Yes indeed, where were Audrey Star’s journals? Especially the last one.
Patty got up again and walked to the window. Kala and Spenser were still talking. She stood at the window for a good ten minutes, her thoughts all over the map. As the personal representative of Adam Star’s estate, Kala had to have a key, or could get one, to the Star mansion, where Adam and Audrey had lived. Maybe it was time to send in a search team to see what could be uncovered. She was sure the police had done it ten years ago, but this was now. The journals could have been secretly removed, then brought back after the trial. It was just a thought but a thought that wouldn’t go away. Because the thought wouldn’t go away, Patty knew she was onto something. Plus the fine hairs on the back of her neck, always a warning sign that she should pay attention, were tingling.
As soon as she was finished reading Bonnie’s report, she would ask Kala, if she ever finished talking to Spenser, if she could go to the house and search it. The thought excited her. Maybe Nick would go with her. It would make him more a part of what was going on. She knew he felt left out—he said so on a daily basis. The thought was so strong she picked up her cell phone and hit the speed dial. “Come over here, Nick. By the time you finish your PT, Kala should be back inside, and we can leave. Unless you have something else planned for your day.” Nick assured her he would be there with bells on. Patty thought he sounded as excited as she felt.
Patty looked at the time on her watch as she started Bonnie’s report. It was almost identical in content to Rob’s but with what Patty called a few more female details. Audrey was addicted to designer clothes, went to all the Paris fashion shows, and bought tons of clothes. At her death there were racks and racks of clothes in her many closets, a good many with the price tags still on them. She also liked expensive jewelry and had millions of dollars in gems, most of which was kept in a safe-deposit box, although she kept a goodly amount at home in a wall safe. The combination was enclosed in the report as well as the location. “I got this from the police report,” Bonnie had penciled in the margin. Dr. Rosenberg said Audrey had six different engagement rings, all emerald cuts. He said he had told her she should return them to the various fiancés but she’d said no, they were given to her, and she was keeping them. When he told her that wasn’t the proper thing to do, she said she would think about it, and maybe she would return them. She never did, to his knowledge.
Dr. Rosenberg said it always bothered him that Audrey used to like to play dress-up in fancy high-end clothing with lots of feathers and boas and the like. She’d spend thousands of dollars on stuff, play with it, then discard it. He went on to say Audrey, when she would return from a trip, would plan a dinner party but not invite anyone. When it was time to sit down to eat, she would call all the staff to eat with her. When he asked her why she did that, she said because no one loved her, and as long as she was paying the staff, they would love her.
Dr. Rosenberg said Audrey Star was one of only four failures in his career. He simply could not break through to Audrey. Audrey Star was never a happy child or a happy woman. However, he said, when she married Adam Clements, she was content. When she insisted Adam change his name to Star, Adam pitched a fit and said no. Audrey went into a deep depression followed by many sessions for the both of them with Dr. Rosenberg. Adam finally gave in when he saw that was the only way to lift Audrey out of her depression. That very day, Audrey bounced back, giddy as a little girl. She immediately called in a team of decorators and decorated the mansion with stars. She called Adam and herself the Two Stars who lived in the Star mansion.
Patty started flipping pages, then she went to the trial transcript. There was nothing about the Star mansion decor anywhere that she could see. She would have remembered that. “Oh, baby, you were one sick puppy, and to think they locked up Sophie!”
What she was reading was so unnerving, Patty shoved the papers away and got up to walk down to the kitchen for another cup of coffee she didn’t need or even want. She saw Kala pouring herself a glass of juice. “So what, now Spenser is our new best friend?” Patty all but snarled.
“Close, but not quite best friends. Yet. Remember what I’ve said all along. Things are not always what they seem. How did your people do with the interviews on Audrey and Adam Star?” Kala asked.
“They’re very enlightening, to say the least. Do you have a key to the Star mansion, Kala?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Clayton Hughes sent it over about a week ago. Why?”
