A Game of Inches

by Webb Hubbell

  “Can it look like these pages were set up by something like “Friends of Billy” or “Women Who Want to Free Billy?” Make the “Friends” sound like women who have a crush on him. You’ll know how to phrase it.”

  “Perfect, Dad. I know what you want now. I can make it sound a little silly, but be sure the site is well done. The bad guys will figure it out pretty quickly. Who knows? We might get some real information.”

  “Exactly. Let me ask you this. Is it okay to publish disinformation, such as one of the girls has been found? I mean can Facebook or Twitter shut the site down?”

  “No way,” said Stella. “Most of the information on the Internet is a bunch of junk. We can’t use it to harass someone or put up porn or use foul language, but I’ll keep you out of trouble.”

  I gave my computer experts a thumbs up and left them to their fun with social media and “Free Billy.” I was still nervous about Beth going to Tennessee, but I was really glad she was here. She promised to have the research project finished before they left tomorrow afternoon.

  Clovis returned with a stack of papers.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “These are all the room service orders from the night in question. And to satisfy your curiosity I went back a week. It’s going to take forever to organize the orders by room,” he said.

  “Give those to me.” Maggie reached for the stack. “I’ll organize them for you. I can do it in half the time, and Jack would only make a bigger mess.”

  “The good news is there were no room service deliveries to Billy’s room. Not that night at least,” he smiled.

  “Good news, indeed. I’m sure Constance Montgomery can find a way around it, but it’s a good find. Thanks.”

  “It’ll take a little longer to get the other information you asked for, but I have a friend in the records department.”

  “What else do you need?” Maggie asked.

  “I asked him to get a list of the guests occupying that floor on that particular night. I want to compare that with the room clean up list from the following day. Maybe someone was in a room that should have been empty.” I said.

  “I can get those lists, but your other request will be a little tougher.”

  Maggie was clearly curious, so I explained.

  “Let’s assume that Nadia didn’t go to dinner with her gentlemen friend after meeting him in the bar. Instead, she went upstairs to a room. I want to check the records for the last year to see if the hotel had a regular Thursday customer.”

  Clovis said. “Problem is, Nadia paid cash for their drinks. She probably did that so no one could trace the fellow to the Mayflower. I bet he didn’t rent the room in his name either.”

  “You’re probably right, but I doubt that Nadia was paying cash every Thursday for a room either. There are too many different people at the Mayflower’s reception desk, too many people checking in. Someone had a standing reservation, probably for the same room. All Nadia had to do was get a keycard from a cooperative bellman or waiter. It was unusual enough for Nadia to use her own money for drinks. Not many people in her business advance the cost of a room at the Mayflower.”

  “You think she was working with someone. I thought Novak said she worked alone.” Clovis pointed out.

  “He did, and I believe him. But this arrangement, if it existed, was too sophisticated for her to have set up on her own. Let’s see what you can find out before we jump to conclusions.”

  “Stella can probably get what you want a lot faster than I can, but then again it might not be admissible in a court of law,” Clovis warned.

  “The quicker the better. I have a feeling we’re running out of time.

  55

  MICKI AND I retreated to my office to go over her notes. She’d had a good session with Billy. He told her what we already knew about hiring a private investigator through his agent and getting the anonymous note from Bibb, Tennessee. He gave her a few more details about the town, including his father’s favorite bar and the country store/gas station. He was pleased that Micki was going to his old hometown for the weekend. “I don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, but whatever happens, it would be good to know if I have any real family.”

  She told him I was joining her on the case, but didn’t go into any details, and he didn’t ask any questions. He seemed confused by her questions about any former girlfriends. Of course he dated at Sewanee. He rattled off a few names Micki could call. He confessed to a serious relationship with a fellow student at Oxford. They kept in touch, and he had planned to visit her during the off-season. No, he didn’t date much in Los Angeles. The team counseled rookies to be wary of groupies and girls who hung out at hotels during road trips.

  The publicity director had encouraged him to let her set him up with some women in the movie business, to let himself be photographed with them going out to dinner or walking holding hands, but he had politely declined, saying he wasn’t interested in a “tabloid relationship.” He’d had a few dates with a doctor at LA’s Children’s Hospital. They had enjoyed each other’s company, but were both too busy during the season to get serious.

  Well, at least the prosecutor couldn’t accuse Billy of having some propensity for professionals such as Nadia.

  “I tried to contact the first of the young men working for Logan but was passed on to a lawyer who said that all four of his clients were cooperating with the prosecutor’s office and respectfully declined to be interviewed.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  “Yeah, me, too. I expect we’re going to run up against a lot of stonewalls. The waiters at the banquet and the employees at the Mayflower will probably respond similarly. But surely they can’t all have lawyers! Have any ideas?” she asked.

  “Yes, believe it or not I think I do. But first let me brief you about what we’re doing on social media and what Clovis has discovered. I want your sign-off.”

  “You are actually asking my opinion? Where did this Jack Patterson come from?” she kidded.

  “First time, we had never worked together. Now we have.”

  Micki blushed, recognizing the compliment.

  She loved our newly minted social media strategy. She had some ideas of her own for the web site, and I encouraged her to give them to Beth and Stella.

