Feared

by Lisa Scottoline

  “Good.” Anthony set the laptop aside, rose, and brushed down his jeans, flashing her a weary smile. “Can I get you anything?”

  “How about a kiss?”

  Anthony smiled, came over, and kissed her on the cheek, placing his hands on the soft arms of her chair. “How do you feel?”

  “Fine,” Mary answered, meaning it. “Absolutely normal, for a pregnant person.”

  “Tired?”

  “A little.”

  “Crampy?”

  “No.”

  “Bloated?”

  “Very.” Mary smiled, touched. Anthony was learning girl lingo, but he spoke it like a second language, which made sense. She had never been so aware of the differences between men and women before, maybe it was because of the pregnancy, or the lawsuit. Oddly, it felt like there were two separate sides, the way John had said, and she wondered if that notion was true or testosterone-induced. Mary didn’t know, as testosterone was the only hormone she lacked.

  Anthony smiled down at her, his gaze soft. “You’re preoccupied.”

  “I was but it went away.” Mary smiled, and Anthony kissed her again, this time on the lips, slowly. She felt a distinct tingle, and when he pulled away, she told him so.

  “You felt a tingle?” Anthony frowned. “You mean a cramp?”

  Mary smiled. “No, a tingle comes from somewhere different.”

  Anthony smiled back. “Somewhere off base?”

  “Exactly. The forbidden zone.”

  “Or the promised land.” Anthony laughed, and so did Mary.

  “We shouldn’t have sex, but at least I want to.”

  “It’s the thought that counts.” Anthony smiled. “We forgot to ask Dr. Foster when we could.”

  “Because we know the answer. Like, in 2082.”

  Anthony smiled. “When the kid leaves for college?”

  “When the last kid leaves for college,” Mary shot back, as her cell phone started ringing.

  “Saved by the bell.” Anthony chuckled.

  “Or interrupted.” Mary checked the screen, and it was Bennie calling, so she answered. “Bennie?”

  “DiNunzio, did you hear?” Bennie’s tone sounded urgent, and Mary knew something was very wrong.

  “Hear what? What’s the matter?”

  “John’s dead. He’s been murdered.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Mary and Anthony parked as close as they could to John’s apartment, which was in a townhouse in Old City. Night had fallen, but they could see the red-and-white lightbars flashing atop the lineup of police cruisers idling on his side of the street. Klieglights had been set up, and cops and official personnel hurried to and fro, making shifting silhouettes against the calcium-white backdrop. Sawhorses blocked the street from foot and car traffic, and a throng of spectators gathered behind the barricade, next to boxy news vans and reporters with their boom mikes and camera crews.

  “Honey?” Anthony touched Mary’s arm in the dark interior of the car. “You sure you feel okay to do this?”

  “Yes, absolutely,” Mary answered, meaning it, because the pregnancy was the last thing on her mind. She’d cried most of the way, shocked and heartbroken by John’s murder. Her nose was congested, and her eyes stung. Bennie and Judy were going to meet her here. Anthony had been vaguely worried about her, but he understood that it was an emergency, so he had taken her. She had to find out what had happened because Bennie hadn’t had any details when they spoke.

  “Here, honey.” Anthony opened her car door, helping her out of the car and closing the door.

  “Thanks.” Mary rose stiffly, taking his arm, and they walked toward the scene. Trying to compose herself, she straightened to see ahead, but she was too short and the crowd blocked her view. John’s street was narrow and one-way, typical of those in the oldest part of town, and it took only a few barricades set lengthwise to block it completely. From the other side of the sawhorses came the official hubbub of shouted orders, hurrying personnel, and rumbling engines. The crowd clustered talking, smoking, and taking pictures with their cell phones, rubbernecking on a cool spring night. It killed Mary to think that they were being entertained by such a tragedy.

  “This is awful,” Anthony said, as they walked. “It’s just so sad. I always liked him.”

  “I know. He liked you too.” Mary felt her throat thicken.

  “I wonder what happened.”

  “It’s like, I want to know, but I also don’t.” Mary suppressed the tears. “I don’t know what got into him lately, but it wasn’t like him. He really was such a good person. He took care of his brother, you know.”

