The front door was ajar and I steeled myself as I trotted up the walk, keeping my hand ready to draw my gun. Comforted by the sound of a woman sobbing, which I knew would be a redhead, I entered the house, announcing my presence as an officer. No amount of wishing it was déjà vu could change the facts. I had been here before.
A TV was on somewhere, but the family room was empty. Stepping over two overturned chairs, I headed toward the crying.
They were in the bedroom. Two little kids were whimpering in a corner near their badly beaten mother, who was sprawled on the floor. I waved to the children and knelt by the woman. Blood was oozing from a nasty cut on her cheek, and she had a bruise on her forehead.
“Ma’am, I’m a police officer here to help.”
She nodded her head as I checked her pulse.
“Good. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m going to call for an ambulance.”
I radioed the request in and told the kids I’d be right back. Closing the door behind me, I drew my pistol and headed down the hallway. Fast asleep, in a brown corduroy recliner, was the wife beater. I scanned the room for possible recording devices but there didn’t seem to be any.
Stepping quietly toward him, I barely resisted the urge to bash his cowardly face in. So, I did the next best thing. I slammed the butt of my gun into the mousy bastard’s kneecap. He bolted awake, screaming in pain. Then I whacked his other knee.
I held my gun up. “Shut up or I’ll put a piece of lead in you.”
“I, I—”
“I told you to shut up.” I turned the TV off and said to him, “You move out of this room, you’re going to catch a bullet from me. You hear?”
The coward nodded. I closed the door behind and headed back to the bedroom as the EMT crew piled into the house. As they began tending to the woman, two uniformed officers arrived. The bedroom was overcrowded, so I asked the kids to step into the hall.
“You can see from over there. We just need to give these people some room to help your mother.”
Then I crouched beside her. “Ma’am, we’re all here to help. I just need to know that it was your husband who did this to you.”
She turned her head away.
“Look, I was here a couple of months ago. Remember, when he broke your mother’s vase?”
She began to cry. “He’ll kill me, me and the kids, if I say anything.”
“No, he won’t. We’re here to protect you and your children. Do you have family that can tend to the kids while you go to the hospital?”
She shook her head. “No, they’re up in New Hampshire, and I ain’t going to any hospital.”
“You have to, you’re bleeding and you’ve got to be checked out.”
An EMT responder said, “Want me to call Family Services?”
“I don’t want my kids being wards of the state! I can take care of my own kids!”
I said, “Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m not gonna let your kids go anywhere. Is there a neighbor they’re comfortable staying with while we make sure you’re okay?”
“Mrs. Hannity loves the kids, but she works till five.”
I checked my watch; it was a bit before one. Approaching the kids, I smiled as broadly as possible and said, “My name’s Detective Luca. Mommy’s going to go to the doctors to make sure she’s all right. Since Mrs. Hannity is working, I thought we could go grab some lunch together, okay?”
The older one said, “Can’t we stay with daddy?”
“I’m afraid not. You see, we’re going to need his help with your mother for a while. Hey, I got a good idea, what do you say we hit the zoo after we eat?”
***
It was tough keeping a good face on while I was with the children. What a mess, and I’d contributed to it. No, I was responsible for today’s disaster. These poor kids, chances were their father’s persona non grata, and he should be. But kids, what do they know? Besides, your family is your family, and we all defend them no matter how crazy it seems at times.
Shit was piling up on me. Why did I let that beast off the hook when I could’ve, no, should’ve locked his ass up?
When the first 911 call came in was when things started sliding physically, and now, the proof was in, mentally. Was I fit enough to serve anymore?
I reached back to that day. How had I let this brute off the hook? I remembered the intermittent stabbing feeling in my gut, but I don’t recall that being the reason. It’s not like I hightailed it out of there because I had a lot of pain.
What did I miss? Going over it again, I really couldn’t see anything. The fact was, even if I’d hauled his sorry ass in, he’d be out and about in days. And unless his wife got a restraining order, this would have happened anyway. She wasn’t the type to stand up and get a court order.
Hold on, Luca, what are you doing? Letting yourself off the hook?
I felt a wee bit better thinking about the dozens and dozens of these types of cases I’d been through. The depressing fact was that it took a severe beating like this one to motivate a woman to seek legal protection. Even crazier were the countless women who defended the pond scum that abused them and resisted the advice we gave. What in the world would it take to get them to a safe place?
Man, I needed a jolt out of my funk, a chance to think and relax. Vanderbilt Beach, here I come.
Chapter 24
Luca
“Mr. Eagleton, this is Detective Luca with the Collier County Sheriff. I’d like to ask you a few questions about a policy you wrote for Lincoln Life on Phil Gabelli.”
“Oh, Robin said you would be calling.”
“Mrs. Gabelli told you I’d call?”
“Yes, said she didn’t want me to be surprised, said it was routine. It is routine, isn’t it?”
“I really can’t talk about it, but we’re trying to learn as much as possible about Phil Gabelli.”
