Double dose, p.11
Double Dose, page 11
“What? Are you serious?” Jaime scoffed.
Sherman shook his head. “No way would Dayton Hughes get involved in something like this. He’s—”
“Mollie’s right,” Meredith said.
“Your uncle?” Johnny said.
Meredith nodded.
“Why?” Mollie took the napkin away from Meredith. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s a long story,” Meredith said.
“We ordered a couple of pizzas and some sodas. We’ll just sit around and eat and listen,” Roberta said. “We want to know, so we can help you. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know,” Meredith said. “And I wanted to tell you about this before, when we were trapped and played that truth game. I wanted to talk about it, but it’s too hard. I’m not even sure if I know the whole truth.”
“Just tell us what you can,” Mollie said.
“Okay.” Meredith took a sip of the diet cola the waiter set down in front of her and waited until he’d served all the drinks. “When I was about five years old, I was on this Fourth of July cruise on my uncle Dayton’s yacht. My whole family was there, along with the Longherins, and some of the firm’s business associates. We were cruising in San Francisco Bay, watching the fireworks go off over Chrissy Field. It was a typical foggy evening, kind of cold actually. It was hard to see the fireworks through all the fog.
“I was up on the top deck of the boat. At one point, I glanced back and saw my uncle and Martin Longherin, standing at the stern. No one else was back there. They were all up front in the bow, trying to watch the fireworks. Anyway, I saw my uncle put his hand on Martin’s shoulder, and then before I knew what was happening—he shoved him backward into the water. Martin had been drunk. My uncle had been bringing him drinks all evening. No one heard him fall in, because of the noise from the fireworks. A couple of minutes later, his wife noticed he was missing. They sent a search team into the water, but it was too late. Martin had already drowned.”
“So your uncle killed him?” Mollie asked.
“Let me get this straight. You’ve known this since you were five?” Roberta asked. “Why is he trying to hurt you now?”
Meredith shook her head. “I blocked it out for a long time. I forgot about it completely, until we were underground in the earthquake and I got really scared. The memory came back to me—maybe because I thought we were going to die down there. When I got out, I went to see my uncle and told him what I’d remembered. I thought I was going crazy, that I’d made the whole thing up. That’s what he said, too—that he’d never been at the back of the boat with Martin. He told me that the autopsy showed that Longherin had simply drowned. No one had seen him fall off the boat. I didn’t believe him, especially when I remembered that after Martin died, Dayton took over senior partnership at the firm. He definitely had the motive to do it, and with the fog and drinks and all, he probably figured he’d get away with it.”
“What a rat,” Sherman said. “Not only does he knock off his partner, but then he frames his niece when she remembers it happening.”
“He had to, if he wanted a shot at becoming governor,” Johnny said. “Once Meredith talked, he’d be cooked.”
“Right,” Mollie said. “So he makes you a convicted felon. That way anything you say can be completely discredited.”
Meredith nodded. “I know he’s doing this to get me out of the way,” she said. “I’m just surprised he didn’t try to kill me. Sometimes I think he still might. He’s that evil.”
“So when you confronted him, how did he react? Before he told you how confused you were,” Roberta said.
“He was totally smooth. He didn’t even blink.”
“He knows you have no way to prove he did it,” Jaime said. “Not after ten years.”
“Even if there was any evidence, I bet Dayton had friends in the police department back then, too,” Roberta said. “Whatever there was would be long gone.”
“I have a question,” Mollie said. “When did you get a call about doing the sisters shoot?”
“After I saw him,” Meredith said, “but it was Hilary’s idea.”
“That’s what she told us,” Johnny said, putting a slice of olive-and-mushroom pizza on his plate. “You think maybe Dayton put her up to it?”
“I don’t know,” Meredith said. She looked confused. “I don’t want to think Hilary was in on this.”
“Neither do I,” Mollie said. “I like her. If Dayton suggested the trip to New York to her, he could have been setting you up without Hilary’s knowing about it.”
