Hollywood Murder (29 page)

The next morning, Leo and I decided to have a talk with Reverend Stan Pressley. We were hoping to interview him without his wife present, and discuss what Selfie and Molly had learned about Walter Potter changing the beneficiary on his insurance policies.

Before leaving the station, I had a brief conversation with Agent Shuler regarding her thoughts on their interview with Allison Marsh. Shuler agreed that Allison hadn’t been very forthcoming, but dismissed it as trauma over her kidnapping and mutilation. When I suggested that she might know a lot more about her kidnappers than she told us, I got platitudes about them following up with her, but nothing more. I had the impression that the FBI had given the case a lower priority, now that Allison and her children were safe.

As we drove to Glendale, I tried to put our cases out of my mind for a few minutes and told Leo about my new home. “My friends and I will be the youngest residents of the Starlight Mobile Home Park. Most of our neighbors look like they’re in their eighties.”

“At least you’ll have a view of wide open spaces,” he said, referencing the cemetery.

“Mo thinks we’ll have to dig graves for our neighbors when they drop dead.”

He laughed. “At least the place is convenient and affordable.”

“And, it beats living on the street, or worse, staying with my mother.”

“How is she doing these days?”

I sighed. “I try to call her once a week, but…” I searched for the words to explain our conversations. “…we don’t seem to have a lot in common. She’s talking about having a family reunion this summer and inviting my sister Amanda. It’s not something I’m looking forward to.”

I went on to tell him that my sister lived in Europe with her worthless husband. He’d inherited a small fortune, and they spent their time finding new ways to squander it. We had nothing in common.

“I have a brother, but we’re not very close any more,” Leo said, finding some common ground with me. “I think some of us just grow apart over the years, despite having grown up together.”

I exhaled. “Having a family like mine doesn’t help things.”

“Anything new with looking into the Revelation and Kellen Malone?”

I shook my head. “I’ve been too busy to give it much thought, but I did call Jean Winslow’s niece the other day. We’re going to get together and look through some of her aunt’s old photographs in a couple of days.”

I then changed the subject, mentioning something Oz and I had talked about this morning. “I think there’s a good chance Brie will be coming to work for Section One part-time. She’s going to need more chemo and radiation, and Oz agreed to talk to her bosses about exclusively working our cases to help her out with expenses.”

“She’d be a terrific addition. It sounds like a win-win all the way around.”

I saw the glass skyscraper we knew as the Stairway to Heaven looming in the distance. Despite its history, the cathedral brought to mind a higher power. I said a little prayer for my friend, thinking about the lifetime battle she was facing.

After checking in with the Reverend Stan’s administrative staff, we were granted fifteen minutes with him. Instead of meeting in the modular construction building, we were led to a reflection garden near a babbling stream. We found the reverend sitting by the gurgling water with his eyes closed.

We gave him a couple of moments, waiting until he acknowledged our presence. He was casually dressed and definitely more relaxed than the last time we’d talked. Bernie went over and sniffed his shoes, stirring him from his mediation.

“Please, have a seat,” he said, after opening his eyes. “I’m not sure what brings you back here, but I’m happy to talk. Unfortunately, I only have a few minutes.”

I had the impression Reverend Stan was a very different person than the one we’d seen before, in the presence of his wife.

“We’re here because of an insurance matter that’s come to our attention,” Leo said.

“Insurance?” He shrugged. “Not my favorite subject, but I’m listening.”

Leo went on, “As you know, we’ve been investigating the deaths of Walter and Maggie Potter. A few days before Mr. Potter died, he made some changes to a life insurance policy that had been taken out on him and his wife. Those changes made your church the beneficiary of both policies.”

The lines in the reverend’s brow grew deeper. “If that’s the case, it’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Your wife never mentioned it to you?” I asked, tugging on Bernie’s leash when he saw a squirrel climbing a tree.

He shook his head. “Meagan…” He took a breath. “She’s the one who deals with the financial matters, but she never said anything. I doubt that she was even aware of it.”

I decided to take some liberties with the truth, picking up on the scenario Selfie and Molly had spun. “We have it on good authority that Meagan was the one who convinced Mr. Potter to change the policies.”

There were more lines on his brow, deeper now. “Really? I don’t understand. Why would she do that?”

Leo answered. “Before she died, Maggie Potter was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. We believe that your wife knew about that.”

He took a breath, fixing his eyes on my partner. “What are you trying to say?”

