“You left him there to die,” I said. Even allowing that ruining Neal’s doctorate was a motive for violence, I couldn’t excuse that.
“I didn’t just leave him. As soon as I got home, my mind started working again. I thought about calling the police, but I was afraid they’d arrest me. And I didn’t have your phone number, Laura. I didn’t even know your married name. So I called Vinnie and told him the whole story. He said he’d take care of it, that he’d go get Philip and make sure he was okay.”
“But he didn’t,” I said.
“No, he didn’t,” he said. “The next day Jessie called to tell me that Philip was dead, and I called Vinnie again. He said that by the time he got there, Philip was already dead, and he thought that the best thing for all of us was just to leave him there.”
“Did you believe him?” I said.
Neal looked down. “At first I did.”
Thaddeous asked, “What about Murray?”
“That’s when I quit believing Vinnie. The day after Murray died, I went to Vinnie’s house to talk to him. At first he denied everything, but he finally admitted that Murray had gotten into the code and realized that it wasn’t Philip’s. Vinnie told him to leave it alone, but Murray wasn’t going to. So Vinnie pushed him down the stairs, then got the code out of his system so nobody else would see it. He said he did it to protect us, but I told him he was crazy, that I was going to tell the police. Then he said he’d tell the police about Philip.”
“So you stayed quiet.”
Again Neal looked ashamed. “Philip and Murray were dead, and I couldn’t stand the thought of going to jail. Vinnie said if I kept quiet, everything would be all right. I didn’t think anybody else was going to get hurt.”
“Sounds to me like you didn’t think much at all,” Thaddeous said.
“How does Michelle figure into this?” I asked.
“I was worried. I heard you talking to Dom about the vote, and Jessie told me that you had been asking her questions, too. Later on I saw you in Murray’s office. Vinnie was already suspicious after the way you’d questioned him about Philip and the blackmail, and he heard you talking to Sheliah in the break room. So he hired a private detective to check up on you.”
That explained the phone calls to Byerly and to GBS. “Then what?” I asked.
“This afternoon Vinnie called and said that the detective had found out you’ve been involved in stuff like this before and that you suspected us. It looked like you’d found out about the code, and the detective said that Thaddeous and the secretary from GBS were in on it, too. Vinnie wanted me to come get you so we could take care of all three of you.”
“Finally going to get your hands dirty?” I asked.
“He said the detective would take care of … of that. Vinnie said he called the secretary and told her you’d been hurt, and got her to come to his place, so all I had to do was get you two over there. The detective would do everything else.”
“You were planning to hand us over to a hit man?” Thaddeous said. “I ought to—”
“I never intended to go through with it. Why do you think I’m telling you all this?”
Thaddeous and I looked at each other, then Thaddeous shrugged, leaving it up to me. Paw had always told me to listen to my gut when it came to trusting people, but if my gut was wrong this time, Michelle could die.
What did I know? I knew that StatSys wasn’t written by Philip, but that Neal could have written it. I knew Neal’s story fit Philip’s personality. And I knew that Vincent wanted that public offering to go through very badly, because of his family’s expectations and because of his own ambition.
“What do you think we should do?” I asked Neal, stalling a little bit longer.
“Vinnie has the secretary—”
“Her name is Michelle,” Thaddeous growled.
“Okay, Michelle. Vinnie has her in a storage building behind his house. What if I bring the two of you in, like I’m in charge, and then we make a break for it?”
It didn’t sound like much of a plan to me. “What if we call the police,” I said firmly.
Thaddeous looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he didn’t say anything. I guess he figured out that it would be the safest thing for Michelle.
“Do we have to bring in the cops?” Neal said, almost wistfully.
“Neal, there’s no way we can keep what happened to Philip and Murray quiet.”
“You’re right.” He swallowed visibly. “Call them.”
While Thaddeous relented enough to let Neal get up off of the floor, I found Salvatore’s card and dialed the number. A voice I didn’t recognize answered the phone.
“May I speak to Detective Salvatore, please?”
“He’s not in the office right now. Can I take a message?”
“He’s not there,” I whispered to Thaddeous and Neal. Then, to the man on the phone, I said, “This is kind of an emergency. Is there any way I can reach him?”
“I’m afraid not. This is Detective Briggs. Can I help you?”
“This is kind of complicated—” I said, but Neal was shaking his head vigorously.
“There’s no time,” he whispered. “Vinnie said to have you at his place in Lexington by eight-thirty, and that if I couldn’t, he’d have the detective take care of Michelle then and you two later.”
I looked at my watch. It was eight.
“Miss?” Briggs said.
I thought furiously. Could I explain the story to Briggs fast enough for him to get the wheels moving in half an hour? Not to mention the fact that he’d have to get the Lexington police involved, too. This was Boston, not Byerly. It would take longer than we had. I said, “I’ll call Detective Salvatore later,” and hung up before he could ask any more questions.
“Neal’s right,” I said to Thaddeous. “His plan may not be good, but it’s all we’ve got.”
