'Eighty percent? You're crazier than the shit-bag bomber.'
'I thought it was rather generous of me,' Jameson said. 'That still leaves you with plenty of money to get out of the country, before the cops find the lock of Marilyn Biggs's hair and the gun that killed her. You can start a new life. You're young, good-looking...newly single.'
'And you're dead,' Tony said, pulling the gun from under his jacket. 'As you well know, Dr Jameson, I'm not a very trusting guy, but I actually believed you were the one person who wouldn't fuck me over. I guess I was wrong.'
He aimed the gun at the doctor's head.
'If you kill me, they'll know you did it,' Jameson said.
Tony laughed. 'You're damn right they'll know, because as soon as I pull the trigger I'll call 911. I just caught the ringleader of a multimillion-dollar human organ chop shop. And now that I know you killed Marilyn Biggs, I'll find some way of proving it. Do you know how many traffic surveillance cameras there are between here and Sherman Oaks? I'll nail you for her murder, and I'll find that lock of hair long before the dogs do.'
'You don't have the balls to shoot me,' Jameson said.
'You never did have any insight into who I really am,' Tony said. He squeezed the trigger. The click was deafening.
He squeezed again. And again. And again.
Click. Click. Click.
Jameson smiled. 'No insight, perhaps, but I did have the foresight to make sure Detective Lomax removed the firing pin from that gun. I'm sorry, Tony, but God helps those who help themselves, and to do that, I had to make a deal with the devil.'
'Devils, actually,' I said, as Terry and I walked through the door of Jameson's office. 'There's two of us.'
'Fucking Lomax and Biggs,' Tony said.
'It's like poker,' Terry said. 'You got dealt the cards, you played your hand, you went all in, and you lost.' He removed the useless gun from Tony's hand.
'Actually, we've got the whole deal on videotape,' I said. 'So it's more like Celebrity Poker.
Chapter Sixty-Two
The plot to nail Tony had been hatched earlier that morning.
After Diana and I had made love, I woke Terry and convinced him that it was time to get Kilcullen in the loop. We called him, then we called Deputy DA DeRoy at home. By six o'clock the four of us were in the office, and Terry and I came clean about investigating a fellow police officer behind the department's back.
Kilcullen bristled, but he kept his anger to himself. By the time we gave him the whole story, he no longer cared about crucifying us. He wanted Tony.
We strategised about next steps, it all depends on whether or not Jameson calls,' Anna said.
He never did. Instead, at six forty-five, he showed up in person. Accompanied, of course, by his lawyer, Robert Leitman.
'My client can help you put Tony Dominguez behind bars for the rest of his life,' Leitman said.
Anna nodded. 'In exchange for what?' she said.
'Total immunity.'
'He walks,' she said. 'No time, no fine, not even community service mopping the floors at the local clinic.'
'Yes.'
'No,' she said. 'Let me phrase it another way for you, Counsellor. Never. Not in a million years will your client go scot-free. We have a witness to Marisol Dominguez's murder. I'll take my chances on her, and then I'll put your client in jail for twenty to thirty for his complicity in the death of Esteban Benitez.'
Leitman leant over and whispered something to Jameson. It was legal theatrics. They had worked out their game plan before they walked in the room.
Leitman looked back at Anna. 'If we're willing to deal, how low are you willing to go?'
'Ten years. He could be out in eight.'
'We decline.'
'Your client was involved in illegal organ transplants and the death of an unsuspecting donor,' she said.
'He's an upstanding citizen, serves on several hospital boards, and donates his services to charities,' Leitman said. 'He'll do better than ten if he goes to trial. Two years, and you have deal.'
They haggled. They finally settled on five years in a medium security prison.
'All right, doctor,' Anna said. 'Start out by telling us how you got into the organ business, and Detective Dominguez's role in it.'
