Clay, sitting behind his desk, nodded. His hand curled around his chin. He listened intently as April recounted her adventures in legwork. Her feet were perched on his desktop as she leaned back in her chair. She also liked the posture because it caused the skirt to hike up on her thigh revealing more of the tan, fantastic legs. Usually, it’s not proper behavior to rest your bare feet on a professional’s desk, but April figured, in this case, she could get away with it.
“That was a good day’s work,” Clay said. “I’m very glad you thought of that. I like the way your mind works.”
She beamed with pride and grinned. “I thank you. I knew it was a longshot, but it paid off.”
“Maybe, but we still need confirmation. To get that we need a photo of the van and let Hickok identify it. But even if the van did belong to Hocken…I mean it’s intriguing but what’s the connection, if there is one, to Jerry’s murder,” he said.
“Yes, but we should ask the district attorney what he was doing there and ask if he told police he was at the park the morning of the murder. Have police mentioned that you?”
“No, and I’ve been chatting with Captain Wolfson on a semi-regular basis.”
“If he didn’t tell the police then he’s obviously hiding something. From the rumors Burrows told me, I’m guessing it’s his lady on the side. He said the van had been seen at out-of-the-way areas in the county and that the district attorney was getting passionate with his new lady friend.”
“But who is his lady friend?”
She lifted her feet from his desk and slammed them on the rug. “I think I have a clue about that. I think I know where we can find the mysterious burgundy new car that was also at the scene last Monday.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Really, where?”
She stood up, put one hand on the chair, and leaned on it as the other hand slipped her shoe onto her foot. She shifted hands and put on the other shoe. Clay steadied her as he came around the desk. He moved away the long black hair away and kissed the back of her neck.
“Excellent detective work,” he said.
She grabbed his hand. “Come with me. I think I can show you even better detective work.”
Ten minutes later, April pulled into the Coltran-Nash parking lot. She eased up on the pedal until the car only moved at five miles per hour.
“Thankfully, this Coltran-Nash branch isn’t huge. Shouldn’t take us long,” she said.
She turned right and eased past a line of cars. “The execs have their own spaces, the closest to the buildings under this little covering. Three execs get the coveted parking places. The one on the far left belongs to the head of the branch. Nice car, don’t you think? The company probably has a lease agreement with Chrysler.”
Augustine narrowed his gaze. In the president’s parking space set a burgundy Chrysler Pacifica. He looked over at April.
“You make Sherlock Holmes look like an amateur,” he said.
April and Clay asked for a back booth at the Bay Reef Restaurant. They settled in and ordered drinks and a shrimp appetizer. April dropped her reporter’s notebook on the table and flipped it open. Clay noticed the salt and pepper shakers looked like exquisitely made lifeguard towers. Only two lights giving off a golden glow lighted the room, although there was also a candle on the table. April thought Clay looked great in dim light. But he looked pretty good at noon too, she thought.
Clay was thinking the very same thing about April then told himself to keep his mind on business. April grabbed a pen from her purse and tapped it on her pad.
“I like to be precise, so I jot things down. A reporter’s habit I guess,” she said.
She raised a finger. “One, the van of District Attorney Perry Hocken is at a city park the same time that the burgundy Chrysler of Coltran-Nash executive Lois Stephenson is parked there. Hocken is rumored to have a new girlfriend, and the van has been seen at odd places the past few weeks.”
Clay picked up the lifeguard pepper tower. “Very nice work,” he said. “I hate to be picky but how many burgundy Chryslers are in the county? There could be more than one. We can’t be sure the car belongs to Stephenson.”
“OK, let’s make it a 99 percent probability. I’m not into coincidences,” April said.
A waitress interrupted the conversation and placed their drinks before them. She lifted the appetizer from her platter and set it at the center of the table.
‘Would you like a menu?” she asked.
“Not right now. Maybe later,” Augustine said. He picked up his bourbon and sipped it, but his gaze was on April.
“Are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?”
“About a midnight swim after the case is over? Yes.”
Clay chuckled, blowing a thin line of liquor out of his mouth. It rolled down his chin.
“I like a lady who’s witty. Today you hear a lot of crudeness and vulgarity but not much wit.”
“I’m a laugh a minute.”
Clay took a napkin and wiped his chin. He grinned. “At the midnight swim, I will focus on your…. swimming style. Right now, let’s focus on your mind. I have a few pieces of this puzzle coming together. I’m wondering if the pieces are fitting for you too?”
She took a long swallow of her red wine. “Our two, shall we say, persons of interest have been meeting furtively for some time, with good reason. If one walked into the other’s office, or vice versa, it could easily be explained due to the investigation Hocken is supposedly conducting. But they definitely should not be seen in anything less than a professional setting. Might raise conflict of interest questions, ethical questions…”
“And more,” Clay said.
“Very much more. But they do need to communicate with one another. They could use email or smartphones, but since they have the hots for each other, they used one-to-one communication.”
“We may have only a few days to prove it. They’ve been working on this for a while, and I think they’re getting ready to make an exit. I’m not sure how much solid proof we have. We have speculations and the sighting of their cars together, but that’s not foolproof evidence.”
