Acts of Malice (31 page)

‘‘Great. You stay over in Reno tonight. I’ll book you a room. Meet your kid, send him home, and come out and meet me in front of the— What airline are you at?’’

‘‘What’s going on, Tony?’’

‘‘I think I found Heidi.’’

‘‘Where?’’

‘‘Pyramid Lake. But I’m not going out there alone. You need to be there. I want a lawyer with me. Just a minute.’’ He left her to a rhythmic clanking punctuated by bells and laughter.

She listened to the sounds, thinking about what he had said, liking it less and less. After a minute, Tony returned, saying, ‘‘I just won seven hundred bucks in the dollar slots and I don’t even care. That’s how freaked out I am.’’

‘‘Talk to me,’’ Nina said.

‘‘Aunt Dottie,’’ Tony said. ‘‘Remember Dick and Dottie with the trailer? We got on pretty well when I went to Vegas to see them. Now Aunt Dottie gave me a call this afternoon and said the guy that lives next door to the trailer called her.’’

‘‘The baseball bat man?’’

‘‘Right. He said the trailer’s starting to stink.’’

‘‘Oh, God!’’

‘‘He won’t go in there, and they can’t get up there, Dottie’s about to have cataract surgery. She wanted to know, should she call the police.’’

‘‘Jesus!’’

‘‘Just what I said. Who knows? It could be rotting garbage! Anyway, the neighbor has a key. Dottie called him and said he should give it to me. Did I do wrong? Should I call Dottie back and have her call the cops?’’

Loudspeakers were reporting that Bob’s plane was landing. Matt ran up with a couple of big paper cups full of coffee. Smiling, he motioned with his head toward the doorway where in a few seconds, Bob would be coming out.

Nina couldn’t muster up a smile back. ‘‘Okay, Tony,’’ she said into the phone. ‘‘Pick me up in half an hour.’’ She told him where to meet her and hung up.

Dribbles of passengers, then a flood, came through the doorway. Bob came out, holding his mouth as if to keep a big smile from breaking out, a heavy backpack on his back, wearing heavy cords and a new wind-breaker. He looked several years older.

‘‘Hey,’’ Matt said, punching him and making him put up his hands to defend himself. Bob lost it and broke into a smile.

‘‘Hey, Mom,’’ he said.

‘‘Hey, handsome.’’

‘‘Don’t kiss me. Later.’’

Nevertheless, all the way to the baggage claim, she held his hand.

24

THE SKY WAS falling. Rain fell in a solid sheet outside. Tony Ramirez pulled into a loading zone and Nina ran to the car.

His eyes were wild. He gunned the motor and they sped north. ‘‘Don’t worry, I’m sober,’’ he said. ‘‘I never drink when I gamble. I booked you a room at Circus Circus.’’

‘‘Well, that fits,’’ Nina said, rummaging in her bag for something to dry her face with. ‘‘It’s only about half an hour to Pyramid Lake, isn’t it?’’

‘‘In this rain—could be an hour, hour and a half. What do you suppose we’ll find up there?’’ Tony rubbed fog off the windshield.

‘‘I just don’t know. I hope we’re all wrong. I hope I wake up early in the morning with all this behind me and go home to my family.’’ She remembered that the second prelim in the Strong case started at nine A.M. the next morning. ‘‘And that court gets canceled because of the weather,’’ she added.

‘‘I don’t have a family to go home to,’’ Tony said. ‘‘But I have the cats. Right now I’d like to be sitting in my chair smoking a cigar with a cat on my lap.’’

‘‘You live in Reno?’’

‘‘Biggest Little City Inna World. I love it. The glitz of Vegas, but four thousand feet higher up so you can go outside in the summer. And Tahoe up the hill. So, uh, what happens if Heidi’s in the trailer after all?’’

‘‘I don’t know yet. I don’t want to speculate.’’

‘‘We have to call the cops if she’s there.’’

‘‘I suppose.’’

