Deadly Distractions, page 19
Jill was too good to be true. Don Harris was looking more and more like the killer every minute I talked to her. I knew I was a long way from cracking the case, but I couldn’t quell the excitement I was feeling. Before we parted I found out her address, telephone number, and where she worked so I could find her later. I asked her to try to find out where Harris was on July 11. She said she would try but wasn’t optimistic she could find that out. Apparently Harris was very secretive about his activities and suspicious of any questioning in that regard. I couldn’t wait to get back to the office and tell Stan what I had discovered.
29
THE INJUNCTION
The next day Paula filled me in on her new informant, Jill Murray. She was excited about what she had learned about Don Harris and I agreed it was a major breakthrough. My mind, however, was on my next appointment. Tex was due in to explain to me how he got the $1.8 million and what happened to him in Ecuador. I was anxious to send General Moya the final installment and put this chapter of my life behind me. Before Tex arrived, however, Jodie advised me there was a constable in the reception room to see me. My heart sank. What could this be about?
The constable gave me the paper. I signed for it and began reading. It was a temporary restraining order, issued out of the Judge Lopez’ court, restraining me and the firm from sending the remaining $900,000 to General Moya. A chill suddenly overcame me. I remembered General Moya’s warning that if he didn’t get the second installment he’d send an assassin to kill me and Tex. I showed Jodie the paper and told her to get Logan on the line
"Maybe the judge won’t grant the temporary injunction," Jodie said solemnly.
I shrugged. "I hope not."
Jodie left and got Logan on the line.
"What do you think you’re doing?" I said. "I told you General Moya would kill us if he didn’t get the money."
"That was an empty threat. He’s not about to send an assassin up here."
"How do you know that?"
"He’ll know it wasn’t your fault. . . . Don’t worry, Stan. We’ll protect you."
"How? How could you possibly protect us? Are you going to assign us a bodyguard for the rest of our lives—put us in the witness' protection program?"
"No, we’ll assign a couple men to watch you for a while, until things die down."
"Well, that’s not good enough," I said. "Just as soon as we’re left unprotected, we’ll be dead."
"Listen, Turner. General Moya is an enemy of Ecuador and under U.S. indictment. The president has made a pledge to help the civilian government there get rid of him. There is no way you’re going to be allowed to send him another million dollars. This is a foreign policy issue and there’s nothing you can do about it."
I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere arguing with Logan. It was up to Judge Lopez and I had a bad feeling about the final outcome. Logan was probably right, this was a political issue that would be dictated by Washington without regard to how it might affect Tex and me. The thought of an assassin stalking me made me uneasy. How could I function knowing someone was out there ready to kill me at any moment?
When Tex showed up, I didn’t mention the injunction at first. I didn’t want him distracted from the purpose of our meeting, which was to find out how he got into this situation in the first place and what had happened to him in Ecuador. I sat back in my chair as he began to tell his story.
"When I got the letter I thought it was a joke, but several days later Senor Alfaro called me. He asked me if I'd read the letter and what my answer was. I told him I had but that I didn't see how it could possibly work. He assured me all the details were worked out and that all they needed was an American to stand in as Dr. Wells' beneficiary.
"Nine hundred thousand dollars was a lot of incentive to go down to Ecuador and check the situation out. Besides, if I didn't get the money, he said some corrupt general would get it.
"Anyway, you know how I am. I couldn’t pass up such a great opportunity, so I contacted Senor Alfaro and told him I was coming to Quito. He was ecstatic and arranged to meet me at the airport. He said he knew a good hotel and that the whole transaction would only take a few days. He said to come on Friday so he could show me around Quito over the weekend, and then we’d transact our business on Monday.
"When I got there, he treated me like a long lost brother. I got the grand tour of the city. We went to all the historical sites and to some great restaurants. Saturday night he showed me some hot night spots. I wish you'd have been there, Stan. You wouldn’t believe what those women were doing with their bodies."
I wanted to ask him to clarify that, but then decided it wasn’t relevant to the story, so I didn’t. "Hmm," I replied.
"Anyway, on Monday I met Victor at his lawyer’s office. Victor gave him a folder full of letters, papers, and documents supposedly showing that I was Dr. Wells’ brother. He reviewed the paperwork and seemed satisfied that I was Dr. Wells’ heir."
"Were they speaking English?"
"No, Spanish."
"So, you really didn’t know what they were saying?"
"No, not really."
"What happened next?"
"I signed some papers and we left to go to the bank."
"What kind of papers?" I asked.
"I’m not sure. They were in Spanish. Victor said it was an application to have the money transferred to me."
"Did Victor explain how the deal was going to work?"
"He said the bank would wire the money to my account in the Cayman Islands. He and I would then fly there and split it."
