by David Bishop
Chapter 33
I got up at first light, slowly, but up. With a cup of coffee in hand, I called Cliff Branch, the chauffeur.
“Cliff, I need you to do something critical to help me solve this case and it must stay between you and me. I promise you I can square your doing it with the general.”
“I’ve been told to cooperate with you fully, Matt. What do you want?”
*
Two hours later, I called Charles. “How’s the general doing? I’d like to see him as soon as it works for him.”
“Good morning, Mr. Kile. Let’s see, it’s eleven now, so he’s been awake about an hour reading the morning paper in his study. He should be ready to see you by noon. No. Make it half past. Is that okay for you?”
“I’ll make it okay. And, Charles, don’t bring me an Irish if it’s going to encourage the general to have one as well.”
“That’s no problem, sir. The general hasn’t had another drink since the last one he shared with you. He told me what you said and he agreed. I thank you for convincing him.”
“See you at twelve-thirty.”
*
I got there on time and Charles led me upstairs to the general’s small study off his bedroom. The noon sun filled the room, having invited itself in through the hexagon-shaped window high on the opposite wall. A wheelchair sat to the side of the room facing the wall, equipped with a portable oxygen tank and a line that would feed the hyped air to his nose. He wasn’t using it, choosing instead to struggle a bit when taking breaths.
“Good morning, General. Did you sleep well?”
“Hello, Matt. As good as could be expected. Look, I know you don’t need pressure from me, but the truth is I want you to earn the fee I agreed to. That means you don’t have much time.”
“I understand, sir. That’s why I’m here.”
“Do you know who killed Ileana and my great grandson?”
“I’m closing in, but, no, General. Not this morning, at least not as yet this morning.”
“So?”
The door opened after a light knock. As I expected, it was Charles bringing me an Irish on cracked ice with a lemon wedge. “It’s one o’clock, Mr. Kile, after lunch, so I thought you and the general would enjoy your having this.” He leaned down far enough for me to take it from the tray. He put a paper coaster on the side table.
“Before we talk about why you came, Matt, let me give you this, there are two originals. I have signed them both. You will need to do the same.” Noticing my confusion, the general explained further. “When I hired you and we agreed to your success fee, well, to say it plainly, I didn’t expect I would die as soon as it now appears I will. Thus the terms of our agreement were not reasonable.”
“General?”
“We agreed your fee would be earned when someone was arrested for killing Ileana. You have worked diligently in that effort. And, make no mistake, I still expect results, but the arrest requirement, well, it now seems inappropriate. This new agreement stipulates you are to be paid upon either that arrest or my statement that I consider your services satisfactorily completed and your fee earned.”
“Thank you, General. You are most generous.”
“I can’t take it with me, and there’s plenty left for the others. If you solve this to my satisfaction you will have done me a great service.”
I took a pen and signed both copies. The general then rang his bell and Charles came in to witness both copies of the document and to take one with him.
“Now, Matt, why did you wish to see me this morning?”
“General, did you mean what you said about my not holding back on what I do or how I do it because you might be listening?”
“I mean everything I say, Matt, or I wouldn’t say it. Time is my enemy and it is gaining fast. Forget nicely. Get it done.”
“Charles tells me Eddie is still at home and if he tries to leave, Charles will let him know I would like to meet with him in the study. You’ll want to keep listening until Charles tells you I’ve left.”
“I see.” The general’s face went pale, even paler than from his ever-weakening circulation. “Is there anything else, Matt?”
“Yes. Curiosity, I guess, but you told me that Charles was with you on your general staff. That was how you two first met. You also mentioned he left you for a few years to take another assignment with the army. Then he returned and was your adjutant, or whatever the correct title was during your years on the joint chiefs. What did he do during the years he left your staff?”
“He always wanted to do intelligence work. I arranged for him to do some cloak-and-dagger stuff for the Department of Defense. After a few years he’d had enough.” The general chuckled, and then coughed. “Like so many young men, he had imagined that to be romantic and adventurous. He found it quite different fighting an enemy you got to see up close, in unfamiliar terrain that often ended in assignments that turn most men’s stomachs. It is not as clean and detached as eyeing a man through a sight and pulling the trigger.”
Chapter 34
Eddie walked into the study where I sat in one of the overstuffed leather chairs near the glass door out to the patio. Charles closed the door behind him.
“Hello, Mr. Kile. Charles told me you wished to see me.” He sat across from me.
“You grandfather’s attorney, Reginald Franklin, has given me a copy of the general’s will.”
“That fat fuck, excuse me, but he can’t even see his dick without a handheld mirror.”
“You really are a little prick, you know. Your grandfather is dying and Mr. Franklin is doing more to help the general than you, who will receive the lion’s share of the general’s estate. Don’t you think it’s time for you to grow into the position and responsibility you are about to inherit?”
“I don’t see that as any of your business, Kile.”
“I think anyone who wastes talent and opportunity is everyone’s business, or maybe just everyone’s disappointment. I’m rather fond of your grandfather, and I’d like him, just once before he leaves us, to see you as a level-headed responsible adult.”
