The Undertaker's Widow Page 22

  Laura shook her head. "I stopped with my hand in the air. It was ... I don't know . . . like a light going on, like I was suddenly hearing something clearly that had only been a murmur. I realized how much pain you were in and that I was the cause of that pain. I asked myself what I wanted to happen to our marriage and I didn't know the answer to that question. That's why I flew to St. Jerome. I hoped that I could figure out how I really felt about us by being there with you, away from Portland and the law office and my work. I knew that there was something terribly wrong with our marriage and I wanted to try and cure it. But everything fell apart after I arrived."

  Laura stopped to collect herself. She was a person who kept her feelings to herself and Quinn could see how painful it was for her to reveal her emotions.

  "I was in Los Angeles on business on Wednesday and Thursday. Today, two detectives visited me at the office. They told me about the woman who was murdered at the Heathman. They wanted to know about the woman who disappeared on St. Jerome. They showed me pictures of the two of you on the beach.

  "I didn't understand where they were going, at first. The black detective, Dennis, is very smooth. When it became clear that they thought you might have killed the woman at the hotel, I had to make a decision. I asked myself if I truly believed that you could murder someone the way they said that poor woman was killed. I had to decide what type of person I married and I decided that you could never do that."

  "Laura, some other things have happened to me this past week that you don't know about. They explain why the woman at the hotel was murdered. I love you very much. The one thing I want more than anything in the world is for us to be together again. But I don't want to hide anything from you."

  Laura waited for Quinn to continue. The look of wariness on her face frightened Quinn. By the time he finished explaining about the blackmail attempt by the man in the ski mask, Claire Reston's visit to his chambers and the way he had decided the Crease case, her expression was unreadable.

  "After I suppressed the evidence, I prepared for the worst, but I never dreamed that the blackmailers would murder someone to frame me. I've been sick about it. The way that woman died ..."

  "Why didn't the blackmailers just carry out their threat and send the photographs to the authorities on St. Jerome?"

  "They couldn't, Laura. Andrea Chapman did not die on St. Jerome."

  "What?"

  "It was a hoax. The woman who posed as Andrea Chapman on St. Jerome and the woman who pretended to be Claire Reston were the same person, Marie Ritter, a Seattle call girl. Ritter has a distinctive scar on her hip. I saw it in the cove and I saw it on Reston's body in the hotel room. By killing Ritter, the blackmailer got rid of a witness at the same time that he set me up for her murder. Last night he tried to wrap everything up by killing me."

  Laura's eyes widened. "Fran told me that someone attacked you in the parking garage. I thought that was a robbery attempt."

  "The man who attacked me is the same man who broke into my apartment."

  "God, Dick. Do you have any idea who's behind this plot?"

  "Benjamin Gage has an aide who is an ex-SEAL. He'd have had no trouble faking the underwater murder on St. Jerome. But I talked to Marie Ritter's sister in Seattle. She told me that Marie had a customer who lives in Oregon. Denise didn't know his name, but she had the impression that he's young and he's an undertaker."

  "Lamar Hoyt's son."

  "Yes. And I've also learned that Junior and his father quarreled shortly before Hoyt's death because Senior believed that his son was skimming money from the mortuary business."

  "Then you think Junior is behind everything?"

  "'That's where the evidence seems to be pointing, but Lamar, Jr., and Ryan Clark are both the same size as the blackmailer and the man who attacked me in the garage."

  "Have you given this information to the police?"

  "No. I just learned the information about Lamar, Jr., tonight and I really can't prove that Junior knew Ritter. Marie never told Denise the name of her client. If Junior denies knowing Ritter, we can't prove he's lying."

  "And Hoyt's statements to Fargo are hearsay."

  Quinn closed his eyes and let his head fall back.

  "I don't know what I'm going to do, Laura."

  "One thing you are not going to do is give up," Laura said forcefully. "We are going to get through this."

  Quinn opened his eyes and he looked at his wife hopefully.

  "Does that mean that you want me back?"

