Lyle looked back at Renke and glared.
“Okay. I’ll keep it down. But I want to know if Bedrosian wants us to stop the train or not, dammit.”
“Well, is there another way?”
“Another way to do what? Look, Bedrosian wasn’t upset before, even when we whacked that old man.”
Lyle’s stomach twisted into a knot.
“Bedrosian told me someone here was getting suspicious,” Renke said, “worried about what we were doing. That’s not you, is it?” Renke looked menacing.
Lyle worked to keep his voice steady. “Hell no. You want to know why I’m concerned--why Jason is concerned? We don’t want to scare everyone off. We don’t want to destroy the park, and we don’t want anyone to know we’re doing it.”
“That’s what Bedrosian said. And we done a good job ’til now. Better than those Indians you hired. They almost got caught.”
“I wasn’t involved with that.”
“They were amateurs. We know how to handle ourselves.”
“Except...”
“Except we screwed up when we tried to bug Deming’s place. I know. Guys who did it didn’t know the old man was there. Look, I explained everything to Bedrosian. He was okay with it.”
“You never did plant any bugs.”
“Why’d Bedrosian need bugs anyway? He’s got a guy on the inside. What more’s he want?”
“Do you understand why we’re doing this?”
“Bedrosian didn’t say, but I have an idea. I’ve heard talk. Bedrosian wants to be the next president of FedPat. Must tie in someplace.”
Lyle nodded. “So we don’t want to trash the park. No more damage.”
“We done okay. Messed up some rides like Bedrosian wanted.”
Lyle had heard enough. Clearly, Bedrosian knew what Renke was doing. Bedrosian paid him for sabotage and murder. Lyle wanted to ask about Kevin Waterman, then he’d end their talk.
As he started to ask Renke a question, he saw the nearby employees finish their coffee and get up. Strother Martin turned around and looked directly at Lyle. Instinctively, Lyle shaded his face with his hand, belatedly making it look as if he were scratching his forehead. He silently cursed himself for the awkward move. The squinty-eyed clerk elbowed the guy next to him. He pointed toward Lyle and said something. The other man laughed. The group stood talking for a moment. Lyle decided it was a good time to leave.
He put down his latte and looked at his watch. “Can we go? I’ve got a meeting.”
Renke got up when Lyle did, and the two walked slowly back the way they’d come in. “You still didn’t answer my question,” Renke said. “What the fuck do you want me to do?”
Lyle looked over his shoulder at the FedPat employees. They seemed to be headed out the same exit. “Okay,” Lyle said. “Just sit tight. Wait for more instructions.”
“We had a deal and I got half in advance.” Renke’s words escaped through clenched teeth.
“We’ll pay you the full amount. Just call off your men in Arizona.”
“Okay.” Renke shook his head slowly and took a few steps toward the outside door. “I know my way around here,” he said and walked off.
Lyle walked to the nearest outside entrance lobby. There was no one around. “Kate,” he said, “I hope you’re still listening. I think it’s time to go. I hope you got everything. I’m standing at the cafeteria exit on the south side. I’m going to find my car. Are you close by? Someone recognized me.”
Chapter 53
Kate emerged from the cafeteria and caught up with Lyle in the parking lot.
“Got it all,” she said. “Good thing you decided to wear the microphone as a backup.”
“Just being careful.” Lyle looked over his shoulder. “Were you nearby?”
“In the ladies room with my briefcase on my lap--if you get the picture.”
“You’re a regular Agent 99.”
“Sounds like a cleaning solution.”
Lyle shook his head.
“Get going,” Kate said. “I’ll go back and grab the calculator in Kovak’s office. We got what we needed. I should bail out of here today. I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but Renke called here this morning and found out that Kovak is really coming in today.”
“Now you tell me.”
“I didn’t have time.”
“In that case, you should leave.”
“Let me retrieve the calculator and my purse. What’s the next step? I need to get back to the park.”
