Hard Evidence (46 page)

Jeff Elliot owed him one. He was an investigative reporter, and if there was something to discover in Santa Cruz, Hardy hoped he was the guy to find it. He only had to sell him on the idea.

‘In this weather? Are you kidding me?’

‘It’s probably going to be beautiful there tomorrow.’

‘Hardy, read the papers, will you? This is supposed to go on all weekend.’

‘Jeff, it’ll be an adventure. Take your girlfriend, go down there and have a little vacation, on me. What’s a little rain among lovers?’

He got himself a large can of Foster’s Lager and a handful of nuts and walked through the long and suddenly lonely house. Wind howled between the buildings, the rain fell without letup, the worst storm in years.

He turned on the Christmas-tree lights, planted his beer and nuts on the reading table next to his reclining chair and put a match under the kindling in the fire.

Sam Cooke played in his mind — Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody. Forget that. He had brought up his binders and was going to go through them again.

His own notes. He’d taken so many notes he thought his wrist was going to fall off. Every time he had spoken to Pullios, Drysdale, Glitsky, Farris, Celine (while it had still been strictly professional), he had jotted down at least the gist of the conversations if they concerned this case. Random thoughts, theories of Moses and Frannie, of Pico and his old officemates.

At a little after ten-thirty he got up for another beer, after which he was going to hang it up for the night and get some sleep. He had just gotten to the time Ken Farris had come downtown, ostensibly to verify Owen’s handwriting on the will. Hardy remembered that they had gotten into how the system worked too slowly — Farris
knew
May had been on the
Eloise . .
. Celine had told him. Hardy had dutifully noted it, then written ‘hearsay’ in the margin and had, if not forgotten it, at least dropped it from his active consideration.

Celine had also told Hardy that May had planned to go out on the
Eloise
with Owen. They’d been walking back from their first meeting; he remembered it, now, distinctly.

May, however, had denied it, and May, it turned out, was telling the truth.

So Celine had lied… except he still couldn’t prove it. Opening the refrigerator, he stopped. He slammed the door closed and nearly ran back up through the house to his binders.

It took only a minute. It had been when Pullios had him question Celine in front of the grand jury, trying for the indictment on May Shinn. Celine had testified that on Tuesday morning, June 16, she had called her father at his office, wanting to make sure he hadn’t made any plans for that weekend that included her. He had said no, that he and May were going out alone on the
Eloise
.

Okay, Celine’s version was in the record. But it was still hearsay. It was also a lie, but how to prove —?

Farris’s office
.

Where there was a beep every twenty seconds and everything was on tape?

61

Hardy slept fitfully, waking before dawn.

Rain continued to fall, but more gently now, in a thick drizzle. He showered and dressed and sat drinking coffee, staring at the clock on the wall, wondering what would be a reasonable time to call Ken Farris again. Reasonable or not, he wanted to call him before he had time to leave the house.

He went back to the binders and read over the testimony, wanting to make sure — although he knew it — that it hadn’t been fatigue. He had asked Celine when she had called her father.

‘Sometime in the morning. It was the Tuesday, I believe.’

‘The sixteenth?’

‘If that was the Tuesday, yes. He was at his office down in South San Francisco…’

*     *     *     *     *

He held out until seven-fifteen, about the longest ninety minutes of his life. Farris didn’t appear to appreciate his restraint.

‘What the hell, Hardy? What time is it?’

He told him, apologizing, explaining, keeping him on the line. ‘I’ve got a real lead,’ he concluded. ‘I don’t want to put you through all this again, give you another suspect to worry about, but I think I’ve found a place to finally get some physical evidence.’ He told him his conjecture about the tapes. ‘Please tell me you’ve still got them.’

‘We should,’ he said, ‘we keep them for six months.’

‘So you’ve still got the ones for June?’

‘I don’t know. Is that six months? I’m not really awake yet, you know.’

‘What I’d like to do is review the last two weeks of June, all the calls Nash made or took at his office.’

Farris sounded like he yawned. At least he was waking up. ‘That’s all? How about a full-scale audit while you’re at it?’

Hardy could take a little abuse if he was going to get what he wanted. He waited.

‘Shit, why not? You looking for anything in particular?’

‘Something, yeah, but I’d rather not say exactly what just now.’

‘I mention it because we keep logs. You won’t have to listen to all the tapes if you know who you want.’ He went on, sounding more like himself now. ‘I know all this taping seems like excessive security, but we’re in a high-tech field. There really is espionage. People have claimed oral contracts with me or Owen on some things. We like to protect ourselves.’

‘You don’t have to justify a thing to me. Where do you keep the logs?’

‘They’re in South City at the plant. We’ve got a vault.’ Farris sighed. ‘I don’t imagine this is going to wait until, say, business hours tomorrow morning, is it?’

*     *     *     *     *

Dorothy took the exit and headed the car up the hill away from the ocean. The wipers clickety-clacked on the flat windshield of the old VW bug. The windows on both sides were down an inch to act as defrosters. Both she and Jeff wore parkas for warmth. The heater didn’t work. The drive to Santa Cruz down Highway 1 from San Francisco had taken them a little over an hour, and they probably should have been in sour moods. Dorothy rolled down her window further and put her hand out, catching raindrops.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever hate the rain again.’