Meredith nodded, sipping her soda. “True.”
“So you confessed to Benjamin to stop Dayton from going any further?” Jaime said.
“Actually he told me to confess,” Meredith said. “He said he’d seen Mollie and Roberta on my uncle’s boat. He said he’d reviewed my case and thought that pleading guilty was the best idea. He said he’d take care of me, that he was certain he could talk the judge into being lenient, and that he didn’t want to see anyone get hurt. It was the way he said it. He knows what you guys are up to. He could hurt you, too.”
CHAPTER 16
After school on Wednesday, Mollie, Sherman, and Jaime drove to San Jose. Meredith had gotten the current address of Martin Longherin’s widow from a file in her father’s study.
Johnny and Roberta were both at work. Roberta was keeping her job at Whistler until the International Face Show, so she could get free passes for everybody and also keep an eye on DeDario.
“There it is.” Jaime pointed. “Fair Oaks Retirement Village.”
“Where are the oaks?” Sherman asked. “They should have called it the Fairway Retirement Village.” There was a golf course right in the middle of all the small identical houses.
They found house number 243, parked, and walked up to the front door. An elderly woman was kneeling to plant bulbs in the flower garden on the side of the house.
“Are you Emily Longherin?” Mollie asked.
She stood up and brushed the dirt off her hands. “Yes, I am. Can I help you?”
“I hope so,” Mollie said. “My name’s Mollie Fox, and these are my friends Jaime Santos and Sherman Hermanson. We’ve come down from Bayside because we wanted to ask you some questions about Dayton Hughes.”
Emily lifted off her sunglasses and peered at them. “You certainly don’t look old enough to be from the police department.” She walked over to them.
“We’re not,” Jaime said. “We’re friends of Meredith Hughes. She’s in trouble, and we’re trying to help her.”
“I heard she was involved with drugs,” Emily said. “I didn’t believe it. Such a sweet girl.”
“Will you help us?” Mollie asked.
“Come on in, and I’ll fix us some lemonade,” Emily said. She opened the door, and they followed her into a brightly decorated living room.
“This is a nice house,” Sherman commented.
“It’s nice, but it’s small,” Emily said, stepping into the kitchen to pour their drinks. “My husband and I had a much larger house, but I sold it when he passed away.”
“Meredith just told us what happened to him,” Mollie said.
“Is that why you’re here?” Emily handed each of them a glass. “Go ahead, sit down.”
Mollie sat on the couch and propped a pillow behind her back. “Sort of,” she said. “We’re trying to investigate Dayton Hughes a little, so his relationship to your husband came up. Meredith thought you could tell us some more about her uncle.”
“Do you suspect him of something?”
“We’re not sure, yet. Have you ever had bad dealings with him?” Jaime asked.
“Well.” Emily sipped her lemonade. “I must say that I was not happy with the final outcome of things at the firm. When Dayton took over the senior partnership, after Martin died, he had to buy out my part of it. He did, but he only paid me what it was worth at the time—without projecting how much more it would have been worth in the future. Now I believe it makes almost five times as much as it did back then.”
“And you don’t have any legal recourse to fight that?” Sherman asked.
“I could take him to court, I suppose, but who wants to take a lawyer like Dayton Hughes to court? I’d probably end up with less than I have now,” Emily said. “He’s very slippery, that fellow. One more thing, Martin had paid for life insurance through the firm. Well, it turned out that the money from that insurance went directly into the firm. He hadn’t set it up like that, but somewhere along the way Dayton must have changed it.”
“Wouldn’t the insurance company need your husband’s signature?” asked Mollie.
“Dayton could have easily slipped the form in with a folder of things for Martin to sign. I’m positive he tricked him. Thank goodness we’d also bought another life-insurance policy Dayton didn’t know about, which came directly to me.” Emily smiled at them. “Yes, I guess I do have a few things against Dayton Hughes. I’ve tried to put them out of my mind, though. It just makes me furious to think about it.”
