Curiosity Killed the CatChapter 45 Nuthouse
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Cassie Reynolds, a tech from the crime lab, was waiting for them when they pulled up in front of the mayor's house. Most of the cars were now gone, guests questioned and released by uniformed officers. Kate already had their reports. No one had seen anything. A man was shot, a gun fired five times, and no one saw whose finger pulled the trigger. She sighed in disgust as she rang the doorbell.
Mayor Rodney Strauss answered the door himself. He was dressed in a robe, slippers on his feet and a drink in his hand.
"Detectives," he said in greeting. "Have you come to tell me who committed this crime?"
"No sir," Kate said respectfully. "We have to get DNA samples from you and your family. Hair samples too. And we need to get your wife's and Sarah's fingerprints. Yours and Stella's are on file already."
"Can't this wait until morning? Sarah has been through hell tonight. And the doctor had to sedate her."
"I'm sorry, sir. It can't wait."
"Daddy?" Stella Strauss stood at the top of the stairs, her dark blue dressing gown held closed at her throat by one white-knuckled fist. "Is everything okay?"
"Get down here Stella, these people need to get samples of your DNA," the mayor ordered his youngest daughter tersely.
"For what, Daddy?" There was a slight note of panic in Stella's voice and Kate picked up on it quickly, feeling a little rush of adrenaline that said her gut had been right.
"We just need to be able to rule you out of the rest of the samples that we found here tonight, Miss Strauss," Cassie said, professionally, opening her silver case and pulling out a handful of boxed long swabs. "We have to find out who belongs so we can find out who doesn't. It's called elimination testing." She opened one box, labeling it deftly with a pen before pulling the swab out and flipping open the plastic cap that protected the sterile cotton. Catching the mayor with his mouth half open, she quickly swabbed the inside of his cheek, and pushed the swab back down into the plastic, capping it before sliding it back into its box.
"It's that simple, Miss Strauss. If you'd be so kind as to come down here?" Cassie opened another box and pulled out the swab. "This just takes a second."
"I... I don't think so." Stella looked ready to bolt.
"Stella, get your ass down here and get this done," the mayor's voice was harsh with his youngest, and Kate almost felt sorry for her.
Stella came down the stairs reluctantly and parted her lips just the tiniest bit when the swab was held up. Cassie took her chin in her hand and professionally opened her mouth, swabbed the cheek and flipped the cap over the swab. She put it back in its labeled box and then picked up a pair of tweezers and a small brown envelope. "Just a hair sample," she said and plucked a hair out of the girl's head before she could say yes or no.
While Cassie labeled it, the mayor sent his youngest up to get his wife and Sarah.
Sarah came down the stairs, her eyes blurry, her speech slurred. Cassie hurried and took the samples and then deftly printed her also.
Amanda, the mayor's wife, balked at the tests. "I don't understand, a crime was committed in my house and I'm being told I have to be fingerprinted and put on file?"
"Amanda!"
"No, Rod. I'm not a criminal and I won't be treated like one in my own home." The curvy brunette clutched her robe closer to her throat.
"Mrs. Strauss," Jake stepped in, his hands placatingly held out in front of him. "These are just steps that we take so that we can check your prints and your DNA against all the samples that we've retrieved from your home already. We need to be able to rule you out so that we can find the samples that don't belong. We don't wish to treat you like a criminal, ma'am."
"Well, I'm sorry, but no. That's the way I feel." Amanda took another step away from the group.
"Mrs. Strauss, I can, and will, get a warrant for those specimens," Kate said quietly, watching the woman's eyes. A hard gleam came over them and suddenly Kate wondered if she was looking at the wrong woman. Either way, she needed those samples and she was prepared to do whatever was necessary to get them.
"Go ahead and get it, Detective, but until that time, I would prefer if you and your people would leave my home."
"Your home, Mrs. Strauss, is a crime scene under my purview." Kate turned and addressed the mayor. "And while I wish no hardship to you or your family, Mayor, I could have you escorted off the premises until I have closed this case." There was no threat in Kate's voice. She was stating facts the way she saw them. "I allowed you to stay since we have the crime scene taped off, but I will need reasonable access to the scene when I need to be here. My partner will call for that warrant, ma'am. And while we wait for it, I need to speak with your daughter."
