Double Fake, Double Murder (A Carlos McCrary, Private Investigator, Mystery Thriller Series Book 2)

by Dallas Gorham

  “Let’s look at the evidence, Chuck, from the viewpoint of how a jury would see it.” Abe Weisman frowned. “The DA gave me a transcript of all their witness interviews, so we know what they’ll say on the stand if this goes to trial. Trey Morrison said that you and he discussed the advisability of killing Smoot.”

  “Morrison is a weasel. He brought it up, not me. I told him ‘no way.’”

  Abe plowed ahead as if Chuck hadn’t spoken. “He says you mentioned that you have an ocean-going boat and that people sometimes fall off boats and are never heard from again.”

  “The weasel must have found out about my boat when he Googled me. I never mentioned it to him. He brought up that crap about people falling off boats, not me.”

  Abe looked at him without expression. “There’s more. Hank Hickham asked you if you were going to kill Smoot and you said ‘That won’t be necessary.’ Did you say that killing him would not be necessary?”

  Chuck glanced at Snoop before answering. “Yes; that much is true.” Abe had hired Snoop as a defense investigator so Snoop’s conversations with Chuck would be covered under attorney-client privilege.

  “That implies that you would kill him if it became necessary.”

  “Bullshit. It meant that we could achieve our objective of stopping Smoot without killing him.”

  Diane said, “Don’t forget the cashier’s check for $50,000 that Abe is holding for you in his desk.”

  “I told Hank not to do that.”

  “But he did,” Diane answered.

  The check had arrived at Chuck’s office the Friday after Smoot’s murder, the day after homicide finished processing the crime scene and released it. Thank goodness for slow mail service, Chuck thought. I hate to think what would have happened if it had arrived when the PCPD still controlled my office and checked my mail.

  Snoop looked at Abe. “If that check surfaces, Mabel the Marauder will crucify Chuck.”

  “That’s why it’s in my desk. Right now, that check is the least of our worries.” Abe pulled out another file. “Chuck, your fingerprints were on both of Smoot’s guns and his switchblade that the detectives found in your home.”

  “I disarmed him; you know that.”

  “Your fingerprints were on his file cabinet, desk, office chair, and door.”

  “I told you that.”

  “But think how that will look to a jury.”

  Abe glanced at his file. “Your fingerprints were on the murder weapon that homicide found in your office. And on the cartridges found in the murder weapon.”

  Chuck stood and spread his hands. “Abe, I’ve been framed. I keep—I kept that revolver in the nightstand beside my bed. I didn’t know it was gone until the cops found it in my office. The last time I saw it was when I moved into my condo and unpacked. That was months ago.”

  “And Smoot’s apartment door was forced by a pry bar that homicide found in your office.”

  Snoop said, “Abe, Chuck had Smoot’s keys. If anything, that’s evidence of his innocence. You can tell the jury that he didn’t need to force Smoot’s door. The real killer did that. Then he planted the pry bar in Chuck’s office when he planted the revolver. You’ll tell them that Chuck’s fingerprints were not found on the pry bar or the murder weapon.”

  Abe ignored Snoop’s comments. “Chuck, unless you can prove who entered Smoot’s apartment the next weekend after you searched it, and who planted the revolver and pry bar in your office, we won’t win this trial. The DA could go for the death penalty unless we plea bargain.”

  “Abe, I won’t plead guilty to something I didn’t do.”

  “I think I can get you manslaughter. You’d serve ten years, out in eight on good behavior.”

  “I can’t plead guilty; I didn’t do it.”

  “Then you’d better prove who did. You don’t have much time, Chuck. The judge could revoke your bail any time she thinks you might be a flight risk.”

  Chuck scowled. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “But you have lots of money and lots of family in both Mexico and Texas. Don’t count on the judge ignoring that.”

  #

  Chuck had faced enemies before, but this was different. In Afghanistan and Iraq, people shot at him and his fellow soldiers or planted bombs in the road, but he and his men had trained to handle that. Chuck knew how to spot IEDs buried in the road and where to look for ambushes.