  “I remember, you told me that.”

  “Right.” Mary realized she had told him more than once, since the news came in. “His parents are gone, and I don’t even know what other family he has. An aunt and uncle maybe. I think he’s from Minnesota originally. Judy would know better.”

  “You said that, too.” Anthony patted her hand, and they passed the funky boutiques and indie restaurants sandwiched between colonial rowhouses converted to apartments.

  Mary felt a wave of dread, walking along. “Judy is going to take this hardest of all. They were friends. She brought him on.”

  “We’ll help her through it. She can stay with us, this weekend. For as long as she wants.”

  “Thanks, I don’t want her to have to go home alone.” Mary swallowed hard as they approached the end of the block, where a cop with a glowing orange flashlight was directing a line of traffic away from the scene. She felt queasier the closer they got, but she made herself go forward. “It’s just so horrible, I keep hoping it’s not true.”

  “Of course you do, honey.” Anthony put his arm around her as they walked.

  “Maybe there’s been some mistake,” Mary said, knowing it wasn’t possible, and Anthony didn’t reply. Suddenly they spotted Bennie and Judy heading down the cross street toward the crowd.

  “Bennie!” Anthony shouted, waving his free hand.

  Bennie and Judy turned toward Anthony’s voice, then cut diagonally to the corner, making fleeting shadows in the headlights of passing cars. They hurried toward Mary, and Mary found herself letting go of Anthony and surging toward them, no longer able to hold back the tears.

  “Mary!” Judy began to sob, collapsing in Mary’s arms. “John’s dead! It’s not possible! Who killed him? Who would’ve killed him?”

  “Honey, I’m so sorry.” Mary clung teary to her best friend. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What happened?” Judy wailed. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, we’ll find out.”

  “I don’t get it, it doesn’t make any sense!” Judy sobbed, her body wracked as Mary held her tight.

  “We’ll find out, we’ll see. I’m so sorry,” Mary repeated, hugging Judy and meeting Bennie’s flinty eyes over Judy’s shoulder. Bennie greeted Anthony, and Judy’s tears began to subside. Bennie handed Judy a flurry of tissues, and Judy started mopping up her eyes, then blowing her nose.

  “I just can’t believe it,” Judy said, her nose bubbling. “I just can’t.”

  “I know, neither can I.”

  “He was such a good guy, and a good lawyer, too. I know he’s been acting weird lately, but that wasn’t really him.”

  “I know.”

  “He was so good to his brother, William. He took care of him all by himself. His only other family is his aunt and uncle, they live outside Minneapolis. They’re older and they rarely come east. Somebody will have to tell them and William.”

  “I know.” Mary took Judy’s arm. “Honey, you don’t have to go see. I’ll wait here with you. Anthony and Bennie can go.”

  “I want to!” Judy cried, blowing her nose again.

  “They’re not gonna let us through the barricade anyway,” Mary said, trying to convince her. She’d come here wanting to see as much as possible, as she would have on any murder case before, but now that she was here, she realized how different John’s murder was from any ot
her. This wasn’t a case, this was John.

  Judy shook her head, stuffing her Kleenex in her pocket. “I want to go. They’ll let us pass.”

  Bennie turned, heading toward the scene. “You’re damn right they will. Also Anne and Lou are on the way. We didn’t wait.”

  “How did Anne take the news?”

  “Not well.”

  “Poor thing.” Mary felt a wave of sympathy, knowing that Anne’s grief would be complicated, given that she had worked closely with John and they had parted on bad terms. Mary had never experienced complicated grief. She had lost her first husband, and her grief had been uncomplicated, which had been unbearable enough.

  “I wasn’t able to find out anything new since we spoke. All I know is that John was found murdered inside his apartment. I don’t know how he was killed, time of death, or who found him. I don’t know if they have any suspects.” Bennie’s gaze stayed riveted on the action, and Mary could see her assessing critically what was going on. Bennie had practiced criminal law for decades, specializing in murder cases, and she had defaulted to professional mode.

