"Yes, of course. I told you yesterday that Archie was not responsible for Ms. Penny's murder, and I can assure you he had nothing to do with Rosalind Henke's, either."
There was another long pause before Cramer told Julius that he would see what he could do, and then hung up.
"That was easy,” I commented. “I thought you'd get more of a fight from him. At the very least, have him accusing you of being in league with me in murdering both women, instead of only hinting at it."
"He's probably been suspecting all along that Henke's eyewitness account was a fabrication,” Julius said. “Maybe he even discovered her fingerprints on Denise Penny's computer."
If Julius said the murderer was one of those five people, I wasn't about to doubt him, nor was I going to ask him how he was going to pinpoint which of the five it was. It would be a waste of time on my part. Instead I mentioned the three o'clock time that he had given Cramer. “Interesting that you chose then,” I said. “Quite a coincidence, actually, since this would allow you to visit the Belvedere Club for their four o'clock cognac sampling, if you can really wrap this up as quickly as you think you can. Interesting."
"No such thing as coincidence, Archie."
With that Julius picked up his book. He seemed to have no interest in researching any of the names he had circled, and when I asked him whether he wanted my profiles for them, he told me it wouldn't be necessary. Fine. While he read more about Archimedes, I worked on my own simulations, this time involving the five people Julius was having brought to his office. One of them came up with a reasonably high probability of being the murderer. I thought of giving this to Julius but decided to keep it to myself.
Cramer came a little before three with a small mob of four other police officers and all five of Julius's suspects in tow. I guess he decided he didn't want to be outnumbered.
Denise Penny had worked for a collection agency, and her boss, Walter Dietrich, was one of the five. A squat, powerful-looking man in his fifties. There was also Sam McGowen, who had been Denise's ex-boyfriend. He was thirty-one. Medium height, thin, sallow complexion, with dark hair. As he was led into the room he had a hard time making eye contact with Julius, and he was the one my simulations pointed to as the likely murderer. Also in the group was a coworker of Denise's, Paul Cronin. A tough-looking guy with a scarred face and a bent nose that showed it had been broken a few times. Rounding out the group was an ex-roommate of Denise's, Laura Panza, a slight girl of no more than ninety pounds and at most four feet and eleven inches in height even though her driver's license had her at five foot and one inch, and Mark Hanson, a socialite, who often held well-publicized charity events for the underprivileged, which was a cause Denise believed in strongly. It was at one of these events that the two of them met. Denise even had her picture in the Boston Globe with him at the last one she attended.
After the five of them were seated and Cramer and the other police officers took their positions behind them, Julius addressed the room and thanked the five for agreeing to meet with him. While he did this, Denise's ex-boyfriend's eyes grew even shiftier. I'm sure Julius noticed this, but he chose not to mention it just then.
Julius continued his speech to them, saying, “Usually I would make a bigger production out of this, but since I have no client to impress and have a prior engagement, I'll instead be wrapping this up quickly.
"I could talk about how my assistant, Archie Smith, suspected from the beginning that Denise Penny was trying to manipulate him to help her extort money from a target. I could also talk about how Archie was unable to go to her apartment as scheduled, as much as he wanted to, so that he could discover what she was up to, since at the last minute I had to place him undercover inside a highly sensitive investigation that I am engaged in."
Cramer made a noise as if he'd nearly swallowed his tongue. His eyes flashed murder at Julius but whatever curses he wanted to unleash were held back. Julius watched him for a moment to make sure there would be no outburst from him before continuing.
"There's no reason for me to mention any of that,” Julius said matter-of-factly. “When Rosalind Henke claimed she saw Archie leaving Ms. Penny's apartment, it was obvious given what I already knew what her motives were. Clearly, the person whom Henke saw was someone she recognized, and more importantly, someone she was planning to blackmail, just as Denise Penny had tried. Knowing this made finding Penny's murderer simple, and I was motivated to do so not only because having Archie accused of murder put my other investigation at risk, but to protect his good name, although I had little doubt that the real murderer would be exposed eventually without my help. Since I knew Henke would be contacting this person for the purpose of blackmail, I hired a private investigator, Mr. Tom Durkin, to follow her, knowing that she would soon lead us to Penny's murderer. Unfortunately, Henke was able to lose Mr. Durkin in traffic, at least long enough so that he was unable to save her life. But he did witness her being shot four times and is able to identify her murderer. He'll be calling here at precisely three-fifteen. Presently, I have him busy trying to link Henke's murderer to Denise Penny."