  He’d had trained brothers, fellow Green Berets, who were in the same boat. They had each other’s back.

  This was different. Snoop was doing the best he could, but he couldn’t help anymore. Chuck’s friends on the Port City police force couldn’t help him. Some of them thought he did it and the rest weren’t sure.

  He left Abe’s office in a daze.

  Chapter 70

  “Vicky, I need a friend.”

  Chuck didn’t remember how he got there. He just found himself at Vicky’s front door. Must have called her from my new cellphone, he thought. The police still had his old phones in the evidence locker. He remembered trying to call Snoop to apologize for the way he’d left him in Abe’s office, but the call had gone straight to voicemail.

  Vicky stepped back and held her apartment door open. Her eyes were wet and her mascara had run down her mocha cheeks leaving black tracks behind. Again.

  Chuck stepped inside and she hugged him fiercely. The door slammed behind him. She must have kicked it closed. He didn’t pay attention to anything except the warmth of her embrace, the caring, the acceptance—and the trust.

  Ever since Smoot’s murder, Chuck had held himself together with duct tape and baling wire, worrying about Jorge, and Clint, and Snoop, and his parents and grandparents. Everyone but himself. He had always been the tough guy who handled anything life threw at him.

  But Abe, his own attorney, had urged him to plea bargain. It was too much for him to carry any longer.

  Tears spilled down his cheeks the minute Vicky led him into her bedroom. They fell on the bed and held each other as if it were the end of the world. For Chuck, it might as well have been.

  After a while, she held his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. “It will be all right, Chuck. It will be all right.” Vicky kissed his eyes and wiped his tears with a tissue. She held his face in her hands again. This time she didn’t say anything.

  She kissed his forehead, his cheeks, his chin. She stopped and looked in his eyes, as if for a signal.

  Whatever she saw in Chuck’s eyes, she kissed him on the mouth.

  He felt his loins stir. Survival instincts are amazing.

  #

  “I’d better watch it or I could lose my Macho Certificate.”

  Vicky smiled. She had given up on the mascara and removed all her makeup.

  All afternoon they had alternated between making love and just lying in each other’s arms.

  Chuck didn’t exactly feel better, but he had stopped feeling worse. “Vicky, you’ve recharged my batteries. I can return to the fight.”

  She laughed and squeezed his hand.

  Chuck lay back against the pillow, his arm draped around Vicky’s shoulder. He gave her an affectionate squeeze and smiled. “Besides, I have a secret weapon,” he said. If only it works.

  Chapter 71

  Abe and Diane handed Chuck and Snoop copies of the rest of the discovery documents that the prosecutor had provided to them.

  Chuck flipped to the list of items taken from his office under the search warrant. “Abe, I haven’t told you this before, but I have a secret weapon.”

  “A secret weapon?”

  “Yeah. The police didn’t find my other office surveillance system.”

  “You have more than one?”

  “I have a manual system that I can turn on when I want to document a meeting with a client. The detectives found that and took it into evidence. But I have another one too.”

  Abe raised his voice. “What the hell is this? You have a surveillance system you didn’t even think to tell me
about?”

  “I do.”

  “Why don’t I know about this?”

  Chuck looked at his hands resting on the table. “I’m a private person, Abe. I wanted to know what it showed first. See if it helped me. It does. I installed it three months ago. After my initial tests, I never even looked at it. I didn’t know if it even worked until I checked it this morning.”

  “What area does it cover?”

  He looked at Abe and Diane. “My office and conference room. I installed one hidden microphone and two pinhole cameras in each room.” He tapped the prosecutor’s discovery file. “Apparently, I hid them well enough that the detectives didn’t find them. Either that or they didn’t think to look for a second system after they found the first one. The new system sends a wireless signal to a computer hidden above the ceiling in my storeroom. It records everything whether I tell it to or not.”

  “Can you play the recording?”

  Chuck grinned. “You bet. I played it in my office this morning. The guys who installed it said I can access it from any computer attached to the Internet.”

  Diane asked, “You mean you can access it here in our office? Now?”

