by Carol Costa
"I guess that makes me the closest relative," Casey said without enthusiasm.
"Listen, Casey, the real reason I called was to invite you out to dinner tonight. Bruno's working, so it'll just be the two of us."
"Thanks, Dana. I'd like that."
"I'll be out of the office the rest of afternoon, so let's pick a place and time now." Casey didn't seem to have an opinion about that, so Dana set the time at 7 p.m. at the Aztec Club. "We'll find a quiet booth where we can talk," Dana promised.
With that settled, Dana got her coat and scarf on and went into the reception area. She grabbed two doughnuts and wrapped them in napkins.
"You're exceeding your doughnut quota for the day," Marianne warned with a grin.
"It'll be my lunch on the way to Chicago."
"Good excuse," Marianne said as Dana went out the door.
Bruno took the letter he had picked up from Dana's office back to the station. He called the forensics lab and told them he was bringing a piece of evidence over that he needed checked for fingerprints. Then he called Hildago's office. He knew the prosecutor was probably in court, but he left a message for him.
Jack O'Brien came into the office and sat down beside Bruno's desk. "I had to cut Hunter's cellmate loose this morning. We got nothing to hold him on."
"Did you get any useful information from the guy?"
"No. He's dumb as a rock. He saw Hunter in Las Vegas but Hunter disappeared before he had a chance to talk to him. Somehow he found out Hunter was here and came here looking for him. He said he called Hunter and Hunter told him to get lost, so he went to the bar and tied one on and then got into the fight that landed him here. He was going to call Hunter and ask him to bail him out, but by that time Hunter was dead"
"Sounds like a huge waste of time and taxpayers' money," Bruno said.
"You got that right. If the ballistics report on the Chicago murder says the bullets that killed both brothers came from the same gun, that Flannery guy who hassled Casey will be off the suspect list too. He was in jail here when the guy in Chicago was killed. So, guess what, buddy? Our list is down to one, the wife."
"Casey didn't do it," Bruno said.
"She had motive and opportunity."
"And two people who can vouch for her whereabouts at the time of the murder," Bruno told him.
"Yeah. Except those two are Casey's best friends who were in on that scheme to snag rich husbands. What did they call it, the master plan?"
"You've been reading the reports again."
"Yeah, and my point is that if those girls could think up a crazy scheme like that and actually put it into action, they could lie for a friend, or even help her kill him to get the insurance money."
"There is no insurance money in the Hunter case. You're thinking of the Porter case."
"Oh, right. Well, it doesn't matter. They thought the guy was rich and Casey would inherit his money if he died."
"Wait a minute," Bruno said becoming irritated, which happened quite frequently when he talked to Jack. "Are you saying Casey and her girlfriends got together and murdered Hunter?"
"Think about it, Bruno. It's another one of those schemes to make themselves rich. One of them kills Hunter so Casey can inherit his dough and then because they know the wife is always the primary target; they become her alibi and she becomes theirs. It's a perfect crime."
Bruno had to admit Jack had a point, but he wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of saying so. "Only one thing wrong, Jack. Hunter spent all the money he had pretending to be rich himself."
"Yeah," Jack said with a devious smile. "That's what makes the case so interesting. Everyone is after everyone else's money, only none of them really have any."
"Another of life's twisted tales," Bruno said, getting up from his desk. "And what about the brother? Do you think the girls drove to Chicago and popped him too?"
"It's possible."
"Except a witness says he saw a man going upstairs to Hunter's apartment"
Jack snorted his disapproval. "A witness who is only five years old. Come on, Bruno. You know kids aren't reliable witnesses. They'll say anything for a stick of gum"
"You're right there," Bruno admitted.
"So, I say we bring the wife and her girlfriends in for more questioning. One of them is bound to break."
"I'll think about it. In the meantime, I'm going to interview some of Hunter's friends from the country club. Maybe one of them knocked him off."
"You want me to come along?"
"No. The chief wants one of us to stay in the office to catch the calls. Today that's you"
"Sure. But think about what I've been telling you."
"I will," Bruno assured him. "By the way, I'm expecting to hear from Lou Hildago. If he calls tell him to call my cell. He's got the number."
"Will do, buddy."
Bruno put on his overcoat and picked up the evidence bag with the anonymous letter. He would drop it off at the lab on his way to the country club.
O'Brien was back at his own desk and didn't seem to notice the evidence bag and for that Bruno was grateful. He didn't want to lie to a fellow detective, but he didn't want to admit that he was having the letter checked out just to humor his girlfriend.
From the outside, the correctional facility looked like an office building rather than a jail. That image quickly disappeared once Dana entered the building. There were lots of iron bars and gates and guards with guns.
Dana waited in line with other visitors to give her name and the name of the inmate she was visiting. She showed her driver's license to the first guard and submitted to a search by a second guard before the iron gate that separated the inspection area clicked open and she entered a corridor where another guard escorted her into the visiting area.
The room contained tables of various sizes and lots of chairs. The place was already filled with inmates and their visitors. Guards were at the door and stationed at strategic places around the room, keeping a silent watch on the inmates and their respective visitors.
