Forgotten Place (19 page)

"Tea would be good."

He released me and called over his shoulder,
"What can we prove, what do we suspect.  Differentiate between
evidence and suspicion, and that's how we decide what happens
next."

"We can prove that Southerby killed
Ireland.  He confessed," Crevan said. "Plus, it's not like the
guy could've shot himself in the back of the head."

"And we can prove that Journey's attack is
unrelated to her circle of friends past and present, since it's so
small," Devlin said. 

"We have suspicion but no hard evidence that
it's related to David's murder, in large part due to the fact that
Journey can't talk and can't remember what her attacker said to her
yesterday," I said. 

"We suspect that David had physical evidence
against Danny Datello that the assassin was supposed to find but
couldn't," Zack joined the conversation.

"Bingo," Johnny piped up from the
kitchen.  "Those files you brought over should be our top
priority."

"More notes than files, Johnny," Zack
said.  "But you're right.  We know that ADAs at that time
often used floppy disks to store work product before it was a
matter of record."

"I don't suppose there's a cache of floppies
in this material you brought with you.  That would be too
easy, huh?"

"Helen, if he left whatever it was laying
around, it makes this entire avenue of investigation moot, don't
you think?"

"Of course, Zack." 

Johnny cupped my elbow and steered me back
toward the sofa before handing me another cup of tea.  "We'll
get there, Doc.  Ned, are you up to a little note perusal
tonight?  Helen's got plenty of space."

"And I can help," I offered too
quickly.  Should've known better.

"You need your rest."

"We still haven't talked about what Maya and
I discovered at the morgue today," Billy said.  "It sort of
relates to this.  Maybe.  I mean, we couldn't find
anything more about Southerby's cause of death, but we did learn
that Riley Storm's first sloppy autopsy was the one he performed
right before Southerby's murder."

"Whose?"  Johnny tapped Devlin's knee
until he slid over and sat beside me on the sofa.

Maya leaned over and peered around my cup of
chai tea.  "Harry McNamara.  Were you aware that he died
three days before Southerby?"

"I seem to recall that Tony Briscoe and I
missed the funeral because we were out east extraditing Southerby
from New Jersey."

"There's another thing we know," I
said.  "Southerby was probably linked to Datello through the
Marcos crime family.  This I'm sure can be verified through
FBI records."

"Really?"  Johnny frowned. 
"Should I contact Levine?"

"Or I could."

The mouth set stubbornly.  "I don't
think so, Doc."

"Yeah, because you know he'd never take your
side in this."

"He would if he got a look at what you've
done to yourself.  Do you really want to open that door right
now?"

"Now, later, what difference does it
make?  They're busy building the case against Sully."  I
wondered for a moment if Johnny knew that Avery Ritter showed up to
question me.  Hadn't David said they left messages for
me?  Was Johnny keeping information from me?

"I'd think you've had enough people appalled
by your current condition without adding more reinforcement that
you went beyond too far."

"And you keep talking about this like it was
intentional.  Have I not gone along with your plan to make me
healthy again?"

"Technically, but not in spirit."

"You'll have to take my word for it. 
Eddie Franchetta was not the first hired gun Marcos ever
used.  Southerby was part of the team."

"We'll accept that at face value for the
time being," Johnny said.

My mind skipped backward to a detail nobody
had previously mentioned.  I turned my focus on Billy. 
"You said that McNamara died three days before Southerby."

"Right."

"And you," at Orion, "said you and Tony
missed the funeral because you were extraditing Southerby from New
Jersey."

"Uh-huh," Johnny nodded.

"Three days.  How long did it take you
to get Southerby back and in the box to question him and get his
confession before he keeled over dead?"

Johnny rubbed his goatee.  "Well, let
me see.  We got the green light from Harry to fly east after
we got the tip that Southerby was picked up on some minor charge in
Jersey day after New Year's."

"He approved the extradition that day, or
you got the tip that day?"

