Web of Silence: A Ray Schiller Novel (The Ray Schiller Series Book 4)

by Marjorie Doering

  Ray dipped his chin and looked at Schwartz from under his brow. “We located the people who bought them. With their cooperation, we took the guns in for ballistic testing. We should have the results back soon.”

  Waverly grinned. “Frank, I do believe you’re sweating.”

  “I don’t know anything about that gun,” Schwartz said. “I had nothing to do with what happened to Georgia and the others.”

  Waverly loosened his tie. “Like hell you didn’t. One of your employees reported a Ruger missing from the case. In fact, he reported it to you and was told not to worry about it. Guess who that employee saw putting that very same gun back in the display case a week later? It was you, Frank.”

  “Instead of disposing of it,” Ray said, “you cleaned it up, and stuck it back in the sales case so you could turn a profit on the damned murder weapon. It’s your greed that’s going to cost you everything.”

  Blatz slumped against the back of his chair. “You don’t have the results of the ballistics test back yet.” His tone was halfhearted.

  “Take a look at your client’s face,” Ray told him. “That should tell you what to expect.”

  “For the record,” Waverly said, “we haven’t totally ruled out contacting the authorities in Columbus. That’s a death penalty state, Frank.”

  Schwartz turned still paler.

  “With your history of failing businesses and dead wives—”

  Blatz jolted forward in his seat, interrupting him. “Wait, wait, wait. What’s this about Ohio?”

  “I thought you said you talked to your client,” Waverly said. “Apparently he didn’t tell you about his first dead wife, the one who died in a one-car accident while they were living in Columbus… or that he saved his business by using the huge life insurance policy he took out on her shortly before her death.

  “Ingenious bastard that he is,” Waverly continued,” he reversed the process when his new business started to fail. He married a woman who was wealthy in her own right. Then while Georgia was alive and kicking, he depleted her resources to save his sporting goods store. Then when the ingrate had the nerve to divorce him and he was ordered to pay alimony, he had her killed. Real nice fella.”

  “That’s nothing but a pack of lies,” Schwartz bellowed.

  There was a rap on the door. It opened and an officer poked his head inside. “Detectives, sorry, but I’ve got something I think you’ll want to see.”

  Ray and Waverly excused themselves and stepped out of the room.

  Before they could ask, the officer handed them a sheet of paper encased in a clear plastic envelope. “This was found in Steve Winchell’s tool box at Dunn Motors.”

  They read the paper, thanked him, and returned to the interrogation room, smiling.

  “It’s over, Frank,” Waverly told him. “You’re done.”

  “What is that?” Blatz asked.

  “This paper?” Ray held it up. “It’s what’s going to get your client convicted. Either Steve Winchell was careless or cagey. It’s the message laying out the terms of their murder contract, counselor.” He passed it to Blatz and turned to Schwartz. “Somewhere down the line, I imagine Winchell intended to use that to blackmail you—his ace in the hole for the future.”

  Blatz slid it back to Ray. “May I speak with my client alone, please?”

  As Ray and Waverly stood outside the interrogation room, one cup of coffee turned into two, then two into three.

  Waverly tossed his empty Styrofoam cup into a full trashcan. “They’ve been in there so long maybe we’d better check to see if Blatz is helping Schwartz tunnel his way out of the building.”

  A moment later, Blatz opened the door and motioned them inside.

  “No,” Ray said, “it looks like we’re okay on that score.”

  He and Waverly walked in, closed the door and took their seats again.

  “Okay,” Ray said, “where are we at?”

  Blatz interlocked his fingers and set his forearms on the table. “My client is prepared to cooperate fully, but with one stipulation.”

  “What is it?” Waverly said.

  “Against my advice, Mr. Schwartz is prepared to make a full confession on the condition that contacting the Ohio authorities is off the table.”

  “That’s it?” Waverly said.

  For a moment, Ray stopped moving—stopped breathing. It was as good as an admission of guilt that he’d murdered his first wife, as well. His focus shifted to Schwartz. He looked beaten—shrunken in on himself somehow. “So, rather than risk the death penalty, he’s willing to face the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison?”

  Schwartz bolted upright. “Yes! All right? Yes!”

  Blatz sat him down in his chair again. “What do you say, gentlemen?”

  43

  For nearly two hours, Ray and Waverly sat and listened as Schwartz gave them his official statement. He confirmed their suspicions point after point. Their satisfaction and relief alternated as he confirmed details they had only been able to guess at earlier.

  Waverly ran the tape back after Blatz left and Schwartz had been escorted back to his cell. He fast forwarded to the segments they wanted to hear again.

  Ray asked, “How much of the plan did you lay out for Winchell?”

  Schwartz laughed. “I told him I wanted her dead. That’s it. I made it clear that the how, where and when was up to him. In fact, I made it very clear I didn’t want to know any of the details. That was vital.

  “I provided the gun and five thousand dollars to start. He was to kill Georgia at a time and place of his own choosing. He wasn’t to contact me in any way—not to ask questions or even to tell me the job was done. Aside from that, my only other requirement was that he make sure she was dead before I got back to Minneapolis.”