“Not sure. That recording is strong evidence. We can get Renke arrested and maybe get the Boston PD to detain Bedrosian when he returns. We could deal with FedPat later from Arizona. We’ll talk about it, decide what to do.”
Kate crossed the parking lot and headed for Kovak’s office. She wondered how she’d recover the calculator-transmitter if the executive vice president was back. When she was nearing the administration area, she heard her name--her assumed name.
“Jennifer!”
Rachel stopped Kate in her tracks. “Jennifer, where’ve you been? Judy’s really mad. I told her I thought you were on break, but it’s been over a half hour. She says you didn’t finish the reports.”
As Rachel talked, Kate looked far down the hall. She saw Joe Renke come out of Kovak’s office. He looked up and down but didn’t notice her. He headed out, hastily, in the other direction.
“Are you listening, Jennifer?” Rachel said.
“Uh, yeah. I’m listening.” Kate’s first thought was to get out of there, but she needed her purse.
“So where’ve you been?”
“In the bathroom. Over at the cafeteria.”
“Are you sick?”
“Yes. It’s...my stomach. Bad cramps.” Kate pulled a face. “I think I got a bug.”
“Oh, sorry. You should go tell Judy.”
“I will.”
Kate headed down the hall. Instead of going into Kovak’s office, she walked into the conference room to grab her purse. Then with her briefcase in her left hand, her purse in the other, she walked across the hall. She paused at Mary’s desk. The lights were still on in Kovak’s office. Hoping against hope he wasn’t there, she walked in.
At first, she didn’t see him, and she felt relieved. Then she gagged and almost threw up. Sprawled across the floor behind his desk, Kovak lay motionless. A red volcano had erupted in the top of his head. Blood flowed down the side of his face. The object that caused the crater was an obelisk sculpture Kate had noticed before. It lay on the desk, part of Kovak’s scalp stuck to the top. Obviously, he was not alive.
Kate turned sharply to look around the room. Empty. As if on autopilot, she walked a few steps to the table and picked up the calculator. She dropped it in her purse. Then she froze.
“No, Rich’s back. Let’s ask him,” a female voice said from the hallway. “C’mon.”
In a second, Kate made a decision. She had to get out. She raced to the back door of Kovak’s office and slipped through. As she closed the door, she heard footsteps. Someone screamed. Kate walked briskly down a corridor that led back to investigations. Conflicting anxieties pecked at her. Why did Renke kill Kovak? Was he out of the building already? She’d seen him come out of the office and look around suspiciously. She could prove he did it. The recording would help. Shit! She’d meant to give it to Lyle. If police questioned her now, they’d confiscate the recorder.
She needed time to think. She found the nearest exit, shut the door behind her, and took a deep breath. She’d parked her car on the other side of the offices. To get to it, she took a roundabout route, keeping space between her and the building. With every step, she imagined people inside watching her. She got in her car and pulled out of the lot. A siren wailed in the distance.
She looked in her rearview mirror again and again on the way back to her apartment. When she was safely inside, she called Lyle.
“Joe Renke killed Kovak. He bashed his head in with that crystal sculpture.” Kate half gagged and caught herself.
“Kovak?”
“Yes. He came back early, like I said.”
“You see it happen?”
“No, but I saw Renke sneak out of the office. Then I went to get the calculator and found Kovak dead.”
“What did you do?”
“People were coming. I ducked out the back door just before someone screamed.”
“Where are you now?”
“My apartment.”
“You have the recorder?”
“Of course.”
“Get out of there, fast. Don’t check out. Grab what you can and leave. Get in the car and come over here.”
“I heard sirens as I left FedPat.”
“Kate. Get out. Hang up, now.”
Randomly, Kate stuffed things into her carry-on, shoved her laptop into her briefcase, and left.
By the time she neared Lyle’s hotel, she’d gone through enough adrenalin for a whole basketball season, but she was thinking more clearly. She pulled out her phone and dialed the main number for the investigations office. Rachel answered.
