Murder on the Bucket List (5 page)

“Actually,” he said, “I'd like to have a copy of that list.”

Charlotte aimed a triumphant smile at her.

Alice reached out a hand to Francine. “Would you come to see Friederich's garage with us? I don't want to be the only woman along.”

“Of course,” she replied, knowing without looking that Charlotte had dropped the smile and was fuming with jealousy. But she knew she'd be questioned later.

Jud frowned at the idea.

“You don't mind, do you?” asked Alice.

“As I said before,
it's your building. Do you want to leave the house open like this while you're gone, though?”

Toby stuck up his hand like he needed permission to volunteer an answer. “We could lock up the house and let people in through the privacy fence gate. It means people would be walking over the grass, but we wouldn't have to turn the neighbors away.”

“That's a great idea,” Alice said, sounding relieved. “Everyone'd be mad if they didn't get a chance to look, but I do want them out of my house.” She turned and called upstairs. “Joy, just let the phones go to voicemail! You can catch up with any messages later. I need you to help Charlotte with the tours.”

For a moment, there was no response. “Do I have to? The Associated Press is on the phone.”

“Tell them the same thing you just told Rovers, or whoever it was. No statements.”

Joy stuck her head out of the entrance to the study. “Okay. I'll be down in a minute.”

“And she is doing what?” Jud asked.

“She's my press secretary today. She was a secretary for Lilly Endowment and used to draft press releases for them sometimes.”

Charlotte eyed the uniformed policeman with Jud. “Is he here to help? Because we could use him. If he can manage the gate, Toby can start giving tours, too, and with Joy working, that'll triple our productivity.”

The policeman looked at Jud, who rolled his eyes. “We live to serve,” Jud said. He looked at the others. “Let's go.”

five

Francine had no idea
that Larry owned the old white brick building along Adams Street. It was virtually unnoticeable, one that had been around so long it faded into the mixed-use downtown neighborhood. On the opposite corner was the new Brownsburg Public Safety Building, and next to it were an old two-story apartment and a small vacant lot. Before Larry bought the building, it was probably some kind of machine shop. A few parking spots were in front, but weeds had grown up through the asphalt and the yellow lines delineating the parking spots had faded. There was a double door opening that let out onto the front parking lot, but the doors had no way of being opened from the outside. Along with the boarded-up windows, they gave the appearance the place had been abandoned.

Alice pulled her Cadillac STS behind the building using a narrow alleyway. There were two spots in the rear, far away from the busy Public Safety building, where a car could park and a person could access the building without being seen from the street. The door in the back was fairly new and in good repair. It had two locks and a security camera mounted above the door. Jud got out of his police car, and Francine, Jonathan, and Alice got out of the Cadillac. They entered at the north end.

The interior of the building stood in direct contrast to the exterior. Inside was a pristine auto mechanic's workshop. Immediately to the left of the door were a large number of tools, exotic-looking machines, and what appeared to be testing equipment. Farther beyond was an open space that held two engines and two midget cars. The cars were hovering about a foot off the floor, so Francine concluded there must be stands underneath them. Everything was spread over a shiny floor with a bright blue finish. From one end to the other was probably forty feet, but it was narrower across, maybe twenty-five feet wide. Francine didn't know a working garage could be so clean.

Jonathan saw her staring at the floor. “This is Armorclad epoxy coating,” he said, bending down and running his hand across it. “Beautiful, really. Friederich had it installed.”

Jud took a few steps into the garage and looked up at the ceiling. He pointed to a dome mounted about a quarter of the way into the space. “Can either of you tell me about the video surveillance system?”

Alice and Jonathan looked at each other. “I don't know a thing about it,” Alice said. She sounded testy.

“I think we should wait for Larry,” Jonathan said.

Jud cleared his throat. “Catching a killer means moving quickly. We don't know exactly how long Mr. Guttmann has been dead, but the longer we wait to investigate, the more difficult the case becomes. And you said Larry wanted you to cooperate with us.”

“I'm certain we have nothing to worry about,” Alice told Jona
than.

“Okay. Larry bought a four-camera security system that has two exterior cameras with infrared night vision. One is by the back door and one is out front. The two indoor cameras,” he said, pointing to the dome Jud had noted earlier, “are less noticeable and mounted on the ceiling.”

They all looked straight up. The small black dome above Francine's head hugged the bare ceiling in an area between two sprinkler heads. After studying the ceiling across the room, she spotted the second one.