"Both," Johnny said.  "We're talking
about the murder of an assistant district attorney, Doc.  The
police were committed.  The public wanted justice.  So
Ned and I flew out.  It took a day to process, so we got back
here the fourth, and Southerby died on the fifth."

"So McNamara died the same day you left to
extradite Southerby?"

"I think it was the next morning," Johnny
said.

Maya pulled the autopsy report out of her
attaché case.  "Date of death was January third.  But you
missed the funeral?  How is that possible?"

"I don't see where the two of you are going
with this," Johnny said.

"Billy," Maya ignored Johnny for the moment,
"who assisted Dr. Storm on Mr. McNamara's autopsy?"

"I... uh... nobody."

"So he performed a complete postmortem
examination on the day McNamara died, determined heart failure,
collected all the samples required to rule out any other cause,
processed them, did this completely alone and was able to release
the body for burial the next day?  I doubt he'd even be
embalmed that quickly."

"Maya, are you thinking what I'm
thinking?"

She nodded at me.  "Harry McNamara
should be exhumed immediately.  We may not have Southerby's
body, but we have his."

"Wait, I thought he died of natural
causes.  The guy was sixty years old," Johnny said. 

Maya's curls tossed about her head. 
"You don't get it, Johnny.  There's no way that Riley Storm
could've done what he claimed to do that quickly to rule natural
causes or anything else.  We don't know what killed
McNamara.  If it was natural causes, why the rush to bury him
so fast?"

"Aren't most funerals a few days after
someone dies?" Zack asked.

"Who was buried first, Ireland with his
obvious cause of death, or McNamara?" I asked.

Johnny stared hard at me.  "David's
funeral wasn't held until a week and a half after his murder. 
It was before Harry's but you made your point.  McNamara was
as Catholic as I am.  There wasn't some religious rush to bury
his remains."  He clenched one fist and bounced it on his
thigh.  "We were so wrapped up with Southerby, his death and
then the weirdness that followed that nobody even questioned
it."

"Not even his wife?" Maya asked.

"I honestly don't know," Johnny said. 
"She's still around.  Maybe we should talk to her about his
health.  If she wasn't surprised by it –"

"I can do one better," Maya
interrupted.  "Let's call Shelly.  She can access the
database where fitness for duty reports are kept.  Surely if
McNamara had a heart condition, it would've been well
documented."

"Go call her now," I said.

Maya bounced into the kitchen and returned
immediately.  "Guess I'll have to use my cell phone.  The
kitchen phone appears to be missing."

"You thought I was kidding?"

She grabbed her cell and disappeared.

"There could be a logical reason for the
quick funeral," I said.  "But having been through the planning
process personally, I know it doesn't necessarily happen at the
speed of light.  When my mother died, it was a Thursday
night.  We didn't have the wake until Sunday, and the funeral
was Monday morning.  It took time to arrange the religious
nonsense, to pick flowers and a casket.  She was embalmed
quick enough, I suppose, but an autopsy hadn't been
necessary.  The cause of death was obvious."

Johnny reached for my hand, hesitated and
ultimately withdrew.  "If Harry died on the third, burying him
on the fourth was rushed.  I agree, Doc.  He could've
made arrangements for his funeral long before he died so Lucille
wouldn't have to deal with it.  My dad did the same
thing.  He didn't count on Mom going first."

"Shelly's looking it up right now," Maya
called out from the living room.  "Or rather she's got one of
the sergeants on the line looking it up for her.  She wants to
know why she wasn't invited to the meeting tonight."

"Ned, you were at Downey sixteen years
ago.  Did you go to McNamara's funeral?"

He nodded.  "It was friggin' huge,
Helen.  They held the service downtown at St. Angelo's
Cathedral.  It's the big one not far from Central
Division."

"Did you see his widow at the service?"

"Sure," he said.  "She was your typical
grief stricken woman.  If McNamara's health was ailing, she
certainly didn't act like his death was expected."

"Maya's right.  We need an order to
exhume that body so Maya can tell us how he really died," I
said.

Johnny nudged me with his shoulder. 
"What are you thinking, Doc?"