“Jennifer, where are you?”
“I came home. My stomach.”
“Mr. Kovak was murdered. It was awful. I saw his body.”
“Did you call the police? Do they know who did it?”
“Someone killed Mr. Kovak and pretended to be him.” Rachel paused. She started up again more slowly. “You told me this morning you saw Mr. K.”
“Saw him?”
“Jennifer, the police want to talk to you. I think they know who did it.”
“Who, Rachel?”
“I dunno. Somebody that was here.”
“Are the police still there?”
“Oh, yeah. All over.”
Kate realized Lyle’s fingerprints would be on Kovak’s desk. So would hers. “Joe Renke, is he still there? The police need to hold him.”
“Yes. The police are talking to him. He knows the whole story.”
Chapter 54
Lyle was waiting outside, scanning the street in front of his hotel, and talking to himself when Kate drove up.
“You okay? See anyone at your apartment?” he asked.
“Anyone, like police? No.”
On the way up to Lyle’s room, Kate explained her conversation with Rachel and told him about finding Kovak’s body. “It was--” She shuddered momentarily. “--hideous.”
Lyle put an arm around her shoulder. He had to reach up. Once inside his room, Kate put her cases on the bed and sat down.
“That Renke is a dirty son of a bitch,” he said. “You saw him come out of Kovak’s office when you went back in the building?”
Kate nodded.
“He must have discovered the real Kovak and gone ballistic. Bedrosian told him someone at FedPat was suspicious. It was probably Kovak.”
“Maybe they argued.”
“Could be. I wonder if Renke killed him just to blame it on me.”
“Or maybe he thought about that later.”
“Fast thinking, but we’ll nail him with the recording.”
Lyle got up and walked to the desk. “I thought this’d be easy,” he said. “We’d take our evidence to Boston PD and let them collar Bedrosian and Renke. Now we have to deal with different jurisdictions.”
“Shouldn’t we just take this stuff back to Arizona?”
“We can’t do that.”
“But they think you killed Kovak. Your fingerprints are all over the desk--along with mine.”
“If we run, it looks like we’re guilty. We can prove Renke did it. It’s just that now we have the Peabody police to deal with.”
“I think they want to deal with us.”
“That’s because Kovak’s murder happened in Peabody.”
“Yes, and they’re going to say you did it.”
“We’ll get over that. We’ve got evidence. But the trouble is, the Peabody authorities will confiscate the recording and the memos. The evidence could be tied up--or even tainted--before we can use it on Bedrosian.”
“Max needs that evidence to stop FedPat.”
“Damn.” Lyle reached for the rubber band that wasn’t there. “Look, I need to call Steve Travanti and see if we can work out a deal.”
“But won’t they arrest us?”
“Renke thinks it’s just his word against mine, but we have evidence to back us up. It’ll take time, but eventually we’ll sort everything out. And Renke’ll be in the slammer right next to Bedrosian.”
“O--kay,” she said slowly. “You’re the ex-cop.”
It took Lyle twenty minutes on the phone to explain the situation to Travanti.
“Yes, Joe Renke killed Kovak,” Lyle said for the third time. “I don’t know why exactly. He went off the deep end. We think Kovak may have been ready to blow the whistle on him. And Renke knew he had just admitted killing my father and sabotaging the park.”
“He did?”
“Sure did. We recorded it. I’ve got all the evidence we’ll need. And the woman I told you about, the one who got the job through the temp agency, she saw Renke come out of Kovak’s office after he killed him. She saw him.”
“Jesus, Lyle, I thought this was going to be a routine investigation, looking for a paper trail. Now there’s a murder. I have to talk to Peabody and get back to you.”
“But remember, Bedrosian and FedPat are your jurisdiction. Boston PD needs to be involved. And, we’ve got crimes in Arizona.”
“Sounds like a mess, Lyle.”
“Don’t worry, Steve. I’ll explain everything.”
