Rolling Thunder (John Ceepak Mystery) Read online

  “If I may, sir, there is a difference. Until we find evidence linking the drug ampoules to the deceased and/or a suspect, all we have is proof that someone was in possession of a very powerful poison that they, most likely, removed illegally from a pharmacy.”

  “You’re right,” says the chief. “Let’s take this thing one step at a time.” I think that last bit was aimed at himself.

  We hit the house, head straight for the interview room.

  Big Paddy, Loud Rambowski, and Golden Boy Kevin are seated at the table. So is that fiery redhead from the funeral: The lady I pegged to be Mrs. O’Malley’s sister. In this light, her hair looks orange.

  “Officers,” says the lawyer, standing up, pointing to two chairs, like he’s in charge.

  Ceepak? He finds a different open chair. Stands behind it.

  “I don’t believe we’ve met,” he says to the orangehead.

  “Frances Ryan.”

  “My sister-in-law,” says Big Paddy.

  “She can tell you where Dad was when the girl was murdered,” adds Kevin.

  “Indeed?” says Ceepak, finally sitting down. So I grab a seat, too. “Can she also explain why we found potassium chloride in the medicine chest at number One Tangerine Street?”

  “Huh?” This from Daddy O’Malley.

  “What the hell are you trying to pull here?” says Rambowski. “Have you made a connection between this … this …”

  Ceepak helps out: “Potassium chloride. When delivered in a lethal dose, it causes the heart muscle to stop beating, leading to death by cardiac arrest.”

  “So?” says the lawyer. “Is there any connection between what you found and my client?”

  “Not at this time. However, we have established that your client, Mr. O’Malley, was a frequent visitor to the house.”

  “No you have not,” says Rambowski. “Not to my satisfaction.”

  “You wanna see the videos?” I ask.

  Every drop of blood drains out of Mr. O’Malley’s face.

  “Goddamn that Johnson. Arrogant prick.”

  “Pardon?” says Ceepak, like we’re at a tea party and somebody just farted.

  “Keith Barent Johnson! He’s the one who wanted the cameras in every bedroom! Said the videos were the only thing that got him through July and August when Bruno rented out the house to tourists and we all got busy making our nut for the year, couldn’t screw around with the girls.”

  Mrs. O’Malley’s sister has her purse in her lap and is twisting the straps like crazy. I think right about now she’d like to tear one off and use it to strangle her brother-in-law.

  “Gentlemen,” says Rambowski, “let’s talk about why we’re actually here. This morning you intimated that you had enough evidence to arrest Mr. O’Malley for the murder of Ms. Gail Baker. Is that what you intend to do, now that you’ve uncovered somebody’s stash of potassium chloride, even though, if I might remind you, Ms. Baker did not die from a heart attack?”

  “We have not yet written up an arrest warrant,” says Ceepak, somewhat reluctantly.

  “Good. Because my client has an ironclad alibi. Patrick?”

  I can tell Mr. O’Malley is still thinking about the lethal injection and the heart attack.

  “Hmm?” he says.

  “Tell these gentlemen about the telephone call. Thursday night.”

  Mr. O’Malley sits there. Nods a couple of times.

  “Dad?” Kevin prods him.

  “Right. The phone. Okay.” He reaches into the coat of his seersucker suit. Pulls out a cell, which he places on the table in front of him. “This is my main phone. 609–555–9566. I didn’t want to turn it over earlier because, frankly, there are some rather embarrassing text messages and photographs stored in the memory. I should’ve erased them.”

  The sister-in-law flings daggers at him with her eyes. When she runs out of those, her eyes chuck spears.

  “Anyway, we dug through the folders and, yes, you will find Ms. Baker’s final text message,” says the lawyer in what I take to be a stupid move.

  “It says, ‘I need 2 c u now,’” reports Kevin. “It arrived, as indicated in the phone records, shortly after midnight, first thing Friday morning.”

  Wow. The whole team is helping us out.

  “The phone call to the mayor’s house is in there, too,” says Mr. O’Malley.

  This is pretty incredible. I’m leaning back in my seat, they’re making this so easy. Ceepak, however, is leaning forward. Elbows on the table. Hand stroking his chin.

