday. We can get his thoughts on this story.”
“Let’s have a dinner party for him,” Linda suggested.
“He’s staying with us, so I’ll do it,” I said.
“And at the same time, we could introduce him to someone,” Molly said.
“I’m one step ahead of you,” I said. “I already mentioned Alexis to him.”
“Hold it,” Cas said. She told me she’s way too busy working to put her kids through college to worry about a man.”
“She might rethink that one when she meets Eddie,” Molly said.
“Doesn’t Eddie already have someone?” Cas asked. “I think she’s called a wife.”
“Ex-wife would be a better term,” I said. “In baseball parlance, he’s 0 for 2 in the marriage game.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Linda said. “He seems normal.”
“And he is H.O.T.,” Molly said. “I’d do him in a heartbeat.”
“Molly, you’re married,” Cas said.
“Just sayin’,” Molly said.
“I’ll text her,” I said.
I did, and she texted back that she would come. As I disconnected, my cell phone dinged again. This time it was a text from Janet.
Janet: have something for you.
Me: at Molly’s.
Janet: her front porch in five.
She was standing on the porch when I walked outside. “Your gun is now properly registered,” Janet said, handing me a Dinkel’s Bakery box.
Tony sat in a Chicago PD brown Ford Crown Victoria double-parked in front of Molly’s home.
“What did you tell Tony about why you’re here?” I asked.
“That I’m replenishing the donuts he ate the other day.”
“Then he can wait for you. Come in and talk to the girls.”
66
The Irregulars sat around Molly’s dining room table while the kids continued to play. Janet and I joined them.
“Do any of you know a Dr. Robert Denning?” Janet asked.
“He was after my time at MidAmerica Hospital,” Cas said. “What about him?”
“He worked at MidAmerica Hospital and had an office in Fertig and Warren’s doctor’s building.”
“Worked and had, as in past tense?” Linda asked. “Did he leave town?”
“In a way,” she said. “Last night he became a splat.”
“A splat?” Molly asked. “What’s that?”
“It’s what happened to him after he went out of an open window in his Lake Shore condo.”
Yikes.
“How far did he drop?” I asked.
“Twelve stories and change. He hit the big sign in the front of the building, and then the portico over the driveway, meaning he took a little detour before he landed on the street.”
“Did he jump?” Molly asked.
“That’s what the first cops on the scene thought. Then they checked the security cameras in the bank parking lot across the street, which recorded the fall, and they called us.”
“Why?” I asked.
“It looked like he might have been pushed out of the window.” She paused. “Backward.”
“Backward?” Cas asked. “He must have struggled like crazy. I would fight with everything I had before I’d let someone shove me out of an open window.”
“We considered that, but there doesn’t appear to be any sign of a fight in his condo.”
“What about defensive wounds?” I asked.
“It was hard to tell much about his body after he hit the street.”
“The killer has to be a man,” Cas said. “It would take a lot of power to push Denning out of a window.”
“Any men in mind?” I asked.
“Denning was a general surgeon who specialized in breast cancer,” Janet said.
“Not much need for his surgical skills when a doctor in the same building does an operation which cures all of his patients of that same disease,” Cas suggested.
“An operation Denning couldn’t do but Fertig could,” I said.
“We keep coming back to Fertig,” Cas said.
“We do,” Janet said.
“I wonder if Denning was on Warren’s committee to investigate Fertig,” I said.
“If he was, Tony and I need your help.”
67
“Tina already knows this, but immediately after Warren died, our captain told us to cease and desist on the investigation of his death,” Janet said.
“Why?” Linda asked.
“Mrs. Warren and her family have strong political connections. She used them to stop any more police inquiries about her husband’s death.”
“If Denning was on Warren’s committee, Fertig could be involved with both cases,” Cas said.
“That’s why we need your help,” she said. “The captain and Mrs. Warren can’t control what any of you do. If you guys can uncover any evidence that helps us connect the Warren case to this new one with Denning, the captain might allow us to reopen the Warren investigation and go after Fertig for both of them.”
“What can we do to help?” I asked.
“You might have already started when you broke into Fertig’s offices,” she said.
Uh-oh.
“We didn’t find anything,” I said.
Janet raised her eyebrows. “But maybe you did.”
The Irregulars turned to me.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, shaking my head and hoping she wouldn’t continue.
Janet’s voice was hard. “I think you do.”
“What’s going on, Tina?” Linda asked. “
Are you breaking the law again?”
“Not exactly,” I said.
“What does that mean?” Cas asked.
“A guy tried to convince Tina and the rest of you to stop working on the Fertig story,” Janet said.
“Tina, tell us exactly what happened,” Linda said.
I did.
“Did this man understand that he can’t scare us off?” Cas asked.
“He did after I pulled my gun on him.”
“You have a gun?” Linda asked. “Where do you keep it?”
I held up the Dinkel’s Bakery donut box. “It’s in here.”
“You can’t be serious,” Linda said. “You have a gun in a donut box?”
“Not all the time. It’s in here because Janet registered it for me.”
“She registered it after you threatened a man with it?” Linda said. “Incredible.”
“Better late than never,” Janet said.
“We’re getting sidetracked,” I said. “If you want us to help, we need to see the crime scene.”
68
Alicia’s daughter Liv came to Molly’s to babysit the kids while the Hamlin Park Irregulars met with Tony and Janet at Denning’s condo. It was located in a high-rise building on Lake Shore Drive, about six blocks from MidAmerica Hospital.