“Where is the video recorded?” Jud asked.

“On a personal computer.”

“What about storage? Does he save all the video?”

“Larry's told me he downloads the data once a month to an external hard drive.”

“So this computer would have some of the most recent video? I'd like to take a look at it.”

“I don't know where he keeps the computer, and I don't know the access codes. Only Larry can give you that.”

Jud nodded. “Let's get him on the phone. I'd like to see if he'll do that for us.”

“We can try,” Alice said. “I'm not sure where he's going to be today. He said he had meetings. But I'm sure he'll call us right back.” She got out her cell phone.

Jonathan wandered over to the two midget cars on the stands. Each was about ten feet long and five feet wide. Compared to a real car, a midget car looked like a skeleton with an exposed tubular frame on the outside. As its name implied, it was also short. Jonathan would have to squat low and compact himself to get into the seat.

Francine followed him over. “How much do you know about Friederich?” she asked quietly.

“He was a sought-after mechanic for midget cars, but after he helped Jake Maehler advance to the NASCAR circuit, he never worked with any one driver exclusively again. He kept his hand in the business, though. Supposedly he had the magic touch.” He examined one of the midget cars, mallard green with decals on it. “Jake's number is fifty-one,” he added, touching the car. It moved. “These must be rolling stands.”

“How did Jake get the money to pay someone like Friederich?”

“I'd say their relationship was more like protégé and teacher. Jake was Friederich's project. Friederich got paid, but not at the rate he could command now. He was a great mechanic and Jake a great driver. They sort of made each other what they are today.”

“Why didn't Friederich move over to NASCAR with Jake?”

“Jake got on at one of the big teams. They have their own mechanics.”

“Was Friederich upset?”

Jonathan shrugged. “I doubt it. Both of them knew what would happen when Jake finally got a chance to move up.”

Living in the Indianapolis area, Francine had been exposed to racing for a long time. She knew the difference between an Indycar race, like the Indianapolis 500, and a stock car race, like the Brickyard 400. They got all the attention. But other kinds of racing, like sprints, midgets, and Silver Crown, still baffled her. She knew Jake had appeared at the Night Before the 500 midget car race in May and would be at the SpeedFest midget car race on Thursday. “If Jake is driving for a NASCAR team, why is he back racing midgets? Wouldn't that be below him?”

“Not at all. Race drivers love competition. But from what I hear, this is all about redemption. Jake hasn't won a race in so long he's afraid he's already washed up at twenty-three. He needs to get back to winning. The Night Before the 500 race was supposed to show he could still win a race—any race. Except he didn't. He came in fifth. Car-related issues. He's back for SpeedFest and he's got something to prove.”

Francine pointed to the number on the green midget car. “And Friederich was working for him again?”

Jonathan nodded. “Part of the getting the magic back. Jake publicly blew up at Friederich after his car mishandled during the last race and he quickly dropped from first to fifth, but they reconciled.”

“So these cars must belong to Jake.”

“One does, at least.” He pointed to the lack of a number on the other car body. “Not too sure about that one.”

Francine examined the second car. It was painted a matte black and looked very ordinary without a number or the logos of sponsoring companies. “Did Friederich have another client?”

Alice came over before Jonathan had a chance to answer. “Larry says he's in a conference and can't talk, so I sent him a text message. Here's what he sent back. He said you would understand.”

She handed Jonathan the cell phone. He read the text and handed it back to her. “If that's what he wants.”

Jud stood next to Alice. “So, can you access the footage for me?”

He blew out a breath. “Yes, I can. Follow me.”

They walked to a corner of the shop where Friederich had placed his clean-up tools. Jonathan moved a Shop-Vac out of the way and knelt on one knee. First he felt around the floor, which looked solid. Then he ran his hand over the tiles on the corner walls, going out about three feet along the side. One of the tiles had a black smudge. Jonathan focused on the tile. He pressed the smudge and the tile popped back.

“This is a false wall,” he said. He swung the tile away on its hinge, stuck his hand in the opening, and felt around. “Here it is.” He pulled on a latch and a section of the wall about five feet tall by three feet wide opened like a door with the tools still hanging on it.

Alice gasped.

Francine stared in disbelief. It wasn't just that Larry had hidden the system, it was how he had hidden it. And was this really her husband doing this cloak-and-dagger stuff ?

Three shelves had been built into the narrow, closet-like space, only about two feet deep. The computer tower was on the bottom shelf and above it was the monitor. Jonathan switched it on and the display came to life. “Let's see what we've got.”