“I’d like to take Nick with me and go over there and search the house for the journals. Are you planning on staying here at the office?”
“I am, why?”
“Then I’ll give you the reports on Audrey and Adam, and you can read them while we’re gone if you say it’s okay to go over there and poke around.”
“I don’t see any reason why you can’t do that. Come back to my office, the key’s in my desk. Bring the reports with you. You okay with the way things are going with your investigators, Patty?”
“Yes, I am. You’re going to find them very interesting. I didn’t finish Bonnie’s, but I’m sure it’s just clarification of what Rob had in his report. You know as well as I do that women see things differently than men. For some reason we pick up on the nuances, and sometimes that can be crucial, which really isn’t the case here, but I do question why neither side hit a home run with Dr. Rosenberg. With what’s in this current report, it seems to me he’s a key player.”
“Not at trial. Audrey was dead. She wasn’t on trial, Sophie was on trial, and Dr. Rosenberg was represented by the Star legal team. Patient-doctor privilege. Audrey Star was well represented by her team of medical doctors, all high-dollar specialists from all over the world. Dr. Rosenberg merely testified that Audrey had good days and bad days and on her bad days was depressed but easily cajoled out of it by her husband. End of Dr. Rosenberg’s testimony.”
“Yeah, well, wait till you read this report. Wonder why he talked so freely to Rob and Bonnie now.”
“Probably because Adam is dead now and a wrong has been righted with Adam’s confession. Doctors are like us lawyers, Patty, we take an oath. For all we know, Adam had some kind of agreement with the doctor that said after his death, he could spill his guts. I’m just guessing here because I don’t know. Didn’t your people ask him?”
Patty shrugged. “I’ll go get the report and wait in the lot for Nick to pick me up. I’ll check in when we’re done. Is there anything in particular you want me to look for while we’re there?”
“Anything that screams my name, snatch it up. This is a hot potato, isn’t it?”
“And it’s getting hotter by the moment,” Patty called over her shoulder as she ran to her little office. She was back in minutes with the report. She accepted the key to the Star mansion, which was on a curly purple wrist chain. Patty blew her boss a kiss and raced for the stairs that would take her outside.
By the time Nick pulled up in his convertible with the top down, Patty was drenched with her own perspiration. “You need to put the top up and the AC on full blast, or I’m going to explode. What took you so damn long?”
“I had to get gas. This car does not run on empty, you know.”
It was a running battle with the two of them, with Patty saying to fill the tank when it was a quarter full, and Nick saying his car buzzed when he was down to his last five gallons.
Within minutes, the canvas top curled upward and the AC started to spew cold air. Patty fanned herself with her hands. “You know where to go, right?”
“Yeah, I dropped Sophie off a few times. What’s up?”
Patty told him about the reports as well as what Kala had said before she handed over the key. “I hope I’m not wrong, Nick, but I think Dr. Rosenberg is a key player here whom no one explored, or if they tried, were thwarted for their efforts. Money talks and bullshit walks, as Kala and Jay say constantly.”
His eyes on the road, his hands gripping the steering wheel, Nick said, “Give me
your definition of Audrey Star and don’t stop to think about the answer before you reply.”
“In my opinion, Audrey Star was mentally challenged and never progressed beyond the age of sixteen. No one wanted that information to come out. Even Adam, at the end when he confessed to murdering her, never said a word about her mental condition. Maybe it had something to do with the stockholders or something. I would imagine that stockholders have the right to expect whoever was at the head of a monolith like Star Enterprises to be of sound mind. It would be like Kala sending Bobby the office boy to defend a client on a murder charge. Bobby isn’t qualified, and neither was Audrey qualified to run Star Enterprises even though she was the CEO and president. It was in name only. She signed her name. Seems she was real good at that. Hey, what do you want from me, Nick? I’m a reporter, not a shrink.”
Nick shrugged. “Do you think we’ll find anything?”
