Loitering with Intent sb-16

by Woods, Stuart

  “No, he hung up when he saw which way the conversation was leading.”

  “I’m really happy that the crime is out of my jurisdiction, Dino. Let me know if something happens that I can actually arrest Warren Keating for.” Hotchkiss hung up.

  Dino turned to Stone. “For this kind of abuse, I lose the company of two attractive women?”

  35

  STONE HAD BECOME accustomed to being awakened in the mornings by his cell phone while in Dr. Annika Swenson’s bed, and this morning was no exception.

  “Hello?”

  “Stone? It’s your client, Evan Keating.”

  Stone looked at the clock. Seven A.M. “Good morning, Evan. You’re up early.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “I’m being discharged from this place at ten o’clock this morning. Can you pick me up here and take me to police headquarters?”

  “I suppose so, but why do you want to go to police headquarters?”

  “I’ll explain that when we’re on the way. Will you make an appointment with Lieutenant Sculley and ask him to have a representative of the district attorney there, too?”

  “Why do we need the DA there?”

  “Again, I’ll explain on the way. Just tell him I’m going to solve Charley Boggs’s murder for him. And when you come here, there’s a second entrance, two doors beyond the emergency room. Please meet me there at ten sharp.”

  “All right, Evan. See you then.” Stone hung up and, with nothing to do until nine, when Tommy Sculley would be at work, he turned his attention to Annika, who was lying on her stomach, pretending to sleep. He ran a finger lightly down the crack of her ass.

  “Mmmmm,” she said.

  “You’re not asleep, are you?”

  “Nooooo.”

  He deployed the fi nger again.

  “More,” she said.

  He could deny her nothing.

  SHORTLY AFTER NINE , after finishing breakfast, he phoned Tommy Sculley.

  “Lieutenant Sculley.”

  “Tommy, it’s Stone Barrington.”

  “Good morning, Stone, and what request do you have for me today?”

  “Only a request for a meeting with you and somebody from the DA’s office.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “My client says he can solve the Charley Boggs murder for you.”

  “Which client?”

  “I have only one in Key West.”

  “Well, that’s very decent of him. What evidence does he have?”

  “He has not yet informed me. I’m picking him up at the hospital at ten o’clock, so we can be there shortly after that.”

  “Hang on a second.” Tommy put him on hold and came back two minutes later. “Okay, the assistant county attorney, Jim Rawlings, will be here. In my office.”

  “Thank you, Tommy. See you then.” Stone hung up, thinking this must have something to do with some drug deal that Evan and Charley had collaborated on.

  STONE PULLED U P to the specified hospital door at ten o’clock, and Evan stepped out, his left arm in a sling, looked around furtively and got into Stone’s car.

  Stone drove away. “Evan, let me give you a tip: When you’re leaving a building while worried about being shot at, don’t pause and look around; just dive into the car.”

  “Thanks, that’s a good tip,” Evan said.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “A little sore, but the drugs are good.”

  “Temperature gone?”

  “Yes, my head is clear.”

  “Good. We have a meeting with Tommy Sculley and Jim Rawl-ings, the assistant county attorney. Now perhaps you can tell me why you want the meeting?”

  “I’m going to solve Charley Boggs’s homicide for them.”

  “Yes, you mentioned that. How do you plan to do it?”

  “You’ll find out at the same moment they do, Stone. What I want you to do is to negotiate an immunity agreement for Gigi and me with the county attorney before I tell them.”

  “What do you wish to be immune from?”

  “Prosecution for any crime or knowledge of a crime committed in the state of Florida.”

  “That’s kind of broad, isn’t it? Why don’t we narrow it down to the specific circumstances?”

  “I like the idea of broad,” Evan said. “And remember, it has to include Gigi, too.”

  “Why Gigi?”

  “Stone . . .”

  “I know, I know. I’ll find out when you tell them.”

  “Yes. I just want a clear and enforceable understanding with the prosecutor, before I tell them what I have to tell them.”

