Justice for Katie (A Jake and Emma Mystery Book 3)

by Linda Crowder

  "Understandable," said Matt, kissing her cheek. "Do you want me to run you home?"

  "No, stay Kristy," said Emma. "We'll take you home. If Matt's done early maybe he'll be able to come back."

  "I'll keep your steak warm," offered Jake.

  "I'll do my best," agreed the detective.

  "Who is it?" asked Kristy.

  "Carolyn Maxwell," Matt answered and both Emma and Grace gasped.

  "I met her at Rotary today," Grace explained. "She sat with us. We talked about going to see Yellowstone together once she retired."

  "How did it happen?" asked Emma.

  "Cleaning crew found her in her office. That's all I know so don't bother asking." Matt held up his hands.

  "I'll walk you out," said Kristy. Jake checked on the steaks but it didn't feel like a party anymore.

  5

  Pulling into the parking lot at the County Attorney's office, Matt noted the Coroner's van along with a police cruiser. A van with a cleaning company logo and a couple of civilian cars were also parked nearby. He assumed one belonged to Maxwell. He'd have to get it towed and searched.

  Officer Luis Altrez greeted Matt as he entered the office suite. He nodded his head toward two women sitting on a couch in the reception area. "Cleaning crew discovered the body."

  Matt crossed the room, taking a seat across from the women. The younger, perhaps in her early 20's, looked as if she'd been crying and might begin again any moment. Matt turned his attention to the older woman, who sat calmly beside her partner.

  "I understand you ladies found the body?" he began.

  "Yes," answered the older woman, who told Matt her name was Darla Cannis. "My daughter, Cecilia, went into Ms. Maxwell's office and ran out screaming. I went to see what she was screaming about and there she was."

  She shuddered. "I never seen the likes of that before. Sitting in her chair, eyes wide open, blood everywhere." Another shudder.

  "Was there anyone else working when you got here?"

  "Nah, nobody but Ms. Maxwell is ever here when we clean. I used to tell her, go home. Put your feet up. Cece and me, we don't like to bother people so we clean the whole building before we clean here but it don't make no difference. She was always here."

  Cece started crying again and Darla put an arm around her. Matt thanked her and asked Officer Altrez to get their statements and send them home. "Have the lab techs take their prints before they go."

  Officer Altrez sat down with his notebook and started writing. Matt rose and walked down the hall to Carolyn Maxwell's office, where the crime lab photographer was finishing up. The Coroner, Zeke Cartwright, stood in the hall, waiting to do his initial examination.

  "Zeke, what's this I hear about you deciding not to run again?"

  "You heard right, Matt. My wife retired at the end of the school year and we decided it was time to move south."

  "Why didn't you say something to a guy? I didn't even know you were leaving until I saw someone else's name on the primary ballot."

  The man chuckled. "That was Dolores's idea. She said nobody would notice, and she was right! Kinda hurt my feelings."

  "Yeah, right. Once Amy and Pete moved to Arizona with those grandkids, everybody knew you'd be going. Only question was when."

  The photographer interrupted them. "Room's all yours."

  Matt and Zeke and entered the office, leaving humor behind them. Gallows humor, Matt thought. If you didn't laugh when you could, you'd go crazy in this job. Zeke waited while Matt took in the scene. He knew the detective would want to imprint the exact location and condition of the body in his own mind, despite the pictures that had been taken.

  Carolyn Maxwell was, just as Darla Cannis said, slumped sideways in her chair behind her desk. An ugly round wound over her left eye explained the dark red stain spreading out on the chair behind her head. The splatter pattern of blood and gray matter seemed consistent with the position of the body but the lab guys would double check that.

  She was wearing a light gray skirt and white, high collared shirt with the same string of pearls he'd seen her wear many times before. Most lawyers he knew dressed casually outside of court but Carolyn was "old school" and he'd never seen her wear anything other than professional attire.

  "Seen enough?" asked Zeke.

