Till Death - Mark Kane Mysteries - Book Four: A Private Investigator Crime Series of Murder, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Stories...with a dash of Romance. A Murder, Mystery & Suspense Thriller

by John Hemmings

  “Is it okay if I sit here for a while? It may be a long while; I don’t have anything to do until this evening.”

  “You sit there as long as you like, pal,” he said. “Ain’t no skin off my nose.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Night Starvation

  It was ten by the time I pulled up in my driveway. I locked the car and walked down to Lucy’s place.

  “So,” she said, as she opened the door, “how’d it go?”

  “Rather slowly,” I said. I hung my coat on the back of the door and went over to the sofa to sit down. Lucy went into the kitchen and came back with a mug of Horlicks, a malted milk drink that she buys on Amazon.

  “Just what the doctor ordered,” she said. “It will ensure a relaxed and trouble-free sleep.”

  “They used to have a commercial that claimed it cured ‘night starvation’,” I said, gingerly sipping the warm liquid, “whatever that is.”

  “Any luck with the mystery woman?” Lucy said.

  “Yes, Tony’s found out where she lives. I’ll tell you about it in a minute. First you tell me about Lisa.”

  “I followed her home,” Lucy said. “When we were almost there she pulled over to the side of the road, by a dumpster. I couldn’t very well pull over behind her but I slowed down and in my rear view mirror I saw her throw something into the dumpster. I’m pretty sure it was the envelope she got from the woman in Starbucks. After she got home I drove back to the dumpster and tried to find it – but it was hopeless I’m afraid and I was getting some pretty strange looks from people on the street too. So I came home.”

  I sighed inwardly. Lucy was going to have to learn a lot more about perseverance if she was going to make the grade. Still, I now knew where the blackmailer lived and I was sure she’d have kept a copy of whatever it is that was in the envelope, so hopefully all was not lost.

  “Okay, well never mind. I lucked out this afternoon. The woman didn’t show again after I tailed her home, but Tony finally managed to find out where she lives. He didn’t give me the details but he called me when I was on the way home and told me she’s on the fourth floor – apartment 410. He went up there. He could hear the TV was on and he listened for a while at the door and he’s pretty sure no-one else was in there. He was still waiting outside when I spoke to him. He said he’d stick it out until about ten and asked me if I wanted June to keep an eye on the place tonight, but I didn’t think there was much point in that so we’re going to meet back there in the morning, about seven. We’ll keep an eye on the place from a café across the street and if she comes out I’ll get up there and search the place. He can follow her and let me know when she’s coming back. I can’t afford to wait, and even if she does come back while I’m in there she’ll have a few difficult questions to answer. She won’t be calling the police or the management.”

  “So what are you going to look for?”

  “Anything that gives a clue as to who she is and anything else which may give a clue as to what this is all about – and maybe find the money that we assume Lisa paid on Wednesday.”

  “I’m sorry about the envelope. It would’ve been nice to know what was in that.”

  “Well, it can’t be helped. I’d better send an email to Don. I’m not telling him where the woman lives though – just in case. It’ll be interesting to see if he asks.”

  Lucy gave me a slightly forlorn look.

  “Lucy it’s not what I want to believe either,” I said, “but the fact is we’re a little short on suspects here. The only people that we know of that have been involved in this thing is the mystery woman and the dead man. I’ve already explained why I don’t think she could be responsible – at least not by herself, and we haven’t seen anyone else. Look, I’m going to send Don an email and then, if you’re not too tired, we can run over what’s happened today and see if it takes either of my theories any further.”

  “Are they both your theories?” Lucy said. “I thought one of them was mine.”

  “We’ll share them, okay. We’ll call them collectively ‘our theories’,” I said.

  “Okay,” she said.

  I sent an email to Don. I told him that Lisa had met with the woman he’d seen in the photograph in a Starbucks in the South End. I told him about the envelope. I told him that Lisa had apparently discarded it on the way home but we hadn’t been able to recover it. I told him that I had a good idea where the woman lived and I was working on it. Finally, I asked if he could drop by at my place on Sunday morning. I printed the email and showed it to Lucy.

