Fortune's Wheel, page 4
part #4 of Claire Rollins Mystery Series
“Unless he used the excavation hammer.”
“Was it too small to kill Leslie? Do you think it was a possible murder weapon based on the description of the wounds?”
“My first reaction would be to say no. Since it wasn’t that large, I think there would have to be more blows to the head to cause death, but only a medical examiner or a doctor could give a definitive answer.”
“My first impression was that the murder was premeditated,” Claire said.
“I might be inclined to agree with you, but I will reserve judgment.”
Claire asked, “What about the ochre that was spread over the body and around the room?”
“If it was done to symbolize an ancient burial rite, why would someone do that?” Augustus asked. “Not many people have such knowledge. Why would a person do something like that since it would narrow the suspects down to very few people?”
Claire thought it over. “Maybe it was done in a rage … without thinking of the consequences? The powder might have been in the room since Leslie was an artist. The killer spotted it and spread it around on impulse.” Claire looked at Augustus. “If you were taking up the investigation of the case now, who would be important to interview?”
“Mr. Safer,” Augustus replied quickly. “The neighbors. Any close friends. And the professor whom Miss Baker was rumored to be having an affair with.”
Claire smiled at the judge. “You have a remarkable memory.”
“This murder stuck with me. It was all over the news. It was the talk of the town, everyone giving opinions and discussing the details. I remember much of it as if it were yesterday. There are some cases like that. They stay with you for decades.”
“This one didn’t end in an arrest,” Claire said. “It didn’t go to trial. What made it stick with you?”
Augustus looked off across the room, his thoughts moving back over the long years. “Something didn’t seem right about it. There seemed to be a sudden lock on the information. The story faded away quickly.”
“Someone was being protected?”
“It’s a possibility, but don’t focus solely on that. Police chase information that doesn’t pan out, evidence doesn’t hold up, leads dry up. Sometimes cases go nowhere.”
“The DA’s office still won’t release any of the records,” Claire told Augustus. “Not one little piece.”
“Interesting,” the judge said narrowing his eyes.
“Isn’t it?” Claire asked.
“I’ll ask around. See what comes up in conversations.” Augustus looked at the young woman across from him with a serious expression and issued her a warning. “You must be very careful with this one, Claire. The killer hasn’t been found out for three decades. He or she would want to keep it that way … and might be very, very determined to remain undetected. Stay safe.”
6
Claire and Nicole arrived earlier than usual at the chocolate shop to make truffles, chocolate and caramel turtles, a variety of muffins, a cheesecake, and mini strawberry shortcakes before their meeting.
As they slipped the last tray of muffins into the oven, they heard the tinkle of the front door chimes and hurried out to greet the man.
Marty Wyatt was about five foot eight inches tall, with short gray hair and a bald spot, and a very thin frame. His skin was pale and had a slightly pasty look to it. Claire and Nicole introduced themselves and the three sat at a table with coffee, tea, and muffins.
“Thanks for meeting with me,” Marty said. “Ian told me how you’ve been helpful with several cases recently.”
“Ian holds the theory that people open up more readily when talking with private citizens than they do with the police,” Claire told the man. “In some cases, I think he might be right.”
Nicole said, “We’ve found that people have confided some things to us they didn’t share with the police.”
“I’m hoping that will be the case in this instance.” Marty had pale blue eyes with a bit of droop in the lids making it seem as if he hadn’t slept well in a while. “If you’d be willing to speak with some people related to the case, I’d be very grateful.”
“We’d be happy to,” Claire assured the man.
“Ian must have given you my background, but I’ll share some details. After I graduated college, I accepted a job as a reporter and my first important assignment was to cover the Leslie Baker case. When I arrived at the building in Cambridge, there was police tape around the entrance and I couldn’t go inside. I talked to another reporter who got in before the police secured the premises.”
“We read in the case notes that it took quite a long time for law enforcement to secure the apartment,” Claire said.
“It’s true. The reporter I talked to told me some of the neighbors had been in and out of the place, people were touching things. He was surprised the rooms didn’t get secured sooner.”
“The boyfriend and one of the neighbors found the body?” Nicole asked.
“Yes. Peter Safer was the one who found Leslie. When he went in, he saw blood on the wall and Leslie on the bed and then rushed to the neighbor’s place and pounded on the door. Only Amy Wonder was at home. She accompanied Safer back to Leslie’s bedroom where they lifted some of the things she was covered with, saw the blood and some of the injuries, and knew she was dead. They called the police, but not until they alerted Amy’s boyfriend, Henry Prior, who also went into the bedroom to see what had happened.”
“Why did they wait to call the police?” Claire asked. “Were they sure Leslie was dead? Did they touch her? What if she was unconscious, but still alive? I know it wouldn’t have helped in this case, but why dawdle? Why not call for help in case there was a slight chance Leslie might have been able to be saved?”
“I suppose the delay in calling could be attributed to shock.” Marty held tight to his coffee mug. “We don’t know how we’d react in an emergency like that. Maybe the mind shuts down and you can’t think straight. Maybe the scene was so unbelievable that Peter Safer needed confirmation from someone else that what he saw was really so.”
