Equivocal Death
Page 16
Kate froze. She’d expected this moment to come, but she’d as-3
sumed she’d have time to prepare. To plan what she wanted to say.
4
“Ms. Paine?”
5
“Yes.” Kate was thinking quickly. “I’m not sure that now is such 6
a good time. I’m in the middle of —”
7
“It won’t take long,” Valencia said smoothly.
8
“Well . . . , okay.” Kate didn’t know what else to say.
9
“Thank you, Ms. Paine. I’ll be right on up.”
10
11
12
Kate ejected the cassette and stuck it in her desk along with 13
Madeleine’s Filofax. Closing the drawer, she heard a knock. “Come 14
in,” she called. The door swung open.
15
Looking up, Kate saw two people. One, an athletically built 16
Hispanic woman, she assumed to be Detective Valencia. The other 17
was Dave Bosch, one of Samson’s newest litigation partners.
18
Bosch, a wiry figure in his mid-thirties, had done a two-year stint 19
in the U.S. Attorney’s office before returning to Samson & Mills.
20
“I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced,” Bosch said, ex-21
tending a thin, dry hand. “I’m Dave Bosch. And this” — he ges-22
tured to the woman beside him — “is Cathy Valencia. Detective 23
Valencia is with the police department. She’d like to ask you a few 24
questions about Madeleine Waters.”
25
“Of course,” Kate said. As Valencia reached out her hand, Kate 26
glimpsed the policewoman’s neat manicure, nails filed square and 27
coated in a clear polish. Kate felt a twinge of embarrassment at her 28
own bitten nails and quickly released the handshake.
29
Valencia was simply dressed in a navy blue pants suit with brass 30
buttons. She had an attractive face, with clear olive skin, wide-set 31
brown eyes, and a generous mouth. Her thick dark hair was pulled 32
back with a clip. She had an air of confident directness.
33
“Shall we sit down?” Bosch said.
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Kate returned to her desk, while Bosch and Valencia settled into 2
the two chairs facing her. While Bosch’s presence had caught Kate 3
off guard, it wasn’t hard to figure out why he was here. The last 4
thing the firm’s partners wanted was to have employees privately 5
venting grievances and crackpot theories to the NYPD. And while 6
ultimately no one could stop them, a partner’s presence could be a 7
strong deterrent, reminding them who signed their paychecks.
8
“I won’t take too much of your time,” Valencia said. She pulled 9
a steno pad from the outside compartment of a brown leather purse 10
and quickly elicited the basics — Kate’s address, phone numbers, 11
length of employment — before moving on to the subject of Mad-12
eleine.
13
“I understand that you had a meeting with Ms. Waters the day 14
she was killed. Can you describe that meeting for me?”
15
Kate paused, wondering how forthcoming she should be. She 16
thought of the cassette tape and date book now stashed in her 17
desk. She was in an awkward position, having removed these items 18
despite Mills’s instructions to leave everything just as it was. Be-19
sides, did Valencia even know that she’d been asked to catalogue 20
Madeleine’s office? Did she know about Madeleine’s aborted date 21
with Chuck Thorpe? And if not, was she the one to raise these 22
points? In the end, Kate decided to answer only the questions that 23
were asked. She could always elaborate later.
24
“The meeting concerned a case I’d just been assigned to,” Kate 25
began. “Madeleine wanted to talk to me about a research project.
26
Basically, I just updated her on how it was going. She . . . she gave 27
me a book to read, something to do with the case. We didn’t meet 28
very long. She had to cut it short. The managing partner called 29
and needed to see her.”
30
“That would be Carter Mills?”
31
“Yes.”
32
Valencia jotted a note. “Did anything strike you as unusual? Did 33
Ms. Waters seem upset or out of sorts at all?”
ort 34
Memories flowed through Kate’s mind: Madeleine and Carter’s reg 35
sharp words the previous day over the conflict-of-interest issue.
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And then on Tuesday, Madeleine’s glittering eyes, the strange 1
warning spoken just before her death. You need to be very careful.
2
But she needed to keep her feet on the ground, to be ruled by rea-3
son not emotion. Unsettling as these exchanges were, she had no 4
logical reason to think they were linked to Madeleine’s murder.
5
“She seemed fine,” Kate said carefully. “I mean, I’d never met 6
with her before, so I can’t make any comparisons. But from what I 7
could tell, everything was fine.”
8
“Did she seem at all anxious, upset?”
9
“Not that I noticed. Maybe a little tired, but that’s all I remem-10
ber.”
