Sarah Woods Mystery Series (Volume 6) (29 page)

Chapter 13

S
andra and Earl Dotson’s condo was located on a golf course near the ocean, a ten minute drive from Bridgeport. While Carter drove, I used the internet to find out exactly what this couple did for work. Not surprisingly, Earl was a plastic surgeon. His wife worked in the office. That’s probably how they knew the Porters, through the medical profession.

When we arrived, Sandra answered the door, dressed in a silk robe. I got the distinct feeling that we’d just interrupted a romantic evening between she and her husband.

“Why are you here?” Since she had no facial expression due to the Botox, it was hard to tell what she was feeling. Her tone, however, conveyed annoyance.

“Sorry to stop by so late,” I said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“I most certainly do not. My husband and I were just about to sit down for dinner.”

“Does he know that you lied to the police for Zeb?”

She responded a moment too late.  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Did Zeb threaten you?” I said, with a sincere yet firm tone. In order for this ruse to work, I couldn’t back down. I had to sell it. “We have some damning evidence against Zeb. It would be a shame for you to go down with him.”

Her lower lip quivered. “I’d like you to leave now. I have nothing more to say to you.” With that, she shut the door in our faces.

Carter turned to me. “You understand this little ploy might backfire on us, right?”

“She’s lying. Couldn’t you tell?”

“Of course she’s lying, but we lied, too. We don’t actually have any proof that Zeb killed Julian.”

“Not yet,” I said.

As we headed back to our car in the dark, a voice prompted us to stop. Turning around, Sandra Dotson had emerged from the front door of the condo. She had removed the robe and was wearing a long cardigan sweater. “Wait,” she called out to us. “Don’t leave.”

We waited for her to approach, and when she did, there was a terrified look in her eyes. “Are they going to arrest him?”

“Zeb?” I said.

She nodded.

“Well, that depends on you. Do you want to tell us the truth, now?”

“Look,” she said, with arms wrapped around her torso to keep the sweater hugged tight. “I don’t actually remember if Zeb left the room or not. I had fallen asleep for a while.”

“You fell asleep during sex?” I asked.

She gave me an indignant stare. “No. After we both climaxed, we just sort of took a rest. I fell asleep. I assumed he did too. With all the wine beforehand, it’s not such a bad thing to have a little rest after sex.”

“Do you make a habit of falling asleep after sex?”

She hesitated as if slightly embarrassed. “Sometimes, why?”

“How long do you think you were asleep last night?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really know. I woke up when I heard the scream.”

“But you didn’t tell the detective that you’d fallen asleep?”

“No. After Zeb and I left the party before the police arrived, he called me to make sure we were on the same page. We were both in the room together the entire night.”

“Didn’t that make you a bit suspicious?”

Sandra closed her eyes and bowed her head. “I just didn’t want to get involved in the mess. Quite honestly, Julian was a train wreck, anyway. He brought it all on himself.”

I took the diamond earring out of my purse, which I had placed in a small Ziplock bag, and showed it to her. “Do you have any idea who this belongs to?”

I used the flashlight app on my cell phone to provide some light. She examined the earring from inside the baggie. “Doesn’t look familiar. Where did you find it?”

“Let me ask you this, do you know about Julian’s room in his basement?”

She looked up at me in bewilderment. “I’ve never been to their house.”

I examined her features, looking for telltale signs of deceit and decided she was speaking the truth. I returned the baggie to my pocket. “One last thing, did you happen to notice if Zeb had latex gloves with him last night?”

“Why would he have latex gloves?”

“As protection. He wouldn’t want his prints showing up on Julian’s body. Or the belt that strangled him.”

Sandra shook her head. “Sorry. I didn’t see him with latex gloves.”

“I’m sorry we showed up at your home like this,” I said, gesturing to her husband, standing in the window, watching the three of us talking in the street. “Hope you can still enjoy the rest of your evening.”

She eyed me warily. “You two aren’t part of the swinging crowd, are you?”

“Not really,” I said. “Carter and I decided we’re just not into it.”

* * *

“Do you believe her story, that she and Zeb fell asleep?” Carter asked as we drove home.

I thought about his question and something occurred to me. “Last night, do you remember that Zeb had specifically asked Sandra to join him in a private bedroom?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, perhaps he did that, knowing that she had a tendency to fall asleep after an orgasm. He knew he could slip out of the room and she’d never know.”

“Sure,” Carter said. “But how would he have known that Julian arrived and what room he was in?”