  “Did you call anybody in the Homicide Division? You know a few detectives, don’t you?”

  “I’m not exactly beloved here. We’re defense lawyers, did you forget?” Bennie’s mouth went tight. “They must know where he worked, that’s easily discoverable. Besides, we’re probably among the last people who saw him alive.”

  “Oh, of course. So the police will want to interview us.” Mary realized she might end the night at the Roundhouse, Philly’s police administration headquarters. Judy was wiping her eyes, and Mary assumed she and Bennie had already discussed this, so Mary was the one playing catch-up. When she’d left the house, she had been too upset about John’s murder to consider the implications.

  “I called Roger, and he’s en route, but he won’t be here for a while. I caught him on his way to D.C.”

  “Yo, Mare!” came a shout, and they looked over to see Lou, signaling that he’d meet them across the street.

  “Let’s go,” Bennie said, and they crossed to meet him, gathering at the periphery of the noisy crowd. Spectators were craning their necks to try to see what was going on, and an acrid cloud of smoke wafted into Mary’s face. One of the onlookers held a beer bottle, and a female anchorperson from TV was getting ready for a video shoot, a paper towel tucked in her collar so she didn’t get makeup on her dress.

  “Ladies, I’m so sorry about John,” Lou said, hugging Mary and Judy briefly. “This is a cryin’ shame, just a cryin’ shame.”

  Bennie turned to him. “I don’t even know what happened. Nobody would tell me anything. Can you call anybody?”

  “I tried, but I don’t know anything.” Lou stood on tiptoe, scanning the other side of the barricade. “Yo, I see one of the cops I used to know over there.”

  Bennie nodded. “Go see what you can find out. I’m going to see if I can talk us past this barricade.”

  “Good luck.” Lou waded into the crowd, heading to the left, and Bennie charged to the right with Judy on her heels, followed by Mary and Anthony.

  “Lady with a baby,” Mary called out, but nobody even turned around, so they wedged their way to the front of the crowd. She could see the townhouse, which she knew since she had been there. The front door hung open, and John had a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor, living above his landlord. The black van from the Medical Examiner’s Office sat parked in front, and mobile crime techs in booties and gloves came and went from the house.

  Finally Bennie got the attention of one of the cops and tried to fast-talk them through the barricade. “Officer, we worked with the victim, John Foxman. I’m his boss, and we need to get through.”

  “Sorry, lady.” The cop shook his head, but it was too dark for Mary to see much of his expression. “I got orders. Nobody gets through.”

  “But we’re close—”

  “Close but no cigars. Stay back.”

  “But we’re his friends, we’re coworkers—”

  “Gimme a break, lady.” The cop moved on, shifting sideways, and just then Mary saw a familiar redhead in the crowd. It was Anne, making her way toward the front of the barricade.

  “Anne, Anne!” Mary called out, waving, and Anne turned, waving back. Anne threaded her way through the crowd to them, her face a mask of sorrow, and mascara smudged under her lovely eyes. She reached Judy first and threw open her arms, beginning to cry.

  “Judy, he’s … gone?” Anne asked, between sobs. “Can he really be gone? I feel so awful! I was so mean to him!”

  “It’s okay,” Judy said, tearing up again, and Mary came over, giving a stricken Anne a warm hug.

  “You weren’t mean to him, Anne. We had a fight, and we all were a part of it, not just you.”

  “Oh no.” Anne shook her head, hugging Mary back. “I just never thought anything like this could ever happen. I feel so terrible.”

  “I know, it’s horrible.” Mary patted Anne’s back, and she seemed to rally, wiping her eyes and streaking her mascara even more.

  “What do we know about how it happened?” Anne asked, trying to compose herself. “Do we know anything?”

  “Not yet, unless Lou does. Here he comes.” Mary squinted over her shoulder to see Lou making his way back to them, and he hugged Anne when he got there.

  “I’m so sorry about John, honey.”

  “Lou, it’s so awful, I was so awful to him.”

  “No, no, don’t think about that now. You guys were buddies, and he knew it. Now listen, I tried to get information.” Lou released Anne from his embrace, and Bennie pressed closer.

