CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Detective Connery had the decency to wait until the area had cleared before he proceeded to embarrass the hell out of Elaine. Silas’s plan seemed to be going well for Silas, but it inevitably left her backside sticking out for everyone to see with a “kick me” sign on it.
“May I speak with you privately?” Connery asked her, sounding like her father would before giving her a good scolding.
“Of course,” she said.
He paused to give his attention to Slye, who’d returned as he’d predicted in time to see everyone leaving the library. “Any luck with those lab reports?”
Slye smiled, handing him a couple of papers. “You know that little filly downtown has a crush on me,” he said. “She stayed up all night so she could give me this information.”
“Or maybe she speeded up the process just to get rid of you,” Connery said, examining each paper carefully. “Either way, your influence has been invaluable.”
“Thank you,” Slye said. “I think.”
“Why don’t you go upstairs and recheck Friday’s surveillance tapes. Confiscate them all and write up a report.”
Slye nodded, and then gazed at Elaine with a pair of I-gotcha eyes. He trotted up the stairs Lois had taken a few minutes before to do as he’d been instructed.
“Come with me,” Connery told her, folding up the papers in his hands and then putting them in one of his breast pockets. Elaine followed him down the hall and to Katerina’s outer office. Pausing only to remove the police ribbon and unlock the door, he held it open for her. After following her inside, he closed the door behind them.
A staring match took place between them until he said, “Please, have a seat.” She did, and Connery sat down on one of the reception chairs and crossed his arms. “You can come in anytime you want and clean up the office. We’re done in here.”
“All right.”
“I don’t envy you the job you’ve got waiting for you in that bathroom. Lois will want to call in carpenters as soon as possible for repairs, I’m sure.”
“Yes, I understand,” Elaine said, nodding.
“Now tell me, what are you and Silas up to?”
“Silas is desperate to find out who killed his father.”
“We all are.” He sighed. “I don’t want to see two good people get into trouble for obstruction of justice, or for interfering with a police investigation.”
“Neither do I, sir.”
“Then we agree. You’ll stop playing detective and let us do our job.”
“I will, but I can’t speak for Silas.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. I’ll be talking to him as well. Do you know where I can find him?”
“I saw him talking to Tasia after the will had been read.”
“Those two have a lot to talk about.”
“Sir?”
“Carl Kastenmeier gave them equal control of all of his assets. Everything he owned is theirs now, including this house and one in California, Texas, and a penthouse in New York City. They got all of his cars, the business, other real estate, the horses…. Everything.”
Elaine looked surprised. “No kidding?”
He shook his head. “The only exception was the Lamborghini.”
“One of his cars?”
“Yes. That one he gave outright to Tasia because he said he couldn’t decide which of the two was faster.”
“A little humor,” she said. “I didn’t think he had it in him.”
“All told, his assets total well over six hundred and fifty million dollars.”
“Wow! What about Lois? Didn’t she get anything?”
“Lois got a roof over her head and three squares a day. As soon as she remarries, she’s got nothing.”
Snickering, Elaine said, “Now there’s a keen example of Mr. Kastenmeier’s generosity. The polo ponies probably got a better deal than his wife did.”
“You’re right about that,” he said, and then paused. “Detective Slye and I have had the chance to interview all twenty-four people who’d attended Carl’s last meeting on Friday.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“It took most of last night and several hours this morning.”
“What did you find out?”
“Based on what people had to tell me, the name card issue is that much more interesting.”
“How so?”
“Well, before I get specific, I’d like to talk to Silas about the cards.”
“He’s been dying to look at them. As far as he’s concerned, the answer is right there in that box.”
“He may be right.”
Looking past Connery, Elaine watched as Silas walked past a bay window, studying the ground religiously. “Well, he’s right outside,” she said, pointing, so Connery turned around to see for himself. “What is he doing?”
“Let’s go find out.”
Elaine and Detective Connery went out the side door and followed Silas around the house. They ended up next to the room with the indoor swimming pool. The moment Silas saw Connery approach, he said, “Detective, you’ve analyzed this spot next to this window, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I have.”
“What did you find?”
“One shoe print in the topsoil next to that spirea bush. We lifted it yesterday.”
“A size seven?”
“Six-and-a-half.”
“It appears to be a woman’s pump. The assailant was either a female, or he was wearing women’s shoes.”
“The print is too small for any of the men who are suspects, that’s for sure.” Connery’s brow narrowed. “What size are you, son?”
“A woman’s size six-and-a-half would be too big for me to wear,” Silas said, sticking his foot out. “See for yourself.”
Smiling, Connery said, “Yes, I see that,” but never looked at the boy’s feet.
