You do the math."
"Do you remember what they ordered?"
He laughed and pushed the hair back again. "I don't have nearly that
many brain cells left."
When you looked like this guy, you probably didn't need them. "Is it
possible the well-preserved one had linguine with browned butter?"
"Yeah, might have been something like that. "Cause I remember the
other one saying something bitchy about the pasta. She was one of
those salad-with-the-dressing-on-the-side types. You chicks can be
terrible to each other, you know?"
He had no idea.
It wasn't the perfect ID, but it was enough for probable cause. I
called Russ as soon as I left the restaurant.
Before I even made it to the precinct, I got a call from Chuck. "We
found her on a flight roster for American Airlines, outbound to JFK.
She had a one-way ticket to Portugal."
"Otherwise known as one of the last few lovely retirement areas that
puts up a fuss about extraditions. So you've got her?"
"It took a fight, but we finally convinced the airline to hold the
flight. We're bringing her in now."
"Is she talking?"
"Not yet. Ray's putting her in the car. We figured we'd wait until we
got her in the box downtown."
Once they had her in a holding room, Russ and I watched the questioning
through a one-way mirror. Susan played it cool. According to her, she
"might" have gotten tied up in a scheme Townsend had with Gunderson,
but Chuck and Ray were nuts if they thought she'd do anything to hurt
Clarissa.
Then Walker called my cell with some preliminary feedback from the
search at her house.
"I don't know how you figured it out, Kincaid, but it's just like you
said. We found a copy of the video of Clarissa and Caffrey. It was
right there in the entertainment center with a bunch of yoga tapes. And
the lab guys are saying there's some seepage in the concrete beneath
that wine room. It could definitely be blood, but it's going to take
awhile to confirm it."
"No sign of those documents I saw piled next to the file cabinet in the
basement?"
"Nothing." Johnson didn't find them in Susan's car either. She must
have dumped them somewhere on her way to the airport.
"Sorry you can't be here for the questioning," I said. "You might've
gotten a second chance at catching the look."
"Yeah, right. That's OK, as long as I get to see a different kind of
look the look on Jackson's face when we release him. I feel like shit
we had the wrong guy; every cop's worst nightmare, right?"
"Should be. But you didn't know, Jack. Susan Kerr sent us off track
from the very beginning."
"Well, you did real good, Kincaid."
"Thanks," I said, flipping my phone shut so I could pass the word on to
the rest of the team.
Russ and I watched Johnson and Chuck break the news to Susan. She'd
already met the nice Ray at her house, so Chuck was playing the bad
cop. If I hadn't been so nervous, it might have been fun to watch his
performance.
The MCT guys were pros. They told her about the videotape first,
reeling her in with questions about the bribery scheme before
confronting her with the murder.
"It's not what you think," she said, changing to a resigned tone. "This
was all Townsend and Gunderson. Townsend found out about Clarissa's
affair and used it to guilt-trip Clarissa into ruling for Gunderson in
exchange for the hospital donation."
Like all coconspirators, she was spinning a version that undoubtedly
shifted the blame from herself but which nevertheless contained some
undercurrent of truth.
"So what was the videotape for?" Chuck asked. "And what were you
doing with it?"
"Clarissa brought it over here a couple of weeks ago to show me. She
must have left it. Townsend initially had it made to get an upper hand
in the divorce, but then he told her he'd mail it to Caffrey s wife
unless she convinced Caffrey to vote in favor of development in
Glenville. I guess Gunderson stood to make a lot of money, and
Townsend would be rewarded in kind."
"Could that be it?" Russ asked me.
I shook my head. "If Gunderson and Townsend hooked up at a cocktail
party and reached this one-time deal to help Gunderson's Railroad
District project, how would Gunderson even know that Clarissa could get
to Caffrey? Or if Townsend's the one who thought of this, how would he
know that Gunderson had investments out in Glenville? It doesn't make
any sense."
"So what's your theory?"
"Susan's the link. She pretends she's a trophy widow, but she learned
everything she knows from Herbie. I think she, Gunderson, and MTK are
all still in bed together. They were bribing Jane Wessler at the city
for the Railroad District licenses. When
Wessler went on maternity leave without giving Gunderson his permit,
Susan turned to Clarissa. I always thought it was weird that Clarissa
hadn't told Susan about her relationship with Caffrey. I think she
did, and that her best friend turned around and used it to convince her
that she owed this to Townsend. Then even that wasn't enough. She got
that videotape and told Clarissa she'd mail it to Caffrey's wife if
Clarissa didn't deliver Caffrey's vote."
Back in the holding room, Susan's explanations continued to contain
just enough truth to confirm at least part of what I suspected. Chuck
and Ray had broken the news to her about the blood in the basement.
Her demeanor changed again, and this time she feigned sadness for the
loss of her friend. She even managed to shed some tears. "It wasn't
me. It was Townsend. Clarissa called me Saturday, completely
hysterical. I guess she told him that morning that she wasn't going to
go along with Gunderson anymore. If they were going to mail the
videotape, she was willing to go to the police. She was over here
telling me about it when Townsend showed up. They went down to the
basement to have a private conversation, and the next thing I knew
there was yelling. It sounded like a terrible struggle. I ran
downstairs." Her voice cracked for effect. "Oh, my God, I couldn't
believe it. Townsend told me I had to help him, or he'd tell everyone
I'd been in on it. I realized how it would look. My house, my
husband's old business partner I panicked."
"You didn't panic." Chuck spoke quietly, but was convincingly
disgusted. "You went shopping, Susan. You went and picked out an
outfit to dress your dead friend in, so it would look like she died
Sunday. You hired carpenters for a fucking remodel. Don't lay this
all on Townsend."