  “Now, whoever had the phone,” says the lawyer, “erased the message they texted back to Ms. Baker from the ‘Sent’ file.”

  Ceepak’s ears perk up. “What do you mean by ‘whoever had the phone?’”

  32

  “I MUST’VE GRABBED THE WRONG ONE WHEN I LEFT THE office on Thursday night,” says Mr. O’Malley.

  “And how could that happen?” asks Ceepak.

  “Easy. We have a half dozen of these things sitting in chargers behind the counter at King Putt. Same make and model. We use them like walkie-talkies as we travel around town, managing our properties. Anyway, I just called Skippy at the golf course. Told him to find out who the hell had my phone Thursday night. Whoever it was, he’s your goddamn killer.”

  “Mr. O’Malley,” says Ceepak, “while I appreciate your being candid about the embarrassing evidence on your cell phone—”

  Big Paddy slides the phone down the table like he and Ceepak are playing air hockey. “Here. Take it. Maybe you can un-erase the text message whoever did this thing sent back to Gail.”

  Ceepak blocks the shot. Moves the cell sideways. “Rest assured, Mr. O’Malley we will attempt to do just that. However, so far, all we have is your word that you were not in possession of this phone Thursday night into Friday morning.”

  Mr. O’Malley gestures toward the sister-in-law. “That’s why Frances is here.”

  The big woman crosses both arms over her chest. Her Irish, as they say, is up. She looks like she might explode.

  “Frances?” says Mr. O’Malley.

  “What?”

  “You said you’d tell them.”

  “That I did, Patrick. However, that was before I heard how you poisoned Jackie.”

  “Frances, I did not kill your sister.”

  “Then what’re you doing with this heart attack drug these gentlemen are talking about?” she says, flicking a hand in our general direction.

  “Ms. Ryan,” says Rambowski, “as I told the police, there is no link between the potassium chloride they found in some house on—”

  “Bullshit, you fucking goddamn liar!”

  As my mother used to say, she has a mouth on her.

  “What? You needed the damn insurance money to pay back the shylocks you borrowed from to build that monstrosity on the boardwalk? Mark my words, first nor’easter blows through town, that thing is toppling over like a house of cards made out of matchsticks!”

  “Frances, I swear on my children,” says Big Paddy, “I did not kill Jackie!”

  “Sure you did. You knew she was overweight and smoked and had a history of heart problems so you just nudged things along a little is what you did.”

  “Ms. Ryan, if I may,” says Ceepak. “As Mr. Rambowski has pointed out numerous times, there is currently no link between Mr. O’Malley and the potassium chloride. In fact, I suspect someone may be attempting to frame your brother-in-law. To spoon feed us enough clues that we will rush to judgment and recklessly lock him away for life.”

  “Who?” demands Big Paddy. “Who’s trying to set me up?”

  Ceepak’s got a good poker face. Doesn’t glance over at Kevin. I would’ve.

  “We can’t say for certain, sir. Not yet.” He turns to Ms. Ryan. “But tell me, Ms. Ryan, why did you come here this morning?”

  “Because I’m too goddamn Catholic,” she says. “I can’t lie. Even when I want to.”

  Ceepak nods. At least that part of their religious beliefs overlaps
.

  “I called Frances late Thursday night,” says Mr. O’Malley.

  Ms. Ryan nods. “Right before midnight.”

  “Then I went over to where she was staying.”

  “Place called the Mussel Beach Motel.”

  The two bitter enemies are completing each other’s sentences like an old married couple.

  “Here is the record of that call,” says barrister Rambowski, pushing a sheet of paper across the table toward Ceepak.

  “It’s on one of the other lines attached to our Verizon account. 609–555–9567.”

  Ceepak studies the phone bill.

  “He was drunk,” says Ms. Ryan. “Bawling his eyes out. Said he had to come see me.”

  “So I drove over to the motel,” says Mr. O’Malley. “Brought a bottle of whisky.”

  “We split it. Down by the pool. I called Paddy a goddamn sonofabitch for the way he treated my sister. Whoring around all over town. Jacqueline knew what Patrick was doing all those nights he didn’t come home—and it wasn’t working at the office, not in the middle of February when no one plays putt-putt, that’s for damn sure. In fact, Jackie had known about his chippies for years.”

