Dan Sharp Mysteries 4-Book Bundle (107 page)

Post-Op

Inside police headquarters, Dan had barely waited a minute before he was ushered into Inspector Johnston's office. She was friendly but businesslike as she offered him a seat.

“Thanks for coming in. It's been busy since you were gone. As you no doubt know, I met one of your ex-clients, quite by coincidence as it turns out.”

“Yes, I heard. You asked Lionel to identify a body.”

She flashed him one of her rare smiles. “His business card was discovered on the body. When I heard his name, I recognized it thanks to you. The chief already knew it from the investigation.” She paused. “We think the suicide could be an admission of guilt on the ex-boyfriend's part. If he killed Malevski, whether it was accidental or premeditated, then the grief may have hit him harder than he expected.”

“Then you're convinced his death was suicide?”

“Young man jumps off a bridge in the dead of night with no witnesses?” Only her raised eyebrows said she might leave room for skepticism. “Until we have reason to believe otherwise.”

“So the fall was what killed him? No traces of Rohypnol or anything suggesting he might have been drugged and pushed over?”

“The fall definitely killed him. Rohypnol doesn't stay in the body long, but toxicology reports for both Rohypnol and alcohol were negative.”

They stared one another down for a second.

“I find it suspicious that a suspect in the case dies before he can be found and questioned,” Dan said. “Particularly since Santiago was the one in charge of handing protection money over to corrupt cops.”

She sighed. “Me, too. But for now, I don't have a lot to go on. Is there anything you can tell me?”

“I don't have much to add, but I just had an encounter with a transwoman named Jan — sort of a fixture in the gay village. I don't have any contact info. Jan knew Yuri and suggested I should look closer to home if I want to know who killed him.”

“Any idea what that means?”

Dan shook his head. “None, though I had a strange encounter with a next-door neighbour who calls himself Pig.”

“Charming. I'll look into it. Anything else?”

“Apparently it could have something to do with a movie about a bridge and a bell tower.”

She rolled her eyes. “Let's not make this harder than it has to be. Tell me about Quebec again.”

Dan outlined briefly what occurred, how he'd been pursued by two men waiting outside his hotel, had grabbed one of them, then tackled a third before changing hotels.

“Did you report the incident to the police there?”

“No. I saw no point. As far as I can tell, it had nothing to do with why I went to Quebec. These guys were professionals.”

She gave him a wry look. “Not so professional you couldn't outfight them.”

“True. Was there anything to report from your security detail on my home last night?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I had a patrol in place not long after midnight. There was nothing suspicious from then until the time you left in the morning. I have someone on your house now and we'll keep him there for the time being. You'll get ample warning should we decide to curtail the operation, in case you want to hire someone privately.”

“Thanks for that. I appreciated your getting there on such quick notice.”

She considered this for a moment. “The reason we were able to move so quickly on assigning you protection was that we had already considered it a possibility. In fact, we thought there was a chance you might be a target …”

Dan's eyebrows shot up.

“… so we granted you emergency clearance.”

He managed a rueful smile. “Nice, but I could have done with a little security in Quebec.”

“You did have. We had a man tailing you there.”

Dan's smile faded.

Lydia nodded. “Nothing official, of course. We don't interfere in Quebec police operations. This was a private request from the chief, completely off the books.” She gave him a knowing look. “As he told me, you did him one hell of a favour once.”

She picked up her phone, all the while watching Dan's face.

“Send him in please,” she said into the receiver.

The office door opened. For a second, Dan barely felt a jolt on finding himself face to face with the hirsute stalker he'd encountered in Quebec City. Then it hit him square in the stomach. He turned to Johnston. She'd set him up, after convincing him to believe her. He felt the betrayal. She was still talking, but the words scarcely registered. Something about “… one of ours … thought it was time you two met … best to clear this up before we go any further.”

A hand extended. Dan stood and blinked.