  She was less excited about Stella hacking into the Mayflower’s computers to get the information we needed about reservations. It was probably illegal and definitely wouldn’t be admissible. I reminded her that Stella was so good no one would ever know. We weren’t using the information for any illegal purpose; we simply needed to know who had rented rooms at the hotel. Moreover, we owed it to both Nadia and Billy.

  Micki was still skeptical, but told me as long as I was aware of the consequences, she wouldn’t stop me.

  “Okay. Now tell me how we’re going to get around the fact that the prosecution is stonewalling all the witnesses? All we’ve been able to gather in the way of exculpatory evidence is probably inadmissible. I know you well enough by now. You’ve got a plan bubbling up in that brain of yours.

  “And please tell me you aren’t planning to ask for a preliminary hearing like you did in the Cole case. There isn’t a chance in hell Constance Montgomery is going to let you get away with that.”

  A preliminary hearing is sort of a “trial before the trial.” The judge listens to evidence from both the prosecution and the defense and determines whether there is probable cause to bind the defendant over for a trial. The defendant is almost always bound over, but on occasion the defense uses a preliminary hearing to learn about the prosecution’s case. We had asked for a preliminary hearing in Woody’s case. It was an unusual tactic, but then it was a most unusual case.

  “No, a preliminary hearing in this case would be a publicity nightmare, and we wouldn’t learn anymore than we already know. But think about it—we could ask for one even though in the end we intend to waive our right to it.”

  “What would that accomplish?”
<
br />   “Well, for one it might shake Constance up a little bit. She’s bound to know what we did before.”

  “You’ve met her. I don’t think there’s much that shakes her up.”

  “True, but what else does scheduling a preliminary get us?” I asked.

  “Is this a test? You tell me.”

  “The right to subpoena witnesses—employees of Logan Aerospace, bellmen, perhaps others. I’m not trying to shake up Constance, but I’ve got a feeling that once subpoenas start to fly, the real villain might finally screw up.”

  Micki leaned over, put her hands on my shoulders and gave me a real kiss.

  I pulled away abruptly and said, “Look, Micki…”

  “Oh, don’t get all bent out of shape. I know it’s about Carol now. But it’s fun to see you squirm, and I do love the way your evil mind works.”

  “Excuse me—I don’t mean to interrupt.” Maggie stood in the doorway, giving us both a disapproving look. I supposed she had seen everything.

  “Not at all, not at all. What’s up?”

  “Micki, a courier has just delivered a very large package addressed to you.”

  “That will be the prosecutor’s file,” Micki said.

  I asked Maggie to make a copy so I could take one back to Barker’s tonight. She backed out without a word.

  Micki was disappointed by the implied delay, but relented when I said, “I know you’re dying to dive in, but let’s stick to our schedule. Help Stella and Beth with the social media before you tackle that mess.”

  Micki left to find Stella and Beth, and I joined Maggie at the copier.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “No, it is not. Right now Micki Lawrence is spoken for. You need to turn off your charms. Larry is a nice young man, and what happened to Carol Madison?”

  “But she kissed me.” I said incredulously and turned on my heel, a little miffed myself.

  I returned to my office to find Micki and Clovis waiting. “Okay, lets talk about tonight and tomorrow. Clovis, ask Stella to see if she can find out if someone had the same room reserved every Thursday. I think a desk clerk could arrange a vacant room for one night, but not every Thursday. Management would have caught on. Micki, when you see Billy tomorrow morning find out how he ended up at the Mayflower. Did the NFL put him there, did his agent, or did he book the room himself? We have conflicting reports.

  “I’ve studied the layout of the hotel floor. I think Billy was given that room for a specific reason. Clovis—here’s one more thing to check out if you can. Billy’s room faces DeSales St. Anyone in an office across the street on the seventh floor or higher would be able to see straight into Billy’s room if the curtains were open. Of course, they’d need binoculars or something more sophisticated, but how hard would that be? See if you can find out who occupies the top four floors of the office building opposite the Mayflower.”

  Clovis raised his brows, and Micki said, “Well, that comes out of left field. Do you think someone was watching Billy’s room that night?”

  “Anything’s possible. Actually I’m more interested in knowing if anyone was watching the room next door to Billy’s.”

  She frowned, but let it go.

  “Is Paul ready for another night time mission?” I asked.

  “He is. He crashed right after we met this morning, but says he feels better after some sleep.” I had forgotten Paul had gone with her to the jail.

  “I’d like him to go back to the Mayflower Bar tonight. Make nice with the bartender who told him about Nadia. Maybe one of the regulars remembers something he doesn’t. If we find out who she was meeting on a regular basis, we’re going to need someone to verify his identity.”

  “Anything else?” Clovis asked.

  Micki spoke up. “I thought I’d try to contact Claudia. It’s about time we know if she is going to cooperate or not.”

  “Let’s hold off on Claudia for a little longer. She just might be our ace-in-the-hole. I don’t want anyone to know we’re interested in her.”

  Beth poked her head into my office. “Y’all come into the conference room. Stella is fabulous.” Maggie had joined them.