Thaddeous said, “Tell you what. I’ll go in with him while you stay outside. We’ll try to make a break for it, like he said, but if we don’t make it, you can go for the police.”
I didn’t like my cousin going into danger while I stayed outside, but it made sense. Thaddeous was a whole lot bigger than I was, and a whole lot more likely to be able to handle Vincent. Plus I knew the area better, and as a local, I might be able to convince the police that there was something wrong more easily than he could. “All right.”
“Do you have a gun?” Neal asked.
“Of course I don’t have a gun.” But there was one weapon in the house. I reached over the couch and pulled Richard’s sword down from the wall.
I halfway expected Thaddeous to snicker, but instead he said, “I’d just as soon you had something to protect yourself with.”
Chapter 43
The storage building where Vincent was waiting was as isolated as Neal had said it was on the drive over. The gravel road leading to it was accessed from the street behind the house, and with the trees and a small rise between them, I couldn’t even see Vincent’s house or any of the neighbor’s houses. I had had no idea Vincent lived so high on the hog, and I remembered Inez complaining about his family helping him buy the place.
Neal stopped his car when we were just in sight of the storage building and turned out the dome light so I could slip out without being seen, sword in hand. I wanted to say something to Thaddeous, but there wasn’t time. So I ducked into the woods on the side of the road and watched the car drive away.
I went a little deeper into the woods, then headed toward the storage building, its lights barely visible through the trees. It was cold and crisp, with enough light from the moon and stars to make me feel as if a spotlight were aimed at me. Every time I stepped on a branch or slid on leaves, I wished I had given the Girl Scouts one more try.
I heard the car stop, and then the light grew brighter for a second as the door to the building opened. There were voices, but none loud enough for me to make out the words. Then the light dimmed again as the door shut.
I kep
t making my way toward the building, hoping that they’d be too occupied inside to keep watch outside. Finally I reached the edge of the small clearing that surrounded the building. Did I dare go closer so I could peer inside the window? If not, how would I find out what was going on? As it was, they could already have killed Michelle and Thaddeous and I’d never know it.
I didn’t feel safe looking in the front window, so I circled around to the side, hoping there was another window. Luck was with me. There was one, shadowed by an oak tree. As quietly as I could, I crept toward the house, sidling up to the window until I could look inside, every muscle tensed for someone to yell that he’d seen me.
Vincent’s back was to me, almost close enough to hit with the sword, and it wasn’t easy for me to restrain myself. Especially when I saw Michelle with her face tearstained and Thaddeous standing beside her, holding her hand. They looked very brave, despite the three armed strangers in there, presumably the hit men Vincent had hired. I started to sweat despite the cold. Neal hadn’t said anything about there being so many—we had thought that there’d just be the one man.
Neal was talking to Vincent, and though I couldn’t hear him, I guessed he was telling the story we’d concocted about my having gone out and his deciding it was best to bring Thaddeous along without me. Vincent turned his head enough for me to see that he was angry with Neal, but he seemed to believe him. He said something to the armed men, and it looked like they were going to take Michelle and Thaddeous away.
Thaddeous must have thought so, too, because suddenly he pushed Michelle behind him and grabbed the gun arm of the man closest to him. He brought the arm down hard across his knee, making the man drop his gun. A second man came from behind, but Thaddeous jerked his elbow into his side, making him double over. For a second, I thought it was going to work. He had two men momentarily incapacitated, and the other one was right next to Neal. All Neal had to do was grab that one’s gun, and it would have been all over.
But Neal didn’t move. He just stood there, his mouth wide open, while the third man brought his gun down on Thaddeous’s head. Michelle screamed as my cousin hit the floor.
Chapter 44
I didn’t need a second demonstration of the hit men’s skills to tell me that Thaddeous was in over his head, especially with Neal freezing on us. I was just grateful that he hadn’t told them about me, and reluctantly decided that I’d better get back to his car before he did. He’d given me his spare keys during the drive over.
I walked backward for a few steps, making sure that nobody inside the building heard me, then turned around. There was a dark shape standing in front of me.
I stifled a scream and brought the sword down flat on the head. I didn’t get a whole lot of power into the blow, but he grunted loudly and fell down into the leaves. There was no reason to be quiet anymore, so I took off running for the car, not caring how much noise I made.
The only thing was, I went the wrong way. When I made it to the driveway, I was considerably closer to the storage building than I had meant to be. There were a good fifty yards between me and Neal’s car.
People were coming out of the shed, and I saw Michelle silhouetted in the doorway as Vincent pushed her out in front of him. A second later, Thaddeous was shoved out after her. Everybody was yelling, but not so loudly that I didn’t hear somebody moving in the bushes behind me. Either there was yet another hit man out there, or I hadn’t hit mine hard enough.
I ran for the car, trying not to look behind me, but then I heard a gunshot. I didn’t know if it was aimed at me or not, but I threw myself to the ground anyway, lifting my head just enough to see what was happening. One of the hit men was aiming in my direction, but he didn’t seem to be able to see me clearly. I didn’t have any idea that it would take him long to find me but luckily, it didn’t matter.
