Old Loves Die Hard (A Mac Faraday Mystery) (27 page)

“He didn’t seek that revenge until he got a call from Propst’s second wife after he threatened to kill her,” she said. “And their motive for killing Stephen Maguire wasn’t noble.

I don’t think so. They wanted to get rid of a blackmailing lawyer.”

“I don’t think Maguire’s murder had anything to do with that.”

“Because?”

“Did you see Natasha Holmstead’s face when I mentioned Maguire breaking into her emails?” he recalled. “I caught her completely off guard. They said all that they thought Maguire had was a list of names and the name Themis. They were still trying to find out what else he had when he was killed.”

Waving her spoon in the air, she laughed. “Natasha Holmstead got paid a lot of money for being a good liar.”

Mac took the bowl of mousse from her. “I’ve seen her lie and, yes, Natasha is a very good liar. I’ve also seen her blindsided. When I mentioned those emails, she was blind-sided, and so was Judge Sutherland. They didn’t have a clue about Maguire breaking into her emails.” He took the spoon from her hand. “That got me to thinking. Knowing his wife, wouldn’t Maguire want to have everything all together before confronting her and Judge Sutherland? If he let them know about what he had in those emails before investigating Themis, he’d be showing his hand.” He finished the chocolate mousse in three spoonfuls.

“Whether Maguire had shown them his hand or not,” Archie argued, “Natasha confessed her intention to kill him to get him off their backs and confirmed in her email to Sutherland that she’d tried to poison him.”

“Sutherland’s claiming that if Maguire had stolen the emails that came after those we’d found, he would have read where Sutherland had talked Natasha out of finishing the job.” Mac shrugged. “Frankly, I believe him. They put up with Maguire without killing him for years. I believe that Sutherland and Holmstead had enough morals about them so that they wouldn’t cross the line to commit murder for selfish reasons, which includes the murder of Hamilton Sanders.”

“They’re using him as their fall guy.” Taking the empty bowl, she went down into the dining room to return it to the kitchen.

“Because his murder has provided a good opportunity,” Mac called out to her as she left the room. “I don’t think they created it. I think it’s second nature for Natasha to use

Hamilton’s murder to pin her guilt on. I don’t think she killed him.”

When she returned to the room, he lowered his voice. “I completely understand the emotions behind it. They weren’t right in what they did, but I can understand completely.”

She slipped onto the sofa and curled up against him. “If Judge Sutherland and Natasha Holmstead didn’t kill Christine and Stephen Maguire, then who did?”

“I’m afraid of that answer,” Mac muttered.

The doorbell chimed throughout the house.

Delighted at the prospect of some action, Gnarly jumped over the back of the love seat to race Mac to the door. With his valise tucked under his arm, David greeted him with a serious expression on his face.

Mac asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Remember that crazy woman that took a screwdriver after Maguire?” David wiped his soaked shoes on the doormat before stepping in to get warm by the fire.

Archie answered, “Wasn’t that Natasha?”

David said, “She says it wasn’t her.”

“Of course,” she replied with a raised eyebrow. “And since she says it wasn’t her, then we know she didn’t do it.”

“There’s a security camera at the service station across the street from Sully’s.” David dug into the valise tucked under his arm to pull out two case files. “I checked their cameras for about the time of Hamilton Sanders’s murder, and we got a vehicle leaving Sully’s parking lot.” He pulled out his cell phone to show Mac a picture of a black Cadillac SUV. “Recognize this car?”

Mac recognized the parking lot as well as the black SUV. It was Sabrina’s Cadillac leaving the parking lot outside Stephen Maguire’s lakeside business. 

“I also checked the station’s tapes for the night of Stephen Maguire’s murder. It’s the first service station you hit on the way out of Spencer to the city.” David worked the cell phone to bring up another picture. “The other day when I was here, Christine’s sisters were squabbling about a VW Bug that their father used to have.”

Mac recalled, “Sabrina was upset because Roxanne had sold it.”

David held up the cell phone for him to see a picture of an old white VW Beetle at the gas pump in the service station. The date stamp on the picture was close to one o’clock the night of Stephen Maguire’s and Christine’s murders.