  “That’s what the trip to Buffalo was all about,” Mr. O’Malley confesses, looking down at his hands.

  Frances Ryan laughs. “That night before the funeral, oh I reamed Big Paddy but good. Screamed like a banshee at him. We got so loud, we woke up the motel management. Lovely young lady named Rebecca came out in her bathrobe, told me to, and I quote, ‘shut my trap.’ Said I’d wake the dead, not to mention all their paying guests.”

  “The motel manager is a friend of ours,” I say. “We’ll ask her to corroborate your story.”

  “Oh, she’ll corroborate it all right,” says Frances. “I don’t think Ms. Rebecca will soon forget Paddy O’Malley and me.”

  “I drove home around four in the morning,” says Big Paddy.

  “After I made him a pot of coffee in my motel room. He was drunker than a skunk in a barrel of rum.”

  “And why,” asks Ceepak, “did you wait until now to tell us all this?”

  “Because,” says Mr. O’Malley, “my learnèd counsel advised me not to say anything to the police about any telephone calls I might’ve made on the night of Miss Baker’s murder, no matter how innocent they may have seemed. He also suggested that you gentlemen would have difficulty with my admission of drinking and driving, something, I swear, I very rarely do.”

  The sister-in-law snorts out a “Ha!”

  Guess she won’t lie about that, either.

  “So,” says Kevin, “can we go home now? You know where dad was when Ms. Baker was murdered.”

  “Please wait here,” says Ceepak standing up from the table. “My partner and I need to confer with our chief.” He turns to Big Paddy. “We will also need to call the management of the Mussel Beach Motel to confirm your whereabouts for late Thursday into Friday morning. After that, you, sir, are free to leave.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Awesome,” adds Kevin because I don’t think he caught the point Ceepak just made: The father may be going home, but the son who tried to set him up will probably be spending the night in jail.

  “This shouldn’t take long. Danny?”

  We head out the door, hit the hall.

  “You buy it?” I ask when we’re out of earshot of everybody in the interview room.

  “Yes. For some time now, I have sensed that Mr. O’Malley had nothing to do with either death.”

  “Because so much evidence said he did?”

  “So much overwhelmingly obvious evidence, Danny. It’s usually rather easy to spot a cheater. They try too hard to convince you that they’re playing fair. The business card in the shopping bag was, for me, the last straw.”

  Yeah. That was definitely a lame move. If you’re trying to frame somebody, you can’t turn the framee into a complete imbecile.

  “So, we’re holding Kevin for further questioning?”

  Ceepak’s cell phone chirps. The personal line.

  “Perhaps so,” he says, ignoring the phone burping on his belt.

  “I’ll call Becca, check out the Mussel Beach story.”

  “That’ll work,” says Ceepak as I whip out my cell phone.

  Then I give him the pursed lips and head bob that he gave me earlier when Samantha Starky called: It’s okay for him to answer his personal phone on duty “just this one time.”

  So he does.

  “Hello, dear. Yes. Good. And they’re having fun?”

  He steps away to get an update on T.J.’s big farewell bash.

  I speed-dial Becca.

  She definitely remembers Frances Ryan and Big Paddy O’Malley.

  “They were boozing it up and screaming at each other until I finally went out there and threatened to call the cops. The fat one, the woman with that rat nest of carrot-colored hair, which, by the way, is a total dye job, she said, ‘May heartache and vultures gouge out your eyes.’ I think it’s an Irish curse. They were drinking Old Busmill’s and Jameson whisky—so at least their blood alcohol level was Irish.”

  She confirms the alibi.

  I promise to bring back the towel I borrowed. Tomorrow.

  When I hang up, Ceepak is finishing with Rita.

  “Right. How’s Ms. Minsky? Good to hear. Right. I’ll be in touch. Same here, dear.” He closes up the phone.

  “Everything okay?”

  He nods. “T.J. and friends are at the miniature golf course. Ms. Minsky is napping. Apparently, Gizmo is curled up on the bed beside her.”

  And as soon as he says that, his face freezes into a solid block of focused thought.

  I’ve seen the look before: Ceepak just figured everything out.

