Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) (16 page)

“December eighteenth, nineteen eighty,” Cameron read from the list.

Their eyes met.

He went to the next folder. “Fatal stabbing during a mugging in an alley in downtown Pittsburgh. The victim’s name is Jaclyn Jones.”

“Died July sixteenth, nineteen seventy-nine.”

Joshua tossed the folder aside to move on to the next. “Bambi Crawford died in a home fire.”

“On January fifth, nineteen eighty-two.”

“In Newark, New Jersey, Farrah Monroe was beaten to death and strangled,” he told her. “Her boyfriend swore he came home from a night out with the guys and found her dead. Detectives suspected he did it, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.”

“October twenty-third, nineteen seventy-nine.” Cameron ticked on the name to find only two left. “We have Ava Tucker already. Do you have a Bianca there?”

“Bianca Stephens was found with her wrists slashed in a bathtub at a hotel in Charleston, West Virginia.”

“She died on September twenty-fifth, nineteen seventy-six,” Cameron said. “The only woman listed here that doesn’t have a death date is Rachel.” She gazed at him. “There’s eight names here. Dolly had eight girls. Rachel Hilliard is the only one who’s still alive.”

“All of these women were dead when Mike started looking into Ava’s murder,” Joshua said. “He must have started out trying to contact them for statements about what happened the night Ava was murdered and realized that they had each died suddenly.”

“Except the one with the most to lose if it had come out that she had been a common call girl,” Cameron said. “That would be a very heavy motive for her to kill him.”

The doorbell prompted Admiral to race up from the family room downstairs and for the foyer. Irving rolled over from where he had almost fallen asleep in the sunbeam and scurried after him.

“I guess Curt is here,” Joshua said.

Chapter Nineteen

“Well, let’s get the worst part over with,” Curt replied when Joshua asked which envelope and tape they wanted to listen to first.

The envelopes were bundled together with rubber bands into two packages. Congresswoman Rachel Hilliard’s and Colonel Henry MacRae’s envelopes were bound together. Russell Null and Philip Lipton were bound together as well.  A cassette tape was attached to each package.

The old-fashioned cassette tape prompted Joshua to dig through the desk drawers in his study for a dusty cassette  player on which to listen to the recordings.

While Cameron slipped Hillard’s tape into the player, Joshua referred to the transcript that was written out in an ink pen. He recognized the elderly woman’s penmanship from numerous cards and notes she had sent him throughout the years.

A call to Dolly’s lawyer confirmed that she had given him the package to mail several years earlier—shortly after  Joshua had returned to Chester and was elected Hancock’s prosecuting attorney.

“The date on this transcript is February thirteen,  nineteen seventy-six.” Joshua handed the transcript to the sheriff.

“That’s the date that Ava Tucker and Virgil Null were killed,” Curt said.

“We also know that Dolly bugged the parlor at the  gentleman’s club,” Cameron said. “Let’s see what she got on the congresswoman and police superintendent. How much do you want to bet it’s an affair?”

“Now let’s not make assumptions,” Joshua said.

“According to this transcript, they start out kissing,” Curt said.

“See,” she said with a smug grin before hitting the start button on the cassette player and turning up the volume.  As indicated by the transcript, the tape started out with  several moments of kissing and moans of pleasure along with the rustle of clothes.

“Oh,” a man’s voice groaned, “I missed you so much.  I couldn’t wait to be with you.”

There were more sounds of heavy kissing.

“This is the only thing that keeps me going, darling,” she said. “Being with you, like this—when I’m with him, I picture you holding me. When we are together, I pretend that it is you I am with. Otherwise, I’m afraid that he would see the disgust in my eyes.”

“Don’t talk about him.” He kissed her again. “I can’t bear the thought of him having you this way.”

“Neither can I … anymore.”

Silence.

“You aren’t thinking of divorce, are you?” There was fear in his tone. “Your plans—”

“Our plans,” she said. “I can’t wait anymore. I don’t like waiting in the wings to have what I want while playing the dutiful wife.” Her tone was cold.

“If you divorce Rod, then you’ll get nothing—we won’t get anything. All of our hard work will be for nothing. You’ll end up back here at Dolly’s—flat on your back.”