‘‘The neighbor could be wrong.’’

‘‘That’s what we’re going to find out.’’

‘‘Thanks for coming with me,’’ Tony said. ‘‘Honest to God, I couldn’t go there on my own.’’

They left the Reno-Sparks lights and entered the desert. The rain lessened, then stopped. She hated imagining Bob and Matt stuck in a blinding snowstorm right now, but the thought of Matt’s tough, heavy truck reassured her.

At Pyramid Lake, the gas station blazed bluish light out into the darkness. They drove past it to the mobile home park. Night covered up the rusting and peeling trailers, but emphasized the edgy, insecure feeling Nina had felt on her previous visit. All the people living here were one paycheck away from the streets. A trailer in the desert was fine for a winter vacation for a rock hound or a hunter, but she wagered a lot of these folk would rather be watching TV in some modern apartment in Reno.

They pulled up in front of Dick and Dottie’s yard and sat in the car, getting their courage up.

‘‘I’ll go get the key,’’ Tony said heavily. He walked over to the neighboring trailer, each step more reluctant than the last.

She thought she could smell it with the car door shut. How had they missed it before? She remembered that she and Wish had been chased off before they could even get into the yard. She wondered if the neighbor had checked inside before calling Dottie and decided to forget whatever he had seen.

The neighbor appeared at his door, said a few words, handed Tony the key, and shut his metal door with a hands-off slam. Tony walked back to the car and opened her door. He held a flashlight.

‘‘It’s strong,’’ he said. ‘‘You sure you want to—’’

She got out, clutching her ski hat. They walked the hundred feet to the trailer. Two forlorn wooden steps led to the door. Tony climbed them, opened the torn screen door, and knocked desultorily.

No response.

‘‘Miz Strong?’’

No answer. He shrugged, got out a handkerchief, and turned the key in the lock. A wave of sick-making air came out. ‘‘I’m going in,’’ he said over his shoulder.

‘‘I’m right behind you,’’ Nina said. She held the damp ski hat over her nose and mouth.

Tony cast the flashlight around the entrance, but Nina’s gloved hand found the light switch right away.

They were in the middle of a nightmare.

Heidi Strong lay spread-eagled on red sheets, her throat slashed so savagely her head had almost been cut off. Her eyes, staring at them, were moving.

Ants, or worse.

The smell was overpowering.

Nina gripped Tony’s arm. ‘‘Don’t go any farther,’’ she said through the wool hat. ‘‘Take a good hard look around, Tony. Remember what you’ve seen.’’

‘‘I’m—I’m gonna throw up.’’ He pushed around her and rushed down the steps. She heard him out front.

She breathed through her mouth, through the hat, and thanked heaven for the strong smell of wet wool. Her eyes raked the freezing room. Heidi on the bed on the right, dressed in boxers and a camisole—her nightwear. Bruises still visible on the arm hanging off the bed. Broken glass on the floor, the bedspread half on the floor. One of her skis lying on the bed as if she had tried to use it to fight back. She hadn’t been caught completely unawares. She had fought for her life.

Nina was looking for the knife. No knife was visible, and she couldn’t go inside and mess up the murder scene for the forensics team to come. No knife, no other sign of a weapon. Heidi’s purse was gone. That was a smart touch, make it look like a robbery . . .

Her eyes went back to Heidi. The ants go in, the ants go out . . .

She felt her equilibrium going. She was going to pass out.

She brushed at the wall with her elbow and the light went out. Backing out, she closed the door firmly, stumbled down the stairs and back to Tony’s car. He sat in the driver’s seat, motor running, right foot hovering over the accelerator.

‘‘Go,’’ Nina said. ‘‘Go!’’

They putt-putted decorously to the edge of the trailer park and then roared out some side road, stopping only when they came to some picnic tables at the end of the road. In the headlights, they could see a rocky beach. The ancient lake lay ahead in the darkness. The air smelled dank. Nina breathed in deeply.

