[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
have you got it in for the man? He seems like a nice guy to me.
I m sure he is. He just makes me nervous, that s all.
Oh, really? Grinning, Dennis put his hands into his trouser pockets and jingled his change as he ambled
along beside Casey. I ve never known any man to make you nervous, Tiger. I d say that bodes well for
the doc. At least he s got your attention.
Oh, shut up, Shannon.
Casey and Dennis spent the remainder of the day in-terviewing the St. Martins friends and neighbors,
both those in the Mountain Laurel development, and the few who lived full-time at Black Bear Lake.
The St. Martins friends and acquaintances were, for the most part, happy, some even eager, to talk
about the couple s unconventional marriage. Apparently the ar-rangement raised eyebrows even among
the privileged, who were accustomed to a lifestyle of self-indulgence. However, they all agreed that
despite their bizarre marital arrangement, Jason St. Martin and his wife got along well.
Before returning to the station house, Casey and Den-nis also canvassed the staff at the country club and
ver-ified that Jason and Madeline had, indeed, attended the charity ball together on April 2.
However, when it came to revealing anything of a personal nature about the members of the club, the
man-ager was circumspect and protective to the extreme. The man obviously knew that when working
for the wealthy, discretion was a requisite for job security. It took the threat of arrest for obstruction to
get him to an-swer Casey s questions, and even then she had to drag the answers out of him.
If the man was to be believed, throughout all the years the St. Martins had been members, he had never
witnessed any signs of friction between them. He also reluctantly confirmed Jason St. Martin s story that
on the night of the charity ball both he and his wife had left the country club in the early hours of April 2 in
an in-ebriated state.
What do you think? Dennis asked when they headed for the station house at the end of their shift.
Casey leaned her head back on the seat and sighed. That we ve put in an awful lot of legwork with little
to show for it. Tomorrow is Friday, review day. The boss definitely isn t going to be happy.
That was putting the situation mildly.
Storming into the task-force room the next morning, Lieutenant Bradshaw barked, Okay, people, tell
me what we ve got so far. He sat at the head of the long table, his sharp gaze skewering Casey, who
occupied the hot seat at the other end.
Not much, Casey admitted. She glanced at Lewis, seated halfway down the table from her, and saw
his lips twitch in a smirk. We ve identified the second victim, at least.
Lewis s smirk collapsed. How d you do that?
Old-fashioned detective work, Casey replied, and had the satisfaction of seeing the deputy s jaw
tighten and angry color climb his neck.
Her name is Madeline St. Martin. Wealthy, married, though the marriage was on hold at the time of her
death.
On hold? What does that mean? the lieutenant growled.
Casey explained the St. Martins unusual arrange-ment, and got the same reaction from the others
around the table that she and Dennis had experienced.
The husband has no alibi for the times of any of the murders, but there s nothing to tie him to any of
them, either.
I did some checking into the St. Martins finances. Jason has a small investment firm, but from all
accounts he isn t a big player. It s his wife who has money. Lots of it. They ve been married for twelve
years. No chil-dren. He stands to inherit, provided no long-lost rela-tives appear to challenge the will.
That gives him a possible motive to kill his wife, but not the other two women. There s no connection
there that I can find.
Maybe he killed the other two to throw us off the scent, Deputy Kemp offered. So we d blame his
wife s death on a serial killer, instead of looking at him as a greedy husband.
Perhaps. But that s a stretch. We need hard evidence to make a charge like that stick.
From all accounts Jason and his wife got along well. He had free access to her money to live whatever
kind of life he wanted. He even had occasional periods of freedom to cat around if he was so inclined. If
he has a girlfriend on the side, someone he cares enough about to want to bail out of the marriage and
take Madeline s money with him, Dennis and I have yet to discover her, and believe me, we ve looked.
We spent the entire af-ternoon questioning his friends and neighbors. They all claim the St. Martins were
happy together.
What about the lead on that doctor? the boss asked. Lewis gave her a sharp look. What lead? You
didn t tell us about any doctor.
It turned out to be nothing. Becky Belcamp had an appointment with a doctor on the day she
disappeared, but she returned to her health studio afterward, and the doc had an alibi for the time of her
death.
You should have told the rest of us, anyway, Lewis complained.
Why? As I said, the lead was a dead end. I ll decide what is relevant and what s not. I m not going to
waste time relaying every false lead that Dennis and I run down.
She turned her gaze back to the lieutenant. I may be wrong, but I don t think Jason St. Martin
committed these murders. No more than Becky Belcamp s father or one of her brothers. We ve got
three victims one a hooker, one a wealthy socialite and one a decent young woman from a middle-class
background. They have nothing in common.
Well& there is one thing, Dennis interjected al-most reluctantly. Reading through the files, I noticed
that they all had red hair. Dyed, in all three cases, but red all the same.
Casey had noticed the same thing. The discovery had sent a chill down her spine and made her strangely
un-easy. She d told herself that it meant nothing. It was just coincidence.
Except, as she had repeatedly told her partner over the years, she didn t believe in coincidence.
Lewis chuckled. Better watch out, O Toole. With that flaming mane of yours, you may be next.
A beat of uncomfortable silence followed, during which the others shifted in their seats or cleared their
throats, looking anywhere but at Casey or the lieuten-ant. All, that is, but Dennis.
You jerk, he snarled, rising halfway out of his seat.
Casey put her hand on his arm. No, don t, she whispered. Let it go.
Sit down, Shannon! the boss barked.
Dennis clenched his jaw and glared across the table at Lewis, but he sat back down.
When the lieutenant was certain peace had been re-stored, he focused on the deputy. If that s your
idea of a joke, it s not funny. I don t want to hear any more re-marks like that in this office. Got it?
Lewis folded his mouth into a thin line and nodded.
Lieutenant Bradshaw looked around the table at the other men. How is the canvass on the light-colored
vans going?
There turned out to be more than eighteen hundred light-colored vans in this and the surrounding
counties. We ve barely made a dent in the list, Hector replied. Of the ones that we checked out, we
haven t been able to place any of them in the vicinity of Ms. Belcamp s exercise studio two days ago at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]