  Laura reached out and took Quinn's hand.

  "I put up a good front, Dick, but I'm always scared. I've been scared since my parents divorced. Scared for years and years. Scared that I'll lose everything if I don't work harder than everybody. That I'll end up like my father."

  "I have a hard time picturing you failing at anything, Laura."

  "Our marriage almost failed, but I'm not going to let it. I do want you back. I want us to try to . . . to be together like we were when . . . when we first ..."

  Quinn took Laura in his arms before she could finish. Her body shuddered and so did his. Quinn stroked Laura's hair and kissed the top of her head. She raised her face and Quinn kissed her lips. The kiss was tentative at first, then they were sprawled on the carpet and Laura was opening Quinn s belt. Quinn broke away only for the brief time that it took them to struggle out of their clothes. Then they became a tangle of bodies, soft and hard, the kisses so eager that they both wondered if there would be anything left of them when they were through.

  After their first frenzied bout of lovemaking, Quinn and Laura gathered their clothes and went upstairs to the bedroom. The second time they made love it was less frantic and Quinn took his time renewing his acquaintance with a body that had become foreign to him. When they were sated, Quinn collapsed beside Laura. Her hand found his and she said, "I love you."

  "I never thought I'd hear you say that again."

  "Well, I have. I want our marriage to work, Dick. I want it more than I want anything else. No matter what happens from now on, I'm standing with you."

  [5]

  Benjamin Gage listened to the recording of Richard Quinn's meeting with Ellen Crease and Jack Brademas for a second time. When the minicassette stopped spinning, Ryan Clark turned off the tape recorder. Gage looked grim.

  "Can we use this?" Gage asked.

  "No. The recording was obtained illegally. We'd also be forcing Quinn to go public."

  "And he'd have to admit that he fixed Crease's case. She'd be discredited."

  "Maybe not. Quinn would say that the blackmailer wanted him to make sure that Crease was found guilty. Now that there is an alternative explanation for the blood spatter evidence, a lot of voters will conclude that she's been framed. I don't think we can afford to gamble. Not with you leading in all of the polls."

  "You're right." Gage picked up the minicassette. "Have there been more of these?"

  "One other. The information wasn't useful, but the intelligence on this cassette is certainly interesting."

  "Our man seems to be on top of things. Make sure he's taken care of. I want him working hard for us."

  Chapter 22.

  [1]

  When Lou Anthony arrived at work Saturday morning there was a message from Denise Ritter asking him to call. Ritter sounded nervous when the detective identified himself.

  "Something happened yesterday. I wasn't going to call, at first. I ... I don't want to get anyone in trouble. But I thought about Marie. That this might help find the person who killed her."

  "Finding your sister's killer is very important to me, Ms. Ritter. If you have information that might help, please tell me."

  "When you and Detective Dennis interviewed me you asked if Marie ever mentioned Richard Quinn. She didn't. She never said that she knew any judge."

  Denise Ritter hesitated. Anthony waited patiently for her to continue.

  "I hope I didn't do anything wrong, but I couldn't stop thinking about that question, so I calle
d Judge Quinn. He flew to Seattle yesterday evening."

  "Quinn flew up to see you?"

  "Yes."

  "What did you two talk about?"

  "Marie mostly. He told me how they met on St. Jerome . . ."

  "He knew that the woman in the photograph I showed you was your sister? The woman who was murdered at the Heathman?"

  "He seemed to know. Why?"

  "Nothing. It's not that important. Go on."

  "I did tell Judge Quinn one thing that I didn't tell you. That's why I'm calling. I thought about it all night. Judge Quinn seemed to think it was important, so I decided that you should know, too."

  "What is it that you think I should know?"

  "The judge asked me if Marie had any clients from Portland. I told him that Marie didn't tell me the name of any of the men she had been with, but she did tell me that one of them lived in Oregon. The only reason I remembered what Marie said was because he had an odd job. She said he was an undertaker."

