A Wrongful Death (29 page)

"Yes," Barbara said. "Later today I'll tell you. Good enough? I have to give Bailey some instructions right now."

Elizabeth hesitated a moment before pulling out the chair at Frank's desk and Barbara left to tell Bailey what she needed from him.

"How big are those rooms?" Bailey asked later, looking over the house plan Elizabeth had drawn.

"She said the den is about eighteen by twenty-four. She thinks they're more or less to scale with that. But it was six years ago that she was in the house. Allow for that."

"Sure," he said. "You can't go in there wired. And neither can I, so forget that."

"I already did," she said. "That's why I want you and your genius helper to come up with something."

"Okeydokey." He folded the paper with the house plan and put it in his duffel bag. "Where will you be later on?"

"Here and there. Give me a call when you're ready. I'll be back here later today."

He saluted and ambled out in a way that always appeared too leisurely to be serious, but she well knew that that was deceptive. Bailey always delivered.

Frank looked at his watch after showing Bailey out. "I should go," he said. "Lorenz said he'd come around ten, and I'll have Patsy make another copy of those papers before he gets here."

"And a copy of the disk Elizabeth made," Barbara reminded him.

"I know that," he said irritably. They had not yet had the talk he knew was necessary, but there would be time. He would see to it that she stopped moving long enough for a talk.

"After we wrap things up here, I'll take Elizabeth back to her apartment. Maybe we'll both be done in time for lunch. I'll let you know."

He thought of the wasted breakfast and hoped for lunch. He was putting on his raincoat when she pulled her cell phone from her pocket. He waited at the door to see if it was something he should know about.

"Thanks," she said on the phone. "I really appreciate that." She looked dangerously angry when she replaced the phone in her pocket. "That goddamn pissant D.A. intends to subpoena me and get a sworn deposition! That was Brice Knowlton. His sister dates a guy at city hall, and that's the buzz this morning."

"After you take Elizabeth home, come directly to the office," Frank said in his lawyerly voice. "It won't happen immediately, but it won't take long, either. And don't answer the doorbell here. We'll see about this."

"I'll ask Elizabeth to come to the office and have Patsy notarize her signature on that statement she's making," Barbara said almost defiantly. After a moment Frank nodded, and she knew he had come around to seeing that what she intended to do needed doing her way.

Infuriated, Barbara stood still, thinking. If they issued a subpoena, they could demand her laptop as well as her presence. And they would have access to everything on it; no one could stop them once they had it. Her jaw was clenched nearly as hard as her fists. She'd drop it into the river first, she thought then. They couldn't have it. And if losing it, or claiming she had lost it, or that it had been stolen, cinched whatever they were thinking, so be it. Better that than to have Darren raked through the muck. The thought of his son's friends making life a horror for Todd, coworkers and patients at the clinic whispering, turning away when Darren approached, hiding knowing looks and smiles... "/They cant have it/!" she said under her breath.

"You said you'd tell me what you're up to," Elizabeth said in Barbara's car, as she pulled up to the apartment building later.

"When you come in this afternoon, I will," Barbara said. "There are too many things happening all at once, but there will be time this afternoon. Try to get a little rest, take a nap or something. I promise, this afternoon around three, when you come in to the office."

"Okay, but, Barbara, I have to say this. I won't sign that statement until I know what you're going to do with it. I'm sorry, but that's how it has to be." Her voice was firm and her gaze unwavering as she said this.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. That's precisely the stand you should be taking. As Dad said, you'll do. High praise from him. See you at three or thereabout."

When Barbara parked behind her father's office building, she sat quietly for a few minutes, watching passersby. They were scurrying for the most part, not eager to spend much time out in a cold drizzle. Satisfied that no one was lurking near the door of the building, she left the car and walked swiftly to the entrance, went inside and up the stairs, not willing to wait for the elevator.

"Made it," she said to Frank when he admitted her to his office.

"So did Lorenz," he said. "We had a nice chat. He'll give me a call when those papers are locked up in his safe. Seems he has a travel companion, a big fellow who didn't have much to say and seemed content to sit out in the reception room and read magazines."

