5 Alive After Friday (22 page)

Martin was frowning for some reason. I hoped it
was because he was sympathizing with me. “Now people might take that as a
motive for murder. Yet, those are things that a wife just knows, when she’s
thinking about security and her future. Of course, I expected to get all that.
Isn’t that the deal, when you marry for money? You give up your freedom, the
life of your choosing, the sex of your choosing, and you put up with the guy
and his snoring for years. All for the comfort and security of a wealthy
lifestyle.”

I was thinking I should stop talking. I wasn’t
going to explain why I was so terrified of facing the inquest. Thank God, there
was no problem. No one doubted my story about the boom swinging over and
hitting him. And during the investigation no one noticed that one of the winch
handles was missing—it’s not unusual for a winch handle to be lost overboard.

“Here’s the kicker, Martin. Just before they
officially cleared me of any wrongdoing, the big shot family lawyer calls me
into his fancy office. His highness is sitting there all puffed up behind a
desk as big as this room. They had evidence that I murdered my husband,
according to him. When the body was discovered, there was a bruise on the head,
of course. The family hired a private investigator who hired a diver and
supposedly recovered the winch handle with blood on it. They said I’d tossed it
overboard. Can you believe they came up with all that phony evidence? They
would see to it, they said, that I was arrested for murder and even if I were
able to stay out of jail, they would fight me and I’d never get a cent. Scared
the you-know-what out of me. He gave me a fifty thousand dollar check, and I
signed his freaking papers.”

“So, you’re saying there was no lawsuit.” He
raised his eyebrows.

“That’s not all—they stopped payment on the check.
My sweet Mercedes SL550 wasn’t in my name, so his family took it back. They
locked up the house with all my possessions still inside and I ended up with
the clothes on my back. Plus, a nice coat I bought for our trip to Italy and
will never need in Florida. The family wasn’t aware that I’d sent it to the
cleaners. Don’t say anything about it, Martin, or someone will show up at my
door and take it. Down again. I wasn’t ready to sell my hair to a wig shop, but
I was down.”

“Gail, I’m sorry you went through all that. I’m
glad you feel comfortable enough with me to share it. With all that money at
stake, there are many top-notch lawyers who would have taken your case and
successfully called their bluff.”

I don’t know why I took another drink, I’d already
had one before he arrived. I really shouldn’t drink it if we were going out.
Martin fixed a second martini and, we sat back down together. I said, “I
understand life isn’t fair, but sometimes I just want to scream at what goes
on. A good thing I don’t have a dog to kick around.”

“Not fair,” he agreed. “The nicest person in the
world can step off the curb and get flattened by a bus.”

“True, and some undeserving people can do very
little and someone hands them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just for being
special, I guess.” They didn’t deserve that money and didn’t desperately need
it like I did. Martin was giving me a confused look. He had no idea what I was
talking about. “But baby, look at me now. I’ve bounced back, haven’t I? I’ve
even moved up a few grades with my friends.”

I looked over at him playfully. I really didn’t
want to go out. I just wanted the classy guy to stay there in my classy
apartment. “And in two days it’ll be mine all mine.”

“I don’t understand.”

“This condo...I’m paying cash.”

“Really. Cash?” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you
saying you’re closing on this condo in two days?”

“How about that!” I went on and explained the
seller had been thinking about a closing in ninety days, until I mentioned I’d
be paying cash. The seller loved hearing that, and we agreed to close as soon
as both sides were ready. “Maybe we should go out and celebrate.”

“Oh, that’s marvelous, Gail. I’m so happy for you.
I know it’s what you’ve wanted. I just assumed you’d already bought it, since
you’re living here.”

“Part of the deal. I rented it from the seller for
a month while we are waiting to close. The closing is just a formality, of
course.”

“So, that’s what you meant when you said you are
paying cash? But you don’t take cash into the closing and put it on the table.”

“Oh, the real estate woman told me all that. I’ll
take the cash to my bank and they’ll give me a guaranteed check.”

“Sounds good. Let me know if I can help in any
way. You need to be careful taking the money to the bank. Do you have an
attorney for the closing?” When she didn’t answer, he carried on, “None of my
business but I’m willing to help.” He took another bite of cheese and crackers.
“These are pretty good. Are you hungry enough for dinner?”