  “Bring me a laptop and I’ll download the files from the system onto your computer so you’ll have a copy.”

  In a few minutes, Diane set a computer and stick drive on the conference table. “How far back do the recordings go?”

  “Theoretically 24/7 for one year.”

  “You’d run out of storage space on the hard drive.”

  “It backs up to the Cloud every night and starts new files every day at 2:00 a.m.”

  “I’m impressed. Show us, Chuck.”

  Diane, Abe, and Snoop stood behind Chuck.

  He logged into the surveillance company’s Website. “These are the guys who installed the system. I had them do it after midnight on a weekend so no one in the office knows I have it. In fact, until now, no one else in the world knew I had it.”

  The McCrary Investigations account popped up on the screen. “Let’s look for the file directory.” He punched in more commands and a list of files appeared on the screen. “The autopsy said the murder occurred after 11:00 p.m. I checked the videos from my home this morning. The killer broke into my office about 3:00 a.m.”

  Chuck keyed in the command and held his breath while they waited. I hope it’s just that Abe’s office has a slower connection than mine. If not, I’m toast.

  While they waited, Chuck said, “I put two pinhole cameras each in the conference room and office. They’re in opposite corners where the walls meet the ceiling. The surveillance company modified the ceiling tiles so the cameras can see out. The monitor is supposed to show all four pictures.”

  The silence was tense.

  “It’s taking too long,” Snoop said. “It’s not gonna work.”

  “Keep your shirt on, Snoop. These high definition files take a lot of bandwidth. It takes a while for the files to buffer. Just give it a minute.”

  Finally, the screen lit with four dim images.

  Chuck started breathing again. “When we see something to investigate further, I can zoom to the whole screen with any of the images.”

  “Why is the picture so dim?” Diane asked.

  Snoop pointed at the monitor. “The lights were off in Chuck’s office, so the picture’s lousy.”

  Diane looked worried. “I hope the killer turned on the lights when he came in. Otherwise, it’s gonna be impossible to identify anyone from that.”

  “Unfortunately, he left the lights off. This picture is as good as it gets. But don’t worry—I know who the killer is.”

  The three others spoke at the same time.

  Chuck held up a hand. “Just be patient. You’ll see what I saw in just a minute.” Chuck fast-forwarded.

  “Hold it,” Snoop said.

  A blurred figure moved across the screen.

  “I see it, Snoop.” Chuck reversed the video and the figure moved backwards until it left the frame. “Okay, I’ll show you what happened.”

  The screen index said 03:22:21. The hall door to Chuck’s office opened inward. He clicked on the upper left image from the camera behind his desk and it expanded to fill the screen. “Here he is.”

  The figure was tall. Moved like a man. He looked too hefty to be a woman. It definitely fit the description of the man Chuck now knew was the killer. The figure was dressed like the mysterious jogger from the Day and Night Diner surveillance tapes, except he wore a ski mask. Chuck remembered that the unknown jogger wore what looked like a watch cap. It was probably a ski mask rolled up to look like a cap. He carried a shopping bag hooked over his left forearm.

  “Pause that.” Snoop leaned closer in his seat.

  Chuck paused the video. “I’ll blow up the shopping bag.” He zoomed the image and dragged it to where the bag filled the middle of the picture. He zoomed it more. “I looked at this earlier. As you can see, the back side of the bag is blank.” He sent the image to Abe’s network printer. “For evidence.”

  Diane said, “I’ll go fetch the print.”

  “Wait,” Chuck said, “there’s a few more we’ll want. The other camera got a good shot of the front of the bag.”

  He clicked back to the four-image screen and clicked on the upper right image. It was at the same time index. He zoomed the image.

  “I can’t make that out,” said Diane.

  “I have to enhance it.” Chuck clicked a few buttons and dragged the enhanced image to the center of the screen. “It’s from Harry’s Handy Hardware. I’ll print that.” He sent the next image to the printer. Restoring the image to full-screen, he punched play again.

  “He’s wearing white gloves,” Abe said.

