The Lady Who Cried Murder (A Mac Faraday Mystery)

by Lauren Carr

  “I didn’t hear a sound,” Brewster recalled. “Not a peep. You’d think—“

  “Cause he was a pro.” Unable to look at Nick’s dead body—in his jail cell—anymore, David turned around. “I need air.”

  He was up the stairs and in the squad room before Bogie caught up with him. He had to grab him by the arm to get his attention. “You okay?”

  “No.” Fighting to keep from punching the wall, David paced in place. “This happened in our house, during our watch. Palazzi is behind this—you know that. Fields had gotten his hands on Khloe’s copy of that recording and was blackmailing him—”

  “How did Palazzi know we picked Fields up?” Bogie asked. “Bevis was here when you brought in Fields, but he was in the interrogation room. He never saw him, and no one said a peep to him.”

  “Somehow the senator found out.” David shook his head. “Fields’ phone call. When we picked up Fields he called his lawyer—”

  “Who ended up being a killer,” Bogie said.

  “Fields’ phone is with his personal effects,” David said. “Let’s check the call log to see exactly who he called.”

  The state forensics team was clearing out when Mac and Cameron arrived back at Nick Fields’ house.

  “Find anything else?” Mac stepped over to the van to ask the chief investigator.

  “We did identify those frozen body parts as women’s uteruses,” he responded.

  Mac rubbed his hands together to warm them up. The sun had set and the temperature was down below freezing. “DNA should match them up with our three victims, which will connect them to someone in this house.”

  “We did find something else that might help you,” the officer said. “When we were lifting the Ferrari onto the tow truck to take down to the lab to search, we found a GPS tracker clipped inside the wheel well. Based on the amount of mud, we think it’s been there a while.”

  “Someone was tracking Nick Fields,” Mac said. “That was his car, or rather, the car he drove. Is there some way to trace the GPS?”

  “We can trace the serial number to the store where it was bought and possibly match it up with a receipt if it was purchased with a credit card.”

  Doubting that anyone connected to covering up for the senator would be careless enough to use a credit card for the tracing device, Mac jogged up the walk to the house next door where Cameron was already explaining their return visit to Sandy and her husband.

  “I tell you,” Sandy said while shaking Mac’s hand, “I’ve seen more police today than I have in my whole life.” Impressed by her sudden importance, she left her kitchen to be cleaned up later and invited Cameron and Mac into their living room.

  “I always did get a weird feeling about that couple.” Her husband sat next to her on the loveseat. “That wife would launch into Sandy, but never when I was around to defend her. Classic sign of a bully, if you ask me.”

  “We’re concerned about her extreme jealousy,” Cameron said.

  “Like that maybe she would come after me.” Sandy clutched her husband’s hand.

  “Right now,” Mac said, “we want to find her. Now you gave a description of her to Detective Gates here. I had an artist come up with a composite picture of her.” He brought up the picture on his smart phone and handed it to Sandy. “Is this the woman that you saw living next door?”

  Sandy only had to look at it for a second before she nodded her head. After showing it to her husband, he confirmed her identification. “Yes, that’s her.” She handed the phone back to Mac. “Do you know her name?”

  Mac showed the picture to Cameron. “We do now.”

  Cameron waited until they were outside walking to her cruiser before she asked. “Who is that in that picture you showed her?”

  “Bevis Palazzi wearing a wig.” Mac climbed into the cruiser. “I asked Archie to do a trick with Photoshop.”

  Cameron fought to regain her voice before climbing into the driver’s seat. “Are you serious? You mean he’s—how did you know?”

  “The first clue was his plucked eyebrows,” Mac said. “David tried explaining that it’s not unusual for men in important positions to have their eyebrows cleaned up—”

  “Josh doesn’t pluck his eyebrows.”

  “Bevis goes beyond cleaning up,” Mac said. “He plucks his eyebrows so that they look like a woman’s. Then, while Ben and David were questioning him, he kept going back to Archie provoking him. He couldn’t let that go.”

  “Because he hates women,” Cameron said.