“Think about it, Julian was quite rowdy after he started snorting cocaine. Everyone in the house probably knew he’d arrived at that point.”

Carter rubbed his eyes in agitation. “Why are we beating our heads against the wall over this guy? Julian was a creep. Maybe it’s a good thing he’s dead. Let’s let the cops handle it from now on, okay?”

“Aren’t you the least bit interested in what Julian’s been hiding in his safe?”

He paused to look at me with that classic Carter expression. “No, I don’t care.”

I chuckled. “Liar!”

Chapter 14

A
t 9:00 a.m. the next morning, Detective James was already waiting in the lobby of Julian’s law office downtown, waiting for Carter and me to arrive with the key to the safe.

Julian’s secretary, a well-endowed young hottie, led us down the corridor and stopped short of Julian’s closed office door. “It’s a mess. The partners were in there all day yesterday, trying to salvage his pending cases.”

Sure enough, Julian’s office looked like it had been ransacked. All his desk drawers were open, some laying on the floor as if yanked out in a hurry.

Carter immediately began looking through the closets, and it didn’t take long to find the safe. I gave the key to Detective James, to let him do the honors.

With one simple turn, the small metal door opened easily. The detective reached inside and pulled out a small device. “Looks like a thumb drive. Did anyone bring a laptop?”

Back in the car, I booted up my laptop and inserted the thumb drive. Within a few seconds, audio of several male voices began talking. Finally the camera came into focus, and we could see Julian’s face close up. Except, he looked about twenty years younger. He seemed to be adjusting the camera in place and then walked away. In the background, it looked like a dorm room with band posters on the wall. Sitting on the single bed was a much younger version of Bob Porter. He was chugging a beer, laughing, talking about some football game they had been to earlier in the night. Julian grabbed his own beer and joined him on the bed. I got the sense that Bob had no idea he was being recorded. Over the next ten minutes, the two boys continued to drink and talk about some girls they knew. Julian offered Bob cocaine, but he declined. Julian eventually convinced Bob to take a pill.

I had an eerie prediction about where this was all headed.

The video continued in the same manner for another ten or fifteen minutes. More drinking and talking. Pretty soon, I could see a change in Bob’s demeanor. He was getting woozy and gradually came to lie down on the bed, eyes closed.

What Julian did next, well, sadly, it didn’t surprise me. He began stripping off Bob’s clothes and his own.

We forced ourselves to watch the rest of the video, which lasted all of twenty-six minutes, but there was no doubt about it, Julian had given his friend a drug to knock him unconscious, and then proceeded to rape him.

When the video ended, Carter rolled down the window. “That was painful to watch.”

James was clearly in a state, himself. He seemed too disgusted to speak.

“Why do you think Julian held on to this after all these years?” I asked. “I can’t imagine Bob knows about it. If he did, how could he remain friends with him twenty years later?”

“Julian was obviously bisexual,” Carter said. “He probably struggled with that his whole life. Doesn’t excuse rape, though.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Bob was not a consenting adult in that video. A better question to ask, though, is why he kept this video in a safe? He was obviously afraid that Bob would find out, right?”

The detective placed the thumb drive into an evidence bag and marked it with a black pen. “There’s another way to look at this. Maybe Julian showed the video to Bob and used it to blackmail him.”

“For money?” Carter asked.

“Why not,” I said. “Julian wasn’t as financially sound as people thought. He had to cancel his life insurance to save money. Maybe he became desperate and decided to take advantage of his friendship with Bob.”

“Take advantage?” Carter said. “More like demolishing the friendship. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t blame Bob Porter if he killed Julian over this.”

The detective gave him a warning look. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Anyway, looks like I need to bring Bob Porter back to the station for more questions.”

I cringed. “You’re not going to show him the video, are you?”

“I haven’t decided, yet. We’ll see where it goes.”

Chapter 15

W
ithin the hour, Bob Porter was summoned back to the police station to answer more questions. James promised to call me when it was over. He was still undecided as to whether or not he’d show Bob the video we found in Julian’s safe.

Meanwhile, James had his men checking Bob Porter’s bank accounts to determine if there’d been large cash withdrawals in recent history to support the theory of blackmail.

Carter and I grabbed a quick lunch and discussed our options. “I know you’d prefer to back out of this investigation,” I said to him, “but I still think Zeb is the killer.”

“I tend to agree with you,” he said. “Plus, why would Bob kill Julian in his own house? Although, if you consider reverse psychology, maybe it was a brilliant decision.”