  Waverly asked, “Why did you leave the planning up to him?”

  “When I was notified of Georgia’s death, if I didn’t know any of the details, there was less chance of my getting tripped up. The day you two came to her house and found me there, I knew Georgia was dead—had to be—but it took so long for her body to be found, it was driving me crazy. I started to look for her myself. I was sure you were there to tell me she’d been killed. The last thing I expected to hear was that Elena had been shot. Winchell shooting her and that man… That was not supposed to have happened.”

  Waverly fast forwarded a little farther.

  “… screwed the whole thing up.”

  Ray asked, “Why did Winchell decide to kill Georgia at Elena Dunn’s house?”

  “Until he came to my home to demand the rest of his money, I could only guess at how he’d botched things up. That’s when he told me what he’d done.

  “Instead of keeping things simple and getting it done quickly, he decided to take his time. He followed Georgia around for a couple of nights. At some point he overheard her say she planned to babysit Elena’s son Friday night. That’s when he decided he could kill Georgia for the ten thousand dollars and frame Dave Dunn at the same time.”

  Ray asked, “Why frame Dave Dunn?”

  “He’d convinced himself Dave and his girlfriend, the service girl, had something going on. He wanted him out of the picture. Winchell’s idea was to make it look like Dave had hired someone to kill Elena, but that his accomplice messed up and murdered the wrong woman. To help the illusion along, he used a car off Dave’s lot. Besides, he said his own car would be too easy to identify. I had nothing to do with that.

  “The idiot screwed up, though. Elena got home earlier than he expected and must’ve come through a back door. He said he never saw her until he’d shot Georgia. After that everything went to hell.”

  Waverly fast forwarded again.

  “…hated to do it, but the alimony kept going out month after…”

  “No, that’s not the right spot,” Waverly said, trying to locate a different section.

  It stopped as Ray was saying, “…hadn’t been such a cheap bastard, you might’ve gotte
n away with it. If you’d paid Winchell what you agreed on and disposed of the gun instead of selling it…”

  “That would be throwing good money away. I didn’t see any reason to do that.”

  “Look around you. Do you see one now?”

  “Damn, I love that part.” Waverly rewound the tape and turned the machine off. “You ready to call it a day, buddy?”

  “I was ready hours ago.”

  Twenty minutes later, they walked out of the department to the parking lot in silence. Parked several cars apart, they paused before getting into their individual vehicles.

  Waverly tapped on his roof to get Ray’s attention. “Your jaw’s looking better.”

  “It still cracks when I chew.”

  Waverly laughed. “When I close my fingers, my knuckles do, too.”

  Ray laughed. “I’m headed home, Dick. If I hurry I might get there in time to join Gail and the kids for dessert.”

  “Have a good night, Ray.”

  “You, too.” Ray started to get into his car and stopped. “Hey, Dick!”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask… Do you ever plan to grow your mustache back again?”

  A smile crossed Waverly’s face. “I’m doing that as we speak. Phyllis wants it back. Last night she said I have an upper lip like an orangutan. It’s sass. Just pure sass.” He laughed. “Gotta get going. See ya tomorrow, buddy.”

  Dear Reader,

  Ray Schiller survived all I’ve put him through in Dear Crossing, Shadow Tag, Targeted, and now Web of Silence too. Thank you for taking the journey with him. If you enjoyed the trip, please recommend Web of Silence to your friends. But why stop there? Please leave a review—long, short, it doesn’t matter. Your opinion counts.

  Just click on this link: (Web of Silence) to take you to my author page. Click on the book, then go to the box near my picture that says “Write a Review.” Let people know what you think. They want to know, and so do I. Thank you!

  About the Author

  Marjorie Swift Doering grew up, quite literally, on a golf course. Her father, a PGA pro, was the owner/operator of an eighteen-hole course in a tiny town in SE Wisconsin. The distinctly unique childhood surroundings laid the foundation for her lifelong enjoyment of “people watching”. Occasional reminders to “not bother the members” resulted in turning her into an introverted extrovert, a condition she’s since overcome.

  She graduated from WSU, Stevens Point with a B.S. in Secondary Education with a major in English and a minor in Psychology. She’s made continuous use of both ever since, but interests and circumstances led her away from the classroom setting. The love of writing has always been a constant in her life.

  A few of her proudest accomplishments consist of the production of her one-act play Flight 419 by Darknight Theatrical Productions in Chicago, Illinois in 2005, contributions to Mosaic, A Collection of Short Stories in 2009, the 2012 publication of Dear Crossing, the first in her Ray Schiller mystery series. Shadow Tag is the second in the series published in 2013. In 2015, Targeted became the third of Ray Schiller’s cases, followed by Web of Silence in 2016. Book five in the series is a work in progress.

  Marjorie and her husband, Denny, live in Northwestern Wisconsin with their Springer, Casey, and their three crazy, but lovable cats, Freddy, Dickens and JoJo.

  Click on the link below to take you to my author page.

  The Ray Schiller Series