Chasing Suspect Three (11 page)

She was back in her car ready to turn the
key, when a newly disclosed piece of information popped back into
her mind. John had used a gun belonging to Claudia to shoot at
Margo. How about that? No wonder Jaworski had Claudia down at the
station for interrogation. A smile came to her lips. She’d dearly
love to pin the murder on Claudia. Was it childish to want Claudia
to suffer? You bet. Out of her league, was she? The game has just
started.

She wasn’t entirely back to normal by the
time she returned to the office. Martin was standing in his office
doorway waiting for a report. She said, “I just left Claudia
Mertens. Maybe I’ll go over to the Windward and get a beer to cry
in.”

“You must tell me all about her.” He looked
down at a notepad. “But first, here’s the latest buzz around the
police station, courtesy of Judy Naegler. They found a .38 caliber
revolver in the victim’s condo and traced it to Claudia Mertens.
Not the murder weapon, but it was recently fired and had John’s
prints on it. Turns out, the bullet fired at Margo over at the
Community Center, earlier that night, came from that gun. They had
Claudia down at the police station for questioning. She told them
she thought her brother took the gun some time ago without asking.
He was welcome to it, she just wasn’t aware he had taken it.”

“Okay good. Yes, she told me her gun was
used. I don’t see where it implicates her very much though,” she
said. “John shoots at Margo, carries the gun home, and puts it
away. The murderer comes in with his or her own gun and shoots him.
What is she guilty of?”

She stared at her ringing cell, but didn’t
answer. She read the text, clicked off, and announced, “Chip.”

“You saw it was him and aren’t going to
answer. I’ve never seen that before.”

Martin could sense how her disagreement with
Chip was affecting her disposition. He wished he were Cupid and
could shoot them both with arrows filled with uncontrollable
desire. It occurred to him that if he had that power, he’d have
shot one at Sandy on his own behalf long ago. “Did you learn
something about him from Claudia that upset you?”

She shrugged.

He nodded. “Could you be overreacting?”

“Of course, I’m overreacting.”

“Come on, Sandy. How is Chip guilty of
anything other than being polite to a former girlfriend? You said
the purpose of the meeting was to return the poetry book. Did he
actually accept the book?”

“He brought it home and threw it in the
trash.”

“Then what do you want from him? A dagger
through her heart?”

“A dagger would be nice. No, I admit the
trash thing was good. Yet, the entire situation is bothering
me.”

“Of course it’s bothering you. You mean it’s
bothering you more than it should.”

Sharing with Martin was going to be much
easier than she first thought. “I know I must discuss my feelings
with Chip, but I don’t want to come off as some jealous shrew.”

Martin wanted to take her side, but she was
indeed sounding like a shrew. “How do you know this Claudia isn’t
just lovelorn, and simply thought she’d give Chip another try to
see if he was interested? You can’t kill the girl for trying. It
seems normal enough.”

“Something is going on, and it’s not just the
way she was talking about him. She’s smart and calculating. I sense
something more is happening here that is getting my defenses all
riled up.”

“It is weird she comes back on the scene at
the same time her brother is killed.”

“Weird doesn’t cover it.”

“Why don’t you use that coincidence as your
opening with Chip? You’d be talking with him, not because you are
possessed by the green-eyed monster of jealousy, but because you’re
a trained investigator, and the coincidence is bothering you.”

“That’s not bad. Thank you oh wise one.” She
blew him a kiss. “Chip’s text just now was asking me to
dinner.”

****

The ocean side restaurant Chip chose that
evening had somehow maintained its old Florida elegance in spite of
several hurricanes attempting to move it over to Alabama. Someday,
after scoring big on a lawsuit she’d make eating in such classy
places routine, and forget takeout in small white cartons with
cheap wine.

Chip had just raised his wine glass to her,
holding off his first sip, awaiting one of her invariably clever
toasts.

She wasn’t in the mood for making clever
toasts. “Here’s to you, and here’s to me.” She took a sip and set
her glass down.

