Feeling more emboldened but fearing that this entire episode was a waste of time, Sam checked each window until he found one that was unlocked. He climbed through the window, not the easiest maneuver in the world for the unathletic accountant.
But before long he found himself in the very large warehouse, and he certainly seemed to be alone. Sam took out his own cell phone, and dialed Loney’s number. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard it ring; the GPS signal was right after all. The phone was there.
Sam headed for the sound, but it stopped ringing before he could find it. He had to call it twice more before he had enough time to locate it, but eventually did so.
What attracted his attention, more than the cell phone itself, were the obvious bloodstains just a few feet away. And it didn’t take a forensic scientist to follow the smeared blood to the large drum lying on its side.
Sam was scared to death, but determined to take the top off the drum and see what was inside. It came off easily, and Sam realized it had only recently been placed there.
There was no reason to empty or explore the drum, the body was obvious as soon as the top came off. And Sam was not about to examine it, or stick around; he made a beeline for the same window he came in, and ran to the street.
Sam had no idea what to do, but he knew who to ask. He called Laurie and told her the entire story. He had to stop a few times to catch his breath; he was that scared.
“Laurie, I’m sure I left my prints all over the place… on the window, the drum, I don’t know where else.”
“That’s okay, Sam, because you’re not going to deny you were in there. You’re going to report what you found to the police, and answer any questions they have.”
“They’ll ask me why I was in there in the first place.”
“Right. And you’ll tell them the truth; you are there because it’s part of an investigation being run by Andy for the Galloway trial. You were looking for Loney, but you really don’t know anything more specific than that. They really need to ask Andy why he sent you there.”
“Okay. Should I just call 911?”
The question made Laurie think of another way. “No. Just stay where you are; I’ll take care of it. Give me the exact address.”
He did so, and Laurie got off the phone and called Cindy Spodek. This had been an FBI investigation from the start, and she would rather Cindy take the lead, at least for the moment. Cindy knew Sam, and the people she was directing would therefore be less inclined to think Sam committed the murder.
So Laurie called Cindy, explained the situation, and Cindy promised to get agents there immediately.
Laurie hung up and waited for Andy’s plane to land. She would have quite a story for him.
Laurie calls me five minutes after I get off the plane.
I can’t talk to her, because I’m on the phone with Cindy Spodek, who called me one minute after I got off the plane. It would have been four minutes after I got off, but I spent three minutes waking up Marcus.
I tell Laurie I’ll call her back and that I’m on with Cindy. Based on the start of the conversation, I’d rather talk to Laurie.
“Andy, what the hell was Sam Willis doing in a Delaware warehouse with a dead body?” Cindy asks.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I say.
“You don’t know anything about this?”
“I know Sam Willis, but that’s it.”
“He found the dead body of one Alan Loney in a drum in a Delaware warehouse. He claims that you sent him there as part of an investigation.”
“Oh, that Delaware warehouse. I wasn’t sure which one you meant. The state is full of them.”
“Andy, unless you want to spend eight hours in a room with four agents who have no sense of humor and look exactly alike, tell me what you know about this.”
She doesn’t sound in a bantering mood. I’m not either, but I don’t know what the hell is going on, and I don’t want to say anything stupid. “Cindy, Sam is working on the investigation. We are trying to find Loney, and I gave him some leads to follow, all of which are protected by attorney-client privilege. I assume one of them took him to this warehouse, but it sounds like he got there too late.”
She asks me a bunch of additional questions, some of which I evade because I really don’t know the answers, and the others I evade because I want to evade them. The entire time we’re talking, I’m wondering if crazy Sam actually shot the guy.
“Do you know the time of death?” I ask.
“Why? You trying to come up with an alibi?”
“No, I’m covered on that score. I was with Marcus in Vegas; believe me, people noticed us.”
“You saw Ricci?” she asks.
“I did. Charming gentleman.”
“Let’s see how charming he is when he finds out that his top man was stuffed in a drum in Delaware.”
“You were about to tell me the time of death,” I say.
She tells me the coroner’s estimate, which is soon after my meeting with Ricci. Could he have reacted to our talk by immediately having Loney killed?
I promise Cindy I’ll fill her in as I get more details, which we both know is an out-and-out lie. As soon as she lets me off the phone, I call Laurie, who gives me the version of events according to Sam.
“Do you think Ricci could have had Loney hit because of my threat?” I ask.
“I don’t think so,” she says.
“Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, you’re not really that intimidating. For another, I can’t believe that what you said was news to Ricci. Loney couldn’t have been doing all this behind his boss’s back; so if Ricci wanted him to stop, he wouldn’t have had to kill him to do it.”
Neither of us has any other explanation for Loney’s murder; we can just add it to the list of things we are bewildered by.
“How is Sam doing?” I ask.
“He’s on cloud nine,” she says. “Except for a high-noon shootout, this is the most fun thing that could have happened to him.”
When I get home we talk some more about it, and I call Sam to hear it fresh from his perspective. It’s a rather lengthy perspective, and he so obviously relishes the telling that I think the recounting takes longer than the actual event. For example, it takes a good five minutes for him to describe how he followed the bloodstains to the drum; unless the trail was half a mile long, that seems like a bit much.
I admonish Sam for doing what he did; it was dangerous and not an area he should be involving himself in. My gentle reprimand clearly has no effect; Sam has now tasted the “action” and will want nothing more than to jump back in the fray.
I call Hike and ask him to come over. We have developed quite a bit of evidence in our investigation, though it’s hard to be sure just what it is evidence of.
The problem is that the jury knows nothing about it. We’ve got to get it in front of them, which is not going to be an easy thing to do. Dylan will say that it’s not relevant, and Judge De Luca will be hard-pressed not to agree with him.
The problem is that Dylan can argue that none of the material we have is necessarily related to the Galloway trial. It all began, for instance, with someone following Laurie and me. We assumed that it was related to this case, but we have no proof of that.
If we can’t convince De Luca that Camby was following me because I was representing Noah, then everything that followed is legally meaningless, and certainly inadmissible.
The reasoning that we will have to employ is something Hike is particularly good at, and he helps me focus in on the key points to present to De Luca. If the judge doesn’t buy them, we are nowhere.
I contact the court clerk, who is available even on weekends, and tell her that I need a special session in chambers before court on Monday. I describe it as urgent, and I have no doubt that it will be granted.
I then call and leave a message for Dylan, telling him what I’ve requested of the court. I say that I’m doing it as a courtesy, but I’m not. What I’m really doing is giving Dylan something to worry about.