'About three years ago, I was in session with one of my patients,' Jameson said. 'He was despondent over the fact that his twenty-year-old daughter needed a kidney. She was on the waiting list, but despite all his wealth, there was little he could do but keep waiting. He refused to accept the fact that he couldn't just go out and buy one. I explained that even if he found a donor, no American doctor or medical facility would do a transplant. Too many people are looking over their shoulder. He said, 'There are plenty of other countries in the world.' And then he said the magic words. 'Money is no object.' The next day I broached the subject with Tony. He jumped at it. He drove down to Mexico, and a week later we had a doctor and a donor. The surgery was done in Mexico City. The operation was a success, we were handsomely paid, and I thought that was that.'
'But?' Anna said.
'The young woman who received the kidney had been in love with another patient at the dialysis centre. He asked her to marry him, and as an engagement present, Daddy ordered another kidney.'
'Volume,' Terry said. 'The key to success in retail.'
'I was surprised,' Jameson countered, it never dawned on me that I might be asked a second time. What I didn't plan on was the word of mouth that would spread through the dialysis community. Oh, it was discreet, in a way. It was only leaked to those who could afford it, and at the prices we were asking, that was a select few. But the orders kept coming in, until finally we relocated our Mexican surgeon to Los Angeles. Then Tony came up with the idea of trucking in the potential donors in groups, blood and tissue-typing them, and calling them as soon as we had a match. We paid each donor twenty-five thousand dollars. Tony came up with the amount. He was confident that with that much money, they would go back to Mexico and we'd never see them again.'
And how much did you get paid?' Anna asked.
'Not relevant,' Leitman said. 'Move on.'
'Did you ever inform these donors that you were removing their kidney?'
'No,' Jameson said. 'That was an unfortunate part of the deception. We told them we were looking for rare immunities to save children's lives. These young men were painfully unsophisticated, so they believed us. We couldn't tell them the truth, or we'd be known as that place in LA where you can get rich selling a kidney, and that wouldn't be smart, would it?'
'Removing two kidneys from the same patient isn't smart either,' Anna said. 'What was your thinking on that one?'
'It wasn't me. That was all Tony. We had two surgeries scheduled for the same day. The surgeon transplanted a kidney from Esteban Benitez, and the first operation was a success. But the second donor never showed up. We found out later that he was in jail. Meanwhile, the second recipient was in critical shape, and Tony was going ballistic. The surgeon went through his files on all the available donors, and there was only one possible match.'
'Esteban Benitez,' Anna said.
Jameson nodded. 'Yes. He was the right blood type, and his tissue matched on three points, which is the acceptable minimum. The clincher came when the doc told Tony that Benitez would be dead soon enough from heart disease, so Tony made the call. They took the second kidney, and they saved the recipient's life.'
'What about Benitez's life? Why did they let him die?' Anna said. 'Why not just put him on dialysis until his heart gave out?'
'I asked Tony the same question. He said Benitez was a liability and had to be disposed of.'
'Did you know that Tony killed Marisol and her real estate partners?'
Leitman held up his hand. 'He learnt it after the fact. Doctor-patient privileged conversation.'
Anna ignored the lawyer and leant in close enough to Jameson that he could feel her breath. 'And when Tony told you that he was disposing of Benitez, was that doct
or- patient, or just murderer to murderer?'
'Uncalled for, Ms DeRoy,' Leitman said.
'Don't tell me what's called for, Counsellor.' She snapped her head back at Jameson. 'Let me ask another question, Doctor. What do you know about the deaths of Marisol Dominguez, Jo Drabyak, Julia Knoll, and Nora Bannister?'
Jameson turned to his lawyer for guidance.
'Don't look at him,' Anna barked. 'He made you a sweet deal. You're the one who has to deliver on it. Answer the question.'
Jameson cleared his throat. 'Tony was sneaking around so much for our little...for our little business venture...that Marisol thought he was cheating. She went to his computer and discovered he had an offshore bank account.'
'Money from the kidney sales?'
'Yes.'
'How much?'
'A lot more than most cops make in a lifetime.'
'So she discovers his secret bank account,' Anna said. 'What did she do next?'
'She tried to hack into it,' Jameson said. 'She couldn't. But she smelt money, and she wanted her piece of the pie. So she hired somebody with a video camera to follow Tony around. He taped Tony paying off one of our coyotes. Marisol figured if Tony was paying someone off, somebody else must be paying Tony more. So she confronted him.'
