Chapter 19
On Sunday Emily and Bev went for a long bike ride and picnic in the park. After lunch they went to the the pavilion by the lake where the park district rented paddle boats and sail boats. Each of them always carried a book. Since they were going to get more exercise on the way home, they decided to sit on a bench and read instead of renting a paddle boat. Neither of them read very much. They had way too much fun watching people who didn't know what they were doing trying to operate sailboats.
In the afternoon, they cleaned the house and, in the evening, they ordered pizza and – after some negotiation – they agreed on a chick flick they both wanted to see, so they curled up on the couch and watched the movie, alternately laughing and crying.
Early Monday morning, Frank Rittenhaus called and didn't beat around the bush for a second, “Bev, we need to talk right away. In fact, I think we need to get Ed Casey and the Cincinnati cops involved in the conversation early. With your permission, I'd like to go ahead and set up a meeting this morning with everybody. Are you free?”
“Absolutely. Should I have Rita there?”
“Don't think that's necessary. This comes under the heading of the investigation of the claim. You might want your claims guy involved.”
“Okay let me know when and where.”
She called McGavin to find out his schedule. He promised to make himself available whenever and wherever. A half hour later Frank called back and said that the cops suggested meeting at a central location and he had offered his office and said that the meeting was set for 10:00 or earlier if everybody could get there.
Bev looked at her watch. “I can be there by 9:00. Will you give me a preview?”
“I'll have the coffee on.”
For the millionth time in her life Bev was grateful to have inherited from her father the fireman's the ability to get dressed in a flash. She was out the door in less than half an hour. She called McGavin from the road with the time and the location of the meeting. He wanted to know what was up. She said she didn't know, but based on Frank's behavior and the undertone of excitement in his voice, she believed it was significant. McGavin asked what time the meeting was scheduled. She told him ten o'clock. He said, “No. I mean the pre-meeting meeting between you and Frank.”
“Nine.”
“I'll be there.”
She pulled in Frank's parking lot just as McGavin turned off his car. They walked into the office together. Cici greeted them, offered coffee and ushered them into the conference room where Frank was already waiting. There was a manila folder with about a quarter of an inch of documents at each of the seats at the table. McGavin asked, “What's the guest list?”
“You two. Ed Casey. Tom Jackson and two other people from his staff. Ramon Anderson and one other person from his team.”
They sat down at their assigned seats. McGavin started paging through the folder. Bev folded her hands on top of her unopened folder, raised her eyebrows and said, “Start with the short version.”
McGavin chuckled and Bev gave him a dirty look. Frank said, “I found our mystery waiter and he has quite a story to tell.”
Bev looked alarmed. “Where is he? Is he somewhere he won't bolt?”
“He's actually at my house being fed pancakes by my wife who is under orders not to let him leave and if he does the local cops are on alert to pick him up. That's why Anderson is bringing an extra person with him. They're going to take Denworth into custody this morning.”
McGavin asked, “He's voluntarily turning himself in.”
“Yeah. He's an idiot who got into something over his head and he's been consumed with guilt over it ever since. Frankly, I think I got to him just as he was about to become suicidal. I've let Jackson know that, as well. They're going to take precautions.”
Bev asked, “You left a suicidal murderer at home alone with your wife?”
Frank grinned a crooked grin, “It's not as bad as it sounds. For one thing, I think the kid's only potentially a danger to himself, and my wife is a psychiatric nurse. She works in a mental hospital. It was her suggestion that I bring him to our house. Actually, she got a doctor to give her a script for a strong sedative. She can protect herself with a needle if she has to.”
Bev nodded and relaxed a little, but she still looked concerned. Before Frank could continue the others started arriving. By 9:20 the room was full. Jackson said, “I think I'd feel better if we went ahead and made the arrest. I'll stay here, my colleague will handle the arrest along with one of the Cincinnati cops.”
Cici said, “I'll take you to Frank's house.”
