Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (59 page)

“Someone is in trouble tonight,” I mumbled.

Liz thanked us again and went off after I put the crib in her car. I wondered where her partner was. Penny said she worked late nights and had to be back to her job. We went back into the house, and I said that we needed to discuss what tales she’s been telling at work, but later. We plopped down on the couch, and I told her about the councilman, the Dom pretending to be Elvira and then about Melody and her part in the thing along with bad boy Bruce and that I got Benson to try and help her. Penny kissed me on the cheek and said I was an old softy.

We watched TV for a while, drinking our beer, eating potato chips and smooching at every commercial. Life was good.

*

Chapter Twenty-four

Next morning Penny had left and I was just getting ready to go out the door to my office when the phone rang. It was Detective Gregory.

“Richards, we brought in Blair this morning. I thought you might want to be in on the interrogation and line-up.” I said I would like that, might hear something to help my case. He said they would have him in around 9:15, so be there. I hung up and drove over to Roseville precinct, feeling a little apprehensive about Lincoln being there. Maybe I should have called Trapper. No, I couldn’t depend on Trapper to always watch my back. I’d have to face him myself.

I got there and was directed to where they had the line-up. Gregory saw me and said to follow him. We went into the observation room, and I saw Frank Ropiello. He acknowledged me, and then Gregory explained what we were going to do. There was another man in the room in a fancy suit. I figured he was a lawyer. Gregory called through a microphone to bring the men in. Just as they were coming in, the observation room door opened and in walked Lincoln. He had no expression when he saw me, just went to the other side of the room. Gregory gave him a dirty look, like don’t screw around with my witness, as he moved over between Lincoln and Ropiello to where Ropiello couldn’t see Lincoln. The men were all lined up, and the lights were brought up on them. Ropiello just stood staring as he went from face to face.

“Take your time, Councilman Ropiello. Do you see the man who was threatening you with blackmail and taking money from you?” Gregory asked.

Ropiello looked hard and finally said it was number three, which happened to be Blair. “That man came to my office twice to take money from me and warn me not to talk or my unusual predilections would be all over the papers. I’ve already confessed to my wife about it. I was only there a couple of times, so I’m ready to be a witness.”

Gregory thanked Ropiello and told him they’d talk to him about what needed to be done, maybe they could just take his statement, and he might not have to testify as a protected witness. Ropiello thanked him and left, followed by Lincoln. I looked at Gregory and went out to see where Lincoln was going. He went the opposite way from Ropiello and down a hall. Gregory followed me out and said, “Now to roast the little dickhead.”

We went to a different side of the building, and Gregory pointed to a door saying that was where I should go. I went in and found Lincoln sitting quietly in a chair. Leaning up against the back wall was the same guy in the suit. He smiled at me and introduced himself at an assistant DA.

Lincoln didn’t look at me, but said, “I hear you’re responsible for Bruce being brought in.”

“I caught Melody in her little scam. Blair was a casualty of that. He’s a big boy and knew what he was doing was illegal. From what I hear she feared for her life from Blair if she didn’t go along with the scam. Not a good boy in there.”

“I didn’t raise him. That son of a bitch convict father of his screwed him over good. I can’t change him now.” He went silent, and I had nothing more to say.

If Lincoln didn’t care so much for step-boy, why was he here? Maybe to see if Blair would rat him out. I watched as Blair squirmed in his chair until Gregory came in. He gave Gregory a dirty look as the big man sat across from him. Gregory stared, Blair looked uncomfortable, then Gregory spoke.

“Bruce, this is the third time I’ve had a talk with you. Just can’t stay out of trouble, can you? Just get yourself in deeper don’t you?” he started.

Blair gave him a stupid expression and kept watching the door as if he were expecting Lincoln to come to his rescue.

“Bruce, we definitely got you for blackmailing a city official. You were picked out of the line-up as the blackmailer. We are going to be adding a murder charge to that, too. How’s that?”

Bruce went up to being alert now. “I had nothing to do with any murder! I didn’t kill the bitch. I don’t know who did!” he whined.

“Well, Bruce, let’s see, you were blackmailing Noreen Black’s clients, and I’ll bet she found out, so you had to silence her. Isn’t that the way it went down?”

“No! Melody was supplying me with names of people she recognized coming into the office, and she told me what to do for getting the money out of them. Maybe Melody killed Black. I didn’t!”

“Did Melody have access to Black’s client list?”

“Hell, no. Black didn’t share that list with anyone. We don’t even know where she hid it. We looked after work hours. She didn’t have it in her office. I even broke into her house one afternoon to see if I could find it. Melody also heard Black mention she had a storage unit. I went there and found some videos and stuff that I thought would help us. They didn’t do us any good, though.”

Now I knew who the mystery intruder was at Weston’s house and at the storage unit.

He continued, “So Melody said we would just work on the clients she knew. Before long we’d have a good base built up.”