‘‘Well, we found her,’’ Tony said, throwing his door open. ‘‘I’ll be right back. I just need some air.’’

Nina was grateful to be left alone for a minute. She should call the sheriff’s office or whoever was in charge here. Were they on reservation land? Probably not. She had to call someone.

She closed her eyes, but the image of Heidi on the bed opened them. To slow the staccato of her heart, she scanned the scene in her mind for information, moving the energy from her heart to her mind, where she could handle it better. No knife. Heidi’s purse gone. The bedspread pulled down.

It would take a lot of work to sort it out. Oh, Jim would be questioned. But much information would be lost after so long a time.

Why, Heidi must have been dead for weeks. The cold air had preserved her so well, even the bruises, but the ants had found her anyway.

Jim had stopped asking about Heidi, she realized that now. At first, Heidi had been the main topic of conversation. Then, it was as if he had forgotten about her.

Forgotten about her? Or found her himself? They were husband and wife. Maybe Heidi had forgotten she had mentioned the trailer to Jim years ago.

Biting her lip, Nina tried to back up, to think of some way it wasn’t Jim. Why was she so sure?

The scene returned in full color. Broken glass. Heidi had struggled with her assailant. A nightstand, the drawers closed, a book with a page marked. She saw Heidi’s body, her hand dangling over the side of the bed.

Something had been missing.

She was staring blindly at her own hand, looking at the nails and ridges and the new diamond that seemed to glitter even in the dark on her finger.

It had probably been the only item in the trailer worth more than a few dollars. No thief would bother with the most beat-up trailer in the park, all for the sake of Heidi’s gold chased wedding band, the one she’d continued to wear because she liked it, even if she didn’t like Jim.

Now Nina was sickeningly sure.

She tried to think through the next steps. She would call the police. All night long, she’d be making statements. She couldn’t—she had to be careful about implicating Jim. She didn’t really know anything.

She just felt it, right in the solar plexus.

25

‘‘GOOD MORNING, COUNSELOR,’’ Jim said. ‘‘Three feet of snow in one night! Wonderful skiing weather!’’

She had been up until two-thirty the night before talking to the cops about Heidi and thinking about what to do. She had slept until five in a room on the twelfth floor of Circus Circus in Reno, met Tony downstairs, and driven for two hours along barely plowed highways back up into the mountains to the cabin. She had changed clothes, eaten, called Bob at Matt’s, and shown up at court.

She had been waiting in the courthouse hall for him since eight-thirty.

She was on the brink.

‘‘Let’s go down the hall where it’s more private.’’ She led him around the corner and stopped him.

‘‘You look tired today,’’ Jim said. ‘‘Whereas I feel great. It’ll all be over today.’’

‘‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,’’ Nina said.

‘‘What?’’

‘‘Would you mind taking off that parka you live in?’’

Surprised, laughing a little, Jim took it off. Underneath, he wore a blue long-sleeved cotton shirt.

‘‘Now, how about your shirt?’’ Nina said.

‘‘This is hardly the place for that, is it? What’s this all about?’’

‘‘Take your shirt off, Jim. Nobody’s around. I want to see your arms. All the way up to the shoulder.’’

‘‘Why?’’

‘‘Because several weeks ago Heidi told me that you cut yourself on that bathroom mirror.’’

‘‘I told you I didn’t break the mirror. Heidi did that.’’

‘‘I want to see for myself.’’

He mashed his parka between his hands. ‘‘Let’s not go there,’’ he said softly, then turned the full force of his gaze on her.

She tried to ignore the sensation, the threat she felt emanating from those eyes, but she couldn’t. ‘‘I have to see or . . .’’

‘‘Or what?’’ He was taunting her.

‘‘Or everything changes between us right now.’’

‘‘We have a deal, and so far, it’s worked very well. So maybe you want to think twice before you mess with it.’’

‘‘Let me see your arms.’’ She didn’t pause between words intentionally. The sentence just came out that way, full of portent.