Anderson raised his eyebrows, “You licensed to carry a weapon?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You got it on you?”
“Not right now.”
“Take it with you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cici left the room with the two cops. A few minutes later the FBI car and Cici's car pulled out of the driveway. The rest of the group finished pouring coffee and sat down to listen to Frank's story.
Frank laid his hands on top of the folder in front of him. “The details are all laid out in here, so I'll just hit the high spots. We were on the right track when we started looking for the arsonist among enemies of someone who was at the wedding rehearsal dinner. We were focusing on the obvious: people whose plastic surgeries Prescott had botched. When I did my preliminary investigation into the Sonderlands, Donna Sonderland's name wasn't on my list because her body had not yet been identified. Initially, I looked only at Sonderland, the father.
“After Donna's body was identified, I looped back and looked more carefully at her. A full bio is included in your packet. She was one sharp cookie. Smart. Savvy. A great businesswoman. She was also a bit of a party girl. She liked to gamble and she was a bit of a predator in the dating department. My guess is that if she'd lived out her life, she'd have been a regular Cougar someday. In any case, she was very attractive to men, who tended to fall in love with her. Once that happened, she dumped them, not always very nicely.
“Donna went to Carnegie Mellon School of Business where she met and dated a guy who's dad was an executive at General Motors. Her family was in the car business. She'd worked in the dealership. They were kind of natural buddies. They started working on projects together. All of their projects tended to involve ways to make the American automobile industry more competitive and to improve business practices for both manufacturers and dealers.” He paused and shrugged. “It is my understanding that some of their professors believed that if anybody had actually tried to implement some of those ideas, the American automobile business would not be in the shape it's in today. They were evidently that creative and bright.
“The boy's name was Elliot Jimmerson. He and Donna were buddies, partners and they dated throughout graduate school. Jimmerson evidently had the expectation that after they graduated, they'd get married. He would go to work at GM and become the Golden Boy there. She would implement their plans for making dealerships more profitable and she would become a female Roger Penske, with a string of dealerships throughout the Midwest, if not the whole country.
“Donna had a different plan. Instead of attending the commencement ceremony, she took a three month trip to Europe where she evidently had a series of love affairs with a string of guys, mostly race car drivers. Then she came back to Ohio and proceeded to turn her dad's business around, after which she bought a couple of dealerships of her own, which she operated with a higher profit margin than almost any other GM dealerships in the region. She didn't return Jimmerson's calls and she blocked his email address.
“She had moved on.
“Jimmerson was not used to being treated like that. To make matters worse, his job at GM involved establishing and massaging relationships with the dealerships. Another marketing rep was assigned to Donna's dealerships, but Jimmerson heard about her amazing successes at every departmental meeting. It evidently ate at him. He was not
someone who was used to failure, especially with women. He also didn't like the fact that she was putting into practice business plans they had created together, and she, alone, was reaping all the profits and the accolades.
“Jimmerson had an old buddy, his college room-mate from Michigan State, named Samuel Broadridge. Broadridge was from a family that had always been on the verge of success, but which had never quite been able to make the final step into the financially successful world. After college, Broadridge worked in a series of marketing jobs and PR jobs, but never quite found his niche. He and Jimmerson kept in touch.
“A few months ago, Broadridge was laid off from his job and reached out to Jimmerson, looking for a job at GM. Of course, GM was not hiring, but Jimmerson offered him a deal that would make Broadrisge enough money to tide him over. It would require him to probably leave the country for a while, maybe go to Canada or Australia, and would stake him in that relocation. Broadridge agreed. Jimmerson said he wanted him to ruin Donna Sonderland. He didn't care how he did it. He wanted her business destroyed. Note: he didn't say he wanted her to be physically injured much less murdered. He wanted her business destroyed.
“Broadridge got a job in Donna's dealership in Toledo, working in the finance department.