‘Maybe we should move to Oregon.’

‘Tierra del Fuego,’ she said. ‘It rains all the time there, I hear.’ They had used yesterday’s storm as an excuse to stay inside for the whole day, nothing to do but curl up, stay warm, enjoy each other. When Hardy had called they were ready to go outside. Not dying for it, but it had some appeal. ‘I’ve got to meet this friend of yours, Hardy. What a great idea!’

‘Well, he’s not exactly a friend. He’s a source.’

‘If you remember, I was a source for your bail story.’

‘You’re prettier than he is. A little bit, anyway.’ She slapped him. The car swerved and she straightened it. They were driving through a heavily wooded pine section back up behind the UC campus. A brown slick of water ran down the center of the street. There was a house about every two hundred yards.

‘I think that was our street you just passed,’ Jeff said. ‘Plus you said you’d have an idea by now.’

She pulled the car over and stopped, looking behind her at the street sign. She started making a U-turn. ‘I do have an idea,’ she said, ‘although I don’t know why I have to think of everything.’

Jeff put his hand on her leg. ‘I think of some things.’ She smiled, looked down, and covered his hand with her own, driving now with one hand. She squeezed it. ‘Yes, you do.’

*     *     *     *     *

The idea was to get them talking.

Len and Karl weren’t home — they were down at the gym, pumping iron together. They did it every morning, Karl’s mother explained. They were religious about it. Both were very disciplined boys, very structured. Len was currently runner-up Mr Northern California and Karl was going down to Santa Monica right after New Year’s for the Gold’s Gym prelims.

The three of them, Jeff, Dorothy, Mrs Franck, sat in the kitchen nook — brand new hardwood floors, a custom oak table, curved glass in the windows. They were drinking herb tea and Mrs Franck had cut up some fiber bars into cookielike things. The old Victorian house was large, newly painted, immaculate. Everywhere there were new rugs, framed prints on the walls, antiques.

‘But look at me, chattering on. You didn’t come here to talk about my sons — I call them both my sons. Len’s my son-in-law really, but he’s like a son. They were legally married last summer, you know.’

‘I think that’s wonderful,’ Dorothy said. Mrs Franck beamed. ‘I’m so glad. A lot of people don’t understand, you know. They see two men… and you know. I admit I had a difficult time accepting it at first. But if you could see them — and then offering to take me in —I mean they’re just wonderful boys, and they do love one another. And then having all this…’

Looking around, Jeff took the opening. ‘Somebody must be doing very well already.’

Mrs Franck beamed. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘This place now. It’s a dream come true.’

‘It is beautiful,’ Dorothy said.

‘I don’t think even Celine did it justice,’ Jeff said, almost as an aside to Dorothy. ‘I’m glad we came down.’

‘Are you really going to feature it in the
Chronicle
?’ Jeff nodded. ‘It’s why we’re here. Celine told me I couldn’t do a complete feature on restored Victorians if I didn’t see this place. But I still think she sold it short — I don’t think there’s one in San Francisco that’s this nice.’

‘Well, if the boys come home, don’t even breathe a bad word about Celine. They won’t hear of it.’

‘You’re all pretty close, huh?’ Jeff had his notepad out. Mrs Franck nodded. ‘She must be the most generous person God ever put on this earth.’

‘She was a help, was she?’

Karl’s mother rolled her eyes to the heavens. ‘You can’t imagine! Anything we needed. You should have seen the place before, and now…’ She gestured to take it all in. ‘So, is Celine like a sponsor, or what?’ Jeff asked.

‘You know, that’s the funny thing. I think she just took a liking to Karl. He had been up in the city, trying to work out some things — they have a coach up there who’s really marvelous — and he met her at her club. She’s in fine shape herself, you know.’

‘And what happened?’

‘Well, you have to know Karl. But he is the sweetest man. Everyone loves him. The two of them — he and Celine — just got to be friends. I think he was a little lonely for Len, up there all alone in the city like he was. He needed someone to talk to, and you know he’s so faithful — he didn’t want to lead on any other men — so I guess he and Celine just clicked and he started telling her about his dreams, you know, his life, his career, this house he and Len wanted to fix up.’ Mrs Franck lowered her voice and leaned toward them across the table. ‘Celine’s very rich, you know. Her father was Owen Nash.’

Jeff and Dorothy both nodded.

‘It’s a terrible shame about her father, isn’t it, that poor man. Has that judge been found guilty yet?’

Jeff told her the trial was still going on.

‘Well, it’s just so awful, the whole thing. Especially for Celine.’ She sighed. ‘And on top of everything else.’

Dorothy spoke up. ‘Are other things hard for her too?’

‘Oh, you know, even the rich. Sometimes I think it’s almost harder for them.’

‘Why?’Jeff asked.

‘Oh, you know. All the people after their money. You never know if anyone’s sincere. I think that’s why she cares so much about Karl. I mean, before he even knew about the money, that she had money… well, he’s just always been there for her. He’d do anything for her. We all would. I think she just needs some friends she can count on, who don’t pester her. She needs a place to stay where it’s not a hotel, where she’s not Celine Nash, just a normal person.’