  “Probably learned from his father,” Mac said. “Toss that in with a liberal dosage of jealousy—” He sat up straight in his seat. “I bet you I know when Khloe signed her death warrant.”

  “When?”

  “One of my employees at the Spencer Inn used to be friends with Khloe,” Mac said. “She stayed friends with Khloe’s mother. When Khloe came back to Spencer, she started going to the inn and running up charges on her dead mother’s account. Lily called her on it, and Khloe was told that she needed to pay cash or put it on a credit card—not in her mother’s name. Well, Khloe was with Nick at the time, and he whipped out a card with the name of Sheila—probably McGrath—on it. Not trusting them, the inn ran a check on the card and found that it was good—at which point the two went to town on it.”

  “And since Bevis was in charge of Sheila McGrath’s estate,” Cameron said, “those bills came to him—so he could see that Nick was fooling around with someone else—that someone else being a woman.”

  “I’m willing to bet that was when the GPS was attached to Nick’s car, so that Bevis could keep tabs on him.” Mac sat back in his seat. “That gives Bevis two motives to kill Khloe. To protect his father’s reputation, on whose shirttails he plans to ride into political office, and jealousy, because Khloe was sleeping with his man. As much as he hates women, I think killing Khloe came easy for him.”

  Cameron stopped with her hands on the keys in the ignition and frowned.

  Seeing that she wasn’t turning on the cruiser for them to leave, Mac asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “We’ve connected Bevis to Nick, which connects him to Khloe and Tiffany Blanchard,” she said. “But we can’t prove any connection between Bevis and Amber Houston, my case.”

  “When you were questioning Nick, he said that he was seeing both Amber and Khloe at the same time,” Mac said. “Bevis was a theater groupie, hanging out with Khloe and her theater friends. He had to have met Nick through her during that time period.”

  “Had to have met,” she repeated. “A defense attorney can turn that into reasonable doubt in a jiffy, Mac. Bevis could have met Nick for the first time when he was visiting Khloe in Hollywood. We need to know when Bevis first meet Nick and became obsessed with him.”

  He was already listening to the ring on the other end of the line on his cell phone.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked.

  “I’m going to get a stronger connection for us,” Mac told her before turning his attention to the voice that answered the phone. “Hello, Lily. It’s Mac Faraday.”

  “Mr. Faraday, how are you?” There was a note of fear Lily Carter’s voice.

  Mac recalled that the last time Khloe’s ex-best-friend had seen him, he had Senator Palazzi by the front of his shirt. “Lily, I don’t have a lot of time to talk about this. You do know that Senator Harry Palazzi had raped Khloe’s mother. He was her father.”

  Silence came from the other end of the line before Lily replied in a low voice, “Yes. My mother had told me. She and Florence were best friends. Khloe never knew, at least while her mother was alive. Florence really freaked when Khloe and Bevis started hanging out together, not that Khloe slept with him or anything like that. But I guess that thought crossed her mind.”

  “I suspected you knew the truth about why Florence reacted the way she did when Khloe lied about being abducted,” Mac said. “Now, Lily, this is important. Khloe’s twenty-first birthday. According to something she had said
on her show—”

  “I never watched her stupid show.” Judging by the annoyance in her tone, Lily was insulted by the suggestion that she would have followed Khloe’s career on television.

  “That’s okay,” Mac said. “On her show, Khloe said that she had met Nick Fields, that friend that she brought to the inn, when he was singing in a rock band at a club that she and her friends went to on her twenty-first birthday. Were you there that night?”

  Again, there was a moment of silence from the other end of the line before Lily said, “Yes, I was there.” Excitement came to her voice. “I didn’t remember him because he didn’t strike me as being that great, but Khloe was really into him and swore that she was going to sleep with him. I remember us making a bet. A hundred dollars on whether or not she could seduce him. I lost.”

  Mac grinned at Cameron while asking Lily, “Was Bevis Palazzi with you that night?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact he was,” she answered with a laugh. “Khloe invited him because she knew he’d pick up the tab, which he did. He paid for everything.”

  “Did he take any special notice of Nick Fields?”