“You gave me a hell of a wallop,” the man said.

He was still trying to make sense of things, to glean some meaning in the confusion of words. Lydia was telling him that Sergeant Nick Trposki wasn't really on the take, but only pretending to be in order to gain inside information, officer to officer.

Their hands met over the desk. Dan felt the prickle of sweat running between his pectorals.

“So, please,” Lydia was saying. “Don't keep slugging our best officers and your security contingent.”

Dan shook his head. “This is why you couldn't tell me.”

“That's right. And of course it goes without saying that this is completely in confidence. You'll probably be seeing Sergeant Trposki around from time to time. Try not to act surprised.” She turned to her colleague. “Thank you, Sergeant. That will be all.”

Dan watched as he went out the door.

Lydia turned to him. “The chief has asked me to fill you in on the case, if you'd like to hear it.”

Dan nodded and sat down again. “Please.”

“We've been going over Yuri Malevski's phone records. We were able to determine that he made at least one call of twenty-three seconds duration in the days prior to his death. That call was relayed by satellite over the west coast of Mexico.”

Dan nodded. “Lionel — my ex-client — mentioned getting a call from his boss while he was in Puerto Vallarta.”

“Yes, it was to his number. Do you know what they talked about?”

“I don't think they spoke. Yuri left a message to confirm their meeting on Lionel's return. Yuri's cell was full when Lionel called back, so he left a message on Yuri's home phone saying he would be back in time for the meeting.”

Inspector Johnston nodded. “That jibes with what we know. We found his reply on an answering machine in the home. There were a few other messages with it. One was from a florist about a delivery. We wondered if that was code for drugs.”

Dan laughed. “Not very subtle if it was, but it was probably legit. He had a greenhouse.”

“The day after the call to Mexico, Malevski used his cell to text a number we still haven't been able to trace. It was one of those disposable mobile phones, paid for by cash in Chinatown. Whoever had it seems to have tossed it since.”

“What was the text?”

“A series of four numbers. At first we thought it was an account reference number, but now we think it was his entry code. He changed it the week of his murder. We're assuming it's because he was worried about something. We don't know exactly how many people had it, but presumably only a handful at best.”

“So if Yuri changed his entry code and sent the new numbers to someone not long before he was killed, he might inadvertently have set up his own murder.”

“At the moment, that's our theory. It could have been the owner of that phone.” She caught his expression. “Do you know who it might have gone to?”

“In fact, I might. There's a kid named Ziggy who's staying in a cubbyhole on the third floor of the Malevski mansion —”

“We know about the kid. So far we've haven't been able to talk to him. We thought he'd done a runner, but I don't think anyone knew about the cubbyhole. Do you think he's our killer?”

Dan scratched his head. “I'm not sure. For one thing, I don't think he would have stuck around after the murder if he killed Yuri. For another, I went through his diary when he wasn't there.”

He caught Lydia's look.

“Oh! Didn't I tell you I went to the house and looked around?”

“Not to my knowledge, no.”

“Okay, so I went to the house and looked around. Lionel gave me the code. From what I could tell, you guys were finished with the place.”

She tapped a pencil on her desk. “It's still a crime scene, Dan.”

“I'll remember that next time.” He grinned. “Don't worry — I didn't touch anything.”

“Except a diary we probably should be having a good look at.”

“Yeah — I wondered why you hadn't. Anyway, according to the diary, Ziggy was locked out by Yuri for using hard drugs the week of the murder. I know the people Ziggy stayed with while he was away. That part checks out.”

“But it was Ziggy who Yuri texted the new code to?”

“No. He accidentally saw the code on Yuri's cell.”

“Then he must have seen Yuri.”

“I'm not sure. He said he went back to apologize, but never got the chance.”

She looked annoyed. “Well, where's the phone? We don't have it. It wasn't in the house. All we have are the phone records.”

“Maybe Yuri left it at the bar.”