While the one hit man was looking toward me, Thaddeous turned around and grabbed hold of the one behind him. He pulled the man’s head down as he brought his knee up, then threw him down and jumped on top of him, arms flailing. That man’s gun was knocked out of both of their reaches, and they grappled, each one trying to get to it while keeping the other away.
Vincent let go of Michelle long enough to grab for it, but as he bent over, she let him have it with a high heel to the groin. I had thought the tales about men making high-pitched squeals when that happened were jokes, but the noises Vinnie made weren’t at all funny.
That still left one armed man, but finally Neal thawed out enough to remember which side he was supposed to be on. It was he who grabbed the gun and came up behind the other hit man to hold it against the back of his head and shakily say, “Drop it!”
I had forgotten the man I had surprised, but now he came out of the woods and tripped right over me. We rolled around, me trying to get the sword where I could use it, but he efficiently pinned me to the ground. There were voices and flashlights from further down the driveway, and I thought it was over.
Then one of the flashlight beams washed over the two of us, and I saw that the man holding me down was Detective Salvatore.
Chapter 45
It took a lot of explaining, but eventually we got it all straight. It turned out that Vincent had had no real concept of how to get a hit man. And hit men aren’t all that easy to find, a fact I was glad to hear. What he had done was hire a somewhat shady private detective, but not so shady that he’d get involved in murder. When Vincent had broached the subject, the detective hadn’t been sure if he was that stupid or just part of a particularly inept setup. Either way, he figured his best bet was to call the Boston police.
Word got back to Salvatore that Vincent wanted somebody dead, and he provided a team of cops posing as hit men to work with the private detective long enough to find out what the plan was. Unfortunately, Vincent was being cagy and wouldn’t tell them in a way they could use as evidence. He wanted to bring the target to them, and so they arranged a setup.
“So Michelle was never in any danger?” I said to Salvatore. He, Thaddeous, Michelle, Neal, and I were drinking coffee at the Lexington police station.
“She was when she was alone with Vincent,” he said, “but once our men showed up, she was safe.”
“I’m just glad it was Vincent I kicked, instead of a cop,” Michelle said with a grin.
All the men in the room nodded solemnly. Actually, Vincent had suffered no permanent damage, but he was going to be in pain for a few days.
“I feel so silly,” I said. “Sticking my nose in where it wasn’t needed.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Salvatore said. “You did figure out the motive when we couldn’t. And if you hadn’t scared Vincent like you did, we might not have been able to bring him in. I suspected that both Philip Dennis and Murray Wexelbaum had been murdered, but didn’t have anything concrete to go on. I didn’t even have official sanction to check on Wexelbaum’s death, because he died in Cambridge. It was only when Vincent tried to get professional help that we were able to get him.”
“Just like him to hire somebody,” Thaddeous said. “The man can’t stand to get his hands dirty. He just let Philip die, and I’m surprised that he had the guts to push Murray down the stairs.”
“He almost didn’t,” Neal said. “He told me he left chunks of snow on the steps and hoped that would work. Murray did slip, but was about to catch himself when Vincent pushed him the rest of the way.”
“Anyway,” Salvatore said, “I should have guessed that you’d get involved in all of this. Chief Norton warned me that you would, but I didn’t take her seriously.”
“You talked to Junior?” I said. “You did think I killed Philip.”
“Not really, but when you called me and started asking questions, I started to wonder. And then I found out that you had started working at SSI just before Wexelbaum was killed, so I figured it was worth a phone call to check you out. Chief Norton was pretty sure you wouldn’t kill anybody, but said that you have a way of getting yourself into trouble.�
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Thaddeous snickered.
“Laugh all you want,” I said. “At least I didn’t beat up a cop.” The “hit man” Thaddeous had attacked had a cracked rib and lots of bruises. Fortunately, he didn’t hold it against Thaddeous.
“He didn’t use a sword on one, either,” Salvatore said, rubbing his head. “Did you know that that blade is illegal in Massachusetts?”
I hadn’t known, actually. “Are you going to impound it?”
Salvatore considered it. “I suppose that if you assured me that you won’t hit any other police officers with it, I could change my report to read that you hit me with a board instead of a sword.”
“I sure would appreciate that.” Richard would have understood losing his prize in such a good cause, but he wouldn’t have been happy about it.
“No problem. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing the jokes when word got around the department that I was brought down by a sword.”
It was long after midnight before we got back to my apartment, and instead of coming in with me, Thaddeous said he was going to escort Michelle home.
“Will you be coming back tonight?” I asked.
He turned bright red, but didn’t say anything.
I grinned. “Then I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” As I let myself into my apartment, I couldn’t help wondering how their relationship was going to stand the test of distance, but they were going to have to work that part out for themselves.
I was torn between wanting to call Richard immediately, and wanting to fall into bed just as immediately. Bed won, partly because I didn’t want to wake him up and partly because I was bone tired.
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 04 - Country Comes to Town Page 24
