The Master Plan (2009) (23 page)

"You're welcome. Call me when you get back from your
appointment."

"I will," she promised as she walked him to the door.

"Billy is on line one," Marianne said as Bruno left the office.

"Great" Dana sprinted back to her desk and picked up
the phone. "Hi, Billy, what have you got?"

"Mother was Evelyn Manchester. Father was Clyde
Hunter. Evelyn died in 1970"

"Her sons were both pretty young," Dana remarked.

"Right. Clyde died in 1999. I checked to see if there was
another marriage on record for Clyde, but there was not and
I couldn't find any other birth records listing him or Evelyn
either."

"So, John and Tony had no siblings and were raised by
their father."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thanks a lot, Billy. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome. Trudy says hello and wants you to call
her to set a dinner date."

"I'll do it," Dana promised. "Thanks again."

Dana used a Post-it to write herself a note to call Trudy.
She stuck it on a calendar page for the middle of next week.

Bruno's mother was coming Saturday and was supposed
to stay a week. The night before, she and Bruno had talked
about the possibility of taking Angelina to the farm to meet
Dana's parents. Dana wasn't sure that getting their mothers
together was a good idea, but she would call her mom and
see what would work for her. She wrote another note and put
it on the next day's calendar. Of course, once Dana told her
mom that Bruno wanted Angelina to meet her family, her
mom would be smelling orange blossoms and buying bridal
magazines.

Marianne came into the office. "Greg just called from
Chicago. He has all the transcripts from the Hunter trial.
He's going to be tied up on something else the rest of the
day, but he'll bring the box to my house tonight when he
gets back and I'll bring it to you in the morning."

"That'll work. Thanks"

Dana went back to her office and called Casey's cell
phone. Casey told her she was waiting for someone in the
Chicago medical examiner's office to call her back about
whether or not they could release John Hunter's body to her."

"If it helps, I found out that both of their parents are deceased and they had no siblings," Dana told her.

"I guess that makes me the closest relative," Casey said
without enthusiasm.

"Listen, Casey, the real reason I called was to invite you
out to dinner tonight. Bruno's working, so it'll just be the
two of us."

"Thanks, Dana. I'd like that."

"I'll be out of the office the rest of afternoon, so let's pick
a place and time now." Casey didn't seem to have an opinion
about that, so Dana set the time at 7 p.m. at the Aztec Club.
"We'll find a quiet booth where we can talk," Dana promised.

With that settled, Dana got her coat and scarf on and went
into the reception area. She grabbed two doughnuts and
wrapped them in napkins.

"You're exceeding your doughnut quota for the day," Marianne warned with a grin.

"It'll be my lunch on the way to Chicago."

"Good excuse," Marianne said as Dana went out the door.

Bruno took the letter he had picked up from Dana's office back to the station. He called the forensics lab and told
them he was bringing a piece of evidence over that he
needed checked for fingerprints. Then he called Hildago's
office. He knew the prosecutor was probably in court, but
he left a message for him.

Jack O'Brien came into the office and sat down beside
Bruno's desk. "I had to cut Hunter's cellmate loose this
morning. We got nothing to hold him on."

"Did you get any useful information from the guy?"

"No. He's dumb as a rock. He saw Hunter in Las Vegas
but Hunter disappeared before he had a chance to talk to
him. Somehow he found out Hunter was here and came here
looking for him. He said he called Hunter and Hunter told
him to get lost, so he went to the bar and tied one on and
then got into the fight that landed him here. He was going to call Hunter and ask him to bail him out, but by that time
Hunter was dead"

"Sounds like a huge waste of time and taxpayers' money,"
Bruno said.

"You got that right. If the ballistics report on the Chicago
murder says the bullets that killed both brothers came from
the same gun, that Flannery guy who hassled Casey will be
off the suspect list too. He was in jail here when the guy in
Chicago was killed. So, guess what, buddy? Our list is down
to one, the wife."

"Casey didn't do it," Bruno said.

"She had motive and opportunity."

"And two people who can vouch for her whereabouts at
the time of the murder," Bruno told him.

"Yeah. Except those two are Casey's best friends who
were in on that scheme to snag rich husbands. What did they
call it, the master plan?"

"You've been reading the reports again."

"Yeah, and my point is that if those girls could think up
a crazy scheme like that and actually put it into action, they
could lie for a friend, or even help her kill him to get the insurance money."

"There is no insurance money in the Hunter case. You're
thinking of the Porter case."

"Oh, right. Well, it doesn't matter. They thought the guy
was rich and Casey would inherit his money if he died."

"Wait a minute," Bruno said becoming irritated, which
happened quite frequently when he talked to Jack. "Are you
saying Casey and her girlfriends got together and murdered
Hunter?"

"Think about it, Bruno. It's another one of those schemes to make themselves rich. One of them kills Hunter so Casey
can inherit his dough and then because they know the wife
is always the primary target; they become her alibi and she
becomes theirs. It's a perfect crime."

Bruno had to admit Jack had a point, but he wasn't about
to give him the satisfaction of saying so. "Only one thing
wrong, Jack. Hunter spent all the money he had pretending
to be rich himself."

"Yeah," Jack said with a devious smile. "That's what
makes the case so interesting. Everyone is after everyone
else's money, only none of them really have any."

"Another of life's twisted tales," Bruno said, getting up
from his desk. "And what about the brother? Do you think
the girls drove to Chicago and popped him too?"

"It's possible."