Leo went on, “We also know that your new church is heavily mortgaged and in default of some loans. We believe that Meagan planned to use the proceeds from Maggie Potter’s death to pay off some of those debts.”

The reverend stood up. “This is unbelievable. My wife…”

I cut him off. “Your wife isn’t the woman everyone thinks she is, is she, Reverend?” I also stood up and met his eyes. “She was involved with Walter Potter…” I glanced at the glass monstrosity towering nearby. “And the man who was building your new church.”

The reverend blew out a long breath and slumped back down on the bench. “It’s out of control…”

When he didn’t go on, I said, “What’s out of control? Tell us what’s been happening.”

He sighed, dragging a hand through his silver hair. There were tears in his eyes. “Meagan wanted a new church…but not just any church. She wanted the biggest, fanciest church she could imagine. I wanted something smaller.” His watery eyes found me. “Meagan always gets her way. When the bills started piling up…” He sighed. “I’m not sure what she’s done, but I know she won’t let anything get in the way when it comes to her church.”

“Her church,” Leo said, glancing at me before fixing his eyes on the reverend again. “What about murder?”

The reverend stood up. “I think I’ve heard about enough.” 

“Both Walter and Maggie Potter were murdered,” I said. “Your wife had insurance policies that would pay off in the event of both their deaths. We also know that Meagan and Sam Berger, your construction foreman, were in a relationship. Mr. Berger has a history of violence and assault.”

The reverend slumped back down and held his head in his hands. He choked, “I don’t want to believe any of this.”

“You don’t want to believe it because it’s true,” I said. “Tell us what Meagan did.”

He took a couple of deep breaths. “I don’t know exactly. All I know is that she spends most of her time with Berger. She told me he was going to help her finish the church, no matter what it took.”

“Including murder,” I said.

He broke down again. “I don’t know.”

“Where is your wife now?” Leo asked.

Reverend Stan’s watery words were barely audible. “Probably with Berger. She’s always at his house, except for Sundays and when she isn’t fundraising.”

***

Before leaving Reverend Stan, we got his wife’s cell phone number. I called Selfie when we got to the car. “Can you give us the address for Sam Berger?”

“Of course.” I heard papers rustling. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not entirely sure yet, but it just might be that you and Molly will be receiving detective pay soon.”

“Good. I could use a raise.” She paused. “Here it is. He lives in Glendale, a couple of miles from the Pressleys’ church.” She gave me the street address and I told her I’d call her later.

After I gave Leo the address, he started the car and looked in his rearview mirror. “It looks like we have some company.”

We pulled out of the parking lot with Shelia Woods and her camera crew on our tail. We headed for Berger’s residence as I called Meagan Pressley’s cell number. When she answered I identified myself and said we were coming over to talk.

“I have nothing to say. Call my lawyer.”

I could tell she was about to end the call and said, “We know about the insurance policies, Mrs. Pressley.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the policies for Walter and Maggie Potter. Policies that had the beneficiary changed to your church a few days before their deaths.”

“I don’t know anything about it.”

“That’s interesting, since your husband said you would stop at nothing to build your new church.”

“He’s a lying bastard.”             

“That might be the case, but he told us the truth about you, how you were involved with both Walter Potter and your construction foreman, Sam Berger.”

“That’s nonsense.”

I was on a roll and wanted to tell her what we suspected before she ended the call. I wasn’t sure if I had all the facts straight, but that didn’t stop me.

“You knew that Maggie Potter was dying of brain cancer, so you convinced Walter to change the beneficiary on her policy to your church. But that wasn’t good enough. You realized if your church was the beneficiary on both polices, you could pay off the entire mortgage. After you convinced a love-struck Walter Potter to also change his policy, you had your construction foreman murder him and his wife so that you could collect on both policies.”

I heard a man’s voice in the background and knew it must be Berger. I realized that he’d been listening in on the conversation. He was angry and said something about being used and not putting up with it any longer.

Meagan then came back on the line. “I’ve heard enough of these lies.” The line went dead.

“She’s with Berger,” I told Leo. “He overheard our entire conversation and threatened her, even though she denied everything.”

“We’re less than a minute out. Maybe you should try calling her back.”

I did as he suggested. The first call went to voicemail, but Pressley answered the second call. She was breathless, but said, “I want my lawyer.”

“You haven’t been formally charged with anything. We just want to talk.”

“You…you don’t understand.”