  “So if you are able to search the woman’s apartment tomorrow we’ll be able to hopefully have more to tell him,” Lucy said.

  “That’s not the only reason I’ve asked him to come here,” I said.

  “What’s the other one?”

  “I want a sample of his DNA,” I said. “It’ll be simple enough, we’ll just bag up his coffee cup after he leaves and I’ll send it over to Jill for analysis.”

  Jill was a forensic expert who worked at a private lab over in Cambridge.

  “I already have the profile of a male who was probably in the cold case apartment at the time of the victim’s death. It’s going to take some time obviously before we find out if there was any useful DNA left at the South Boston apartment. Maybe weeks unless Calley can hurry it up. But there’s no harm in getting a sample from Don analyzed in the meantime, although it’s not exactly an expense that I can ask Don to reimburse me for.”

  Lucy laughed. “And if he is the murderer can we get him to pay us before he gets carted off to jail?” she said.

  I smiled at her. “Why don’t you tell me what we’ve learned today,” I said.

  “Well, the exchange that took place in Starbucks suggests that we’re right about the blackmail,” she said. “It seems fairly obvious that the envelope given to Lisa contained whatever documents were behind the blackmail. They obviously weren’t documents that she needed to keep since she threw them away afterward. We don’t know what kind of documents they were. I wasn’t near enough to see, and anyway she only partly pulled them out of the envelope. They may have been photographs. Maybe photographs of her in a compromising situation of some sort…”

  “I think we should stick only to what we saw, and what we can infer from that. Let’s not speculate about anything else,” I said.

  “And the location where the exchange took place was chosen because it was near the woman’s home, but she obviously wouldn’t want Lisa to know where she lived.”

  “Right,” I said. “She was being careful to make sure she wasn’t being followed after she left Starbucks.”

  “But not careful enough.” Lucy smiled.

  “So I think we can be fairly sure that she was being blackmailed and that the basis of the blackmail was evidenced by whatever was in the envelope. As I said yesterday, blackmailers are notorious for trying to get a second bite of the cherry, so I may well find copies of whatever was in that envelope when I search the woman’s home.”

  “So we are getting somewhere with all this, then?”

  “We are indeed. Now I know where the woman lives it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out who she is. Plus, we have a picture of her with a man who was killed very shortly after the money was probably handed over by Lisa. The pair of them are also linked by Lisa who we know has met both of them. There may well be items in the mystery woman’s apartment that will shed more light on the relationship between her and the dead guy. I may even be able to locate the blackmail money. In due course there may well be evidence from the police investigation that the mystery woman had been in the apartment where the killing took place.”

  “So I suppose we’re going to have to let the police know all this eventually, are we?”

  “As to that we’ll have to wait and see. Obviously if Don is in any way involved in the death they’ll have to know. But if not then I’ll have to try and keep them both out of it. Don’s my client and it
looks like Lisa’s a victim. We’ll just have to see how it all pans out.”

  “There’s still one thing that’s puzzling me though,” Lucy said. “If Lisa handed over the money on Wednesday, why weren’t the documents given to her then?”

  “Maybe they didn’t have the documents with them then. They may have anticipated a trap – maybe they were being cautious in case the police had been tipped off for example; they wouldn’t want the incriminating material on them. Anyway there’s not much point to speculate about that at the moment. I’m going to turn in; have an early night. I’ve got to get going early in the morning.”

  Lucy was sitting next to me on the sofa, and as I went to get up she held my arm.

  “Thanks, Kane,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “For trusting me; for letting me be part of your world; for everything.” Her eyes were glistening.

  “Lucy you’ve been part of my world for almost as long as I can remember; don’t go all mawkish on me now,” I said.

  I left before I got teary-eyed too.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Delmar Ditto

  I met Tony, as arranged, at seven o’clock.

