Swan Song (Julie O'Hara Mystery Series) (19 page)

“Yes, I do,” said Julie. “I understand that he bought them at the top of the bubble and built two high-end homes.”

“Yes, and then the market collapsed and Mike lost everything. You have to
know
Mike to understand what I’m about to say, Julie. He’s the kind of man who can’t admit having made a mistake and losing. He couldn’t let it go. He blamed the seller of the lots and the seller’s agent, Bay Street Realty…and more specifically, Dianna Wieland. He really hated her; he accused her of conspiring with the appraiser, too.

“The thing is…the thing that’s bothering me is…I’m not a hundred percent
sure
that Mike was at my house the night…or the morning...when Dianna died.”

Sabrina ignored her food. Her elbows were on the table, her head forward, her eyes closed.

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

A lot of self conflict.
She loves Mike Menello…some kind of predicament.

“What makes you uncertain?”

“I take strong sleeping pills for insomnia and I have a huge bed. The mattress was very expensive; I paid a lot of money so that I wouldn’t feel so much as a
ripple
on my side if someone jumped up and down on the other. The truth is that I really wouldn’t have known if Mike left for a few hours and came back.”

“But why would you suspect him of doing something like that?

“Because he did it
before
,” said Sabrina, sighing. “I woke up one night and he was
gone
, Julie. The next morning he said he had a headache and he’d gone out looking for a drugstore that was open; he said he needed Excedrin Migraine, which I didn’t have. I believed him…until I thought about it some more.”

“Perhaps he
did
go to the drugstore,” said Julie.

“No…I’m sure now that he didn’t.”

Sabrina was running her hand through her hair, unconsciously massaging her head.

The stress is huge…she’s trying to relieve it. C’mon, just get it out, Sabrina.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because he left the house in the middle of the night
again
…and I followed him.”

“Where did he go?” asked Julie, intrigued.

“To Lake Eola…well, not actually to the lake, although he parked in Eola Park Center.”

Sabrina looked up at Julie almost apologetically. Clearly, she knew the significance of that.

“He didn’t go to the Lake,” said Sabrina. “He went to a restaurant, a
closed restaurant
, the Mint Julep.
Somebody let him in
and I just don’t know what to make of it.”

“What time was that?”

“It was sometime after one in the morning,” said Sabrina.

“When did he come out?”

“He
didn’t
. I stayed, driving around like a crazy person, until three. Then I gave it up and went home. I was exhausted but I knew I’d never get to sleep, so I cut one of my pills in half and took it. When I woke up at half-past nine, he was in bed…snoring.”

Julie sat quiet for awhile, mulling over this strange turn of events. She thought about Mike
Menello, as he’d been described to her by Joe, Lee Porter and Sabrina…and she developed a hypothesis.

“While Mike’s behavior is suspicious, Sabrina, and it might put him in the area at the time Dianna died…it
doesn’t
necessarily mean that he had anything to do with it. The important thing here is to get to the truth. Now, listen,” she said, “I’m going to tell you what I think is happening, and I’m going to ask you to trust me. We need to get you off the hook on the matter of this alibi
without letting Mike know
that you followed him or you talked to me
, all right?”

Sabrina leaned forward with rapt attention.

* * * * * 

Chapter 44

“H
ow long has he been gone?” said Joe Garrett.

“About ten minutes. He left at half-past twelve.”

“All right, Sabrina. Thank you for calling me; you’re doing the right thing.”

“I hope so. You’ll let me know what
happens?”

“Absolutely.
As soon as I can.”

“Okay…bye.”

“Bye,” said Joe, clicking off and immediately dialing another number.

“Ahem…this is McPhee,” said the police detective, clearing his throat.

“Hi. It’s Joe Garrett. Mike Menello left Nolen’s house in Windsor Place ten minutes ago.”

“Okay. We’ll give him a little time. You want to come along?”

“No, but I appreciate the invite. Merlin and I need to keep a low profile here. Menello knows that we talked to Sabrina before. We don’t want him to know that she’s the snitch.”

“No problem,” said McPhee. “I’ll keep her name out of it.”

“Good, thanks. Bye.”

“Thank
you,”
said McPhee.

Joe clicked off and speed-dialed Julie.

“Hello?”

Her voice was soft with sleep, and Joe could picture her curled up in her bed.

“Sorry to wake you, Julie. I wanted to let you know that Sabrina called and it’s going down in a half-hour or so.”

“Oh, that’s good, Joe. I’m glad he finally went out; poor Sabrina hasn’t gotten any sleep for a week. When will we know?”

“I suppose McPhee will call me tomorrow sometime.”

“Okay…that’s good. You must be tired, too. Get some sleep, Joe.”

“I will, honey. See you in the morning.”

They hung up.

Julie was right; Joe was dead-tired. He could hear his bed calling his name. He’d been staying up late all week waiting for Sabrina’s call, afraid he might not hear the phone.

He stood up, and headed for the bedroom, yawning.

Well, it’s in McPhee’s hands now.

•

Two days later there was an article in the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper:

Police Raid Illegal Poker Room

By John Greeley

Early Wednesday morning, the Orlando Police Department raided an illegal poker room in the Mint Julep restaurant in Downtown Orlando. A source at the OPD suggested that there were several of these clubs in the city and that police were going undercover to bust them all.

The club at the Mint Julep was operating several nights per week from midnight until four in the morning to avoid detection. The poker room had sophisticated security in place to keep uninvited visitors away, but that didn’t stop an undercover police officer from gaining access and signaling the SWAT team.

