do?”
“Now, we wait, Carter.”
Carter cursed on his way out the door. Waiting wasn’t his strong suit.
*****
The next morning, on a whim, Matt called Triplett. “Maybe we should meet. I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing.” He wasn’t going to mention the Cisco thing, only the Stone ploy.
Triplett scoffed. “Poking your nose into places you shouldn’t,
I suspect. I don’t have time to meet with you, Dawson. Tell me on the phone.”
So, Matt told him about Warner’s threat to Sarah after her San Francisco liaison with Reid. Matt also explained Warner’s reaction when he publicly announced Sarah’s liaison with Reid at the Poway rally. He added the fact that Stone was having an affair with Jennifer while Aaron was still alive.
“He also helped her buy the gun that killed Aaron,” Matt
said.
Triplett scoffed at the affair news. “I’ve read the transcripts of the trial, Dawson. You got a mistrial out of that case by raising hell when the DA mentioned it. Now, you’re saying he was right! You just jump on whatever suits you, don’t you? Don’t you have any scruples?”
“I look at the facts, Triplett. Something you and the DA seem to find a burden. You want to skim by on supposition. If the DA had had the facts, he would have pursued it. He just thought he had a slam-dunk and didn’t follow up. So don’t talk to me about scruples!”
“Fuck off, Dawson. Do you have anything important to say? I’ve heard the shit you’ve been throwing around before, in one form or another.”
“Stone kept the gun in his office until somehow Jennifer Schofield ended up with it the night her husband was lured to the house by a mysterious phone call. I found that suspicious. And, before you interrupt, Stone bought a throwaway phone with a square shape that matched the bruise on the side of Jennifer’s head. The phone in the dead man’s hand was a rounded shape.”
Triplett muttered something unintelligible then said, “That wasn’t in the transcript,” he managed to say.
Matt continued. “Carter discovered what I’ve just told you and thought you ought to know in light of the attacks on both of us.”
“You think they’re related? They were professional hits.”
Matt shrugged. “Just letting you know in case we get hit again. Jennifer has Vegas contacts. She could have passed them on to Stone.”
Triplett scoffed. “So, you’re asking for protection for you and Carter?”
“No, just helping you do that thing you do, protect and serve.”
“Okay. You’ve made your disclosure. I’ll file a report and if
you turn up dead, either of you, I’ll interview Stone and Dr. Schofield and they’ll laugh at me and I’ll close my file.”
“Your concern is touching.” Triplett hung up.
*****
Matt called Carter about Triplett’s response.
Carter said. “Even though Triplett made it sound like we were
full of shit, you can bet he’ll be thinking about what you said. Underneath all that bullshit he puts out in front, he’s a pretty good cop.”
“I’m not sure I agree with you but I did what I think I should have done. Made a disclosure.”
“Right now, I’m more concerned about Stone. Why didn’t he call? Do you think he dismissed what you said as total bullshit, not worth getting upset over or something else? That might mean we’re way to hell off track.”
“Could be. We may have to re-think the Stone tree.”
“Hold up on that we stuff, Matt. As I recall, you’re the
thinking part of this team.”
“Touché, Carter.”
“So, anything else you want me to do?”
Matt couldn’t think of anything. “Could be, old buddy, we’ve run out of things to do. I might look at office space and move on.”
“First sensible thing you’ve said in days, Matt. I was beginning to think there wasn’t a God.”
“Yeah.” Matt said.
He went for a jog, showered and, after putting out Cat’s dinner,
went to Denny’s for his usual. He took his time, even had an extra cup of coffee before heading home. The phone hadn’t rung.
He drove past the house twice as he had been doing. Seeing nothing, he pulled into his front yard ruts, parked and went inside. From the fridge, he took out a bottle of beer and would have gone to the back patio to enjoy it and watch the beachgoers but only got one step. Stone stepped from the bedroom Sarah had used. There was no smile on his face, but he did have a gun in his hand.