  “I came early boss, just in case; been here since six, hanging around – this place only just opened.”

  “Thanks Tony; any movement?”

  “No, nothing yet. Hey, so what happened to your office then?”

  “We’ve given it up. Lucy and I are going to work together from now on. I mean she’s going to help me with the investigative side of the business. We’ve decided – she’s decided – that we’re going to open a small office in Norbury and work from there – and from home. I think it’s a positive move. Lucy’s a smart girl, as you know, and my work’s growing. I need someone to work with that I can trust.”

  Tony looked up at me over his cup of coffee and grinned.

  “Whose idea was that, then? Honestly.”

  “We both know that there’s no need for me to answer that question, Tony. But seriously I really think she’ll be an asset. I admit I was a bit reluctant at first, but…well, time will tell anyway. And it's made her happy, and if she's happy so am I.”

  “For what it’s worth,” Tony said, “I think it’s a good move. You know I’ve been working with June for more than twelve years now; works out just fine for us.”

  “That’s probably because you hardly ever see each other – what with you on days and June on nights.”

  “They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder,” he said.

  “Lucy reckons her woman’s intuition will bring a whole new perspective to the business,” I said. “Whatever that means.”

  “Who knows what anything a woman ever says really means?”

  “So did you find out the mark’s name?”

  “There she is,” said Tony. I looked across the street and saw the mystery woman from apartment 410. She came out the building, turned left and walked off down the street. She stopped to buy a newspaper or magazine and then kept right on walking.

  “See you later,” said Tony as he left the café. “I’ll keep in touch.”

  Tony had already confirmed that the only lock on the door to the apartment was a mortise lock, and I had a comprehensive assortment of picks with me for the job. Mortise locks are the most common types of lock for most households and the easiest to pick; I wasn’t anticipating any trouble there. I waited for about ten minutes to make sure she hadn’t just slipped out for a carton of milk or something and then I went in. I had no difficulty accessing the building. I chose the stairs rather than the elevator. Tony would call me if there was any sign of the mystery woman returning. I was optimistic that I would gain access and hoped I’d have sufficient time for a fairly thorough search.

  It took me less than two minutes to get inside. I found myself in a rectangular living room of about two hundred and fifty square feet including the kitchen. There was one bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. There was a range of floor-to-ceiling closets in the bedroom. The apartment was comfortably furnished. The furniture looked like it came from Circle or one of the multiples. It was clean and tidy. I was mildly surprised even though I hadn’t had any preconceived ideas of how it might look.

  The bedroom’s always a good place to start. The bed had been slept in and was unmade. I had a quick look in the bathroom, but only the usual toiletries and medicines were on the counter and in the small cupboard over the sink. The closets in the bedroom had two sliding doors, one of which was partially open. I put on some latex gloves, pulled the door back and looked inside. On the rails were some women’s clothes, but not many. I pulled back the door of the other closet. This one was full – of men’s clothing - suits, pants, jeans, shirts, overcoats. There was a cupboard tucked inside the closet with three drawers. The drawers contained male underclothing and socks, T-shirts and some sweaters. By the side of the drawer unit was a Gladstone bag. I looked inside. At first I thought it was empty, but then I noticed a black plastic bag at the bottom. I took it out and opened the bag. There were three things inside the plastic bag – a wallet, a cell phone and a bunch of keys. I opened the wallet and extracted an ID card with a picture of the dead guy staring out at me. His driver’s license was in there too. His name was Delmar Ditto, and his ID card had been issued by the State of Minnesota. He was thirty- one years old, or had been. So now I had a name and address and I’d only been in the apartment a few minutes. Then my cell phone rang – it was Tony.

  “I think she’s headed back there, boss. You got maybe ten minutes – five to be on the safe side.”