He continued to mash his jacket, as if he could make it very very tiny by pressing hard enough. ‘‘Now she believes me, now she don’t,’’ he said.

‘‘Show me!’’ she cried.

‘‘Fuck you!’’

‘‘I saw Heidi last night, Jim.’’

‘‘You—you found her?’’ All hand action ceased. The handful of parka unfurled and dropped down.

‘‘She wasn’t looking too good. She’s dead, Jim. As you know. I went to the trailer and found her there.’’

‘‘What are you talking about?’’ he said. ‘‘What trailer? Heidi wouldn’t be caught dead in a trailer.’’

And then she saw it, a telltale flickering at the corner of his mouth.

He thought it was funny!

‘‘You’re a psychopath,’’ she said, backing away from him.

Jim pretended to think about this. ‘‘I don’t believe so,’’ he said. ‘‘I loved Heidi. Psychopaths don’t feel anything. I read up on them. I feel so much love, so much hate.’’

‘‘Okay, I’ve had enough!’’ She held up her hand. ‘‘Don’t bother to deny it.’’

Jim took this in, and she watched the click, click, clicking in his blue eyes as he tried to decide how to handle her, and her information. ‘‘Do the cops know?’’

‘‘Of course. I called them right away. They arrived at Pyramid Lake before ten o’clock. I was questioned half the night.’’

‘‘And,’’ he said, ‘‘what did you tell them?’’

‘‘Masks off now, right, Jim?’’

‘‘Whatever you say,’’ Jim said. ‘‘You’re my lawyer.’’

‘‘I told them why I was there. I didn’t break the attorney-client privilege, if that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t help them at your expense. It’s a different state, so you probably won’t be brought in for questioning until Monday.’’

‘‘There’s no evidence,’’ Jim said. ‘‘I guarantee that. Nobody’s going to get me for cutting Heidi.’’

Jabbing like the knife she had never mentioned, his comment took her breath away. ‘‘Why, Jim?’’

‘‘This is still a privileged conversation?’’

‘‘I haven’t looked it up,’’ Nina said. ‘‘But I believe it’s protected.’’

‘‘Then I’m going to take your word for it,’’ he said. ‘‘You’re an ethical lawyer, Nina. I rely on that. And you’re full of surprises, which is why this whole process has been a real Ferris wheel ride. Don’t ask, don’t tell, right? You didn’t really want to know the truth.

‘‘Hmm. So, speaking hypothetically, just in case this conversation is not privileged,’’ he said with a small smile, ‘‘why would I kill her? I loved her, right? My guess is, she made the mistake of saying something unforgivable.’’

‘‘Such as?’’ said Nina.

‘‘That she preferred my father to me. To me!’’

‘‘Your father!’’

‘‘It wasn’t Alex she was in love with,’’ Jim said. ‘‘It was my father.’’

Nina tried to take that in.

‘‘She told me some crap about how she turned to my father because she was unhappy with me. Bullshit about never knowing love until she met him. She was disloyal and she left me, Nina, but I would have forgiven her almost anything. Under those circumstances, in this little fiction I’m telling you,’’ he said, looking up at her from the window he had been staring out of, remembering his game, ‘‘I would probably even offer to take her back.’’

‘‘But she wouldn’t come,’’ Nina said.

‘‘No, she wouldn’t. That shouldn’t have come as a shock to me, but it did. Her loyalty meant something once. I really thought, if we could just talk, she might have a change of heart, see how I loved her. And then, I got very, very angry . . .’’

‘‘I see.’’ She hung her head and exhaled.

‘‘I hate to ruin your fantasy world,’’ Jim said. ‘‘You tried so hard to believe I didn’t do a thing. I loved every loophole.’’

Nina said, ‘‘You are such a practiced liar. It was hard to believe you could do something so—so—’’

‘‘So just. So right.’’

‘‘But why? Why Alex?’’

‘‘Because my father slept with my wife,’’ Jim said.