"Can't you see she's in no shape to talk to you again tonight? Look at her, she can barely stand up," the mayor blustered as he wrapped his arm around his oldest.
"No, Mayor Strauss. Not Sarah, Stella."
"Me? What for? I barely knew Reggie."
Even though she hid it well, both Kate and Jake heard the fear in Stella's voice. Jake got on the phone, circling behind the group and standing behind Stella, just in case, while he waited for the judge on call to answer his phone.
"If I might use your study once more, Mayor?" Kate asked politely. She waved Stella in front of her and was followed by Jake, still on his phone.
"I... I don't know what I could tell you about Reggie. I only knew him through Sarah." Stella sank down to sit on the edge of one of the leather chairs, her back ramrod straight as if she were ready to bolt at any moment.
"Stella, I'm going to read you your rights, just for your protection," Kate said, pulling the Miranda card out of her jacket pocket. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"
"I'm not an idiot," Stella said, her voice hostile. "What is this about? I barely knew Reggie."
"For the record, Stella, I need you to answer my question. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"
"Yes, I understand. Now I want to know what this is about. Reggie was Sarah's boyfriend. I barely said hello to the man."
"So you've never been to his apartment?" Kate asked, her eyes sharp.
"Why would I go there? He's Sarah's boyfriend," Stella stressed. "Her tastes in men are abysmal. They either simper around after Daddy's money or they show off, trying to impress Daddy."
"So which category did Reggie belong to?" Jake asked, glancing at Kate and giving her a nod after hanging up his phone.
"The former. The man gushed continuously." Stella rolled her eyes in disgust. "He worked in Daddy's real estate offices, more as a gofer than anything else. He couldn't be trusted to show the houses. Daddy kept him on for Sarah's sake because he knew she liked Reggie. Why? Well I don't know."
"You sound like you really disliked the victim, Stella. If you loathed him as much as you say you do, why were your fingerprints found all over his apartment?"
The quick look of shock in the brunette's eyes almost brought a smile to Kate's lips. She managed to hide it as she waited for an answer.
"Ah, my fingerprints?"
"Yes, yours. In Reggie Holton's apartment. In his bedroom, on his nightstand. And I'm betting that your sister didn't know you were there either."
Stella looked back and forth wildly between the two detectives. Kate wished she could hear what the woman was thinking. She had an idea it wouldn't be pleasant.
"I think I want a lawyer," Stella said, her voice shrill.
"Fine, we'll have you transported downtown. Do you have your own lawyer or would you..." Kate began.
"I'll get my own, thank you..."
Kate took Stella's arm and escorted her out of the study. She allowed her to go upstairs to get dressed, accompanied by a female officer. While they waited there was a knock on the door, and an officer arrived with the warrants for the DNA samples needed from Mrs. Strauss and also one for the clothing the family wore the night before.
Amidst much protesting, the warrants was served and the samples taken and clothing gathered. Cassie wrapped everything up and, with a smile at Jake and Kate, left for the lab. They waited until Stella came down, and, despite the fit thrown by the mayor, they put her in the back of a patrol car. Kate and Jake followed, listening to Mayor Strauss screaming that he would have their badges, as they backed out of his driveway.
"Why are the rich so..." Jake couldn't think of the word he wanted to use.
"Spoiled, obnoxious, and totally self-absorbed?" Kate supplied, following behind the patrol car that carried their suspect downtown. She parked in the garage under the headquarters building and followed Stella into the elevator that would take them to the interrogation rooms.
Kate took her into one of the rooms herself, a plain dingy rectangle of a room, a table bolted to the middle of the floor, four chairs pushed beneath it. The prerequisite two-way mirror was across from where she sat Stella, Aside from these few furnishings, and the window in the door, the room was bare.
"Can I get you some coffee while we wait for your lawyer to show up?"
Stella stared at Kate with a hostile expression. "No," she said briefly, and then stared out the small window in the door behind Kate.
"Okay, then this officer will keep you company while you wait. As soon as your counsel arrives, I'll bring him right in." Kate left, heading for the bullpen in Homicide, where her desk awaited her.