I was starting to wonder if Trapper was right about feeling sorry for people. If Bruce was too stupid to lie, maybe Melody wasn’t all that innocent. I had better have a talk with Benson to get his take.

“When did you start blackmailing clients?”

“Just after Melody started working there. We thought it would be a quick buck. About two weeks later, Black was dead. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I swear!”

“Did you tell those people you were blackmailing that Black was involved in the scam?”

“We didn’t say she was. I guess people just assumed she was behind it.”

“Didn’t you even think someone might have wanted her dead rather than being blackmailed and exposed?”

“No, we didn’t think that.”

“You know all the people you were scamming. I want a list of their names. Just maybe we can find someone in that list that might have killed Black. That would get you off the hook for the actual deed, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, I can do that! I’ll give you what you want.”

“Tell me, Bruce, it was your idea to blackmail the clients, wasn’t it?”

“Hell, no! Melody met me one night after she got off work and told me how we could make a lot of money if we played our cards right. I went along, I thought it would work. We hadn’t counted on Black getting iced,” he lamented.

“Where were you the night she was iced?”

“I was at a bachelor party for a buddy, I got plenty of witnesses. I’ll give you plenty of names.” He smirked.

“OK, Bruce, we got you for blackmail and fraud, you better hope we don’t take you down for murder,” Gregory said as he stood then went out.

Lincoln was quiet then stood. He looked at me but said nothing and went out. I could swear I saw a little sadness in his eyes. I didn’t want to start feeling sorry for him now. Gregory popped his head in the door and asked if I wanted to go watch him question Melody. I did. We went to a different room. I was followed by the suit, and I stood looking at Melody sitting quietly at the table. Lincoln walked in and stood at the back of the room, didn’t say a word.

Gregory walked in and sat, opening up a folder. “Melody, I’ve talked to Bruce, and he had some interesting things to say.”

I could see her eyes perk up. Gregory was going to play her against Bruce.

“Bruce forced me to do the blackmail. He threatened me if I didn’t help, he would hurt me,” she whined.

“Well, Melody, Bruce said it was your idea to do the blackmailing. Is he lying?”

“Of course he’s lying. Look at his record. He’s a con man from way back.”

“Where did you two meet, when you first got together?”

“I met him at a party one of my girlfriends was throwing. I didn’t know anything about him at the time, but he was a good talker. We started seeing each other after that.”

“How long before you started working for Noreen Weston?”

“About two months.”

“Enough time to realize he was a trouble maker. Did you take into account his criminal past when you decided to start blackmailing people?”

“I knew he had a checkered past, but he came up with the idea to do the scam after I told him about my job. I didn’t like it, but he kept at me about how much money we could make. Then he started threatening me if I didn’t help.”

“Why didn’t you just leave him?”

“He wouldn’t let me go. He’d just find me. I feared him.”

“Did Bruce do the killing of Noreen or was that your doing.”

She looked shocked and cried, “I didn’t have anything to do with her murder! Bruce didn’t either. He was too stupid to do something on his own.” That statement made me think.

“Then who did it, Melody?”

“I have no idea. I was with girlfriends that night while Bruce was at a bachelor party. I can prove it.”

“If you want to cover your ass, Melody, I’d recommend you give us a list of the people you blackmailed. We may be able to sort out a killer in the bunch. How many people did you scam?”

“We had about six people involved. I’ll give you a list if it will help.”

“Didn’t you think maybe one of the people who feared they would be exposed might want to kill the person they thought was blackmailing them?”

She was quiet for a bit then softly said, “No.”

“Well, even if you didn’t do the kill, you are just as responsible for her death, so I’d think about that. Maybe you can get some retribution by helping us catch the real killer.” He tossed her a pad and pencil and told her to start writing names and anything she knew about the people they blackmailed. She started writing on the pad, and I started thinking about calling Benson and talking to him about this.

*

Chapter Twenty-five

Lincoln was the first to leave the room, followed by the suit. I stood for a minute till Gregory walked in.

“Well, what do you think?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve talked to a number of people who all led me around in circles in the last couple days. No one wants to say anything about the fetishes of others. I can understand that. I dress up in women’s clothes, and I don’t want people to know.” I grinned.

“Don’t fuck with me. I’m just getting to like you. I can slip you a copy of the blackmail list. I’m not supposed to, but I think I can just set it somewhere that you can find it,” he said. “I don’t want this buried in Lincoln’s case files and not go anywhere. You can shake the trees and see what monkeys fall out.”

“Is that a discriminatory remark against monkeys?” I joked.

“I may be black and beautiful, but a racist I’m not.” Gregory laughed.

“So what are you going to do now with blondie and the boob?” I asked.

“We’ve definitely got them for blackmail and fraud. It should stick. They confessed in front of the assistant DA. We have their statements, and they gave up the clients being blackmailed so we can pursue the murder aspect. Or I should say, Lincoln will pursue. At least, I hope he does. It’s his case. Otherwise, I’m done with this till their trial.”