Then it came and they were all sitting back looking at me. Three or four herds of angels flew by and they were still looking at me.
“Honestly, I’m stuck. I don’t know where to start.” I took a sip of Lije’s famous coffee to see it I could find inspiration there. When I came up for air, things were still in a tangle in my head. “Let me try to sort through this,” I said. I took a deep breath and started in. “We know that Kinross Disposals has been getting rid of toxic wastes for industry in and around Grantham. It has also been doing the same service on a contract from the city. Last spring, Alex Pásztory nearly blew the lid off part of their operation when he wrote those pieces in the Beacon that were also printed in the Globe. That was the tainted-fuel selling and tax-evasion aspect of the much bigger story that has come to light at Fort Mississauga. Here at the fort, they are dumping terrible things directly into the lake and they are burying drums of other nasty stuff under the earthworks of the old fort.
“Now, Kinross isn’t alone in this, Sangallo is in charge of the restoration work at the fort. They have also buried a few tons of poisonous garbage under a floral clock on the Niagara Parkway. Both of these companies have cooperated in this illegal activity. The responsibility for this rests with Harold Grier and Norman Caine, the CEOs of the two companies. In the background, Sangallo has Anthony Horne Pritchett and his mob lurking and giving professional advice. But remember, for Pritchett, Sangallo is a way to clean up his dirty money. He’s not interested in turning it into another of his rackets.”
“How’s that?” asked Pete.
“As a semi-legal business, Sangallo has its uses for Pritchett. He doesn’t want it to become another of the string of shady clubs, tourist towers, gambling rooms and other vice-related games he controls in the Falls. The cleaner Sangallo stays, the happier Pritchett counts his money. That’s why I couldn’t get past your conviction, Pete, that Pásztory had been taken out by a pro. Pritchett’s the closest professional, and I could never make it dance in time.”
Chris and Pete both turned towards the other. Chris spoke first. “Benny, we just found out this morning that the slug that killed Pásztory was fired from the gun that killed the Commander.”
“Yeah, it kinda smothered my theory, eh?”
“Well, it makes me feel better about what I was going to say,” I said, feeling like the last pieces were fitting together.
“Benny, you took us over a lot of this ground before. We know about Kinross, but have never been able to make a charge stick. They’ve got a bunch of lawyers working right around the clock. They make it hard.”
“Working around the floral clock. Can’t you see it?” Pete said looking rather rosy and sinking down in his chair.
“We’ve got three deaths to deal with: Jack Dowden’s, well over a year ago-remember we talked about him at the Di? — Alex Pásztory’s a week ago last Thursday and the Commander’s last Friday night. Let’s look at them in reverse order. Chris, you think that Ross Forbes killed his old man. And you’ve got some solid reasons: He was at the club, saw and talked to his father, admits they talked in the sauna. He and the senior Forbes had long been at one another’s throats. No love lost, right? This feud was particularly bitter right now because the old man threatened to oust Ross from his CEO position at Phidias at the scheduled board meeting on Monday-that’s right, it would have been today. With Caine married to Sherry Forbes, the Commander could argue that Caine was the new blood the firm needed. So, Ross is your favourite suspect. He looks like a guilty man.”
“Benny, on TV and in the movies the suspect that looks guilty is always innocent. But in real life, the guy holding the smoking gun is usually the guy who fired it. Please, save us from some elaborate scheme designed to incriminate Ross Forbes.”
“Yeah, Forbes looks guilty because he is,” Staziak added, just in case I’d missed the thread of Chris’s argument. Soon he had returned to working on his back teeth with a toothpick. He was a little hard to hear.
“Chris, I’m not saying there wasn’t premeditation, but I don’t think it was of the elaborate variety. And speaking of smoking guns, I forgot to say that the gun that killed Murdo Forbes came from the family collection and Ross Forbes had access to it. Does that cover your arguments, Chris?” Savas nodded slowly over the rim of his coffee.
“Well, Chris, I was in the club that afternoon. So was Harold Grier, his brother-in-law, so was my father and a couple of dozen others. When the wedding rehearsal started, just about everybody in town who was related to or knew the Commander was within striking distance of the sauna. Okay? So, let’s eliminate opportunity. With the time of death so vague, we’ve got an army of people who could have done the old boy in.”
“You can cross the females off your list of suspects, Benny. The Commander was killed in the men’s side. The murderer had to pass the man handing out the towels, robes and whatnot. That cuts out half your suspects. They wouldn’t be able to pass the physical.” Chris smiled and Pete laughed out loud. Anna gave me her consciousness-raised eyebrow as I waited, feeling a little schoolteacherish, for quiet.
“Let’s look more closely at Ross’s motive. He wanted a second chance to make good as CEO at Phidias. (Everybody says that his first try lacked energy and bite.) He wanted to see Caine penned in at Kinross and to keep out of his way at the City Centre. I saw a bit of this when Caine tried to have me thrown out of Phidias and Forbes protected me. He needed to win all the battles he could with Caine. He knew that he couldn’t stop Caine marrying Sherry. How could killing the old man stop the wedding? It couldn’t. It could only slow things up at best. Not worth a human life, wouldn’t you say?
“What do we know about the confrontation in the sauna? No physical signs of a struggle. According to Ross they just talked. He told his father that he’d just joined Alcoholics Anonymous.”
“Ross Forbes in AA?” Anna said. “I don’t believe it! It’s like saying your father’s given up gin rummy and your mother’s sold her precious television set.”
“Nevertheless, that’s what he told Murdo Forbes. Ross also told me that besides his father, I was the only other person-apart from fellow AA members-who knew about it.” Eyebrows across the table were raised at the news. The two cops knew it wasn’t proof of anything, but it was a good story.
“Now, suppose someone did have that information. Suppose there was somebody who knew Ross had given up the bottle. That would mean, at the very least, that that person spoke to the Commander after Ross left his father in the sauna. Such a person would replace Ross as our leading suspect. Right?”
“Keep talking. Sounds reasonable. Since the Commander never left the sauna alive, then we know the murderer had to get the information right there in the men’s sauna. Who was he?”
“Well, Chris, first of all I have to attack your assumption that the murderer has to be male.”
“What is this, quibble time? Of course he has to be male!”
“Chris, you were right when you said that a woman couldn’t get into the men’s locker room because she couldn’t get past the guard who checked on everybody going in and out. If she did manage to get by him, she’d cause a major sensation when she went through the changing-room and showers.” Here, as I might have guessed, Pete smiled again and Anna refused to encourage him. She bit down hard on a green onion for his benefit and glanced back at me. I went back to my narrative to see how it would come out.
“No, a woman couldn’t get into the sauna in the usual way, but she could if she came from the pool.”
“What?” They had all stopped playing with their coffee spoons and wine glasses.
“The sauna’s just inside the door from the pool.”
“Now hold on! You’re saying-”
“Wearing a robe and a bathing-cap, and maybe goggles, a woman might just slip through the door without raising a fuss. The lifeguard isn’t particularly watching the comings and goings from the pool area. I understand that the women’s changing-area is a mirror-image of the men’s side. So, if she knew where the women’s sauna was located, she could have hatched a plan to kill Murdo Forbes in the men’s.”