Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) (21 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

“How are you doing?” Cameron went over to the SUV to talk to Tracy, who was leaning against the fender of the car alone after finishing her statement to one of Sheriff Sawyer’s deputies.

“Shaking like a leaf,” she said. “I’ve never been in a situation like that. Dad went charging toward a man with a gun. I can’t believe Royce held on to the same gun that he used to shoot Hunter’s dad all those years ago. How crazy is that?”

“Extremely crazy,” Cameron said.

“He was obsessed with Hunter’s mom,” Tracy said. “I can’t believe nobody saw it—except Dad.”

“He’s sharp like that.” Cameron shrugged her shoulders. “But I think someone else suspected as well.”

“Belle.” Tracy peered through the dark to where Hunter was consoling his mother. “All those years she held onto her late husband’s notes and then—suddenly she remembered them and gave them to Hunter. Why didn’t she give them to Dad when he first talked to her about reopening the case?”

“Denial,” Cameron said. “I have found that those  closest to a killer only see what they want to see. But then, eventually, the truth will bubble up to the surface and they’ll unexpectedly see what has been there all along. I think that happened when Mike’s body was discovered earlier this week. Belle gave us that box because she wanted us to find proof of what she may have already suspected deep down. It may have been buried so deep in her mind that she wasn’t even aware of those suspicions being there.”

“But you and Dad saw it,” Tracy sighed before dropping her gaze down to her feet. “That’s what makes you two a great team … lovers in crime.” She flashed Cameron a soft smile. “I hope Hunter and I can be like you and Dad—I mean, a good team.”

“Aw, shucks,” Cameron said with mocking gratitude.

“I mean it.” Tracy sucked in a deep breath. “I owe you an apology.”

Cameron was suspicious.
Is this a trap?
“What for?”

“All the nasty things I thought about you,” she said. “I knew that it wasn’t Dad who didn’t want a wedding. He wouldn’t have shut all of us out on that—unless the woman he was marrying wanted to shut us out.”

“This is an apology?” Cameron asked.

“Yes, it is,” Tracy said. “I didn’t know the whole story. You see, I was so hurt, that I didn’t care to hear it. But now I know it and I understand. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions about you.”

Cameron felt a burn start in the pit of her stomach.
What did Josh—
“Did your father—”

“No, Donny explained it all,” Tracy said. “How you and your late husband had a big Catholic wedding and then, four months later, you were in the same church, before the same friends and family, for his funeral. That’s why you don’t do weddings or funerals.”

“But I never told Donny about that.”

Tracy giggled. “You’d be surprised by how well Donny picks up on things.” She took Cameron into a warm hug. “I’m glad he picked that up and told me, and I’m glad you’re  my stepmother.” She kissed Cameron on the cheek. As she pulled away, she added, “I hope you can make an exception to your no wedding rule to come to mine.”

Smiling softly, Cameron whispered, “We’ll see.”

“I need to go check on Belle,” Tracy said before hurrying away when Joshua and the sheriff came up to the SUV.

“Did I just see Tracy hug you?” Joshua asked. “Or was she strangling you?”

“That was a hug. We need thicker walls in our house.” Cameron turned to the sheriff. “Did you check the  registration number on the gun Royce used to shoot himself?”

“It was Mike Gardner’s gun all right.” The sheriff nodded his head. “Can you believe it? Belle knew he had a gun,  but she had no idea that it was Mike’s gun. She only thought it looked like Mike’s gun.” He asked both Joshua and Cameron, “What are your feelings? Do you think Belle knew her current husband killed her first husband?”

They shook their heads in unison. “She was completely stunned,” Cameron said. “I think if we hadn’t been there she would have killed him herself.”

Joshua agreed. “Totally caught off guard. I’m not going to press charges.”

“Good,” Curt said. “That’s my sense as well.”

“At least Royce Fontaine saved your county money on a trial and putting him up in prison.” Cameron saw Hunter and Tracy in a group hug with Belle Fontaine. “Can you imagine the guilt Belle is going to go through knowing that she was married and sleeping with the same man who killed her husband?”

“A nightmare,” Joshua said.

“Well, speaking of making progress on murder cases,” Curt said, “right before your call came in, the FBI picked up Hilliard in Washington for questioning on her husband’s murder. We’ll be getting her DNA to compare to the blood  found at Dolly’s murder scene. Forensics said they should have the DNA profile from the blood left on the knife in the morning.”

“Good,” Cameron said. “Maybe we can get this wrapped up tomorrow after we interrogate Lipton and Null and after I go talk to Toby’s mother. I’d like to deliver some good news to Douglas O’Reilly’s mother.”

