The Master Plan (2009) (15 page)

Sam and Dana arrived at Tony Hunter's apartment and
found Casey standing outside waiting for them. She was shivering and it wasn't entirely due to the cold February air.

"Have you called the police?" Sam asked.

Casey shook her head in a negative response. Dana thought
Casey looked bad when she had shown up at her apartment
that morning, and thought she looked worse after Dana had
told her about Tony's past, but that was nothing compared
to the way she appeared now.

"I'm afraid she may go into shock," Dana said to Sam.
"Let's get her inside."

Sam and Dana brought Casey inside the building. Tony's
apartment was one of two on the first floor and Dana saw that
the door was standing open. As they approached the doorway,
Casey stiffened.

"I can't," she whispered hoarsely.

There was a stairway leading to another pair of apartments on the second floor of the building. "I'll stay here with
Casey," Dana told Sam. "You go in and see what happened"

Sam helped Dana sit Casey down on one of the lower
steps and then hurried toward the doorway. Within a few
seconds, Sam was back.

"Call Bruno on his cell phone," he instructed. Sam's tone
of voice and his request for Bruno left no doubt that Tony
Hunter's death was neither natural nor accidental.

Casey sat motionless, staring straight ahead. Dana stood
up and Sam took her place on the stairs next to Casey. He
put his arm around her, but she didn't seem to notice.

Dana walked outside. Bruno's cell phone number was on
speed dial on Dana's phone. He answered on the first ring.

"I'm at the gallery," Bruno said. "Where are you?"

Dana quickly explained the emergency that had called her
and Sam to Casey's side and gave him the address. He promised to be there in ten minutes. "I think we need the paramedics for Casey," Dana told him. "She's really a mess"

The paramedics arrived before Bruno. They took one
look at Casey and hustled her off to their vehicle to check
her vital signs. That gave Dana a chance to ask Sam how
bad the death scene was.

"He's in the living room with a rather large hole in the
middle of his forehead. There's a golf club on the floor next
to him. That's really all I could see from the doorway and I
didn't want to try and get a closer look and contaminate the
scene"

They heard the squeal of tires outside and saw the flashing light that Bruno put on top of his car when he needed to get somewhere fast. In another minute, Bruno's linebacker
body was filling up the space in the hallway.

Bruno put his hands on Dana's shoulders and gazed into
her eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked.

11mfine."

"I took a look from Hunter's doorway," Sam told him.
"He's on the living room floor with a golf club next to him.
He was shot in the head"

"Anyone else go inside the apartment?"

"Casey probably did," Dana said. "But she's in no condition to be questioned right now."

"The lab guys are on their way," Bruno said as he walked
away.

When Bruno was out of earshot, Sam spoke quietly to
Dana. "Why don't you go out and check on Casey? I'll hang
around here on the chance this turns into a bigger story than
I think it's going to be."

Dana nodded and walked out into the frigid night air again.
The back door to the paramedic van was open and Dana
could see Casey sitting inside with one of the attendants talking to her. Some of the color had returned to Casey's face, but
Dana didn't know if she was feeling better or whether the
cold air was responsible for the flush that had returned to her
cheeks.

As Dana walked closer the paramedic got out of the vehicle and met her halfway. "Your friend is still pretty shookup, but I don't think she needs to go to the hospital. Why
don't you go and talk to her while I round up my partner?"

Dana climbed into the vehicle and sat down next to Casey.
"How are you doing?"

"According to my vitals, I'm not going to have a stroke or
even pass out. I saw Bruno go into the building. I'd better
pull myself together. I'm sure he'll want to question me"

"He's busy at the moment. Can you tell me what happened?"

Casey nodded. "After I left you, I went back to my apartment and Floyd Flannery was sitting out in front waiting
for me"

"Oh, no," Dana said. "He came to the office last week
and threatened us. Bob had to knock him down and we had
him arrested. Someone must have bailed him out."

"I didn't know that," Casey told her.

"I should have told you this afternoon, but I forgot all
about him. What happened with him?"

"We got into an argument about my investigation of his
garage and all the problems it had caused for him. I was so
upset over Tony that I just lost it and started screaming at
him. The people who live downstairs from me came out to
see if I was in trouble and Flannery ran off."

"Flannery is a loose cannon," Dana said. "He belongs
behind bars"

Casey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Do you
think he could have come here and killed Tony to get even
with me? Oh my God. It could be my fault Tony is dead"

After the way Flannery had acted in her office, Dana
thought it was possibility, but for Casey's sake, she quickly
denied it. "How would he have known where Tony lived?
No, it's impossible. Nothing you have ever done or said could
have caused this to happen to Tony. So Flannery ran off and
then what did you do?"

"I went upstairs and called Carmen and Cathy and told them what happened between Tony and me. They both
came rushing over to talk to me. We talked for a few hours
and ordered some food. They left about eight o'clock and I
decided that I should call Tony and see if he'd calmed down.
His line was busy, so I drove over here. I know it sounds stupid, but I thought that the fact that Tony hadn't been honest
with me either would give me some bargaining power and
maybe we could work things out"

"It's not stupid. It's a logical assumption. So, you drove
over here about eight, eight thirty?"

"I guess so. I didn't have a key so I rang the bell. Tony's
car was parked outside so I thought he had to be home.
When no one answered the bell, I knocked on the door and
it swung open. I walked in and .. " Casey stopped talking
as her face crumpled and she began to cry softly.

Dana put her arms around her friend and let her cry.

The paramedic suddenly appeared again. "I'm sorry,
ladies. We have another call."