  “And speaking of the lovely Gigi, where is she?”

  “Grocery shopping for the boat. I don’t want her included in this meeting.”

  “Just in the immunity agreement?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Evan, tell me why you think they will agree to give you immunity from all crimes? After all, you could have robbed a few banks or something.”

  “I haven’t robbed any banks. They’ll give me the agreement because it’s the only way they can solve Charley’s homicide.”

  “How can you be sure of that?”

  “Trust me, Stone. All will be revealed after we have the immunity agreement.”

  Stone sighed and continued to drive. They reached police headquarters and parked the car and Stone hurriedly walked Evan inside.

  “Don’t worry about my being shot,” Evan said. “That problem is going to go away after this meeting.”

  Stone stopped and faced Evan. “Listen to me. If I’m going to effectively represent you in this meeting, I’m going to have to know in advance of it what you’re going to say.”

  “You don’t need to know that, Stone,” Evan replied. “All you need is the immunity agreement.”

  Stone threw up his hands and got on the elevator. “I warn you, you could get into trouble by not confiding in your lawyer.”

  “No,” Evan replied, “I won’t.”

  Stone checked in with the receptionist, and he and Evan were directed to a small, glassed-in conference room across the hall from Tommy’s office. The two men stood up to greet them, Tommy made the introductions, and they all sat down.

  “Now,” Tommy said, “what’s this about solving the Boggs killing?”

  Stone held up a hand. “First, Tommy, Jim, we’re going to need immunity for Evan and his girlfriend, Gigi Jones.”

  “Immunity from what?”

  “From any possible criminal involvement in any crime.”

  “Hang on,” Rawlings said. “From any involvement in any crime?”

  “That’s what my client needs to feel comfortable discussing the homicide with you.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Rawlings said. “Will you excuse us for a moment?”

  “Of course,” Stone replied. He and Evan walked out of the offi ce and took chairs in the hall. They could see Tommy and Rawlings arguing. Arms were being waved. Finally, they were told to come back into the conference room.

  “All right,” Rawlings said, “I’ll offer immunity from prosecution for any crime associated with the death of Charley Boggs. That’s the best I can do.”

  “All right,” Evan said.

  “We’re going to need that in writing,” Stone said. Evan interrupted. “That won’t be necessary, Stone. I trust Mr. Rawlings and Lieutenant Sculley.”

  “Evan . . .”

  “I’m ready to speak on this subject,” Evan said. Stone shrugged. “All right, but remember, Mr. Rawlings, I’m holding you to this agreement, and Tommy is a witness.”

  “Yeah, I’m a witness,” Tommy said. “Now spit it out, Mr. Keating.”

  And Evan spat it out.

  36

  EVAN KEATING REGARDED the two men across the table calmly. “Charley Boggs is not dead,” he said. Rawlings looked at Stone. “For this we came? The guy is still alive?”

  “Wait a minute,” Tommy Sculley said
, “I have the feeling there’s more. Go on, Evan.”

  “I’m Charley Boggs,” Evan said.

  Tommy screwed up his face. “You’re Charley Boggs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then who was the guy we found floating in Garrison Bight?”

  “That was Evan Keating.”

  Stone decided to keep his mouth shut, since he was as baffl ed as everybody else.

  “Let’s see some I.D.,” Tommy said.

  “My I.D. was in Evan’s pocket,” the new Charley Boggs said. “Do you still have it?”

  “No,” Tommy said, “it was sent to his parents.”

  “Then I’m afraid I can’t help you with I.D.; I only have Evan’s.”

  “Mr. Keating,” Rawlings said. “I’m sorry, Mr. Boggs. Who killed Char . . . Evan Keating?”

  “I did,” Charley said.

  “Why?”

  “It was self-defense. I’m sorry, I mean it was in defense of another’s life.”

  “Whose life?” Tommy asked.