“Of course. It’s a damn shame about him, though. He was a nice guy. Healthy too.”
“The policy he had, I understand the death benefit was three million. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“How’d they arrive at that number?”
“If I recall, they originally talked about a million, but Robin wanted more. She was looking for five million, but the premiums were expensive. I suggested they do a second-to-die policy. Since they were so young, they could’ve gotten five or maybe even six million in coverage for the same premium.”
“Second to die?”
“It’s a policy where the payout occurs upon the deaths of both of the insured. When one person passes, nothing is paid, only when the second person dies. Many married couples use that type of policy.”
“You suggested this to them?”
“Yes. She wanted a higher death benefit, and it was a way to get a higher dollar coverage for around the same premium cost.”
“Was there a reason they didn’t take your suggestion?”
“I explained the benefits of that type of policy, but Mrs. Gabelli said since they had no children it didn’t make sense.”
“Did it?”
“It’s true that many couples use it to pass down the benefit to their heirs. But I suggested it because this wasn’t a part of an estate plan.”
“Did you consider it unusual that Mrs. Gabelli didn’t get insured?”
“When I first talked with them, it was a typical husband-and-wife coverage situation. But when it was time for the applications, Mrs. Gabelli said she wasn’t going to apply.”
“She never even filed an application?”
“No, not with me anyway.”
“Was Mr. Gabelli a good risk. I forget what you call it, but in good health and all?”
“Yes, he qualified for the lowest premium, which made the fact they didn’t take the accidental death rider surprising.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s quite typical, especially in younger, healthy applicants, that they take a rider, or additional coverage for an accidental death, say a fatal car accident
. The death benefit is doubled when an accidental death befalls an insured party. In their case, the payout would jump from three to six million.”
“And the Gabellis passed on it?”
“Yes. It was surprising because it wasn’t expensive.”
***
Vargas was wearing a powder-blue blouse and the herringbone slacks that I liked. But something about her looked different, better.
“You get a new hairdo, Vargas?”
“Hairdo? You’re showing your age, Frank.”
If she only knew that I was on the verge of asking for a prescription for little blue pills to wake up Little Luca, who had as much structure these days as an empty sock.
“Geez, just trying to pay you a compliment.”
“Really? It’d be nice if you just say it then.”
I felt like a jerk and changed the subject.
“After talking with the Lincoln Life guy, things just got a bit more complicated.”
“What did he say?”
“First off, it was Robin who upped the insurance from a million to three. But get this, she really wanted five.”
“So why did she settle for three?”
“Too much in premiums.”
“That’s ridiculous. If she was going to off him and collect, what would it matter how high the premiums were?”
“Good point, but maybe she didn’t have the cash flow. But two other strange things came up. One is they passed on an accidental death benefit. That’s a red flag in my book. It costs peanuts, and the death benefit is doubled. Why the hell would they pass on that?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. You said there was another thing.”
“Eagleton offered them another way to jack up the death dollars while keeping the premiums down, with something called second to die. It’s where both people have to die before there’s a payout.”
“I don’t know what that implies, Frank. I’d have to think about it, but they don’t have kds, so who’d get the money when they both died?”
“Good point, but the accidental thing is troubling. Between the timing of the insurance, the amount, and the passing on the accidental death, things are starting to add up. And it points to her.”
“It’s somewhat circumstantial. But why don’t we just ask her, see what she says?”
“She better not try to stonewall us, like she did with her husband’s gambling.”
Chapter 25
Stewart
“The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going.” - Unknown
It felt good to finally have something work. After calling the hotline, it took less than a day for Robin to panic and look to me for comfort. Sometimes she can be so predictable. I knew they’d be looking at her, and they should. Three million bucks is three million bucks. That buys a lot of happiness from where I stand.
It was weird, though, that she passed on the accidental death thing. She said that since he worked in an office and didn’t do any dangerous sports or ride a motorcycle it wasn’t worth it. It seemed to make sense, but when I googled it, the top five causes had nothing to do with work or sports. It wasn’t surprising that car crashes were the number-one killer, but who would’ve thought that choking, fires, poisoning, and falls would round out the top five. Strange, if you ask me.
The cops would have to dig deeper on the accidental thing as Robin’s reasoning didn’t hold together in my eyes. Not only did she stand to benefit to the tune of three million, but she was manipulative. Robin would be put under the microscope now. As far as I was concerned, she deserved to get put through the mill at this point.
Overall, I felt good about my timing. Her birthday was right around the corner, and we’d be going out to celebrate for sure. It’d be nice to have a bit more momentum going into it. Maybe it was time to tell that uppity detective something else.
Then, on top of that, I could spice things up by making her jealous. That’s a surefire way to motivate a woman. It’s worked in the past, and even though she’s different, Robin’s not that different from the others.
I remember the time I got Marilyn to fork over eight thousand to bail me out of credit card debt. We’d been going out for over a year, but asking her at least ten times for the money had gotten me nowhere. She wanted me to work things out, go to one of those debt managers and have them help get a payment plan in place.