As I sipped a cup of coffee, my mind wouldn’t stop. “As far as that video goes, one thing doesn’t add up. After Bob was raped, wouldn’t he have figured out what happened after he woke up? I mean, not to be gross, but certain body parts would be sore. Bob’s not a stupid guy. He’d put two and two together.”

Carter nodded. “I was thinking the same thing, but if Bob truly thought his friend raped him, would he keep being his friend twenty years later? Doesn’t make sense.”

“I have an idea. Are you game?”

Carter paid the bill. “We’ve already come this far. Might as well keep going.”

* * *

When we showed up at the Porter’s home around 1:00 p.m., June had a terrified look on her face. “Sarah, please don’t tell me they’ve arrested my husband.”

“No, I don’t think so. We just stopped by to see how you’re doing. You got a minute?”

She invited us inside. “I’ve been better. At least our home is our own again. Although, with all this suspicion floating around, I have a feeling our lives will never go back to normal.”

I reached into my purse and pulled out the baggie with the earring in it. “I believe this is yours,” I said. “I found it the other night. I meant to give it to you.”

She took one glance at it and smiled. “Where did you find it? I’ve been looking all over for that thing. I thought I’d lost it for good.” She took the earring and put it in her pocket. “Thank you.”

“That’s interesting,” I said, taking out my camera to show her the picture of the earring under Julian’s table. “When I found the earring inside Julian’s sex dungeon last night, Kristina had no idea who it belonged to, but you just answered my question.”

The color in June’s face almost matched the color of her red hair. She was struck speechless.

“So,” I said. “How many times did you visit the sex dungeon?”

She swallowed hard. “Kristina actually showed you that room?”

“I already knew about it. Now, I’m wondering. Did you agree to be Julian’s sex slave if he promised not to leak the video?”

I could tell by the frightened look in her eyes that she knew which video I was referring to. “Did you see it?”

“Yes. Julian kept it in the safe at his office. The big question is, does your husband know about it?”

“No.” June bowed her head and took a deep breath. “Julian showed it to me for the first time about three months ago. The bastard gave me an ultimatum. Either I agree to his terms, or he would send the video to all of my husband’s colleagues, patients, family members, you name it. I had no choice.”

“And you never told your husband any of this?”

“No. Knowledge of that video existing would crush him. He would lose his focus, and if that happened, his career would suffer.” She gave us an imploring look. “But, I didn’t kill Julian. Believe me, I’d thought about it many times, but I didn’t do it. Neither did Bob.”

I had a hunch there was more to the story. Something that June would never want to admit. “Did you like being his sex slave?”

She looked away, and I knew my assumptions had been correct. “At first, it was horrible. I was sickened by it. But after a while, I guess... well, he never actually hurt me. At least, not too much. I could handle it.”

“How often would you go over there?” Carter asked. “Did Bob have any clue what you were up to?”

“Bob has no idea. Kristina goes away often, so we had plenty of opportunity.” Her expression changed as she said, “Dear Lord, that detective doesn’t plan to show Bob that video, does he?”

“I don’t know what he intends to do,” I said. “But just prepare yourself, in case he does.”

June’s eyes began tearing up. “My husband did not kill Julian, and neither did I. We’ll take polygraphs if we have to. I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t show that video to my husband. Please!”

* * *

It was 3:00 p.m. by the time Detective James was done with Bob’s interrogation.  After all was said and done, he was free to go home.

“Bob did several things right,” James explained to us in his office. “First, he didn’t summon a lawyer. Second, he agreed to take a polygraph test, which he passed with flying colors. When I asked him about the home video, he truly did not know what I was talking about. Furthermore, he clearly stated that his wife never left the room during the time of Julian’s death.”

“If the Porters are off the hook,” I said. “That still leaves us with Zeb Nichols or Sandra Dotson.”

The detective picked up his phone and read a text message. “Looks like Julian’s body is being released to the undertaker this afternoon. There’s a wake scheduled for tomorrow morning and they have to get the body prepared. I need to meet with the Medical Examiner and finalize the release.”

It had only been two days. Kristina had wasted no time in making arrangements. “So, what do we do now? Zeb has to be our guy, right? Sandra Dotson fell asleep, so she can’t exactly be his alibi for Julian’s murder.”

“Considering Mr. Nichols’ violent past, he’s our number one suspect at the moment,” James said. “As soon as I can get a judge to sign off on a search warrant, we’ll check his apartment, and hopefully, we can find something in there that will connect him to the crime.”

