Trial by Ambush (A Robin Starling Courtroom Mystery)
Page 23
“Melissa Butler,” Lynn said. “Matt’s fiancée.”
“Has Derek ever been violent toward her before?”
“He’d never even met her.”
“I didn’t know she was here,” Matt said. “It might have been hours before we found her if it hadn’t been for Mr. Rogers. A friend dropped her off.”
I glanced in Mr. Rogers’ direction and caught him staring at my chest. It amazes me sometimes that men ever came to assume dominant positions in society, given their easy distractibility.
Melissa Butler said, “I think I hit my head on the steps when I fell. I don’t really remember.”
“Then how do you…”
“This man came charging out the door, stopped dead at the sight of me, and that’s the last thing I knew before Matt was bending over me, and my head was throbbing.” She reached out and took Matt’s hand. He squeezed her hand, and they smiled at each other.
“I didn’t touch her,” Mr. Rogers said. “I came up to the house.”
“But it was Derek Nolan you saw downstairs,” I said to Melissa. “You recognized him.”
She shook her head and winced. “I’ve never met him.”
“That’s right. Would know the man if you saw him again?”
“Sure. I think so.”
I looked at Mrs. Nolan. “It’s time to call the police. We need to get a record of this.”
“What do I tell them?”
“Just tell them what happened. Your husband clubbed your son’s fiancée to the ground and ran off. While they’re here, you can show them your eye.” There was a cordless phone sitting on the coffee table. Setting down my keys beside it, I picked it up and punched in 9-1-1. I handed Lynn the phone.
She punched it off. “I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“He’ll kill me.” She put the phone down, almost as if she were afraid to have it in her possession.
“Derek?”
“Yes. The best thing for me to do is…” She trailed off.
“What?” I said.
“Just not be here when he gets back.”
The phone rang. Lynn started to reach for it.
“Wait,” I said. “If that’s 9-1-1 calling back, and you tell them there’s nothing wrong, it’s going to be harder for us to tell a different story later.”
The phone kept ringing. On the third ring, Charles Rogers, who after all was only a neighbor, said, “Maybe I’d better go. I live just over on Franklin Street if you need me. I’m in the phone book.”
Matt shook his hand by way of thanks, and Rogers left. The phone stopped ringing, and in the silence that followed we could hear him talking to his dog in a gooey voice: “Good boy, Rex. Good boy. You’re quite the detective, aren’t you?”
“So you think you can leave your husband now?” I asked. “You’ll go to a hotel?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Melissa. “How does it happen you’d never met your fiancé’s father?”
“I don’t know. I just hadn’t.”
“We only got engaged a couple of days ago,” Matt said.
“And she was going by herself to meet him,” I said.
We all looked at Melissa.
“I hadn’t planned on it,” she said. “I was coming to see Matt, and when I saw a light on down there, I thought I’d introduce myself.”
“As Matt’s fiancée?”
“As a friend of his. Then it would be easier to break the big news later.”
“How long ago was this? Time enough for Derek to have come back?”
They exchanged glances, but no one said anything.
“Let’s go look,” I said.
“Don’t you think we’d better…?” Lynn trailed off.
“Wait for the police?” I smiled humorlessly.
Matt, too, seemed disinclined to take the lead in going down to the basement apartment, so I started for the door myself. They followed. When I stopped to pull the front door open the rest of the way, Lynn was so close behind me that I almost hit her with it. Behind her, Melissa and Matt were holding hands.
We went out onto the porch and down the steps. The sidewalk was deserted. The occasional car was parked along the curb, mine closest to the house. Charles Rogers and his dog had disappeared into the shadows.
“Is that yours?” Melissa asked, and I glanced at her.
“The Beetle? Yeah, it’s mine.”
“I’ve always liked those.”
“Me, too. Lots of headroom for a little car.” I wondered whether she was a space cadet or merely trying to be friendly. Leaving the sidewalk, I went down the steps to a single, solid door. There was a copper lamp fixed onto the brick beside the door, lighting the steps well enough that Charles Rogers might have noticed a short-skirted woman lying on them, even without the help of his dog. On the door itself was a brass plaque that carried the name Derek Nolan and, below it, the single word “Factor.” The door was locked. There was no window, illuminated or otherwise.
“I’ll get the key,” Matt said, and disappeared back up the steps.
“What’s a factor?” I asked Lynn.
“A money lender.”
“A loan shark,” Melissa said. She flushed when Lynn looked at her. “That’s what Matt calls him.”
“Specifically, it’s someone who lends money to businesses,” Lynn said. “Manufacturers and dealers.”
“He can compete with the banks?”
“Sometimes he’s willing to make loans a bank wouldn’t.”
“Ah,” I said.
Matt came back with his mother’s purse. “The key by the door’s gone,” he said as he handed the purse to her.
“Did you forget to put it back?”
“I never use it. No one does, except in emergencies.”
Frowning irritably, Lynn fished out a set of keys, sorted through it one-handed, and gave me the set with the appropriate key extended.
I twisted the key in the lock and depressed the latch.
The apartment was as dark as a cave. I felt for a switch and found it. A floor lamp with a Tiffany shade came on, revealing a well-appointed office, though the chair behind the large walnut desk had been overturned. Stepping forward, I saw that a man was on the floor by the chair, lying on his back with one arm out-flung. His face seemed distorted, his ear dark with blood that ran down from his temple to an irregular stain on the Oriental carpet.
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Books by Michael Monhollon
Robin Starling Legal Thrillers
Trial by Ambush
Juggling Evidence
Dog Law
Laughing Heirs
The Case of the Unsympathetic Client
(A Novella)
Other Legal Thrillers
Guilty Knowledge
Criminal Intent
Other Novels
Divine Invasion
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