Forms needed filling out, files needed updating, and paperwork had to be completed so that when the lawyer did show up, everything would be dotted and crossed.
She never made it to her desk.
"CAMBRIDGE!"
Kate closed her eyes, wincing at the sound of her name. She plastered on a smile as she turned to greet the man who was looking at her with murder in his eyes.
"Hi Cap. You're in early." She looked behind him and saw Jake hurrying down the hall from the other direction.
"Fuck that. What is this I hear, you have the mayor's daughter in interrogation? Are you nuts?"
Captain Henry Bouchard, his arms waving in the air, paced the floor in front of Kate. "I just walked in, went to my desk and the mayor was on the phone. He wants your badges," he turned and saw Jake. "Both your badges, if not your heads too. So tell me why I shouldn't give them to him." He turned, his steel gray hair standing up on his head as if he'd been tugging at it. His tie was already crooked, the top button of his shirt undone.
"Cap, if we could go into your office..." Kate started to say.
"Damn straight. In my office, both of you, now!" He stormed away in front of them, muttering invectives.
Kate glanced at Jake and caught his look of warning. He waved her into the office in front of himself and followed her, shutting the door behind them.
The captain didn't offer them a seat and they didn't take one, standing in front of him like two school children in front of the principal. Kate resented the feeling, but she sucked it up and prepared to make her statement.
"Cap, I haven't had time to get back to you or to write up my reports yet tonight."
"Just tell me what we got. Jake, you're running point on this?" The captain stared hard at Jake.
"Uh, no, Cap. It's Kate's show. She was first on scene and she's been running point."
"So this is your fuck-up?" Captain Bouchard asked Kate.
Kate sent Jake a look of gratitude. She'd expected him to stand in front of her, to not let her take her knocks, but this was her show, and he'd backed off.
"Yes, sir, if you want to call it a fuck-up. Stella Strauss' fingerprints were found in the victim's apartment, sir, a place she swore to me, under oath, that she hadn't been." Kate stressed the fact that they had Mirandized the suspect. "That raises questions in my mind, sir. She also fought against having DNA taken. We found a vaginal contribution in the victim's underwear and also semen in the victim's sheets."
"Has any of this been run through the lab yet?" the captain asked, settling down behind his desk. He nodded both of them into the chairs in front of it.
"No sir. Cassie, from the crime lab, had just finished taking samples right before we transported Miss Strauss." Kate settled down a little now that the captain was listening instead of ranting. "The victim was poisoned first, using an insecticide that wouldn't be used in everyday gardening. Then he was shot, point-blank range. The pistol used hasn't been recovered as of yet, but I still have people hunting the grounds and checking the house."
"You brought her in on the strength of a fingerprint only?"
"Fingerprints, sir. Throughout the apartment, the bedroom, the bedside table. She's been in that apartment more than once."
Captain Bouchard sat and thought. He knew where she was leading, but they needed the evidence, and to get it, she needed what they had in the lab. "Okay," he said slowly, nodding his head. "I'll let you run with this. Jake, you're there also. I want you to stall, keep her busy until you can prove she was having sexual relations with the victim. You might be able to use that to pull more out of her."
Kate nodded, glancing over at Jake.
He cocked his head to the side and gave her that lopsided smile that tore pieces out of her heart. "Let's go get 'em," he said.
They went down to the bullpen, sitting at her desk and writing up reports. Kate called the lab, trying to hurry her tests through DNA.
They got word about an hour later that Stella's attorney had arrived.
"I'm surprised Cap gave us this long," Kate said as she pulled her file together and got ready for the interview.
"Yeah, I thought for sure the mayor would have been pounding down doors before finding an attorney at this time of night. I'm betting he thought he could browbeat the Captain into dismissing what we have." Jake picked up some paperwork of his own and grabbed the manila envelope that contained their crime scene photos.
Kate grabbed a cup of the noxious brew that passed for coffee that the pot in the bullpen put out, and headed down to interrogation. She felt the coursing of adrenaline that the chase of a suspect always brought out in her. She was revved for this interview.
