Homewrecker Ch. 02

A number of middle-aged men were inside, sitting at the tables, none at the bar in the back left corner of the room. Most were wearing casual button-down shirts and sweaters over them, and slacks. They spoke with Italian accents, and some of them were eating either a late lunch or an early supper.

All eyes went to the two younger men that walked into the room through the door at the corner of the street. Theo Washington went towards the bar while Teddy Parker looked around the room, making eye contact with those openly staring at him.

"This is a members-only club." said the bartender when Theo came up.

"How do you know I'm not a member of the Pipefitters Union?" Theo asked.

"Because you're not." said the bartender. "And we don't serve your kind here." He meant that Theo was black.

Theo held up his badge. "This is my kind." he said. "Is Earl Edwards here?"

"You got a warrant to be here?" asked the bartender.

"It's okay." called out a man at the table nearest the door to the rooms that went further back into the building. "Who wants to see Earl?"

Parker came up to him, showing his Police badge and ID. "Police." he said. "We just want to ask him a couple of questions, and we'll be on our way. Are you Earl?"

"Maybe." said the man, who had iron gray hair and reminded Parker of the late Joe Smedley. "What's it about?"

"Can we talk privately, Mr. Edwards?" asked Parker.

"All right." said Earl Edwards. "Come on back." He led the Police Detectives through the door to the back and down a corridor to the first room on the left, a small conference room, then closed the door behind them. "What's it about?" he asked.

"Thanks for your time." said Theo. "Do you know a woman named Beryl Angel?"

"I'll spare you the runaround." said Edwards. "I heard she died last night over in the University Town. It's getting around that she was waxed."

"Since you know," said Parker, "then we'll get right to it: where were you last night?"

"Here." said Edwards. "Of course the boys will vouch for me. Again, I'll spare you the crap. I had nothing to do with that woman's murder. I had no reason to kill her, and I could've done it a lot more efficiently and a lot sooner than now."

"No reason?" asked Theo. "She was involved in your divorce case, wasn't she?"

"Yeah." barked Edwards. "One of several woman. But my wife figured it out that she couldn't do any better without me than she could with me. So she dropped the divorce filing and came back to me. We're still married."

Parker said "But did you have a relationship with Beryl?"

"Heh. 'Relationship'." barked Edwards. "Try 'sexual encounter'. Yeah, I indulged. Listen, we have parties for the boys and for the companies we do business with. And women are at those parties. Beautiful women. And yeah, I got my root wet in some of them. Beryl was one of the best I ever had, but she wasn't the only whore I ever banged."

"How did your wife find out about your... 'indulgences'?" Theo asked.

"I dunno." said Edwards. "Some P.I. probably followed me around. And it's not like it was hard to catch me."

"So Beryl was an escort?" Theo asked.

"Not really. Just a party girl." said Edwards. "She didn't do drugs like some of the working girls did at the parties. And the word was that she'd rather be a kept woman than a hooker. She was too classy to be a cheap whore like most of the girls at our parties are."

"When was the last time you saw Beryl?" asked Parker.

"It's been a while, a good while. Over a year, maybe 18 months ago?" said Edwards. "I don't think the City here is where she liked to hang out. Last I heard she was hanging out in Midtown and Southport, mostly Southport the last few months."

"Do you know if she started up an escort agency, either here or anywhere else?" Theo asked.

"If she did, this is the first I'm hearing of it." said Edwards.

"Okay." said Parker. "Any idea who might have wanted to kill Beryl?"

"A lot of husbands that got taken to the cleaners in their divorce cases." said Edwards. "Beryl was called 'the Homewrecker' on the Street. She'd get a married man with money in her clutches, try to make him leave his wife for her, blackmail him if she had to. Some guys kicked her to the kerb, others paid her to go away. One or two fell in love with her, and she left them after a while."

"Any names you can give us?" asked Parker.

"Tell you what." said Edwards. "Get on the Internet, and look up the name of the male State Legislators in Midtown. Choose any one of them. She was all over a lot of them, and word was that she was working for some lobbyist to entice them to vote certain ways."

"Anything else you can tell us?" asked Theo.

"Naw, that's it." said Edwards.

"Thank you for your time." said Parker, handing Earl Edwards his card. "If you hear something that could help us, give me a call." Edwards accepted the card, then they all headed back to the main room.