“Okay. Where are you? I’ll call you back.”
“He wasn’t pleased,” Kate said when Lyle hung up, “was he?”
“That’s an understatement.”
***
An hour later, Lyle had not heard from Travanti. He and Kate used the time to transfer the recording of Renke onto Kate’s laptop.
Then they copied the file to Kate’s flash drive and sent a copy to Kate’s NC email address as they had done Saturday with the FedPat memos and emails. Kate hooked the flash drive to a chain around her neck and Lyle watched as it disappeared down the front of her blouse.
When they were done, they went down to the hotel coffee shop and had sandwiches as time dragged on.
“Maybe they’re looking for us,” Kate said.
“They have my cell number. They’d just call. They’re probably trying to sort out who has the best case to prosecute. It takes time.” Lyle wondered if the PD would have thought to put Renke on ice temporarily. “I’ll call Steve back. I have his cell number.”
“Lyle, it’s all set,” Steve said. “I’m on my way to Peabody. They’re going to handle the murder and we’ll check out the evidence against FedPat Corporation. We’re all going to meet at the Peabody PD. You know where the office is?”
“Have they detained Joe Renke?”
“They talked to him all morning. I think he’s at the station now.”
“Did they find Renke’s prints on the murder weapon or Kovak’s desk?”
“I didn’t go through everything with them. We’ll review the evidence when you get there. Where’re you at?”
“Near Peabody. I’ll be there soon.”
“Jennifer Norris with you?”
“Uh huh.’
“Good. Bring her along.”
Lyle put down his phone and picked up his jacket. “It’s all set. They have Renke at the police station.”
“So we take in the recorder and everything?”
“But we’ll leave copies of everything here.”
Riding down to the lobby, Lyle felt like his stomach was dropping faster than the elevator. But sorting out a case at the police station--even a complicated one like this--was something he’d done dozens of times. He knew what to do.
They decided to take Lyle’s car. Kate carried her briefcase with the recorder and other evidence. Lyle located the police station on the GPS on his phone. Just as he started the car, the phone rang. “Marko, what’s going on?�
��
“What the hell’s goin’ on with you? I heard you’re wanted for murder.”
“How’d you hear that in Phoenix? Is it on the news?”
“Never mind. I heard your name mentioned in the office so I did some eavesdropping. They said you killed an executive at Federal Patrician Insurance.”
“Hell, no. Guy named Joe Renke did. He’s the person I came out here to investigate.”
“Well, police in Massachusetts think you did it. They asked for your picture. Somebody called here and wound up talking to your old boss, Lieutenant Collins. Don’t know exactly what he told ’em, but basically they got the message that you’re a head case and can’t be trusted.”
“Steve told me he had it all fixed up. We’re leaving for the Peabody PD right now. It’s close by.”
“I talked to Steve a few minutes ago. They’re going to arrest you when you get there. That tall lady friend of yours, too.”
“We can sort it out. We’ve got evidence on Renke. Besides, you know what it’ll look like if we don’t show up, if we run.”
Markopoulos paused for a second. “Lyle, did you impersonate the guy that was killed?”
“Well, yeah.”
“They have a witness who places you at the employee cafeteria. And they have a video tape of you pretending to shoot at a surveillance camera. Collins thought that was a riot.”
“Shit. Now what do we do?”
“Get outta there.”
As Lyle hung up, Kate looked imploringly at him.
“Marko said they’re going to arrest us for murder.”
“I told you.”
“Okay, get on the phone. Call the airline. See if you can get us out of here.”
Chapter 55
At Logan International Airport, they stopped in a parking structure and headed for the terminal. As they walked inside, Lyle wondered if he should tell Kate about his videotaped outburst at FedPat customer service.
Before they reached the right ticket counter, Lyle’s phone rang.
“Lyle. Where are you? We had a deal.”
“Steve. We got delayed. We’ll be there soon.”
Death in Nostalgia City Page 22