“Oh, you mean the news that she has a great-grandson isn’t enough?” Joshua asked.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Detective Gates, what are you doing?” Lieutenant Miles Dugan asked Cameron when she answered her cell phone.

Looking through the two-way mirror into the interrogation room where Russell Null was conferring with his  attorney, a white haired man with a handle-bar mustache who she recognized from defending suspects she had arrested before, she replied, “I’m watching a killer lawyer up, sir.”

“Yeah, I know,” the lieutenant said. “I just got a call from our prosecuting attorney saying that you wanted two arrest warrants for vehicular homicide that took place in nineteen sixty-six. Are you serious? What part of ‘time off’ are you having trouble understanding?”

“These two men’s bad decision from almost fifty years ago ruined numerous lives, including the life of the man they killed,” Cameron said. “Here in Hancock County, they’re  suspected of a double homicide to cover up that hit and run.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line  before Dugan let out a deep sigh. “Do you have any evidence to connect them to the hit and run that took place here?”

“Circumstantial,” she replied. “But once I get a go at them, I’m sure I can get one of them to confess and flip on the other.”

“Make sure you dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s. I’ll work with the prosecutor to get you those arrest warrants.”

“Thank you, sir.” She tried not to grin when she hung up the phone.

Sheriff Curt Sawyer came into the observation room with Joshua, who was carrying two case files.

“No surprise,” Joshua told her, “Philip Lipton is in the other room with his lawyer. Based on his body language, he’s ready to do battle. He’s got a lot to lose. If he cops to  covering up that hit and run by dumping O’Reilly’s body,  his reputation as a criminalist will be ruined—not to mention the possibility of jail time.” He stepped up to the mirror to study Russell Null, who was holding his head in his hands. “Russell is another story. His brother is dead. He knows there’s no stopping the truth from coming out now. For him, a  confession may be a welcomed relief.”

She stepped up to his side. “Then let’s start with Null.”

Joshua turned to her. “Ava Tucker’s and Virgil Null’s murders belong to us since they happened here in Hancock County. But the suspected motive is the hit and run in Raccoon, which is your turf. You’re going to have to take the lead since that’s where it all started.”

“I can do that.” She smiled broadly at being in charge of the interrogation of what was, after all, her case.

“Don’t get cocky,” Sheriff Sawyer warned with a good-natured grin while opening the door for them to move on to their interviews. “This is still my county.”

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you to be nice to guests?” She trotted ahead of Joshua out into the hallway, where she turned around to ask them, “Does Lipton know his old friend Russell is here?”

Sheriff Sawyer answered, “We’ve been keeping them separated.”

“I’d like to try something,” Cameron said. “It may help to move things along.”

“You have nothing to worry about, Russell,” his lawyer was telling him. “It doesn’t matter what that old woman recorded thirty-something years ago. You had no reason to kill your brother. Without any proof—”

The door flew open.

Philip Lipton and his lawyer started to enter, only to find Russell Null and his lawyer already sitting at the table.

Lipton and Null locked eyes.

While a series of emotions filled both of their faces, Sheriff Sawyer stepped in to apologize to Lipton. “They told me that this witness was in room three. Let’s try the one across the hall.” Urging Philip Lipton and his attorney backward into the hallway, the sheriff closed the door.

Russell Null’s face was white and his hands were shaking by the time the door opened again and Cameron and Joshua entered. They each carried a case file. Joshua also had a cassette player tucked under his arm.

“Russell, thank you so much for coming in this morning,” Joshua said in a cordial tone. Even though Russell Null was a suspect in two serious crimes, he could not forget that he was a county commissioner and they knew each other casually. Politics demanded that Joshua treat him with respect, which was something Cameron struggled with. “Have you met my wife, Cameron Gates?”

Russell shook her hand. “I heard you got married.”

While they took seats across the table, Joshua announced, “Cameron is a homicide detective with the Pennsylvania State Police.”

“Why is she here?” Russell’s attorney asked in a blunt manner.

“I’m investigating a homicide,” she replied. “We think that maybe your client might have some information pertaining to it.”

“In Pennsylvania?” the lawyer looked over to Joshua. “I thought this had to do with the double homicide of Russell’s brother and that hooker he was with at Dolly’s back in seventy-six.”

“It does,” Joshua replied. “I’d like for you to listen to a tape that was delivered to my home a couple of days ago. The date on this tape is February thirteen, nineteen seventy-six.” He pressed the button to play the tape.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s your client,” Cameron told the lawyer.

