“His wife said he was alone, that he cleansed himself with nature or some crap like that.”
He nods. “I know. Nice lady, but she’s wrong. Her husband was a slimeball; he was cheating on her long before she went in that wheelchair. That much I learned.”
“So you think there was a woman out there with him?”
Another nod. “Tina Bauer.”
“You have a name? Tell you what, instead of me asking questions, tell me everything you know about it.”
“I don’t know that much. I interviewed some people at his office, and one of them knew that name. He said he believed that she was Craddock’s current girlfriend. Then there are notes in Craddock’s calendar that refer to her.”
“Did you speak to her?” I ask.
“I tried to track her down, but she’s gone. No trace of her. Just walked out of her apartment and never looked back. It’s possible the two things are not connected, but I doubt it. I’ve got an entire file on it in my house. You can get it yourself.”
“I assume the house is locked?”
“Yeah. But I can tell you where I hide the key for when I forget to bring mine.”
“Please tell me it’s not under the mat.”
He laughs. “No, not under the mat. You think Craddock is connected to the Zimmer hit?”
“I don’t know. But I believe someone wanted you out of the way and that Zimmer was paid to do it. When he failed, setting you up was plan B.”
He nods. “There’s a loose brick in the third step, toward the left. Pull it out … the key is in there.”
Kramer’s house is in Teaneck, and I stop there on the way home. It’s a ranch house on a quiet cul-de-sac, and I’m surprised by it. It doesn’t seem like a place where a single guy would live; it feels like it should have a family with two kids and a swing set.
I find the loose brick on the step, and sure enough there’s a key in there. It opens the front door, and I go toward the back of the house, which is where Kramer said his office is.
Just before the office is a den, and when I glance in there, I realize that this is not going to go well. There’s a window that’s been broken and then opened.
Somebody has been in this house.
Somebody might still be in this house.
So I’m faced with a choice. I can get the hell out of here or head for the office. The odds that the house was broken into just before I arrived, after all this time, are pretty slim. Not so slim that my legs aren’t shaking, but slim.
But I continue on to Kramer’s office, and I’m not surprised when I see three file cabinets turned over and dumped on the floor. I look through the contents and am again not surprised that there is nothing having to do with the Craddock case.
I take out my cell phone and call Pete Stanton. I tell him that I’m at Kramer’s house and that there has been a burglary.
“You can be very annoying,” is his sympathetic response.
“Why don’t you send people out here who know what they’re doing, if you have any,” I say. “My client has been robbed. Maybe the crook left fingerprints, or DNA, or a signed confession.”
“I’ll send some people over. Anything else?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. Is there an open case anywhere in the state on a woman named Tina Bauer?”
“Why? Did you meet her on match.com?”
I ignore that and tell him it would likely be a missing persons case, but I would appreciate any information he could get for me as to whether or not she has a record.
“Did I mention you were annoying?” he asks.
“I believe you did.”
I give him Kramer’s address, and he tells me not to leave. Within five minutes, there are two detectives on the scene. I tell them my story, though I do not mention the subject of the file that I was looking for.
I want it on record that Kramer’s house was burglarized, because I might want to tell the jury about it. It may not be significant to them, but it is to me. It tells me that Craddock’s death is tied to the Zimmer case.
And it tells me that my client has been telling the truth.
Benjamin ate both his entrée and the branzino.
He always appreciated fine food, so he saw no reason to let it go to waste. He also was not one to panic, so the conversation with Carpenter, while worrisome, was just another annoyance to deal with.
It wasn’t until he was back in his apartment, two hours later, that he sent the text. It simply said, “Regular time.” The response came two minutes later. “I’ll be waiting.”
So at the designated time, he called the designated number, and the man operating with the name Elway answered on the first ring. As was his custom, Elway did not say hello; he simply waited for Benjamin to say what he had to say.
“I had an interesting lunch today,” Benjamin said. “With Kramer’s lawyer, Carpenter.”
“What was the subject?”
Embarrassing as it was to a professional like Benjamin, he had no choice but to tell the truth. “I left a fingerprint on the truck.”
“I thought you were better than that. Very careless.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Benjamin said, even though he knew it was true. “Your biggest problem is making sure you use enough sunblock.”
“If you had the slightest understanding of my role, perhaps you would have more respect for it.”
“Speaking of your role, when the hell are you going to get it done?”
“These things take time, Manning.” Benjamin knew he used the name Manning to annoy him, since Benjamin had disdain for the ridiculous security measure it represented. These people thought they were pros, but they were amateurs.
On the other hand, they were amateurs who were in the process of making him rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
“Well, time may be running out. Carpenter is smart, and the only chance he has to win his case is by tying me to it. So get moving.”
“Maybe you should be telling this to Rodgers.”
Rodgers was in charge; they both reported in to him. But they were under strict instructions to only make contact in an emergency or if the issue was crucially important, so Benjamin wasn’t ready to do that.