No way I’d do that. Even if they negotiated a lower interest rate on what I owed, it would take years to pay it off. Meanwhile, I’d be living like a pauper. It pissed me off to no end that she refused to help, saying whatever savings she had were illiquid. I couldn’t argue with that if it was true.
When she went to work the next day, I sneaked a look at her bank statements, which said she had over thirty-five thousand in savings, with twelve K of it in cash. When she got home I asked for a loan again. When she refused, I precipitated an argument.
After dinner, I disappeared, telling her I was meeting a friend and came home well after midnight. She was steamed. I scrawled a telephone number and name on the back of a business card, jammed it in my pants pocket, and put the jeans in the hamper.
The following evening, Marilyn began peppering me with questions about who’d I gone out with. I played into her fears by being general. It was fun pulling her around. What really got her going was the two times I set off my phone’s ringtone. Each time I looked at the number and got up from the couch, whispering. When she questioned me about the calls, I said it was a just some friend from work.
Marilyn was on edge, and keeping a distance from her since we’d argued over the money was having the desired effect, but what sealed it was the receipt for a dozen roses I’d left on the counter. She confronted me, and when I confirmed a liaison, she broke down.
She wanted to know why, and I turned the money thing into a trust issue. It went as I’d scripted it, and before we went to bed, she’d written me a check.
***
I kept moving from the lanai to the front of the house. I called and texted Robin, but the bitch didn’t answer. It was such a beautiful night; it’d be a shame to waste it. The sky was streaked with purple and pink overtones as daylight ebbed away. Perfect for a ride. After changing, I jumped into my car, pulled onto 41, and headed toward Venetian Village, hoping it wouldn’t be too touristy.
When I crossed Pine Ridge I made a U-turn. I was dressed real nice, and I was so close, I might as well take a drive by Robin’s place—you never know. I swung onto her street. What’s that, a Beemer in the driveway? Who the hell has a white Beemer?
I parked across the street and stared at her house. Whoever was there with her was in the family room, as the lights were on. When I realized the TV wasn’t on, I got out and made like I was walking down the street to get a closer look. A figure passed by the big double window. It looked like a guy, but I couldn’t be sure.
Then an idea hit me and I jumped back in my car and drove to the Thai-sushi joint on 41, right off Vanderbilt. I picked up a spicy tuna roll and an order of pad Thai—Robin loved the combination of noodles and crushed peanuts—and I headed back to her house.
I don’t know what pissed me off more, the sexy black dress she was wearing, or the frown. It went downhill from there.
“Dom, what are you doing here?”
“I was grabbing a bite to eat at the Thai place and thought I’d bring you over a tuna roll and the noodle dish you love.” I opened the top of the bag and the peanut sauce wafted up.
“We ate already.”
No thank you? And who was we?
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had company.” I craned my neck to see inside.
A male voice called out, “Rob, everything okay?”
Rob? I wanted to shout out that things were definitely not okay, but Robin turned toward the foyer and said, “I’ll be right there.” Then she said to me, “Look, this is a bit uncomfortable. I’ve got company, and I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to leave.”
“Leave? Really? A day ago, yo
u’re crying on my shoulder about the cops busting your balls over the insurance money, and now I’m persona non-grata?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Yeah? Then what’s it like?”
“I said I’ve got company.”
“Who’s here?”
“A friend from work.”
“Does this friend have a name?”
“Please, Dom, let’s stop the bullshit. I don’t have to answer to you.”
“I try to do a good deed, and this is what I get?”
“Nobody asked you to do it.”
I seethed, and it must’ve been the steam coming out of my ears that prompted her to say, “What you did was very sweet, Dom. I appreciate the gesture, but tonight it just doesn’t work for me.”
Or Mr. Office Worker.
“So, when’s it gonna work for you?”
“Come on, Dom. Why don’t you give me a call tomorrow? Okay?”
And just like that she closed the door. I wanted to throw the bag against the door, but instead I left it right on the front deck. Knowing it’d be overrun with bugs in twenty minutes or less gave me a tiny dose of revenge.
I sat in my car, throwing more fumes off than a twenty-year diesel, waiting for the clown to leave. By the time it hit nine thirty, the thought that this guy could be staying over put me in a panic. I leaned on the horn three times, but the only thing it brought out was a neighbor who threatened to call the cops.
As I drove home I called her cell four times, but every time it went straight to voice mail. Screw her; I dialed Melissa.
Chapter 26
Luca
I hung up the phone and shook my head. Did I miss it? Damn it. It was a fundamental, you dummy, and you never considered it? How could I have missed it? The clues were in plain sight. You knew the wife was a first-class type A. The husband disappears without a trace, and you forgot to ask about any life insurance? Mistake number one.
It took a tip from Stewart about the dough Robin was gonna collect. I didn’t like the source, but information is information. Now she’s in the crosshairs for a while. That’s the textbook path to take.
Luca Mystery Series Box Set Page 30