'How?'
'She showed him a copy of the videotape and threatened to blow the whistle. Normally, Tony wouldn't have been worried. Slipping an envelope to a coyote wasn't that damning a transaction. Unfortunately, the guy on the video was Benitez, the one Tony...' - he groped for a word - 'sacrificed.'
'So Marisol is trying to bleed Tony for money, and he decides to kill her,' Anna said. 'Why did he kill all the others?'
'Who's the prime suspect when the wife is murdered?' Jameson asked. 'The husband. Tony is smart. He knew he had to come up with a scenario that would allow him to kill Marisol without coming under suspicion. He decided he'd kill a couple of other cop wives first. By the time he killed Marisol, nobody would suspect the husband; they'd be looking for a serial killer.'
'Was there a reason he chose those specific victims?'
'Absolutely,' Jameson said. 'I must say, his plan was ingenious. He needed to find someone to take the blame for the murders. Once he decided on Martin Sorensen, he couldn't just kill random cop wives. He chose women you'd believe Martin truly resented. Then he committed the murders to look calculated, angry, motivated by something personal. Cutting off the victim's hair did that, plus it gave Tony physical evidence he could plant on Martin. Of course, he knew he would kill Martin before you could ever question him.'
'We know that Tony shot himself,' I said. 'What I can't figure out is why. Why not just shoot Martin and call 911?'
Jameson smiled. 'You don't know Tony very well, do you? His ego is monumental. As long as I'm violating doctor-patient privilege, I can tell you that he often has dreams where he is standing on a balcony, and a throng of people below him are chanting his name. It's no surprise that he wants to run for public office some day. Killing Martin would have painted a picture of a loser cop who got to the scene too late to save his wife. Taking a bullet for her helps wipe away that image, and tells the world he was willing to die for her. People love a martyr, even if they don't actually die.'
'Last question,' Anna said. 'When did you learn all this?'
'After it was all over. He confessed to me when I visited him in the hospital.'
Anna turned to Leitman. 'This is worthless,' she said. 'No deal.'
'What the hell are you talking about?' Leitman yelled. 'He gave you chapter and verse.'
'He gave me hearsay,' Anna said. 'Do you think I'm going to put a corrupt doctor on the stand and have him testify against a patient? The defence will expose it for what it is. A plea to save his own ass. Nothing your client has said can help me put Tony Dominguez in jail.'
'These detectives said you'd cut a deal.'
'If you give me something I can convict with. Right now all you've got is "and then Tony told me." What I need is hard evidence that Tony shot any of those women.' Anna looked at me, Terry, and Kilcullen. 'I never thought I'd say this, but the blind cat lady is starting to look better and better.'
'Then we'll just have to get Tony to confess,' Terry said.
'And while you're at it, get him to paint my house,' Anna said. 'Detective Dominguez does not strike me as the confessor type.'
'We need to do something he doesn't expect. Something that drives him crazy and throws his perfect little plan out of whack. Something that reopens the case.'
'Like what?'
'Like another murder,' Terry said. 'Another .22 to the back of the head. A murder Martin Sorensen can't take the rap for.'
Jameson stood up. 'Wait a minute. Are you talking about staging a murder to look like all the others Tony committed?'
'Exactly like the other murders,' Terry said. 'Tony will realise we have to reopen the case, and he'll go batshit.'
'He'll come running to me is what he'll do,' Jameson said. 'Eventually he'll decide that I did it, and if he thinks I put him at risk of getting caught, he'll kill me.'
'Well, then, you may just have to be...sacrificed,' Terry said. 'But it's a small price to pay if we get to put a murderer away for life.'
This time the lawyer stood up. 'Ford, relax, they won't let him kill you. Ms DeRoy, if you want my client to participate in a sting,' Leitman said, 'you'll have to do better than five years.'
More haggling. Anna finally gave in to thirty months in a white-collar facility that is known in some circles as The Spa.
We hammered out the details of the sting.
'How soon can we set this up?' Kilcullen asked.
