The Master Plan (2009) (22 page)

Bruno came to Dana's office with a death certificate for
Anthony Hunter and took Casey to the bank where her late
husband had a safe-deposit box.

It was almost closing time when they got to the bank but
Bruno flashed his badge and said they were on urgent police business. The bank manager allowed them to enter before the doors were locked and the tellers began to close
out their drawers.

Casey and Bruno were escorted back to the manager's
office to conduct their business in private. The manager's
name was Jim Winkleman. Dressed in a dark business suit
and a crisp white shirt with a conservative gray tie, he was
anxious to take care of the homicide detective, fearing that
the bank might be involved in some type of criminal matter.

"Mrs. Hunter's husband passed away unexpectedly,"
Bruno explained. "We have a copy of the death certificate
and she has a copy of her marriage license to Anthony Hunter. We would like to access the safe-deposit box Mr.
Hunter had here"

Jim Winkleman's face turned pale. He obviously knew
that Anthony Hunter had been a victim of foul play. "Of
course. Do you also have the key?"

Bruno produced a set of keys that had been taken from
Tony's pocket by the medical examiner. "I think it's one of
these," he told the nervous bank manager. Bruno laid the
death certificate, marriage license, and set of keys on the
manager's desk.

Winkleman fumbled with the keys and selected the correct one and removed it from the ring. Then, he used his
computer to find the bank's record of the safe-deposit box.
He handed everything back to Bruno and stood up. "Come
with me, please," he said.

Casey and Bruno followed him to the area where the safedeposit boxes were kept. Casey had not said a word since
they entered the bank. She was remembering the day when
she had accompanied Tony to the bank. It was the day that
she had seen his Social Security card and committed the
number to memory. She had used the number to try and investigate Tony's past and had not been able to find out anything of interest. It was the fingerprints on the wineglass that
had uncovered Tony's past. Unfortunately, the information
had come too late to keep Casey from marrying him.

Tony's reaction to learning about the master plan had
planted the first seeds of doubt in Casey's mind as to why
Tony had rushed her off to Las Vegas to marry him. Tony
had not loved her. He had simply been after her money. Of
course, the joke was on him when he found out she didn't really have any money.

"Casey?" Bruno asked. "They're ready for us."

Casey snapped out of her reverie and followed Bruno and
Winkleman into the vault. Winkleman handed her Tony's
key and instructed her to place it in the lock and turn it. The
bank's key was then inserted into another lock and the box
was slid out.

"We have private rooms you can use to open the box,"
Winkleman said, indicating three small rooms with solid
wood doors.

"Thanks," Bruno said. "We shouldn't be too long."

Bruno carried the box and escorted Casey into the first
room and closed the door. There was a table and two chairs
in the room. Bruno set the box down on the table and he
and Casey settled into the chairs.

Bruno waited for Casey to make a move, but she shook
her head. "You open it, please," she told Bruno.

Bruno nodded and opened the lid on the long slender
box. Casey held her breath, almost afraid to look at the contents of the box.

A brown leather pouch was wedged tightly into the narrow box. Bruno carefully removed it from the box and laid
it on the table between them. Under the pouch were a few
papers. One was the duplicate copy of Tony's Social Security card issued shortly after his release from prison. Other
papers had to do with his release and the conditions of his
parole.

"Open the pouch," Casey said softly.

The pouch was one that folded and was tied together with
thin leather straps. It was the type of pouch you would expect a courier to use to carry valuables.

Inside the pouch were neat stacks of currency, still crisp and new despite the fact that they were more than twenty
years old.

Bruno flipped through the cash. "There's only about thirty
thousand dollars here, but this pouch was designed to hold a
lot more than that."

"Can you trace the bills back to the bank that was
robbed?"

"I don't think so. That bank went out of business years
ago. As Hunter's legal wife, I'd say it belongs to you."

"I don't want it," Casey said, seemingly shocked that he
would even suggest it.