Silas looked up, observing the top edge of the house where the mansard roof started. “I’ve noticed something else about this spot.”
Connery nodded. “I have, too.”
“What?” Elaine said, but no one answered right away.
Although Silas stepped away from the house, he was still looking up at it. “The surveillance cameras are positioned such…”
“…that the spot next to this window isn’t covered because of the angle of the house,” Connery concluded for the boy.
“Which means the killer left by climbing out of this window, and the cameras didn’t record it because this area isn’t accessible to any of them.”
“Exactly,” Connery confirmed.
“Did the killer enter the house the same way?” Elaine asked, looking from Connery to Silas, and then back again.
“No,” Silas said. “He left this way, but he didn’t come in this way.”
“The window had been unlocked from the inside,” Connery said. “Residual footprints left behind tell me that the killer was in a hell of a hurry and had no time to conceal them.”
“How did he get in, then?” Elaine asked.
“He was already inside the house,” Silas said. “I’d say he came in through the front door. What does that tell you about John, Detective?”
“John Linton was killed last instead of first as we’d originally thought.” Connery shrugged. “So we’re left with one question.”
“Where was Sam Giles all this time?” Silas deduced.
Connery smiled with a nod. “There is one other thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I want you to take a look at the name cards in the box and tell me if anything is unusual about them.”
“Of course I will,” Silas said, leading the way back to his father’s office.
When they got inside the office, Silas walked over to the box of name cards on Carl’s desk and then paused. “May I touch them?” he asked, and Connery nodded.
Silas took the cards out one at a time, examining each thoroughly. They’d been taken out of their vinyl badge holders and had been dusted for prints. “I
know Marlon’s card is still missing,” he said.
“It is, but I’m not too concerned about it.”
“Why? Because he doesn’t have size six-and-a-half feet?”
The detective smiled at the boy. “No, because he doesn’t wear lady’s pumps.”
“Only the women at the meeting are suspects?”
“That’s right.”
“There were seven at the meeting.”
“Keep looking at the cards, Silas,” Connery insisted. “Tell me if you see anything unusual.”
“Did you find something in here?” he asked, but the detective didn’t answer. Elaine didn’t think he would, and neither did Silas. But it was worth a try.
Elaine stood beside Connery, her arms folded, and examined the room while waiting. It’d been a long time since she’d been permitted to go in there, and everything looked different somehow.
Her eyes settled on a small snapshot of Tasia on a shelf behind the desk. Tasia was sitting on one of the benches in the courtyard, with her legs drawn up and leaning over to one side. She was all smiles. Wearing a red tank top, white shorts, and brown leather sandals, she couldn’t have been much older than thirteen. Carl was also in the photograph, and he was sitting close beside her with his head against hers. He was wearing casual clothes as well, gray sweats, as if he’d just finished jogging. Why, he was even smiling, too, and his arm was around her as if he really cared. To an outsider looking in, it would’ve been easy to mistake him for a loving, responsible man.
When Silas picked up Nicolette Howard’s name card, he gave it a good look and then shook his head.
“What is it?” Connery asked him.
“This isn’t the card I printed.”
“You did all the rest?”
“Yes, I did, but this isn’t the one I printed for Nicolette.”
“How can you tell?”
“The title is wrong,” he said. “I didn’t know for sure if she’d be promoted or not that day, so I typed up several cards but chose the one which represented her current position.” Silas looked at Connery. “And this isn’t it.”
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The ink used to print her card was from the printer in Katerina’s office,” Connery said, gesturing toward it from where he was standing.
“Wait, I printed all the cards out on the printer in my room. I used my own equipment because I wasn’t feeling well. Dad wanted me to stay out of the office because scarlet fever is contagious. He was obsessed with staying healthy and was always afraid of getting sick.”
“We also found traces of blood on the ‘N’ key of Katerina’s computer. It was your father’s blood.”
“Are you telling me that Nicolette killed my father and then took the time to print a different card?”
“I believe she was torturing your father when he grabbed the badge holder off the clothes she was wearing. She tried to get it back, but he…”
“…swallowed the card inside it before she got the chance.”
“Yes. So concerned by the implications of any badge holder being missing from the box, she decided to print another and put it back in there, using a different badge holder.”
“What about the explosion?” Elaine said. “Where did she find the time to do all that while everyone in the house was rushing in to see what was happening?”
“Nicolette must have believed my father was dead before she started printing the new card. Badly injured but not dead, he was aroused enough to kick over the jar of ether in the cabinet under the sink. That would explain why Nicolette doesn’t have any burns on her arms or legs. She wasn’t in the room when the ether detonated.”
“And after the explosion,” Connery added, “there wasn’t enough time for her to go back in and finish him off.”