Copp On Ice, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) (23 page)

      
"Did she know about the child abuse?"

      
"I guess not."

      
"How did you get to it?"

      
"It just popped out while I was talking to Kelly one day. I was very cautiously probing for information on Katz.

Don't even know what it was I said to open her up. Just all of a sudden she was bawling and telling me this horrible story. I had to believe it, Joe."

      
"How long have you been working with the councilman?"

      
"How'd you know that?"

      
"1 didn't, until just now. Put it together. He let it drop that he had a 'man' in the department. That was cute. Unless there are more than one working with him. How'd that come about?"

      
"I approached him. I knew that he had a very low opinion of the chief and was trying to oust him. We had that in common. So I had a talk with him. We've been sharing information, that's all."

      
"So then you went to Murray."

      
"Yes. This will sound melodramatic but it was actually very scary. I worked it like a double agent, told Murray that I had been approached by Calhoun, and what should I do?"

      
"This was when?"

      
"The day before Murray was fired."

      
"You had a hand in that?"

      
"I'd like to think so but, no, I guess not. One of Katz's old pals on the council suddenly switched sides to vote Murray out. That really stunned him. Murray, I mean. He had sort of put me on hold when I first approached him. After he was fired, he called mc and told me that he would like to continue our friendship. We met at least once a day every day after that."

      
"You were doing what for him?"

      
"Feeding him information, he thought, about Calhoun's plans and strategies, also spreading disinformation, he thought, to the Calhoun camp."

      
"Where did you usually meet?"

      
"We usually met at the mansion. That was considered safer than a public place. And of course he was persona non grata at the police department, or anywhere around city hall."

      
"So the story you fed me about. . . how you happened to be invited to the mansion Friday night. .."

      
"Yes, I had to lie about that, Joe. I didn't know you from the bogey man."

      
"But you gave me a great rating with Calhoun."

      
"I don't know what you're talking about. I have not discussed you with the councilman."

      
"Sure you haven't?"

      
"I'm sure I haven't."

      
"So you'd had your own gate pass for the mansion since when?"

      
"For about a month."

      
"Uh huh. Did you disinform me also about your knowledge of Lydia Whiteside?"

      
"Yes. Actually, I've been cultivating Lydia also. Now there's a number for you. The most truly amoral person I have ever known. Can you handle another cramp in the gut?"

      
"Let's try it and see."

      
"She has been getting it on with Kelly Murray. For quite a long time, I gather. Also with Kelly's father, also with Harvey Katz, and every now and then in a romp with all of them together."

      
"How do you know this, Lila?"

      
"I heard it first from Kelly."

      
"First?"

      
"Uh huh. Then I heard it straight from Lydia herself. She confided to me that she was bisexual, liked it both ways, wondered if I'd ever tried both ways. One thing led to another. I heard enough to confirm Kelly's story."

      
"Are you bisexual?"

      
"Me? God, no. And Lydia was after me, boy, let me tell you. That was the hardest part of the whole thing, trying to fend her off without actually shutting her off completely. I learned a lot from Lydia."

      
"Did you learn a lot from Murray?"

      
"Not much, no, just enough to keep my curiosity whetted. Yes. He tried to paw me too. I let him, up to a point. Always managed to find a graceful exit at the crucial point. But, boy, that was tough, too."

      
"What did you learn from Lydia?"

      
"Well, there is no Harold Schwartzman."

      
"Uh huh."

      
"You already knew it?"

      
"Guessed it."

      
"The whole thing is a scam. I didn't know that for sure until last night. They started this as—"

      
"So you were back up there last night. The mansion, I mean."

      
"Yes, I was up there. I saw Lydia. She met me at the gate. She—"

      
"At the gate? What time was this?"

      
"About ten o'clock. She was in a terrible tizzy. I had called her and said that I wanted to come up. She seemed very upset, told me that she would wait for me at the gate."

      
"This was last night, now, the night that she died."

      
"Yes. Saturday night. I left Arrowhead shortly behind you. I—"

      
"Why?"

      
"Because I felt much better about everything after. . . after we'd been together. I went up there scared as hell, Joe. People were dying all around me and I still didn't know the good guys from the bad. But I guess you. . .

reinvigorated me or something. I had to get back into it."

      
"So you called Lydia and she met you at the gate. Did you go on inside then?"

      
"No. She had a visitor, in her apartment. I believe it was Kelly Murray. I believe Kelly was freaking out, and Lydia didn't want me to hear what was going on. She needed to talk to me too, though, and that's why she had me come up."

      
"What did she want to talk to you about?"

      
"She wanted to know how Tim Murray had died."

      
"She could have gotten that from the newspaper."

      
"Yes, but she wanted the real inside story. I gave it to her, as I knew it, and I had to cross my heart and hope to die three times before I could satisfy her. I was there at the gate for maybe five minutes. Then I went looking for you."

      
"Why?"

      
"Well, I. . . still wasn't sure about things. Okay, sure about you. I wondered if you had killed Murray, Joe."

      
"Come on, why would I do that?"

      
"You said you'd come to kick butts."

      
"Well, sure, but I'm no executioner or vigilante."

      
"How would I have known what you were? Outside of bed, I mean."

      
"You'd checked me out. You told Calhoun that I would cut corners but respect the spirit of the law."

      
"There you go again. I told you I have not discussed you with the councilman."

      
"You did not go back to the mansion again at eleven o'clock?"

      
"No."

      
"You did not go inside, visit Lydia in her apartment?"

      
"No."

      
"Then I wonder who did. Another woman came at eleven. Lydia alerted the security guard, told him to pass her through. Who would that be?"

      
"I haven't the foggiest..."

      
"What was said during that final talk you had with Lydia that confirmed in your mind that Schwartzman does not exist?"

      
"Lydia as much as told me so. She said that with Katz and Murray gone, there was no one now but her and she would be the next to die."

      
"That's where you picked up that phrase."

      
"Uh huh, it just sort of fell out, I was repeating Lydia's words. I sort of halfway believed it. About myself, I mean. Why not? They were dropping like flies all around me."

      
"Did you kill a dog Friday night?"

      
"Yes."

      
"Why did you change your story?"

      
"I don't know, except that I became confused and scared. I had already opened the gate and was about to step through when I heard the dog behind me. He was in attack mode, I knew it just from the sound of him. I had my gun in my hand. I whirled and shot him three times. Then I jumped in my car and got the hell away from there."

      
"Did you tell Murray about that?"

      
"No. I didn't want him to know I'd been sneaking around up there."

      
"He knew you had a passkey."

      
"Of course. He gave it to me a month ago."

      
"Why do you think Frank Jones was killed?"

      
"God, I don't know, Joe. I didn't see him that night. But something very important was going on up there Friday night. I believe now that it was a council of war."

      
"Who do you think was in charge of that?"

"Well, it was not Tim Murray. I went straight from the mansion to Helltown. He was there when I got there."

      
"How many cops are involved in this?"

      
"I couldn't give you numbers. But there are a lot involved, to one degree or another. That's a sex club up there, Joe. It may have started as something else, but it's definitely a sex club now. I believe they bring the girls in from Helltown. Lydia was complaining once about the high cost of some of those parties. But I think it might have started as something else."

      
"Like what?"

      
"Well. . . for an educated guess ... a very fancy and very elaborate sting palace, a place to wine and dine and entertain highly placed people in the drug distribution networks."

      
"Also a place, maybe, to buy and sell?"

      
"Why not? Or to set up buys somewhere else."