"Good. A companion is good." Her phone buzzed again and she sat on the sofa and put her feet on his coffee table, then answered. It was Gary Swarthmore this time. She listened, then said, "Thank you, Mr. Swarthmore. I know how busy you are during the day, but may I call you back tonight?" She thanked him again and disconnected. "We have to haul Hoggarth in," she said. "Feed him lunch again or something. Diedricks brought a souvenir Luger home from Germany, and it's not where he used to keep it."

Frank grunted and sat opposite her. "You're right about Hoggarth. That's how I see it "he agreed. "How much to tell him is the question."

"Enough to satisfy him, at least. And a promise that we'll all come in voluntarily on Tuesday, the first working day of next week, you and your two clients."

"That just leaves two working days of this week," Frank said. "Can we really count on putting things in order in two days?"

"What choice do we have? You want to read Elizabeth's statement while I call Terry Kurtz?"

He did. She handed him the folder with the statement and went to his desk to use his phone. Terry Kurtz answered almost immediately.

"Barbara Holloway," she said crisply. "Mr. Kurtz, I want to arrange a meeting with you and your mother for Friday, and I don't want to call her house and go through voice mail. Will you set it up?"

"Have you found him? Is it about Jason?"

"No discussion yet, Mr. Kurtz. Let's have the meeting with both of you present."

"My uncle is at the house. Do you want him present also?"

"Of course, if he's available. It's a family affair. Please tell your mother it concerns certain papers she is interested in. I'll be at this number for the next two hours, awaiting your return call." She gave him Frank's number.

"Ms. Holloway, if it's about Jason, I beg of you, don't include her in a discussion. Let me meet with you first."

"This is about papers, Mr. Kurtz. You might tell her that I expect to be served with a subpoena, and will be required to testify in a sworn deposition about everything I know of the situation, including what I know about those papers. It would be best if we have our meeting before that happens."

She disconnected while he was still talking.

Frank finished reading and said, "Good statement, clear and concise, exactly what it should be. After she signs it, we'll have Patsy run off some copies. Now for Milt." He took her place at his desk and placed the call.

Milt Hoggarth was noncommittal when Frank said he would bring both of his clients to the district attorney's office on Tuesday. "You'll surrender Carnero at that time?"

"Let's leave it at that. We'll all three be there, and we can sort out the pieces together," Frank said smoothly. "What time do you suggest?"

"I'll let you know." He turned his suspicious gaze to Barbara. "Someone alerted you about a possible subpoena, is that it? Jesus, that office is like working in a fishbowl."

He had varied his diet. He had ordered ham and cheese on rye bread, and he attacked it with fury. Between bites he said, "Those guys were hired by Lon Clampton, and that's who they called. The DA had a chat with Mrs. Kurtz, and she said of course she had her assistant hire detectives to find her grandchild. She intended to see Elizabeth Kurtz the next day, after getting the address. End of chapter."

Barbara nodded. "I figured as much. Lieutenant, remember the hypothetical I posed the last time we lunched together? Something to do with important stolen papers? It's not a hypothetical, Hoggarth. I know you're not interested in corporate fraud, and neither am I, but in this instance it plays a part. It seems that a certain Swiss corporation is negotiating the buyout of the Diedricks Corporation, and the money they're talking about involves many hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly a billion dollars. The old man, Dr. Diedricks, owns fifty-five percent of the company, outsiders own ten percent, and between them Sarah Kurtz and her brother own the rest. But when the old man kicks, the two of them will own ninety percent — and if that sale goes through, we're talking about real big money. Those papers could scotch the deal. It's that simple."

"How much of that do you know and how much is guesswork?" To all appearances he had forgotten the sandwich he was holding.

"I'm not guessing, Lieutenant," she said quietly.

"I ought to haul you in right now for obstruction of justice," he snapped.

She looked at Frank. "Am I obstructing? I've been trying to steer him in the right direction from day one and kept getting the brush-off."

Hoggarth looked as if he might toss his sandwich down and whip out handcuffs.

