It did make one wonder.
And then there was the American Grill. There were thousands of places just like it all over the country. Thick piled-high burgers, mammoth mounds of fries, chicken wings, pitchers of beer, large-screen TVs for sports. There would always be a clientele for that, but no one was getting rich off it, like Katz had told Mars.
He had done another search of her apartment and came away not knowing any more than he had on entering the place.
They would just have to wait until she woke up.
This was a frustrating case because he could not seem to make traction on any lead. He could not make Mitzi Gardiner talk. And he had nothing to charge her with. There was absolutely not enough evidence. He knew that she had worked to frame her father, but he couldn’t prove it. She had been amply rewarded, with a new life. And yet as he’d left her home, he’d also left behind a woman who was clearly racked by guilt.
But that meant nothing in building a case. He would have to find a road to the legal truth somewhere else. It would not apparently go through Mitzi Gardiner.
He sat down on a chair in the kitchen and studied his possibilities. There weren’t many, so they didn’t take him long. He quickly settled on one.
Sally Brimmer.
She’d been killed for a reason. He had to find out what that reason was.
And he could start in one of two places.
He picked one, called Lancaster to meet him there, and set off.
Chapter 59
LANCASTER MET DECKER OUTSIDE of Sally Brimmer’s apartment building on the west side of town. It was a nondescript six-story structure wrapped in dull brick.
“How’s Katz?” Lancaster asked as she walked up to him.
“Still not conscious, but apparently out of danger.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yeah, and it’ll turn into great if she wakes up and tells us everything.”
They walked into the building and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. Lancaster had a key to Brimmer’s apartment.
“It’s already been gone over, and nothing was found. But I’m not sure how thoroughly it was done. After all, we thought you were the target.”
“I did too until I stopped thinking I was.”
They entered the apartment and looked around. Brimmer’s job had not paid all that much, they both knew, but her apartment was well laid out and nicely furnished, with pillows and curtains and sturdy furniture and lovely oriental rugs over the hardwood floors.
Decker looked at Lancaster. She said, “Her parents have money. I was over here once for a holiday party and met them. Very nice people. They helped her out financially, I came to understand.”
“Okay.”
“They were devastated, obviously. They came to get her remains. The family’s from the East Coast.”
“How’d Brimmer end up here?”
“She went to college up the road from Burlington. Had a couple of PR jobs out of school. Her brother’s a cop in Boston. I guess she got interested in that field from him. The department had an opening. She moved here and was doing some really good work. I doubt she would have stayed here long-term, though. She had a lot of potential. And she was still so young.”
“We all have a lot of potential, until we don’t,” noted Decker grimly.
“So what are we looking for?”
“Anything that seems to be relevant.”
“Great, thanks for the hint.”
They went methodically from room to room, ending up in Brimmer’s bedroom. Decker checked the attached bathroom while Lancaster went into the closet.
After a few minutes, Lancaster called out, “Hey, Decker?”
He walked into the large closet to see Lancaster holding something up.
“What?” he asked.
She held the item up higher. It was a short-haired wig.
Blonde.
Decker lifted his gaze to Lancaster’s. “You think Sally impersonated Susan Richards?” he said.
“I think she might have. It wasn’t Gardiner. And if it wasn’t Katz, who else fits the description?”
“Sally was the right height and build,” conceded Decker.
Lancaster fingered the wig. “And this is nearly the cut and style of Susan Richards’s hairdo. And from a distance, with her back turned and an old woman looking out into the darkness? She could have been fooled.”
Decker took the wig in his hand and looked it over. The memory came back to him effortlessly. Sally at the park. She had on a trench coat, gloves, and a hat. Exactly what the person leaving Richards’s house was seen wearing.
“So if she participated in that, did she know Richards might be in that suitcase, either already dead or drugged?” he said.
“I can’t believe she didn’t know,” replied Lancaster. “But then the question becomes why would she do it?”
“She was acting funny,” said Decker. “When she interacted with me. Before and after Richards went missing.”
“Funny how?”
“Guilty, maybe. But then I just associated that with her having a fling with Natty.”
“Guilt, then, but of a different nature.” Lancaster shook her head. “Brimmer was such a straight arrow in my book. Why in the hell would she have become involved in something like this?”
“Well, we don’t know for sure that she was. We found a wig that looks like Richards’s hair, but that could be a coincidence. Women do have wigs in their closets.”
“That’s true. And even if we find evidence of Sally’s hair inside this wig, it’ll prove nothing. If she’s not involved, she presumably bought the wig to wear it.”
“We have to find other proof. If she was paid off, we might be able to find a record of that in her financial accounts.”
“And if she wasn’t paid off?”
“Then someone might have coerced her into doing this.”
“How?”
“Maybe someone who knew about her relationship with Natty?”
“Well, that could be. They kept it pretty secret. Hell, I didn’t know.”
Lancaster took back the wig and placed it into an evidence bag she drew from her coat pocket. “And you still think the motivation to kill Richards was to place blame for Hawkins’s murder on her?”
“They had to cut that investigation off, Mary. The police start looking into Hawkins’s claims, things could get dicey for whoever’s behind all this. Her seeming to commit suicide was a good way to do that.”
“Only it didn’t work.”
“They couldn’t know that. They had to try. And Richards was their best bet for that.”
“Why not Rachel Katz? She had a motive to kill Hawkins too.”
“That’s right, she did. But I don’t think they could afford to kill Katz.”
“Why not? Someone ended up trying to kill her.”
“That was later.”
“So how’d they choose between the two women?”
“Look at it this way: Katz has prospered since the death of her husband. Richards hasn’t.”
“So you think Katz was involved with the murders thirteen years ago?”
“I’m not going to go that far, Mary. But I think Katz ended up being useful. Richards didn’t. So she was dispensable.”