I would have just preferred to stay there and get
closer. “Whatever you want, Martin.” He started to get up so I guess he wanted
to go out. “You suppose I should change? Where are we going tonight?” I asked.

“You look fine.”

“I’ll go in the bathroom. Have another cheese and
cracker.” I left him sitting there and went in the bathroom. I looked in the
mirror. Actually, I didn’t look that bad, I was glad I hadn’t finished that
third drink. That’s when I heard voices. I opened the door a crack. He was on
his phone. I couldn’t hear everything, but I definitely heard him tell the
caller to phone back in five minutes. What was that all about?

When I returned to the living room, I asked, “Is
everything okay?” He really looked uptight.

He frowned. “Yes, are you ready?”

“I mean about the phone call.” I was suspicious
about that call.

“What...oh that. Business...just business.”

He waited while I brought his blazer to him.

His phone rang, he answered and started talking
into the phone, “...no, I’m not interested in that...who’s he going to complain
to...are you absolutely certain...you are positive...okay, then I’ll come up
there. Goodbye.”

“Bad news?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean you’re sorry? You’re not
leaving.”

He shook his head and said again he was sorry.

“You can’t leave me like this, Martin. Can’t you
do it in the morning?”

“In the morning I’ll be in New York.”

In desperation I put on my sexy-time voice,
“We don’t
have to go out. Why don’t you just relax for a couple of hours and then go.
Please don’t leave.”

He just shrugged. It was business.

“You know where I live.” That sounded lame but I
said it anyway. He left, after giving me ten minutes of eloquent and inadequate
apologies. Trying to get out of being close to me was the way I took it. I had
the definite feeling I’d been wronged. Maybe my marriage story turned him off.
Maybe he was offended, when I didn’t take him up on his offer to help me take
the money to the bank. Maybe he wanted to play the macho protective male. Damn
men, I’ll never understand them. And that phone call? I’d bet my life it was
phony.

Who am I kidding? I never had a chance with the
guy. It didn’t take long for him to size me up as a loser. I wondered where
he’d have taken me that night. I wondered if I could return that damn strapless
outfit to Nordstrom’s.

But I had my new condo. At least I had that.
Sometimes you have to go out and kick ass to get what you want. I had my condo.
And no one was going to take it away from me.

Loser here needed another drink. Never had a
chance with him. Who was I kidding? Anyway, I didn’t need to worry about fixing
something to eat that night. I could eat all those stupid cracker things. Those
stupid fucking cracker things.

M
artin
took the elevator down from Gail’s apartment and rushed across the lobby of the
Magnolia Palms. He signed out at the security desk and trotted to his car
parked behind the building. He dialed Sandy, “Pick up, pick up,” Her phone went
to voicemail. “We don’t have time for this,” he said aloud.

He dialed Mel Shapiro. Mel saw who was calling and
said, “What was that all about?”

“You were great. Thanks for going along with it. I
couldn’t talk before. I was with Gail Holman in her apartment. Oh, you don’t
know who she is...a suspect. I was supposed to take her out tonight, but when
she dropped some terrific information I pretended to receive an emergency
business call so I could get out of there fast.”

“You scared the life out of me, Martin. I answer
the phone and you say don’t ask any questions just phone me back in five
minutes.”

“I’m glad you were there to answer. Anyone else would
have been confused.”

“No, I wasn’t confused. I just assumed you were
drunk. What was the terrific news?”

Martin explained that Gail hadn’t closed on her
condo. That meant the sale wasn’t final and she still had the cash. It could
very well be their extortion money. The closing would be the day after tomorrow
at three o’clock, but she’d be taking the cash to the bank sometime before
that. “That gives us thirty-six hours to stop her. Thirty-six hours to somehow
either find the money or catch her with the money before she takes it to the
bank.

Mel said, “I understand. If the closing goes
through, then the condo seller has the money and all you can do is try to lay
claim to the condo itself. It’s encouraging that she hasn’t closed yet, but I
don’t believe she’s still sitting on all that cash. If she’s closing on the
condo tomorrow, then she put that money in her bank account long ago and you’re
not going to find it under her bed.”

“No, she told me this evening she still has the
actual cash, and I offered to help carry it to the bank.”