"Who are you here to visit?" the female guard asked, pausing inside the doorway.
"Mary Lou Bandini," Dana replied. "I don't know what she looks like."
The guard nodded and led Dana over to a small table against the wall. A short, stout woman with black hair and a round plain face looked up at Dana. She was dressed in a royal blue jumpsuit that was tight across her ample bosom. "You my new best friend?" she asked cynically.
"I'm Dana Sloan. I'd like to talk to you about some old friends of yours"
Mary Lou motioned to the guard that she approved of the visitor and the guard left them. "Sit down, Dana Sloan," Mary Lou said.
"Thank you for seeing me," Dana said.
"Why not? This place is boring as hell and I don't get many visitors. So what do you want?"
"I want to ask you about your relationship with John and Tony Hunter."
Mary Lou shook her head. "Ancient history, girlie."
"Yes, I know, but recently both of the brothers were murdered"
"You a cop?" Mary Lou raised up in her seat, grabbing a hold of the table as if she was about to turn it over on Dana.
"No, I'm not a cop. I'm a reporter. I work for the Globe newspaper in Crescent Hills."
One of the guards had approached the table. "Is there a problem here?" she asked.
Mary Lou shook her head. "No problem. Everything's good," Mary Lou said.
"Then stay seated," the guard warned.
"Sure thing." Mary Lou sat down again and glared at Dana. "Look, girlie, I haven't seen those two losers in years. I thought they were both still in prison."
"Tony was released about two years ago," Dana told her. "His brother just got out last week"
"So, since they've been guests of the state for so long, you figure someone from their wicked past did them in."
"I don't know. That may have been the case with John, but Tony has been out for a long time with no sign of trouble. In fact, Tony recently marri
ed a good friend of mine."
"She probably killed him. He was an annoying little jerk. He followed Johnny and me everywhere. I think he liked to watch us make out"
"The newspaper articles say that they were arrested at your family home. Were you hiding them after the robbery?"
"That was the plan, until I found out they killed Sarah."
"You knew Sarah?"
"Not real well, but I knew her. She was the daughter of one of my father's business associates."
"What kind of business was your father in?"
"He was a crook. Him and Sarah's old man worked together, collecting bets from losers, running numbers"
"Where are they now?"
"Pushing up daisies in Oak Park cemetery."
"Do you know why Johnny and Tony killed Sarah?"
"Yeah, I do, but I'm not in the mood to talk about it, especially to someone I don't know."
"What would get you in the mood to talk about it?" Dana asked.
"My account at the commissary doesn't have enough to buy a candy bar. A lot of visitors deposit funds in the accounts for the people they visit here"
"How much of a deposit are we talking about?" Dana asked calmly.
"Five hundred should cover it "
Dana smiled. "How about this, Mary Lou? You tell me your story and then I'll pay you what it's worth"
Mary Lou smiled back. "I like you, girlie. How about we settle on twenty bucks up front?"
Dana opened her purse and took out a twenty-dollar bill. She held it up so Mary Lou could see it, then put it back in her purse. "Let's start again. Why did the Hunter boys kill Sarah?"
"So they wouldn't have to split the dough with her."
"She was in on the robbery?"
"Of course. She planned the whole thing. Johnny and Tony couldn't plan a trip to the beach on their own. She went inside the bank first and pretended to be their hostage so they'd have a better chance of getting away. Sarah was older than us and had been fooling around with the assistant manager, some geeky guy about ten years older than she was. That's how Sarah knew they had a lot of extra money in the drawers on Fridays because people came in and cashed their paychecks. Then, according to Johnny, after they got away Sarah wanted to take possession of the cash bag. They got into a fight about it and one of them shot her in the head"
Dana sat back in her chair. "Do you have a name for the geeky assistant manager?"
"Sarah used to call him Stu the Stud. I don't know what his last name was."
"Did Sarah's involvement in the robbery or her relationship with the bank manager come out at the trial?"
Mary Lou looked at her. "No one knew about it except me and the boys and Sarah. They might have told their lawyer, but he was one of those public defenders who didn't know which end was up. Same kind of jerk that landed me in here"
"Did you testify at the trial?"
"I had to, but I don't remember what I said. It was a long time ago and I was scared the boys might get off and come after me."
"For turning them into the police? Did you get a reward?"
"What makes you think it was me who turned them in?"
"Wasn't it?"
Mary Lou grinned. "Yeah, it was. To tell the truth, I wasn't really after the reward money, it was peanuts. It was the bank loot I wanted, but I underestimated the boys. After they killed Sarah they hid the money somewhere and would never tell anyone, not me, not the cops, nobody, where it was. If Tony got out of prison two years ago, he probably got to it first and spent it all."
"All but about thirty thousand dollars," Dana told her.
"In that case, maybe Johnny killed him."
"I don't think so," Dana said. "I'm working on the assumption that the two murders are connected. Do you know anything else about the bank manager Sarah was dating?"
"No. He was supposedly home sick the day of the robbery, so I don't know if they even called him to testify. I've always wondered if the real plan wasn't for Sarah to get the money from Johnny and Tony and run off with her boyfriend."