"So, how did I end up getting all of it in my trust account?" I asked.
"Well, I knew Victor might try to take all the money so I figured I’d stay one step ahead of him. On the way to Ecuador I stopped in the Cayman Islands and made arrangements with the bank to wire the funds to your trust account immediately upon receipt. I didn’t have it wired to my account because I didn’t want anyone to know that I had it. When we got to the Caymans I figured I'd call you and have you wire Victor’s share to him."
"Weren’t you worried Victor would kill you when he found out the money wasn’t in your account in the Caymans?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I knew he’d be pissed off, but I figured as long as I could wire the money to him, he’d get over it."
I raised my eyebrows. "You like to live dangerously."
"Perhaps, but it didn’t make any difference, because we never made it out of the country. We were both arrested at the airport."
"What went wrong?"
"I’m not sure, exactly. We were taken to some kind of miliary base and questioned for hours. I tried to stick to our story, but they obviously didn’t believe me. When they started to torture me, I came clean."
"How did they take the truth?"
"Not well. Some high ranking officer came to see me and said if I’d send instructions to the bank in the Caymans to wire the money back, he’d let me go."
"General Moya, I bet."
"Perhaps. . . . Unfortunately, because the bank had forwarded the money to you, I couldn’t do that."
"Why didn’t you just call me?"
"I got to thinking that if I called you and told you to send the money, they’d probably kill me anyway. They wouldn’t want any witnesses to what had happened since I’m sure the general was planning on pocketing the money."
"You’re exactly right. He had planned to take the money and then you showed up and spoiled his plans."
"Right. So, I figured I’d just sit tight and hopefully you or somebody would come looking for me. I thought my chances were much better if I still had the money."
I shook my head. "You were right. When we got there and put out the word that we were looking for you, it didn’t take long for the general to find out about it."
I told Tex about what had happened in Ecuador and about Monty’s subsequent murder. Then I showed him the temporary restraining order. He wasn’t as upset as I thought he would be. In fact, he said he agreed with Logan. He didn’t think General Moya would do anything to either of us. We argued for a while on that point, but Tex couldn’t be convinced we were in any danger. I advised him as his attorney, and urged him as a friend, not to take any chances, but he wouldn’t budge on his position. In fact, he told me not to fight the temporary injunction. Then I realized why he was so adamant. He wanted to keep the $900,000!
I couldn’t believe the money was so important that he’d risk his life as well as mine to have it. For a split second I wished I hadn’t gone down to Ecuador looking for him. My only hope now was that with further reflection he would come to his senses and instruct me to fight the government in their efforts to prevent us from completing the transaction with General Moya. Perhaps if I talked to Toni she could talk some sense into him. I hoped so, because I was quite confident General Moya would send an assassin to kill us for double crossing him.
30
AMBUSH
Stan wasn’t as excited about my new witness as I thought he would be. He told me about the restraining order and Tex’s insistence that he not send General Moya the rest of the ransom. I couldn’t believe Tex would do that to him after all Stan had gone through to find him and get him back home safely. So much for gratitude. . . . Since Stan was too distracted to discuss Jill Murray, I left him and went to my office. I needed to find out as much as I could about Don Harris. I went to the courthouse and checked the criminal and civil court records. Don had been in a lawsuit with a former business partner and another one with an ex-employee who allegedly had stolen some trade secrets. Apparently he had trouble getting along with people. There was also a pending DWI case, and the divorce records showed Don was in his second marriage.
I had to wait nearly twenty minutes for a clerk to pull the divorce file out of storage, but what I found was worth the wait. His first wife, Regina, had divorced him on grounds of physical abuse and adultery, and he hadn’t contested the proceedings. She got everything. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t much. A rush of excitement came over me. A bitter ex-wife would be another great source of information.
On my way back to the office I stopped by Park Place Motorcars to find out the date of the repair to Harris’ wife’s mirror. The elderly man in the customer service department told me he wasn’t authorized to give out that kind of information so I put on my charm and tried to sweet talk it out of him. Twenty dollars later I got the information. The invoice was dated July 18 which was a week after the murder. This could be the car. As I was walking back to my car, I got this crazy idea about actually inspecting the Mercedes. Jill had told me Harris’ wife worked as a sales representative at J. C. Penny in Collin Creek Mall so I drove there and went to the Penny's parking lot. There were only a couple silver Mercedes and I had the license plate number so it didn’t take long to find the right car.