Dana stood up and helped Casey to her feet. The paramedic helped them out of the vehicle and Dana led Casey
back into the apartment building. Both of their purses were
in the hallway on the staircase where they had left them.
Dana retrieved her bag and took out some tissues for Casey,
who had managed to stop crying again.

Despite the police vehicles, none of the other people in
the apartment building had gathered in the hallway.

"Do you know anyone else who lives in this building?"
Dana asked Casey.

"The upstairs apartments are being renovated so they are
both empty, and the people who live on the first floor are in
Europe."

"So no one else is around to have seen or heard anything
from Tony's apartment."

"No. I remember being grateful for that this morning
when he was yelling and pushing me out of the apartment "

Sam and Bruno were standing just inside the doorway of
Tony's apartment watching the forensics team gather evidence.

Bruno turned, saw Dana and Casey, and hurried over to
them. He looked at Casey. "Are you doing better now?" he
asked in a concerned voice.

"No," Casey said. "But I think I can answer some of your
questions now."

Once again, Casey and Dana sat down on the stairs and
Sam joined them. Bruno took out his notebook and Casey
began her story, but when Bruno asked her what she and Tony
had argued over, she said it was nothing important, just a stupid fight.

"Okay, Casey," Bruno said kindly. "I won't push you
now, but eventually you'll have to tell me everything."

"I know," Casey said. "And I will, but I'm so upset now,
I can't think straight"

Casey did tell Bruno about Floyd Flannery. When Sam
heard the name, his face flushed with anger, but he didn't
say anything.

Bruno wrote down the name, but he didn't say anything
either, just nodded for Casey to continue her story. She did,
skipping ahead to Tony's phone line being busy and deciding to come over to talk to him in person.

"The telephone was on the floor, off the hook," Bruno
said.

Casey nodded in agreement. "The door was open and I
walked in and saw him on the floor," she said softly.

"Did you touch anything?" Bruno asked.

Casey shook her head vigorously. "No. I knew he was
dead so I backed out of the apartment and called Dana."

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"I don't know. The first person I thought to call for help
was Dana and she and Sam came right away."

"Okay," Bruno said, closing his notebook. "We'll talk
again tomorrow."

"If you're done with Casey," Sam said. "I'll take her and
Dana home. Emily called a while ago. Marianne drove her
home from the gallery."

"Casey, why don't you stay with me tonight?" Dana offered.

"Thanks, but I think I'd better go to my mother's house.
She'll be really upset if I don't get to her before the news
of ... before the news breaks."

Bruno pulled Dana off to the side. "I'll be here for a
while longer and then I have to write up the report. I'll call
you in the morning. I've got a lot of questions for you too.
How about I ask them over breakfast?"

"Sure," Dana said. "I'll talk to you then."

Sam escorted his two reporters out to his car. It was after
eleven when they got to Nina Jordan's house. Sam and Dana
wanted to come in and help Casey break the news to her
mother, but Casey said she'd rather do it alone, so Sam just
walked her to the door and made sure she got inside.

Sam returned to the car and looked at Dana. "Do you think
that creep Flannery killed Hunter to get even with Casey?"

"I think it's a possibility, but I hope for Casey's sake it
wasn't him. She lost it again when it occurred to her earlier
that Tony may have lost his life over one of her investigations."

"I can understand that," Sam said as he pulled away from
the curb. "By the way, while Bruno and I were alone, he
told me about Hunter's background. I guess your instincts
about the guy were right. Did Casey know before she married him?"

"No. I just told her this afternoon"

"She told Bruno they had a fight earlier today and she
had left the apartment, but she wouldn't say what the fight
was about. Do you know?"

Dana didn't think she should tell Sam about the master
plan Casey and her friends had concocted. "I can't discuss it,"
Dana said. "Casey swore me to secrecy, but it was a fairly bad
argument "

"Bruno will probably ask you about it in the morning. Are
you going to tell him?"

"Not unless Casey says I can. Besides, I think he'll be
more interested in my telling Casey about her new husband's
criminal record. This has turned into such a tragedy."

"You know, Bruno is already thinking that Casey may have
killed her husband"

Dana turned sharply and looked at her editor. "Did he
tell you that?"

"No, but if he thinks a weak kitten like Judy Porter and
her baby-faced friend killed her husband, it follows that he'd
think the same about Casey, a tough, skilled investigator."

"I have to give Bruno credit for one thing tonight. He
saw how torn up Casey was and went easy on her."

"I'll call Troy Kimball first thing in the morning and ask
him to speak to Casey. Bruno won't be so kind the next
time he questions Casey. She's going to have to tell Bruno
everything that happened between her and her husband and
Kimball should be with her when she does it."

Dana nodded. Sam was right. Casey was going to be questioned thoroughly about Tony's death and all the details of
the master plan would come to light. Dana just hoped Bruno
wouldn't see the plan as a motive for murder.

Dana's phone started ringing at 7 a.m. when Marianne
and Bob called to find out where Casey was and how she
was doing. Dana talked to them, giving each as many details as she had while she drank her first cup of coffee.

Sam called to say that he had not been able to reach Troy
Kimball but had left a message for him.

Dana showered and dressed in a pair of jeans and a longsleeved orchid sweater. Her unruly curls had been tamed by
a short haircut a few days earlier, so she was able to let them
air-dry while she put on enough makeup to make her feel
ready to face the world in general and Bruno in particular.

The phone rang again. This time it was Casey.

"How are you doing this morning?" Dana asked.

"Yesterday seems like a nightmare, unreal and impossible."