The Master Plan (2009) (11 page)

"How true, how true," Del agreed quickly. "So, Bruno, if
Judy is arrested will I be able to bail her out?"

"It depends on what she's charged with."

Del turned to Dana. "Will your paper be reporting on the
fact that Judy is being questioned in connection with her
husband's death?"

"I suppose so. We have two reporters who work the police beat and monitor what goes on at the station."

"Good"

"Good?" Bruno and Dana said together.

"I don't mean good that she's under suspicion. She's an
innocent lamb, but the publicity would be good for the showing." Del tried not to smile, but his eyes reflected his good
humor.

"If she's locked up in jail she won't be able to do much
painting," Bruno told him.

Del sobered. "You need to look elsewhere for your killer,
Bruno. My artist is not capable of murder."

"What about Judy's friend, Teddy?"

Del waved his hands in the air as if to clear the room of
Bruno's suggestion. "Impossible"

Bruno stood up. "Killers come in all shapes, sizes, and
temperaments. Just because they don't look dangerous,
doesn't mean they aren't. Lucas Porter abused his wife,
which gives her a pretty strong motive."

Del looked at Dana, who had to agree that Bruno had a
valid point. That coupled with the insurance policy just
might send Judy Porter to prison.

Bruno sighed heavily and got to his feet. "Thanks for your
time, Del. I'd better get back to the station." He put on the
overcoat that hung from the back of his chair. "Are you going back to the paper?" Bruno asked Dana. "I came on foot,
rather than try to skid along the icy streets in my car. I'll
walk back with you"

"You go on," Dana told him. "I have another matter to
discuss with Del.

"I'll bet," Bruno said. "I'll call you later."

Dana sat and waited while Del escorted Bruno to the door.
He came back to the office smiling broadly.

"Okay, Del," Dana said. "What's going on? You seem
very happy about a very sad turn of events."

"This is for your ears only, darling. Don't you dare share
this information with Bruno. Promise me."

"I promise."

"Judy called me at eight a.m. to tell me that she worked in
her studio, ratty little room in her apartment actually, most
of yesterday afternoon and all night. Didn't get a wink of
sleep. She finished all the paintings I had contracted for and
I went right over there and picked them all up. Come on, I'll
show you."

Dana was stunned. "That's unbelievable"

"That was my first thought and I was also worried that
they wouldn't be salable."

"Are they?"

"Judge for yourself."

Del stood up and Dana did the same. She followed him
to a locked door down the hall from his office. Del quickly
unlocked the door and allowed Dana to enter the room first.
Judy Porter's paintings were the only ones in the room. The
larger ones were leaning against the walls, the smaller ones
were set out on a long worktable in the middle of the room.

Dana had seen most of them at Judy's apartment. They
had been in various degrees of completion. She had never
known anyone who worked on so many different pieces at
the same time, and had marveled at Judy's ability to do so.
She had also wondered if working on multiple pieces would
diminish the final quality of the paintings. Now she could see
for herself that Judy Porter's technique and work ethic had
produced spectacular results.

"These are wonderful," Dana exclaimed as she walked
around the room studying each painting.

"She is clearly one of the most talented young artists I've
ever discovered," Del told her. "I hope I can count on you to
keep her out of jail. A little adverse publicity will increase
interest in the show, but I can't have my artist actually behind bars"

"Del, I can't stop Bruno from arresting her if he feels he
has enough evidence to make the charges stick."

"Do you think he does?" he asked anxiously.

"I don't think he would have been here questioning you
if he did."

"Good. Then all you have to do is use your influence with
Bruno and convince him to look for other suspects."

Dana laughed. "You overestimate my powers of persuasion, Del. Bruno has a fit when I meddle in one of his cases.
You just heard him voice his objections and we had an argument over that very thing last night."

"He seemed to want to make it up to you today," Del
said.

"Only because his mother is coming for a visit soon and
he wants me to help him entertain her."

"Bring her here. I'll take you both to lunch."

"You don't have to make rash promises, Del. I don't believe Judy Porter and Teddy Larson killed Lucas and I will
keep working on the case. Based on the people I've already
talked to, Lucas Porter had more enemies than friends."

"Judy told me she worked like a demon to complete the
paintings because she couldn't bear the thought of leaving
them unfinished while she was in prison."

"That sounds a lot like a confession to me."

"On the contrary, she swore to me that she was innocent,
but she's terrified of Bruno"

"He has that effect on a lot of people," Dana replied.

By the time the staff meeting convened, Dana was more
than a little worried about Casey. There had been no word
from her all day and attempts to reach Casey on her home
phone and cell phone had been unsuccessful.

"Do you think something could have happened to her?"
Marianne asked Bob as they took seats in Dana's office.

"No. I'm sure she's okay. If there was a problem we would
have heard something by now."

"You're probably right," Dana agreed. "It's just that it's
so unlike Casey not to at least call in."

"She's never been in love before," Bob said. "Love makes
people do all kinds of crazy things. Right, Marianne?"

Marianne smiled, but didn't answer him.

The outside door to the reception office opened and closed
and all three of them looked expectantly to the doorway of
Dana's office expecting to see Casey cross the threshold. Instead, a strange man charged into the office.

Bob jumped up and confronted him. "Can I help you?"
he said.

"I know you," the man shouted. "You're the fat guy that
was with the skinny broad who brought her car in the other
day. And yes, you can help me. I want a retraction and an
apology for that pack of lies you printed about me and my
garage."

Dana stood up. "Mr. Flannery?"

"Yeah, that's right," he acknowledged. "Who the hell are
you?"

