The Master Plan (2009) (17 page)

"Don't be, darling." Del said with a sly smile. "After the police took Judy and Teddy away, the remaining patrons
couldn't wait to buy what was left of Judy's artwork. I sold
every painting."

"I see," Dana said slowly. "Sam said they interviewed
you on television this morning and you were very upset."

"Well, of course, I'm upset," Del said, trying to suppress a
grin. "But apparently, Bruno uncovered some pretty damning evidence or Judy and Teddy would not be in jail right
now. Do you know when their hearing is?"

"Tomorrow morning at ten a.m.," Dana replied. "Are you
going to be there?"

"I think it's the least I can do. I understand that they have
a very competent attorney"

"Yes. Troy Kimball is a good man. Sam has also arranged
for him to represent Casey. He's at the station waiting for her
now. I wanted to stick around, but Bruno told me I couldn't
talk to anyone, so I decided to come over here and see how
you were doing. Obviously, I was worried about you for nothing. You're fine"

"Wait a minute," Del said urgently. "What happened to
Casey?"

"Her husband was murdered last night."

"I didn't know Casey had a husband."

"She got married in Las Vegas at the beginning of last
week. They got back to town on Friday evening and he was
murdered last night."

"Is that why you and Sam went rushing out of here?"

"Yes. I thought Marianne or Emily might have told you
what happened"

"No, but then I was so busy I hardly spoke to them. My
stars," Del said. "This used to be such a nice quiet town."

"Listen, Del," Dana said, finishing the tea in her cup.
"That's the other reason I'm here. I promised to help Judy
Porter, but I don't know what I can do now. Teddy's mother
lied about being with them the night of the murder and
there's some other incriminating evidence that will come
out at the hearing tomorrow."

"So you think that Judy and Teddy really killed her husband?"

"I don't know. I just know that I have no leads to follow
and now with Casey in trouble..

Del interrupted her. "Don't tell me Bruno thinks Casey
murdered her bridegroom."
"

"I don't think so. We're supposed to have dinner later
and I'm hoping he'll share his views on the case with me,
but sometimes Bruno can be very stubborn"

I understand, darling," Del said calmly. "And I appreciate everything you've already done to help Judy and Teddy.
I think it's out of our hands now."

"Yes, I think it is," Dana agreed.

The morning was almost gone and Del was going to leave
the gallery, so he gave Dana a ride back to the Globe building. She went directly to Sam's office.

"Come in here and read the copy on Hunter's murder,"
Sam said as soon as he saw her.

Dana sat down with her coat still on and read the copy
Sam handed her. Tony Hunter's murder had already been reported in the early-morning edition, but the details had been
sparse and there had been no mention that he was recently
married to one of the Globe's investigative reporters. In this
story it said Hunter was survived by his wife, Cassandra
Hunter, and a brother, John.

Dana lowered the page she was reading and looked at
Sam. "Do you think the brother has been notified of Tony's
death?"

"I don't know. I got his name from the archives of the
Chicago Sun-Times. They covered the trial. John was sequestered at the Illinois Correctional Facility."

"Was?"

"He was released last week after serving twenty-three
years of a twenty-five year sentence"

"Sam," Dana said urgently. "Do you think it's possible
that he came here, found out that Tony had spent all the
money from the robbery, and killed him?"

"It's possible."

"This morning Casey called me and said she remembered that when they were in Las Vegas, Tony got upset because he saw someone from his past that he didn't want to
deal with and insisted that they move to another hotel in a
neighboring town"

"Casey didn't see the guy?"

"What guy?" Casey asked.

Dana and Sam looked up, surprised to see Casey and
Troy Kimball standing in the doorway to Sam's office.

"Come on in," Sam said quickly. He went out into the
newsroom to get another chair and brought it into his office.
Then he closed the door so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Casey looked better than she had last night, but her face
was pale. "We've just come from talking to Bruno," she said
flatly as she settled herself in the chair next to Dana.

Dana reached out and squeezed her hand. "How did it
go?"

Troy Kimball answered for her. "Bruno was okay, but
then Jack O'Brien came in and he wasn't so nice. He's one
of the cops that always operates on the premise that the
spouse is the guilty party."

"Jack called my apartment looking for Bruno this morning," Dana told them. "He had just arrested Tony Hunter's
ex-cellmate so I guess that got him involved in the case"

"Bruno had me take a look at the guy to see if I recognized him. I didn't, but I guess the guy admitted that he saw
Tony and me in Las Vegas, but we disappeared before he got
a chance to talk to us," Casey said.

"Is he a suspect?" Sam asked.

"No," Troy replied. "He spent the entire afternoon and
evening at a bar downtown. Lots of witnesses, including
the guy he got in a fight with, said he didn't leave until the
cops came and arrested him."

Sam looked at Troy Kimball. "Since Casey is here, I'm
assuming O'Brien couldn't come up with a reason to hold
her."

"Right, but I think he's going to keep trying to find one.
However, it may all disappear when the results of the autopsy come back. If they determine that Hunter was killed
later in the afternoon after Casey left the apartment, we've
got witnesses that can testify to her whereabouts"

Casey's eyes filled with tears. "Why would I kill Tony and
then go back there again that night?" Sam offered Casey a
tissue from the box on his desk. She wiped her eyes as her
cell phone began to ring. "It's my mother," Casey said when
she read the caller ID display. "Excuse me" She got up and
walked away from the group to answer her mother's call.

"I'm going to try and track down Tony Hunter's brother,"
Dana announced softly. "Sam found out that he was released
from prison last week."

"I don't want you going to talk to that guy alone," Sam
warned.

"I won't."