  Anthony and Ritter talked for a few more moments. The detective was thanking her when Leroy Dennis strolled over to Anthony's desk. Anthony waved him into a seat, finished with Ritter and hung up.

  "The person on the phone was Denise Ritter. She called to tell me that Judge Quinn flew up to Seattle yesterday and pumped her about her sister's background."

  "No kidding?"

  "No kidding. She also told me that Quinn knew that Andrea Chapman and Claire Reston were the same person. But that's not the most important thing Denise told me. It seems that one of her sister's customers was an undertaker from Oregon."

  "Whoa.'*

  "Yeah, whoa."

  "What are you thinking, Lou?"

  "What if Junior learned that his father was going to marry Karen Fargo and alter his will in her favor? Steve Appling said that the two Lamars had a pretty bad argument shortly before the murder. Maybe that's when Junior discovered Senior's plan."

  "So you think Junior may have hired Jablonski to kill his father?"

  "And Crease. With both of them dead, he would inherit everything. But Jablonski screwed up and got himself killed, so Junior's plan failed. Then Crease was arrested and Junior had a second chance. If Crease was convicted of hiring Jablonski to kill her husband she couldn't benefit from the will. I think Junior used Ritter to blackmail Judge Quinn."

  "Damn, you may be right."

  "It would certainly explain the way Quinn is acting. Those photographs scream blackmail, Leroy."

  "And Denise Ritter has just supplied the link between Junior and her sister," Dennis answered thoughtfully. Then he frowned. "But there are problems with your scenario, Lou."

  "Such as?"

  "Jablonski for one. He was in prison for a long time. When he was out, he wasn't running in Junior's circle. How did they meet?"

  "I don't know, but I'm gonna nail Junior's ass as soon as I find out."

  "And another thing," Dennis continued. "Until you learned about this possible connection between Marie Ritter and Hoyt, you thought Crease killed her husband."

  "She still could be good for it," Anthony answered grudgingly. "That blood spatter evidence bothers the hell out of me."

  "Exactly. And don't forget Judge Quinn. If Ritter was blackmailing him, he'd have a powerful motive to kill her."

  Anthony sighed. "I have to admit that I've been really pissed at Quinn since he accused me of lying, but I have a hard time seeing him as Ritter's killer."

  "Quinn has been acting like a man with something to hide."

  "No doubt about that. The judge flat out lied about knowing Ritter and he continued to lie after being confronted with the pictures, but I still don't make Quinn for the Ritter killing. Any man can commit murder under the right circumstances. Ritter threatens to ruin Quinn, go to his wife, go to the press. Quinn hits her in a rage. One moment of passion, one dead woman. But that isn't what we have here. Marie Ritter was raped and systematically tortured. My gut tells me that Quinn couldn't kill her like that."

  "So you think that the judge is concealing information about the murder because he's being blackmailed?"

  "That's the only way I can explain the way the judge has been acting. Quinn definitely saw those pictures before we showed them to him at the Heathman. He almost peed his pants when he saw them, but he didn't ask a single question about where they came from or how we got them. And why else would he be playing detective in Seattle? I think he's trying to figure out who killed Ritter himself."

  Dennis thought about what Anthony had just said. His brow furrowed. Then Dennis shot up in his seat.

  "Hot damn. If someone did use those pictures to blackmail Quinn it might be our lucky break."

  "I don't follow you."

  "If Junior was the blackmailer he would have ordered Quinn to fix the case so that Crease would be convicted."

  Anthony frowned. "Quinn rigged the case for Crease."

  "Right."

  "That puts us back to square one again with Crease as the main suspect."

  "Not necessarily. I've been checking on Quinn. Everybody says that the man's a saint, and I mean everybody. Real high principles. Look at the way he sent that Eugene judge to jail. Everyone was betting that he'd give him probation. It's possible that the blackmailer ordered Quinn to make certain that Crease was convicted and Quinn just couldn't do it."

  "So where does that leave us?"

  "I think the key to identifying the blackmailer is finding out what Quinn was told to do, not what he really did. And to do that, we've got to ask the judge."