  “Gigi’s. Evan was about to kill her, and I shot him in the head. I was afraid that if I shot him anywhere else, his gun would go off.”

  “We found Charley’s gun,” Tommy said. “I mean your gun. Whosever gun it was who lived in the boathouse. It hadn’t been fi red.”

  “Evan’s gun,” Charley said. “He had two of them. I shot him with the other one.”

  “And where is the other one?”

  “I ditched it in the sea, off Key West.”

  “Can you point out the spot?”

  “I don’t think so; it was a dark night.”

  “Why did . . . the other guy want to kill Gigi?”

  “Because Gigi had stolen his drugs from a hiding place in the wheelhouse of his boat. Oh, and some from his motorcycle, too.”

  “And what did Gigi do with the drugs?”

  “I dropped them into the sea, along with Evan’s gun.”

  “How much drugs?”

  “I’m not sure; seven or eight bags, I think. I didn’t want to be involved in the drug business, so I got rid of the stuff.”

  Tommy picked up a phone and dialed an extension. “Bring me a fingerprint kit,” he said.

  A moment later a female officer came into the conference room and fingerprinted Charley, while the others watched silently. She finished, and Charley went into an adjoining bathroom to wash his hands.

  “We have an earlier set of prints on Evan Keating,” Tommy said to the woman. “Bring them to me, please.”

  She left, and Charley returned and sat down.

  “Tell me how you got to be Charley and the other guy got to be Evan,” Tommy said.

  “Evan and I traded places nearly a year ago. I knew my father would try to find me at some stage, and I didn’t want that to happen, and Evan didn’t want to hear from his father, either. We did it to confuse anybody who might be looking for us.”

  Tommy seemed to run out of questions, then the woman returned with the two fingerprint cards. Tommy examined them both with a loupe. “These two sets of prints are identical,” Tommy said to Charley. “You’re Evan Keating.”

  “No, I’m Charley Boggs; the card just has Evan’s name on it instead of mine. We did that when your people picked us up a couple of weeks ago.”

  Tommy looked at the female officer. “Get me the prints of Charley Boggs we took from his corpse.”

  She went away.

  “Stone,” Tommy said, “do you have anything to say about this?”

  “Not a thing,” Stone said. “This is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Evan—sorry, Charley—refused to tell me anything he was going to say when we were on the way here, except that he was going to clear up the Charley Boggs homicide, and I guess he’s done that.”

  The woman came back. “We didn’t take prints from the Boggs corpse,” she said. “The body was identified by two people.”

  “Who?”

  “The woman who lived on the houseboat next to Boggs’s.”

  “And the other one?”

  “That would be you.”

  “Thanks, that’ll be all,” Tommy said. “Wait a minute, go pull the Florida driver’s license photos of Charley Boggs and Evan Keating.”

  She left again.

  “Lieutenant Sculley,” Charley said, “I think I should tell you that Evan and I strongly resembled each other, before he grew the beard. In school, most people thought we were brothers. Once, we even attended each other’s classes for a day, and nobody noticed.”

  The woman came back with the two photos, and Tommy and Rawlings looked at them.

  “May I see them?” Stone asked, and Tommy pushed them across the table. Stone looked at the two photos. “Damned if he isn’t right; I might be able to tell them apart if they were sitting next to each other, but not if I saw them in different places.”

  Rawlings was shaking his head. “I don’t know what to make of this,” he said.

  “Gentlemen,” Stone said, “it appears that no crime has been committed here, so will there be anything else?”

  Tommy and Rawlings looked at each other, and Rawlings shook his head.

  “I guess not,” Tommy said.

  “Well, then,” Stone said, “if you’ll excuse us.” He stood up, and so did the new Charley Boggs. “Please send the completed immunity agreement to me at the Marquesa today.” Rawlings nodded. Stone half expected to be stopped, but he and Charley walked out of the building unmolested and got into Stone’s car.

  “Well,” Stone said, “that was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen in my law practice.”