A minute passed while he negotiated his way around the security screens until he could access the cameras. He clicked on one of the outside cameras and the back parking lot filled the screen. Francine knew it was current time because she could see Alice's Cadillac and Jud's squad car sitting there.

“Can you run it back to last week?” Jud asked.

“Maybe,” he said reluctantly. “This doesn't seem to be a very intuitive menu.”

“I've worked with similar systems. Mind if I take over?”

Jonathan shrugged. “Alice, it's your call, not mine.”

“Please continue,” she said. “I'm fascinated. I never knew any of this was here.” She seemed ticked that Larry had kept her in the dark about this.
He'll have some explaining to do,
Francine thought.
Jonathan too.

Jud located the menu that had the various days on it. It went back to Thursday afternoon. After clicking around, the detective turned and put his hands on his hips. He looked at Alice. “Either your husband downloaded the video feed to an external hard drive on Thursday or someone who had access to this computer erased everything that came before it.”

“I'm trusting he just downloaded it,” she said.

“So am I. But let's see what we've got from that point.” Using the mouse, he divided the screen into four sections, one for each camera, and called up the feed from Thursday afternoon and Friday. He started the video going. For a long time there was video feed but no action. “If there's a motion detector on this system, Larry doesn't seem to be using it.” Jud ran the video at the fastest speed possible until something happened. On Saturday afternoon a truck with a utility trailer hitched to it pulled into the front parking lot. The truck backed up the trailer to the double doors. A young man got out.

“That's Jake Maehler,” Alice said.

Jake eased the drop-down gate to the concrete so that it formed a ramp up to the trailer. He went around back, unlocked the door, and went to the where the midget cars were located. This time there were four cars, not two, each on a set of rolling stands. Two of the midget cars were emblazoned with Jake's number, 51, and two were unmarked. Using the stands, Jake pushed the first of his cars out the double doors at the front of the building and up the ramp onto the trailer. He secured the car on the bed and then raised the gate, locked up the workshop, and drove off.

Just two days ago
, Francine thought.
And that's the day the police think Friederich disappeared
.

“So Jake took one of the cars,” Jud said. “Let's see what happened to the other.”

At ten o'clock that night, the outside cameras went dark. The situation reversed itself shortly after midnight. Jud ran it back and forth a couple of times. The inside cameras were still recording, but the outside ones showed nothing. “Interesting,” he said. “I wonder what happened outside. But the three race cars are still inside.”

He continued to run the playback. Just twenty minutes later, the feed from the front outside camera blanked. Jud slowed it to real time. One by one, each of the other cameras blanked. The monitor showed nothing for awhile, and Jud fast-forwarded again. Roughly fifty minutes later, the feed returned all at once. This time an unmarked car was gone. Jud fast-forwarded it again, but there was no more interruption of the video. He checked today, Monday, up to the present
time. The video cameras were all operational, and other than daylight passing, the video showed no change. No one pulled into the parking lot and no one entered the workshop.

He turned off the monitor. “A two-hour outside shutdown late Saturday night followed by a fifty-minute gap inside and outside early Sunday morning. The missing unmarked midget car was removed during the gap.”

“Who did that, and how did they do it?” Francine asked.

He turned to her. “You're leaping to the conclusion that the same person did them both. It may be likely, but we have to keep an open mind.”

“The unit came with a remote that enabled Larry to shut down one or more of the cameras,” Jonathan said. “But he kept it secure.”

The detective cocked an eyebrow. “Just how secure did he keep it?”

“Larry is very good about things like that.” He ran a finger over his lips in thought. “However, remotes operate on radio frequencies, don't they? Someone
could
have figured out the frequency by trial and error.”

Francine knew he was trying to think up ways Larry could be innocent. “When did Larry leave for Las Vegas?” she asked Alice, trying to help. “It was Friday, wasn't it?”

Alice fidgeted before she answered. “Yes, he left very early on Friday. I dropped him off at the airport. He would have been in Las Vegas when the cameras were tampered with.”

“I suppose someone could have figured out the frequency of the remote,” Jud mused. “It would take awhile, but it could be done. I need two things. I need this computer, and I need access to Larry's backed-up video files.”

“Let me get hold of him again,” Alice said.

Jonathan placed his hand over her smartphone before she could text. “Could I talk to you privately for a moment?” He took hold of her elbow and guided her across the room.