Flipping Out (33 page)

And how much did
you get paid?' Anna asked.

'Not relevant,'
Leitman said. 'Move on.'

'Did you ever
inform these donors that you were removing their kidney?'

'No,' Jameson
said. 'That was an unfortunate part of the deception. We told them we were
looking for rare immunities to save children's lives. These young men were
painfully unsophisticated, so they believed us. We couldn't tell them the
truth, or we'd be known as that place in LA where you can get rich selling a kidney,
and that wouldn't be smart, would it?'

'Removing two
kidneys from the same patient isn't smart either,' Anna said. 'What was your
thinking on that one?'

'It wasn't me.
That was all Tony. We had two surgeries scheduled for the same day. The surgeon
transplanted a kidney from Esteban Benitez, and the first operation was a
success. But the second donor never showed up. We found out later that he was
in jail. Meanwhile, the second recipient was in critical shape, and Tony was
going ballistic. The surgeon went through his files on all the available
donors, and there was only one possible match.'

'Esteban
Benitez,' Anna said.

Jameson nodded.
'Yes. He was the right blood type, and his tissue matched on three points,
which is the acceptable minimum. The clincher came when the doc told Tony that
Benitez would be dead soon enough from heart disease, so Tony made the call.
They took the second kidney, and they saved the recipient's life.'

'What about
Benitez's life? Why did they let him die?' Anna said. 'Why not just put him on
dialysis until his heart gave out?'

'I asked Tony
the same question. He said Benitez was a liability and had to be disposed of.'

'Did you know
that Tony killed Marisol and her real estate partners?'

Leitman held up
his hand. 'He learnt it
after
the fact. Doctor-patient privileged conversation.'

Anna ignored the
lawyer and leant in close enough to Jameson that he could feel her breath. 'And
when Tony told you that he was
disposing
of Benitez, was that doctor- patient, or just murderer to murderer?'

'Uncalled for,
Ms DeRoy,' Leitman said.

'Don't tell me
what's called for, Counsellor.' She snapped her head back at Jameson. 'Let me
ask another question, Doctor. What do you know about the deaths of Marisol
Dominguez, Jo Drabyak, Julia Knoll, and Nora Bannister?'

Jameson turned
to his lawyer for guidance.

'Don't look at
him,' Anna barked. 'He made you a sweet deal. You're the one who has to deliver
on it. Answer the question.'

Jameson cleared
his throat. 'Tony was sneaking around so much for our little...for our little
business venture...that Marisol thought he was cheating. She went to his
computer and discovered he had an offshore bank account.'

'Money from the
kidney sales?'

'Yes.'

'How much?'

'A lot more than
most cops make in a lifetime.'

'So she
discovers his secret bank account,' Anna said. 'What did she do next?'

'She tried to
hack into it,' Jameson said. 'She couldn't. But she smelt money, and she wanted
her piece of the pie. So she hired somebody with a video camera to follow Tony
around. He taped Tony paying off one of our coyotes. Marisol figured if Tony
was paying someone off, somebody else must be paying Tony more. So she
confronted him.'

'How?'

'She showed him
a copy of the videotape and threatened to blow the whistle. Normally, Tony
wouldn't have been worried. Slipping an envelope to a coyote wasn't that
damning a transaction. Unfortunately, the guy on the video was Benitez, the one
Tony...' - he groped for a word - 'sacrificed.'

'So Marisol is
trying to bleed Tony for money, and he decides to kill her,' Anna said. 'Why
did he kill all the others?'

'Who's the prime
suspect when the wife is murdered?' Jameson asked. 'The husband. Tony is smart.
He knew he had to come up with a scenario that would allow him to kill Marisol
without coming under suspicion. He decided he'd kill a couple of other cop
wives first. By the time he killed Marisol, nobody would suspect the husband;
they'd be looking for a serial killer.'

'Was there a
reason he chose those specific victims?'

'Absolutely,'
Jameson said. 'I must say, his plan was ingenious. He needed to find someone to
take the blame for the murders. Once he decided on Martin Sorensen, he couldn't
just kill random cop wives. He chose women you'd believe Martin truly resented.
Then he committed the murders to look calculated, angry, motivated by something
personal. Cutting off the victim's hair did that, plus it gave Tony physical
evidence he could plant on Martin. Of course, he knew he would kill Martin
before you could ever question him.'

'We know that
Tony shot himself,' I said. 'What I can't figure out is why. Why not just shoot
Martin and call 911?'

Jameson smiled.
'You don't know Tony very well, do you? His ego is monumental. As long as I'm
violating doctor-patient privilege, I can tell you that he often has dreams
where he is standing on a balcony, and a throng of people below him are
chanting his name. It's no surprise that he wants to run for public office some
day. Killing Martin would have painted a picture of a loser cop who got to the
scene too late to save his wife. Taking a bullet for her helps wipe away that
image, and tells the world he was willing to die for her. People love a martyr,
even if they don't actually die.'

'Last question,'
Anna said. 'When did you learn all this?'

'After it was
all over. He confessed to me when I visited him in the hospital.'

Anna turned to
Leitman. 'This is worthless,' she said. 'No deal.'

'What the hell
are you talking about?' Leitman yelled. 'He gave you chapter and verse.'

'He gave me
hearsay,' Anna said. 'Do you think I'm going to put a corrupt doctor on the
stand and have him testify against a patient? The defence will expose it for
what it is. A plea to save his own ass. Nothing your client has said can help
me put Tony Dominguez in jail.'