He kept his glass raised. “Now I have one.
May we start communicating a lot better than we have the last few
days.”

“That’s why we’re having dinner here
tonight?”

“Exactly.”

“Fine with me. You probably don’t deserve my
cool attitude. I’ve just never cared much for coincidences.”

He tilted his head and waited.

“Claudia Mertens?”

“Now you’re using her name.”

“I didn’t go hunting for her name. Margo
Larena naturally mentioned John’s sister. You weren’t trying to
hide her, were you?”

“Get off it, one date doesn’t even create a
girlfriend, let alone a lover.”

“You said two or three.”

“I said one or two. Now I’m thinking it was
one.”

She clenched her teeth together and glanced
around the crowded restaurant.

He said, “And the jealousy all over your face
is because...?”

“I interviewed her today as part of the
defense of my client. I was, of course, aware of your recent
involvement with her, and I detected a continuing interest in you
on her part.”

“My recent involvement amounted to an
innocent fifteen minutes over a cup of coffee, which I didn’t
finish. I dumped her once. I don’t know why she’d think I’d take up
with her again. I haven’t encouraged her in any way.”

“You know you might be called as a witness
because of that innocent meeting.”

“I know. Not because of the meeting itself,
but because the meeting took place the night her brother was
murdered,” he said.

“And also the exact time his wife was being
shot at.”

“Correct. I took the shooting call while we
were sitting there.”

“As you were rushing off, did you mention the
Community Center location, or who was shot at?”

“Of course not.”

“You said you met only briefly. How long
would you have met with her, and how would the evening have ended
up, if you hadn’t been interrupted by the emergency call?”

He gave her an exasperating look. “The same
way...with me rushing off a few minutes later.”

“I asked her why she gave you that book.”

“I thought I covered that. It was the first
I’d ever heard of any book. It had sad memories or something,
according to her. Did she contradict that?

“Chip, she gave you the book in the hope you
would become interested in her again. If you picked up on that, you
certainly have had plenty of time to explain it to me. You made her
sound very innocent.” She still didn’t know for certain whether he
had looked inside the book.

“I’m not stupid. Of course, that’s what she
had in mind. I thought it was obvious. I was trying to not make a
big deal out of a bothersome encounter.”

“It would be a big deal, if the romance was a
big deal.”

“Never a romance. Never a big deal.”

Her head was throbbing. “I don’t care about
your past life between the sheets. But when she’s back in the
picture, gunning for you, and I feel you’re being deceptive, it
affects my trusting you. According to her description, it appeared
to be the hot affair of the century. So part of me wants to applaud
you for having had the experience and—.”

“Her description? Wait, wait, wait, she
described sexual episodes she had with me? For chrissake, you’re a
sicko to sit and listen to something like that.”

“No! I didn’t mean she talked about it.” She
now guessed he hadn’t read the diary. He didn’t have a clue what
she was referring to. She didn’t want to discuss its existence just
yet. “I don’t know what I meant. Nevertheless, you brushed off the
whole affair as a couple of dates.”

“Here we go again. It might have been only
one. What did she say about me?”

“You smell good in bed.”

“A lucky guess.”

“It’s not funny.”

The waitress appeared and hovered politely
while Sandy finally picked up the menu. They had eaten there a few
times before, but that night the menu might as well be printed
upside down, it made no sense to her at all. “Just tell me your
special...never mind...I’ll take it.”

The server started explaining the
special.

“I said I’d take it,” Sandy snapped.

He waited until the waitress went away.
“Sandy! What’s with you?”

“You say you didn’t consummate the
relationship?”

“Consummate? What are you a lawyer or
something? We never consummated, because I never instigated.” He
leaned across the table and spoke slowly, “I want to say one thing
to you and to the American people. I did not have sexual relations
with that woman.” He waited in vain for her to at least smile.
“Okay, now that you have me thinking back on it, we went out for
drinks the first date, as I recall. At first, I thought she was
interesting. At some point, I realized she was narcissistic,
controlling, and a possible nutcase. A good rule is to never sleep
with anyone more neurotic than you are.”