“No. Well, maybe. It would be nice, though, if we did. Adam lived at the house until the last two weeks of his life. He might well have hidden something in the house, like Audrey’s journals. But would he have left them there to be found, knowing when he entered the hospital he wouldn’t be getting out and going home? I’m thinking the way he saw it was he’d confessed, and that was the end of it.
“If he ever did have Audrey’s journals, he might have hidden them somewhere. I have not discounted in my own mind that Dr. Rosenberg might have them. For that matter, Adam could have hidden them in his locker at the country club where he plays golf. Or if he belonged to a gym, he would have a locker there and could have hidden them there. No one at the firm has gotten that far into this mess yet to have thought of that until today. For all we know, they could be hidden in the trunk of his car.
“Nick, let me ask you a question. Knowing Audrey Star’s condition, knowing she knew she was never going to walk again, knowing everything she knew at the time of her death, what would she write in a journal? Her world was one room. She watched television, her husband read to her, a nurse took care of her needs. What would she write about? Why would she even bother to keep a journal? Before, yes, I understand the need to put thoughts to paper. I think those damn journals are suddenly a very big deal.”
Nick took his eyes off the road long enough to give Patty a piercing stare. “What happens if we can’t find them?”
“We have to find them. We look until we have to give up. That’s the bottom line.”
“Okay, we’re here,” Nick said as he put on his blinker and made a left turn onto a gravel driveway. “I hope you have the code to the security gate. Kala said the other day that all the staff are gone, even the gardeners.”
“Four double zeros,” Patty said. Nick punched in the numbers, and the gate slowly slid to the side. He drove through and continued on under the canopy of ancient oak trees.
It was a beautiful house, a huge Tudor with extensions that ran to the back of the house so as not to disturb the architecture. The shrubbery was dense and lush but overgrown. Flowers bloomed everywhere, but they were leggy and spindly and in need of water. The noonday sun glistened on the diamond-paned windows.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it, Nick? This is the first time I’m seeing it. But Sophie described it to me. She said it was a cold, strange house, beautifully decorated with costly things, but there was no warmth at all to it. Even if I didn’t know the house was empty, I would still think so. It just looks like a shell to me even though I can see window treatments. Is that crazy or what?” Patty asked, getting out of the car.
“That’s because you’re a people person, Patty. But I understand what you’re saying. It’s almost like the house is shouting, ‘They’re all gone and they aren’t coming back.’ ”
“I wonder what Sophie will do with it,” Patty said.
Nick stopped in midstride. “If Sophie were to ask me for my opinion, I’d tell her to burn the damn thing to the ground.”
Patty laughed, a bitter sound. “Funny. I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe she could knock it down and make a little park with benches and flowers and stuff. A few statues, that kind of thing. A place where people could walk to in the evening after the sun goes down. Let’s hope she asks for our opinions. Okay, here goes. Why do I feel like I should ring the bell?”
“Is that some kind of girl thinking? Just open the damn door already and get this show on the road.”
Patty whirled around. “What’s your problem, Nick? I’m getting sick and tired of your attitude. If you didn’t want to come with me, all you had to do was say no. No I can accept. This surly attitude of yours of late is getting on my nerves. Do you want to sit out here on the swing and talk it out? We’ve done that all our lives, and unless we’ve been lying to one another, it always seemed to help. Why, all of a sudden, don’t you want to talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you? By the way, before I forget, it’s my turn to take Jon home with me this week.”
Nick walked over to the swing, noticed the patches of mildew, and perched on the very end. Patty leaned against the porch wall.
“They called me early this morning to tell me I have to have the other hip done, and the sooner the better. There goes my career. I thought I could handle it but ... I’m not handling it. I have to be up front with all my sponsors, and the sooner the better on that, too. I’m washed up, Patty. Sophie isn’t going to want some has-been like me. That’s what’s bothering me more than the endorsements and my career.”
“Damn, you are one dumb sorry jerk, Nick Mancuso. Right this minute, I’m ashamed to even be talking to you. If you think even for a nanosecond that Sophie would feel that way, you’re even more stupid than I thought. Don’t say another word to me, Nick Mancuso.”