Tony stopped us at the open front door to Denning’s condo. A yellow crime scene tape blocked the entrance.
“You guys can’t come in, because we’re still working the scene,” Janet said.
“Stand here and look through the door,” Tony said.
The décor of the condo was space-age modern: black and white and chrome all over. The numerous prints on the walls were abstract, and the theme seemed to be females, but some of the pictures were modernistic and it was difficult to tell what they represented.
Fingerprint powder covered most of the surfaces in the areas we could see. On a desk were several framed pictures of him with young ladies. There were no children in any of them.
“Was Denning married?” I asked.
Janet flipped open her notebook. “Once, but it didn’t last very long.”
“Children?” Linda asked.
Janet shook her head. “Rumor has it he’d been snipped, a fact he told to each woman he dated.”
There was a large plastic sheet taped over a window frame. It faced Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan. Tony walked over and pulled the tape off. The plastic sheet fell onto the white carpet. The open window and frame were also covered by fingerprint powder.
He pointed at the space. “Where the doc did his nosedive.”
“A more accurate term might be backflip,” Linda said.
“The end result was the same,” Janet said.
From where we stood, I didn’t see any blood on the carpet, which would have suggested Denning fought off a possible attacker. It looked like the doctor jumped to his death through an open window.
“Have your CSI guys picked up any fingerprints or other clues?” I asked.
“They did,” Janet said.
“TNTC,” Tony said.
Too numerous to count.
He sounded envious.
“Our boy was busy,” Janet said.
“Meaning?” I asked.
“It’ll take a long time for the lab to process all the fingerprints and various colors and lengths of hair fibers the guys found, especially in his bedroom and bathroom,” Janet said. “Looks like he had multiple female visitors.”
“Almost none of these ‘visitors’ will be in any system unless they’ve been arrested for something,” Linda said.
“And you would be correct,” Janet said.
“Slows down our investigation,” Tony added.
“I noticed security cameras out here in the hall,” Linda said. “Did they record anything?”
“Could have but didn’t,” Tony said.
Linda nodded at the cameras. “Tony, they’re pointed directly at us.”
“What my partner is trying to say is the Bear Corporation, the owners of this fancy building, never hooked up the cameras,” she said. “They’re only for show.”
“Where do we go from here?” I asked.
“Call Shanda and Alexis,” Cas suggested. “They might know something about Denning.”
“And they are… ?” Tony asked.
“Friends of ours who are drug reps,” Cas said. “They call on doctors at MidAmerica Hospital and might be able to give us more information about him.”
“Do it,” Janet said. “Tell them to meet us in the lobby.”
69
A police officer let Alexis and Shanda into the building. Since it was Thursday afternoon, they were still dressed for work.
Shanda wore a pink suit with a short skirt and high-necked white blouse. Once again, her four-inch-heeled black pumps and heavy makeup contrasted with her usual Hamlin Park casual attire.
Alexis kicked it up a big notch higher. Her long blond hair was held off her face by her large sunglasses, and her makeup, especially around her eyes, was heavier than Shanda’s. She wore a charcoal gray suit with a tight skirt that was shorter than Shanda’s. Her gray sling-back pumps were at least an inch higher than Shanda’s and displayed her long athletic legs and muscular calves.
“What’s up, guys?” Shanda asked.
I opened my mouth, but Tony nudged me out of the way before I could introduce them.
“I’m Detective Anthony Infantino of the Chicago PD,” he said, flipping open his black suit jacket. He wanted to make sure they could see his gun and the gold detective’s shield which hung from a chain around his neck. “We’re here investigating the death of Dr. Robert Denning.”
“Death?” Alexis said. “He died?”
“That would be correct,” Janet said, as she pushed between them. “Do either of you know him?”
“By reputation, but that’s all,” Shanda said. “I didn’t call on him.”
“I carry a couple of drugs he used, and I knew him,” Alexis said.
“You and I need to talk, sweets,” Tony said.
“My name is Alexis, and I’m not your ‘sweets’.”
“All women are ‘sweets’ to me.”
She turned to me. “Is he always like this?”
“He’s been sick,” I said.
“Shot would be a better description,” Janet said.
“Shot?” Alexis asked. “Like with a gun?”
“No, a sniper rifle,” I said.
“I hope it wasn’t anywhere important,” Alexis said.
“Hardly,” Janet said. “It was his head. He returned to work a week ago Monday.”
Janet held out her hand to Alexis and Shanda. “I’m his partner, and we need to know everything you can tell us about Denning.”
They shook hands.
“Like I said, I don’t know much,” Shanda said.
“But you do, is that correct, Alexis?” Janet asked.
“I guess, but I don’t know if it’ll help.”
“Sweets, like I said, we need to talk,” Tony said.
“I would love to, if you stop calling me sweets,” she said.
“Not a problem, babe,” he said. “Not a problem at all.”
70
That night, Carter came home late after having more stories to cover than he had reporters to work on them, a constant dilemma now with downsizing in the world of journalism. There are stories that need to be reported, but the public no longer seems to want to read them in a newspaper.
He kissed me and plopped down in a kitchen chair.
“Hard day?” I asked.
“Too much news, not enough reporters,” he said.
“Did you eat?”
“Ordered in pizza again for the staff.”
“At least it has all of the necessary food groups.”