She opened the door, noting that Stella's counsel was one of the highest paid attorneys in town. Of course, she hadn't expected any less, and she had been up against him before. The last time was when he was trying to get his scumbag client off on murdering his girlfriend with a piano wire. The man had the matching length of piano wire in his pocket at the time of the arrest.
In spite of his lack of discrimination in choosing clients, Calvin Trask was a good attorney, sharp, smooth, and quick. He checked all angles before making a move, knew his way around the courthouse, and had memorized the local scuttlebutt version of who's who of judges. He kept up on all the latest gossip as well as all the latest developments in the law.
And he worked his tail off when it came to making money.
"Calvin," Kate said in greeting when she walked into the interrogation room. She looked Stella over, noting that the wait hadn't been a pleasant one for her. Her hair was on disarray, and one of the buttons on her blouse looked as if she'd been pulling at it, the material bunched and stretched around it. She was nervous, though she was trying to hide it.
Kate put her file and coffee mug down on the table, pulling a chair out for herself. Jake sat next to her, handing her the manila envelope full of photos. They weren't planning on using what they had right now. It was just smoke, to make it look as if they had more.
"Did you change you mind on the coffee, Stella?" Kate asked solicitously. "Water? Anything?"
"Just for you to stop your nonsense and let me out of here," the small brunette said viciously. "I haven't done anything that deserves..."
"Stella," the slick attorney butted in. "Remember what I told you."
Stella crossed her arms in front of herself, and under her small breasts, and stared mutinously at Kate, who smiled back at her.
"You have nothing on my client to call for this trip, Detectives. And unless you can provide any evidence to the contrary, I'm going to advise my client to get up and leave."
"Your client is being held under suspicion of murder, counselor. She has been read her rights, and that's why you were brought in to begin with. She lied under oath, disclaiming any knowledge of the victim's apartment when her fingerprints were found throughout the place."
Calvin leaned over and whispered into Stella's ear, the one-sided conversation taking no more than thirty seconds. Stella shrugged and shifted her gaze towards Jake, her eyes raking over him before settling just over his shoulder.
"My client wishes to revise her statement. She was having an affair with Reginald Holton, an affair that she carried on behind her sister's back. That is why her fingerprints were found in the victim's home."
"Would you client also like to explain this to us?" Kate pulled out a sheet of paper that held some script writing on it. "This is a copy of a journal entry that we found in the victim's bedroom. His journal, the journal he used to keep track of his women and his schemes. And I quote:"
"She'll be over in a little while, that bitch. She thought she could stiff me. I'll show her. She doesn't want me going to Daddy, she'd better bring me the money and be ready to fuck me. Once you get her clothes off of her, she's one sweet little slut in the sack. Not as skinny as she looks either. Course she don't got the curves of her sister, Sarah. Or her momma, but she can really move those skinny hips."
"Do you have any other sisters, Stella?" asked Kate.
"All that proves is that Mr. Holton was blackmailing my client, for both sex and money. It proves that Miss Strauss is also nothing but a victim in all of this." Calvin leaned back in his chair, his hand going to Stella's shoulder, sympathy oozing from him like slime.
"What it does, Calvin, is show motive. Doesn't it, Stella? Did it piss you off, to have to sleep with a man you thought so far beneath you? To sleep with your sister's boyfriend, a man you considered scum? What was he holding over you? If there was blackmail involved, what was he going to tell your father about? I've got the crime lab over at Reggie's apartment right now, tearing the place apart. They'll find it, Stella. You know they will. Wouldn't it just be smarter for you to tell us now?"
"It wasn't like that..." Stella blurted out. "That bastard, he deserved..."
Calvin's hand clamped down hard on Stella shoulder.
"Yes?" Kate asked. "What did he deserve Stella? Did he deserve to die, to suffer for what he put you through?"
"I want a moment to confer with my client," Calvin spoke up, staring Stella in the eyes to keep her from speaking. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, waiting for her nod. When she did, he looked at Kate. "Is this all you have, some fingerprints that my client has explained, and the ramblings of a man whose addictions were well known?"