  [2]

  On Saturday morning, Quinn and Laura slept until nine-thirty. They decided to visit Frank Price at the hospital. After that Quinn would go to the courthouse. He had put his decision to resign on hold, but he still had to prepare the memos on his cases so he could take time off.

  Quinn was washing the breakfast dishes when the doorbell rang. Laura looked up from the paper when her husband walked to the door. Quinn peered through the peephole. Lou Anthony and Leroy Dennis were standing on the welcome mat.

  "Good morning, Judge," Dennis said. "May we come in?"

  "What's this about?" Quinn asked warily.

  Dennis glanced at Laura. He looked uncomfortable.

  "Maybe we should talk in private, Judge."

  "I have nothing to hide from my wife."

  Dennis hesitated. "Some of the questions we're going to ask . . . The subjects are delicate."

  "I repeat. I have nothing to hide from my wife."

  Quinn led the detectives into the living room.

  "What do you want to know?" he asked when they were all seated.

  "Denise Ritter called me this morning and told me about your trip to Seattle," Anthony said. "What were you doing up there?"

  "She called me. She said that she wanted to talk to me about her sister."

  "So you hop a jet and fly to Seattle?"

  Quinn did not respond.

  "Why didn't you tell me that Andrea Chapman and Claire Reston were the same person when we were at the crime scene?"

  "I only suspected that the two women were the same when I saw the dead woman at the hotel. I wasn't certain. I was pretty upset."

  "I remember," Dennis said, "and I can't believe that you want the person who tortured Marie Ritter to death to get away with it."

  "I don't."

  "That's not the way you're acting," Dennis said.

  "We think that you have information that will help us identify Marie Ritter's killer," Anthony told Quinn.

  "We're counting on your decency, Judge," Dennis said. "We're counting on you coming through for us."

  "What is this information that you believe I have?"

  "I'm gonna put my cards on the table," Anthony told Quinn. "We have evidence that points to a suspect other than Senator Crease. You know who I'm talking about. Denise Ritter told you that her sister had a customer from Oregon who was an undertaker. If Lamar Hoyt, Jr., is the customer, he becomes suspect number one.

  "Now we come to you
, Judge. I've been on the losing side of motions before. Hell, everyone screws up. But no judge has ever accused me of intentionally lying under oath. When I calmed down I asked myself why you did what you did. It was a mystery, until we found those pictures of you and Ritter. Then everything fell into place."

  "Lou and I are certain that you were blackmailed to fix Ellen Crease's case," Dennis said, feeling vindicated by the swift shift of emotions on Quinn's face. "What we need to know is whether the blackmailer wanted you to acquit Crease or convict her. We figure that Junior would have asked you to make certain that Crease was convicted. If Senator Crease was blackmailing you, she would want you to fix the case so that she couldn't be convicted."

  "So there it is, Judge," Anthony told Quinn. "If you tell us that the blackmailer wanted you to convict Ellen Crease, we'll concentrate on Lamar Hoyt, Jr. If you tell us that you were ordered to acquit Crease, we'll go to the D. A. with that."

  "And you'll ask Cedric Riker to move to set aside Dick's order on the grounds that it was obtained by fraud," Laura told Anthony.

  "Yes, ma'am," he answered without hesitation. "We'd have to."

  "That would expose my husband to disbarment, criminal charges and disgrace."

  "There is no way around that."

  "Of course," Dennis said quickly, "we could work out something with the criminal charges."

  "Like the Eugene Police did with Frederick Gideon?" Laura said.

  Dennis blinked.

  "Detectives," Laura said, "my husband won't answer any more of your questions without consulting an attorney."

  Dennis and Anthony sagged.

  "Laura," Quinn started.

  "Listen to me on this, Dick."

  Quinn wanted to talk to the detectives, but he realized that Laura was right.

  "I appreciate the way you've handled this case and the consideration you've shown me," Quinn told the detectives. "I'm not ruling out our talking further. But you know how serious a decision this is for me."