WESH News was on scene to capture the bust. Twelve people, all dealers and their bosses, were taken into custody during the raid and charged with organized crime. Other employees and players will be subpoenaed later and will have to appear in court.

There were ten poker tables and over $30,000 in play seized by the police. It was not possible to estimate the amount of profit regularly taken by the operators.

A player of particular interest to Sabrina Nolen, Joe Garrett and Julie O’Hara – not to mention the Orlando Police - was caught on video exiting the Mint Julep in a hurry.

* * * * * 

Chapter
45

“H
ow did you know, Merlin?” asked Joe. “You never even met the guy.”

Julie limped over to her desk. It was her first day without the crutches.

“From listening to people who interacted with him,” she said, sitting down. “From Sabrina and Lee Porter, and from what Detective McPhee told you.

“Mike
Menello has all the traits of a compulsive gambler. He lives in a dream world. He can’t accept reality and he takes risks based on his
dream
. That’s what he did when he bought the lots in Quill Creek. He fancied himself a competent contractor, which he wasn’t. The subcontractors saw how green he was and they took advantage of it. And, of course, he couldn’t accept responsibility for the outcome, so he blamed other people…primarily Dianna.

“He’s immature. He feels he’s entitled to the good things in life without having to work for them; that’s why it doesn’t bother him that Sabrina pays the bills and gives him pocket money. And then there’s the fact that he kept sneaking out at night to go Downtown to the Lake
Eola area, despite the cloud over him because of Dianna’s death. Not to mention

that
Sabrina was
bound
to catch him, sooner or later. I’d say that Mike Menello is anxious to the point of being sick until he sits at a poker table…that’s what made him take those risks.”

Julie had a pile of work on her desk and she began to sort it out.

“So Sabrina was right,” said Joe. “Menello wasn’t at her house when Dianna died.”

“Well, not the whole night. I’m sure he’ll admit to that now,” said Julie. “The police have a lot of witnesses under subpoena who can testify as to whether or not he was there.”

“It’s no alibi for the time of the murder, though,” said Joe. “Everyone was leaving the Mint Julep around four that morning, shortly before the time the coroner said Dianna died, which would have been somewhere around five. And if Sabrina didn’t wake up until after seven, she can’t really say when Menello returned. That’s a two-hour window of opportunity.”

“That’s true, Joe, but at least Sabrina knows
where
he was going and
why
. Believe it or not, I think she loves the guy, warts and all. Besides, even if Mike Menello was in the area, the police don’t have any evidence linking him –or anyone else – to her death.”

“Well…maybe they do,” said Joe, looking away.

“I don’t believe it!” she said, slapping a file on her desk. “You’re holding out on me! What evidence do they have?”

“I’m not ‘holding out’ on you, I’m telling you
now
. McPhee just mentioned it the other day when I tipped him about the poker room. I forgot about it.”

“
So what is it?”

“A very small blood sample that didn’t match Dianna’s.
McPhee said they almost missed it. It was on the neck of the swan boat. OPD couldn’t demand blood samples from people with solid alibis who were ruled out as suspects, so they decided to hold it back. But now that Menello’s alibi is blown, I’m sure they’ll test him.”

Julie had resumed sorting her files, but Joe could see the wheels turning in her head.

“Don’t get too hopeful about this, Merlin. The sample might be worthless. It could have been from any number of visitors who rented the swan the day before.”

She stopped what she doing and looked squarely at him.

“Or it
could
belong to Dianna’s killer…”

* * * * * 

Chapter
46

S
abrina and John Tate, Mike’s attorney, were finally able to convince him that he needed to preempt a possible arrest by going, posthaste, to the Orlando Police Department and coming clean about his whereabouts the morning of Dianna Wieland’s death. Although Mike had apologized profusely to Sabrina for lying to her and had even acknowledged his gambling addiction, he was very indignant that anyone should suspect him of
murder
.

After calling Detective McPhee to advise him that his client was coming in, John Tate immediately escorted Mike to police headquarters. A thorough interrogation ensued and Mike was asked to give a blood and DNA sample. On his attorney’s advice, he complied and was then released, pending the results.

Given Mike’s penchant for lying, John Tate was preparing for the worst and Sabrina was on pins and needles. The only one who wasn’t worried about the outcome of the test was Mike.

•

At roughly the same time, Dianna’s killer was thinking about Mike, too. He was watching a WESH 2 news follow-up report on TV…

“
Michael Menello of Orlando, who was recently involved in the raid of an illegal poker room near Lake Eola, is now being called “a person of interest” in the death of real estate agent, Dianna Wieland, whose body was discovered at Lake Eola this past January.”

This development was bad news and good news all at once, he thought. It meant that they no longer thought of Dianna’s death as a suicide…but it also meant that Menello, who fed them a phony alibi, was their number one suspect.

Somebody else might have felt bad about that, but not him.

Shit happens…

If anyone knows that, I do.

* * * * * 

Chapter 47

J
oe and Julie were on their way to see Betty Wieland. It was incumbent upon them to let her know about Hoyt Geller’s death and to return the shoebox of his letters. Betty had been standing up to her domineering husband at every opportunity since Dianna’s death, and Frank had loosened his grip on her as a result. Isolated and rebuffed, Frank Wieland had succumbed to the invitation of a neighbor to try his hand at golf. He was not expected to return for at least two hours.