“If she gets to the bank with the cash and buys a
certified check, then the only way you could stop her is to block the closing
somehow,” Mel said, “and without a court order, you can’t stop the closing. Impossible
to get a court order that fast and you don’t have the evidence to convince a
judge anyway.”

“The FBI,” Martin almost yelled. “I’ll bet the FBI
could intercept that cash, if she walks in the bank with stolen money. Can you
reach that agent who’s working the extortion case tonight? What’s his name,
Conrad Hastings?”

“Great idea. It’s late but I’ll phone him now. But
if that doesn’t work the only hope for you guys is to find the actual cash.
I’ll get back to you.”

Martin sat there a minute thinking about Gail with
mixed emotions. He wasn’t proud of himself for how he’d tricked her into
trusting him. True, he hadn’t seduced her under false pretenses, or scammed her
out of money, or something as despicable as that. Just the same, he had played
with her emotions, led her on and deceived her. Thankfully, his ruse had been
successful. If she were guilty of stealing the payoff money from Boyd, or
worse, killing him in order to steal it, she was a criminal and deserved to be
tricked. Yes, he told himself, it was fair and just—except for one thing, they
weren’t certain that all of their suspicions were true.

Sandy wouldn’t have turned off her phone. Not in
the middle of all that was going on. Something was wrong. He redialed. Same
result—only taking voicemail.

A
cross
town at that moment, Sandy was sitting side-by-side with Doreen in the hall
outside the booking area of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Both women had
one wrist handcuffed and the other cuff snapped around a heavy bar running
across in front of their row of plastic chairs.

Two hours earlier, the deputies had arrived at the
scene and found a naked gunshot victim lying on the floor. The subsequent
police report was rather confusing; one woman explained she had walked in on
the other woman and the naked guy while they were playing some kind of sex game.
The other woman denied all that and claimed she was a lawyer who just wanted to
talk to the naked guy.

The deputies felt justified in arresting Doreen as
she admitted firing the gun. They also brought in Sandy because they didn’t
know what else to do with her.

A deputy had brought them to the sheriff’s
headquarters handcuffed together in the back seat of a patrol car. They were
processed together and led around together from one location in the headquarters
building to another for over an hour. That was the truly annoying part for Sandy:
everyone assumed the women were two of a kind. Probably hookers considering the
time of night. Equally guilty of something or other. And defining the “something
or other” apparently was taking the police some time.

As if their being on display in the hall wasn’t
enough, Doreen, with her remarkable legs stretching out from under her white
tennis skirt, was receiving an endless flow of well-deserved attention from the
deputies and other assorted building personnel who repeatedly found it
necessary to take a detour into that part of the building and cross in front of
her.

“They said your buddy, Brad, was recovering nicely
though still in the hospital,” Sandy said. “I truly believe they don’t know
what to do with us. I’m hoping that as soon as every man in the entire county
has checked out your Barbie Doll legs eight times, they might let us go. Thank
God you have on underwear or the parade would never end.”

“Funny you should mention that.”

Sandy’s head snapped around. “You’ve got to be
kidding!”

Doreen shrugged. “Hey, I don’t normally walk
around like this. What kind of a girl do you think I am? It was supposed to be
part of the game, but we didn’t get to that part.”

“Enough!” Sandy put her head down in her hands as
best she could with one wrist cuffed to the bar.

“You don’t have to be so snippy. Wouldn’t have
been any trouble, if you’d just played your part. Was that too much to ask? If
you didn’t like fantasy sex, why’d you show up? Doesn’t the word threesome mean
anything to you? What’d you think we were going to do, sit around with our legs
neatly crossed at the ankles and discuss books?”

“That wasn’t a fantasy gun you were waving around.”

“Yeah, that didn’t work out well, did it? That’s
the gun Brad keeps in his desk. We did that game once before with Gail. She
said it was exciting—she loved pretending to be the hooker. Guess I need
practice with that gun.”

“And you actually thought I’d just go along with
it?”

“You should be pleased. Brad was really excited
about you.”

“Excuse me if I don’t feel honored. That guy
probably gets excited opening a can of beans.”

“He told me you were Gail’s friend and had done
some junk with her. Said the reason you were coming back that night was to
play.”