"I understand, but since we haven't been able to trace
any other living relatives and technically it's not evidence,
it's yours."

Casey grabbed the pouch and stuffed the money inside of
it. Then, she wrapped it up in a nice neat bundle and shoved
it angrily into her purse. "Fine. I'll take it," she said sullenly.
"What about the papers?"

"Yours too," Bruno told her. He folded them neatly and
handed them to her.

A few minutes later, much to the relief of Jim Winkleman,
Bruno and Casey left the bank. The manager kept Tony's
key and took the empty safe-deposit box from Bruno. He
didn't ask what had been found in the box. He didn't want to
know, but from the look on the young woman's face it was
something that made her unhappy.

The next morning, Dana woke up and stretched lazily
like a cat that had feasted on catnip and cream the night before. She and Bruno had managed to spend an entire evening together without any arguments.

Dinner had been a large sausage and mushroom pizza
that Bruno had brought to the house. Dana's contribution
had been a decadent cheesecake from Sunflower Market.

While they ate, Bruno told Dana about the trip to the
bank with Casey and what had been found in Tony's safedeposit box.

After that, they played two games of Scrabble and simply enjoyed being together and being in love. Fun evenings
like that always made Dana think that their relationship
was on solid ground. That lasted until the next emotional
issue shook their ground like a major earthquake.

Snow had fallen the night before but it was not enough to
cause any major traffic problems and Dana arrived at the
office ahead of schedule.

Marianne came in a few minutes later with a box of doughnuts. Dana had already made a pot of coffee so she and her
secretary shared a continental breakfast.

"I was feeling really uneasy around Casey," Marianne admitted. "She's like a different person now, but I decided that
we've been friends too long to let her slip away from me. I
called her last night and she told me all about the master
plan she and her two friends cooked up. I assume you already know about it."

"She told me on Saturday when she showed up on my
doorstep. She had just confessed everything to Tony and he
threw her out of his apartment."

"Does Bob know?"

"I haven't told anyone except Bruno and that was only
because Casey asked me to tell him. She was too embarrassed to tell him herself."

"I don't think she should be embarrassed," Marianne said as she contemplated eating another doughnut. "While
it was dishonest, it was rather clever, and she said both of
her friends are now dating wealthy men."

"I know, but Casey got the short end of it all."
"

"She just picked the wrong guy," Marianne said defensively. "We all do that. Look how many good-looking snakes
I've dated?"

Dana laughed. "Perhaps, but with your looks you've had
your pick of males since grade school"

I was fat and awkward in grade school," Marianne insisted.

"I was skinny and awkward," Dana admitted.

"Casey looked so good after her makeover," Marianne
said. "Yesterday, she was back to her old ways and that worries me. She's lost her self-confidence again."

"She's been through a terrible trauma"

"I know."

The telephone rang and Marianne answered the phone on
Dana's desk. "Globe Investigations." She listened for a few
seconds, then put the caller on hold. "It's the prison facility
where Mary Lou Bandini is incarcerated. Today is visiting
day and they'll put you on the list if you can get there between one and three today."

"Tell them yes," Dana instructed.

Marianne got back on the phone and relayed the message
for Dana. She listened a few more minutes. "Thank you. I'll
tell her."

"You're all set, but you have to bring a photo ID and submit to a search of your person and your belongings."

"No problem," Dana told her.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you that Casey said she wouldn't be in today. She's making funeral arrangements for Tony
and John too, unless someone else has stepped forward to
claim his remains. She's going to use the money from the
safe-deposit box to have them both cremated and their ashes
interred at some place in Chicago. Under the circumstances
there won't be any formal services."

The door to the outer office opened and Bob came in.
"Hey, where's everyone at?" he called out.

"In here," Dana called back. "Get some coffee and come
on in. We have doughnuts"

"I love you guys," he called back.

While Bob and Dana discussed his reports from yesterday's investigations, Marianne went down to the mailroom
to retrieve the morning mail. Dana wanted to go through it
as soon as possible since she would have to leave the office
early to visit Mary Lou Bandini.