When I first arrived in Darkwater Bay, the
police commissioner and chief of police confided in me regarding a
sensitive situation that could impact their jobs.  Neither man
had stepped forward and publicly confessed, so I had no reason to
believe they weren't still being blackmailed.  Jerry Lowe
wasn't the puppet master; at least we never uncovered evidence to
prove that he was.  At the same time, he was corrupt enough
not to require an enticement to look the other way where criminal
activities were concerned.

Had I thoroughly considered the possibility
that Datello was the man behind the curtain making sure nothing
changed at Central Division?  Could it be that McNamara
wouldn't play the game and ended up paying the ultimate price for
being incorruptible?

"Who was the chief of police and police
commissioner at the time of McNamara's death?" I asked.

"Don Weber and George Hardy.  They've
been there for years, Helen," Ned said.

"I really need a
telephone," I said.  "I mean
really
need my cell phone,
Johnny.  This isn't about calling in reinforcements to get you
out of my house."

"All right, Doc."  He pulled out his
cell.  "I don't have George's number stored, but I've got
Don's.  Is that good enough?"

"I need to make this call in private."

"Now is not the time for you to be
secretive," Johnny said.  "Helen, we need to know –"

"If I'm right, you'll know soon
enough.  Everyone will.  I owe them the courtesy of
bracing for impact before they're blindsided."

When Weber answered the phone, I think he
knew why I was calling the second he heard my voice.  He
confirmed the timeline for me.  The blackmail started six
months before David Ireland was murdered and McNamara died under
questionable circumstances.  I asked if he knew why Harry's
funeral had been such a rush job.

"We assumed Lucille wanted to put everything
behind her as quickly as possible, Helen.  It was such a shock
to the community.  Harry McNamara was a legend on the
force.  In fact, I had no doubt that if he had applied for the
position of chief of police, he would've gotten the job instead of
me."

"Maybe he knew his health wasn't up to the
task."

"Nonsense," Donald said.  "Harry was
strong as a horse.  We were stunned to learn he had a heart
condition."

"He wasn't aware of the problem?"

"I can vouch for that myself."

"If our suspect is the one blackmailing you
and George, we may not be able to control how the information comes
out, Don.  I'm sorry for that."

"Don't be.  I can't speak for George,
but I took your advice to heart.  My family knows the truth,
Helen.  My children are adults, and I think they're relieved
to finally have their suspicions confirmed."

"But not your wife."

"No," he said.  "Her solution was a
divorce attorney.  I'd rather do right and remove the threat
hanging over my head than continue with the status quo."

I thought of the guillotine looming over my
neck and wondered if I had the guts to follow my own advice. 
Then again, Weber's lie was silence.  Mine involved a hell of
a lot more than that.  His coercion was a moral matter, not a
criminal one.

Chapter 17

Johnny shooed everyone out of the house by
ten-thirty and ensconced Ned in my office with the paperwork Zack
brought in a large box.

"Zack tried to back out of Saturday night,"
Johnny said.  "I took care of it."

"Do I even want to know what that
means?"

"He's picking you up at five-thirty as
planned.  Tell me what Don said."

"The blackmail started about six months
prior to McNamara's death.  I have no doubt that  Maya
will find that there was nothing natural about his death when she
gets his remains exhumed tomorrow.  We already verified two
sources that confirmed he had no preexisting heart condition."

"You have a theory about why he died, don't
you?"

I nodded.  "The day before, he
authorized the extradition of Mitch Southerby.  Instead of
letting things play out, a decision was made.  McNamara would
continue to be a problem beyond Southerby.  Jerry Lowe would
not."

"Jesus," Johnny slumped onto the chaise by
my bed.  "Datello was willing to do anything he could to keep
the police under his thumb."

"He's still working the same angle,
Johnny.  Zack told me about his efforts to find a suitable
challenger to Collangelo in the next governor's race.  He
wants to make sure that OSI stays out of the way, especially now
that he knows who OSI really is.  I'm sorry that my rash
decision with the Jackson's resulted in another mess –"