  “I guess it was kind of strange,” Charley said. “Thanks for negotiating the immunity agreement. It’s a load off my mind, and it will be for Gigi, too.”

  “I’m going to assume you told them the truth,” Stone said, “and if you didn’t, I don’t want to know.”

  “Of course not,” Charley said, “you’re a lawyer.”

  “Where to?”

  “The Marquesa; I took your advice.”

  Stone drove there and parked the car in the guest garage.

  “Oh,” Charley said, “I almost forgot.”

  “What?”

  “Will you get word to Warren Keating that Evan is dead? I’d like his man to stop shooting at me.”

  37

  STONE WALKED BACK to his cottage and watched Charley Boggs walk to his own, directly opposite. Gigi was waiting for him on the front porch, and she stood up to kiss him, laughing when he apparently told her the news.

  Dino was sitting on their porch, rocking. “What’s going on?”

  Stone got out his cell phone. “I may as well tell you and Eggers at the same time,” he said, pressing the speed-dial number and the speaker button.

  Eggers answered, and Stone gave him a blow-by-blow account of the meeting. Eggers was silent.

  “Bill?” Stone said.

  “I’m still here. At least, I think I’m still here. I’m feeling a little disoriented.”

  “I know the feeling,” Stone said. “Are you in touch with Warren Keating at all?”

  “I’ve spoken to his attorney a couple of times. There was a lot of shouting.”

  “I think you’d better give the attorney the news, so that he can transmit it to his client. Charley Boggs wants Warren to stop trying to kill him.”

  “I can understand that,” Eggers said.

  “Sooner, rather than later, please.”

  “I’ll call him now.”

  “Thanks, Bill.”

  “You coming back to New York now?”

  “In a couple of days, maybe. I want to see what it’s like in Key West when I don’t have anything to worry about.”

  “Bye, then.” Eggers hung up.

  Stone turned to Dino. “Any questions?”

  “Seems like all my questions have been answered,” Dino said.

  “All that I can think of at the moment, anyway.”

  Stone got a soda out of his refrigerator and sat on the porch, sip
ping it. “I feel kind of let down,” he said.

  “Not me,” Dino said. “I feel just great.”

  A young man came down the path and stopped at their porch.

  “Is one of you Mr. Stone Barrington?”

  “I’m Barrington,” Stone said.

  “I have a letter for you from the county attorney’s offi ce,” the man said, holding out an envelope.

  Stone pointed at the cottage across the way. “See that cottage?”

  “Yessir.”

  “Knock on the door and give the letter to Mr. Boggs; he’s expecting it.”

  “Okay.” The young man did as he was told, and Charley Boggs received the letter. He opened it, read it, waved at Stone and went back inside.

  “Business concluded,” Stone said.

  “It’s not too early for a drink, is it?” Dino asked.

  “Of course it’s too early. Let’s go to the Raw Bar and get some conch fritters.”

  “I’m game,” Dino said.

  THEY WERE HALF WAY through their fritters when Dino broke the silence. “There’s something I don’t understand,” he said.

  “Tell me,” Stone replied.

  “What did these two guys get out of switching identities?”

  “They made it harder for their respective fathers to fi nd them.”

  “My recollection, from what Tommy said, was that Charley’s father’s response to being told his son was dead was that he wasn’t surprised, that he’d thought he might be already dead.”

  “Yeah, that’s what Tommy said the elder Mr. Boggs said.”

  “Which means that Charley Boggs’s old man wasn’t looking for him.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “So what’s in it for him to switch identities with Evan?”

  “I’ve got two answers for you: the first, not much; the second, maybe Charley was just doing Evan a favor. After all, we know that Evan’s father was looking for him, because he hired Manny White and me to find him, and Evan and Charley had been close friends since prep school, so it’s the sort of thing one friend might do for the other.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Dino said, “but I think there’s another reason we don’t know about.”

  “What’s that?” Stone asked.