“Sounds like he didn’t treat your husband very well,” Jaime said.
“That’s true enough,” Emily said.
“Do you happen to know if they were getting along, shortly before your husband’s death?” Mollie asked.
“No, they weren’t,” Emily replied. “In fact, Martin was quite upset about the way Dayton had handled a few cases. He told me he didn’t think Dayton had the kind of morals he wanted in a partner. I think they even had an argument right before Martin’s death.”
“Really?” Mollie asked. “Do you remember what about?”
“Martin told Dayton that if he didn’t clean up his act, he was going to let him go. Dayton was only a probationary partner at the time, you know.”
“No kidding,” Jaime said, looking at Mollie. “There’s motive.”
“And then some,” Sherman added.
“What are you talking about?” asked Emily.
“We think Dayton may have had something to do with your husband’s death,” Mollie said.
“As in, he might have murdered him,” Sherman said. “Sorry to be so blunt.”
“What makes you say that?” Emily wondered. “After all this time? The police concluded that it was an accident.”
“Your husband did drown, that’s true. But we think Dayton might have pushed him into the bay,” Mollie said.
Emily was silent.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to upset you,” Mollie said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Dayton was responsible,” Emily spoke up. “Without Martin’s death, he never would have gotten as far as he has today. Can you imagine, that scoundrel as governor? I’d rather have Attila the Hun running California.”
“I’d rather have Attila in front of me than a rudder in back of me,” Sherman said.
CHAPTER 17
“What time is it?”
“You just asked.”
“What time is it?”
“Five minutes past the last time you asked. Four fifteen.”
“I thought you told him to meet you here at four.”
“So he’s late.”
“So maybe he’s not coming. Why would he want to meet with a couple of teenagers anyway?”
“Because he knows we know something.”
Mollie tossed another penny into the goldfish pond in the Dead Mall. The goldfish had all died before the earthquake, and the water was grungy and green. Still, it didn’t hurt to wish for luck. As she watched the ripples in the water, she thought about Martin Longherin falling into the bay. It was hard to believe that smooth, handsome, confident Dayton Hughes was really a cold-blooded criminal.
“Don’t look now, but here comes our hero,” Johnny said.
Mollie watched Detective Benjamin walking toward them. “Hello, kids. Where do you want to chat?” he said in a sarcastic tone.
“We were thinking over there by the demolished end of the mall,” Johnny said. He pointed to the thick plastic sheets that were hanging in front of where Giant Toys used to be. “I think it’s safe to say that no one’s in there.”
Benjamin nodded. “Let’s go.” They walked down to the south end of the mall. “Now, what’s all this about top-secret information? Why couldn’t you just come down to the station and tell me? And why should I listen to you two punks, anyway?”
“Punks?” Johnny said. He looked at Mollie, then back at Benjamin. “Yeah, I guess there is one over-the-hill punk here.”
Benjamin glowered at him. “Well?”
“We couldn’t come down to the station because it’s about someone in the police department,” Mollie began. “There’s a problem.”
“What does it have to do with me?”
“I think somebody in the department tampered with the evidence in Meredith Hughes’s case. And I think I know who it is.” Mollie paused. “I think that person might even be in the mall right now.”
“Are you saying you think somebody planted the drugs on your friend?” Benjamin asked. “You’re absolutely right, someone did. It’s very easy to do, you know.” He tossed something at Mollie, which she caught instinctively. Then she looked at it. She was holding a plastic bag filled with white powder.
“This isn’t—”
“It sure is,” Benjamin said. “Thanks for putting your fingerprints on it for me. It makes my job a lot easier.”
Johnny took a few steps toward Benjamin. He looked as if he were about to jump him when Benjamin reached inside his jacket and pulled out a pistol. He pointed it at Johnny. “Go stand next to your friend and take the bag from her.”
Johnny cautiously edged over next to Mollie. She handed the bag to him.
