Old Loves Die Hard (A Mac Faraday Mystery) (17 page)

“Now you have me so excited that I’m speeding,” Mac told Archie when he saw the Spencer police cruiser come up behind his sports car and turn on its lights. A glance at the speedometer showed that he had been going forty-two miles an hour on the twisting mountain road in a thirty-five-miles-per-hour zone in his hurry to take Archie back to Spencer Manor to enjoy their strawberries dipped in chocolate. He pulled over to the side of the road.

She laughed when she saw him reaching for his registration in the glove box. “That’s David. He’s not going to give you a ticket.”

Before Mac could reply, the police chief knocked on his driver’s side window. “Hey, don’t you ever answer your cell?”

“Was I speeding?”

“A little,” David replied. “You should watch that. I’d hate to give you a ticket. We got a call from the Morgantown police. They’ve picked up Cameron Jones for possession, and she’s singing like a canary about Stephen Maguire’s murder. Plus, one of my officers IDd the woman from the security video who Maguire was having dinner with on Saturday. Her name is Bonnie Propst. She’s the president of Propst Security. The Inn has bought some security equipment from her company.”

“Did the dinner Maguire was having with Propst look like a date?” Mac wondered if she was the one whose vaginal fluid had been found on Maguire’s bed sheets. 

“I don’t think so. The tapes aren’t the best, but I didn’t see any lovey-dovey eyes.” David added, “Not only that, but I noticed something else in the security video. Remember that couple I told you about that came into my office demanding Maguire’s personal belongings? His wife and the judge?”

His last discussion with Judge Sutherland fresh on his mind, Mac replied, “I certainly remember them.”

“Guess who was having dinner within camera range of Maguire,” David said. “According to Ingle, they even had reservations for that evening. They were sitting three tables away from him while he was eating his last meal.”

“They failed to mention that.” Mac turned to Archie. “Do you recall them saying anything about that to you, dear?”

“Never said anything like that to me, darling.”

David continued, “Anyway, I’m going out to Morgantown to question Cameron Jones and wanted to know if you wanted to tag along as my consultant. I’ve been calling you on your cell—” Noticing her dress and his suit, David stopped. “I’m sorry. Were you on your way to get your back scratched?”

Mac glanced over at Archie. He was torn. He so wanted to be with her, but he was also anxious to get answers about what Stephen Maguire was doing in Spencer. If he declined David’s invitation, he’d have to wait until at least the next day to drag it out of him.

She grasped his wrist. “For that, you have to let me come along, too.”

*   *   *   *

“I wasn’t planning for this to turn into a field trip,” David said while holding the back door to his cruiser open for Gnarly to jump up into what had become his seat directly behind the driver.

While Mac and Archie were changing into more comfortable jeans and sweaters, Gnarly had spied David’s cruiser and saw that his family was going on an outing. According to Archie, he insisted on being included.

The next stop on the way to the Morgantown station was a diner across the state line in West Virginia, off Route 68, where David, who hadn’t eaten dinner yet, knew the food was good and the service fast. Archie and Mac drank coffee while David ordered two cheeseburgers and fries. One of the bur-gers was plain and to go for the German shepherd cooling his jets in the cruiser in the parking lot.

It was a far cry from the elegant dinner Mac and Archie had at the Inn, but a good opportunity to go over what they had so far in their investigation and come up with a plan on which direction to go from there.

While waiting for David’s dinner, Mac recalled, “Did you say that the woman that Maguire was having dinner with on Saturday was Bonnie Propst and she owned a security company in Morgantown?” After David confirmed that it was, he pointed out that there was a Douglas Propst on the list found in the Themis folder.

“Archie, can you look it up on your phone and find out if there’s any connection between Bonnie and Douglas Propst?” Mac was glad to see that she had already pulled out her smart phone and was searching the Internet.

“There was no file labeled Propst in the Themis folder.” David eyed a plate of delicious-smelling food passing their booth, but not coming his way. “What do you know about Douglas Propst?”