"How are you going to find him?" Troy wanted to know.

"My secretary's boyfriend works with the parole boards
here and in Chicago. I'm going to ask him to get an address
for me "

"Bruno probably has that information already," Sam said.

"I'm sure he does, but I don't think he'll let me come
along to interview him."

"Bruno will be tied up most of the day with the Porter
case," Kimball said. "He has to testify at the hearing tomorrow and needs to meet with the prosecutor."

Casey came rushing back to the group. "My mom said
the police were at her house looking for me"

"When?"

"About twenty minutes ago"

"They'll be here next," Kimball said resignedly.

As if on cue, the door to Sam's office opened and Bruno
walked in. "I'm sorry to interrupt," he said, looking directly
at Casey. "But I need you to come back to the station for more
questioning."

"Are you arresting her?" Troy Kimball asked.

"He'd better not be," Dana said, stepping between Casey
and Bruno.

"I'm not arresting her," Bruno said, turning his attention
to Dana. "We just have more questions"

Dana stepped aside and she and Sam watched silently as
Bruno escorted Casey and her attorney out of the office.

"Call me when you're done," Dana shouted after the
group.

Bruno turned around. "I'll pick you up at seven for dinner."

"I'm going to my office to call Marianne," Dana told
Sam as soon as Bruno was gone. "Greg was coming back
from Chicago today. If I can get an address, I'm going to
Chicago to talk to Hunter tonight."

"I'll go with you," Sam said firmly. "That way I won't
have to worry about you and I won't be here when Bruno
realizes you stood him up tonight."

By five o'clock, Sam and Dana were on their way to
Chicago to see John Hunter. Greg had called the commander at his old precinct. He knew the head of the parole
board and even though it was Sunday, Dana was able to get
an address for Hunter.

Sam was driving because Dana had driven downtown that
morning with Bruno and didn't have a car. As the sun began to set, the air got colder and Dana was glad she was wearing a warm long-sleeved sweater under her coat and had on
wool socks with her jeans and tennis shoes. Fortunately, the
new snow they had been predicting for the last few days had
still not materialized.

Dana's cell phone rang. It was Bruno. "Hi, sweets," he
said casually.

"What's going on with Casey?" she answered suspiciously.

Bruno laughed. "If I arrested her, I wouldn't be calling you. She answered my questions. I also talked to her two
girlfriends and they all left together, probably to get a drink
and talk about how attractive I am."

"How do you know they're not talking about Troy Kimball? He's pretty darn attractive."

"He's also got a big gold wedding ring on his finger. I
don't."

"What questions did you have to ask Casey that you
couldn't have asked right there in Sam's office?"

"I'm sure she'll give you all the details."

"Right. Listen, Bruno, something has come up and I'm
not going to be able to go to dinner with you"

"Why? What are you doing?"

"I'm with Sam. We're checking on a story for the paper."

"What kind of a story?"

"You ask a lot of questions," she said in a light tone.
"You should be a cop"

"Very amusing. I've got another call. Ring me when you
get done. I still have questions for you."

"Sure. Bye."

Dana clicked off the phone. "Saved by another call. I'm
going to call Casey. Bruno said she and her girlfriends left
the station together. I assume he questioned them to put together a timeline for Casey's activities yesterday afternoon.
The coroner must have fixed the time of death."

"Our coroner is pretty good, but he'd only be able to estimate it within several hours, unless the body was still warm
when the lab guys arrived last night."

"Do you think it was?"

"I don't know. I just looked at it from the doorway. Find
out what Casey has to say"

Dana dialed Casey's cell phone number, but Casey didn't
answer. Then she tried Nina Jordan's phone and Nina told
her that Casey had called and said she was going to dinner
with Cathy and Carmen. "Have her call me on my cell phone
when she gets in, please," Dana said.

They were driving on the highway now and Dana told Sam
about her meeting with Del Pitman that morning.

"He sold all of Porter's paintings? Just goes to show
what they say is true: there's no such thing as bad publicity. Have you decided to drop the case now?" Sam asked.

"I don't have a choice, Sam. Sally Larson lied about being
with Judy and Teddy the night Lucas disappeared. They also
found a hammer that they think is the murder weapon and
it's an item sold in the hardware store where Teddy works."

"Bruno told you all of that?"

She nodded. "After some prodding, but only because he
knows it will be brought out in the hearing tomorrow
morning."

"So it looks like these two kids are guilty after all."

"Yes. I'm afraid so," Dana said, although her instincts still
told her that they were not capable of such a brutal murder.

They fell silent for a while as they were getting closer to
Chicago and traffic had picked up significantly. Sam got
off at one of the downtown exits and put Hunter's address
into his GPS unit. He waited while the unit brought up a
map and directions to Hunter's apartment.

"Turn right on Polk Street and follow it to Forty-seventh
Street," the electronic voice on the GPS unit instructed.

"Greg warned me that Hunter lives in a very undesirable
neighborhood," Dana told Sam.

"I know. That's one of the reasons I'm driving you there"

"Thanks," she said with a smile.

Twenty minutes later, Sam parked the car in front of a rundown three-story building. They got out of the car and went
into the hallway. There were mailboxes on the wall in the
cramped space, but most of them didn't have doors, and there
were no doorbells.

"Hunter lives in number 302," Dana said.

"Let's take the stairs," Sam joked. "I don't want to waste
time waiting for the elevator."

The stairs were worn and wooden and filled with various
types of debris. Dana and Sam trudged up them ignoring
the noises and smells that assaulted them as they climbed the
steps.

On the second floor, there were children playing on the
landing. Three small boys were crashing trucks and cars
into the walls.