"Is that what your client is saying this is? A series of ramblings, something that Reggie just made up? You think he just made all of this up, Stella? And you expect me to believe that?" Kate put all the disbelief she could muster into her voice. "You have to be kidding me. Do you think I'm stupid Stella?" She pulled out the pictures of the crime scene, pictures of Reggie's body, close-ups of his face. "Next you're going to tell me he's sleeping here."
"You're badgering my client, and this interview is at an end." Calvin stood and grabbed Stella's arm to help her up.
"Your client shot a man at point-blank range in cold blood," Kate said, also standing.
"Are you charging her with murder?"
Kate slammed down the file folder on the table, making her empty coffee mug jump. "No, not yet," she said in disgust. She stared into Stella's eyes as the woman rose. "But I know that the evidence I need is there, Stella. When I find it, you'll be back here and I hope you'll be ready to talk."
Neither Stella nor Calvin spoke another word, simply rising and leaving the room, Calvin's hand on Stella's lower back. Kate waited until the door was closed before she whirled and kicked one of the chairs, sending it flying. "Dammit!"
Jake sat back, calmly studying his nails. "You didn't really expect her to jump up and admit to it, did you?"
Kate grabbed the chair she had kicked, spinning it around and straddling it, letting her forehead drop to rest against its back. "No," she grumped. "But it would have been nice."
He chuckled. "Yeah, it would have." Jake picked up his cup and drained the rest of the cold coffee from it. "So, what do you want to do next?"
Kate banged her forehead lightly against the metal back of the chair a couple of times and then looked up at him. "I want to hit the lab, see if they've gotten anything new they can give me. And then I want to go back out to the mayor's house. I want to look for that gun myself."
"You know, Kate, the mayor's going to blow sky high when he sees you again. He might even have a stroke."
"Yeah, well every dark cloud has a silver lining, right?" she grinned.
The struck out at downtown at the Crime lab, DNA was backed up, and Ballistics was tied up with another shooting across town. Discouraged, Kate grabbed a couple of flashlights and they headed back to the mayor's house.
The deputy outside the door greeted them with a smile. "He's not going to be happy to see you," he said to Kate as she signed herself in.
"Yeah, now tell me something I don't know." Kate knocked on the door, then rang the bell, waiting until it was finally answered. The mayor, dressed in a finely tailored, expensively cut suit, opened the door. When he saw Kate, he started to close the door, swore, and then swung the door open wide.
"This is close to harassment, you do know that, right?" he growled.
"No sir, Mayor Strauss. We're here to do another search of a crime scene, not to bother you or your family." Kate stepped past him, ignoring his scowl as she clicked on her flashlight.
She started at the dark red stain that marked where the body had lain. Using the flashlight, she peered inside every space she could think of that would be big enough to hide a gun. Soon she was crawling around on the floor, checking under furniture, looking inside fireplaces, going through trash cans already gone through by the crime scene techs.
Jake joined her, taking half of every room and going through it as thoroughly as Kate was herself.
They worked in silence, punctuated occasionally by the slamming of a cupboard door or a quietly hissed curse. They were almost finished with the ground floor when one of the uniforms came up to Kate.
"You've got a CSI here looking for you," he said quietly, sending a glance to where the mayor and his family sat gathered together. Sarah and Rod were sitting together on one small couch, and Amanda and Stella were in chairs flanking them.
"Send them in," Kate said, wiping her forehead with the back of a latex-covered hand.
Cassie came in smiling. "Does my heart good to see detectives in gloves with flashlights. Gives you a taste of my life," she said, laughing as Kate narrowed her eyes at her. "I figured good news is always happy news and you'd love to see this immediately. These are copies of the ones I sent to your desk." She held out a manila folder and Kate took it, eagerly opening it and scanning the contents.
"Cassie, I think I love you," she said, smiling and waving Jake over. She handed him the file and leaned close to Cassie. "You want to stay for the fireworks?"
"Want me to call in your backup?" Cassie replied.
She walked to the door while Kate and Jake peeled off their latex gloves. Jake held the file in his hands, reading as he walked. As they approached, Mayor Strauss stood, taking a step toward Kate.
"Are you satisfied yet?" he asked, his voice hostile. "You come into our house, question our children and interrupt our privacy. And you still have no idea who killed Reginald."