  “Well,” Lily said with a drawl, “since you mention it, Bevis kept talking about how talented the band was. He even predicted that the lead singer, with the right financial backing, could be as big as David Bowie.” Her voice sped up as the memory came racing back. “I remember now. Bevis was going on and on about how much money you can make by promoting rock singers and by the end of the evening, he said he was going to back this lead singer. After that show, Bevis went back stage with Khloe to meet him. Was that the same guy that Khloe had brought to the inn? Did he kill her?”

  Cameron’s and Mac’s eyes met.

  Having confirmed a connection between Bevis and Nick Fields before Amber Houston’s murder, a smile crept to Cameron’s lips as she turned on the cruiser to go find their killer.

  “Hey, Chief…” Tonya led Archie and Chelsea into the squad room. She stepped into the doorway to Bogie’s office where David and the deputy chief were examining Nick’s phone. “You’ve got visitors bearing big boxes of food for everyone. Should I send them away?”

  The mention of food reminded David that he hadn’t eaten lunch and that it was closing in on ten o’clock at night. Without answering, he stepped into the squad room where Chelsea and Archie were emptying their packages.

  Gnarly jumped up onto the sofa to make himself at home while Molly sat next to her mistress. In spite of the smell of food, Molly showed no interest in getting anything. However, Gnarly held his head high and sniffed at everything. Both women had big boxes with take-out containers filled with dinners from the Spencer Inn.

  “When Chef Iman heard that all of you were working late, he insisted on sending dinners from the Spencer Inn,” Chelsea said, “on the house.”

  Archie was glimpsing inside the containers to see what each held. “We have steaks, pork chops, and chicken. Iman went through his mental inventory of what each of you usually order and tried to match the meals up.” Seeing a chicken dinner, she turned to hand it to Tonya. “Chicken à la Spencer.”

  Chelsea handed David a box. “Rack of lamb with a loaded baked potato.” She reached up to kiss him when he took it. “Don’t forget your salad.” She pointed to another box containing tossed salads. “And we have fresh rolls, too. They put them in hot out of the oven.”

  “I love this job.” Tonya cut into her chicken dinner at her desk.

  “Doc, I believe we have a salmon dinner with your name on it,” Archie said.

  “How did Iman know I was here?” the medical examiner asked.

  “We told him that there was a dead body in the building,” Archie replied.

  Doc Washington pulled a chair over to Bogie’s desk in his office to eat next to him. When he saw her move in, Bogie sat up straight and peered out the door to make sure no one noticed her in his office, which Archie and Tonya had.

  The delicious food took their minds off the brutal murder in the cells directly beneath their feet. Even Brewster, the officer who was responsible for Nick Fields, was enjoying his pork chops with a brown sauce and rice pilaf.

  “Well,” Chelsea asked after they were all settled down, “do you know who your killer is?”

  “Fields’ lawyer,” David said. “But he was working for someone. We need to find him and connect him to whoever hired him. He used the name of a real lawyer to get in here.” He looked across the squad room to where Archie was breaking a roll into bite-sized pieces and feeding it to Gnarly. “Archie, can you access your face recognition software to get a name for this guy? I’m almost certain he’s got a military background. He should be in the database.”

  “I can get to it from Bogie’s desktop.” After giving Gnarly the rest of the roll, she stood up from where she was sitting next to him on the sofa. “But I do need his picture.”

  Hearing that she was going to need his computer, Bogie picked up his plate and moved from his desk. “We scoured through our security pictures. He was pretty camera savvy, but we managed to get one of him getting out of his car in the parking lot. We also got the license plate number.” Bogie and Doc moved out of his office to allow Archie to go to work at his desk.

  “The car ended up being a rental,” Tonya said. “And the name used was Russell Burton, the phony name he used when he showed up here.”

  “But first,” David said to Archie, “I need you to hack into the cell phone records for Bevis Palazzi’s account.”

  “That’s illegal,” Chelsea said. “You need a warrant to go hacking into people’s phone records.”

  “Nick Fields is dead,” David told her. “We don’t need a warrant to look at his cell phone that was left in our possession. The call record shows us that he called Bevis Palazzi.”