“So you’re telling me this is a guy thing?” Hope was in his voice, but Patty was heartless.
“I can’t waste my time on stupid people like you. Now get off your ass and help me out here or else go home and I’ll call a cab when I’m ready to leave. Don’t you dare talk to me, Nick. I can’t carry on a conversation with someone so stupid.”
“All rrriiight. I get it. Look, see, I’m happy as a clam,” Nick said, stretching his mouth out as far as it would go with his fingers.
“I’m sorry about your news. It’s going to be whatever you make it to be, Nick. There are a million things you can do with your life. You’re financially sound, and have your whole life ahead of you. Make it count. Do not whine anymore to me. We came here to do a job, so let’s get to it.”
Nick laughed. Patty could always shake him loose. He followed her into the house and gasped as loud as Patty did when they entered the foyer.
“Oh my God!” they both said in unison.
Chapter 23
KALA AULANI SLAPPED THE REPORTS SHE’D JUST READ DOWN ON her cluttered desk. She looked at the messy work space and wondered how it had gotten that way. She was retired, for God’s sake. She felt like she was driving on a superhighway and boxed in by four eighteen-wheelers. She massaged her temples, hoping to ward off a headache she knew would sprout any minute. The urge to bang her head on the cluttered desk was so strong, Kala gave the cracked-leather chair she was sitting in a push. She slid backward.
She’d always been good at analyzing things, and people told her she had a keen analytical mind. Not that she was patting herself on the back. But, if that assessment was true, why couldn’t she figure out this mess that was in front of her?
Ryan Spenser had been the surprise of a lifetime. A good one. She had never been one to judge a person quickly, and it had taken years to form the negative opinion she had in regard to Spenser. But just within the last few hours, she’d seen the real Ryan Spenser. A man whose ass was on the line. A man who no longer cared about his reputation and only wanted to help. All he wanted now was a life of his own choosing. And to help in whatever way he could. He was a strong ally. With the two of them on the same side, surely they could bring this whole sorry mess to a resolution.
He had guts—she had to give him that. For him to
throw away his career, flip his father the bird, and stand tall with her was something she had never imagined he could or would do.
Kala pushed her chair forward, closer to the desk, the urge to bang her head gone. So was the throbbing in her temples. She picked up the report on Audrey Star and glared at it. She put it down and picked up the report on Adam. There wasn’t all that much in Adam’s report. Adam was a successful investment banker with the potential to move up the ladder. He was solvent, owned his own home and high-end car. Dressed well, had various relationships, none lasting longer than three or four months. Took a vacation twice a year. Nothing exciting there. He had a more than decent portfolio, was considered a good tipper. Kala yawned as she flipped the pages, hoping to find something that would leap out at her, but nothing did. Everything she was reading, she’d read in the report on his wife.
Kala squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn’t buying Adam’s confession, and Spenser hadn’t bought it either. So, what did that mean? She and Spenser had both agreed that a boatload of guilt over Audrey’s crippling accident was on the man’s shoulders. But ... and there was always a but, Spenser hadn’t seen Patty’s report on Audrey Star. Why didn’t the prosecution go into Audrey’s background ten years ago? More to the point, why hadn’t she herself gone into it?
Kala turned her mind back in time. The best she could come up with was they had tried and were either stonewalled, or they decided the investigation was too costly since she was trying the case pro bono. But the prosecution had virtually unlimited resources; they should have done it. Were they stonewalled, too, by the Star flotilla of lawyers?
Even if either side had known, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the trial. She was almost certain of that, but she was going to have to talk to Ryan again, and very soon, perhaps before the day was over. Her team had deposed Dr. Rosenberg, who had said nothing like what she’d just read in the report. Then again, Audrey Star wasn’t on trial. Sophie Lee had been on trial. Still, leave no stone unturned unless it cost too much money to turn over said stone.
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