Chapter 41
Suspects
With just a few days before Jimmy's trial began, we were all hard at work on our final trial preparations. Jodie was busy sending out subpoenas, organizing our trial notebooks, and getting our evidence ready for submission to the court. Stan and I had spent most of the day with Jimmy and each of our witnesses to make sure they were prepared for the day of reckoning that was rapidly approaching. It was Thursday afternoon and the last witness had just left.
"So, what do you think, Stan?" I asked.
"I think you're going to have an uphill battle convincing the jury that Phil Smart is a better suspect than Jimmy Bennett."
"I know. What am I going to do?"
I took a deep breath. "I don't know. Maybe the problem is Jimmy is guilty."
"Do you really think so?" I asked.
"I don't know and it really doesn't matter. Our job is to keep digging and hope something turns up."
"I agree. But how do you suggest we do that?"
"I don't know. Let's take a look at the other alternatives. Let's see, there is Congressman Manning and Speaker Potts. I like them for the murder."
"Right, but we don't have an obvious motive and nothing to connect them to the crime scene."
"True. But I'll have Paul Thayer keep digging in that direction. He might get lucky and find us a link."
"Okay," I said. "Who else?"
"Betty. As trustee she's in control of the company now."
"But would she kill her father?" Stan asked. "That's pretty heartless and she doesn't strike me as being that ambitious. I seriously doubt she wants the responsibility of running a construction company and trying to save a failing thrift."
"I don't know. She's smarter than she looks. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the mastermind behind her father's murder and then tried to make it look like Jimmy did it."
"But didn't you say she and Jimmy were reconciling?"
"Yes, but that could be just for show," I suggested.
"I doubt she'd be able to do it herself, but she might have hired someone."
"So, you think we should explore that possibility some more?"
"It wouldn't hurt," Stan said. "Let's try to find out if she has anyone in her circle of family and friends who might have been capable of killing Don and Amanda."
"Okay," I said and added that to my to-do list.
"Let's see," Stan mumbled. "What other suspects do we have?
"Margie," I said. "She had good reason to kill her husband. He was cheating on her and he'd had sex with her sister. That must have pissed her off."
"Right. And, as I recall, Jimmy was the messenger so she probably blamed him as much as Don."
"The problem is we have nothing to connect her to the murder scene and she wouldn't be capable of slitting their throats."
"So, she'd have to have an accomplice," Stan said.
"Right," I said as I added yet another task to my to-do list."
"Anybody else?"
"We've eliminated Tex, right?"
Stan laughed. "I don't know, did we?"
I glared at Stan. "Don't even go there."
"I guess that's about it then."
"Okay, I'll do some more digging into Betty and Margie and you work with Paul Thayer on the political angle."
Stan nodded and got up. "Okay, I'll go give Paul a call right now."
Stan left and I looked at my to-do list. There was a lot left to be done and precious little time, so I decided to enlist Jodie's help. I called her on the intercom and asked her to come into my office.
"You want to play detective this weekend," I asked.
She shrugged. "Sure, what did you have in mind."
"I need you to find out as much as you can about Margie Bennett. Find out who her friends are and what she does during the day. You might want to stake out her home and see who comes and goes. If she leaves, follow her."
"You think she might—"
"She is the sole heir of the Baker fortune now. I just need to know if she got in that position because of a good plan or good fortune."
"Okay, I'll see what I can find out."
"While you're doing that, I'm going to do the same thing with Betty."
"Good luck."
"You too, and thanks for doing this, Jodie."
"No. Problem," she said with a hint of excitement in her voice. "This will be fun."
Black Monday, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 7 Page 41