“Aha! I was right.” Benjamin said. “I knew when I followed you here that you were going to make a sale, Miss Fox. And now we have the purchaser, Johnny Chelios Jr., who just happens to be on probation. Did you know his old man, Johnny Sr., is already in prison? I guess it’s true—the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Benjamin chuckled. “See how easy this is?”
“You offered Meredith a chance to plead guilty in exchange for the names of her connections, but you knew that she didn’t have any connections, didn’t you?” Johnny asked.
“Actually, when she confessed, she said she was distributing for a guy named Nick Keverian.” Benjamin grinned. “You work for him too, don’t you? Correction, you used to, before you were caught.”
“Keverian, huh? Any luck tracking him down yet?” Mollie asked.
“No, not at the moment,” Benjamin said. “But we’ll find him.”
“I doubt it. According to my father he’s in a government witness relocation program. And with immunity to testify, I think he’d say whether or not he was using Meredith to run drugs, wouldn’t he? And he hasn’t said that, has he?”
“Well, to tell you the truth, I was pretty sure your friend Meredith was just pulling a name out of a hat. I think I just busted her real connections.” He waved his revolver in front of Mollie’s face.
“Who told you to set her up?” Mollie pressed. “Who wanted to frame Meredith? It was DeDario, wasn’t it? And he was only acting on instructions from higher up.”
Benjamin shook his head. “You kids and your wild theories. You can’t even figure out a frame operation when you see one.”
“Is that enough, Dad?” Mollie asked. “Or should I keep him talking?”
“You’re bluffing,” Benjamin said. “I’m not going to take my eyes off you so you can jump me.”
“Oh, so you did go to police academy,” Johnny said.
The thick plastic curtain parted, and Mollie’s father walked out, carrying a tape recorder. Two plainclothes policemen who’d been wandering through the mall pretending to shop came up behind Benjamin and grabbed both of his arms. One of them took his gun.
“No bluff,” Eric Fox said. “And you’re under arrest for tampering with evidence, among other things. You have the right to remain silent. Shall I continue, or do you know the rest?”
“You’ll regret this,” Benjamin shouted.
“I doubt it,” Mollie’s father said. “Will you guys bring him out to the car? I’ll be right there.”
“Sure thing,” one of the policemen said. “Come on, Benji.”
Benjamin scowled. “Don’t call me that.” They escorted Benjamin out of the wall, keeping a tight grip on both his arms.
“Mollie, you were right. Benjamin’s involved in this thing, and who knows how many other cases he’s messed with. I have to admit, I almost came out when he pulled that gun on you,” Mollie’s father said.
“Yeah, it was pretty scary.” Mollie hugged her father.
He squeezed her tightly. “I hope that’s the end of this.”
“Well …” Mollie hesitated. When it was all over and Hughes was in jail, then she could tell him. “Yeah, I do, too.”
“I’m sure the DA will drop all charges against Meredith,” Mollie’s father said. “He might want to talk to both of you.”
Johnny grimaced. “Yeah, okay.”
Eric Fox cleared his throat. “I should get back to my office.”
Mollie stood there, waiting for him to leave so she and Johnny could be alone. Johnny was the one she really wanted to hug.
“Isn’t there something you want to give me?” Mollie’s father asked Johnny.
“Oh!” Johnny reached into his jacket pocket and took out the bag of coke. “I forgot about it, with all the excitement and all.”
Eric Fox put the bag in his briefcase, next to the tape recorder, and snapped it shut. “Somehow I don’t believe that.”
“Dad, you don’t think Johnny—”
“I don’t know what to think, Mollie.”
Mollie looked at Johnny.
“I said I forgot about it.
“Mollie, I still think you should come with me. I’ll drop you off at home.” Eric Fox wasn’t going to budge an inch. He didn’t trust Johnny.
“I have my car,” Mollie said. “Besides, Johnny and I have some things to talk about.”
Eric Fox let out a deep sigh. Finally, he turned around and left.
“He’s so wrong!” Mollie screamed. “He’s already made up his mind about you, and he’s not even willing to give you a chance.”