“We checked. It's not there. So if your boy didn't see Yuri, how did he get back in the house?

“He said he sneaked in when the cleaning lady arrived.”

“Cleaning lady! What cleaning lady?” Lydia made a show of mock-pulling her hair. “Let's go over this again.”

Dan told her what he knew.

“So you're saying Yuri was killed by a cleaning lady? Wouldn't Ziggy have seen or heard something, if he was there? Or were they in on it together?”

“That I can't say. You'll have to ask him.”

Lydia sat back. “You've certainly been busy. The chief's away today, but I'll pass this along when he returns.”

Dan considered what she'd told him. “How much time elapsed between Yuri sending the text and being killed?”

“I'm sure you know forensics is a bit iffy when it comes to pinpointing time of death. It's an imperfect science, impossible to narrow anything down to minutes. Hours maybe, but even that's dicey. Sometimes when the body is so decomposed you can't even narrow it down to specific days or weeks. Malevski's body was discovered Saturday. The coroner placed his death within days, but whether that means two, three, or, at a long shot, stretching it to four days is anybody's guess.”

“So he makes a phone call on Tuesday, sends a text on Wednesday, and then fails to show up for a meeting on Saturday, by which time he's dead.”

She nodded. “That's what we know.”

“We also know that between sending the text and finding his body, the house was visited by Ziggy and a cleaning lady. What about the code? Can you tell when it was used?”

She checked the papers in front of her. “The log shows it was used once on Tuesday, once on Wednesday, and then again on Thursday. It wasn't used again until we entered the house on Saturday and discovered the body.”

“Tuesday and Wednesday might simply have been Yuri coming and going. Thursday could have been the cleaning lady and the boy sneaking back in. Ziggy told me he came to apologize, but never saw Yuri again. If he's telling the truth, it sounds to me like Wednesday or Thursday are your best bets for the murder.”

“That jibes with what the coroner said. After the body was discovered, we disabled the alarm for convenience. Once we were finished our investigation we told your accountant he could reset it.”

Dan smiled. “Yes, he reset it to the old code. He told me he has a habit of dotting
i
's and crossing
t
's. He also said Yuri changed the code from time to time to discourage entry by people he'd given the code to and then wished he hadn't.”

“We're still hoping to find his phone. It might be interesting to see what messages are on it. Sometimes these things only make sense after everything is put together.”

“When I see Ziggy again, I'll ask him about it. I'll also tell him to call you and answer whatever questions you might have.” He paused. “No guarantees, but I'll try. He seems to trust me.”

“Great. Thanks for doing our job for us.”

Dan hadn't seen Domingo since leaving for Quebec. He called her cell several times, but there was no answer and he hadn't left a message to tell her about Lonnie. News like that needed to be delivered in person. He made his way to the hospital now, feeling the weight of doom he carried and wondering whether she'd be strong enough today to bear it.

In the corridor, two spectral-looking men sat at opposites ends of a bench, both dressed in blue hospital gowns. They looked like bookends, oblivious to one another as much as to the rest of the ward bustling around them. For some, the world went by far too fast; for others it barely moved.

Domingo wasn't in her room. Dan thought she might be out wandering the halls or perhaps was being taken around in her wheelchair by Adele.

He went to the front desk to ask.

“Are you family, love?” the clerk asked in a soft Irish brogue.

Dan hesitated a fraction of a second then said, “Yes, I'm her brother.”

She eyed him skeptically. “Is that a fact now?”

“Half-brother,” he amended.

“And you weren't informed that her condition had changed?”

He felt his heartbeat skip. “I just got back to town,” he said, truthfully. “I was in Quebec.”

“Well, your half-sister had a fall. She was operated on for an embolism two days ago. She's in the ICU.” She nodded to a corridor. “You'll find gowns and masks outside the door. Make sure you're wearing them and drop them in the bin outside her door when you leave. No exceptions: no mask and gown, no entry.”