Once in their car, Theo said "That was the kind of interview we'd call mundane, and the Iron Crowbar would say is the most important thing about the whole case. Something about that conversation is nagging at me, but I'm not sure what it is."

"I hear ya." said Parker. "I wonder about him and his wife, though. She was going to divorce him, came back... wonder if he beat the snot out of her when she tried to leave him, told her she'd starve in the street if she left him, and so she's trapped now. He sure has no problem banging the party girls, risking bringing an STD home."

"Yeah." said Theo. "Okay, let's go check on Charles Caldwell's alibi..."

Part 9 - Shutdown

4:30pm. Detective Julia Rodriguez and Lieutenant Jerome Davis were again walking through the hallway to the conference rooms of the Hyatt Hotel. A lot of people were walking the other way, towards the lobby.

"I wonder what's going on?" Julia said. "Some activity on the other side of the Hotel?"

"No conference rooms that way." said Jerome Davis. "And there was starting to be a crowd at the front desk. I thought it might be people checking in for tonight's other events. But they're all MegaTech people... and I thought they were being given their keys at the office the Event Coordinator set up."

"That's a thought. Iron Crowbar thinking there, sir." Julia quipped. Jerome chuckled.

They came up to a room. Julia said "Here's the room they're using, and hey! it's open." They went inside, where people were scurrying around. It took the Detectives a couple of seconds to realize that people were packing, not unpacking, the boxes.

"Is the Event Coordinator here?" Julia asked a woman who was packing event ID badge holders into a box.

"No, she left hours ago." said the woman, not looking up from her task at hand.

"Is this the check-in room, where people get their room keys?" Jerome Davis asked.

"It was." said the woman. Then she looked up at them and said, "Oh, have you not heard?"

"Heard what?" Julia asked.

"The conference has been canceled." the woman said. "We're packing up to leave."

"Just like that?" said Julia, shocked.

"Just like that." the woman said

"Before you go," Julia said, "can you tell me who was giving out the room keys last night?"

The woman looked up at them again, this time peering hard at them. "Who wants to know?" she asked, her voice unfriendly.

"We do." said Jerome Davis, exhibiting his badge. "I'm Lieutenant Davis with the Town & County Police, and this is Detective Sergeant Rodriguez. Can you tell us who was giving out the room keys last night?"

A man walked up, carrying a box. "Just about all of the people that checked in yesterday were the top brass, so Ms. Wilkins, the Event Coordinator, was handling that herself." he said. "They had a dinner with the CEO, Elliot Sanders, so Ms. Wilkins personally handled everything for them."

"Are you Mr. Marcos?" asked Lt. Davis.

"Yes, I am." Marcos said, seeming surprised that his name was known.

"Can you tell us where the room keys are now?" asked Jerome.

The man said "Oh, we returned the ones we still had to the front desk as soon as the announcement was made that the conference was being shut down."

Julia saw that the woman was frowning as she listened in, so Julia said "Mr. Marcos, can we speak to you privately for a moment."

"Don't do it!" the woman snarled. "And you have to have a lawyer present!"

Lt. Davis said "Mr. Marcos, we can do this one of two ways. I can arrest literally everyone in here... hell, I can have every MegaTech employee still here at this Hotel arrested... or you can give us five minutes of your time. Which way will it be? I get paid the same either way."

"All right." said Marcos. "Let's go outside."

"No!" yelled the woman. "I demand you not speak to him without a lawyer!"

"Want a lawyer yourself?" asked Julia, squaring up to the woman and saying with as menacing voice as she could make her voice be: "One to come bail you out of jail if you say one more fucking word?"

"On what charge?" snarled the woman.

"Obstruction of Justice. Interfering with a Police investigation." said Julia. "You try me..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

They took Marcos outside and had him get into the backseat of a TCPD Police cruiser. Jerome got in back with him, and Julia took the driver seat.

"We're not going anywhere, Mr. Marcos." said Jerome Davis. "Just smile for the camera up there for this interview. So... is there a list of room assignments for last night and this weekend?"

"There was." said Marcos. "But it was probably shredded with some other stuff earlier this morning. The woman that bitched at you about a lawyer, her name is Thelma, she started shredding stuff right after you guys arrested Deborah. I'd imagine that was the first thing she destroyed."

Jerome said "Maybe you can tell us from memory: who was assigned the 800-level rooms?"