It had been recently washed so I didn’t expect to find much. I looked around to make sure no one was watching me, then I bent down and inspected the driver's side mirror. Whoever had replaced it had done a good job because I couldn’t tell it wasn’t original equipment. I continued to inspect the rest of the vehicle not knowing what I was looking for exactly but just hoping I'd find something. I looked inside the car through the windows and noticed a pair of binoculars. At the front of the car, in the recesses of the headlight wells I found some yellow fiber that I didn’t recognize so I took a sample. I also found some red mud that had caked below the fender. Thinking it might match dirt from the Double T Ranch I bent down and took a sample of it too. When I stood up a security officer was glaring at me.
"What are you doing, miss?" he said.
"Ah. . . . Ah. . . .Well, I lost my contact lens. I was just searching for it. I know it’s down here somewhere."
I bent down and pretended to look for the contact. The officer got out of his electric cart and came over to help.
"Aren’t contacts a pain in the ass?" he said. "Mine are falling out all the time too."
"Oh, well. I guess it’s lost," I said as I stood up. "Luckily I have insurance. I’ll have to stop at the optometrist in the morning and get it replaced."
"You sure?" he asked. "I’d be happy to help you search a little longer."
I smiled and thanked the officer and walked back to my car. The binoculars interested me. If Harris was the killer he might have used them to watch Dusty’s house while he was waiting for Bobby Tuttle to show up. When I got to the office, Stan was alone so I went into his office.
"Hey, where have you been?" Stan said.
"Out and about," I replied.
"Hey, I’m sorry about this morning. I was just so shaken up over the TRO that I couldn’t concentrate on your new witness—what’s her name?"
"Jill Murray. . . . It’s okay. Did you talk to Toni?"
"Yeah. She’s going to try to talk some sense into Tex. God, I hope she can."
"I bet he’ll change his mind. He’s got to be concerned about General Moya’s threat."
Stan shrugged. "Hopefully. . . . So, tell me about your witness."
I filled Stan in on Jill Murray, my courthouse research, and my inspection of the Mercedes.
"You better be careful, girl. I don’t want to have to get you out of jail again," he said smiling.
"Don’t worry. I promise that won’t happen."
Stan inspected the fiber and mud samples and said, "This red mud is pretty common in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma. I doubt it’s going to prove the car was at the scene of the murder. This fiber though might be significant. Let’s take a trip up to the Double T and see if Dusty knows what it is. I want to take another look around up there anyway."
An afternoon drive in the country sounded relaxing, so I said, "Yes, good idea."
It was late November and the foliage was in full splendor as we drove north along the eastern edge of Lake Lavon. Stan pointed out several good fishing holes that he and his boys had discovered. I didn’t know anything about fishing so I just smiled and listened to him talk. When we got to the northern end of the lake, he told me about the day he and several hundred other men spent cutting free firewood just before the Corps of Engineers began filling the lake.
"The kids loved playing lumberjack for a day and we brought home enough firewood to last us three years," Stan said. "So, do you like any outdoor activities?"
"Yes, I like hiking and horseback riding," I said.
"Oh really? Do you ride often?"
"Not lately. I haven’t had the time. But when I was growing up my parents had a few horses boarded down on a ranch in Red Oak. We used to go down there all the time and ride them."
"That must have been fun," Stan said. "So, you must have a few horse stories to tell."
"Well, yes. There was the time I was out by myself and we ran across a rattlesnake. My horse got spooked and ran off so fast he threw me and I landed on my ass."
"Oh, my God. Were you hurt?"
"Just a broken arm and damaged pride. . . . It was kind of fun having a cast on my arm though. I must have got a hundred autographs."
Our conversation was interrupted by the sounds of a siren approaching. I looked into my rear-view mirror and saw a police car behind me with his lights flashing.
"Oh God! What’s this about?"
Stan pulled over, cut the engine, and rolled down his window. The DPS officer got out of his car, wrote Stan’s license number down on a pad, and then walked to the opened window. His name tag read: "P. Curtis."
"Hi, Officer," Stan said.
"Did you know you were speeding?" he asked.
Stan frowned and replied, "No, I didn’t realize it. How fast was I going?"
"I clocked you at 63 miles per hour," he said. "The limit is 55."
"Oh, gee. I didn’t realize I was going that fast."
"Where are you headed?"
"Up to the Double T Ranch."
"What business do you have there?"
Stan told him who we were and why we were going to see Dusty Thomas. He seemed very interested in our mission.
"Well, I’ll just give you a warning now, but watch your speed a little closer from now on."
"I will. Definitely," Stan replied.
The officer started to leave and then hesitated. "You know I was on duty that day. I wasn’t two miles from the Double T when all hell broke loose."
"Is that right?" Stan said, "You didn’t happen to see a silver Mercedes did you?"
"Well, now that you mention it. I did. It was driving pretty fast as I recall and I would have gone after it had I not heard about the shootings at the Double T. I let it go so I could respond to the call."
"So a man was driving the Mercedes?" I asked.