  “Free Billy” already had over ten thousand followers on Twitter and several hundred friends on Facebook. The website was getting constant hits, and ESPN and CNN were both reporting that the website had been created by “fans of Billy Hopper.”

  “Perfect,” I said.

  Beth and Stella took us through the various features of the site including the comment section, which had already gotten some pretty nasty notes. Not everyone was a Billy Hopper or Lobos fan. Stella said she working on a way to get to the real messages without having to manually sift through all the junk. She really was amazing.

  “Micki, you can decide when, but I think its time to tell Constance Montgomery I’ve signed on as your co-counsel and that we want a preliminary hearing.”

  “I’m going to meet with Billy in the morning. I thought I’d drop by her office before we head to Knoxville. I bet she’s working this weekend. I want to see her reaction in person.”

  Maggie ventured, “Jack, wouldn’t you like to come home with Beth and me tonight? Have a nice dinner? Talk about something besides this case?” Beth looked at me anxiously.

  “Sounds great, and I’d love to, but I can’t put the Knoxville trip at risk. Today I was able to sneak out of Barker’s and into the office. Yes, Maggie and I had lunch, but not with any of the rest of the team. I can get back to Barker’s and lay low until tomorrow. By the way, Micki, you don’t need to tell Constance where I’m staying—the press will find out soon enough. Once our secret is out, whoever’s attention will turn to me while you head to Tennessee. Hopefully, Maggie and I can provide enough diversion over the weekend so y’all can discover the secret to Billy’s past.”

  Beth sighed. “I understand, but I miss you. And I need to get back to my job before long.”

  “By the time you come back from Tennessee we’ll have all the clues we need to begin phase two, presenting our version of the case to the right person.”

  “You sure about that?” Micki asked doubtfully.

  “Absolutely.”

  56

  WE BROKE UP soon afterwards. I went back to Barker’s with the prosecutor’s file. Clovis and Stella were going to stay at the office to try to access the Mayflower’s computers, and Micki was headed back to the Hay-Adams to find Larry. They were going to get a good dinner and take in the nightlife of Adams-Morgan. Maggie, Beth, and Walter were going to Arlington to sit outside, enjoy the fresh air, and eat Maryland blue crab at the Quarterdeck. I thought they were torturing me on purpose.

  I sat at a table in the bar at Barker’s. Barb brought me a glass of wine, and I began to peruse the prosecutor’s file. As expected the facts weren’t good. The four men at the banquet all gave statements that Billy ordered a lot of drinks at the banquet, appeared to be snockered, and needed the girls’ help to get into a town car to go back to the hotel.

  There was no mention of the fact the girls had rejoined the men at the Mandarin bar. I made note to find out about the car service and the driver. The doorman at the Mayflower said Billy could hardly stand when they arrived. Billy practically fell into the elevator, and the girls helped him into his room, or so the doorman assumed. All three returned shortly and left in the same town car.

  The surveillance cameras in the hall on Billy’s floor weren’t working, but they did have video footage of Billy getting out of the town car and being helped to the elevator. One thing we knew now for certain was that Nadia was not one of the girls at the banquet. Novak was correct on that point.

  A lot of the file concerned Nadia, which reminded me to find out what Clovis had found out about her plastic surgeon. It included an autopsy photograph of her “birthmark,” but I couldn’t tell from the picture if it covered a brand. Now we had fingerprints from the autopsy, so we could verify that it was indeed Nadia who still lay in a sliding box in the morgue. It was clear fro
m the file that the prosecution didn’t have a clue who the dead girl was, nor had they made much effort in finding out.

  According to the autopsy the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock caused by loss of blood from multiple stab wounds to the pubic area by the room service knife. The pictures were hard to look at and I went through them fairly quickly, but I did notice some bruising at the wrists and saw that her jaw was fractured and severely bruised. The medical examiner assumed there had been a struggle between the woman and Billy before he stabbed her. A pillow was found on the floor that contained her saliva. The medical examiner concluded that Billy must have held the pillow over her face either before or during the stabbings. There were no drugs in her system and no undigested food. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. It was interesting was she had been found completely naked. A black cocktail dress and heels were found on a chair near the window, along with a black bra and panties. All the clothes were folded neatly. No phone or purse was found, and for some strange reason all of the labels on her clothes had been removed.

  I wondered what had happened to her purse. I started to make a list for Clovis and Stella. A working girl such as Nadia had to have a phone, and how in the hell did she get to the hotel with no purse or money. Something wasn’t right. The rest of the inventory catalogued from the room was clearly Billy’s, including his cell phone. I made a note to have Micki get access to the phone—I wanted to know whom he had called the few days before the tragedy. No sense being surprised in court. I also texted Micki since she would meet with Constance tomorrow. We hadn’t thought about checking phone records, at least I hadn’t.

  I already knew about Billy’s call to Marshall, 911, and hotel security. The file had transcripts of the call to 911. It was short and sweet—no surprises. The police verified he was wearing sweats when they arrived and that he had told them he woke up with no clothes on. Nadia’s blood was all over the inside of Billy’s clothes. All the reports indicated Billy was both distraught and respectful, but refused to say more until he could talk to Marshall.