“He figured out her secrets and was very impressed. He was evidently working on a plan to plant rumors about her honesty and integrity to undermine her credibility in the business world. Somehow, Donna found out about some of the things he was saying to customers and she ordered the general manager to can him.
“That was about a month before the fire. It was well known around the dealerships that Sonderland's brother was getting married, because she had booked herself and her parents on a cruise after the wedding, telling everybody that after the ordeal of marrying her baby brother off to the bitch daughter of an uppity plastic surgeon the family would need a safe place to drink for a few days.
“Broadridge came to Stanforth and got a job at The Barn. He volunteered to work the night of the wedding. He did not plan to torch the restaurant. His plan actually was to beat up Donna in the parking lot after the party, or possibly to take her home and rape her and then beat her up. He did not intend to kill her or anybody else.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Broadridge suffers from a bad temper along with all his other character flaws. Donna recognized him when he served her drink order. Evidently she said something to the effect that she hoped he was more loyal and decent to his new employers, who were nice people, than he had been to her. That pissed him off. He tossed a drink in the corner behind Donna's chair and then ignited it with a butane lighter he had borrowed from Claudia Mazzoli. He immediately went out through the bar, which would not have been noticed because (a) that's where the employees went to smoke and he was a known fiend and (b) by then the fire had started and there was a lot of confusion.
“He got in his car and drove straight up I-75 to Toronto. He called Jimmerson and told him that he'd taken care of Sonderland and he wanted his money.
“Jimmerson freaked out when Broadridge told him what he had done and Jimmerson told him hell would freeze over before he'd give Broadridge a dime.
“Broadridge got a job tending bar in Toronto and began the process of drinking himself to death or otherwise destroying what was left of his life.
“When I caught up with him, he seemed relieved. He returned with me voluntarily and promised to turn himself in to the FBI.
“As I said, your packets contain the details, including the transcribed version of the statement that Broadridge gave to me when we first met. I have turned the original recording over to the FBI. I have a copy to provide to the insurance company.
“In my opinion, this settles once and for all the issue of causation of the fire.”
After that the only sound in the room was paper shuffling as the attendees flipped through the file. Jackson's phone beeped. He glanced at the screen and said, “Broadridge is in custody. He turned himself in with no drama. They're taking him to Dayton for processing.”
Frank looked around, “Any questions?”
Jackson looked at his colleagues; they shook their heads. Jackson said, “We're good.”
Anderson said, “I want to congratulate you on a job well done, Mr. Rittenhaus.” He turned to McGavin and added, “And thanks to both you and the Company for your cooperation.”
The cops got up to leave and Frank showed them to the door. McGavin and Bev remained seated. McGavin said softly, “We need to call Rita.”
“Yeah. The rest of this is going to go fast. You want to go back to your office where we can strategize?”
“Okay.”
They gathered up their papers and walked out to the lobby. Cici was just returning. She told them Broadridge was cooperative and seemed coherent. Bev's phone rang. Ramon Anderson was calling to tell her that the FBI intended to issue a press release later that day regarding the arrest of the suspect. Bev asked if there would be any way he could sit on that announcement until the following day. She said she had a lot of work to do and people to talk to. He laughed, “You mean you want to be the one to tell Peters and Carmichael as opposed to them hearing it on the news.”
“Yes, sir. I think you can appreciate why I want to do that.”
“I do, but I want to be the one to make the public announcement NOT Peters.”
“I'll shoot you an email as soon as I've talked to Peters. You can have your press release ready to go. I have to talk to my lawyer first. Then I'll call Peters. I promise I'll get this done today. You can make your announcement either late this afternoon or first thing in the morning.”
“I'll give you 24 hours max. Let me know if I should move sooner than that.”
“I will. Thank you very much.”
“It's the least I can do. Will this information help or hurt you with your claim?”
“I'm not sure. The next couple of days will be pretty wild.”
He said, “Good luck.”
After the Fire Page 19
