“You were his guilty secret?”
“Yes, I was. At least to those four idiots. They wouldn’t have accepted it if Dunc had come right out and admitted that he’d fallen in love and wanted to get married.”
“But he must have told them at some point—he told Omar Wissinski this morning.”
“Omar was the one he was closest to. So it stands to reason he’d tell him.”
“Do you think he told the others, too?”
Justina nodded.“He must have. And you see what happened. He told them and now he’s dead. Draw your own conclusion. I know I have.” She broke into a fresh wave of tears, with Odelia handing her a tissue to stem the flood. “He was such a sweet man. So tender. Not like the others.” She shook her head. “Inever understood how he could be friends with them. They were so different. So very different.”
“Did Dunc ever mention an incident that took place thirteen years ago?” asked Odelia. “A hit-and-run accident where a little girl was killed?”
Justina frowned.“I don’t think so. I think I’d remember if he did.”
“We have reason to believe that it was his car that was involved. The day after the accident a green Mustang was brought into a garage and the mechanic was asked to make sure that all traces of the accident were removed. The mechanic kept a notebook, recording every job he did, right down to license plates and the work involved. Which is how we know that it was your fianc?’s car that killed Poppy Careen that night.”
“He never mentioned any of that to me.”
“What do you think happened to that Mustang?” asked Chase.
“Dunc doesn’t even own a car. He got rid of it years ago, and has refused to drive one ever since.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“He hated cars. Said they are the cause of too much pain and suffering.”
Chase and Odelia shared a look.“That could be why he got rid of it,” said Odelia. “Because of the accident. He refused to drive a car ever again after what happened.”
“It’s possible,” Justina allowed. “But like I said, he never mentioned an accident to me.”
“Thank you for your time, Miss McMenamy,” said Chase, getting up.
“Talk to his friends, will you?” said Justina. “Find out which one of them killed Dunc.” Her voice broke. “And make them pay. Make them all pay!”
Chapter 17
“Odd,” said Dooley once we were in the car again.
“What is?” I asked.
“Well, he was an artist, and now he’s been turned into a work of art himself.”
“Yeah, as if the killer was trying to make a point. But what point? And why?”
“Do you think his friends killed him because he wanted to get married?”
“It’s possible, of course,” I said. “But it seems like a very weak motive to want to kill a person, don’t you think?”
“Unless you really, really hate marriage.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I thought about Justina’s words. She really seemed convinced that one of Dunc’s friends was behind his murder, so at the very least we had to talk to them. But still, it all seemed like a strange coincidence that first Jona Morro would be killed, and now Dunc. And Jona’s murder seemed connected to his gambling habit, while Dunc… “Do you think Dunc was a gambler?” I asked, addressing Odelia.
She half-turned to me.“You mean, because of his connection to Jona Morro?”
“It would explain why both friends died in similar circumstances only a day apart.”
“Would you say the circumstances of both deaths are similar? Morro was killed in a holdup, and as far as we can make out, nothing was taken from Dunc Hanover’s loft.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, sinking back onto the backseat once more.
“What is he saying?” asked Chase.
“He’s looking for a connection between Jona Morro’s murder and Dunc Hanover’s.”
“The only connection I see is that they were friends and were both involved in the hit-and-run accident that killed Poppy Careen.”
“So we’re back to that, are we?” asked Odelia.
Chase nodded.“We better find out if Dominic and Rick Careen have an alibi for this morning. And can you ask Scarlett when exactly Wissinski left his office?”
“Do you think he could have killed his friend?”
“You heard what Justina said. These guys seem to take this bachelor business pretty seriously.”
“If that’s what killed Dunc, we better talk to the other two bachelors. Joel Timperley and Sergio Sorbet.”
“Zeus!” Chase grunted.
“You’re a fan, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Well, you’ll get to meet him soon.”
“We’re going to meet Zeus, Max?” asked Dooley.
“We’re going to meet the actor who plays Zeus,” I clarified. “Not the real Zeus.”
“Is there a real Zeus? And does he control the weather?”
“I doubt it, Dooley. At least I’ve never seen him, have you?”
“Al Roker?”
“He doesn’t make the weather, he just presents it.”
“Oh, right.”
Once more we paid a visit to Dominic and his son in the woods. They were still as reluctant to give us the time of day as before, and claimed they hadn’t left their precious woods all morning, and had definitely not snuck away to go and kill Dunc Hanover. It all sounded very convenient, with father and son providing each other with an alibi.
As far as I was concerned, their involvement seemed a lot more plausible than the bachelor murder theory Justina had put forward as a possible motive. But as long as we couldn’t place Dominic or Rick at the scene of the crime, there was nothing we could do.
“Maybe Dominic and Rick are going through the list of bachelors one by one,” said Dooley once we were en route to the Keystone Mall to have a chat with the mall’s owner Joel Timperley. “Maybe they’re going to kill all of them, just to make sure that the person who killed Poppy is dead. Somaybe we should have told them that it was actually Dunc who drove the car that night. Otherwise they’ll keep on killing these men.”
“It’s an interesting theory,” I said. “And it sure looks as if the Careens have something to hide. But I’m not sure if they’d suddenly turn into mass murderers thirteen years after Poppy was killed.”
“But Kristina is sick, Max. In fact she’s dying. And I think her husband and son want to make sure that before she dies, the men who killed Poppy are all punished.”
“It’s possible,” I allowed. “But if it’s true, it’s impossible to prove right now.”
“Well, we better prove it fast, or else we’ll soon run out of bachelors.”
We were in Joel Timperley’s office, which was located on the top floor of the mall, and offered a great view of its surrounding area. Mostly fields, as far as I could tell, and one sprawling housing development. There were in fact a lot of different businesses who’d set up shop at the mall, and Timperley was only one of them, though probably the most important one, since they owned the entire mall, and many more like it.
“So what can I do for you?” asked Mr. Timperley. His office was big, and right in the center of it, a model of his family’s mall had been placed, though it looked a little different from the actual mall. Joel noticed that Chase was studying the model, and he got up from behind his desk with athletic alacrity and joined us. “We’re expanding,” he explained.
“Business going well?” asked Chase.
“So well we need additional space.”
“I’ve heard that a lot of malls are actually closing. Competition with online stores.”
“Then I guess we’re the odd ones out. And Keystone Mall is still the best one out of the hundred or so we’re now operating all across the country. Though of course Keystone holds a special place in our hearts, since it was the first mall my family built. Keystone was the key to our success, you might say.” He grinned, showing perfect white teeth.