"I'm Dana Sloan, the head of Globe Investigations."

Flannery glared at her. He was a big man with a shaved
head. His face was flushed with anger, his blue eyes bloodshot. He smelled of the whiskey he had already consumed
that day. "Where's the skinny broad?" he asked. "That's who
I want to talk to"

"She's not here," Bob told him.

"Please sit down, Mr. Flannery," Dana said calmly. "Marianne will get you a cup of coffee"

Marianne was already heading for the door to call security, but Flannery grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him.
"Stay put, girlie," he ordered.

"Let go of her, please," Bob said in a soothing voice.

Flannery let go of Marianne's arm and took a swing at
Bob. Although Bob was overweight, he was trained in martial
arts. He deflected Flannery's punch and before the garage
owner knew what happened, he found himself on the floor
with the full weight of Bob's size-twelve foot pressing down
on his back.

Marianne had quickly escaped to the outer office and
called security. Flannery was yelling threats and obscenities but was unable to dislodge Bob's foot from the middle of
his back.

Dana walked around and sat down in the chair Marianne
had vacated so she could speak to the man on his level. "I understand that you're upset by the story we ran on your garage,
but it was the result of several complaints we received. All of
it is documented. Bursting in here, making threats and assaulting people is only going to make things worse for you,
so I suggest you shut up and give me your lawyer's name. I'll
call him so he can meet you at the police station."

The mention of the police station got Flannery's attention. "First you ruin my business and now you're going to
have me arrested?"

Before Dana could answer two of the Globe's uniformed
security guards came into the office. Bob stepped aside as
the two men hauled Flannery to his feet.

In the outer office, the telephone was ringing and Marianne answered it. "Globe Investigations." She paused and
listened to the caller. "Casey, are you all right? We've been
worried about you" Marianne listened to what Casey was
telling her as Flannery was escorted out of the office. As the
door closed behind him, Marianne said, "Hold on. Dana will
want to hear this from you."

Bob danced around the office loosening up the muscles
he had exerted subduing Flannery, while Dana hurried back
to her desk and picked up the phone to talk to Casey.

"What's going on?" Dana asked.

"I'm sorry," Casey told her. "I meant to call earlier, but I
got confused with the two-hour time difference. After we left
you and Bruno last night, Tony whisked me off to the airport.
We're in Las Vegas and we just got married"

"Wow," Dana said. "When you said you were thinking of
getting married in Vegas, I didn't know you meant immediately."

Casey giggled. "Neither did I. It was all Tony's idea but to
tell you the truth, I wasn't so keen on having a big wedding
anyway. We'll be back in a week or so and we'll have a party
to celebrate with all our friends at the country club. I hope
it's all right that I take the time off for my honeymoon"

"You have plenty of time coming," Dana said. "I'm really
surprised by this, but I'm also really happy for you, Casey"

Bob was at Dana's side, wanting to grab the phone from
her hand. "Let me talk to her," he said.

"Bob wants to say hello. I'll see you when you get back"

Dana let Bob take the phone while she rushed out to talk
to Marianne, who was sitting behind her desk with her head
in her hands.

"Are you all right?" Dana asked. "Did that jerk hurt you?"

Marianne straightened up and smiled. "I'm fine. No
bruises. I just can't believe that Casey eloped to Las Vegas
with a guy I've never even met."

"She sounded very happy on the phone," Dana said
lamely.

Marianne nodded in agreement. The door to the hallway
opened again and both girls turned to see Bruno filling the
doorway.

"Hi, Bruno," Marianne said. "I'm glad it's you."

"I heard there was trouble here. Is everyone all right?"

"Yes, we're fine. Thanks to Bob," Dana told him.

"You're welcome," Bob said as he came out of Dana's office. "Did you hear the other news? Casey and her boyfriend
eloped to Las Vegas"

Bruno's face registered his displeasure. "What?" he
asked a little too loudly.

"They went to the airport after our dinner last night, flew
to Vegas, and got married this morning," Dana said. "What's
wrong?"

"I need to talk to you, privately," Bruno replied. Noting
the looks of alarm on the faces of Marianne and Bob, he
quickly added, "It's about the Porter case"

"Oh, right. With everything that's been going on here, I
forgot about that," Dana said. "Come on. I want the details"

She turned and walked into her office and Bruno followed,
shutting the door behind him. Bob and Marianne looked at
each other and smiled.

"I'm going to see if I can scare up some doughnuts. You
want one?" Bob asked Marianne.

"Yes. One with lots of chocolate frosting, please. I'll make
a fresh pot of coffee"

Inside Dana's office, Bruno took off his topcoat and threw
it across one of the chairs while he sank wearily into the other
one. Dana, feeling that bad news was coming, walked behind
her desk, sat down, and folded her hands on top of the desk.
"Okay. Give it to me straight," she told Bruno. "Did you arrest Judy Porter?"

Bruno shook his head. "No. I still like her for the deed,
but Teddy's mother swears that she was with both of them
the night Lucas disappeared. We had to let them go until I
can prove that the mother is lying to protect them."

Dana sighed. "I'm sorry if you're upset about that, Bruno,
but I still don't think-"

"That's not what I'm upset about. From everything I've
learned whoever killed Lucas Porter did the world a favor. I'm still going to find out who did it and bring him or her or
them to justice, but that's not what I'm upset about. It's
Casey running off and marrying Hunter."

Dana sucked in a breath. "Why? What did you find out?"

"I ran his fingerprints through the database. The reason
Hunter's existence only began two years ago is because that's
when he got out of prison and got a Social Security card and
began to live in the real world"