* * *

On our way home around 4:30 p.m., Carter and I decided to take a detour through the south side of town, in an area known to locals as The Village, where Zeb Nichols lived in a low income housing apartment. “Looks like he’s home.” Carter pointed to the red Honda in the parking lot, the one that had different colored doors and no hubcaps.

“We probably shouldn’t be here,” I said.

Carter handed me a baseball cap from a box he keeps in his back seat; said box contained a variety of disguise items for covert operations. “Zeb has only seen us once, so I doubt he’ll catch on.”

“Why are we here, by the way? Just for fun?”

Carter put on a Red Sox cap, which totally didn’t go with the black leather jacket. “I’ve been thinking about Zeb and Madeline and Mr. Kinlaw.”

“And?”

“Well, we know that Madeline and Zeb were both involved in the prostitution industry. Madeline met Mr. Kinlaw the millionaire, and they marry. She doesn’t have to turn tricks anymore and now can live in the lap of luxury. Lucky break. Kinda like the movie, Pretty Woman.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Stuff like that doesn’t happen in the real world. Call me a cynic, but the scenario seems unrealistic to me.”

“People fall in love,” I said. “It happens, even if it doesn’t make sense.”

“You mean to tell me, with all of Kinlaw’s wealth and resources, he would end up choosing a prostitute to be his wife? Really? I mean, Madeline is a cute girl, but she doesn’t seem like the sharpest tack in the bunch.”

“Like I said. Love doesn’t have to make sense. It just does whatever it wants.”

Carter pointed through the windshield toward the first floor apartment. The sliding glass doors had no curtains or blinds. We could see a man’s profile through the window. Whoever he was, he appeared frantic as he paced the room. “I think that’s Zeb.”

It was hard to tell for sure, although the guy was dressed in black The vampire. “Maybe he knows the police are on to him, and he’s getting antsy.”

With binoculars in hand, Carter made adjustments to the lenses as he peered through them. “He’s talking on the phone, and he looks pissed.”

“I wonder if someone tipped him off. We just left the police station twenty minutes ago. How could he possibly know that he’s in trouble?”

“Maybe his phone conversation has nothing to do with Julian, but he’s not a happy camper either way.”

“I’d love to know who he’s talking to.”

“Wait a second. There’s a backpack on the table in his kitchen. He just pulled out a stack of cash. I’m thinking they’re not one dollar bills.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Carter placed the binoculars in his lap and looked at me. “Someone paid Zeb to kill Julian?”

“Any other reason you can think of why he’d have that kind of cash lying around?”

“Maybe Madeline gave him enough cash to get out of the country before he’s arrested.”

“Should we call the detective and warn him that Zeb could be a flight risk?”

Carter shook his head. “Not yet. I wanna stay here and see what he does. If he starts packing his stuff, then we make the call. We should sit tight and wait for him to make the first move to leave town.”

A troubling thought occurred to me. I didn’t want to believe it. “What if Kristina paid Zeb to kill Julian?”

“I thought you said he didn’t have life insurance.”

“He doesn’t. But maybe she didn’t kill him for money. There could be some other reason.”

“Like what? Revenge for all the other women he’s been screwing?”

“No,” I said. “I truly don’t think she cared about the other women.”

“She was about to get a divorce. Why would she need to kill him if not for the money?”

“I don’t know. There’s something I’m missing here.”

After another hour of watching Zeb’s apartment, it appeared as though he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. Maybe he wasn’t planning to skip town after all. The money might not have anything to do with Julian’s death.

By 6:30 p.m., we decided to head home.

I took a shower, put on pajamas, and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Carter was reading the local news online and he didn’t seem pleased.

“More stuff about Julian’s murder on the news?” I asked.

“No. It’s Rachel Webber. She just got sentenced for five years in prison.”

I had to sit down. “Are you serious?”

Rachel Webber was the woman involved in our last big case a few months prior. The CEO of Hi-Tek Solutions hired us to find proof that Rachel had embezzled money from the company. We eventually got that proof, but it was a bittersweet victory. Rachel, a wife and mother of two young children, had seemed like such a kind person. The family had fallen on hard times when her husband Mike was laid off. She felt desperate and made some poor decisions that ultimately landed her in jail. “What the heck is her husband Mike going to do with those kids?”

“I don’t know,” Carter said. “But it stinks. I was kinda hoping they’d show her some leniency. I mean, it’s not like she killed anyone. Just trying to keep a roof over her family’s head.”

“You know how it is. They had to make an example of her.”

“I know, but five years behind bars seems excessive.”

“C’mon.” I grabbed his hand and lead him into the bedroom. “Let’s go to bed. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”