April stuck a toothpick in a shrimp, dipped it in sauce and brought it up to her lips. She chewed slowly and then swallowed.
“I say this with a degree of melancholy. Our acquaintance, Jerry Barton, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If John Smith or Mary Jones had been walking that early morning, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. If they saw Hocken or Stephenson, chances are they wouldn’t know who they were. So even if seen, they would be safe. They could take that risk for the short time they had before flying off to…South America? But Jerry had experience with the district attorney’s office several years ago. He would certainly remember the assistant district attorney on the case.”
“A man named Perry Hocken.”
“Yes, but Jerry also served as a security guard at Coltran-Nash. He had seen the president of the branch, and he knew about the discrepancies that were allegedly reported to the district attorney. If he saw Hocken and Stephenson together in a friendly setting, he might find that strange. He would put pieces together. Jerry was a smart man. He would take what he suspected to the police.”
“Which gave the murderer very little time,” Augustine said. “Did you realize district attorneys are legally entitled to carry guns? Certainly, all have access to one given the nature of the job. It’s entirely possible that Hocken had a gun with him on that gray morning. It might have been a cold calculation, or maybe he thought he had to move fast and panicked. Either way, Jerry is dead. Hocken said his office would release a press statement about the problems at Coltran-Nash. I don’t think he plans any statement. That buys him time until he and his fellow conspirator get their first-class tickets out of the country.”
April grabbed her glass and drank the rest of her wine. She waved at the waitress and ordered a second glass.
“But what’s our next move? Our two suspects may flee soon, perhaps in a matter of days. We
have a theory and suspicions. I’m not sure we have the hard evidence needed for Captain Wolfson.”
Clay drained his glass too. “I think I have a plan. We’re going to run a bluff. Are you good at bluffing?”
April smiled. “I’m good at bluffing, and I’m good at poker.”
“But can you look greedy and suspicious?”
“I can look greedy and suspicious and sexy. When is the performance?”
“Tomorrow. If we pull this off, we might be able to solve this case without shooting anybody.”
“Oh, shucks,” April said. “I was sort of looking forward to shooting someone.”
“Maybe on our next case.”
8
Standing in the outer office of District Attorney Perry Hocken, April thought she didn’t look too greedy or sexy. She wore a blue office dress that came down to the top of her knees. The blue purse and shoes matched the dress. It was not cut low, showing just her neck and bit of skin. Clay wore a gray suit with a blue and gray tie.
The secretary was a tall, thin woman with a high-pitched yet determined voice. Her brown hair was curled up in a bun. As she looked at the two, she shook her head.
“It is impossible for you to see Mr Hocken. You must have an appointment. He is prepping for trial currently and does not need distractions. You can tell me your business, and perhaps I can schedule something tomorrow or next week,” she said.
Clay dropped his already baritone voice an octave. His words thundered in the office, radiating confidence.
“Ma’am, I suggest you give our message to Perry personally. Tell him Ms Stephenson sends a Monday morning snowy hello. Tell him if we don’t see him we will be talking with Captain Wolfson of the Sea Oak Police Department and we shall also make some calls to top officials of the Coltran-Nash company, going over the head of his little friend. He has one minute to get back to us. So, I suggest you hurry up and skip into his office, pronto.”
The secretary gave a confused blink. Her mouth opened but said nothing and then closed. She stood up and half ran, half walked over to Hocken’s door. She gave a brief knock and entered. A minute later she reappeared.
“You may go in,” she said.
As they walked in, Hocken stared at them with a malicious glare. His stiff features could have been the aftermath of a massive Botox injection. April and Clay eased down into the two chairs before Hocken’s desk. The district attorney’s voice was a verbal grunt.
“You need to explain that message. You have two minutes to do so,” Hocken said.
“I’ll explain. You killed Jerry Barton. Don’t try anything like that with us,” Clay said. He whisked his coat back to reveal his Glock pistol in his shoulder holster then slapped the coat back to cover the gun. “I guess you surprised Jerry but you won’t surprise me. If you try anything, you’ll take a trip to hell instead of your planned destination. Are we clear?”
Hocken’s lips were so tense Clay didn’t think they could move, much less twitch. But they did.
“No, we are not clear. You still need to explain yourself.” The voice tried to be steel strong but, like his lips, it quivered.
“You and Ms Stephenson were seen last Monday morning at the park by the owner of one of the nearby homes. An early riser. He identified your van and Ms Stephenson’s car. During that time in the park, Jerry saw you, and you panicked and killed him.”
“This is outrageous. I have—”
Clay’s voice was like a laser slicing through skin.
“I’m not going to argue with you, and I’m not going to debate. I’m going to tell you how this will play out. Jerry was an acquaintance but, after thinking about this, April and I realize nothing we can do will bring him back. I don’t think Jerry would mind us making a profit. He was a nice guy. So, you and your financial whiz of a lover over at Coltran-Nash will deliver one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to us tomorrow, or we go to the police.”
“Impossible,” said Hocken.
“No, it’s not. Difficult maybe, but not impossible. Deliver the money, or we expose you.”