“Yours, I believe,” he said, “I found it in your bedroom. Not smart to keep a gun under your pillow. First place anybody looks.”
“How’d you get in?” Matt asked. His habit since Sarah was killed was to lock his doors before going out.
“You gave Jennifer a key,” he said, grinning. “I imagine you forgot that, didn’t you?”
“I did.” Trying to rile Stone up, Matt said, “But, I didn’t forget all that wild sex Jennifer and I had in the bedroom. Damn, she is one hot woman.”
Stone’s face hardened. He moved half a step forward and drew back with Matt’s pistol to hit him, but stopped and smiled.
“Shut the fuck up, Dawson. I know you’re lying. You never touched her. She was just stringing you along and it worked. You fell in love and sacrificed your career and your assets to keep her out of jail. We both appreciate your efforts on our behalf and all the money you spent. We’re living high on the hog thanks to you. And you, well, you’re having to scrape by in this dump.”
Trying to get Stone to do something wrong, Matt edged to his left without taking his eyes off Stone, in particular off the pistol in his hand. He was ready to throw himself at the taller man if he saw his finger squeezing the trigger. Stone let him move until Matt had ended up against the wall.
Stone laughed. “Well, well, I think you’ve reached a dead end.” Stone stepped forward. “No place for you to go. This is how it’s going to look to the cops when they get here, Dawson.
Somebody broke in and shot you.”
“I think you’d better leave now, if you know what’s good for you,” Matt told him.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to do any negotiating.”
“You killed Schofield, didn’t you?” Matt asked.
“What do you care? You’re about to die yourself. The man dug his own grave. When Jen called him on screwing every woman in town, he told her to file. He wanted all the property and wanted to pay no alimony. He laughed when she asked for the money she’d put in the house. He was a selfish bastard and deserved to die, but Jen couldn’t hit the side of a barn. I made sure.” He laughed.
“You’re going to be sorry, Stone,” Matt said.
“I sure as hell won’t! Why should I be? You’re stalling for time, Dawson? Hell, nobody’s coming to save your meddling ass. Your friend gets it next if he doesn’t tuck tail and quit asking questions.”
“Why’d you kill Sarah?”
“We’ve finished talking, Dawson. When you get to hell, ask the devil. He should know.”
“You’re right, Stone, We have finished but you’re about to catch hell.” Matt waved a finger at him.
Stone pointed the revolver and laughed. “Kiss my ass, Dawson. Good bye.” He reached his finger around the trigger.
Just then, Cat, who had been standing with bowed back, hair on end, tail wagging in his attack mode, lowered himself, let out a blood curdling scream and leaped at Stone who had ended up standing in front of his food bowl as he turned to follow Matt’s shifting move. He landed on Stone’s right leg and bit into the meaty part of his thigh, all the while, his back legs clawed furiously at Stone’s knee and lower leg.
Stone jumped back and screamed but it did little good. With a glance down, he saw Cat chewing and clawing. He swung the
pistol at Cat’s head, catching him solidly and knocking him to the floor. That was all the opening Matt needed. H
e drove into Stone stomach with his shoulder, propelling him backward over the kitchen table. It collapsed and Stone fell to the floor, stunned and gasping for breath as he lay sprawled over Cat’s bowl. In the meantime, Cat took one look at the man covering his bowl and attacked again, more ferociously than the first time.
Matt kicked the gun out of his hand, picked it up and pointed it at him.
“Roll off Cat’s bowl and he’ll stop clawing you,” he told
Stone who complied without a second thought.
Indeed, Cat, satisfied that his food was secure, climbed off the man’s leg, walked calmly to his food bowl and began eating.
“That son of a bitch!” Stone raised himself on one elbow to look at Cat.
“Sit up, but nothing else,” Matt told him. He took out his cell phone and called Triplett.
“Franklin Stone, Jennifer Schofield’s husband, just tried to kill me. He’s sitting on the floor in my kitchen if you want to arrest him.”
He was on his way.
Stone complained about the pain in his leg where Cat had attacked and about the blood streaming down.