“It takes a few nights to determine that, I
suppose.”

“Nights?”

“I meant dates.”

“As I recall, she was in a Defensive Driving
class I was conducting. We went out for drinks one night after
class. So, that’s one date, if you want to call it even that.”

“How many nights did the class meet?”

“Five.”

“So, you also saw her five times in
class.”

“You are becoming tiresome.” He angrily
snapped off a piece of breadstick in the corner of his mouth. “What
else can I tell you? Where are you getting your information?”

“I can’t believe I’m acting like a
schoolgirl.” She was afraid to mention the diary. “I’m too upset to
continue here.” She placed her napkin on the table and stood. “I
must sort out things in my mind. Give me time, Chip.” She turned to
leave.

He stood and called after her, “And where
does the fact, I love you, come in?” She kept walking, and all
heads turned as he slammed his napkin down on the table knocking
over his water glass.

A
fter a restless
night, Sandy phoned Chip first thing. He wasn’t answering. Served
her right for her childish behavior at the restaurant. She
absolutely must get back in control of her emotions. She left a
contrite message and went to the office. Stay busy and forget him
for the day. She was already at her desk when Martin came in and
set a huge container of takeout coffee before her.

“You’re spoiling me. I asked for a small
black. You got me one of those Super Duper Latte Deluxe jobs.”
Although she preferred the solid taste of unadulterated black
coffee, it was sweet of him to keep bringing her the jazzed-up
creation. Almost like some love offering. He’d be embarrassed to
hear it described that way.

“Can we talk?” She took a sip and decided the
fancy latte wasn’t all bad. “My first big defense case isn’t going
the way I had hoped.”

He carefully took the top off his hot coffee
and sat down in front of her desk. “You wanted the drama of an
innocent client unjustly accused and you riding to the rescue.”

“Don’t quite have that, do I? Wife shoots
philandering husband—pretty much ho-hum stuff. The trial won’t even
make the evening news. If I could get the charge reduced, and then
show a bunch of justification, maybe the jury would be
sympathetic.”

“Was she abused? Now there’s a common
defense. Then the jury gives her a medal for shooting him.”

“No abuse and I can’t just make things up. I
don’t even know what justification I could use. Their relationship
hit the rocks, but it sounded like the ordinary antagonism that
goes with a separation.”

“Except hubby took a shot at her a couple of
hours earlier,” he said.

“Good point, the prosecution will make him
out to be a threat to her—a hot-headed Latin with access to a gun.”
She thought about her last remark. “You know, he has no hot-headed
history. In fact, he was doing his thing in Miami and pretty much
ignoring her. Why all of a sudden did he turn on her and try to
kill her?”

“My guess it was over money. Since they were
divorcing, it might have something to do with some settlement they
were discussing. He didn’t like what she was demanding, or vice
versa.”

“Could be.”

“Or perhaps he wasn’t the one who fired at
her at the Community Center, and it has nothing to do with the
divorce. Who else wanted Margo dead? For that matter, who else
wanted John dead? He worked in Miami. Maybe he crossed someone down
there.”

“The prosecution will maintain it had
everything to do with the divorce. The court sent me a notice our
case is going to the grand jury tomorrow. We don’t know what
evidence Shapiro will be presenting. Of course, her attorney isn’t
permitted to attend. However, I’m certain they’re going for the
usual spousal domestic violence. I wonder how they know it was
Margo who shot him at his condo? I would love to have the evidence
come down to merely circumstantial.”

“Even then she’d still be indicted tomorrow,”
he said. “Prosecutors usually get their way with grand juries.”

“Nevertheless, the case might not be that
simple. Margo didn’t seem all that upset with him. She just moved
out and took a new boyfriend. Of course, she’s a bit of a doormat.”
She gave him a sly smile. “Could it be a love triangle? Maybe
Richie pulled the trigger.”

“Ah, the boyfriend,” he replied. “A woman
uses sex to get her boyfriend to knock off her husband. Wait until
Hollywood hears about that.”