The Swap Ch. 04

"Certainly not necessary." I replied, then turned to the Chief. "What about Willoughby?"

"Warrant is issued." Chief Griswold replied. "Ikea is making the bust, but I forced him to take Hewitt along. That should be amusing."

It was not long before Willoughby was in Interrogation-1, having been formally charged, processed and booked. His lawyer, an elderly man with hard features that I did not know, was with him. Even Ikea's methods of interrogating perps failed to move the man; it quickly became clear that Willoughby was adamantly denying being involved in the murder of Anthony Warner.

As we watched the interrogation, the Chief whispered, "Do you think they might have murdered Warner because he found out about the treason?"

"No." I said. "Warner would've called the FBI already if he'd found out, and Muscone said they learned about the treason from another source. He wouldn't tell me who that source was, but he doesn't have to; I'm not as dumb as I may look."

"And to think you're mother is even better than you at observation and deduction." the Chief said. "Jesus I almost feel sorry for the punks infiltrating the Police Force when the two of you start wiping them out..."

I just smiled. The Chief and I agreed not to bring up the treason issue with the other Detectives unless Willoughby or Sommes brought it up under questioning: the FBI would be coming in for that in the near future, and we didn't want to spoil their case. So nothing about that would be mentioned.

Part 20 - The Winding Road

At the 5:00pm meeting with the Chief, only myself, Cindy Ross, Teresa Croyle, Martin Nash, and Hugh Hewitt attended, it being Saturday after all. Teresa informed us that Willoughby was cooperative enough on the embezzlement charges in order to get a reduced sentence, but most importantly to me: he was strongly denying that he had anything to do with Warner's murder.

"Don, you think Willoughby or Sommes are involved in the murder?" the chief asked. All eyes were on me.

"I'm having a hard time seeing it from the logic point of view." I said. "In fact, Warner's death was the worst possible thing that could've happened to them: only his death had the police crawling all over DynaCorp."

"Wasn't Warner meeting with outside lawyers that specialize in corporate breakups?" Martin Nash observed. "Maybe Warner got wind of the embezzling and was talking to the outside lawyers to cut Willoughby out of the company"

"Good observation, Martin." I said. "Really good. And you might well be right about that. I'd been thinking that Warner made those consultations in preparation for removing his sister from the board... but you might be right."

"But to bust my own theory, we get to the alibis." Nash said. "Sommes was not in the Board meeting, but was waiting outside with a couple of other aides to Board members, and of course Warner was in with the Board. When they came out, Warner went his own way and back towards the exit to his car, and no one went with him. Sommes talked to Willoughby, then Sommes walked out to the main parking lot with others. Willoughby remained inside, but was never unattended."

"What about a hired hit?" the Chief asked.

"If they've been embezzling," Cindy said, "then they may have associates in Organized Crime. They could've hired a hit man to kill Warner."

"We have nothing at all there." I said. "Myron has found nothing in data searches. I've contacted some people in the City, including Robin Ventura of the City Police, Ted Crenshaw of the SBI, and Jack Muscone of the FBI. They quietly asked around, and are not getting any word that anyone made a hired hit on Warner."

"Also, I need to say this." I said. "I know we have to go where the facts and the evidence lead us. But my instincts are entirely against Willoughby and Sommes being involved in the murder. It would be the worst possible 'solution' for them, even if Warner had found them out. Why bother hiding a golf cart near the fence, and cutting the fence? That's a badly unnecessary finesse. No, I think the killer actually did leave the scene in that golf cart, indicating that this was a pre-planned murder with thought given all the way through to the getaway phase."

"And let's put ourselves in Willoughby and Sommes's place: even if you hired a hit, would any of you want Warner to be murdered at a time and place where you are in his physical vicinity? Wouldn't you want to be halfway across town.... halfway...."

"Uh oh, there he goes again." said Cindy as I fell into deep introspection. When I came out of it, I stood up and went to the large map of the Town & County that was on the wall.

"River Valley Golf Club is here, to the northwest, near the wealthier neighborhoods in town." I said. "Ward Harvester is down here to the west, in the industrial district, but County Farm Road 5 is a quick and straight shot between them, as we all know all too well." We knew that from personal experience, remembering my fateful drive along that road before the near-fatal confrontation with Ned at Ward Harvester.

"The Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse is here, just north of downtown." I said, pointing out the location. "Not far at all from the Kensington suburbs, though a bit of a distance on busy streets to get up to River Valley. That's a big-time piece of the puzzle, though it's no proof of anything."

No one in the room said a word, they were trying to follow my train of thought as it left the station.

"Oh, and just one other thing." I said, sitting back down. "Remember that the perp either had to time his movements precisely with Warner's so that he was opening the back door just as Warner was cranking the car, -OR- he had to be waiting in the backseat."



"But that's not possible, there was that security system." Hugh said.

"No, it's possible..." I said. "if the system were turned off. And the likeliest explanation of that is that the killer had the spare set of keys to Warner's car."

"If that's like most families, that would mean Mrs. Warner had those keys." the Chief said. "But there's her alibi again."

"Agreed. Karla Warner absolutely did not kill her husband herself." I said. "But I believe the killer was lying in wait in the backseat and therefore did have the keys."

"So what does that mean?" Hugh Hewitt said.

"That I need some evidence... Dammit! I need some evidence!" I said.

"Bingo, Boss!" said Myron Milton as he burst through the door, Goth Girl Mary in tow. "I think we've got what you need."

"Miss Mahoney, is that any way for a police officer to dress in these Headquarters?" the Chief growled. Mary was wearing goth makeup a tight black t-shirt that underscored how big and luscious her breasts were, black leather pants that molded her her lovely legs all the way down to her slender ankles, and very high heel black patent-leather pumps. She looked extremely hot. I could also tell the Chief was not as serious as he sounded.

"Chief, I'm in the Dungeon all day." Mary said, completely unafraid. "Besides, if it gets this guy motivated, isn't it worth it?" General laughter was not successfully repressed, and little by little everyone began laughing, even the Chief.

"And this guy is good, too." Mary said, pointing at Myron. Yes, that was Myron-worship in her eyes.

"Whaddya got, Milton?" the Chief asked.

"Don asked me to get info on burner phones and their locations the night of the murders. We found two numbers of interest." Myron said, handing me the numbers that were listed on a sheet of paper so I could write them down. "The nearest tower for Number 1 is the Kensington subdivision, but Thursday night that number pinged off of the tower nearest The River Valley Golf Club. Number 2 has pinged around the area where DynaCorp is located, then it pinged off a downtown cell near the Ladies Clubhouse, then pinged... in Kensington."

"Is that what you need, Don?" the Chief asked.

"It's close enough." I said. "We're going to have to do a little trickeration to get some people to talk or confess, but I think my theory has facts behind it now.

"So why don't you share your theory with all of us... especially Miss Ross." the Chief said, an amused gleam in his eyes.

"Yes, please!" said Cindy Ross, her eyes boring into me.

"Okay.... have you guys ever seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie Strangers On A Train?"

To be continued.