I glanced at Leo as he turned onto Berger’s street. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

The breathless quality in her voice was still there, along with her surfacing emotions. “Sam is dead. I shot him, but he tried to kill me. It was self-defense.”

We spent the rest of the day investigating the killing of Sam Berger and booking Meagan Pressley on murder charges. Shelia Woods had agreed to stay on the street during the initial processing of the scene, but, thanks to LAPD’s brass, she was granted access to the area after the coroner and the forensic teams had finished their work. Berger had been shot three times in the upper torso. We had no doubt that Meagan and he had argued, but there was only one gun found at the crime scene. There was nothing, other than her word, to indicate the shooting had been self-defense.

There was also the matter of the murders of Walter and Maggie Potter. We had talked to Berger’s estranged wife, who confirmed that her husband and Pressley had been involved in a relationship over the past year. She described her ex as becoming increasingly despondent, and telling her that his girlfriend had made him do something bad recently. He’d even said something to her about Meagan telling him that the Potters needed to go away before they were murdered.

While our evidence was circumstantial, we were sure that Berger had done the killings at Meagan Pressley’s behest. The decision about filing charges would rest with the DA, who would likely have his investigators try to further tie Pressley to the murders. If we were lucky, and justice prevailed, the woman who wanted a stairway to Heaven would spend the rest of her life in a place that was about as far from paradise as you can get.

Bernie was asleep at my feet as I was wrapping up some paperwork at the station late in the day and Buck McCade stopped by my desk. I felt my heart flutter as I looked up and heard his voice. “I heard what happened. You and Leo did some nice work today.”

I was upset, not only that my heart was racing, but also because I realized my face was flushed. What my friends had said about Buck seeing me naked flashed through my mind. I took a breath and tried to ignore the signals my body was sending. “Thanks. All things considered, it was a good day for the good guys.”

He smiled in that disarming way he had. There were more heart flutters. “We could get a drink, celebrate.”

I tried to keep my voice even. “We’ve already had the discussion about keeping things professional.”

The smile was still there. “I was just thinking about a beer at the Short Stop.”

The bar was a long time local hangout for cops. “I’ll take a rain-check. How are things with you and Darby going?”

He chuckled. “He’s got a few rough edges.” His smile grew wider. “Just like all of us.” He reached over and touched my shoulder. “See you later, Kate.”

After he was gone, I went back to my paperwork, but had trouble concentrating. Why had I reacted like a love-struck schoolgirl around Buck when I was in love with Noah? While we had feelings for one another at one time, very strong feelings if I was being honest with myself, that was all ancient history. After analyzing my response, I finally dismissed what happened as being a visceral response that had nothing to do with my true feelings.

Bernie and I got home a little before seven. I heard several voices coming from my friends’ apartment and was doing my best sneak home when I heard Carly Hogg’s voice behind me.

“Kate, come on over. Nat and Mo got that celeb chef to cook us dinner tonight.”

I had to admit that I was starving, and having a gourmet meal was appealing. I also knew that once Carly opened her big mouth about me being home, my friends wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed to join them.

“Let me get Bernie his dinner and I’ll stop by,” I said.

Carly was already heading next door as she said, “It should be a lot of fun. Natalie’s making a batch of Barking Hedgehogs.”

I thought about asking her what she meant, but decided against it. If I knew Natalie, the Hedgehogs were drinks that would leave me with a band of monkeys, or maybe hogs, playing in my head again.

A half hour later, I’d taken care of Bernie and went next door. My spirits immediately sank when I saw that Nana was in their living room. She was without her gaggle of gigolos. Maybe they were home recovering from some of her antics or planning her bucket list party.

“Somebody get Kate a Hog,” Nana said when she saw me, “before she poops on our party.”

Natalie came over with a glass of something that looked like bodily fluids I’d seen at the morgue. “Down it in one gulp and you’ll feel like a new woman.”

Mo leveled one eye on Nana. “And that’s a helluva lot better than an
old
woman.”

I accepted the drink and thought about doing as she suggested, but then came to my senses.

“I’ll just sip it,” I lied. I had no intention of touching the drink.

“You’re about as much fun as a case of hemorrhoids,” Nana said to me. She slammed down a Hedgehog, smacking her lips over her oversized dentures when she’d finished. She looked at me. “And believe me, I know a pain-in-the-ass when I see one.”

Carly apparently thought that was the funniest thing she’d ever heard, or maybe she was just already feeling the effects of her drink. She slapped me on the back. “Kate put the p in party pooper.”