Claire considered Marty’s explanations and agreed that they were plausible, although something about Peter’s need to get Amy and then Henry before making the emergency call seemed off to her.
“The case has stayed with me my entire life.” Marty looked at the coffee in his mug as the muscles in his jaw tightened. “I worked as a reporter for another year and a half and then I gave it up. I couldn’t do it. It didn’t fit my personality. All the bad things, chasing after and reporting on others’ misfortune didn’t sit well with me. I followed the Leslie Baker case and when no one was arrested, it broke my heart. It seemed impossible to me that someone wasn’t found out. How could someone get away with the murder?”
Marty’s face was pinched with emotion. “Leslie was only a year older than me when she was killed. I knew things like that happened often enough, but somehow her death horrified me. It threw the fragility of life right in my face.”
Claire had the urge to hug the man, but remained in her seat.
“I didn’t want to have kids,” Marty went on. “I was too afraid that something terrible would happen to them. I even went to a therapist to get help … it didn’t really help me, but my wife wanted to be a mother and deep down I wanted a family so despite my fears, we went ahead. We had twins, a boy and a girl. The lights of my life. Believe me, I watched those kids like a hawk. Stayed up nights worrying about them. I still do. I’d give my life for those two.” When Marty looked up at Claire and Nicole, his bottom lip quivered. “I guess Leslie’s parents must have felt the same way about their daughter.”
Claire gave the man an empathetic nod. “I’m impressed with your dedication to finding Leslie’s killer. Nicole and I will do whatever we can to help you. What would you like us to do?”
“I appreciate it.” Marty collected himself. “I’ve petitioned and appealed to have the decision by the district attorney’s office not to release any of the information and files on the case overturned. This could go back and forth for months, or longer, and I’m sure Ian told you that I don’t have a long time to battle this by continuing to make appeals. It would be helpful if you could talk to some people who were around back then. Leslie’s boyfriend, Peter Safer, is living in the area. Amy Wonder works in a museum in the city and Henry Prior has a position at a Boston hospital. Malden Ambrose, the man who was rumored to have had an affair with Leslie, is a professor at a Boston university. If you could have a chat with the four of them, it would be a great start.”
“We’ll do that,” Nicole told Marty. “Do you have an opinion on whether or not Professor Ambrose was romantically involved with Leslie?”
“I have an opinion, but I won’t share it until you speak with him, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to influence your impressions.”
“That makes sense,” Nicole said. “We’ll go into the interviews with open minds.”
“I wonder if these people will be willing to speak with us,” Claire said. “They may decline.”
“I met with three of them, all except for Peter Safer. He did not want to meet to discuss the case. The man seems to have been reluctant from the start. A month after the murder, the police asked Safer to come in to take a lie detector test, but he wouldn’t do it, on advice of his lawyer.”
“He never complied with the request?” Claire asked.
“Never.”
Claire’s forehead furrowed. “Since Safer refused to take the lie detector test, wouldn’t that make the police take more careful looks at him? Wouldn’t it cause greater suspicion to fall on him?”
“I thought it would,” Marty said.
“But no charges were ever filed against him,” Nicole noted. “So was he cleared?”
Marty swallowed the last of his coffee. “My guess is that he was never actually cleared of suspicion, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Safer, so off he went to live his life.”
Nicole straightened in her seat and narrowed her eyes. “Did the police try hard enough to solve this case? Safer refused the lie detector test. Why didn’t they make him take it?”
Marty shrugged. “They needed more than simple suspicion to force him to take the test.”
Nicole blew out a long breath. “The police didn’t secure the scene quickly enough, the neighbors and Safer were allowed into the apartment, the body was touched by them, things in the apartment were touched by them, someone took the hammer Leslie used on digs. It was gross incompetence.”
“Or was it?” Marty asked with one of his eyebrows raised.
“You think it was something else?” Nicole asked, her mind racing with possibilities.
“Did incompetence permeate the entire investigation?” Marty questioned and leaned forward. “Or was incompetence suggested by someone?”
“Someone who didn’t want the truth getting out?” Claire nodded as disgust washed over her. “Who or what was so important that a young woman’s murder was brushed aside and buried?”
The expression in Marty’s eyes hardened. “That’s what I long to find out.” The man gave a sigh. “Maybe there really wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest. If that was the way it was, then I’ll accept it, but there’s been too much hidden and no records will be released. It’s been thirty-three years since Leslie was killed. What is the reason the information is being held so tightly?”
Claire didn’t like it … she didn’t like it one bit. “Have you ever been threatened because of this case?”
Marty looked surprised by the question. “The answer to that would be no. I’ve never been directly threatened by anyone because of the case.” The man paused for a moment before saying, “If you ask me if I’ve ever felt threatened because I was looking into the murder, then I might have to say yes.”
“What made you feel unsafe?” Claire asked with wide eyes.