Sandy looked up at the ceiling. “How did you come
up with all that stuff?”

“You mean the acting? What’d you think of me? Damn
good wasn’t I?”

“You were perfect. My heart stopped when you burst
in.”

“I told you, I’d done it before. I forgot a couple
of my lines though, real zingers. But it still sounded good, didn’t it?”
Cautiously she looked over at Sandy. “We could still be friends. Do you bruise
easily?”

Sandy ignored her. “You must tell the police the
truth, dammit. I overheard you tell the sergeant it was all a game. According
to you, we were all just playacting. You two boneheads not only almost killed
me, you now have me in trouble with the law. You must explain that I didn’t
show up there for sex with you two. I’ll choose my own threesome...I mean my
own partner, thank you very much. Do you actually work for that creep? Do you
get it on regularly with him?”

“What do you think?” Doreen grinned. “You got a
good look at him.”

“Geez, this better not get in the papers.”

After another half hour, a Sergeant Kracman came
and led Doreen away, his hand gently on her arm as if she were some fragile
trophy. He ignored Sandy’s protests. Thirty minutes later he returned and stood
there sternly looking at her as though she had some explaining to do. She was stunned
when he told her, “Your friend says you knew it was just a sex game and wanted
in.”

“She’s not my friend and of course they’re
claiming I agreed. Otherwise, they’re facing a charge of assault and attempted
rape. Okay, that’s it.” She explained again that she was a lawyer from Park
Beach. “I want to file a criminal complaint against both of them, right now.”

The sergeant shook his head, “You’re the one that essentially
caused the injuries. Why’d you push the guy into a loaded gun?”

“Because I’m getting damn tired of having guns
pointed at me. Sergeant, you are an officer of the law, and I’m making a
criminal complaint. Now do your job and take my complaint.”

“We’re holding you until we see what the victim in
the hospital says about you.”

“He’s not the victim, damn it. I am.” Like talking
to a wall. “Do you know Detective Harold Dominic with the West Palm police?
He’s a personal friend. I want you to call him.”

“Dominic is city. You’re arrested in the county,
so you’re dealing with the sheriff.”

“I know that but he’ll vouch for me.”

“The vouching can wait until morning. You’re here
at least overnight.”

“What! You’ve no grounds to keep me overnight.
What on earth can you charge me with? I didn’t touch that gun, except to kick
it away from her. Even if I were a willing participant, sex isn’t illegal in
this county is it?”

“Don’t need any charge to keep you overnight. An
ASA will decide what to do with you in the morning. I checked out your story
about being a lawyer up in Park Beach. I phoned the police chief up there.” The
sergeant looked at his notes. “Chief Stabler. He knows you. Said you’ve been
known to make trouble. He was a little surprised when I mentioned the group sex.”

“You told him I was arrested for group sex? Oh, thanks
a lot. That means the entire city police force up there knows and soon the
sheriff’s department.”

“Don’t know about Park Beach, but that charge
would make you popular around here. He wanted to know all the details. Said he
wouldn’t put anything past you.”

“What possible cause could there be to lock me up
overnight?”

“The ASA will sort it out in the morning.”

“What’s to sort out? The sexpot and her perpetually
erected boyfriend pulled a gun on me so they both could rape me.”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

“That’s the way the law looks at it. Did you explain
all that to your ASA?”

“Been busy.” The cop screwed up his face. “Haven’t
talked to him yet.”

“You haven’t talked to him? Geez Louise. You’re
holding me overnight, without a charge, without talking to an ASA?”

“Well, I spoke to him, and he said to tell him
about in the morning. Hey, look, I’m not the one prancing around bare-assed and
shooting off guns.”

“Running around naked in Florida isn’t even a
crime. And I wasn’t naked and didn’t shoot off any gun.” She thought it a hell
of a way to run a sheriff’s department, but attacking the guy would do no good.
“Look, Sarge, I’ll come back in the morning with my attorney. Okay?”

The sergeant shook his head and took her by the
arm.

“Let me make a phone call.” Martin would be the
one to call.

“Sure, but you’ve been booked, so you’re in for
the night.” And then with a smirk, “Take my advice. Next time, why don’t you
just put on a French Maid or Cheerleader outfit to do your sex thing? Leave the
gunplay out of it.”