11
“Is there anything that you’ve seen or heard that you think 12
could be related to Ms. Waters’s murder? Anything that might give 13
us some insight into who might have wanted her dead?”
14
Fleetingly, Kate thought of the hours she’d just spent in 15
Madeleine’s office. Of the calendar entry showing Madeleine’s 16
planned dinner with Chuck Thorpe. Of Drescher’s impassioned 17
search of Madeleine’s desk. She could feel David Bosch watching 18
her.
19
“No,” Kate said. “Nothing at all.”
20
“Is there anything you think I should know? Anything I haven’t 21
touched on that you think might be important?”
22
Kate shook her head, careful not to betray her uneasiness. Was 23
she wrong not to mention the issues on her mind? Right now, she 24
couldn’t be sure.
25
“Is it necessarily someone she knew?” Kate said. “I’d been as-26
suming it must have been random.”
27
Valencia sidestepped the question. “We have to consider all the 28
possibilities,” she said.
29
Then the policewoman was closing her notebook and stuffing it 30
back into her purse. When she stood up Kate noticed that her navy 31
pants were free of wrinkles. Reaching across Kate’s desk, Valencia 32
handed her a card. “Here’s where you can reach me,” she said. “In 33
case you think of anything else.”
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Picking up her fork, Cathy Valencia surveyed her large salad: ice-2
berg lettuce, hard wedges of pale pink tomato, a few strips of green 3
pepper. A squeeze of lemon in place of dressing. Across the table, 4
Mike Glaser was wolfing down a platter of spaghetti and meatballs.
5
“That the family size?” Valencia asked. They were seated in a 6
booth at the bustling Friendly Diner. Just two blocks from Samson 7
& Mills, it felt like a different world.
8
Glaser gave his bark of a laugh. “Hey, nobody’s making you 9
starve yourself. Get yourself a real lunch. How you gonna get 10
through the afternoon on that rabbit food?”
11
He had a point. The morning had been hectic, and the rest of 12
the day was shaping up to be at least as crazy. But that couldn’t stop 13
Glaser from enjoying his lunch. This was a man who liked food.
14
Not that it showed. Glaser could eat anything in sight without 15
gaining an ounce. His moonlike face was deceptive; from the neck 16
down he had the body of a twenty-five-year-old. Valencia bet he 17
didn’t weigh a pound more than he had some twenty years back, 18
when he got out of the Police Academy. She, however, had only to 19
look at a piece of pastry in order to gain five pounds. Come to 20
think of it, she’d probably put on at least that much just watching 21
Glaser eat today.
22
Valencia’s eyes followed Glaser’s movements as he spooled up 23
another forkful of pasta. A veteran detective with the Manhattan 24
South Homicide Task Force, Glaser was the best investigator she’d 25
encountered in her two-plus years as a homicide detective in the 26
thirteenth precinct. They’d worked together once before on a con-27
tract killing. At first, Glaser had struck Valencia as a traditional 28
guy, someone who’d question whether women should be cops at 29
all, let alone homicide detectives. But she’d been wrong. With five 30
daughters and an outspoken working wife, Glaser was more of a 31
feminist than she was. She’d been amazed at how well their styles 32
meshed. When she’d been assigned to the Waters case, Valencia 33
had immediately called Manhattan South to ask for Glaser’s assis-ort 34
tance.
reg 35
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Glaser looked up from his plate. “So where do we stand?” he 1
asked.
2
“Pretty much where we did when we split up this morning.”
3
Early in the day, there’d been a brief surge of exhilaration. From 4
Waters’s secretary — who, Valencia wryly thought, was the only 5
other dark-skinned person she’d seen all day — they’d learned 6
about a male caller who’d rescheduled Waters’s date with Chuck 7
Thorpe. It had been a huge break, evidence that the murder had 8
been planned by someone with access to Waters’s schedule. But 9
from there the trail had cooled. The call had come from a stolen 10
cell phone whose owner, one Mr. Philip Schneider, came complete 11
with an alibi. Except for what he’d seen on the news, he’d never 12
heard of Madeleine Waters. Of course, they’d follow up on the 13
lead. But Valencia wasn’t holding her breath.
14
So far, what they knew was this: Waters had been picked up by 15
her car service at six-thirty sharp. About twenty-five minutes later, 16
she’d been deposited at Ormond. Valencia had spoken to the 17
restaurant’s maître d’, who recognized Madeleine from a snapshot.
18
“Great-looking woman,” he said. “Was she some sort of a model?”