“I’m not talking about divorce,” she giggled. “What kind of fool do you think I am? The solution to our problem is simple. Instead of waiting for this overweight old man to kick the bucket naturally, he has an unfortunate, horrible accident. With all the years that he has served this state in Washington, to die suddenly, then there will be a lot of  publicity, which will put me in the spotlight to show the voters what a formidable, intelligent woman I am. By the time I am through, Rod’s friends in the capital will be begging me to take his place, finish his term, and then run for his seat.”

Her voice dropped seductively. “And then, I can use my new influence to bring my favorite man in blue down to Charleston to take a position of power with the state police. No more patrolling around in your cruiser, my love.” She kissed him.

“How do you propose to do it?” he asked in a rasping voice.

“I was thinking about—” She kissed him. “—A plane crash. Rod thinks he’s so cool flying in his own private plane to Washington. It should be easy enough to make that aerial go-cart drop down out of the sky and go boom, don’t you think, darling?”

Henry laughed. “I used to fly in the air force. Do you know that a simple break in the seal on the door could cause a problem with the pressure in the cabin that can knock everyone, including the pilot, out and bring the plane down in the Appalachian Mountains—”

Joshua snapped off the recorder. “That’s how it happened. Congressman Roderick Hilliard and two assistants crashed in his private plane in the mountains. If I recall, the FAA called it a mechanical failure.”

“Caused by Henry MacRae and Hilliard’s wife tampering with the plane,” Curt said. “This is a case for the feds. They conspired to kill a United States Congressman.”

“I know some people at the FAA,” Joshua said. “Before we go throwing accusations at a congresswoman, let’s make sure we have all of our facts straight. For one, the date on this tape is February thirteen, nineteen seventy-six. Congressman Hilliard died in the fall.”

“People like Congresswoman Hilliard don’t go acting rashly,” Cameron said. “According to this recording, they seem to be just hatching this plan. It’s conceivable that they spent six months planning and making sure they had all their ducks in a row.”

“MacRae is a former state trooper,” Curt said. “He would have known everything necessary to pull this off.”

“Except for a madam with a tape recorder,” Cameron said.

“But why kill Ava Tucker?” Curt asked.

“Maybe she overheard their plan,” Cameron suggested. “She happened to be going by the doorway—”

“No,” Joshua said. “Congresswoman Hilliard is not that sloppy.”

“According to Mike’s files, it looks like Hilliard has been killing off all of her former co-workers,” Cameron said. “Why not start that night with Ava?”

Joshua ejected the cassette from the recorder and slipped in the next one. “Before we go slapping cuffs on killers, let’s take a listen to this tape that’s marked for Russell Null and Philip Lipton.”

“Russell is Virgil Null’s brother,” Cameron said.

“He’s also on the board of county commissioners,” Curt said.

“More dirty politics?” Cameron cocked an eyebrow in Joshua’s direction. “Am I sensing a theme here?”

Ignoring her, Joshua referred to the transcript. “It starts with Russell Null.”

“What are you doing here?” a hushed voice demanded.

They heard a door slam in the background while a younger man’s voice answered, “This is a bordello. What do you think I’m doing here? How did you know I was coming?”

“That’s Virgil Null,” Joshua said hurriedly while sitting down to move his ear closer to the player’s speaker.

“Be serious,” a third male voice said.

“That’s Philip Lipton,” Curt said. “I recognized his voice. What’s—”

Joshua hushed him.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Russell asked.

“He knows exactly what he’s doing,” Philip said. “He’s sneaking around behind our backs to ruin our whole lives  because of one stupid mistake we made on one stinking night, that’s what.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m doing,” Virgil said. “I’m making things right—once and for all.”

“Why?” Philip Lipton squawked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Virgil said. “Do you have any idea how many lives we’ve ruined? Ava. Toby.”

“We didn’t ruin anyone’s lives,” Philip said. “They did. They made their decisions on their own for how they wanted to live—or not live—their lives.” He added forcibly, “It’s not our fault.”

“Like we made our decision to not take responsibility  for the mistake we made,” Virgil said.

Philip made a noise, but was cut off by Russell. “You want to talk about ruined lives. Then here’s a count of how many lives you’ll ruin if you go upstairs. Yours. Mine. Philip’s. How about Dad’s life when his two sons go to jail? And then, what about Suzie? She and I were planning to get married in three months. Think about that.”

There was silence on the tape before Virgil said in a low voice, “It was an accident. We know that. We need to tell everyone the truth about what happened. Otherwise, Toby’s death will be for nothing.”

There was the sound of movement, followed by the  sound of a punch and a yelp.