Nina stepped back again. His hatred pushed her back, though it wasn’t directed at her.

‘‘My mother left me. I spent years dealing with that betrayal, Nina. I found Heidi and thought I’d be all right. I worked hard at Paradise. For so long I was such a good boy.’’

He paused.

‘‘Then my father—slept—with my wife.’’

Nina held her hand up to her eyes as if to shield them.

‘‘Marianne told me Heidi was sleeping with somebody. I went to ask her, not believing it, and Heidi said it was true. It was my father. Can you believe the extent of the betrayal?’’

Nina’s hand went to her mouth. She stared at him. ‘‘So—I took Alex away. My father’s a broken man now. He’ll never get over it. That’s the way it should be. Oh, so now you hate the sight of me. But nothing’s changed! You never believed I was innocent. You just wanted to pretend, so you could feel self-righteous about defending me.’’

‘‘I did believe you were innocent! For a long time.’’

‘‘No. You always held back. You weren’t totally loyal, like you should have been.’’

‘‘You tried to use me to find Heidi.’’

‘‘Well, pat yourself on the back for not finding her in time. I had to do that myself. Come on. This shouldn’t affect our relationship, except that there are no lies between us now. Now get me off and send me on my way.’’

‘‘No,’’ Nina said slowly. ‘‘No, I don’t think I’ll do that, Jim.’’

‘‘Why?’’

‘‘Why? Because you make me sick.’’

‘‘So what?’’

‘‘I can’t continue.’’

‘‘Now settle down. We’ll finish up this hearing today and we both know the judge won’t bind me over. And you and I will be quits.’’

‘‘God! Artie! Did you hurt Artie?’’

‘‘The shyster in the office upstairs from yours? The one that’s so crazy about that bag of a wife of his?’’

‘‘You threatened to hurt his wife?’’

‘‘Certainly not.’’ Jim smiled. ‘‘So. Don’t worry. Artie’s been around. He got the message. Discussion closed. We go in there and finish up, and—’’

‘‘No, we don’t,’’ Nina said. ‘‘I’m asking for a continuance. I’m going to withdraw. You can see how you do with somebody else.’’

‘‘Now, wait a minute,’’ Jim said. He seemed sincerely surprised. ‘‘We already talked about this. We need to get this over with today, so they don’t have time to get it all together. And you can’t withdraw, you’re my lawyer, you know the case, you’re bound to take care of it.’’

‘‘No. I’ll say I’m sick or something. You won’t be prejudiced. But I’m not going forward today.’’

‘‘Sure you are,’’ Jim said. ‘‘You’re just dying to spend some time with that new blended family of yours, aren’t you? I heard your kid just got in from a trip last night. But it’s still a lonely little place you live in, for a big-shot lawyer.’’

She stood there, swallowing. He was threatening her family.

‘‘I’m only making sure you do your job. Finish the prelim, then they can’t come at me again on Alex. I’m not worried about the Heidi thing. My guess is they’ll find evidence that points to my father in that case. So you just go in there and finish the prelim. If you don’t, I’ll be terribly disappointed. I’ll be violently disappointed.’’

She closed her eyes.

‘‘Well? Are we still in business?’’

‘‘Okay,’’ she said, because she had no choice.

‘‘That’s my good ethical counselor at law,’’ he said. ‘‘Do your duty. No mistakes now.’’

She turned to leave.

‘‘Oh, Nina. One more thing to show you how much I trust you never to reveal our secrets . . .’’

He pushed the sleeve up on his arm all the way to his shoulder.

Scars.

Barbara approached Nina just before Flaherty came into court and said, ‘‘We heard about Heidi Strong this morning, just before I came in. You found the body, didn’t you?’’

‘‘We’d been looking for her, too,’’ Nina said, without a glance toward Jim, who was standing beside her.

‘‘If he doesn’t go down for this one, he’ll go down for her,’’ Barbara said, jerking her head toward him.