  "Yeah. Can you give me a time of death?" Zeke drew out a long, sharp instrument and Matt looked away. He'd seen a lot of bodies during his career but watching the Coroner plunge a thermometer into the victim's abdomen to measure the core temperature nauseated him.

  "You can look now." Zeke had always been sympathetic to Matt about this shortcoming and he hoped the new Coroner would be as well.

  "Body's still warm. She can't have been dead more than a couple of hours. Maybe not even that long."

  "Rigor mortis?" asked Matt.

  The Coroner lifted Carolyn Maxwell's left arm. It moved easily. Matt flinched and looked away again. He hated touching dead bodies. "Takes about three hours to set in at room temperature."

  "How far away was the killer when the shot was fired?"

  "Maybe about where you are," answered Zeke, eying Matt, who was standing about two feet in front of the desk. "But we'll have to wait for the autopsy and the lab report."

  Matt nodded. Wyoming Coroners were elected officials. They acted as administrators, usually having only limited technical training and almost never had any medical background. Zeke had been a medic in Vietnam. He would send the body to a medical examiner in Colorado for a formal autopsy. The process was cumbersome and several attempts had been made over the years to attract a medical examiner to Wyoming but none had succeeded.

  Matt left the office, allowing the Coroner to finish so the lab techs could begin. Bill Blakely, Natrona's County Attorney, was waiting for him in the reception area. The cleaning women had left and he stopped to ask Altrez to have Maxwell's car towed to the crime lab. The officer left and Matt walked over to where Blakely was leaning against the reception desk.

  "Terrible thing, detective. Carolyn was the heart and soul of this office. I don't know what we're going to do without her."

  Matt looked closely at Blakely. Since the man delegated almost all casework to his team, Matt hadn't had much contact with him. At six feet, Blakely was slightly taller than Matt. The CA must be in his fifties but he certainly looked younger. His hair was jet black and his face bore only a few signs of aging. Even at this hour, Blakely was dressed impeccably, his suit looking as fresh as if it had just come from the cleaner's.

  "She was retiring, I hear," was all Matt said.

  "Yes, after 43 years in this office. Came here right after she passed the bar."

  "What cases was she working on?"

  "Carolyn had earned the right to tackle the toughest cases." Blakely sounded like a press release. "She was cutting back though, getting ready for retirement. I'll have my secretary send you a list."

  "Any trouble inside the office?"

  "Everyone respected Carolyn."

  "Respected doesn't mean they liked her. Had she had any trouble with anyone? Jealousies? In-fighting? "

  Blakely frowned. "The in-fighting was among the ACAs hoping to take her place. Carolyn didn't involve herself in that."

  "When was the last time you spoke with her?"

  There was a slight hesitation before Blakely answered. "Three days ago. I meet regularly with each ACA, going over their cases and seeing if there are any resources they need."

  "Was she afraid of anyone related to her cases? Had she been threatened?"

  Blakely looked offended. "Of course not. I wouldn't have allowed her to be in the office alone if she'd received threats."

  "Could the door to the office suite have been left unlocked?"

  "It's on a timer. All the suites in this building lock automatically when the building closes. After that, you can get out, but you can't get back in unless you have a key."

  "I hear it was common practice for Carolyn to work late?"

  "First o
ne in every morning, last one out every night."

  "If her caseload was shrinking, why would she continue to work such long hours?"

  "You couldn't pry Carolyn out of that office." It was the first time the man had relaxed his politician's affect and the frustration sounded genuine. "With the hours she worked, she couldn't have had much of a social life. Tell you the truth, I was shocked when she announced she was planning to retire. I always thought..." Blakely's voice trailed off as Carolyn Maxwell's body was wheeled out and through the lobby to the waiting Coroner's van.

  "Do you need me for anything else?" asked Blakely, sounding slightly less sure of himself than he had a moment ago.

  Matt asked permission to review Carolyn's case files and Blakely agreed, requesting only that he not remove them from the office. "I'll need a court order to review her phone and bank records."