'These detectives
said you'd cut a deal.'

'If you give me
something I can convict with. Right now all you've got is "and then Tony
told me." What I need is hard evidence that Tony shot any of those women.'
Anna looked at me, Terry, and Kilcullen. 'I never thought I'd say this, but the
blind cat lady is starting to look better and better.'

'Then we'll just
have to get Tony to confess,' Terry said.

'And while
you're at it, get him to paint my house,' Anna said. 'Detective Dominguez does
not strike me as the confessor type.'

'We need to do
something he doesn't expect. Something that drives him crazy and throws his
perfect little plan out of whack. Something that reopens the case.'

'Like what?'

'Like another
murder,' Terry said. 'Another .22 to the back of the head. A murder Martin
Sorensen can't take the rap for.'

Jameson stood
up. 'Wait a minute. Are you talking about staging a murder to look like all the
others Tony committed?'

'Exactly like
the other murders,' Terry said. 'Tony will realise we have to reopen the case,
and he'll go batshit.'

'He'll come
running to me is what he'll do,' Jameson said. 'Eventually he'll decide that I
did it, and if he thinks I put him at risk of getting caught, he'll kill me.'

'Well, then, you
may just have to
be...sacrificed,'
Terry
said. 'But it's a small price to pay if we get to put a murderer away for
life.'

This time the
lawyer stood up. 'Ford, relax, they won't let him kill you. Ms DeRoy, if you
want my client to participate in a sting,' Leitman said, 'you'll have to do
better than five years.'

More haggling.
Anna finally gave in to thirty months in a white-collar facility that is known
in some circles as The Spa.

We hammered out
the details of the sting.

'How soon can we
set this up?' Kilcullen asked.

'We have to do it
now,' Terry said. 'Tony is coming in at nine o'clock. It's now or never.'

'We need a video
unit to record this,' Kilcullen said. 'Do you know how long it takes to
requisition a surveillance team? FEMA made faster time getting to New Orleans.'

'Don't worry
about surveillance,' Terry said. 'Mike and I know a guy.'

'And who's the
hypothetical victim?' Anna asked. 'That's easy,' Terry said. 'If this is
supposed to be connected to all the other murders, there's only one logical
choice. To quote one of my comedy idols: take my wife... please.'

By late
afternoon Jameson and Tony were behind bars, and Terry and I were behind on a
whole new round of paperwork.

'In exchange for
what It can wait,' Kilcullen said, and the three of us drove out to the marina.

Reggie and
Charlie were on the boat. They cracked open four beers and a bottle of Yoo-Hoo
for Kilcullen, and we sat out on the deck, watching the rush hour air traffic
approach LAX, as the sun dipped into the Pacific.

Reggie and
Charlie had felt sucker-punched when they thought Martin Sorensen had killed
their wives. He had been someone they knew and liked. But when we broke the
news to them about Tony, they were both devastated.

We told them how
it all unfolded, and when we described the sting we pulled at the end, Charlie
smiled. 'Nora would be proud of you guys. In fact, if she were still around,
she'd figure out a way to steal that idea for her next book.'

'I can't believe
the bastard shot five people,' Reggie said.

'Six,' Charlie
said. 'Don't forget he shot himself.'

'Technically he
did,' I said. 'But he used Martin's finger to pull the trigger. That's why
Martin tested positive for gunshot residue.'

'Poor Martin,'
Charlie said. 'Tony set him up, and I fell for it.'

'Tony set
everyone up,' I said. 'A witness put Marisol's car at Nora's house at the time
of the murders. It turns out that Tony took it from the flip house, killed Nora
and Julia, and returned the car before Marisol knew it was missing.'

'Dr Jameson gave
up that little titbit,' Terry said. 'It's amazing how that doctor-patient
confidentiality shit crumbles when the doc is trying to save his own ass.'

'It sounds like
Jameson will only be doing Martha Stewart jail time,' Reggie said when we told
him how Anna let him plead down. 'We'll never prove it, but don't you think he
knew what Tony was doing
before
the
fact?'

'Even if he
did,' I said, 'the DDA was willing to let the doc off easy if he could help her
nail Tony as the shooter.'

'And she got him
good,' Terry said. 'He's looking at six counts of murder 1, an attempted
murder, transporting illegal immigrants, tampering with a crime scene,
obstruction of justice, and drawing to an inside straight.'

'And by the way,
if we needed any more evidence, CSU tossed his house,' Kilcullen said. 'They
found the scissors that were used to cut the three women's hair. I'll bet
another bottle of Yoo-Hoo that the DNA they find matches one or more of the
victims.'

'Are you guys
still planning on sailing to the other end of the world?' Terry asked.

'Not on this
bucket,' Reggie said, 'but yeah. How about you and Mike? Are you two
honeymooners still shacking up together?'

'Just for
another two weeks,' I said, i hired my father to work with my new contractor. I'm
hoping that if he has one thing to do to help me out, he won't meddle in the
rest of my life.'

'Whatever
happened to that first contractor?' Reggie said. 'The one you were constantly
bitching about? Did you ever work that out?'

'You mean Hal
Hooper?' I said, it worked out OK.'

'In exchange for
what It worked out better than OK,' Terry said. 'Hooper was really cocking it
up in the beginning, but you gotta give him credit for finally nailing it down.
There won't be any boners on his next job.'