"What makes you think that?"
"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "Like I said, I wasn't real close with Sarah. I guess I just knew that she thought John and Tony were dummies and she could get them to do the dirty work and she'd reap the rewards"
"What about Clyde Hunter? John and Tony's father?"
"He was so drunk most of the time he didn't know what they were up to. He didn't even come to the trial"
"Is there anyone else you can think of that might have had a reason to want John and Tony dead? Relatives of Sarah's maybe?"
"Just me, but as you can see, I got an iron-clad alibi."
"You seem like a smart woman," Dana said. "How'd you end up in here?"
"My boss was such an idiot, he made it easy for me to steal from him. The problem was I got greedy and started taking more and more. Greed is a dangerous thing."
"Yes, it is," Dana agreed.
"Well, the good thing about doing a white-collar crime is that you get sent to a place like this. Me and Martha Stewart got that in common"
A voice came over a loud speaker announcing that visiting hours would be over soon. Mary Lou called out for one of the guards to come over to them.
"My friend, here, wants to donate to my commissary fund," she told him. "I need a slip from you"
The guard pulled a pad and pen from his shirt pocket. Mary Lou explained that Dana had to sign the slip and give the money to the guard, who would then put it in Mary Lou's account.
"How much are you donating?" the guard asked Dana.
"Forty dollars," Dana said, pulling two twenties from her purse and handing it to him.
"Thanks," Mary Lou said.
"Here's my card, Mary Lou," Dana said handing it to her. "Let me know if you think of anything else."
"You got the whole story, girlie. There isn't any more to tell."
Casey was already at the Aztec Club when Dana arrived. She was seated in a booth toward the back, away from the main lights of the restaurant and the television set that hung on the wall behind the bar area.
"How are you doing?" Dana asked as she slid into the booth across from her friend.
"I'm getting better," Casey replied. "I arranged for a funeral home here to cremate-" She stopped. It was obviously still hard for Casey to say his name. "The man here was very nice and helpful. He will transfer the ashes here to a crematorium he knows in Chicago that will take care of John. Their ashes will be interred in the same niche at a Chicago cemetery. There will be no services and I won't have to do anything but pay the bills"
"I think that's probably for the best," Dana told her. "You've done all you can now for both of them and you have to start thinking of yourself again and moving forward."
"Sure," Casey said with a forced smile. "I'm going to do that."
Casey's appearance was better than it had been in the office yesterday. She had fixed her hair and applied makeup so that her pale features had some color. The outfit she wore was one that Marianne had helped her pick out too.
"You look good, Casey," Dana said sincerely. "That's the first step toward recovery."
"Thanks. So, tell me about your appointment in Chicago. I'm assuming it had something to do with one of the murders."
"Actually, it had to do with both of them. I went to the Illinois Correctional Facility for Women to visit a woman who knew the Hunter brothers at the time of the bank robbery."
"Who was she?"
"She was John's girlfriend at the time. They were hiding out at her family home and she was the one who turned them into the police."
"Did she tell you why?"
"Yes. Let's order some food and I'll tell you the whole story."
Dana signaled for the waitress and they ordered dinner salads, roast-beef sandwiches, and soft drinks. Then Dana related her experience with Mary Lou that afternoon and told Casey everything she had learned from the woman.
"That doesn't really confirm our theory that someone
from their past killed them for revenge."
"No, but it doesn't rule it out, either. Greg picked up the trial transcripts for me today and maybe something will turn up in there"
"Well, this sounds awful," Casey said, "but the fact that Sarah Turner actually masterminded the robbery and might have been planning to take off with all the money makes me feel a little better. At least I can tell myself that Tony didn't murder an innocent person in cold blood."
"True" Dana didn't say that robbing a bank and then shooting your accomplice was still pretty bad. It all stemmed from greed, as Mary Lou said earlier, a dangerous thing.
"I'm going to use the balance of the stolen money to pay off the loan that Carmen, Cathy, and I took out to make me look wealthy. Making that payment every month would just remind me of how stupid I was to take part in a scheme like that. I'm also going to quit the country club. To tell you the truth, I didn't really enjoy going there all that much"
By the time they had finished eating, Dana felt that Casey was going to be all right. Unfortunately, that was just about the time that Jack O'Brien came into the Aztec Club.
Casey saw him first. "Oh, no. Jack O'Brien just walked in. I hope he doesn't see us"
Dana agreed, but both of them were disappointed when O'Brien came directly to their table.
"Hello, ladies," he said pleasantly. "I hope you're not planning another one of those master plans."
"Get lost, Jack," Dana told him bluntly.
"I guess you're still mad because I called Bruno and told him you were at a murder scene"
"No. I just don't like you," she said with a smile.
Jack turned to Casey. "How about you, Mrs. Hunter? Do you dislike me too?"
"I don't know you well enough for that," Casey said.
"Well, guess what? I'm working on the murder of your husband and you're going to get to know me pretty well. In fact, I may become your worst nightmare."
"Let's go, Casey," Dana said, standing up and grabbing her coat. O'Brien was blocking their way. "Get out of the way, Jack, or I'll start screaming."