  "I'll have someone file that request for you tomorrow." Scribbling a note and tucking it into a cubby hole behind the reception desk, Blakely picked up a black leather briefcase that had been sitting on the top of the desk and went out through the lobby. Matt checked on the two lab technicians

  "You guys gonna be awhile?"

  "Isn't much to do here unless you want us to do the whole suite."

  "Get a passkey from building security and search every office for that gun. When you're finished here, head out to her apartment. I'll send a car to secure the place until you get there. Call me if you find anything." Matt went out to the parking lot where Altrez was standing beside Carolyn Maxwell's car, waiting for the tow truck to arrive.

  Matt climbed into his car and grabbed the radio. He asked the dispatcher to send a patrol car to Carolyn Maxwell's apartment then he checked the time and called Jake. "Come on out. I'll get your steak ready and I think Emma saved you some dessert."

  ***

  Kristy came out of the house when Matt arrived. Their relationship was still new and seeing him brought a smile and a blush to her face. Years on the run from her first husband had taught her to be wary and she'd grown accustomed to keeping people at arm's length. Matt was the first man she'd even thought about dating since her divorce.

  "We've been trying not to talk about Carolyn Maxwell until you got back," she told him, taking the hand he offered and walking with him back to the house.

  Emma had fixed a plate for Matt, which Jake topped with the sizzling steak. Kristy brought him a beer and a piece of cherry pie then fetched her own pie from the coffee table and sat down next to him at the dining table. Jake and Emma joined them while Grace chose to stay in the adjoining living room.

  While Matt ate, Jake gave them his opinion of the four ACAs. "Carolyn had been there for as long as I can remember. She handled major crimes. I rarely worked with her but when I did, she was all business and a formidable opponent. Barney Madison is next in seniority but since he handles white collar crime, I only know him socially. Seems like a nice enough guy though. Clint Taylor is a snake and was already angling to take Carolyn's place the last time I talked to him."

  "He wouldn't murder her since she was leaving anyway," noted Emma.

  "I didn't say he killed her. I just said he's a snake. Tad Jameson has been there the shortest time and gets stuck with the drudge work no one else wants. I've done a lot of arraignments with him over the last two years and let's just say, he's not the brightest bulb on the tree."

  "Why do you say that?" asked Emma.

  "Because my clients know more about the law than he does."

  "That's harsh," said Matt, setting aside his empty plate and started wolfing down his pie.

  "I'll admit he's gotten better since he first started, but take one step away from routine legal matters and he's a deer in the headlights."

  "Jake's being too hard on the guy," said Matt, finishing his pie and leaning back in the chair with a satisfied smile. "Jameson handles a lot of search warrants for us and we haven't had any tossed out because of his screw-up."

  "If the ACAs handle all these cases, what does that leave for the County Attorney to do?" asked Kristy.

  Jake snorted. "Anything he thinks will grab a headline."

  "Maybe the killer was someone Carolyn prosecuted," suggested Emma. "She must have made a lot of enemies over the years."

  "I believe our murderer is inside the County Attorney's office," said Grace and all eyes turned to her. She was sitting on Emma's easy chair, tucked in a quiet corner of the living room. Flanked by a reading lamp and an end table piled with half-read books it was Emma's favorite spot but she'd gladly relinquished it to Grace.

  "Why is that?" Emma asked.

  "Access, for one. I assume the County Attorney's office is locked after hours."

  "I had a late meeting with Taylor once," offered Jake. "He had to come to the lobby to let me in. Told me all the locks in the building are on a timer. Even once we were in the building, we couldn't get into the CA's suite without a key."

  "Then Matthew, you should check to see who had access to a key and how often they change the locks because I assume there would be turnover. Jacob, you said Jameson was new. Who held his position previously?"

  "Nobody. Blakely talked the Commissioners into adding an ACA a couple of years ago. Ruffled a lot of feathers bringing in an outsider."

  "You said access was only one factor," noted Matt. "What else were you thinking?" He'd been required to read Grace's book on criminal behavior when he was studying for his Detective's exam. Unlike Jake, he'd been thrilled to meet her.