“After a month on the case for the paper, my editor told me to drop it. He said nothing would come of it. When I protested, he got angry and asked if I wanted to keep my job. There was a cop I used to talk to about the case, he suggested it might be time to let it go. When I asked why, he muttered something about letting sleeping dogs lie and not getting on the wrong side of some people.” Marty blinked a few times. “And that’s why, after all these years, and after adding up all the parts of this mess of a thing, I can’t let it go.” With an awful sadness tugging at his face, Marty shook his head. “I just can’t.”
7
“So Ian thinks you’re Clairvoyant Claire, too.” Robby frosted the tops of red velvet cupcakes that stood in rows like little round soldiers.
Claire looked up from cutting the pan of brownies into rectangles and gave her coworker the eye. “No, he does not. He wants our input because he doesn’t have the time or the go-ahead from his superiors to investigate the cold case.”
Nicole piped up from the walk-in refrigerator. “Ian appreciates our intelligence and intuition … unlike some other people we know.”
“I just don’t know why Ian would ask two untrained women to look into the murder.” Robby leaned down to inspect the last cupcake he’d frosted and then decided to add a little more of a flourish to the top of it.
“Any person can look into a crime,” Claire said. “Marty Wyatt isn’t trained as an investigator, either. Lots of people look into old crimes. There are websites online dedicated to keeping cases alive by discussing aspects of those cases and by gathering information from citizens who spend time trying to find new clues and evidence.”
“Crimes have been solved by these amateur sleuths, you know.” Nicole carried a large box of butter to the work counter. “It’s not poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. It’s volunteering time to help bring justice to the victim, the family, and friends. The police don’t have the time or people-power to take on these old cases. As long as citizen-detectives stay within the law, they’re welcome to do what they can.”
“If someone I loved was the victim of a crime, I’d be forever grateful for any help that regular people could give.” Claire arranged some of the brownies on a white platter for display in the front cases.
“Okay, okay.” Robby put his hands up in a gesture of mock-surrender. “Have at it. Just don’t get yourselves killed.”
Claire glanced over to the young man hard at work on the cupcakes doing his best to make them look perfect. “We’re only going to talk to people, not get involved in a shoot-out.”
Robby wiped a bit of frosting from his finger onto his apron. “The killer didn’t use a gun so I didn’t think a shoot-out was a possibility. It’s a knife or a hammer you need to look out for.” He walked softly past Nicole and poked his finger in her side causing her to let out a shout.
Robby darted away before she could strike him. “Don’t let anyone sneak up on you either,” he warned with a grin. “And don’t turn your back on anybody.”
“I’ll remember that.” Nicole adjusted her stance at the work table so she could keep an eye on her employee.
“Maybe we should bring you along when we interview some of the people involved in the Leslie Baker case,” Claire thought out loud. “We can use you to stand in-between us and the interviewee to keep us safe.”
“Sure.” Robby lifted a platter of cupcakes to bring them to the refrigerator. “My body guarding rates are pretty high though. I don’t know if you can afford them.”
Claire chuckled and teased Robby by saying, “You’d be surprised what I can afford.” In fact, what she said was an absolute truth. Her deceased husband had been one of the wealthiest men in America and when he died, his fortune went to Claire who kept a very low profile and when she met with financial advisors or the company leadership, she pulled her long, curly blond hair into a slicked-back bun, wore glasses, and never called attention to herself.
A lawyer by training, Claire ran a tight ship, was a tough negotiator, and didn’t allow anything to slip past her at meetings. Her holdings were run on a daily basis by her trusted team who along with Claire, had squashed a hostile takeover of her husband, Teddy’s, company right after he died. She and her group had earned the reputation that they were not to be underestimated.
The only person outside of the business community who knew how much Claire was worth was Nicole, and she smiled at the joke to Robby that he’d be surprised at what Claire could afford.
When Robby almost had to drop out of school due to financial pressures, Claire came to his rescue as an anonymous donor so that he could stay in school and finish his degree. Having grown up poor, she was well-acquainted with the hardships and lost opportunities that lack of money could cause and she was determined that no one she cared about would suffer due to financial difficulties.
“So who is your first interview with?” Robby asked.
Claire said, “We’re hoping to meet with Leslie’s former boyfriend, Peter Safer. Marty gave us the man’s email address and I sent him a message requesting a meeting.”
“Why would he agree?” Robby added butter to a bowl and was about to cream it with sugar, but didn’t switch on the mixer so he could hear the answer to his question.
Claire said, “I told him we were friends of someone with ties to the Baker family. The person wanted to have the case reopened and asked us to help.”
“No one will believe that.” Robby stood staring at Claire.
“Why not?” Nicole asked with a touch of defensiveness.
Robby raised an eyebrow. “What could you possibly gather that Marty hasn’t already put in his file?”
Claire lifted her eyes from her task and looked over at Robby. “The answer to that question is … the name of the person who killed Leslie.”
“That’s a tall order, but I’m not going to say anything negative about the difficulty involved with it. You two have been able to come up with things about cases that eluded the police … so go for it. Do what you can. Maybe someone will slip up. But really? From what I’ve read about this case, you might be wading into the deep end of something.” Robby looked from Claire to Nicole and before he flipped the switch on the mixer, he said, “Be careful. I don’t want to have to run this shop all by myself.”