"Actually, sir," Kate said. "That isn't quite true. Reginald Holton was poisoned using a chemical insecticide that was found out in your garden shed. We recovered fingerprints off of that bottle and also off a glass that contained the poison and Mr. Holton's DNA. There were two sets of prints on the glass and one set on the bottle, besides those of the gardener."
Kate turned to Amanda Strauss. "Your prints, Mrs. Strauss. I'm putting you under arrest for the murder of Reginald Holton."
"Amanda?" Rodney Strauss stared at his wife in confusion.
"Not quite, Mayor." Kate took the file from Jake as an officer went to handcuff the mayor's wife.
"Mrs. Strauss's prints were a bit of a mystery. They came back, not as belonging to an Amanda Strauss, but to a Candace Stein from Little Rock, Arizona. She's wanted for fraud, grand theft auto and a number of other pesky little crimes. I guess we can add identity theft as well because the Amanda Gavin that she claimed to be, before you married her, Mayor, is a 91 year old great-grandmother in Witchita Falls, Texas."
The mayor, his legs giving out from under him, plopped down on the couch next to his daughter Sarah. His mouth was open, but no sound came out. He could only stare at the woman whom he had married five years earlier, who had been by his side since, a step-mother to his daughters, and clearly someone he didn't know at all.
Kate, her eyes never leaving Stella's face, wasn't done.
"Our lab did a test on the clothing that you were wearing at your Valentine's party last night. It checks for the presence of gun shot residue on hands or materials. We found such GSR on your clothing, Stella."
Stella just stared at her for a moment, her eyes inscrutable. Before Kate could move, she jumped up and knocked over a potted palm tree that was sitting in the corner. Reaching into the broken planter, she pulled out a 9 millimeter pistol and pointed it at Kate.
"You bitch!" she screamed, pulling the trigger.
Kate reached for her gun and felt an impact almost at the same time. She felt herself falling and wondered why there wasn't the pain she had always thought she would feel when she was shot. She wanted to look at Jake, to see him one last time if this was going to be the end. She hit the ground with a thud and laid there, hearing a loud groan, and then hearing more shots above her.
There was a scream, loud and blood curdling, and then the sound of running feet. Kate rolled, her hands feeling for the wound, confused when she couldn't find it. Then she looked and felt her blood turn cold.
"Jake?"
He was lying on his side, facing away from her, completely still. Kate felt a scream lodge in her throat. She crawled toward him, her hands touching him gently, carefully. "Jake? Please, God. Jake?" She rolled him toward her and saw the blood on his jacket, his eyes closed framed by a pale face. Her hand went to his throat, feeling for a pulse.
"Oh, thank you, God," she whispered as she felt it there, beating strongly under her fingers. She pulled his coat free, then his shirt, searching for his wound. High in his shoulder, a nasty ragged hole bled thickly. She pulled off her jacket and reached for the quilt that lay on the back of the couch just above them. Pulling it down, she laid it against the wound and pushed down hard, trying to staunch the flow of blood.
Jake moaned, pain breaking through his haze of unconsciousness. His eyes fluttered and he strained away from the hands that were poking at him. "No," he murmured, trying to push away the source of the prodding.
"Jake," Kate's voice stopped him. He found her kneeling over him, her bloody hands pushing some cloth at his shoulder and causing him the pain. "Jake, can you hear me?"
"Yeah," he said irritably. "You want to get off of me?"
"No," Kate said. "You're bleeding. We've got an ambulance on the way." She leaned closer. "You big idiot. Why'd you jump in front of me? Why'd you push me like that?"
He stared into her eyes, seeing the soft gold-green sheen, the slight mist of unshed tears. "Why do you think, Katie? I couldn't stand by and watch you get hurt, or worse."
Ambulances arrived, one loading Jake into the back, the other for Stella. She'd been shot twice by the other officers, once in the arm, and once in the shoulder. She'd live to stand trial for murder.
Kate followed the gurney bearing Jake to the ambulance.
"Where do you think you're going? You have a scene to take care of and a case to close." He tried to grin at her. "You don't think I'm doing the paperwork for this one, do you?"
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