“Oh, can the sob story. You don’t give a shit one way or the other.” He stood up. “Your only interest in any of us is to get somebody arrested so you can grab your fat fee.”
I stood and reached out pushing him hard against his chest. The push hurt my rib area, but I liked doing it just the same. Eddie fell back into the leather chair across from where I had been sitting. He started to get back up. “Get up again and I’ll close my fist the next time.”
He took his hands off the arms of the chair.
“You’re an educated guy, Eddie. A smart guy, but you got no style.”
“I have style.”
“A smart mouth isn’t style. Treating everyone with disrespect may be consistent, but it’s not style. You’re a punk in rich man’s clothes and an empty suit isn’t style either.”
“Is there a reason for this meeting, Kile, other than breaking my balls?”
“What was your interest in the industrial building in San Pedro on 22nd Street? You drove by there twice the other day.”
“How did you know I did that?”
“Answer the question.”
“It’s a family holding. I’m trying to get familiar with all of our assets.”
“In a bit of a hurry, aren’t you?”
“It seems like we are always at odds, Kile.”
“It seems like you’re always more interested in the general’s assets than in the general.”
“Are we through here?”
“We haven’t even started. You stay where you are. I’ve got some things I want you to hear.” I took the tape recorder out of my satchel, put in the first tape and played it. The tape being Quirt Brown telling the story of how his half brother Cory Jackson had been bribed to testify about watching Eddie Whittaker kill Ileana Corrigan.
When it finished, Eddie said, “Old business, Kile. We all know Cory Jackson lied when he claimed h
e saw me.”
“Old business? You knew about how Cory Jackson was bribed?”
“Not that part. Just that he had to have been. The person who bribed him would have been the killer who wanted me convicted. That tape would be hearsay since Cory Jackson’s been murdered and the telling on your tape is second hand.”
“Who do you figure bribed Cory Jackson?”
“I have no clue,” Eddie said with a flip of a soft wrist. “I gave up trying to figure that mess out years ago. That’s your job.”
“I have another tape for your listening enjoyment.” I put on the tape of Tommie Montoya telling his story of a flashlight being shined in his eyes when he opened the door to the ladies’ bathroom at the gas station where he worked. Where he had been bribed to tell the cops he sold you gasoline shortly after Ileana was murdered.
When it finished, Eddie said the same thing. “Everyone has known that part of it too, except for the how. Same hearsay rule will likely make it inadmissible. This is all a waste, Kile. We all knew about that. You told the general. The general told us. All these tapes do is let us hear these claims first hand.”
“I agree, the Quirt Brown tape would in all likelihood be inadmissible, but Montoya is still alive and I made this tape with his knowledge and consent. Still, we’ll leave the admissibility to be resolved by the legal people.”
“Okay, but so what. All it proves is that Montoya admits he lied to the district attorney. Beyond that, it proves I wasn’t nearby. If you’re trying to pin the murder on me, that tape helps me, not you.”
“No. This tape does not prove you weren’t nearby. It only proves that Montoya lied about seeing you nearby.”
Eddie stood up, this time turning quickly to avoid my reach. “I’ve wasted enough time with your silly evidence of nothing. I’m leaving.”
I stood up across from him. “You’re staying. Sit back down. I’ve got one more tape for you to hear, and you’ll want to hear this one.”
“So, now I get to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Yarbrough talking about being bribed to confirm my being in Split Pea Anderson’s at the time my Ileana was murdered? Same old, same old, Kile.”
“This is one you don’t know about, Eddie. I think you’ll find it fascinating.”
Eddie looked disgusted, but he sat back down, crossing his legs, curiosity leaking from his pores. I put in the tape of him and me talking outside the apartment building where his date lived.
It had played only a few seconds when he sat upright. “Where did you get that?”
“That was me you were talking with. I taped my own conversation with you. I think you should hear it all. Then we’ll talk some more.”
He had been there, but I wanted him to hear just how clearly he had confirmed hiring Podkin to kidnap and batter me. I knew the general was also listening. It would be tough for him to hear, but the general personified toughness and he needed a straight shot of what his grandson had grown into. How Eddie had agreed to pay a bribe to keep the police and his grandfather from hearing the tape. The charges against him through this tape were serious, but they didn’t establish murder or even connect Eddie to the Ileana Corrigan homicide.
“Kile, you’ve got me on paying Podkin and being responsible for your getting worked over. If you turn it over to the cops, my attorney will fight it on the grounds that I incriminated myself without my knowledge as I didn’t know you were taping our conversation. Now, I know you don’t have anything that ties me to Ileana’s murder. You can’t. So, can I leave without you doing the fight club routine again?”
We sat staring at each other for several minutes.
“Get out of here.”
Chapter 35
Charles came in after Eddie left and offered to bring me an Irish or something to eat. The kitchen staff had just made a batch of roast beef sandwiches for the crew of the outside landscaping service. Their men had been working to thin and shape a group of trees in the front yard arranged in a quincunx.
“That would be nice, Charles. I’ll take both. And please join me. I need to kick some things around and I’d like your thinking. Can you do that?”
“Give me fifteen minutes. I’ll let the kitchen know to make up a tray while I go check on the general. I’ll come back with our lunch.” I nodded and Charles left the study, closing the door.