“I had been in homicide only a couple of years when it happened,” Mac recalled. “Douglas Propst was a uniformed officer and a bully. He was the type of cop that gave us a bad name. Charged with brutality a couple of times. Really nasty bastard. One day, his wife disappeared. His story was that she’d left him a note saying she was going out for milk while he was out for a run. After her body turned up with a broken neck and his skin under her fingernails, family and friends started making statements about spousal abuse. His name was moved up to the top of the suspect list real fast.”

When the server arrived with his tray of food, Mac could see that it took all of David’s restraint to not grab the plate and devour his burger like a barbarian. It made him wonder if David had eaten since the donut he had earlier that day.

“I think I remember that case. I was like fifteen when that happened.” David smiled his gratitude to the buxom server when she refilled his cup along with the others at the table.

Mac had noticed that David greeted her by her first name when they had come in. The grease on the burger and the soggy fries made him wonder if it was the service that David enjoyed as much as the food. 

“If I recall correctly, Propst was arrested?” David asked after the server left.

Mac nodded his head somberly. “And tried twice. Both times it ended with a hung jury.”

“Did he do it?”

“Everyone knew he did it.” Mac shrugged. “It wasn’t my case. I was in homicide at the time but not close to the investigation. I remember it was one of those cases where everyone knew he did it, but there was no real evidence.”

“Except his skin under her fingernails,” David said.

“Natasha Holmstead was his attorney. This case made her career. I didn’t actually meet her until the Keating case,” Mac said. “Holmstead argued that since they were married the skin had gotten under her fingernails during marital relations.”

David shot Archie a naughty look. “I never actually had that happen.”

“I saw that.” Archie said with her eyes still on her smart phone. “I could say a few things about you, Dave.”

Mac steered them back to the topic of Douglas Propst. “No other evidence could be found to use against him.”

“What about the abuse?” David wanted to know.

Mac said, “Not once had the police been called to their home for domestic disturbance. Once she’d gone to the ER for a broken wrist. She said it was because she’d fallen off a step ladder. Some friends had seen her with a black eye. She said that it was an accident. The Propsts had argued in public, but he was never seen hitting her.”

Mac grimaced. “Propst was a bully and abusive in the field. All that was kept from the jury. Holmstead pointed out how many couples have fights in public but the wife doesn’t end up dead.” He shrugged. “Both times, the jury got hung. The prosecutor finally said that until we got more evidence, they weren’t wasting their time.”

“Who was the prosecutor?” David popped a fry into his mouth. “Maguire?”

“That was before Maguire’s time at the attorney’s office,” Mac said. “Garrison Sutherland was the prosecutor on the Propst case.”

“The judge that Holmstead is sleeping with now?” David chewed a big bite of his burger and frowned at the same time.

“Douglas Propst is Bonnie Propst’s late husband.” Archie held up the phone for them to see the screen.

“Late as in dead?” Mac asked.

She went on to read the screen. “Douglas Propst was a retired cop. He opened Propst Security in Morgantown, WV, with the money from his late wife’s life insurance. Two years later, he was killed when he walked in on a burglary in his office. Since then, his widow, Bonnie Propst, has made the company one of the most successful security firms in the tri-state area, according to the company bio.”

Mac scratched his head. “Douglas Propst is dead.”

“If the perp is dead, then it would make no sense for Maguire to re-open the case.” David finished the last bite of his burger.

Archie slipped her phone into her purse. “Unless he had found new evidence while working on this Themis case that Propst didn’t kill his wife.”

Mac took out his wallet to pay for the bill. “I guess we’ll find out when we talk to his widow.”

*   *   *   *

First, they had to go to the Morgantown police station where Cameron Jones, the college drop-out claiming to be Stephen Maguire’s illegitimate daughter, was spending the night in a holding cell awaiting a bond hearing on possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

In the station’s reception area, David, Mac, and Archie met Master Sergeant Rick Bromberg, the trooper who had arrested Cameron. The tall, muscular, bald-headed officer shook David’s hand so hard that he shook the police chief’s whole arm. “David O’Callaghan, nice to see you. Congratulations on the appointment to chief. I always thought if anyone should take over your dad’s slot, it should be you.”

While shaking his hand, Sergeant Bromberg glanced down the corridor to the holding cells. “We’re taking Jones into an interview room now. Like I told you on the phone, we busted her for possession with intent to distribute, and she immediately started talking about wanting to make a deal.”

