Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) (22 page)

Joshua and Cameron met Sheriff Curt Sawyer out in the hallway.

“Did seeing Russell Null shake up Philip Lipton any?” Cameron asked Curt.

“Yeah,” Curt said. “How did Russell Null react? He looked like he was going to pee his pants.”

“Just about,” Cameron replied. “He confessed to Douglas O’Reilly’s vehicular homicide.”

“But he claims he and Lipton were together getting drunk while Virgil and Ava were being killed,” Joshua said.

“They must have compared notes on that,” Curt said. “Because Lipton is singing the same song. He says they were closing Marie’s lounge here in New Cumberland after Virgil told them he was coming clean with Ava.”

“Russell couldn’t remember the name of the bar,” Cameron said. “If they had compared notes, he would have known the name of the bar.”

“We’ve run out of suspects for Ava’s and Virgil’s murders,” Joshua said. “It has to have been them.”

“Maybe they did it together,” Curt said.

“I can’t believe Russell would have killed Virgil,” Cameron said. “He is genuinely distraught about it, and he’s rejecting his lawyer’s advice and coming clean about O’Reilly’s death.”

“I agree,” Joshua said.

Curt folded his arms across his chest. “What’s his story  for killing O’Reilly?”

After Cameron reported what Russell had told them and written in his statement, the sheriff chuckled. “That’s not the story Lipton told.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s he saying?” Joshua asked.

“It was the same about them going to Raccoon Creek. Smoking weed and getting drunk. Then, when it comes to getting behind the wheel, Lipton claims Russell let Virgil drive and that it was Virgil who killed O’Reilly. Lipton also says it was Russell’s idea that they dump the body and car in the lake because he was afraid of what his father would do. When Lipton said he wanted to tell the truth, Russell threatened him with bodily harm.”

“One of them’s lying,” Cameron said. “I think it’s Lipton, because he was the aggressor in that recording.”

“Problem is,” Joshua said, “you have no proof of who was driving.”

“They were all there,” Cameron said. “I say I take them both in.”

“They’re pointing their fingers at each other,” Joshua said. “Without being told who was driving and who made the decision for the cover up, the jury isn’t likely to convict either one.”

“With both Virgil and Toby dead, you have no other witnesses to confirm either man’s statement,” Curt said. “I don’t envy you.”

Shaking her head, Cameron stuffed her notepad into her valise. “There is one other witness I can talk to. Toby Winter committed suicide over this. He had to have told his mother why. You said there was a suicide note.”

“No one knows what he wrote in that note,” Joshua said. “It’s been forty years, and Lorraine’s told no one. What makes you think that old biddie is going to tell you?”

“You’re not the only one who’s an artist at manipulation,” Cameron said. “Even if she won’t tell me what he put in the note, he must have told her something about what had happened to have made him so distraught. Maybe when he did that, he told her who was driving.”

“I doubt it,” Joshua said.

“It’s worth a shot.” She kissed him quickly on the lips. “I’m going to go see her. Wish me luck. I’ll call you after I talk to her.” With a wave of her hand, she ran down the hallway. At the door, she stopped to call back to Joshua, “Love you,” before heading out the door.

“She really is a firecracker,” Sheriff Sawyer told Joshua with a sigh.

Fighting the grin on his lips, Joshua replied, “She most certainly is.” Arching an eyebrow, he turned to the sheriff. “How are things with Tiffany, the pole dancer?”

The sheriff’s chuckle held a wicked note. His cheeks turned pink. “She’s a firecracker, too.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“ … Do you hear me, Null! You tell her what we did and you’re a dead man!”

Once more, Joshua hit the stop button on the cassette player. He had listened to the recording four more times in hopes of uncovering some clue of who killed Ava Tucker and Virgil Null.

Larry Van Patton had a point. Rachel Hilliard didn’t have a motive at that time to kill Ava, unless there was a motive no one knew about.

Russell Null and Philip Lipton alibied each other. Unless they did it together.

They were holding Russell Null and Philip Lipton while waiting for the arrest warrants from Pennsylvania. But if  either or both of them had committed murder on his turf, he wanted to know.

Could Russell Null be playing us? Won’t be the first time a killer played the inconsolable relative of a victim.

With a deep sigh, he collapsed his head into his arms and closed his eyes.