Jim sighed and looked hurt.

‘‘That’s the thought that will get me through the day,’’ Barbara said, ignoring him.

‘‘Her death won’t help you,’’ Nina said. ‘‘You still can’t get her statement in.’’

‘‘Well, I’m going to try. You can’t stop me from trying. Flaherty deserves to know she’s dead.’’

‘‘It won’t help you,’’ Nina repeated. ‘‘The marital privilege still applies after her death.’’

Barbara said contemptuously, ‘‘You people are the lowest of the low.’’ She turned her back and went to her counsel table.

‘‘Them’s fightin’ words,’’ Jim said. He seemed to have enjoyed the interchange. But she felt the tension in him as intensely as the blue scrutiny of his eyes. He would be watching her every move until the day was over.

All morning, Nina did her job. Flaherty glanced curiously at her a couple of times as if bothered by something, but she cross-examined the police witnesses thoroughly and carefully. Concentrating was easy with her family at stake.

All she had to do was her job.

Collier came in to watch and sat in the back. Barbara stayed angry, although this anger was expressed by no more than a titanium glint in her eye. She tried everything she could think of to convince Flaherty of her position, but every thrust she made, Nina countered. Flaherty knew which way it was going. They all did.

At the break, Nina said, ‘‘We aren’t going to put on a defense, Jim. We’ll win without Ginger and the others.’’

Jim said, ‘‘But aren’t they added insurance?’’

‘‘No, they’re risks. Barbara’s good, and she’s thrashing about like a wounded eel right now. She could put the wrong question to them, and they’re not going to lie. You don’t need them is what I’m saying.’’

‘‘You’re not trying to pull anything, are you, Nina?’’

‘‘No!’’ She forced herself to be calm. ‘‘Can’t you see I’m doing the best that I can?’’

‘‘You’re kind of halfhearted,’’ he said in a light, teasing tone that wasn’t meant to fool her. ‘‘I’m willing to overlook that,’’ he continued, ‘‘because you know you have to win. How you do it is your business. All right. Now, let’s get back in there and finish it.’’

Just before the noon hour, Barbara came to the end of her testimony. Her job had been to show probable cause that a murder was committed and Jim was the perpetrator. She hadn’t met that burden.

Her greatest problem was the complete lack of evidence that Jim would want to kill his brother. Although she did not have to prove motive, all her experts’ talk about patterns and fibers was unconvincing, because there was no evidence that Jim might want to hurt Alex.

Not that Barbara hadn’t tried. But Kelly’s testimony was out. Gina Beloit, the disgruntled employee who had heard the conversation with Jim’s father about Gene Malavoy, had been neutralized, and nobody else had anything to say. Philip Strong hadn’t been called, because Barbara was afraid he’d support his son, and Marianne wasn’t going to help the prosecution.

Collier hadn’t stirred in the back all this time, and gradually an idea had formed in Nina’s mind. Her idea depended on Collier, with his intimate knowledge of the law in the case.

‘‘I have no further testimony to present, Your Honor,’’ Barbara said at ten minutes to twelve. ‘‘At this time, I move that the Court admit a statement made to the South Lake Tahoe police one day after the death of Alex Strong.’’ Flaherty pulled out the papers.

‘‘Old business,’’ Nina whispered to Jim. The moment she had waited for all morning had come.

She glanced at the prosecutor’s counsel table. Collier was leaning over Barbara’s shoulder, whispering in her ear. Then he turned and walked out of the courtroom.

Why now? What was he doing? Nina wondered.

Barbara said, ‘‘The Court should be made aware that Heidi Strong, who has been missing ever since she made this statement, was found last night, her throat cut, in a trailer at Pyramid Lake—’’

Nina stood up. ‘‘I object to any such representation, Your Honor! It’s not relevant to this case inasmuch as the statement is still clearly inadmissible. The marital privilege continues even after the death of the spouse.’’ She cited a case. ‘‘There’s no need to get into this.’’