Chapter 11

Interagency Cooperation

Adam Hunter came to the lobby to meet Ben and escorted him to a conference room where Colin and Mick were waiting. When they were all seated, Adam began. “The crime scene guys have processed the car.  We got a lot of fingerprints.  Yours, hers, some we didn’t have on file that I assume belong to her kids.  We found several for Kyle Paulson.”

Ben nodded.  “He’s the guard at Telco.  He found the car and put out the fire.  You’d expect his prints.”

“Not where we found them.  The fire was in the car’s interior.  It’s a convertible and the top was down. All he had to do was use the fire extinguisher.  I sure wouldn’t expect his prints on the engine or in the trunk.  In fact, his prints were all over the car, more like he was looking for something than like he was just putting out a fire.”  Adam held up a red canvas roll.  “We did find this.”  He unfurled the canvas. “It’s an emergency tool kit.  And it’s missing something.”  He pointed to a missing slot.

“Judging from the other tools, that slot could have held the murder weapon.”  Mick added.

Ben shook his head.  “Lane has that car detailed every two weeks like clockwork.  She drops by the dealership with donuts and the guys take her to work, detail the car for her, and pick her up at the end of the day.  I now the schedule and she would have dropped it off the Friday before the murder.”

Adam nodded.  “I know you guys did a preliminary interview with Paulson yesterday, but as you described it to me, you, and Mick were introduced as friends.  So, he didn’t know Mick was police and he thought it was just Lane doing the interview for Telco and her own insurance purposes.  I think with his fingerprints all over the vehicle, that I have enough to bring him in for questioning, about the fire anyway.  I’m with you; I don’t know a cop alive who believes in coincidence, and it’s too big a coincidence that her car catches fire in a secured underground parking lot four days after she finds a body, and just one day after the murder weapon is found – where did you say, Mick?  Under her bed?  Who takes the time to wipe off prints but leaves the blood and then puts the weapon under her bed? Then doesn’t bother to throw away the tool kit that it came from?”

Mick shook his head.  “No, she didn’t do this, but she sure pissed someone off enough so they’re setting her up for it.  As much as I hate it, I’m still going to have to bring her in again.  I might get Franklin to hold off until tomorrow if you can get Paulson in this afternoon.”

Ben looked at Adam “I can assure you those aren’t Lane’s tools.  She wouldn’t have the vaguest idea what to do with a tool kit.  She said the parking lot has state of the art video surveillance.  The property manager’s name was Sam Holt.  Maybe you can get him to pull the video.”

Ben cleared his throat.  Normally, he wouldn’t hand the cops anything that could provide a motive pointing toward his client, but he knew they’d find out eventually and he wanted to be sure he put his spin on it.

“There’s something else that you should know.  My uncle Sal represented Gardner in the vehicular homicide case 45 years ago.  I just found out that Gardner’s old man put 1.5 million dollars in trust for Lane back then.  Apparently her Aunt refused to take the money, but it’s still there, still held for her and it’s worth over 10 million today.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet, but I know it’ll come as complete a surprise to her. One more thing, she’s staying at my place until this is over.”

Mick whistled and shook his head. Lane was beautiful, smart, and now a millionaire and she belonged to Bellini.  Some guys had all the luck. But, he was confident that it was just a matter of time until Bellini moved on.

Adam looked at Mick.  “If you want to observe the interview, I can notify you when we have Paulson.”

“Yeah, thanks.  There’s just something off about this whole thing.”

Mick and Ben stood in the parking lot.  “I’ll call you after I talk to Franklin. We can arrange a time for you to bring Lane in.”

Ben sat in his Jag and called his office.  It was three o’clock now and his uncles were still out of the office.  In fact, they’d left word they’d be out for the rest of the afternoon.  He called Lane.

“Hello, Ben.”

“Red, I thought I asked you not to run away with those two old men.”

Lane laughed.  “What makes you think we ran away?”

“Well, I just called my office and neither of them is there.  I heard they’d called to say they wouldn’t be in for the rest of the day.  And I did entrust you to them when I left.”

“I see, using your superior powers of deduction again.  We haven’t run away.  We’re car shopping.”

“The BMW dealer?”

“No, Gardner Automotive off State Line.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Ben shook his head, what the heck were they up to and whose idea had it been to go to Gardner Automotive?

His uncles had taken him in as a partner when he graduated from law school and he’d learned a lot about criminal law from his uncle Sal.  Vinnie didn’t practice criminal law; he specialized in estate planning, family law, and wills.  They’d taken him under their wing when he was still in high school when he had expressed an interest in practicing law instead of going into the restaurant business with his father.  Vinnie’s daughters Bianca and Daniela were also partners at the firm now.

Sal’s wife had died young leaving him a widower at the age of 43.  Uncle Sal turned into a real ladies man after that, dating a lot of women and moving on before things could get serious.  Uncle Sal once told Ben that his Guilia was the love of his life and he’d never marry again, but men had needs.

Chapter 12

Car shopping

Ben pulled into the lot of Gardner Automotive.  Gardner sold high-end vehicles.  It was where he’d gotten his Jag.  The salesmen here didn’t swarm you, they schmoozed you.  He walked into the showroom to find Lane and his uncles inspecting a Mercedes E-class convertible.  The one on the floor was black.  Not Lane’s color at all.

The salesman looked up.  “Mr. Bellini, it’s a pleasure to see you again.  Is there something I can show you?”

Ben inclined his head toward the E-class.  “I’m with them.” He kissed Lane’s cheek, put his hand proprietarily in the small of her back, and nodded toward his uncles. “Uncles.”

They smiled at him.

Ben waved his hand around the showroom. “Questa non è casa mia.”

“You said the lady’s car had burned.  She said she was going to shop for a new one.  We offered to come with her. E la signora è sicura come hai chiesto.”

He pulled Lane closer and looked at his uncles.  “Did you form a parade from Papa’s or did you leave her car there?”

Lane looked up at him.  “Your uncles let me drive.  I have to take them back to Papa’s when we finish.”  She leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Has anyone ever told you that you worry too much?”

He laughed.  “What can I say?  You do bring out the mother hen in me.”

“So, we’ve narrowed it down to these two cars.”  She pointed between the E-Class convertible and an SLK-class.  “I love the SL, but it’s twice the price.  Uncle Vinnie says I should drive it anyway.  I didn’t pay $125,000.00 for my first house; I can’t imagine paying that for a car.”

Again, Ben smiled at his uncles.  “We need to talk,” he whispered as he guided her away from both his uncles and the salesman.  “I had hoped to have this conversation at home and in private, but I guess we need to do it now.”

She looked up at him, a look of curiosity on her face, as they stood looking out the window.  In her experience, the phrase we need to talk was never good, especially when it was followed closely by the words private and at home.  God, she thought, I’m about to be arrested quickly followed by or maybe now my house has burned down. On the other hand, maybe he was going to dump her.