Ice Cap (36 page)

The rest of the family was cordial enough, Tad's massive criminal enterprise having distracted everyone from the circumstances of his death, which the ADA had decided to rule an accident and save everyone a lot of complicated bother.

Being the only surviving person with full knowledge of the case, I owed a lot of my success in persuading the prosecutors to the unwavering support of Ross Semple. He'd been a homicide detective in the city for years, and still had close contacts in the Carnegie Hill precinct, at this point mostly retired. They told him they'd always suspected Saline, since the deadly overdose of the migraine medicine sumatriptan was delivered by needle, and Mr. Vargo's prescription was for pills alone. These suspicions were bolstered by statements from the couple's friends that their relationship was rocky, with Mr. Vargo apparently beginning to see other women. However, given they were both med students with easy access to pharmaceuticals, it was too hard a case to prove.

I had no problem believing it. My unproveable hypothesis had Saline as a woman for whom men were a constant disappointment. First her young boyfriend in the city, then her husband, whom she saw as an ineffectual sap. Tad himself, for whom she probably felt unrequited love (they'd lived together in that house for a lot of years—you have to wonder how unrequited), was at least a single man until he brought home Zina, which must have been a crushing disappointment. Until Zina took up with Franco, and then a little less so.

Since she'd killed the boyfriend and got away with it, and recovered from a serious emotional breakdown, the act had become no longer inconceivable but even justifiable by her own warped moral code.

Her death was the end of Saline and the question of Tad's murder, but it was just the start of another string of events, the most satisfying of which was a sting operation mounted by a team of Long Island detectives on Ivor Fleming's alchemy business, with Joe Sullivan in the lead. As predicted, containers filled with scrap metal routinely left the plant with engines and transmissions, electronic sensors and controllers, wheel assemblies and sometimes complete cars. It was yet to be seen if the trail could be followed into Brighton Beach, though I seriously doubted it.

*   *   *

And even after all that, I had one piece of unfinished business. Using old phone records, I determined that the call to Donald Pritz was indeed made from his own house, on Franco's cell phone, which he had reported lost two days before. I also tracked down the guy who had been instructed by Eliz to deliver the rotisserie at a very specific time on a very specific date and to leave it unassembled.

I uncovered some other interesting things on the big life policy Donald had taken out right before he died. The insurance carrier, whose interest aligned neatly with mine, obtained testimony from an agent that Eliz had pushed for the coverage and that Donald thought it entirely unnecessary.

With Franco's credibility at least partly restored, and safe from prosecution via double jeopardy, the ADA was willing to listen to his side of the story and reopen the case. Ross was also willing to investigate further, and the upshot of the whole thing was I got to ride in the patrol car when Southampton Town Police drove over to arrest Eliz Pritz for second-degree, premeditated murder.

I wanted to tell her she shouldn't have been so rude the last time I came to call, but by then, the impulse seemed petty.

*   *   *

Roger Angstrom got his story—actually, several stories—on the life and death of Tadzio Buczek, on Eliz Pritz, now dubbed the Black Widow of Remsenburg, and one on me. I cooperated as much as I thought client confidentiality would allow, but told him that would have to be the end of it. I apologized for any behavior that might have misled him into thinking I had any personal interest. In doing so, I reaffirmed my heart-and-soul commitment to Harry Goodlander, who, thank God, never had to know such a thing was ever in doubt.

I was at his house the night Long Island broke the all-time record for both snowfall and continuous cold temperatures. We'd set up a double bed in the living room so we could lie there and sip Champagne, nibble on pâté, and watch what turned out to be the last big blizzard of the year.

“Maybe Armageddon's not so bad,” I said.

“Adaptability. Humans are good at it.”

“We're also good at selfishness and cruelty.”

“Only a few of us. Statistically, you're far more likely to encounter acts of kindness.”

“Ever the optimist,” I said.

“Glass half full.”

“That can be remedied,” I said, using the Champagne bottle to top it off.

 

Also by Chris Knopf

Bad Bird

Short Squeeze

Black Swan

Hard Stop

Head Wounds

Two Time

The Last Refuge

 

About the Author

Chris Knopf is the author of two previous Jackie Swaitkowski mysteries,
Bad Bird
and
Short Squeeze,
and the Sam Acquillo mystery series, including
The Last Refuge, Two Time, Head Wounds
(which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery),
Hard Stop,
and
Black Swan,
as well as the stand-alone novel
Elysiana
. He lives with his wife, Mary, in Avon, Connecticut, and Southampton, New York.

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group.

ICE CAP.
Copyright © 2012 by Chris Knopf. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.minotaurbooks.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover illustration by Simon Williams

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Knopf, Chris.

Ice cap : a mystery / Chris Knopf. — 1st ed.

         p. cm.

“A Thomas Dunne book.”

ISBN 978-1-250-00517-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-01425-2 (e-book)

  1.  Women lawyers—Fiction.   2.  Hamptons (N. Y.)—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PS3611.N66I28   2012

813'.6—dc23

2012005481

e-ISBN 9781250014252

First Edition: June 2012