Cactus Island, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 8

by William Manchee

CHAPTER 14

  COCOS BAY

  Jodie called me from the airport to tell me she had landed in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It had been a long flight via Miami and then Aruba and it had taken her quite a while to get through customs, find her luggage, and get a cab to the harbor. She indicated she was about to board a boat to the resort as it was on a separate island from the capital city. I cautioned her to be very discreet and not to let anyone know why she was there. We had randomly picked a travel agent out of the telephone book so there would be no way anyone could trace Jodie to the firm. She was even using her maiden name to make it doubly difficult for anyone to check her out.

  After I hung up, I immediately started to have second thoughts about Jodie's assignment. What if she was a little too obvious in her spying? After all, she wasn't a trained private investigator. When I went into Stan's office to tell him that she had arrived safely, I mentioned my concern.

  "Don't worry about Jodie," Stan said confidently. "She loves this kind of assignment and is very good at it. She knows how to be discreet. You saw how well she worked on the Dusty Thomas case."

  Jodie had been with Stan since he started his law practice and she was more than just a secretary. Being very efficient at her job, Stan couldn't always keep her busy with ordinary secretarial work. As smart as she was she also got bored easily, so he started letting her do legal research, question witnesses, and perform investigative work. She was taking night classes at the University of Texas at Dallas where she was now a senior. After she graduated, she hoped to go to law school at SMU and continue to work for the firm until she graduated and became an attorney. Stan often told clients proudly that Jodie would be an attorney for the firm one day.

  Since I'd known Jodie, I had become very fond of her too. She was a big help in planning my wedding and was someone I could talk to woman to woman. Although she was younger than I, Jodie was very mature and seemed to understand me more than anyone else I knew, other than Bart and Stan, of course. We had one big thing in common too—our love and concern for Stan. I say concern because Stan was so selfless and trusting of his clients that in the past many of them had taken advantage of him. That's why Jodie and I vowed not to ever let that happen again.

  When I first came to the firm, I hired a temporary secretary but when he quit I didn't replace him because Jodie was so efficient she handled all our work without much trouble. When Jodie was sick, on vacation, or on assignment we hired a temporary receptionist just to answer the phone and keep the filing up to date until Jodie returned. In the past the temp agency we used had sent us a girl named Brenda Watkins. She was great on the phone and didn't complain about the massive amount of filing there was to do each day, so we always asked for her.

   When I got back to my office, Brenda's voice came on the intercom. "Detective Perkins is on line two."

  A burst of adrenaline jerked me from my meditation. I had been dreading this telephone call. It could mean only one thing—more bad news.

  "So, what's up?" I asked.

  "Just wanted to update you," Perkins said gleefully. "Although there were no fingerprints on the gun, we found the blouse she was wearing when she fired the gun. It was at her cleaners. Even after it had been cleaned, we found a powder residue on it."

   "So. . . . Have you found a body yet?"

  "No, but along with the gun and the surveillance equipment we have just about all we need."

  "She was using the surveillance equipment to get ammo for her divorce."

  "I understand, but divorces are expensive and can drag on for months or years. Killing your husband and then hiring someone to dispose of the body is a much more expeditious solution."

  "Give me a break. She didn't hire someone to dispose of her husband's body."

  "Well, it makes sense. It's difficult and messy to get rid of a body. Why not hire professionals? Anyway, we've got a witness who saw her with two men leaving Mr. Windsor's house on Monday evening. They were wearing work uniforms and left in a van. The witness says he heard arguing inside the house."

  "What? I don't believe that."

  "It's true. I don't bluff. In due time I'll give you their identities and contact information so you can talk to them."

  "Okay, is that it?"

  "That's enough. The DA has authorized us to pick up your client."

  "What! You still don't have a body."

  "Like I said, we have enough. You'll need to bring in Cheryl in the next few hours or we'll send someone out to arrest her."

  "Don't bother. Can I bring her in tomorrow morning at nine?"

  "No, I said a few hours. Get her in here by nine tonight."

  "She's got children, for godsakes. Give her some time to make arrangements for someone to take care of them."

  Perkins sighed. "Okay, tomorrow morning at eight. Not a minute later."

  "Good. Thanks for the call."

    News of more witnesses claiming to have seen Cheryl at Martin's house on the day of his disappearance was devastating. It might be possible to discredit one witness, but if two or three were paraded before the jury it would be nearly impossible to overcome such testimony, particularly if the defendant didn't testify. Reluctantly, I picked up the telephone and called Cheryl to give her the bad news. She took it better than I expected. I told her I would call our bondsman and we would arrange the bond before we took her in. That way she'd only be spending a few hours in jail. She agreed to be ready at seven the following morning.

  After I hung up with Cheryl, I called our bondsman and filled him in on Cheryl's impending arrest. He said he'd contact her to get financial information to secure the bond. A few hours later he called to tell me we had a problem. Because of the divorce and Martin's disappearance, there wasn't enough available collateral to fund a bond more than $100,000. In a murder case it was likely the bond would be much higher. That would mean Cheryl would have to remain in jail until her trial. As I began preparations for Cheryl's arraignment, I prayed hard that I could convince the judge that $100,000 would be an adequate bond.