“We put out an APB on her as a suspect and witness in the Maguire murder this afternoon,” David told him.

“It must have been about the same time that we busted her.” The sergeant looked worried. “We’re hoping she’ll roll over on her boyfriend, who is a person of interest in the drug community here in Morgantown. Instead, she wants to roll on the murder in your neck of the woods.” He confessed, “I really don’t want to give her up with what we have against her. This is the best break we’ve had in nailing the boyfriend.”

David cocked his head at Mac and Archie. “Why don’t you let me hear what she has to say first?”

Mac and Archie watched from the observation room while David went into the interrogation room where Cameron Jones sat at the table.

Mac’s memory of their brief meeting days before was unclear. At the time, he had been focused on calming Christine down. After learning that she was trying to con Stephen Maguire out of money, Mac’s perception of her created the image of a hard young woman willing to say and do whatever it took to keep up her party lifestyle.

That image was a far cry from the little girl shivering in her thin sleeveless top over a short skirt with only sandals to cover her bare feet in the cold interrogation room this late in the night.

She looked like a frightened animal.

“What do you think?” Mac asked Archie while com-paring Cameron to the woman running onto the guest elevator in the security video.

“She could be the right height and build,” Archie answered. “But would she know enough about how security works at the Inn?”

“If she’s involved with drug dealers, she knows enough about security, period.”

“Cameron, I’m David O’Callaghan, the police chief in Spencer, Maryland. Tell me what you know about Stephen Maguire.” Taking on a casual attitude to put her at ease, David straddled the back of the chair across from her. He had laid his pen on top of the notepad in the middle of the table.

“I want a deal,” she said forcibly.

After all of his years of experience dealing with suspects from all walks of life and criminal experience, Mac saw that her harsh demand for a deal was a cover for her fear.

David said, “You don’t seem very broken up about his murder. That’s surprising since you claimed Stephen Maguire was your father.”

“That was all a misunderstanding,” she said. “I didn’t kill him, but I can tell you who did. All I want is a deal.”

“I already know you weren’t on the scene,” David said. “My sources tell me that you have an airtight alibi. That makes me wonder how you would know who did it.”

“Because I saw her try to kill him before.”

“Are you talking about the woman who attacked you in the lobby?”

She sat back in her seat. “I’m not telling you anything else until I have a deal.”

David started to rise out of the chair. “I can see I’m wasting both our time. I’m sorry, I must have misunderstood. I thought you had some useful information on this case.”

“Wait!” She jumped out of her seat and grabbed his arm. “I saw her try to kill him the day before. I can identify her. All I need is for you to give me a deal.”

“I don’t help drug dealers.”

“I’m not a dealer. My boyfriend’s the dealer. I don’t even use drugs. When I don’t help him, he beats me up. I had no choice. I had told him about my friend Rebecca from school and her daddy, and it was all his idea that I contact this Maguire guy and get him to pay me off to go away.” Clinging to David’s arm, she pleaded, “Please. You have to help me. Please don’t let them send me to jail.”

“He’s going to sit back down,” Archie whispered.

David lowered himself back down into the chair.

“Told you.” She grinned. “David’s always had a soft spot for the ladies, especially if she’s a lady in distress.”

David told her, “First off, Morgantown is out of my jurisdiction. The only thing I can do is put in a good word with the prosecutor here. If you cooperate with me and the police here about your boyfriend’s drug activities, then they’ll be more inclined to help you than not.”

Without a reply, she stared at the two-way mirror while seeming to consider his advice. After they sat a long time in silence, David told her, “What do you know about what Stephen Maguire was doing in Spencer?”

“Nothing,” she answered. “He said he had some business in the area. On Friday, we met at some restaurant on the lake. It was closed for renovations. There was a big pool table on the lower level. It was really cool. He was really cool. He had gotten some burgers from the take-out place on the corner. We played pool. We even had some beer. Then, I made my move. I told him about flunking out of school, but now I was getting my act together and wanted to make a new start, but since things are so tough, that I needed some money; or I could follow him back to D.C. and meet all his friends.” She stopped.