  33

  CEEPAK MOVES LIKE A MAN POSSESSED TO THE NEAREST computer terminal.

  I ask no questions. I never do when he switches into his totally focused mode.

  He clacks keys. I read over his shoulder.

  In the Google search box he is typing “animal euthanasia potassium chloride.”

  The first entry is for a PDF from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

  He clicks to it.

  “AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia. June 2007.” He scrolls down the table of contents, past inhalant agents to noninhalant pharmaceutical agents. There it is on page 12: “Potassium Chloride in Conjunction With Prior General Anesthesia.”

  He moves the pointer to the chapter heading. Clicks again. A new page pops up. Ceepak scrolls down until he sees the paragraph about potassium chloride: “Although unacceptable and condemned when used in unanesthetized animals, the use of a supersaturated solution of potassium chloride injected intravenously or intracardially in an animal under general anesthesia is an acceptable method to produce cardiac arrest and death.”

  There’s another paragraph listing the advantages: “(1) Potassium chloride is not a controlled substance. It is easily acquired, transported, and mixed in the field. (2) Potassium chloride, when used with appropriate methods to render an animal unconscious, results in a carcass that is potentially less toxic for scavengers and predators in cases where carcass disposal is impossible or impractical.”

  Guess that means you could use it on your pet elephant and not worry about poisoning all the buzzards circling overhead.

  Ceepak swivels in the desk chair, grabs for a phone. I glance at the next paragraph: “Disadvantage—rippling of muscle tissue and clonic spasms may occur on or shortly after injection.”

  Ceepak presses 411. Puts the call on speakerphone.

  The chirpy recording says, “Verizon four-one-one. What city?”

  “Avondale, New Jersey,” says Ceepak.

  “Okay. Business or residence?”

  “Business!” says Ceepak, kind of tersely. Seems the perky prerecorded woman asks too many questions for a cop in a hurry.

  “Thank you.” The voice fakes hesitation, like she’s really listening to us. “Um, which business
?”

  “South Shore Animal Shelter.”

  “Hang on while I look that up.”

  When she tells us she found the number, Ceepak tells her, even though she isn’t really a person (well, she was a person when she recorded this crap but she’s not one now), that she can go ahead and place the call for an additional charge. Hey, we’re in a hurry. Whatever Ceepak’s just figured out has to be huge or he wouldn’t waste fifty cents of the taxpayers’ money.

  The call rings through. Someone answers. A real person this time.

  “South Shore Animal Shelter, how may I direct your call?”

  “Dr. Cathy Langston, please.”

  “Who may I say is calling?”

  “Officer John Ceepak. Sea Haven Police.”

  “Oh. Um. Okay. Just a moment.”

  Police get that kind of response all the time when we call folks.

  While we’re on hold, I’m tempted to say, “So, what’s up?” But I don’t. Ceepak’s eyes are riveted on the speaker box like he expects a miniature Dr. Langston to pop out of it.

  “This is Dr. Langston.”

  “John Ceepak.”

  “Well, good morning, John. How’s Barkley?”

  “Fine, thank you.”

  “Good to hear. Rita called. Said you folks just adopted a cat, too.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Gizmo. He used to belong to Mrs. Jacqueline O’Malley. With her passing, the family decided they were no longer able to keep the animal in their home. Allergy issues.”

  “Mrs. O’Malley was a wonderful woman,” says Dr. Langston. “She was one of our top volunteers. Helped us socialize the feral kittens, get them ready for adoption.”

  “Did her son often accompany Mrs. O’Malley to the shelter?”

  “Skippy? Yep, he sure did. I’m hoping he’ll carry on his mother’s good works. Maybe he can come out here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday like she used to do. He did come out this week by himself. Said it’s what his mom would’ve wanted.”

  Uh-oh. Not if he came out to grab some potassium chloride.

  “Tell me, Dr. Langston, have several vials of potassium chloride gone missing from your pharmacy recently?”

  “Wow. You’re good, Officer Ceepak. We just discovered it last night. An equestrian client called about a horse to be put down at his stables. He, of course, didn’t want to bring the sick animal in. We were going to go out there to euthanize the horse in its stall.”