  “Lou, what did you find out?” she asked, urgent.

  “So I talked to my buddy, Oscar. He knows me from way back, like when I worked security at Blackstone, back in the day, and I used to go fishing with his cousin and—”

  “Lou, please,” Bennie interrupted, impatient.

  “He doesn’t know anything. I got bupkis.”

  “Anybody see or hear anything?”

  “Don’t know. I know they got uniforms canvassing.”

  “Time of death?”

  “Oscar doesn’t know but he was called in an hour ago.”

  Bennie checked her phone. “So, eleven thirty. Who found the body?”

  “He doesn’t know that either.”

  Bennie frowned in thought. “Somebody had to see or hear something. This is a city neighborhood on a Saturday night. Apartments cheek by jowl, restaurants, galleries, foot traffic.”

  “But it’s late, and it’s Philly. You know the joke. I was asleep already.”

  “How about street cameras? Did they start looking for them yet?” Bennie squinted at the traffic light in the darkness. “I can’t see a damn thing, but there has to be video.”

  Suddenly the spectators erupted in chatter and motion. People held up their cell phones, reporters with microphones surged to the barricade, and photographers hoisted still cameras, their motor drives clicking away. Mary and the others turned to see what was going on.

  At the sight, Mary’s hand flew to her mouth. Uniformed assistants from the Medical Examiner’s Office were coming down the front steps, carrying a stainless-steel gurney that held a black-vinyl body bag.

  “Oh no!” Judy cried out, covering her face, and Anne emitted a horrified gasp. Anthony held on to the three women as best he could, and only Bennie and Lou remained stoic, watching as the assistants loaded the gurney into the back of the van, then closed its doors.

  “I got the bag shot!” said a gleeful photographer.

  Lou gave the photographer a dirty look, and Anne burst into new tears. Judy did the same, and Mary tried to comfort them, with Anthony’s help. Bennie kept her gaze on the scene, her expression grim.

  And in the next moment, she ducked under the barricade.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Anthony drove with Mary in the passenger seat and Bennie and Judy in the backseat. Anne and Lou had gone home, leaving Mary and the oth
ers snaking through the city streets in the darkness. Mary didn’t know what Bennie had done after she went through the barricade, but somehow it had resulted in their leaving hurriedly for the Roundhouse, the police administration building. Mary wasn’t sure it was a great idea, and Anthony probably felt the same way, though she hadn’t had a chance to ask him. But like most wives, she could read her husband’s mind.

  Mary cleared her throat. “So Bennie, why did you go through the barricade?”

  “I still don’t get why you didn’t follow me. I thought you guys would follow me.”

  “We tried, but they wouldn’t let us.”

  “I was hoping we could get into the house.”

  “But that’s not police procedure. It’s a crime scene. They don’t let anybody through the perimeter.”

  “I know, but I wanted to give it a try, together, as a group.”

  “You mean like storm the house?”

  “No, talk our way in,” Bennie shot back. “Like we always do.”

  “So what did you say?”

  “I grabbed the first cop I saw, and told him I was a lawyer and needed to see the detectives on the case, so he took me to them.”

  “And that got you through?” Mary asked, incredulous.

  “He thought I was an assistant district attorney.”

  “You told him you were an ADA?” Mary would’ve laughed on any other night. Judy stayed quiet in the backseat.

  “No, but I implied it, or rather, he inferred from the circumstances.”

  “What circumstances?”

  “DiNunzio, you’ve worked enough murder cases to know. A lawyer who arrives at a crime scene in the middle of the night? Every cop in the world assumes that’s an ADA. All I had to do was act important, and I can do that in my sleep. In fact, I do.”

  Mary suppressed a smile.

  “So then he took me to the detectives in charge, and they were young guys I don’t know. Detectives Krakoff and Marks. I told them we were willing to give them a statement, so they said fine.”

  “Why did you do that?” Mary asked, confounded. They all felt miserable tonight, shocked over John’s murder, and maybe Bennie had lost her mind. It really was true that everybody grieved differently.