I’m missing something, and I think it’s on this tape.

“I guess you’re waiting here for this.” Sheriff Sawyer came into the conference room where Joshua was playing the tape. After draping a leg over the corner of the table, he gave Joshua a copy of the message they had received from Washington. “The FBI got the warrant for Rachel Hilliard’s DNA. They’re running a comparison to the blood from the knife now.” He handed Joshua another report. “In the  meantime, forensics had already run the blood from the crime scene through the database. No match.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Joshua picked up the run down on the analysis of the blood. “It’s from a female. So that eliminates Null and Lipton as suspects for Dolly’s  murder.” He lowered the report. “It’s very suspicious that Lipton checked out the evidence box for Ava’s and Virgil’s murders as soon as he became head of the forensics lab, especially since he seems to have an alibi for the time of the murder.”

“He says it was because Virgil Null was a friend and he wanted to see if he could find something,” Curt said.

“And a jury will buy that.” With a groan, Joshua slumped in his seat. “It could very well be true. Working on murder investigations all the time, even if he had bad feelings toward Virgil, curiosity could have made Lipton want to look into the case.”

“Dolly was blackmailing him and Null,” Curt said. “He probably thought that if he could find the real killer, it would get him off the hook.”

“Which brings us back to who killed Dolly.” Joshua picked up the forensics report on the blood and the DNA profile. Reading the toxicology report, his eyes narrowed. “That’s interesting.”

“What is?”

“Drugs they found in the blood,” Joshua said. “They found a mixture of drugs commonly used to treat osteoporosis and dementia.” He glanced up at the sheriff. “Could Rachel Hilliard suffer from dementia?”

“I thought it was a job requirement when running for political office,” Curt replied with a grin.

“Crazy? Yes,” Joshua shot back. “Dementia? Not so much.”

“Suffering from dementia is not the type of thing you publicize,” Curt said. “Want me to call Washington to see if we can get someone to ask the congresswoman?”

“It would save time.”

While Curt hurried out the door, Joshua pressed the button to play the tape again. This time, he rewound it to the beginning to catch any phrase that might have escaped him before.

It started to come together.

“ … How did you know I was coming?”

“Be serious.”

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

“He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s sneaking around behind our backs—”

Joshua sprang up from his chair and out into the hallway, where he collided with the sheriff who was on his way into the conference room.

“Well, it’s not Rachel Hilliard,” the sheriff announced with a grumble. “She has neither osteoporosis nor dementia.”

“I didn’t think so.” Joshua pushed past Curt and ran down the hall to throw open the door to the interrogation room where Russell Null was cooling his heels with his lawyer. “Null!”

Russell Null and his lawyer jumped at Joshua’s abrupt  entrance. They both looked frightened when Joshua slammed his hands down on the table. He was breathing hard when he asked, “On the tape of you and Lipton confronting  Virgil that night at Dolly’s, Virgil asked you a question that neither of you answered. How did you know he was going to see Ava? Virgil didn’t tell you that he was going  there because Lipton said so himself on the tape. Virgil was sneaking behind your backs—because he knew you two,  especially Philip, would stop him. So who told you? How did you know he was going to tell Ava about killing Douglas O’Reilly?”

Uncertain of where Joshua was going, Russell stammered out his answer. “Toby’s mom told us.”

“She knew about Douglas O’Reilly?” Joshua asked.

Russell nodded his head. “Toby told her about it right away. He wanted to go to the cops but she wouldn’t let him—she kept saying that we had all made a mistake and now we had to live with the consequences like men. She thought Toby was weak when he killed himself because he couldn’t live  with the guilt.”

“And when Virgil decided to come out with the truth?”

Russell slowly shook his head. “She called me and told  me to stop him because Toby had shamed her enough by  killing himself. If it came out that he had killed a man—”

Joshua was on his way out the door when he met Curt in the corridor outside the sheriff’s office. “Is Larry Van Patton still in the holding cell?”

Sawyer nodded his head. “Waiting for the feds to transport him to a federal prison.”

“Get me Lorraine Winter’s picture from the DMV!”

Larry Van Patton was eating his lunch when Joshua  suddenly appeared at the door to his cell and held up a color photograph of an elderly woman. “Is this the woman you saw in the kitchen at Dolly’s the night Ava Tucker and Virgil Null were murdered?”