'We have to do it now,' Terry said. 'Tony is coming in at nine o'clock. It's now or never.'
'We need a video unit to record this,' Kilcullen said. 'Do you know how long it takes to requisition a surveillance team? FEMA made faster time getting to New Orleans.'
'Don't worry about surveillance,' Terry said. 'Mike and I know a guy.'
'And who's the hypothetical victim?' Anna asked. 'That's easy,' Terry said. 'If this is supposed to be connected to all the other murders, there's only one logical choice. To quote one of my comedy idols: take my wife... please.'
Chapter Sixty-Three
By late afternoon Jameson and Tony were behind bars, and Terry and I were behind on a whole new round of paperwork.
'In exchange for what It can wait,' Kilcullen said, and the three of us drove out to the marina.
Reggie and Charlie were on the boat. They cracked open four beers and a bottle of Yoo-Hoo for Kilcullen, and we sat out on the deck, watching the rush hour air traffic approach LAX, as the sun dipped into the Pacific.
Reggie and Charlie had felt sucker-punched when they thought Martin Sorensen had killed their wives. He had been someone they knew and liked. But when we broke the news to them about Tony, they were both devastated.
We told them how it all unfolded, and when we described the sting we pulled at the end, Charlie smiled. 'Nora would be proud of you guys. In fact, if she were still around, she'd figure out a way to steal that idea for her next book.'
'I can't believe the bastard shot five people,' Reggie said.
'Six,' Charlie said. 'Don't forget he shot himself.'
'Technically he did,' I said. 'But he used Martin's finger to pull the trigger. That's why Martin tested positive for gunshot residue.'
'Poor Martin,' Charlie said. 'Tony set him up, and I fell for it.'
'Tony set everyone up,' I said. 'A witness put Marisol's car at Nora's house at the time of the murders. It turns out that Tony took it from the flip house, killed Nora and Julia, and returned the car before Marisol knew it was missing.'
'Dr Jameson gave up that little titbit,' Terry said. 'It's amazing how that doctor-patient confidentiality shit crumbles when the doc is trying to save his own ass.'
'It sounds like Jameson will only be doing Martha Stewart jail time,' Reggie said when we told him how Anna let him plead d
own. 'We'll never prove it, but don't you think he knew what Tony was doing before the fact?'
'Even if he did,' I said, 'the DDA was willing to let the doc off easy if he could help her nail Tony as the shooter.'
'And she got him good,' Terry said. 'He's looking at six counts of murder 1, an attempted murder, transporting illegal immigrants, tampering with a crime scene, obstruction of justice, and drawing to an inside straight.'
'And by the way, if we needed any more evidence, CSU tossed his house,' Kilcullen said. 'They found the scissors that were used to cut the three women's hair. I'll bet another bottle of Yoo-Hoo that the DNA they find matches one or more of the victims.'
'Are you guys still planning on sailing to the other end of the world?' Terry asked.
'Not on this bucket,' Reggie said, 'but yeah. How about you and Mike? Are you two honeymooners still shacking up together?'
'Just for another two weeks,' I said, i hired my father to work with my new contractor. I'm hoping that if he has one thing to do to help me out, he won't meddle in the rest of my life.'
'Whatever happened to that first contractor?' Reggie said. 'The one you were constantly bitching about? Did you ever work that out?'
'You mean Hal Hooper?' I said, it worked out OK.'
'In exchange for what It worked out better than OK,' Terry said. 'Hooper was really cocking it up in the beginning, but you gotta give him credit for finally nailing it down. There won't be any boners on his next job.'
'I just want you two guys to know something,' I said. 'Terry and I never believed you were behind any of the killings. Neither did the lieutenant.'
'You might not have believed I killed Nora and Julia,' Charlie said, 'but you damn well treated me like a suspect.'
'Well shit, man, you didn't make it easy on us,' I said.
'You never did tell us who you were with the night Julia was killed.'
'I know it looked bad, but I couldn't tell you.'
'No problem. Now that it's official that you guys are going off into the sunset together, I finally figured out who your mystery friend was that night. You were in that hotel room with Reggie.'
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