“Stop it, Phil!” Russell yelled. “Let him go!”

The sound of a struggle stopped.

Philip Lipton’s voice was low and threatening. “If you go up those stairs with her, I swear you’ll be dead before  morning. I’m not going to let you rip everything I’ve built out of my life because of one stupid night a decade ago! Do you hear me, Null! You tell her what we did, and you’re a dead man!”

Joshua hit the stop button. “And he was dead before morning.”

“Ava was Ava Tucker,” Curt Sawyer said. “Who is this Toby guy?”

“Someone whose life Russell and Philip ruined because of one night of stupidity,” Joshua said.

“Both Toby and Ava made a choice that ruined their  lives because of something they did.” Cameron fingered the bruise that was still tender on her forehead. “I heard a Toby somewhere in this case. Where do I know a Toby from?”

“Toby Winter.” Joshua sat up straight in his chair. “Toby was tight with Virgil Null—and Toby hung himself out at Raccoon Creek.”

“Which is where Douglas O’Reilly was killed in nineteen sixty-six,” Cameron said. “That’s a decade before the night of this recording.”

“How does Doug O’Reilly figure into all this?” Curt asked. “His name isn’t mentioned in either of these recordings.”

“What about this?” Cameron jumped to her feet. “Douglas O’Reilly got a flat tire while on his way out to see Ava Tucker, who was pregnant. He’s changing the flat tire.  It’s late and dark. Philip, Russell, and I guess Virgil and Toby had to be with them—probably drunk, doing whatever it is teenagers do on a weekend night, and then they hit  Douglas with the car and killed him. They panic. They’re young. They have their whole lives ahead of them. So drunk and stupid—”

“One night of stupidity,” Joshua quoted.

“—they dump the car and body in Raccoon Creek,  intending for it to look like an accident—like he drove into the lake,” Cameron said. “However, as circumstances would have it, everyone assumed that Douglas O’Reilly killed himself because of his pregnant girlfriend. Out of guilt, Ava turns to prostitution.”

“And Toby hangs himself,” Joshua concluded.

“Out at Raccoon Creek where his life went to hell,” Cameron said.

“After his best friend’s suicide,” Joshua said, “Virgil decided to make things right and went to tell Ava the truth. Douglas did not commit suicide because she had gotten pregnant—he was killed.”

“I think Virgil was trying to make things right before that,” Cameron said. “The O’Reilly’s were receiving cash  payments for years after Douglas’ death. They needed the money, so they said nothing. The money stopped coming the same time that Ava and Virgil were murdered. I think it was Virgil who was sending the money to try to make up for his role in taking their son away.”

“Good story,” Curt said. “But we can’t prove any of it. All we have is this tape with an argument that’s pretty vague.” He referred to the written transcript. “Douglas O’Reilly’s name isn’t mentioned at all on this recording.”

“I think we have enough to shake things up,” Joshua said. “This tape proves Philip Lipton and Russell Null were on the scene the same night that Virgil and Ava were killed. This argument, plus Lipton’s threats, prove motive.”

“Not to mention the blackmail that they have been  paying Dolly to keep their secret quiet,” Cameron turned to  Joshua. “You know Russell Null. I assume you know Philip Lipton, too, since he’s the head of the crime lab in Weirton. Were you aware that they were friends?”

“No,” Joshua said with a shake of his head.

“That’s the advantage in cold cases,” she said with a low laugh. “Loyalties shift. Maybe Russell Null ended their friendship after his brother got killed. Maybe he even suspects Philip Lipton carried out his threat.”

“And is willing to talk about it now?” Curt asked. “Now that would be an ideal interview.”

Joshua agreed. “Let’s bring them in for questioning about Virgil’s and Ava’s murders and see what they have to say.”

“Let’s not forget about Dolly’s murder,” Cameron said. “They all have reason to see her dead, and three out of the  four of them were at Cricksters on the same day she was killed.”

“Don’t worry, Cam,” Curt said, “I haven’t forgotten  about that for even a second. Who’s going after the congresswoman?” The sheriff looked directly at Joshua.

“Does the congresswoman scare you?” Cameron asked the sheriff with a wicked grin.

“I’m not proud. She scares the dickens out of me.”

“She doesn’t scare me,” Joshua said. “I’d go up against her any day.”

“Just don’t plan to go up in a plane with her and her toy boy around,” Cameron warned.