“That was a long time ago,” Larry argued while setting aside his lunch tray and shuffling to the door.

Shaking the picture, Joshua ordered, “Look at it!”

Larry took the photograph. He studied the image for a matter of seconds before nodding his head. “Yep, that’s her. I’m certain of it. I had forgotten her wild eyes. She had this crazy look.” He handed the picture back to Joshua. “That’s her. No doubt in my mind.”

Joshua whirled around on his heels to find Curt Sawyer pressing the button on his radio to call his deputies to Lorraine Winter’s home. “I need to call Cameron.”

While waiting for what seemed like an extremely long time on the porch of Lorraine Winter’s small, run-down home built into Chester’s hillside, Cameron strolled over to peer into the backyard. She figured that maybe Lorraine hadn’t heard her knocking on her door because she was outside.

That was when the detective noticed that Lorraine’s backyard was adjacent to Dolly Houseman’s backyard. Only a broken-down privacy fence separated the two lots. Her brow furrowed.
Why didn’t I notice that before? They’re neighbors.

“What do you want?” Lorraine demanded from the other side of the screen door.

Forcing a smile on her lips, Cameron went back to the door. She was taken aback when she saw the elderly woman.

When the detective had met her earlier in the week, Lorraine Winter had been dressed in clean, pressed clothes. Her hair was brushed without a strand out of place. She was as neat as a pin.

This time, her unkempt gray hair fell lose down to the middle of her back. Her flabby frame was encased in a worn housedress under a tattered robe that hung open. Her feet were nestled in shabby blue bedroom slippers.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Mrs. Winter,” Cameron said once she regained her composure, “but I had some questions for you about your son, Toby.”

“He’s dead,” Lorraine announced in a matter-of-fact manner.

Even through the screen door, Cameron was unsettled by Lorraine’s wide eyes. They were filled with a fury that seemed to pierce through the screen barrier between them.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Mrs. Winter,” Cameron said gently. “But, I understand he committed suicide at Raccoon Creek—”

“Hung himself,” Lorraine said.

“Did he tell you why he wanted to die?”

Lorraine stared at her. “Why are you asking?”

“Because there’s another family who lost their son, and I believe Toby may have been involved. If your son told you what happened that night, and the truth could finally come out, then maybe things could be set right—or at the very least, this family could have closure.”

While Cameron waited, Lorraine’s lips pursed.

Cameron could feel the hatred boring into her from the old woman’s eyes.

A slow smile worked at the corners of Lorraine’s lips. Finally, she pushed open the screen door. “Come in,” she invited Cameron in a crackly voice that oozed with unnatural sweetness.

Cameron stepped into the small living room filled with tan furniture devoid of cushions or warmly colored throws. The pictures on the walls were old and yellowed. The less-than-homey décor sent a chill through her. She was so busy taking note of the décor that she was startled when she heard the click of the lock on the door.

“Come into the kitchen.” The corners of Lorraine’s lips curled into a grin that appeared out of place. She flashed Cameron a smile that revealed discolored and uneven teeth.

While following her out of the room, Cameron asked, “Did Toby ever mention the name Douglas O’Reilly?”

In the kitchen, Cameron felt as if she had been transported back in time to the home of her nasty aunt who had despised her. The appliances and cupboards that had once been white were yellow with age. The black and white tiled floor was chipped.

The only freshness in the dreary room was a breeze that swept in from the backyard through the screen door.

Lorraine went over to the cupboard across the room and reached up to take out a teacup.

Standing behind her, Cameron noticed Lorraine’s bandaged right hand as she reached into the cupboard. Nodding toward the gauze wrapped injury, she asked, “What happened to your hand?”

“Cut it on a butcher knife.” Carrying two teacups, Lorraine turned around and flashed that odd-looking smile at her again. “You look like you take sugar in your tea.”

“Yes, I do.” She jerked when she felt her cell phone vibrate on her hip. Taking it from the case, she checked the screen to read the caller ID, which said, “JOSH.”

Pressing the button to take the call, she turned around. “Yes, hon?”

“It’s her!” Joshua called out.

“What?”

“Lorraine! She killed them!”

Hearing a movement behind her, Cameron turned around in time to see the flash of the cast iron frying pan before it made contact with the side of her head.

Everything went black.