  “No, those are latex disposable gloves. Cops wear them at crime scenes.”

  Diane asked, “The killer’s a cop?”

  Chuck nodded. “Yes. I’ve suspected all along. But when I saw the video this morning, it all fell into place.”

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s Dan Murphy.”

  Chapter 72

  Chuck played the video again.

  They watched Murphy pull out a small flashlight and walk around the desk. He pulled open the top left drawer. The camera angle showed the view over his left shoulder. He reached into the Harry’s Handy Hardware bag and pulled out a pry bar, holding it by the blade. The Craftsman name showed on the handle.

  Chuck zoomed in, enhanced the picture, and printed the image. “I’ll bet you a Cadillac against a candy bar that that’s the pry bar he used to break into Smoot’s apartment.” He looked at Snoop. “Maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe he even bought it at Harry’s Handy Hardware.”

  “We’re due for some luck,” said Snoop.

  Chuck started the playback again. When Murphy pulled the Smith & Wesson handgun from the bag, Chuck paused the image again. “Dan dropped by my condo unannounced a few weeks ago.” He told the others about Murphy’s visit. “The reason he was gone to the bathroom so long is that it took him a few minutes to find my revolver.”

  He zoomed the image of the handgun, enhanced it, and printed it. He turned to Diane. “Now you can go get the prints.”

  Snoop asked, “How did he get Jorge’s gun?”

  “I’ll have a skull session with Jorge and we’ll figure it out.”

  “I’ll brainstorm that with you both.”

  “No, Snoop. Whatever’s going on with him, it could be sensitive. He’ll talk more freely if it’s only me.

  “Besides, now we know when Dan broke into my office. Recheck the other surveillance cameras in my building, the parking lot, and the route between Smoot’s apartment and my office. I bet Murphy drove straight to my office after he killed Smoot. He needed to plant the evidence before dawn. You’re going to be busy.”

  Abe looked skeptical. “You seem awfully sure it’s Murphy. Where’s the evidence?”

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense, Abe. He’s the only person that had access to my g
un and the smarts to pull off both of these murders. And don’t worry about the evidence. Now that I know who the killer is, I can focus like a laser on Murphy. Snoop and I will find the evidence.”

  Abe asked, “What’s Murphy’s motive?”

  “I don’t know yet. But you can take this to the bank: Dan Murphy is a double murderer.”

  Chapter 73

  Chuck pulled up Google Maps on his new computer. Homicide had kept his old one for evidence. He asked it for directions from Smoot’s apartment to McCrary Investigations.

  “Okay, Snoop, I’ll print this.” He dragged the blue line over to highlight two more routes and printed them.

  “Kelly and Bigs already looked at the surveillance from my office parking lot, but they didn’t know who to look for or exactly when. Look at it again from 3:00 a.m. on that Monday morning. See what vehicles Murphy and his wife Jessica own. Look first to see if you can spot one of those.”

  “Chuck, relax. This ain’t my first rodeo.”

  “I’m sorry, Snoop. I didn’t mean to insult you. You were a detective before I was born.”

  “I earned every gray hair and wrinkle I’ve got. After I figure out which car Murphy used, I’ll canvass those three routes, starting with this one.” He tapped one of the Google Map printouts. “If, for some reason, I can’t identify Murphy’s car from your office end, I’ll start from Smoot’s apartment and take it from there. You know, Chuck, that’s a lot of territory to cover. This could take a while.”

  “Well, it’s not like my life depended on it or anything.”

  Chapter 74

  Jorge leaned back in Chuck’s conference room chair. “Dan has the smarts and the guts to kill Franco. And I understand his motive. He heard Franco threaten Karen, and he wanted to protect her. And he knew I could never gun down anyone in cold blood, even if he deserved killing.”

  Chuck asked, “You think Murphy could kill someone in cold blood?”

  Jorge frowned. “I hate to say it, amigo, but, yes, he’d kill someone in cold blood if they needed killing.” He stopped. “But what’s Dan’s motive to frame me? Why would he pin a murder on me? That’s not going to protect Karen.”