“It’ll stop, the blood. Nothing I can do about the pain. I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Chapter 34
Triplett rolled up outside Matt’s home, lights blaring, and jumped out of his car with two uniformed officers. They tried the door, but Matt had locked it behind him.
Matt looked at Stone and said, “Crawl toward the door or I’ll club you.”
“I’m not going anyplace.”
“I’ll turn the cat lose on you again.”
He looked at Cat and the cat, hearing what he assumed was
his name, glanced at Matt as if asking for instructions. When Stone saw the cat raise his head, he rolled over and began crawling to the front door which Matt hurried to open seconds before Triplett knocked it down.
Triplett rushed inside, followed by the two officers, both with guns drawn. The first thing he saw was Stone on his knees, pants legs shredded and blood streaking down his leg.
“Thank God you came,” Stone said and reached out with his hand to be pulled up.
Triplett involuntarily pulled him to his feet.
“This son of a bitch got me over here and threw that wild cat at me.” He gestured at Cat, who was eating his food as though nothing had happened.
“His fingerprints are on the gun,” Matt said.
“What!” Stone shouted. “The man’s lying out of his ass. He verbally attacked my wife, accusing her of a conspiracy with me to kill her husband. I came over here to see if I could reason with him. Frankly, I figured he’d gone off his rocker. He had a nervous breakdown, you know. My wife owes him money for legal fees. I was going to give him a check but the crazy bastard attacked me as soon as I came in the door. He had a gun and I grabbed for it. We fought over it. Sure my fingerprints are over it. I had it once. That’s when he threw the cat at me.”
Stone pointed to his bleeding leg. “I need medical help. I want to file charges against the crazy son of a bitch.”
Matt said, “The devil cat, Detective. Remember getting in front of his food bowl? That’s what Stone did. Cat didn’t like it. So,
he attacked. I didn’t throw the cat anywhere.”
“Yeah. Devil cat,” Triplett said.
Triplett looked at Matt, then back at Stone. With a head gesture at Matt, he said to Stone, “Dawson says you were having an affair with Dr. Schofield before she shot her husband.”
Stone laughed. “I know. That’s another thing he accused my wife of. I was her patient then and am now. Sure, I gave her a shoulder to cry on during the trial. Hardly an affair. Dawson was putting a move on her all the time, trying to get her into bed. Jennifer told me. He repulsed her. It infuriated me but I had to put up with it for her sake. I don’t think he’s gotten over it yet. That caused his nervous breakdown.”
Matt could tell that Triplett was confused and didn’t know what to do.
Triplett told one of the officers to take the gun. “We’ll check out the gun. I’ll discuss this with the DA. He can decide what he wants to do.”
He seemed almost ready to leave but stopped short when Matt asked Stone, “If you came over to give me a check, where is it?”
That question took the color out of Stone’s face and got Triplett’s attention.
“Where is it?” Matt repeated the question.
Stone reached into his inside coat pocket. It wasn’t there. He pulled his shirt pocket open. It wasn’t there either. “I…guess, I left it at home. I know Jen gave me a check. I just went off without it."
"Uh huh,” Triplett said. “The check’s in the mail.”
“No, I did have it. It was for a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Where’d you leave it?” Triplett asked.
“Most likely on the breakfast bar where Jen and I were sitting
when she wrote it. Let me call her.” He reached for his phone, but
Triplett stopped him.
“Dawson’ll call.” He gestured to Matt who pulled out his phone to dial.
“Wait,” Stone said. “Wait. She’ll think Dawson’s pulling some kind of stunt. He’s been doing that. Who knows what she’ll say.”
“Take Stone outside,” he ordered the uniformed officers. To Matt, he said, “Put your phone on speaker and call her. Tell her
Stone was here and said he’d left a check for you. Ask if you can pick it up?”
Matt dialed Jennifer’s number. She answered on the second ring. “Matt, why are you calling? I never want to speak to you
again.”
“Franklin was just here.”