  I took out my phone and took a photo of the ID card and driver’s license. I put the items back in the plastic bag and put that back in the Gladstone. I closed the closet door. I’d have to come back another time to continue my search, but I had enough for the time being. I let myself out of the apartment and locked the door. That took a minute or two, and then I walked to the fire stairs and started on down. I hadn’t seen anybody. I didn’t see anybody in the lobby either. I didn’t want to run into the mystery woman so I waited at the foot of the stairs. There was a fire door there with a small glass panel and I was able to see the elevator. After a few more minutes I saw her approaching the elevator. As soon as she got in and I heard the doors close I walked out through the lobby and crossed the road. Tony was waiting for me in the café, which was diagonally opposite the entrance to the apartment building.

  “Sorry, boss. She only went down the street a few blocks to an Asian supermarket. Not enough time, I guess.” He looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders.

  “No; I’ll need at least half an hour or so, maybe a bit longer. But I was in there long enough to find something very useful. Did you find out her name?”

  “No, not yet. Last night she came out about nine and made a trip to the deli just over there.” He pointed to the street corner across the road. “When she went back I followed her up there, so I didn’t have to use the notes you gave me. You want me to ask around, maybe – see if I can find out?”

  I thought for a moment. “No, better not; she might get wind that someone’s been around asking questions. I don’t want to spook her. I’m not sure whether it’s her apartment. There were a lot of men’s clothes in the closet, and not much which could’ve been hers. On the other hand, I didn’t see anything in the bathroom that suggested a man was staying there. It’s a bit of a puzzle – I’ll have to think things through.”

  “You want me to stick around?”

  “Yeah, you better. Have you got a camera with you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Let me know if she meets anyone; or just generally where she goes. She’s involved in blackmailing a client’s wife and I want to know who else may be involved.”

  We shook hands and I left the café. I walked a couple of blocks, climbed into the Chevy and headed home. I called Lucy on the way to say I’d be back before nine and I’d drop in for a chat.

  “
That’s quick,” she said. “No luck?”

  “Quite a bit of luck, actually; I’ll tell you when I see you.”

  Lucy was preparing some breakfast when I dropped by.

  “I bet you went out on an empty stomach,” she said. “It’s not good for you.”

  “It’s okay – at least I didn’t suffer from night starvation,” I said. She looked at me blankly for a moment, and then she got it.

  “Well now you can break your fast with some eggs and hash browns,” she said, smiling, “and lots of piping hot coffee.”

  “The dead guy’s called Delmar Ditto,” I said.

  “Wow, how did you find that out?”

  “I managed to get inside the apartment. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay a few minutes, but for some reason the mystery woman has kept his wallet. There were also some keys and a cell phone but I didn’t have time to look at them. I took a photo of his ID and driver’s license though.” I showed her the picture.

  “That’s him alright,” she said. “Oh, Minnesota.”

  “So it seems we have the Minnesota link.”

  “Not a bad morning’s work,” Lucy said.

  “I wish I’d had time to find out who she is. And locate the money that we assume Lisa gave them on Wednesday.”

  “Maybe she’s banked it already.”

  “Probably, by now; or it’s in a safe place anyway, but you never know. I’ve left Tony holding the fort for the time being but we’ll go and take over later. I need to get back in there and finish searching the place.”

  “Come and eat some breakfast. It’s still only nine-thirty; I don’t expect she’ll be going out again just yet.”

  “I’ve been thinking things over on the drive home,” I said. “This is my take on it so far. Delmar and the mystery woman are blackmailing Lisa. The basis of the blackmail is something contained in the documents handed to Lisa yesterday. They probably relate to her life before she met Don; her life in Minnesota. Lisa comes from a small town in Minnesota, that’s all we know – and all Don knows – about her background. Delmar also comes from Minnesota – according to his ID he’s from Minneapolis. Okay, different places, but within the same state. I don’t believe in coincidences like that. Delmar and the woman are working this blackmail together. As the deal apparently came to fruition – the day that Lisa went to the bank to get the money – Delmar was killed. Now, remember the cold case?”