“Turns out Christine wasn’t alone in Spencer,” David said.

Mac took the cell phone from him and studied the picture. “I knew Christine was incapable of planning to kill Stephen Maguire on her own.” He sat down on the sofa next to Archie, who looked over his shoulder at the image. “I also couldn’t believe that she was able to drive all the way here from Georgetown on her own. The kids told me that she’d stopped driving months ago because she was afraid of getting pulled over drunk.”

“The problem is a picture of a Bug at a service station doesn’t prove murder.” After taking the case files from the valise, David urged Gnarly over to allow him room to sit next to him on the love seat. “We’re clearly missing something. Show me what it is.”

“Let’s start back at the beginning.” Mac opened the case files and thumbed through the reports and pages. “Using what we know, let’s recreate the murders.”

David took a yellow notepad out of his valise along with a pen. “Where do you want to start?” Before Mac could respond, he answered his own question. “On Thursday, we have Christine’s car coming into Spencer. According to Roxanne, she was staying alone at the lake house. We know that wasn’t the case.”

“But we don’t know for certain which sister it was,” Mac said.

Archie asked, “How did whoever it was that filled up the Bug pay for their gas?”

“I have the service station manager checking on that,” David said.

“Filling up a gas tank on Route 219 in McHenry doesn’t prove murder at the Spencer Inn,” Mac said. “Roxanne and Sabrina alibi each other. Roxanne says she was sick with the flu and Sabrina brought her dinner. We have to put whoever it was that killed Maguire and Christine in that penthouse at the time of the murders. Now, the security camera at the traffic light in McHenry first records Christine’s car coming into town on Thursday, the same day that Stephen Maguire checked into the Spencer Inn. Late that afternoon, employees at the Inn noticed Nita lurking around.”

“Nita, who knew hardly any English, told no one anything about herself,” David said. “Most people’s natural reaction is to avoid someone who doesn’t know their language because talking to them is so difficult. No one asked and she didn’t tell.”

Mac recounted, “Then Friday noon, Cameron Jones sees a crazy woman who has the same long black hair as Nita attacking Stephen Maguire with a screwdriver.”

David recalled, “This crazy woman was telling Maguire that she wanted him to tell the truth.”

“Which truth?” Archie asked. “The truth about his real family? Truth about everyone he’s screwed over throughout the years? There’re so many truths to choose from.”

“About four-thirty on Saturday afternoon, Christine shows up here,” Mac said. “I take her to check into the Spencer Inn shortly before five-thirty.”

David said, “That’s where Christine and Maguire collide. He’s with Cameron Jones.”

“I did just remember something,” Mac chuckled. “Even if this crazy woman was wearing a wig, Jones most likely saw her face. She showed no recognition when she saw Christine. She even asked who she was.” He shook a finger at David. “That proves she hadn’t seen Christine before.”

“Not conclusive since the crazy woman was wearing a disguise.” David checked Christine’s cell phone report. “At five-forty, Christine used her cell phone to call Roxanne. They spoke for seventeen minutes. According to Roxanne, Christine told her about you shooting her down and booking her in your private suite.”

David referred to his notes. “At six-thirty-seven, Christine ordered two filet mignon dinners and a bottle of red wine from room service. We assume the second dinner was in-tended for Stephen Maguire. But he met Bonnie Propst for dinner in the restaurant at seven o’clock, about the same time room service delivered the two filet mignons.”

“Give me Christine’s autopsy report.” After checking Christine’s stomach contents, Mac asked, “Who ate the second filet mignon? Christine only had what amounted to one in her stomach. It certainly wasn’t Stephen Maguire. He was eating down in the restaurant.”

David said, “And Christine didn’t start calling him until after eight o’clock. If dinner arrived at seven, why did she wait so long to call him?”

“She wasn’t calling him for dinner,” Archie said. “Maybe it was Nita, since she came up in the service elevator with the food.”

“That’s possible,” David said. “Which proves again that Christine wasn’t Nita because, according to the hotel security, the penthouse phone and Christine’s key card never got used. That tells us that she never left the suite. However, Nita is seen arriving with the server when room service brings up her dinner at seven o’clock.”

“Wait a minute!” Mac called out. “What did you just say?”