Julius had kept his right hand under his desk and out of view from the rest of the room. He used his index finger on that hand to point out to me who the killer was, although it wasn't necessary. Given the way this person reacted to Julius's news it was pretty obvious which one it was. Julius signed with his right hand what he wanted me to tell Tom Durkin, and I called Tom to relay the message. He sounded surprised to hear my voice, but didn't say anything about it.
Julius still had three minutes before Tom would be calling. He turned to Cramer and asked, “If Mr. Durkin hasn't been successful yet in linking Henke's murderer to Penny, I'm assuming you'll still drop all charges against Archie Smith and charge this person with both murders."
Cramer nodded. His gaze, as well as everyone else's in the room, was fixed on the real murderer. They'd have to be, with the way this person was perspiring and uncomfortably squirming. At precisely three-fifteen Tom called as I had directed him. Julius put him on speakerphone.
"Mr. Durkin, is it true that you witnessed Rosalind Henke being shot?"
"Yes, sir,” Tom lied.
"Were you able to get a good look at her murderer?"
"Yes, sir,” Tom lied again.
"Can you identify this person?"
Before Tom could lie for a third time, the socialite, Mark Hanson, bolted from his chair and tried to fight his way past the cops. He didn't get very far before being tackled to the floor and having his hands cuffed behind his back.
* * * *
Later that evening, Hanson confessed to the police. It turned out that Denise Penny had witnessed Hanson, while drunk, striking an elderly man with his car and driving away from the scene in a panic. She had recognized him from his many photos in the newspaper, and had gone to his last charity event to make contact with him, and not because she had any interest in helping the underprivileged. She was a ruthless, cold-hearted woman who had completely fooled me, and as Julius guessed, Hanson killed her because she was attempting to blackmail him, the same reason he later killed Henke.
I digested all of this for twenty hours as I tried to readjust my neuron network so I could have made the same deductions that Julius had. Finally, I told Julius that he had only been bluffing. He put down his latest book, a crime-noir novel set in Vermont that seemed to absorb him, and he raised an eyebrow for me to continue.
"You didn't actually solve Denise Penny's murder,” I said. “You were only bluffing them, expecting to be able to read their tells to figure out who the murderer was. If the murderer had been a good enough poker player, you would've struck out."
"Perhaps you're correct, Archie, but I liked my chances,” Julius said with a thin smile. “Both murders had a rushed and panicky feel, and I doubted the murderer would be able to sit here and not give himself away. I also suspected Hanson from the beginning."
"Why?"
"Blackmail seemed the likely motive for
both murders, and Hanson was the only name on the list that was easily identifiable. I doubt Henke would've recognized any of the other people on the list, or would've suspected they were wealthy enough to be worth blackmailing. Also, Archie, Denise Penny appeared more opportunistic than altruistic. I was working under the assumption that she attended the event where she was photographed two weeks ago so that she could make contact with Hanson at a public place and let him know she had something damaging on him. Her plan must've been to wait until she had you agreeing to go to her apartment before arranging for Hanson to pay her her blackmail."
"I feel deeply insulted that she thought I'd be such a dupe as to witness her blackmailing Hanson and keep quiet about it,” I said.
"I doubt that was the case,” Julius said with a sympathetic smile. “She probably only wanted Hanson to see you with her to convince him that you were in on the scheme, but I suspect that she would have sent you out of her apartment on a ruse of some sort so that payment could've been made outside of your view."
"It must've been a shock to her when I didn't show up,” I said.
"I suppose it was."
"I still can't believe how badly she fooled me,” I said. “I keep trying to adjust my neuron network so that I could've spotted her treachery, but I can't quite get there. I guess I'm just a sap who's ripe for the conning."
Julius put down his book, his eyes thoughtful. “I don't think that's it, Archie,” he said. “I think it's that you've reached a point now where you're all too human. Blame it on that. No more dating, okay?"
"Deal,” I agreed. Murders were tough enough, forget dating. This was a deal I was only too happy to make.
Copyright © 2010 Dave Zeltserman
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EQMM, September-October 2010 Page 32
