Chapter 23
Cold Case
When Detective Perkins returned from LA he was summoned to the chief of detectives office for a meeting. After he’d said hello to some of his old friends he stepped into Lt. Ben Edmonton’s office. An attractive brunette in a business suit who looked to be in her early thirties sat in one of the side chairs, so he took the other. The lieutenant was on the phone, so he just smiled at the young lady and waited. When Lt. Edmonton got off the phone he turned to them.
“Well, Detective Perkins. It’s been a while.”
“Yes. It has.”
“This is Detective Alice Longoria. She’s been assigned to the Richard Coleman case.”
Detective Perkins nodded. “So, you decided to open up the case again?”
“Well, with all the publicity from your appearance on Leno we didn’t have much choice.”
“Sorry about that. They called me at noon and put me on a private jet to LA. I didn’t have time to call you and tell you what was going on.”
“It’s all right. Seeing the look on Coleman’s face when they paraded you on stage was priceless.”
“Yeah, I rather enjoyed that myself,” Detective Perkins admitted.
“Anyway, I’d like you to brief Detective Longoria on what you know about the case that wouldn’t be in the file. She’ll be in charge of the investigation from here forward.”
“Sure, be happy to.”
Longoria stood up. “Let’s go to my office.”
Perkins got up and followed Longoria to her small but nicely decorated office. She pointed to a chair and asked Perkins if he wanted some coffee. He said he did, so she went down the hall and got them both a cup.
“Okay, I pulled the cold case file and have gone through it,” Longoria said. “There’s not much in there about Rich Coleman. It seems everyone bought his alibi.”
“Well, they did. He was found unconscious in an alley near his office and rushed to the hospital. It seemed like an airtight alibi at the time.”
“Didn’t you think it was rather convenient?”
“Yes, I was bit suspicious and talked to a lot of people, but nobody saw Coleman at the motel.”
“What about his friend, Joe Weston?” Longoria asked.
“He didn’t have an alibi, but we didn’t think he had much of a motive at the time. Of course, now with the book we know he had been executing illegal trades and knew of the illicit affair, so once Martha Collins found out what was going on she was as much a danger to him as to Coleman.”
“I went to see Joe right after the Inquisitor article, but he refused to talk with me—said it was ancient history and his attorney had told him he didn’t have to talk to anyone about it, including the police.”
“It’s too bad we can’t get him on the illegal trades, but I suppose the statute of limitations has run out on that,” Perkins said.
“Yes, about eighteen years ago, but we could still get him for murder if we can prove he and Coleman were in on it together.”
“That will never happen unless one of them turns on the other.”
“I was going to offer Joe that option, but he’s as hard as nails. He wouldn’t even look at me. He just turned away every time I asked him a question and kept his mouth shut.”
“That figures. They’ve know each other since college.”
“What about Coleman’s secretary, Suzie?” Longoria asked.
“I doubt she’d talk. She’s been his secretary longer than Erica’s been his wife.”
“So, no brilliant ideas for me, huh?” Longoria asked.
Perkins shrugged. “Well, Coleman claimed his law partner and the victim’s son had motives. And there was the son’s lover who Martha Collins was trying to run off.”
“Really? The report didn’t mention them.”
“No, I didn’t seriously consider any of them since I thought Coleman was just trying to distract me from his wife’s prosecution.”
“Hmm. What was the victim’s son’s name?”
“Arnold Collins, I believe,” Perkins replied. “He’s an attorney. He filed a lawsuit against Coleman but when Erica was found innocent by reason of insanity they settled the case.”
“What did it cost Coleman to settle?” Longoria asked.
“Fifty grand, if I remember correctly.”
“And Arnold’s lover?”
“Ralph, I think. Ah. Benitez, Ralph Benitez.”
“Ralph?” Longoria snickered.
“Yeah. That’s why mom was trying to run him off.”
“So, Coleman thought Ralph didn’t like Martha’s interference with their relationship and took her out of the equation?”
“Something like that,” Perkins said.
“Okay, and the law partner?”
“Peter Phillips? Erica’s father appointed Coleman as trustee of the trust the law firm had drafted. Coleman claimed Peter may have murdered Martha Collins to protect the firm from liability if it came out Coleman had breached his fiduciary duty while employed by the firm.”
“Sounds like a lot of persons of interest,” Longoria noted. “Maybe if we put some heat on them they will tell us something useful.”
Perkins nodded. “Good idea. Did you find anything when you searched his house?”
“Yes, we found Erica’s notes. They say exactly what was reported in the Inquisitor, but without Erica’s testimony explaining and interpreting them, they don’t do us much good.”
“Why not?” Perkins asked. “Aren’t they like a confession?”
“No. They could just as easily be fiction without Erica’s testimony explaining them.”
“Well, anything else?” Perkins asked.
“No,” Longoria said, standing up and extending her hand. Perkins stood up and shook her hand. “Thanks for your help. If you think of anything that might be helpful, let me know.”
Perkins nodded and left Detective Longoria alone. She studied her notes for a while and then picked up the telephone and called Grace Godwin, one of her investigators who was particularly good at tracking down people. She gave her all the names Perkins had mentioned and asked her to get current addresses for each and run their names on all their criminal databases. Grace said she’d do it and get right back to her.
Longoria took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Working a twenty-five-year-old cold case was not her idea of detective work. How could she possibly find witnesses and evidence so long after the murder had taken place? Finally, she stood up and marched back to Ben Edmonton’s office.
“Sir,” she said, peeking into his office.
“Yes. Come in,” Edmonton said irritably.
“Sir, I talked to Perkins, but all he has is a bunch of names of other people with motives to kill Martha Collins. He doesn’t have anything on Richard Coleman. It seems Coleman was doing more detective work than the DA’s office.”
“So, what’s your point?”
“My point is why are we wasting our time on this impossible case? There is no way we’re going to prove Coleman is the murderer after twenty-five years. So, why bother?”
Lt. Edmonton glared at Detective Longoria. “I’ll tell you why, Detective. Because when Richard Coleman published that book he was thumbing his nose at the Dallas DA’s office and the Dallas police. He was announcing to the world that he and Erica had gotten away with murder and we couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Right. We can’t allow him to do that.”
“Exactly. Do you know how much money he is going to make off this book?”
“No. How much?”
“It was reported he got a $50,000 advance, but now that the book is on the New York Times Best Seller list his royalty could be ten times that, not to mention subsidiary rights.”
“Okay, I won’t let that happen, Lieutenant. I’ll get the evidence we need to put the bastard away for the rest of his life.”
Lt. Edmonton nodded. “Now, that’s what I want to hear. Keep me posted.”
Detective Longoria tu
rned around and went back to her office feeling a bit sick. The lieutenant’s pep talk had been inspiring but hadn’t got her any closer to nailing Richard Coleman. Now, not only did she have an impossible case, but she was now responsible for restoring the honor and reputation of the DA’s office after Richard Coleman had dragged it in the gutter in his New York Times best seller.
Unconscionable, A Rich Coleman Novel Vol 3 Page 24