"Easy, Milt," Frank said mildly. "This case is like most. You start out knowing nothing of the situation and gradually pieces fall into place here, then there, and you put them together as best you can. I can assure you that my client," he nodded toward Barbara, "has not obstructed your investigation. We're all just looking at different parts of the same puzzle. Like blind men describing the elephant. Your department got stuck looking in one direction while we were looking in another and we kept finding more odd pieces. If you had been looking where we were, you would have seen them, too."

"So this little meeting was just to get me to call off the subpoena, because you're going to stroll on over voluntarily at your convenience," Hoggarth said bitterly. "Corporate fraud! You're right, I'm not interested. Let the Securities and Exchange Commission take it on. I'm in homicide."

"Well, I admit I had a little more on my mind," Barbara said. "I'm just waiting for a phone call to confirm a date with the Kurtz family. I want to make a deal with them. In exchange for what I know about the stolen papers, they hand over a killer. I think they'll deal."

For a moment she thought the lieutenant would choke. He sputtered — enraged — and turned fiery red.

"Jesus Christ! You're accusing them of murder and expect them to cooperate! You're out of your mind!"

The phone rang and Frank got up to answer it. He had told Patsy to put through a call from Kevin Lorenz or from Terry Kurtz, no one else. It was Terry Kurtz on the line. He beckoned Barbara.

"She wants to see you up here, on Friday," Terry said. "Can you make it at two?"

"That's a good time," she said. "I'll be there. Thank you."

Returning to the sofa, she said, "That's my confirmation, Hoggarth. Would you like to join our party?"

"Not his jurisdiction," Frank pointed out.

"The murder was in my town," Hoggarth said. "I go where the leads take me."

"With autonomy?" Barbara asked in a musing way.

"It's always been my understanding," Frank said, facing Barbara, "that as long as there's an ongoing investigation, the lead investigator to a large extent has autonomy. Once there's an arrest, the district attorney's office directs further investigation. Has that system changed while I was paying little attention, Milt?"

"Goddamn it to hell!" Hoggarth said, glowering first at Barbara, then at Frank. "Cut the crap. You both know damn well that I'm in charge."

"Good enough," Barbara said. "Are you going to finish that sandwich? I have a satellite photo of the Diedricks spread I'd like to show you. Pretty interesting, what they can do."

He finished the last few bites and wiped his hands. "So what's the map supposed to prove?"

"Well," she said putting it on the table, "it's just interesting. The original property, bought back in the early fifties, then the additions when they came on the market. A guesthouse here, and the lake and another building, a bathhouse now, both with access to the county road, here." She pointed as she mentioned them. "And a lot of trees, an awful lot of trees. After our chat on Friday, it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone took a stroll and tossed a gun somewhere, I'd guess into the lake, but maybe just into the woods."

"What gun? We know Elizabeth Kurtz bought a handgun in Sacramento, and there was never a gun in the Diedricks house. The old man wouldn't allow them. We asked."

"How strange," Barbara murmured. "Maybe you asked the wrong people. I asked Dr. Diedricks's therapist to find out if the doctor brought one home from Germany after World War II, and he did, a Luger. It's gone missing. But that was so long ago, maybe they just forgot about it."

"That old man is senile, with dementia. He admitted years ago that he had a loss of memory when his head was practically caved in. I saw his letter, signed by his doctor, with Diedricks's signature on it."

"How interesting. His therapist says his mind is sharp, no loss of mental functions at all. Again, maybe you asked the wrong people." Barbara leaned forward and said emphatically, "They thought he'd die from that accident, and they stole work he and another man had done, but Diedricks didn't die. And the other man sued for the return of his work. They came up with that statement, signed by a bogus doctor, no doubt, and since Diedricks was blind, whatever they said they were reading to him for his signature was not what was on that paper."

Hoggarth ran his hand over his florid scalp, with its scant covering of thinning hair. He poured himself more coffee. "It's empty," he said, jerking his thumb toward the carafe.

"We'll get it refilled," Frank said. "Milt, it's a no-brainer. You know as well as we do that those two attacks are related, and committed by the same person. There have been too many spoons in this pot. You want the killer and so do we, and it's not my client."