  "Some murders are random, of course. A case of wrong place, wrong time, as when someone surprises a burglar or is shot in the course of a robbery. This crime is not random. Someone had to have access to the building and to the office suite where Carolyn was working. It seems overwhelmingly likely the killer was familiar with her work habits and perhaps even with the schedule of the cleaning crew because it would have been a narrow window of opportunity."

  Grace leaned back in her chair. "I've been thinking about her behavior at the Rotary meeting. She seemed distracted. She kept looking around the room and excused herself before we'd hardly left the table."

  "That's right," said Emma. "She said she had to talk to Amanda Knoll then practically knocked over poor Bill Watters getting to her."

  "Isn't Amanda Knoll the US Attorney who worked on my Social Security case?" asked Kristy.

  "That's her. They went outside and were standing behind Carolyn's car talking when we came out."

  "What were they talking about?" asked Matt.

  Emma shook her head. "They were too far away. Carolyn broke off the conversation when people started coming out and they got in their cars and left."

  "Tell me about Amanda Knoll," said Grace. "What kind of person is she?"

  "I don't know her well," answered Jake. "She's young, ambitious, seems intent on making a name for herself. She's well respected among the attorneys who do work with her, at least, they nominated her for Vice President of the Wyoming Bar Association. I don't know that we've ever had anyone so young serve in that role."

  "I've served on Rotary committees with her," added Emma. "She's incredibly well organized. I guess every mother has to be to juggle her career and her family. She's even directing the fall play at the community theater. I don't know how she finds the time."

  "Did she and Carolyn socialize?" asked Grace.

  "I've never known Carolyn to socialize with anyone and before you ask, I don't know of any Rotary business Carolyn would have had with Amanda."

  "Would their cases overlap?" She looked at Jake.

  "Possibly, though I'm not aware of anything right now. Are you, Matt?" Matt shook his head.

  "Then I'm curious what she wanted so urgently to discuss with Amanda." She sat quietly for a few minutes and Emma asked Matt how Carolyn died.

  "You know I can't talk about a case under investigation."

  "We haven't been talking about anything else since you got back!"

  "You can talk about it all you want, but I can't tell you
anything."

  "Fair enough," agreed Emma.

  "Consider the point Emma made earlier," said Grace quietly. "Why kill someone who was leaving anyway? That, I think, is going to be the key to solving Carolyn Maxwell's murder. Our killer took a great risk killing her where and when he did."

  "I hadn't thought of that," said Emma.

  "He - or she - struck quickly, recklessly even. That tells me the killer felt threatened by Carolyn and needed to act immediately."

  "And you think that what she wanted to talk to Amanda about was what the killer felt threatened by?"

  "Carolyn didn't perceive the danger she was in or she wouldn't have been in the office alone, no matter what her normal work habits might have been. Her desire to speak with Amanda may not have had anything to do with her murder but the timing is suspect. Wouldn't you agree, Matthew, that it warrants further investigation? I am quite interested to hear what Amanda Knoll has to say."

  6

  Amanda Knoll had very little to say when Matt spoke to her the next morning. "Come in, come in," she said when the detective appeared at her door. "Sad business about Carolyn Maxwell. I read about it in this morning's paper."

  Amanda was in her early 30's, with flaming red hair and a flair for fashion. Unlike most attorneys, who chose to wear neutral tones, Amanda loved vivid shades. Today she was dressed in a pale yellow silk blouse with a skirt as red as her hair.

  Knoll gestured toward the Casper Western Times that lay open on the desk before her. The story had been brief since the body had been discovered so close to press time. Matt suspected there would be a follow-up story tomorrow. The department's spokesperson had been waiting for him when he went into his office this morning.

  He took a seat across from her and pulled out his notebook. "Carolyn Maxwell sought you out after the Rotary Club meeting yesterday?"

  "Yes, she did. I was swamped and almost didn't go. As it was, I had to pay a fine for being late," said Knoll, referring to the service club's habit of raising money for good works by assessing small fines for rule infractions. Matt waited, but she did not continue.