That’s nice,‘ Dorothy said, ’everybody needs that.‘

Mrs Franck nodded. ‘We just let her come and go. She’s got her own room — well, I guess you’ll see it when we go on up — Karl fixed it up for her especially. Lord knows, one thing this house has is enough rooms. But that’s Karl. He says this house is her house. She’s welcome even if we’re not here.’

‘Is that often?’ Jeff asked.

‘Oh, you know, with the boys competing, sometimes she’ll come down on a Thursday or Friday and we’ll all be going off for the weekend someplace — Long Beach or Las Vegas. We come back Sunday or Monday and she’ll have a dinner or something waiting for us. She’s really so great.’

*     *     *     *     *

The Monterey Bay Club had a listing of all the sanctioned weight-lifting events of 1992. On June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday, the Mr California regionals had been held in San Diego at the Mission Bay Inn.

Dorothy sat in a booth at the Pelican’s Nest just off the Santa Cruz boardwalk, sipping a Bloody Mary, checking the shine on her new diamond. The rain had picked up again, slanting sheets of water across the bay. Jeff was coming back from the pay telephones. He walked easily with the crutches, barely seeming to need them when he was hot on a lead like this one.

He slid into the booth and kissed her. ‘Karl Franck and his mother checked in with Len Hoeffner on Friday evening, June nineteenth. Both were listed as entrants in the pageant.’

‘So Celine wasn’t here?’

‘She might have been. She might have come down on Friday night to see them off. I’m sure there are plane records somewhere, but I don’t think Hardy’s going to need them.’

‘And she was back by Sunday.’ It wasn’t a question.

Jeff nodded. ‘And so far as the Francks knew or assumed, she was there all weekend. They weren’t even lying, as far as they knew, when they said so. She probably had a nice meal waiting for them when they got home and a story about a relaxed weekend doing nothing.’

‘Except for killing her father.’

Jeff stared out the window at the rain. ‘Except, maybe, for that.’

*     *     *     *     *

Hardy had gone down to pick up Frannie and Rebecca. He took them out to breakfast and then swung by their house again for another day’s clothes and baby supplies before dropping them back at her former mother-in-law’s. He probably wasn’t going to be back home all day anyway and he had some nagging notion that things could get dangerous. Maybe that was ridiculous, but he’d play it safe anyway. He’d feel more comfortable if his wife and child were out of harm’s way.

The other thing he had done was call Andy Fowler, still at Jane’s, and cancel their noon appointment to go over his trial testimony. He told him about Chomorro’s decision not to allow his line of questioning on the ‘backward’ collection of evidence.

Fowler had been low-key. ‘Listen, Diz, when you get me on the stand I’ll simply tell the truth. I did not kill Owen Nash and they haven’t proved I did. Their burden, remember. I think it’s a good idea to take the day off, get a little rest.’…Take the day off. Sure.

Now he was closing the Owen Industries security logbook. It hadn’t taken much time. He had reviewed the calls to and from Nash’s office for the two weeks prior to his death. There was one call to Celine, though it was on Monday, not Tuesday, hardly by itself a critical flaw in Celine’s testimony.

He was sitting at Ken’s desk at his office — the one so much like his own — at Owen Industries in South San Francisco. Farris had come down with his security supervisor — Gary Simpson — at eleven-thirty, then left the two men to find whatever it was Hardy was looking for.

Simpson sat, legs crossed and bored, across the desk from him. ‘Okay,’ Hardy said, ‘we’ve got one hit. You mind if we give it a listen.’

Simpson shrugged and stood up, stretching theatrically. He was a tall man in jeans and a flannel shirt. That’s what I’m here for.‘ He motioned with his head. ’Back this way.‘

They walked, Hardy following, down the red-tiled hallways and around a couple of corners. The door marked ‘Security’ was over-sized, double-locked with deadbolts. Simpson’s office was to the right inside, and there was a small anteroom with two waiting chairs, an end table and a coffee table, and, in contrast to the rest of the building, no plants anywhere. These rooms were much colder than the others. Simpson gestured for Hardy to follow him back.

Behind his desk was a walk-in vault, and Hardy waited while Simpson unlocked and opened the desk, pushed a series of buttons inside a drawer, then did the same thing on a panel next to the door to the vault.

‘High-tech,’ Hardy said.

Simpson half turned. ‘Well, we’re in the business. We ought to keep up on state of the art.’

The door opened inward. Hardy had envisioned a bunch of drawers filled with tapes, but again was confronted with an array of buttons and lights — more state of the art. Simpson sat at a console featuring innumerable LEDs and three computer terminals.

‘What’s your number, there, on the left column, for the call you want?’

Hardy, still carrying the thin logbook, opened to the page. He read out the six-digit number and Simpson entered it on the board. There was a brief wait, then a click.

‘You’re lucky,’ Simpson said. This date gets automatically erased in two days.‘

‘You want to override it so it doesn’t do that?’

‘Sure, no sweat.’ He pushed a few buttons. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘you ready?’