“He was. He was! What’d he say? Where is he now?”
“He left but he said you had written a check to me. I’m supposed to pick it up.”
“A check? What check?”
“A payment on my fee, the million you owe me.”
“I didn’t write you a check. After what you said, you don’t deserve a check.”
Triplett pulled the phone from Matt’s hand and said, “Dr.
Schofield, this is Detective Triplett. It appears that your husband just tried to kill Dawson, your ex-lawyer. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”
“No … why should I? If that’s something Matt Dawson is claiming, I’d be very careful if I were you. You can’t believe anything he says.”
“Your husband also said you wrote a check for two hundred thousand dollars as a payment on the fee you owe Dawson.”
Matt noted that Triplett doubled the amount Stone had
recited.
“Your husband said he’d left it on your dining room table
under a flower vase. Would you get that check so we can verify
what it says?” Triplett also changed the supposed location of the
check.
I’m impressed. The man might make a decent lawyer.
“Oh…that’s what Matt was talking about,” Jennifer said. “I didn’t understand what he was saying. Yes, maybe there is a check on the dining room table. I’ll just look.”
Half a minute’s silence followed. She came back on the phone and said, “Here it is. It was on the dining room table under the vase, just like Franklin told you. What do you want me to do with
it?”
“I imagine Mr. Dawson will be…no, one of my officers will come by for it. We may need it for evidence.”
He punched off and called Stone back inside. "I'm arresting you for attempted murder. Your wife just tried to lie for you. I’ll ask the DA if he wants to arrest her for conspiracy.”
He read Stone his rights and the uniformed officers took him away.
Triplett looked at Matt and said, “I remembered that damned
devil cat almost attacking me. That saved your ass. That and their lies about the check. He was telling a pretty good story till then.”
“He’s a lawyer. That’s what we do. Tell stories.”
“So I’ve he
ard. It’s still your word against his. And, you know what his lawyer’s going to be saying?”
“I can guess. I made up the whole thing to get revenge because he took Jennifer from me. I never had her. It’ll be up to the jury to decide,” Matt said.
“Personally, I think he did it, but I’m don’t know what the DA’s gonna think.”
“There’ll be a case, not just my word against his. Carter picked up some interesting stuff from Stone’s ex-file clerk.”
“You’d better have Carter come down to the station in the morning and make a full statement. I’ll give the file to the DA. He can make a decision. I’m also going to pick up a check for two
hundred thousand dollars. That’ll be yours after the trial. You can bet there’ll be a stop payment notice on it.” He laughed. “However, I’m going to suggest that the DA check the bank to see if there’s enough money in the account to cover it.”
“She’ll claim she figured her husband forgot to tell her so she wrote it to support him. And, she intended putting money in the account tomorrow to cover it.”
He made a face. “Yeah. Slippery bunch. What about the girl, the Bush girl? You think Stone killed her? And, that other guy, Padgett?”
Matt shook his head. “Not sure. He refused to say. He did say Jennifer missed her shot at Aaron and he had to finish Aaron off himself.”
“I’d like to close both cases. Are you and your bulldog still sniffing around?” Triplett asked.
“We’re still looking for Sarah’s killer, but not so much Padgett’s. I figure whoever killed one, killed both. We’ll stay on them for a while.”
He looked at Matt and said, “I may, the key word being may, have been wrong about you Dawson. Maybe you’re clean in all this. Sorry I didn’t sound all that enthusiastic the other morning. Watch your back.”
“Count on it.” Damn. An apology coming from him! I should call the Vatican. A miracle.
He called Carter and relayed Triplett’s request for a full statement the next morning. “Be sure and go over the bruise on
Jennifer’s face, the oblong bruise she said was made by the rounded tip of Aaron’s phone. The cops may have taken a picture. If not, I have mine. It’s dated. Give them the ex-file clerk’s name and what she said about buying a square bottom phone and the gun. The DA won’t have much of a case against Stone. It’s all circumstantial except for my testimony.”
That La Jolla Lawyer Page 27