Natalie defended me. “Kate’s no pooper, she’s just a copper, and has to keep her wits ’bout her.”

“Unlike you two nitwits,” Mo said, eyeballing Carly and Nana.

They went on, disparaging my party behavior, as I went into the kitchen. I said my hellos to Marlon Pavarotti and asked the celebrity cook about his creation.

“It’s a secret recipe that’s been handed down from generation to generation in my family, called a Fluffenschnitzel. You take one of these and boil it in vinegar, then add some German wieners.” I lost my appetite as he held up the largest egg I’d ever seen, not to mention the batch of huge wieners that were on the counter.

“I see,” I said. “It sounds…unique.” The hog drink was calling to me again, but I resisted.

Marlon spent a further minute listing the other ingredients in his dish, including mustard, chickweed, and gooseberries, until I was feeling almost as green around the gills as my untouched drink.

“Kate, you need to get back in here.” It was Mo, calling to me.

I went into the living room and saw that Nana had fallen. I rushed over to her as Carly and my friends tried to get her back on her feet.

“Are you all right?” I said.

“I’ve ff…fallen and I can’t gg…get up,” Nana said, laughing hysterically. “Somebody get me one of them pp…panic buttons old people ww…wear.”

I realized she was physically fine, other than being under the influence of a Barking Hedgehog. After a couple of failed attempts, we all managed to get her back on her feet.

“I’m g..going to model my zz…zombie dress,” Nana said, staggering into the bedroom.

When she was gone, Mo said, “Lordy, help us all. I think I need me another hog.”

While Nana changed, Carly mentioned our upcoming move to the Starlight Mobile Home Park. “I hear you’re all going to be living with the living dead.”

“We ain’t livin’ with the…d…dead,” Mo said, now also slurring her words.

Natalie was also UI Hedgehog. “We got us two…first cl…class coaches.”

Carly guffawed. “You mean roaches. I think we need to hold you a housewarming party. Maybe Nana can bring her posse along—and some bug bombs.”

The thought of Nana and her gigolos invading the Starlight made me wonder if Maude would find a way to evict us in the first week.

“My Fluffenschnitzel is ready,” Marlon said, coming over from the kitchen with a big bowl of his creation.

Even from where I stood, it smelled like vinegar and rotten eggs. To make matters worse, the German wieners had been layered around the creation, making it look like something, or maybe several somethings, had given up the most sensitive part of their anatomy for the dish. Marlon took a couple of minutes, dishing up his creation for everyone, including serving each of us a large wiener.

“I want the biggest one of them you got,” Mo said, as Marlon dished up the wieners.

After Mo was served, Carly accepted her bowl, but, in her drunken state, reached in and removed the wiener. She reached back into Marlon’s bowl and substituted one that was larger. “Sorry, but size does matter, especially when it comes to a Fluffenschnitzel.”

Natalie held up her offering and said, “Kind of reminds me of a guy named Harry Stokes I once knew.”

Bernie came over as I accepted a bowl and did my best to put their comments out of my mind. He sniffed the air and immediately took off like a horse out of a starting gate. I set the Fluffenschnitzel on the table next to my Hedgehog, deciding my friends were hopeless and I was destined to starve. I looked up in time to see Nana staggering out of the bedroom.

“I think I’m kind of…pre…tty,” Nana said, doing a pirouette and almost falling over. “What…dd..do…you…th…think?”

“I think we’re going to need a net to catch you and throw you in the looney bin.” Of course, I didn’t say it, I was too busy collapsing with laughter, like my friends. Natalie and Carly were so dumbstruck with hilarity that they fell on the floor, where they went into convulsions. Mo slumped down in her chair as she belly-laughed and then slid onto the floor next to them. Even Marlon joined in the laugh-fest.

“What’s so fu…funny?” Nana demanded, putting her hands on her skinny hips.

I didn’t know if it was the ripped up dress that exposed too many of Nana’s unmentionable areas to mention, or the fact that in her drunken stupor her wig had apparently come off and she’d put it on backward. All I did know was that I was looking at something that looked like it belonged in a retirement home for zombies. Then I had another thought—Nana just might fit in perfectly at the Starlight.

Maybe it was the shock of seeing Nana in her zombie outfit, or the fact that my friends were all rip-roaring drunk, but I made one—no make that two—of the biggest mistakes in my life. I slammed down my Barking Hedgehog, then ate a big bowl of Marlon’s Fluffenschnitzel.