Marianne returned and sat at her desk to open the mail.
Fortunately, there were only two new cases that needed to be
investigated, but in a plain white envelope with a Chicago
postmark there was a letter that sent Marianne running into
Dana's office.

"Whoa, girl," Bob said when Marianne rushed in. "Moving that fast can make you dizzy."

Marianne ignored him. "Read this," she said, dropping the
letter and the envelope in front of Dana. "But don't touch it."

Dana read the letter that looked like it had been done on
a typewriter rather than a computer.

Dear Dana Sloan,

The police have arrested the wrong people in the
death of Lucas Porter. They are innocent and should not be brought to trial. I am the one who killed the
moron, but for obvious reasons I am not providing you
with my name.

Dana read the letter aloud so Bob would know what it
said.

"Oh, great," Bob said sarcastically. "Bruno and the DA
will drop the charges immediately when they see that letter."

"Only Marianne touched the letter, we'll have to turn it
over to the police so they can check it for other fingerprints.
They'll want the envelope too, but that has probably been
handled by a lot of different people"

"Bob's right," Marianne said. "I doubt if they'll pay any
attention to an anonymous letter."

"Probably not, but I'm going to give it to them anyway.
I'm also going to assign you to look into Lucas Porter's murder again. With all that went on with Casey, I really didn't do
a thorough enough job."

"Fine with me," Bob said. "I'll go back to that sleazy pool
hall and the pizza joint. Maybe I can find another witness."

"Maybe you'll find the real killer," Marianne said. "You'd
better be careful."

Bob leaned over and looked at the postmark on the envelope. "According to this letter, the killer is in Chicago."

"He or she could have just mailed it from there," Dana
said. "The killer could still be here in Crescent Hills."

"You never have believed that the wife and her friend did
it, have you?" Bob asked.

"No. I can see why Bruno thinks they're guilty but I don't
agree with him."

"Do we have any other cases to look into?" Bob asked.

"Two," Marianne said. She hurried back to her desk and
returned with the two requests for help that had come in
that day.

Dana read them. "These can wait a few days," she decided. "They should be fairly simple and if Casey comes
back tomorrow, I can assign them to her."

"Okay," Bob said. "The pool hall and pizza place don't
open until this afternoon. I'll start with the last few places
Porter worked and see what I come up with."

"I'll call Bruno," Dana said. Marianne and Bob took that
as their cue to leave the office.

Dana tried Bruno's desk at the station first. He laughed
when Dana told him about the letter. "It's a joke, honey. You
know better than to give any credence to an anonymous letter. Your newspaper tells everyone that all requests for help
that come into Globe Investigations have to be signed with
contact information."

"Right, and the first thing we do is check that the information is accurate.

"But you still want me to come over and get that anonymous letter and run it through the lab."

"Yes, please," Dana said sweetly. "It could be genuine."

Bruno sighed. "I'll be right over."

True to his word, Bruno showed up about five minutes
later with an evidence bag to put the letter in.

"How's Casey doing?" he asked, sitting down in one of
the chairs in front of Dana's desk.

"Marianne talked to her last night and I guess she's doing
okay. She's not coming in today because she's making funeral arrangements for Tony and his brother too. She's going to use some of the money from Tony's safe-deposit box to
pay the expenses"

"I'd say that's putting it to good use."

"It's going to take some time, but Casey is a strong girl.
I think she'll be okay."

"How about lunch?" Bruno asked.

"Not today. I have an appointment in Chicago."

"Should I ask with whom?"

'No.

"Does
it
have
something
to
do
with
Hunter's
murder?"

"I don't know yet"

"Okay, sweets. As you told me the other day, my questions often start arguments and I have to get back to work.
I've got a ton of paperwork to do, and I'm on duty tonight
too. Just be careful and remember the bambinos."

Dana got up and pulled him out of the chair. She kissed
him. "Thanks for picking up the letter," she said.