Marge said, “Fisher/Tyne cut the deal with Sparks for a lot of money. With Sparks gone, maybe Shockley figured he could redo Sparks’s contract and continue Curedon research with Berger at a reduced price.”
Martinez said, “Wouldn’t Sparks’s contract with Fisher/Tyne still be in effect with his widow?”
Marge said, “That’s the point. It was bad enough paying Sparks, but he at least developed the drug. Who wants to give all that money to his widow, especially when she can’t help the drug through its laboratory bumps? Scott’s suggesting that maybe Shockley was fudging the trial numbers, making them look bad to get Sparks’s Curedon contract stopped. Then maybe he and Fisher/Tyne would rewrite a new contract with Berger at a much lower fee.”
“But it’s Sparks’s drug,” Martinez countered. “You can’t steal his drug. There has to be some kind of patent law.”
Oliver’s eyes lit up. “That’s why Shockley’s doing funny business behind backs. He’s hoping nobody’ll catch on.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Martinez said. “Decameron would catch on.”
“And that’s why he’s dead!” Oliver said triumphantly. “Him and Leonard and Sparks. Shockley got two in one today.”
“And he popped Leonard because the guy found the cuckoo’s egg?” Martinez shook his head. “B movie, Scotty.”
“Hey, you can’t write it strange enough,” Oliver said. “Can I finish?”
“Go on,” Decker said.
“Shockley realized that Leonard had caught on because Leonard had been acting real nervous. Then when Leonard didn’t show up for work today, Shockley figured he had to be whistle-blowing. Who was Leonard going to drop a dime to first? Decameron, of course.”
Martinez said, “So Shockley went over there and blew them both away. And that’s why Decameron had Bram’s apartment key in his pocket. And that’s why the priest had bloody clothes and shoes in his safe.”
“So what was the priest doing there, hotshot?” Oliver asked.
“Homosexual love triangle,” Martinez said. “All three of them were gay.”
“Leonard had an affair,” Marge said. “With a woman.”
“A quick affair,” Martinez said. “You told us that yourself.”
“That’s also according to Leonard’s ex-mistress,” Marge said. “Maybe it was longer than she was letting on.”
“Or maybe it was quick because Leonard was bad in bed with women.” Martinez thought a moment. “Okay…so maybe he’s bi. Whatever. Suppose the priest was having an affair with Decameron-”
“Yeah, yeah.” Oliver yawned.
“Bram’s key was in Decameron’s pocket-”
Oliver interrupted him. “And Azor Sparks found out about it. He threatened his son and was going to fire Reggie. So Bram or Reggie shot Azor. Then when Bram saw Decameron with another man, he went hog-wild and shot and stabbed them both. Then he tore the place up. Then he took his clothes, stuffed them in his safe along with pincushion porno, and baked cookies for one of his sick parishioners.”
“He did bake cookies,” Decker said. “I’ll be a witness to that.”
“The rest of it stinks,” Oliver said. “Even assuming Bram might have had a reason to bump off Decameron…why would he bump his father? Wasn’t he Daddy’s golden boy?”
“When he behaved himself.” Decker told them the Dana story, how Azor had slammed his son mercilessly for a brief period of time.
Oliver whistled. “God, that’s the type of shit you see on the talk shows. I fucked my twin’s wife. And the guy was still willing to marry her? What a dunce!”
“No wonder he became a priest,” Webster said.
“That all took place years ago,” Marge said. “I can’t see Bram holding a grudge for that long.”
Webster said, “Wouldn’t be a grudge unless y’all held it for a long time.”
“An eighteen-year-old soap opera is a weak motivation for this murder,” Oliver said. “I still vote for Shockley.”
“I like Waterson and the bikers,” Webster said. “You know why I like the bikers?”
“Why do you like the bikers?” Marge asked.
“Because of the weird MO-the shooting and the stabbing. More than one person. Bumping both Leonard and Decameron off would be too much work for one man-either Shockley or the priest.”
Decker said, “Unless the one man just broke in and shot them both first.”
Webster stated, “By the position and quantity of the spatter marks, the deputy coroner told Bert and me that he thought that one of the stab wounds broke a main chest artery in Decameron.”
“Descending vena cava,” Martinez clarified. “Big one right after the aorta.”
Webster said, “Since it squirted that much blood that far, he reckoned that the victim had been alive when he was stabbed. Meaning someone didn’t take ’em out first with a gun.”
Marge said, “Not necessarily, Tom. Decameron’s heart might still have been beating even though he’d been plugged through the head. If he’d been stabbed then-brain dead but his beating heart still sending blood through his vessels-there would have been arterial spatter marks.”
“But you’re stretching,” Webster said.
“Not really-”
“But Decameron certainly could have been alive when he was stabbed.”
“Of course.”
Webster said, “Look, I got no stake in pinning the homicides on any specific individuals. I am trying to examine this logically. And my logic says more than one bad guy. And to me that spells Sanchez and Sidewinder.”
“I’m trying to be logical, too,” Oliver said. “What do all three victims have in common, Tom?”
“Curedon.”
“Exactly. If this was something personal with the Sparks family, why was Leonard bumped?”
“Then what’s the priest doing with bloody clothes?” Webster said.
“What does the priest have to do with bikers?” Oliver said.
Webster said, “Maybe through Waterson, Bram contracted with the bikers to blow Decameron away.”
Marge said, “Because of an eighteen-year-old grudge?”
Webster shrugged helplessly.
“I like the idea that Leonard was whistle-blowing to Decameron,” Marge said. “But suppose his finking wasn’t the reason behind his homicide. He wasn’t the intended victim. Decameron was. For Leonard, it was just bad timing. A case of wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I like that,” Decker said.
“Then where is our Curedon Fisher/Tyne-FDA data?” Oliver said. “Decameron was going to show it to us. It isn’t in his office, it isn’t at his house. Where the fuck is it?”
“If someone was looking for data,” Martinez said, “why wasn’t Decameron’s office trashed?”
Decker said, “Because his files were nicely laid out, Bert. A scientific thief, knowing what he was looking for, could easily lift the proper folder without tossing the place.”
Oliver said, “Be great if we could get that data-”
“Maybe we can,” Gaynor interrupted. “If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, we’ll just go to the mountain.”
Marge furrowed her brow. “That’s not the saying.”
“What are you saying, Farrell?” Decker asked.
“Can’t get the data from Fisher/Tyne. But maybe I can get it from the FDA.”
They all stared at him. Decker said, “You can do that?”
“I don’t know.” Gaynor shrugged. “But I’ll give it my best shot.” He checked his watch. “It’s past eight, Eastern time. All the offices are closed. I’ll try tomorrow.”
Oliver said, “Your watch stopped, Farrell. It’s past ten back east.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” Gaynor reset his watch. “Thanks.”
“Something’s bothering me,” Marge said. “Why would Bram keep his bloody clothing in his apartment safe. Why not just chuck the threads?”
Martinez said, “Maybe he didn’t know where to chuck it.”
“Anywhere’s better than in your apartment safe-”
“Which brings to mind another question,” Martinez said. “Safes don’t come with apartments like dishwashers. What was Bram doing with a safe in his apartment?”