"Except a witness says he saw a man going upstairs to
Hunter's apartment"

Jack snorted his disapproval. "A witness who is only five
years old. Come on, Bruno. You know kids aren't reliable
witnesses. They'll say anything for a stick of gum"

"You're right there," Bruno admitted.

"So, I say we bring the wife and her girlfriends in for
more questioning. One of them is bound to break."

"I'll think about it. In the meantime, I'm going to interview some of Hunter's friends from the country club. Maybe
one of them knocked him off."

"You want me to come along?"

"No. The chief wants one of us to stay in the office to
catch the calls. Today that's you"

"Sure. But think about what I've been telling you."

"I will," Bruno assured him. "By the way, I'm expecting to hear from Lou Hildago. If he calls tell him to call my
cell. He's got the number."

"Will do, buddy."

Bruno put on his overcoat and picked up the evidence
bag with the anonymous letter. He would drop it off at the
lab on his way to the country club.

O'Brien was back at his own desk and didn't seem to notice the evidence bag and for that Bruno was grateful. He
didn't want to lie to a fellow detective, but he didn't want
to admit that he was having the letter checked out just to
humor his girlfriend.

From the outside, the correctional facility looked like an
office building rather than a jail. That image quickly disappeared once Dana entered the building. There were lots of
iron bars and gates and guards with guns.

Dana waited in line with other visitors to give her name
and the name of the inmate she was visiting. She showed
her driver's license to the first guard and submitted to a
search by a second guard before the iron gate that separated the inspection area clicked open and she entered a
corridor where another guard escorted her into the visiting
area.

The room contained tables of various sizes and lots of
chairs. The place was already filled with inmates and their
visitors. Guards were at the door and stationed at strategic
places around the room, keeping a silent watch on the inmates and their respective visitors.

"Who are you here to visit?" the female guard asked, pausing inside the doorway.

"Mary Lou Bandini," Dana replied. "I don't know what
she looks like."

The guard nodded and led Dana over to a small table
against the wall. A short, stout woman with black hair and a
round plain face looked up at Dana. She was dressed in a
royal blue jumpsuit that was tight across her ample bosom.
"You my new best friend?" she asked cynically.

"I'm Dana Sloan. I'd like to talk to you about some old
friends of yours"

Mary Lou motioned to the guard that she approved of
the visitor and the guard left them. "Sit down, Dana Sloan,"
Mary Lou said.

"Thank you for seeing me," Dana said.

"Why not? This place is boring as hell and I don't get
many visitors. So what do you want?"

"I want to ask you about your relationship with John and
Tony Hunter."

Mary Lou shook her head. "Ancient history, girlie."

"Yes, I know, but recently both of the brothers were murdered"

"You a cop?" Mary Lou raised up in her seat, grabbing a
hold of the table as if she was about to turn it over on Dana.

"No, I'm not a cop. I'm a reporter. I work for the Globe
newspaper in Crescent Hills."

One of the guards had approached the table. "Is there a
problem here?" she asked.

Mary Lou shook her head. "No problem. Everything's
good," Mary Lou said.

"Then stay seated," the guard warned.

"Sure thing." Mary Lou sat down again and glared at Dana. "Look, girlie, I haven't seen those two losers in years.
I thought they were both still in prison."

"Tony was released about two years ago," Dana told her.
"His brother just got out last week"

"So, since they've been guests of the state for so long,
you figure someone from their wicked past did them in."

"I don't know. That may have been the case with John,
but Tony has been out for a long time with no sign of trouble. In fact, Tony recently married a good friend of mine."

"She probably killed him. He was an annoying little jerk.
He followed Johnny and me everywhere. I think he liked to
watch us make out"

"The newspaper articles say that they were arrested at
your family home. Were you hiding them after the robbery?"

"That was the plan, until I found out they killed Sarah."

"You knew Sarah?"

"Not real well, but I knew her. She was the daughter of
one of my father's business associates."

"What kind of business was your father in?"

"He was a crook. Him and Sarah's old man worked together, collecting bets from losers, running numbers"

"Where are they now?"

"Pushing up daisies in Oak Park cemetery."

"Do you know why Johnny and Tony killed Sarah?"

"Yeah, I do, but I'm not in the mood to talk about it, especially to someone I don't know."

"What would get you in the mood to talk about it?" Dana
asked.

"My account at the commissary doesn't have enough to
buy a candy bar. A lot of visitors deposit funds in the accounts for the people they visit here"

"How much of a deposit are we talking about?" Dana
asked calmly.

"Five hundred should cover it "

Dana smiled. "How about this, Mary Lou? You tell me
your story and then I'll pay you what it's worth"

Mary Lou smiled back. "I like you, girlie. How about we
settle on twenty bucks up front?"

Dana opened her purse and took out a twenty-dollar bill.
She held it up so Mary Lou could see it, then put it back in
her purse. "Let's start again. Why did the Hunter boys kill
Sarah?"

"So they wouldn't have to split the dough with her."

"She was in on the robbery?"

"Of course. She planned the whole thing. Johnny and Tony
couldn't plan a trip to the beach on their own. She went inside the bank first and pretended to be their hostage so they'd
have a better chance of getting away. Sarah was older than us
and had been fooling around with the assistant manager,
some geeky guy about ten years older than she was. That's
how Sarah knew they had a lot of extra money in the drawers
on Fridays because people came in and cashed their paychecks. Then, according to Johnny, after they got away Sarah
wanted to take possession of the cash bag. They got into a
fight about it and one of them shot her in the head"

Dana sat back in her chair. "Do you have a name for the
geeky assistant manager?"

"Sarah used to call him Stu the Stud. I don't know what
his last name was."