The Mercedes Coffin (30 page)

“No conspiracy, we just talked.” She handed Decker a brochure. “I normally wouldn’t have thought of a cruise… especially one that isn’t kosher specifically, but I talked to the office directly. They’ve made accommodations for kosher clients umpteen times before.”

“Where does the number umpteen fall in the ordinal scale?”

Rina ignored him. “Food is not going to be a problem. Even if we had to eat cold, there’s plenty of cottage cheese, lox, tuna salad, and egg salad for protein and a vast cornucopia of fruits and veggies. I could always bring some cold cuts for those needing a meat fix.”

“Sign me up for the turkey. The sandwich was delicious.”

“I suppose I could cook a turkey, freeze it, then have the kitchen warm it up in tinfoil.”

“We’re not going to schlep a turkey on vacation. That’s ridiculous.”

Rina smiled. “Anyway, even if we don’t feel comfortable with their food, we can always catch our own. One of the side excursions is salmon fishing.”

“Call me Papa Hemingway.” Decker wiped his mouth. “All teasing aside, I think it might be fun, albeit expensive.”

“What else is money for?”

“Food, clothes, education, car insurance, house insurance, property tax, health coverage—”

She hit him. “When was the last time we actually took a real vacation, not a trip back east to see the boys?”

“The last time was maybe… very long ago.”

“Or maybe never.”

“We went to Hawaii.”

“That was before Hannah was born.”

Gads, had it been that long? Decker told her, “Call up Cindy, call up the boys, arrange everything, do all the packing, and don’t tell me how much it cost. Just put me on the boat, and I promise I won’t jump off.”

“You also have to promise that you won’t say a word about money, not even a hint of a word. We can afford this, Peter, without breaking the bank. That’s all you need to know.”

“Fair enough. You arrange everything — the food, the transportation, the side excursions — and I’ll show up and won’t complain the entire trip. Just point me in the right direction.”

“I’ll lead you in the right direction,” Rina told him. “I’ll even hold your hand.”

EACH CD WAS
encased in its own plastic bag, both of them sitting on top of Decker’s desk with the same photo of Martel’s sneering visage gracing the front of the jewel boxes. Marge picked one up by the corner and read the name. “You get these from Marilyn Eustis?”

“I found them on the shelves in Primo Ekerling’s office. Eustis told me I could keep them.”

“Better still. A direct chain between Ekerling and Martel.” She yawned. “You’re having the lab dust them for prints?”

“Yes.”

“Hoping to find Travis’s print so he can’t say that someone else sent them in without his knowing or that you planted the boxes.”

“Exactly.”

“Although even if they had Martel’s prints, he could still say that.”

“Maybe with one jewel box, but it’s harder to explain away two of them. Plus in one of the jewel boxes, there’s a note. I’ve called in a handwriting expert to try and match the note to Martel.”

“Great. Have you informed Hollywood yet?”

“I’d like to pull up a print before I call them.” Decker rolled his shoulders in an attempt to loosen his muscles. “What I really want is a crack at Travis Martel, get him to admit some involvement in Ekerling’s murder.”

“Why would Travis do that?” She yawned again.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night?” Decker smiled.

“None of your beeswax.” Marge pulled up a chair and sat down, crossing her legs at the knees. Her black slacks rode up, exposing her ankles, and to her horror, she noticed one black sock and one navy sock. She quickly uncrossed her legs. “I repeat. Why would Martel implicate himself in a murder if his defense is boosting a car and joyriding?”

“Maybe I can convince him that if he doesn’t tell us the truth, Rudy Banks is more than willing to tell lies about him.” Decker explained his theory about Rudy Banks hiring out thugs to do his dirty work. “Trouble is, we don’t have a link between Banks and Martel other than the lyrics of his rap song saying B and E.” He smiled. “That’s where my smooth lies and my superior interviewing skills might come in handy.”

“And you think Hollywood will let you interview Travis Martel?”

“I think so, especially if I find Martel’s prints on the CD box. Garrett and Diaz will be delighted to have a connection between Travis and Ekerling. It punches a hole in the story that the punks just boosted a random car and had no idea who Ekerling was and that he was in the trunk.”

“And when are you going to tell them the news?”

“As soon as I have news. I’m waiting for the techs to come and dust the boxes.”

Oliver walked into the office and took a chair. “I tried calling both of you last night… several times. Where were you?”