“I’m telling it to you,” Benjamin said.
An edge came into Elway’s voice; he was not intimidated by Benjamin. He was not a man of violence, but he controlled the money, and that’s all Benjamin cared about. So, for now at least, Benjamin did not pose a threat. “The plan is for everything to happen at once. Which means we are waiting on you.”
“You won’t have long to wait.”
When I finally leave Kramer’s house, my first call is to Sam.
“Sam, there’s a woman named Tina Bauer. I’m not sure where she lives, other than it’s probably near here. She’s said to be in her mid- to late twenties, and she’s missing. Find out what you can, please.”
“Tina Bauer?” he asks. “I know that name.”
“From where?”
“Hold on.”
In less than a minute, Sam gets back on the phone. “Benjamin called her twice. It’s in his phone records.”
This is a huge development; a clear connection between Benjamin and the Craddock death, though I am not comfortable calling it a Craddock murder.
Moments after I hang up, Pete calls me back.
“Tina Bauer’s mother reported her missing two months ago. It was followed up on by the state cops, but they think she just took off. The mother said she had a boyfriend, and the detectives assigned think she left voluntarily. Apparently, she and the mother didn’t get along very well.”
“Where did she live?”
He pauses while he looks it up. “Morlot Avenue in Fair Lawn.”
“Thanks,” I say. “This is helpful.”
“I live for your praise.”
“Pete, I think you should open an investigation into Tina Bauer. The state cops may not have considered it important, but they are wrong. Tina Bauer is either a cons
pirator in a murder, or a murder victim herself, or both.”
“You want to tell me the factual basis for what you just said?”
“I don’t. But there is one, believe me. And if she’s still alive, she may need help. Or capturing. But either way, it’s worth looking into. She is not an adult runaway. I am certain of that.”
“Okay,” Pete says. “But if you get more information, I want it.”
I call Sam back and give him the Fair Lawn home information, which will make his job of checking out Tina Bauer much easier. I also ask him if he has any information yet on calls Benjamin might have made after our lunch. He says he doesn’t but expects to fairly soon.
When I get home, I update Laurie on Tina Bauer and the robbery at Kramer’s house. For her, it is further but unnecessary confirmation that Kramer is, in fact, innocent.
We’re had reversed roles all along on this case. As a defense attorney, I’m usually skeptical of the government’s positions, but as a former cop, she has a tendency to assume that arrests are almost always made for good reason.
In this case, she has believed Kramer all along, no doubt because of how well she knows him. I’ve been the skeptic, probably because I’m harboring this childish jealousy. But it’s not like I’ve ever claimed to be an emotional adult.
For the first time, I feel like we might be getting somewhere in our investigation. The sudden influx of cash into Zimmer’s account, the presence of Benjamin’s fingerprint on the truck, Tina Bauer’s disappearance, and the burglary of Kramer’s house … all of this leads me to believe we are on the right track.
But we have a trial date barreling down on us, and I’ve never run into a jury that has bought into the “trust us, we’re on the right track” argument, no matter how charmingly I present it.
One thing I haven’t focused on to any degree is why John Craddock was murdered, if indeed he was. This was not a wronged girlfriend getting revenge against the lover that jilted her. Benjamin’s connection to her would seem to eliminate that as a possibility.
Tina Bauer’s role is unclear, at least to me. She could be the killer, or she could have helped Benjamin by luring Craddock into a place where he could do it. Or she could herself be a victim; perhaps the killer got rid of her body to preserve the impression that Craddock died accidentally and alone.
Or it all could be true; Bauer may have conspired with the killer, and then he may have turned on her after Craddock was dead. This is the most likely scenario in my eyes, primarily because of the fact that Benjamin called her.
I ask Laurie to call Tina Bauer’s mother to see if we can come talk to her. I don’t do it myself because Laurie’s better than I am with distraught people; she’s also better than I am with partially distraught or not at all distraught people.
In any event, the woman needs no convincing; she invites us to come right over. Laurie says that she seems thrilled that someone might finally listen to her.
Melinda Bauer lives in an apartment complex in Paterson called Kent Village. It will never be confused with a luxury condo, but the grounds are well kept and the apartments comfortable enough. Bauer buzzes us up to her third-floor apartment and stands waiting for us at the open door when we arrive.
“Come in, come in,” she says before we can even introduce ourselves. “Do you have news about Tina?”
Laurie and I have decided that she will do most of the talking, for the same reason that she made the phone call. “Mrs. Bauer, we are investigating another case, and Tina’s name has come up in connection with it.”
“What other case?”
“We’re not at liberty to say right now, but I can assure you that if our investigation turns up any information as to Tina’s whereabouts, we will share that with you.” There is no reason to tell her that the other case is a murder case; it will only upset her, and it is not proof that anything bad has happened to her daughter.
“Is she okay?”
“We’re in the preliminary stages, but at this point, we have no knowledge of any harm that has come to her. You’ve reported to the police that she’s missing?”