19
Yet hard as Valencia pressed, he couldn’t add anything more. He 20
didn’t remember if Waters had been alone or if there’d been some-21
one waiting to meet her. He did confirm that there were two sepa-22
rate reservations in the name of Thorpe, the first for a C. Thorpe 23
at seven, the second for a Chuck Thorpe at eight. Both reserva-24
tions were for two.
25
The waitress who’d handled the seven o’clock table was equally 26
vague in her responses. “It was real busy that night, you know?”
27
She did remember a couple who’d left around seven, shortly after 28
arriving. The woman had been sick, she thought. But that was all 29
she could offer. Looking at a snapshot of Madeleine, she wasn’t 30
even sure that this was the woman she’d seen. And she could give 31
no description at all of the man. “Could this be the guy?” Valencia 32
asked, showing her a picture of Chuck Thorpe. The waitress had 33
stared at it, undecided. “Maybe,” she said. “He does look familiar.
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But I really couldn’t be sure.” Valencia had put in calls to other 2
diners who’d been seated in the vicinity that night, but she wasn’t 3
too optimistic. In her experience, fashionable New Yorkers had lit-4
tle interest in anyone of noncelebrity status. Other than them-5
selves, that is.
6
While she’d been busy at Ormond, Glaser had met up with 7
Thorpe. Valencia had half-hoped that Thorpe might prove to be a 8
viable suspect. She’d had a preexisting dislike for the man, based 9
on what she’d heard on the news. But Thorpe had been at a staff 10
meeting until quarter of eight, throwing a screaming fit. That 11
didn’t rule him out, of course. He could have hired someone to do 12
the job. Still, her instincts told her that they hadn’t yet found the 13
culprit.
14
“So what next?” Valencia said.
15
“That’s not really up to us, is it?” There was an edge to Glaser’s 16
voice. He was ticked off that they hadn’t gotten access to the vic-17
tim’s office yet.
18
“We’ll get in tomorrow,” Valencia said. “Mills said they need to 19
go through her papers. They have to think about clients and all.”
20
It was a pattern they’d fallen into, one of them assuming a low-key 21
posture when the other was blowing off steam.
22
“Yeah, well maybe they should think about the fact that a 23
woman is dead. Maybe they should give that some thought.”
24
“It’s not worth the hassle, getting a warrant.” Valencia pushed 25
away her half-eaten salad. She’d have a candy bar this afternoon 26
for sure. “Why get them all riled up? Besides, whatever they want 27
to do to that office, they’ve already had time to do it.”
28
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Glaser said.
29
“We told them to leave everything in place, just as she left it.
30
That’s really all we can do.
”
31
“Yeah,” Glaser said again. He glanced wistfully at his empty 32
plate as if looking for another meatball.
33
“I didn’t get much from that associate I talked to after you left,”
ort 34
Valencia said. “She was one of the last people at the firm to see the reg 35
vic. But she said it was all just business. Nothing unusual.”
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“They still got that Bosch jerk following you around?”
1
“What do you think?”
2
Glaser shook his head. “Piece of work, that guy. Think he works 3
at being a prick or was he born like that?”
4
Valencia ignored the comment. “I gave her my card. In case she 5
wants to talk to me alone.”
6
“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be burning up the phone lines.” Glaser’s 7
voice was heavily sarcastic. “Still nothing from the lab?”
8
“I checked back with Bartlett this afternoon,” Valencia said.
9
“They just don’t have much to work with. No semen at the scene.
10
No blood except for the vic’s. No saliva. Nothing useful from the 11
swabs and smears. Whoever he was, he cleaned up good.”
12
“So we’re still pretty much at ground zero.”
13
“I’ve got more interviews lined up for this afternoon. Some of 14
the other lawyers she worked with. How about you? Any word on 15
the ex-husband?”
16
“Tracked him down this morning. His name’s Sam Howell.
17
Lives in Sag Harbor. He was having dinner with friends in Bridge-18
hampton the night she was killed.”
19
“The alibi checks out?” Valencia asked.
20
“For what that’s worth.”
21
“How did he describe the relationship?”
22
“Says Mills broke up the marriage. After that he and Madeleine 23
didn’t talk for years. But they’d recently gotten back in touch. She 24
wrote him a letter last month. He’s sending us a copy by overnight 25
mail. Claims it shows she was scared of Mills.”
26
“Scared? Of Mills?” Valencia was suddenly alert.
27
Glaser shook his head. “It just doesn’t sit right with me. The job 28
was too messy for someone like Mills. And think about it. Howell 29
was jilted. Mills stole the woman he loved. How rational d’you ex-30
pect him to be?”
31