  “I remember him getting a phone call,” Archie recalled, “while he was in the interrogation room before Bogie went in. He was really mad when he got that call. He said not to say anything—”

  “Standard lawyer line,” David said. “Nick told us that he was calling his lawyer. That lawyer must have been Bevis.”

  “And Bevis is a lawyer,” Bogie said. “So why didn’t he stick around to defend Nick Fields?”

  “Because he wanted him dead instead,” David said. “He must have been covering his own butt. After all, he’s a suspected in Khloe’s murder.”

  “Are you thinking he called the hit man?” Archie asked. “What’s his motive for wanting Nick dead?”

  “Most likely to cover up their relationship,” Mac said as he came in to overhear the end of their conversation. “Bevis and Nick Fields appear to have been pretty tight.”

  “Tighter than we ever suspected.” Cameron came in behind him. “Nick’s sugar momma is Bevis. Food!” Spotting the box of food, she dug through the containers to select a dinner. “I’m starved.”

  “Bevis?” David said. “Nick’s sugar momma? Are you sure?”

  “He’s the lawyer handling Sheila McGrath’s account,” Cameron said. “Sheila has been in a coma for the last four years. It looks like Bevis stole her identity, took trips and bought cars and a house and set Nick up to play hubby to Bevis in a dress, wig, and humungous fake boobs.” She showed a roasted chicken dinner to Chelsea. “Can I have this?”

  “Help yourself.” Chelsea turned to her when the detective sat down at the desk across from her. “That’s just totally bizarre.”

  “Bizarre, but true.” Cameron cut into her baked potato. “The neighbor ID’d Bevis in a wig. So we think Bevis paid Nick well to play house with him, but then when he found Nick cheating, he’d pitch a bitch fit and kill the women in a fit of jealousy—then he’d steal their uteruses since he didn’t have one of his own.” Searching, she looked around. “Is there any sour cream left?”

  “Three uteruses were found in the freezer. Bevis has killed at least three women.” Mac handed Cameron a sour cream container from out of the box. “Lily Carter confirmed that Bevis was with them the same n
ight that Khloe met Nick Fields.”

  “At which time he was dating Amber Houston,” Cameron said while opening the container of sour cream. “Bevis killed her to get her out of the way to make room for him. However, it didn’t work. Nick took off for Hollywood with Khloe instead.”

  Mac took up the story. “Khloe and Nick kept their sexual relationship a secret because Nick was pretending to be gay. For some reason, he thought he’d go further if he was a homosexual. Bevis must have bought Nick’s lie and didn’t realize Khloe and Nick’s friendship had benefits that included sex until Nick and Khloe went on a spending spree at the Spencer Inn on Sheila McGrath’s credit card. That’s why Bevis didn’t kill her until just recently.”

  “Sheila McGrath’s finance records show a lot of trips out to the West Coast,” Cameron said. “Must have been Bevis chasing after Nick, under the pretense of visiting his friend Khloe. He killed every woman who got in his way—Amber Houston, Tiffany Blanchard, and Khloe Everest.”

  “Actually, he killed four women.” Doc Washington wiped her mouth with her napkin. “If Bevis killed Khloe Everest, then I believe he also killed Dee Blakeley, which would make it four women.”

  The corner of Mac’s lips kicked up. “You did your comparison?”

  She nodded her head. “And to be sure, I sent the reports to a forensics expert friend of mine in New York. He confirmed it. While there are differences, like Dee Blakeley wasn’t butchered the way the other women were, there are a number of similarities. All four women were first stabbed in the small of the back, and their spinal columns were severed, which paralyzed them. Then, the killer rolled them over onto their backs and sat on them. There were bruises on the hips that are consistent with great weight resting on them and him pressing his thighs against their sides and ribs to hold them in place. Then, the rest of the stab wounds were in the chest and stomach. The angles of the stab wounds are consistent with him sitting on them and thrusting straight up and down, not at an angle.” She concluded, “That part of the M.O. is the same in all four cases.”

  “We need to pick up Bevis for these murders,” Mac said to David.