Marcos said "There's usually a standard arrangement. Kara Zorn gets the biggest suite, where she can entertain everyone; she loves entertaining. Elliot Sanders does what he has to, but he doesn't really like it, so he'll have a smaller room and not have guests. Usually a two-room suite, and his valet stays in the other room."

"So normally," Jerome said, "Sanders would've had 802 and Kara 801."

"That's right." said Marcos. "But Kara didn't come to this event, so Deborah gave Elliot the big suite. Our CFO, Bill Dalton, had a room. I think it was 804. We usually have a room for the legal counsel. Mr. Sanders always wants a lawyer or two nearby; you wouldn't believe how often people show up trying to serve subpoenas or warrants at three o'clock in the morning, or some issue crops up in Europe, or China."

Jerome asked "Could Suite 802 have been used by the legal counsel?"

"That's very possible, even likely." said Marcos.

"And did you give the key to Suite 802 to anyone?" Jerome asked.

"I didn't." said Marcos. "Deborah had it, and would've given it out. But it could've been in the box with other keys, and taken without anyone seeing it or realizing it."

"Okay, thank you. You've been helpful." said Jerome. Julia let him and Marcos out of the back seat. As Marcos was going back to the hotel, they noticed a man in a suit running up to him, and a second later begin shouting at Marcos.

"And Thelma the Bitch is right there in the doorway." observed Julia. "She went and found one of the attorneys and sent him after us. We got done with him just in time."

Jerome said "Yep. Okay, let's go to the front desk." They went back inside. Not bothering to mingle with the crowd in front of the desk, they went through the door that led behind the desk.

"Ma'am, sir, you can't come back here!" said the girl behind the desk, who was clearly frustrated with the crush of people.

"Sure we can." said Julia, exhibiting her Police badge. "Where are the bloc of keys that the MegaTech people returned?"

"Oh, we've already taken those out of their sleeves and put them in the bin to be reused." said the girl.

"And the paper sleeves?" asked Jerome.

"Oh, those were thrown away." said the girl.

"Where?" asked Jerome. "What trash can?"

"Uh, go into that room and check." the girl said. The Detectives rushed into the room, and Jerome secured a large plastic trash bag that had lined the trash can, which was full of paper sleeves with hotel room numbers on them.

"Let's hope 802 is in here." Jerome said...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At 5:00pm, I got a phone call from Paulina Patterson. She said: "Gwen Munson went to Harry Nance, who immediately took up Deborah Wilkins's arraignment. She didn't waive the preliminary hearing, and asked for her client to be released on her own recognizance. But Judge Nance said the he would do her one better, and without being asked, he dropped the charges against Wilkins, saying the grounds to arrest and hold her were completely insufficient."

"With or without prejudice?" I asked.

"He didn't say, which means 'without'." said Paulina. "But you'll have to release Wilkins just as soon as Munson gets up here with the Court Order."

"It is what it is." I said. "Who was the ADA for that hearing?"

"Dwayne Gregory." said Paulina. "And I heard that he contested it pretty vigorously, put up the good fight. But Nance seemed hell-bent on releasing her."

"What about Bart Bell?" I asked. "He's still sitting in a holding cell."

"And he may for the full 72 hours you can hold him." Paulina said. "No one has put his arraignment in the docket. And nothing for the Security men, either. No attorneys have come to see them, either."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5:30pm, Friday, November 15th. I was now meeting with my three Angels in my office after learning that MegaTech Industries had shut down their conference, with everyone being transported by MegaTech-hired vans and buses to the City to catch flights home.

"Wowwwwww." Cindy had said when she heard the news. "They completely shut down the conference?"

"Yes." said Tanya Perlman. "All of the higher level executives, including Deborah Wilkins and Elliot Sanders, have already left. We have camera footage of their vehicles leaving the hotel. Deborah Wilkins was driven west on the Hammondsville Highway over the State Line just as soon as she walked out of the Courthouse. The rest were being driven to City Airport, except Elliot Sanders and his wife; they boarded a MegaTech Industries helicopter at County Airport and flew to City Airport."

"Only the best for him." I said acerbically. "But why not fly Deborah out with him, if they wanted to get her away from me as fast as possible?"

"They got her over the State Line as fast as they could." said Teresa.