“Yes, I haven’t heard a word from her in so long…”
“What did the police tell you?”
“That she is an adult and that they think she left on her own.” She pauses and then says, more softly, “She’s done it before.”
“Run away?” Laurie asks.
A nod. “Yes.”
“Had you gone to the police in the past when she ran away?”
“Yes.” Then defensively, “I am her mother. I worry about her.”
“We understand,” Laurie says.
“Tina has had a difficult life. She got in with a bad crowd, and then there were drugs. And she and I … well, we’ve had our difficulties. I’ve tried my best, done all I can.” She brightens. “But that is all behind her and us. I never saw her attitude so good.”
“Do you know why that was?”
“She met a man. According to her, he was rich and important, and it was going to solve all our problems.”
“Did she say the man’s name?”
“She called him John. She never told me his last name. Do you think she ran off with him?”
Laurie tells her that we don’t know what happened, and while that is technically true, I’ve got a feeling that Tina is never coming home.
“Did she ever mention the name Eric Benjamin?”
Mrs. Bauer shakes her head. “I don’t believe so.”
I have no doubt that the police attitude toward Tina’s disappearance had to do with the fact that she had run away previous times and come home. Also, since Tina’s mother knew her boyfriend’s name only as John, the police had no reason to tie her to Craddock’s death.
It took Kramer’s investigating to start to do that.
Which in turn put Kramer in the crosshairs of the killers.
Kenny Zimmer’s actions are troubling to me. I’m not talking about the fact that he lured my client onto the truck and attempted to kill him, though that is somewhat less than ideal behavior. The real question is, what the hell was he doing on the truck in the first place?
I buy that he answered George Davenport’s Craigslist ad for the job; it was probably easy money, and my guess is that Zimmer rarely had two quarters to rub together. But then he got the $75,000 infusion and, according to his bar buddies, talked about that just being the beginning. For a guy like Zimmer, that would sound like an ideal time to quit his day job.
I doubt Zimmer was doing it for the dogs, so why continue? If he wanted to kill Dave Kramer, he could have come up with other venues to make the attempt. Maybe this was to be his last trip, but if that were the case, he gave no such indication to his boss, Davenport.
The dogs themselves continue to present another question: Where was he taking them? Sondra called every rescue group and shelter she could find in the northeast, and none of them knew anything about it. And since the rescue groups were the only source of money that Zimmer would be getting for delivering them, why was he bothering?
He had to be taking them somewhere; Zimmer doesn’t sound like the type to be opening his own canine sanctuary. Maybe we just haven’t successfully identified where they were to go, but the story has been in the media. If rescue groups were waiting for the dogs, why haven’t they contacted us?
Sam calls, and his first sentence is a rather unappealing one. “I don’t have great news.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Benjamin made only one call for the rest of the day after your lunch; it was to the Cayman Islands.”
“Do you know who he called?”
“I have no idea and no way of finding out. He called a pay phone.”
“Pay phone? They still have pay phones?”
“I guess so. I can tell you where the phone is, I can tell you that the call lasted for four minutes, but I can’t tell you who answered the phone on the other end.”
“Damn. Nothing else we can do?”
“
No, but there are a couple of other things we know, for what it’s worth. It’s the seventh time Benjamin has called that number this month, and every call except one has been at 5:00 P.M. Eastern.”
“Sam, email me the address of the pay phone, please.”
“Will do.”
I’ve already decided what I need to do. It’s a sign of desperation, but that is appropriate in this situation because we’re desperate. I’m going to send a member of our team to the Cayman Islands.
I realistically have four choices: Laurie, Marcus, Sam, or Hike. I can eliminate Laurie first. I need her here, and more importantly, I don’t sleep with Marcus, Sam, or Hike.
I don’t want to send Marcus for two reasons. First, it’s not a job that requires a particular skill or expertise. Second, with Benjamin having threatened me, keeping Marcus close by seems like the smart move.
Sam could handle it easily enough, but his computer skills are absolutely and frequently crucial. Plus, the Bubalah Brigade needs his leadership.
Which leaves Hike. There’s no question that he can handle it and that I can deal with the trial while he’s gone. The only downside to Hike doing it is I have to speak to him about it. Hike doesn’t usually react well in these situations; he even dreaded going to South Carolina when I sent him there. That is before he was voted South Carolinian of the Year.
But a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, so I call him.
“Hike, I’ve got an assignment for you. It involves traveling.”
“Good,” he says, just about causing me to drop my phone. “I need to get away.”
“Why?”
“Darlene and I split up, at least for now. It’s to give her time to think. And now everywhere I look or go around here reminds me of her.”
“How long was she here?”
“Almost two days.”
“Well, then, a trip will do you good.”
“Will I have to fly?”
“Yes.”
“Will I have to switch planes?” Hike asks without even knowing where he will be going.
Rescued Page 11