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

“That’s Virgil,” Joshua said before turning to Russell, “but I think you know that.”

“Be serious.”

“That’s Philip Lipton,” Cameron said, “an old friend of your client.”

“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 asked.

“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. It’s not our fault.”

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

“You want to talk about ruined lives,”
Russell cut off Philip to ask.
“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.”

After a long hesitation, Virgil said,
“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 shriek.

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

Joshua said over the sound of the struggle, “Philip Lipton attacked your brother here, didn’t he? Shortly before he and Ava Tucker were murdered.”

Philip Lipton’s eerily low voice came out of the speaker,
“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, just like Philip Lipton said he would be.”

“What did Virgil tell Ava Tucker that got him killed, Russell?” Cameron asked. “What wrong did your brother die trying to fix?”

Russell’s eyes filled with tears.

“Russell Null had nothing to do with those murders,” the lawyer said.

“But he knows who did,” Joshua said.

“It wasn’t Philip,” Russell said.

“You don’t need to protect him anymore, Russell,” Joshua said.

“He killed your brother,” Cameron said.

“No,” Russell said.

“Don’t tell us it was you,” Joshua said.

“No, it wasn’t me either,” Russell said. “I was afraid  Philip was going to kill him. Really. Yeah, he was serious when he grabbed Virgil. I thought he was going to break his neck. So when Virgil went upstairs with Ava, and Philip was so mad, I got him out of there. We came down here to New Cumberland to a bar and we drank to our lives coming to an end. Man, it was over as we knew it. I made sure I stayed with him because I didn’t want him going back to kill Virgil. We closed that bar, which I now can’t remember the name of—” He sucked in a deep shuddering breath. “Then we went our separate ways. When I got home, I found out Virgil was dead anyway. I stuck with Philip trying to protect him—” He  swallowed, “and still he died. Somehow, I felt like it was—” With both hands, he wiped the tears from his eyes and face. “When Toby killed himself, Virgil was convinced that it was God punishing us for what we had done. I thought he was crazy. I mean, we took this guy from those he loved, so God was now taking away those we loved.” His voice squeaked. “Virgil could be such a pain, but I loved that little guy. And he was only doing what we should have been man enough to do in the first place—and still someone killed him.”

“What wrong was Virgil trying to right?” Cameron asked him again.

“Don’t say anything,” the lawyer warned him.

“We killed a man,” Russell said. “The first weekend in September back in nineteen sixty-six. It was like the last weekend of summer. Philip Lipton and I were best friends then. He was from Hookstown, and I was from here. We had met at a Boy Scout camp. Virgil and Toby Winter were only fifteen. They were in the back of the truck. We were all drinking and smoking weed out at Raccoon Creek. We were higher than kites. Philip was doing wheelies with one of the company trucks, whipping those two lunatics around in the bed of the truck. We were all laughing like a bunch of hyenas on one of those dirt roads cutting through the park, when suddenly, the truck smashed into something and it happened so fast. This body hit the hood of the truck and bounced over on the other side.”

The room was filled with silence.

“That sobered us up real fast,” Russell said.

“What happened next?” Cameron asked.

“Philip and I were both seniors in high school,” Russell said. “We had our whole lives in front of us. Philip was planning to be a doctor. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer. And there we were, all drunk and we had marijuana on us and we reeked of it. Toby and Virgil wanted to take him to a doctor, but we could tell by looking at him that he was already dead. Blood was all over. Philip said there was nothing we could do. We were right there at the lake, and with the sharp turns in the dirt road, people were wiping out their cars all the time and hitting trees. He made it sound so simple. Put the guy in the car and push it into the lake. Everyone would assume he had an accident.”

“Only that wasn’t what happened,” Cameron said. “Everyone assumed Douglas O’Reilly had committed suicide because his girlfriend was pregnant. He was a young man with a whole world of promise, too. His family was left destitute. His mother’s heart was broken. The girlfriend’s reputation was ruined, and she ended up becoming a call girl. The guilt drove Toby to commit suicide at the same lake where it all started.”

Collapsing onto the table, Russell sobbed into his arms.

Cameron leaned across the table. “Russell, Virgil said in this recording that he wanted Toby’s suicide to mean something. Don’t you want Virgil’s murder to mean something? Finish what he started. It’s not too late to make things right.” She slid her notepad across the table to him. “Write down what happened that night.”

When Russell reached for the notepad, his lawyer’s hand came down onto the pad to stop him. “What’s he going to get in return for his confession?”

“How about peace of mind?” she replied.