Cindy said: "I'd imagine that the great Elliot Sanders didn't even think of having Deborah fly with him, and if he did, he didn't care enough to help her. He just wanted to get himself and his wife away as fast as possible. For me, I'm still wondering how they got past our Officers sitting at the door of Suite 802?"

"There's a back way out of that suite." I said. "On all the other floors, there's a stairwell at the end of the hall. But Suite 801 at the top floor covers the end of the hall. I think there's a narrow hallway between the right-side bedrooms in that suite that goes to those stairs."

"Secret passage to the Conservatory." Tanya said with a gleam in her eye.

"Yes, and keep that in mind." I said. "So tell me: how was the conference cancellation announced?"

"Kind of quietly." said Tanya. "Texts and emails, mostly, and some word-of-mouth. But no big announcements that our Detectives could hear."

"I gotta hand it to them." I said. "That has the be the largest group ever to sneak out of this County generally undetected until it was too late to stop them. And let me commend your attention to something: just how fast they were able to clear out. They had buses ready to take people to City Airport, they were able to just shut down and get everyone out in a matter of a few hours."

Cindy said "That's a good point, because these conferences are a lot like the seminars my father puts on. There's set-up, the conference activities, and the takedown afterwards. It's a huge operation requiring an amount of planning ahead of time... and yet MegaTech Industries was able to do it, leaving nothing behind, in a matter of a few hours."

"Good point." I said. "And we can infer that the initial decision to cancel and bug out was made hours before we began arresting and questioning C-level MegaTech officials. Oh well, at least the tournament chess players in the State Championship will have a quieter environment in which to play."

"Until those wedding reception bands start up." Tanya replied. I pointed at her and nodded.

"So is this a guilty conscience at work?" Teresa Croyle asked. "Why cancel the conference and bolt like this?"

"Let's just do a dangerous thing and assume MegaTech and all its people are innocent of murdering Beverly DeAngelo." I said. "It still happened in one of the rooms booked to them. I personally had their Events Coordinator cuffed to the interrogation table, and the County Sheriff stood right up to their CEO when he came in with a bunch of armed thugs. Sheriff Griswold pushed Elliot Sanders around like Sanders was a nobody."

I continued: "We know Elliot Sanders is very well connected to the top levels of our Federal Government, with Congressmen and Senators... yet he chose to sneak out of here like a cowardly rat. What that tells me is that his calls to his contacts resulted in him being told to shut down and get the flock out of there. They got Deborah Wilkins across the State Line just as fast as they could and by the shortest distance line that they could, and now they're all scrambling to get away from here."

"And then there's Julia Rodriguez's excellent observation." I went on. "Why did MegaTech come here, to this County, of all places? They could've done this in the City, where better facilities than our Hyatt Hotel are available. They could've done it in another State, where Kara Zorn does not fear to tread."

"That is a thought." Cindy said.

"Here's another question." I said. "Elliot Sanders and Kara Zorn have a pretty stout team of in-house lawyers, some who travel with them. Yet Gwen Munson of Prodder, Ryder & Reems came to Deborah Wilkins's defense, and there has so far been no legal counsel sent for Bart Bell. Whassup wit' dat?"

"That's not all that big a mystery." said Tanya. "Gwen Munson has become a big name in this State, especially for having a desire to work against you, Don. Kind of like us knowing the Swamp Frogs are at work whenever a Gresham & Mason attorney like Nathan Masterson shows up."

"Or maybe they're familiar with her law firm, Prodder, Ryder & Reems," said Teresa, "and that's the first number on their speed-dial when they need local and State attorneys."

"Both good thoughts." I said. "And Bart Bell?"

Teresa said "They've abandoned him. And they've also abandoned the security guys we arrested this morning, that tried to stop us from bringing Deborah Wilkins into custody. They're still sitting at County Jail, despite calls to MegaTech begging for help."

"That Elliot is quite the caring CEO, eh?" Cindy said acerbically.

"Yep." I said. "And beloved by his people... Not. Okay, you might as well recall the Detectives from the Hyatt if they don't have any hot leads. I suspect the MegaTech chapter of this saga is closing. When Theo and Teddy get back, we'll have a meeting of MCD, Intelligence, and Vice if they want to come in..."

Part 10 - Pow-Wow

6:30pm, Friday, November 15th. We assembled in Classroom 'E'. A new monitor screen was on the wall, a 5x4 matrix of monitors that could form a whole. "Where did this come from?" I asked when I saw it.