At first, Hocken said nothing. He just stared at Clay and then shifted his stare to April. April gave a cat-that-just-ate-the-canary grin. In contrast to Clay, her voice sounded like verbal mint julip.
“We are not fiscal experts, but we suspect that you two are planning a royal rip-off. I’m guessing shifting large, large sums of money around takes a bit of time. You have to plan ahead. You can’t run into Coltran-Nash at two in the afternoon, steal millions, and leave at three. So, you and dear Lois—”
“She goes by her middle name. Cassandra. Friends call her Cassie,” Hocken said.
April’s mint julip tone continued. “I doubt Clay and I will ever be in that category, so I’ll just call her Ms Stephenson. Back before she began messing with the accounts, she met you and you two sort of hit it off and decided on a life of crime. She was going to embezzle a whole lot of funds. You were going through a bitter divorce and were probably ready to exit the region. So was she. Embezzlement such as this one often involves tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. How much did she carve out in this case?”
Hocken said nothing,
“An associate got suspicious, but she told him the district attorney was investigating and so was the company. The district attorney she had in her pocket or pocketbook, and I have a hunch that the alleged state investigators were phony, paid for by Ms Stephenson. The alleged Coltran-Nash investigators were also on her payroll, not the company’s. But they quieted any speculations. They will get a cut of the proceeds. A small cut, not as much as we’re getting, but they did their part well. Holden truly believes they were legitimate. It was a very good plan. Everything seemed to come together for you two. Where do you plan on going? Someplace warm? Like the islands? Someplace where you don’t have to squeeze together in the cold and snow?” She cocked her head back and showed the huge grin again. “But as Clay explained, there will be a little detour before you get to your destination. You will drop some money off for us before you go.”
“Tomorrow afternoon in my office,” Clay said. “There are cameras in my building. You will be observed walking into it and watched when walking into my office. I don’t think you’ll try anything, but if you do, you’ll die. I’m not unarmed like Jerry was. Understand?”
Hocken said nothing, but after a minute he nodded.
“Let’s say two o’clock. I am sympathetic to your problem. I’ve never had to collect a hundred and fifty thousand in a day, but it probably is difficult to get that much money on short notice. Bring what you can. We can make…arrangements for other deliveries if necessary.”
Hocken grunted, nodded, then stood up and walked toward the door. He opened it, but Clay’s voice stopped him.
“One more gentle reminder, Mr Hocken.” Clay lifted his coat again to show the Glock. “Don’t play any tricks with me. Jerry wasn’t a friend, just an acquaintance, but he was at least an acquaintance. So, if you try anything tricky, I won’t mind killing you at all.”
“You’ll get your money,” Hocken said.
When the digital red numbers on his office desk clock showed 2:00 the next afternoon, Clay sat behind his desk, sans coat, but with his shoulder holster and Glock showing. April stood behind him and leaned against a file cabinet reading the magazine “Caribbean Isles.” She smiled and giggled and looked totally nonchalant.
“Actually, it says here that St. Thomas is very nice this time of year. Want to go after we get the payoff?” she asked.
Clay grinned. “I imagine St. Thomas is nice any time of the year.”
“If we go down I can wear my really sexy blue bikini. Got a little material up front, not much in the back.”
“I would like to see that,” Clay said.
“I’ll make sure I pack it.”
The office door had Clay’s name on it in black letters on the gray-tint beveled glass. April stiffened a bit as a shadow appeared at the door. At the knock, Clay said ‘come
in’. Cautiously, he shifted his hand closer to the holster.
Hocken turned the doorknob and walked in. One hand held a green gym bag. He plopped it in the center of Clay’s desk.
“There’s your money. I was able to get fifty thousand. It’s in twenties, fifties, and hundreds. I can give you the rest two days from now, on Friday, right before Cassie and I leave.” Hocken stood before the desk. He didn’t sit down.
Clay unzipped the bag. The money was bundled neatly in small stacks. A brown sticker was wrapped around each stack. Clay picked one up. He tossed it back to April. She caught it with one hand.
“Think we should count it?” he said.
“Oh, no, not at all. I’m sure the district attorney is trustworthy.”
Hocken’s lips widened in a snarl. “You ever get tired of your stupid sarcasm?”
“I don’t, but I can’t speak for Clay.”
“I never get tired of it either,” Clay said.
“You aren’t nearly as funny as you think you are,” Hocken said.
“We’ll leave that question to another. What time do you plan on coming by Friday?”
“This same time will be fine. After I leave, Cassie and I will drive to Palm Beach. That night we board a jet and disappear.”
Clay shifted in his seat. “Sounds like you planned everything down to the last detail. It’s a pity you had to kill Jerry. That could have wrecked everything.”
“I had no choice. He knew us, and he saw us that morning. He saw Cassie coming out of the van. He looked me square in the face, and I could see the wheels turning in his mind. I couldn’t let him stay alive. This was supposed to be a simple white-collar crime, then we’d split.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Just lousy luck.”
“Especially for Jerry,” April said.
Hocken said nothing, just turned and headed for the door. He opened it and exited. Clay saw the district attorney’s shadow on the door.
A Sea Oak Mystery Boxed Set Page 18