Confused by his reaction, David paused before replying, “I said that the penthouse phone and Christine’s key card were never used from the time she checked in until you found the bodies.”

“I thought that was what you said.” Mac dug out his ex-wife’s cell phone log. “From the time Christine checked in, she used her cell phone right away to call Roxanne. And then the next time Christine’s cell phone is used is after eight o’clock to call Stephen Maguire. Yet, at six-thirty-seven, she ordered two dinners and a bottle of wine from room service.” He cocked his head from David to Archie. “How did Christine order room service if she didn’t use the phone in the suite or her cell phone?”

When they had no response, Mac answered, “Christine didn’t order room service. It was whoever ate that second filet. We need to see the cell phone records of our suspects.”

*   *   *   *

Big Daddy’s log home rested halfway up the mountain. With cottages on both sides so close that the deck provided little privacy and the lake’s public beach a long hike down the hill and across a busy road, Mac was unimpressed with the type of vacation home that Christine had nagged him about wanting for their family.

In comparing Big Daddy’s lake house to Spencer Manor, Mac made a mental note to himself about how spoiled he was getting. Twelve short months before, the rustic lake house would have been far beyond his reach.

Don’t be getting snooty,
Mac, he chastised himself.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” David asked him before they got out of his cruiser. It was an older cruiser the department used for times when the regular vehicles were in repair, or totaled like his had been. It didn’t even have a built-in laptop in the console.

For an instant, Mac considered taking him up on the offer to turn around and go home. Leave the dirty work to the professional. Then, he thought of his children and the questions they would ask. These were questions Mac needed to get answers to first hand.

“No, I need to do this.” He threw open the door and stepped out into the driveway.

Sabrina answered the door. Her welcoming grin dropped when she saw David in his chief’s uniform standing behind Mac. It then transformed into annoyed when she saw that David was carrying his valise.

“You do know that we’re on our way back to the city for Christine’s funeral,” she told David while leading them into the living room where Roxanne was sweeping the floor with a broom. They were closing up the cottage for their return to the city. Their luggage was stacked next to the door. “Are you sure that you can’t have us sign any papers you need later?”

“No, ma’am,” David said. “This needs to be taken care of now.”

Sabrina noticed that Mac was dressed in slacks and a sports jacket, well above his usual casual manner. “Christine would be pleased with how nicely you clean up now that she’s dead.”

Ignoring the backhanded compliment, Mac turned his attention to Roxanne. “My lawyer went through Christine’s financial records, and he found where Stephen Maguire had done exactly as you said. Your mortgage company had made a transfer of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars into Christine’s account, which she had in both Maguire’s and her name. Then, fifteen minutes later, the money was transferred from that account into another account, which only had his name on it.”

“See,” Sabrina said, “Stephen Maguire was a scumbag.”

Roxanne asked Mac, “Does this mean you’re going to sign over the lake house?”

Wordlessly, Mac nodded his head.

Roxanne surprised him by hugging him. “You always do the right thing, Mac,” she whispered into his ear. She squeezed his hands when she pulled away.

Sabrina was giddy with justification. “Maguire really did deserve to get killed. Taking advantage of Christine the way he did—a helpless woman.”

“When you think about it, Christine set herself up to be taken advantage of,” Mac said. “When we got married, she wanted nothing to do with taking care of business. The bank accounts. Paying bills and taxes. Certainly not living within a budget. So we had joint accounts and I did everything. I’d slip contracts under her nose with an X on the spot and she’d sign—no questions asked.”

Sabrina said, “Christine simply didn’t have a head for business.”

“And she paid the price,” he said. “Twice.”

“Twice?”

“As soon as I was out of her life, she handed everything over to Stephen Maguire, who robbed her blind,” Mac explained. “According to my lawyer, he did it legally because of her stupidity. He got his name on all of her accounts, except her IRA. That made her money his money. He used her money for their free spending and to support their rich lifestyle. Some he outright stole and put in his own accounts, like he did with the lake house transfer. After he’d sucked her dry, he left her.”

“I had tried more than once to teach Christine how to manage money and protect herself,” Roxanne said, “but she didn’t want any of it.”