“I was inside an office building sorting through hundreds of CD demos,” Decker told him. “The reception was bad and by the time I got your message it was past twelve.”

Oliver turned to Marge. “What’s your excuse?” She blushed. “Never mind.”

“You didn’t leave a message,” Decker said. “I figured it wasn’t that important.”

“It’s not the type of thing you leave on voice mail.”

“What’s going on?” Decker asked.

“You first.” After Decker told him about the demo CDs found in Ekerling’s shelves, Oliver straightened his purple tie. It blended perfectly with his matching purple shirt. “It’s nice of you to solve Hollywood’s murder. How’s that going to translate into solving Bennett Little’s murder?”

Marge said, “I can help with that.” She spoke about her conversation with Jervis Wenderhole, aka A-Tack. “We have Wenderhole picking up Leroy Josephson from Clearwater Park. We have Leroy with a wad of cash in his possession. We have Leroy crying and acting upset. Then six months later, Wenderhole gets a call from Ekerling and he records a CD demo with Ekerling.”

“So that ties Ekerling to Wenderhole and possibly to Leroy Josephson,” Oliver said. “This would be great news if we were thinking that Ekerling murdered Little. Are we thinking that?”

“No,” Decker answered. “But I do think Rudy Banks is connected to both Little and Ekerling.”

Marge said, “History repeating itself: Banks hired Josephson to whack Little, and he hired Martel to whack Ekerling. I mean, why else would Martel whack Ekerling?”

“Yeah, about that,” Oliver said. “Why would Banks whack Ekerling? They’ve been in lawsuits for years.”

Decker said, “Like I told Marilyn Eustis, maybe the opportunity finally presented itself in the form of Travis Martel.”

“Banks randomly offered Martel money to whack Ekerling, and Martel accepted?”

“Maybe there’s a little history,” Decker said. “Maybe Martel thought that Ekerling was going to offer him a contract. After all, the note does say, here’s more, when is it happening? But a contract never comes through, and Martel moves on to Banks. While he’s with Banks, he complains about Ekerling. Finally Rudy sees an opportunity.”

“I know what he’s saying,” Marge told Oliver. “If we could establish murder for hire between Banks and Travis Martel, it would help us establish a history for a grand jury to charge Banks with murder for hire of Bennett Little using Josephson.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Marge, but didn’t you just tell us that Josephson is dead?”

“Josephson is dead, but Wenderhole is very much alive. And so is Darnell Arlington. I think it’s possible that Rudy hired Darnell to whack Little and since Darnell was out of town, he hired Leroy as the hit man.”

“But Wenderhole is saying that Darnell didn’t kill Little. He isn’t even saying that Josephson killed Little.”

“That’s why I need to go back and talk to Darnell Arlington. I think I can shake things up now that I’ve spoken with Wenderhole.” She turned to Decker. “Can you get me the funds to fly back to Ohio?”

“If you get Wenderhole to write an official statement, I could justify another trip.”

“Wenderhole is willing to state that he picked up Leroy from Clearwater Park, that Leroy had a lot of money, and that Leroy was very upset. And then around six months later, Ekerling came to him to record some demos.”

“Exactly. Ekerling came to
him
to do some demos. Ekerling, not Banks,” Oliver said. “The whole tie-in with Rudy is nonexistent.”

Decker said, “Scott, it’s just a theory. But the blood in Banks’s apartment isn’t a theory. It’s fact. That’s why I want to talk to Martel: to see if he knows Rudy. If he does, I’ll tell him that Rudy is blaming Ekerling’s murder exclusively on Martel and Perry. Maybe that’ll offend Martel and he’ll say something dumb.”

“He’d have to be real dumb to start admitting he knew Ekerling,” Oliver responded.

“And he’d also have to be real dumb to ride around in a car with a body in the trunk and leave his prints all over the place.”

Oliver said, “And what if Martel shoots back that he’s never heard of Banks?”

Decker shrugged. “Then you’re right. We’ve helped Hollywood buttress their cases against Travis Martel by establishing a connection between Martel and Ekerling. But we’ll be no further along in the Little case.”

“Maybe I can drag something out of Arlington,” Marge said. “Especially if Darnell thinks that Wenderhole knows way more than he does.”

“Or maybe he’ll be smart and keep his mouth shut,” Oliver told him. “Or maybe he’s totally innocent.”

“Correct on both possibilities.” Marge smiled. “This is where my superior interviewing techniques might come in handy.”