Fifteen minutes later, Charles reopened the door to the study and held it so the maid could carry in a tray that held two plates with sandwiches and potato salad, two glasses of water, my usual and a glass of beer for Charles.
Through lunch we spoke of the general’s condition, and of Christmas approaching without the shopping being finished, an annual state of affairs for most Americans. Also of the status of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the excitement their new owners had brought to their fan base.
When we finished, Charles wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Well, Mr. Kile, how can I be of help?”
“Charles, we’ve become friends and I’d like to talk with you about how this case got solved.” His eyes went wide when he heard me say, solved. “That’s right; I’ve found the killer of Eddie’s fiancée and his child. I have an accessory to the murder held incommunicado. When I leave here I will go to the police. I fully expect they will return to arrest Karen.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Charles. Karen, in concert with Cliff, who this morning has made a deal to avoid prosecution, killed Ileana. She is also guilty of trying to hire me to kill Eddie. These efforts were designed to move her to the top spot in the general’s will.”
“That explains why Cliff didn’t come to work this morning and isn’t answering his phone.”
“Cliff has given sworn testimony as to how he helped Karen kill Ileana. At her direction, he bribed Cory Jackson and Tommie Montoya to create witnesses against Eddie. She wanted Eddie convicted of murder and discredited in the general’s eyes, expecting the general would denounce Eddie so she would inherit the bulk of the estate. All that occurred eleven years ago. Just recently he helped her again by killing Cory Jackson. This eliminated the only person who claimed to witness the murder. Cliff hired one of his biker buddies to abduct and beat me. Their plan, to keep me out of commission until the general died, knowing that once the general passed away, I would be paid some nominal amount and dismissed. At that point, she would have gotten away with murder and become extremely wealthy. She promised Cliff that he would live that life with her. After we talked with him, he understood that Karen has no intention of marrying him. Instead, she would count on his remaining quiet to avoid his own arrest for murder.”
“But given what you said, she would not have constructed an alibi for Eddie. She would have wanted him convicted.”
“That was the burr under her saddle. She loved the general and had no desire to watch him suffer while his grandson was being convicted of murder. She saw Eddie as the weak man he is, and expected he would become a sniveling coward once arrested, begging the general to save him. That the general would be ashamed of him and either cut him out of his will or give the two of them equal shares. She would have been satisfied with that. I think she also loves Eddie. After all, they are family.”
“Why would Cliff confess to this? ”
“After the Yarbroughs told their story to the police about their dog being shot, the police reopened the case. Cliff was a sharpshooter in the military. He knew Podkin who abducted me. He likely had biker friends who would kill Ileana. I had to tell the police about Karen offering me a lavish life if I would kill Eddie. They kept pressed Cliff and he made a deal to save himself by giving them a more sensational killer, Karen. ”
Charles just sat there in a slouch, as if someone had magically removed the largest bones from his body. After more than a minute, he muttered, “I don’t believe it. No. I just don’t believe it. She couldn’t have done it.”
“You know the saying, follow the money. The world sees her as the general’s daughter, while Eddie is a grandson. She became jealous, insanely jealous. She belie
ved she was entitled. I will have to testify that she offered me a wealthy life with her if I would kill Eddie before the general died. I’m sorry, Charles. With Cliff and my testimony, it’s open and shut as they say. All I need do is call Sergeant Fidgery. He has already heard Cliff’s confession. It’s in motion. She will be in custody before the sun goes down. Again, I’m sorry, Charles. I know what this means to you. But this can’t be swept under the table.”
“She couldn’t have done it, Mr. Kile.”
“I didn’t want to believe it myself. There is no evidence to the contrary. Nothing.”
Charles remained slumped in his chair, his bones still missing. “I did it,” he mumbled. Then he looked up. “I killed Ileana. I bribed the witnesses. I did all of it, except for whomever hired Podkin to detain you. My guess is Eddie did that. He believed you were trying to prove he had been guilty, that you wanted to help Karen that way. The key Podkin had to get into the building on 22nd had to come from one of us. No one else would have access.”
“If you did kill Ileana, you would not have provided Eddie an alibi. You would have only framed him.”
“Like you said about Karen, I couldn’t bring myself to let Eddie be convicted. Oh, I didn’t give a moment’s concern to Eddie. I love the general and could not bring about the death or life imprisonment of his grandson. I couldn’t let him lose all three, his son, Ben, his grandson, and his great grandson. I gambled that, once arrested, Eddie would come apart. The general would see him for what he was and give Karen an appropriate portion of his estate. In the worst case, what the general was leaving me, the two million I had that he paid for the alibi, and the two and a half million he was leaving Karen, even without an adjustment, would take care of us well enough. He has talked with me many times about doing that, and it would not have taken much for him to make that decision. Had Eddie fallen apart as I expected, the general, well, he has never had any tolerance for weakness in men. But Eddie held up better than I expected and that did not transpire.”
“I understand your reason for confessing. But, it’s no sale. Sergeant Fidgery will come for Karen as soon as I call him. Are you able to continue with your duties? Care for the general, I mean. If not, I’ll arrange for someone right away.”