Decker laughed. “Did you get a chance to speak with Banks’s lawyer and find out if she’s heard from Banks this past week?”

Marge said, “She wasn’t in yesterday. I left my card and she called me back last night. I’ll call her in about…” She checked her watch. It was close to nine. “Maybe in fifteen minutes and try to set up an appointment today.” She addressed Oliver. “Your turn. What happened with Shriner yesterday?”

Oliver straightened up his shoulders and knotted his tie closer to his neck. “What I have is good because it actually has something to do with the Little case. Last I heard, we were working on that and not on Ekerling.”

“You’re annoying me,” Decker said. “Go ahead.”

“Rudy Banks was having an affair with Melinda Little.”

“Wow!” Marge was impressed. “That’s good.”

“Damn right,” Oliver said.

“The affair happened before or after Ben’s murder?” Decker asked.

“Before.”

“Man, Banks has had his dirty little fingers in just about everything,” Marge said. “How’d he manage to bag Little’s wife?”

Oliver said, “Well, we know Melinda was gambling behind her husband’s back. She probably needed money. Why not get it from Rudy?”

“Where’d Rudy get expendable money? Were the Doodoo Sluts that big?”

Decker said, “Marilyn Eustis told me they had cash, most of it spent on drugs.” He turned to Oliver. “How’d you find out about the affair?”

“Phil Shriner implied it.”

Marge stared at him. “What do you mean,
implied
it?”

Oliver shrunk back a tad. “He couldn’t actually tell me yes, because it was said to him in confidence, but—”

“So you don’t know if it’s true?”

“It’s true, Marge, he just won’t admit it because Melinda confessed her sins at one of those GA meetings where everything is confidential.”

“So how did you get it out of him?” Decker asked.

“I just made the leap and he didn’t tell me no.”

Decker said, “Scott, go over to Melinda Little and lie to her. Tell her that Shriner told you about the affair and what does she have to say for herself.”

Oliver shrank back again. “Uh, I’d like to get some independent corroboration first. Shriner told me that if I approached Melinda Little and told her that he blabbed the affair, he’d sue me and the department. I can pump Melinda on it and try to get her to admit it, but we need to leave Shriner out of it.”

“Back it up for a second,” Decker said. “Oliver, did Phil Shriner find out about the affair before or after the Little murder?”

“Melinda was in GA after Little died, so he must have found out about it afterward.”

Marge said, “If he’s to be believed.”

Abruptly Oliver hit his forehead with his hand. “I’m going senile. Shriner told me that he passed Rudy Banks’s name to Cal Vitton as a possible suspect for the murder.”

“He passed Banks’s name to Cal Vitton?” Decker was taken aback. “I didn’t see anything in Vitton’s note indicating that he interviewed Rudy.”

Oliver said, “So maybe Cal checked Rudy out and he couldn’t hold him.”

“Or maybe he didn’t even try to hold him,” Marge said. “I’m still thinking back to Pete’s conversation with Freddie Vitton, about Cal Senior not coming to his son’s rescue when he was being bullied.”

“Maybe he didn’t know.”

“I don’t believe that. Now Oliver says that Shriner passed Rudy’s name to Cal Vitton, giving Cal an opportunity to haul in Rudy’s ass. But he doesn’t do it.”

Oliver said, “Rudy had something on Cal.”

“I still think it had something to do with Cal J’s homosexuality,” Marge said.

Oliver said, “Freddie V said that just about everyone knew that Cal J was gay.”

Marge said, “But that doesn’t mean that Cal Senior would want it advertised. Maybe Cal didn’t have anything concrete on Rudy, so he decided not to look too hard if Rudy kept his mouth shut about Cal J’s sexuality.”

“He might let some things slide,” Oliver said. “But not murder.”

Marge looked at him. “But maybe Cal didn’t know that Rudy was a murderer. All I’m saying is that we’re familiar with a certain breed of cop who’d rather have their own sons conveniently disappear than to admit to the world that their offspring are homosexuals. They think it reflects on their machismo.”

“Not just cops,” Decker said. “It’s a certain breed of man.”

Oliver said, “Can we get back to Melinda Little for a moment? We have several reasons why she would want Little dead. The insurance money and maybe she was in love with Rudy and wanted to go off with him.”

“There’s divorce for that,” Marge said.

“But then she might lose her trust fund money.”