Aiden, page 13
“You obviously knew we were coming,” Toby noted.
“Sure.” He nodded. “Let’s go into my office.”
They walked past an older woman, sitting serenely with a cup of tea. Aiden nodded. “Thank you, ma’am. So sorry for disturbing you this morning.”
She just inclined her head. “When trouble comes calling, young man,” she murmured, “it doesn’t give any warning, or he’d have time of day or peace of mind.” With that cryptic tone, she lifted her cup and ignored them.
Back in his office, the detective looked at the boxes and raised his eyebrows, waiting.
Aiden began, “You’re familiar with the case of the six murdered men, found stabbed to death and in the Dumpsters?”
“Yes,” he said, crossing his arms, as he sat back in his big leather chair. “And I understand it has to do with you, young lady.”
She nodded. “I’ve been charged with murdering my husband, Moscow,” she replied, stumbling over the word. The detective’s gaze narrowed on her face. “I didn’t do it, but, when we were at his apartment, cleaning out his place,” she added, “we found all kinds of files that indicate a blackmail scheme.”
At that, his feet hit the floor, and he stared at the boxes. “All that is blackmail files?” Both men nodded. “Good God. And why me?”
“Because I asked for somebody who was honest,” Aiden stated.
He winced at that. “Are there names in there that I won’t like seeing?”
“Yep, absolutely,” Aiden confirmed, “and you can start with the DA.”
His breath hissed out in a long slow release. “We have had some suspicions that he’s not on the up-and-up already,” he replied, “but this? This will make life a little difficult.”
“Not only a little difficult. A lot difficult. Also cops are listed in here,” Aiden added, tapping the topmost box. “The other thing to note is that Toby’s father is in here too as a blackmail victim,” Aiden shared. “On the other hand, absolutely no love is lost between her and her family or her cousin Mountain and his family. Therefore, that is another motive that the cops or her family would mention, depending on which way you want to look at this.”
The detective nodded his head slowly. “Do you think that this blackmail scheme has something to do with Moscow’s murder?”
She shrugged. “It’s certainly much more likely than me killing him. I can’t even lift that man and certainly couldn’t have thrown his body into a Dumpster.”
The detective assessed her slim build and nodded. “I believe the current theory is that you have an accomplice,” he noted, turning to look at Aiden.
“Well, you can check,” Aiden suggested, “and preferably with my boss first.” He placed a business card on the detective’s desk. “But I have alibis for every night that those six men were murdered.”
The detective picked up the card and read it. “I probably don’t need to check this, do I?”
“Only if it makes you feel better,” Aiden replied. “Mountain is in the same boat.” Mountain placed his card on the desk in front of the detective too.
Toby wished she could see what the cards revealed because the detective immediately put them both in his shirt pocket.
“So, with that out of the way, what else have you got for me?”
“Little black book, bank accounts, all kinds of related research data, plus a gun, keys to safe deposit, a storage unit we have someone checking out,” Aiden noted. “But we have absolutely no idea—outside of the fact that these people were being blackmailed—what happened to the money, where the money went, even if any blackmail money was paid, or anything like that,” he shared. “Her husband was also a known gambler and was well-known for being lucky.”
“So he had a lot of cash floating around?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“And why is it that you mentioned ‘his apartment’? Have you recently been married?”
“As you probably know,” she told him, “we were married just before he was killed.”
“And you told the police that it wasn’t a happy marriage and that you didn’t want to marry him but you did anyway.”
She took a deep breath, looked over at Aiden.
“What you need to understand is the rest of the story, which she hasn’t told the police,” Aiden stated.
The detective pulled out a tape recorder and placed it on his desk. “Then it’s time you told someone.” He motioned at the chairs and said, “Sit.”
She sat down and then nervously started telling him about her high school days, the breakup, the threats, Moscow’s abuse of his sister, and then finally Moscow beating her up, pointing a gun at her, and forcing her to marry him to keep his sister safe. At that, the detective stared at her, his eyes turning dark. “Sounds like quite an upstanding citizen.”
“He was a bastard,” she stated bitterly. “And I’m pretty sure his father is applying a lot of pressure to the cops to make sure that I am incarcerated for his son’s death. But I swear to you that I had nothing to do with it.”
“And of course you have proof of the beating?” the detective asked.
She gave a slight smile. “Why is it that everybody always wants proof of that?”
“That’s because it’s physical proof.”
She pulled up her phone, brought up the picture that Annabel had sent her, and held it up for him.
He looked at it and winced.
She nodded. “He didn’t break anything that I know of. For all I know, a couple cracked ribs have since healed. I didn’t go to the hospital, so I don’t know. Believe me. He didn’t do it again, but he also agreed to my terms on the marriage.”
“And did you believe him?”
“I did at the time, but, as these two have convinced me, it wouldn’t have lasted.”
“No, it wouldn’t. Now, when you got in an abusive relationship, he made you legally his in his mind to do what he wished, so he would just torment you for however long he wanted to play with you, just like he did with his sister. What kind of shape is his sister in?”
Toby shook her head. “She still calls me in torment, and she’s quite psychologically damaged by it all.”
“Right,” the detective agreed. “And, of course, we have absolutely no medical evidence of that either.”
“No,” Toby confirmed, “nor do I have any proof of the damage he did to her. Except I’ve seen her decline, and I’ve talked to her through many nightmares.”
“And that’s something we have yet to do,” Aiden noted. “We’ll speak with Michelle after this.”
Toby nodded. “I just don’t want her even more upset.”
“And will the presence of these two men upset her?” the detective asked.
“It’s possible. But she’s definitely not the same person she used to be.”
He nodded. “So Moscow liked to abuse women and children—vulnerable members of society?”
“Yes,” she stated, “but he was blackmailing big names in town.”
“Right. But that was probably done anonymously, until somebody must have found out and possibly started this murder spree.”
“That’s what we’re assuming. Of course we have no way to know for sure right now,” Aiden added.
“Right. We’ll have to follow up on all this.” The detective faced Toby and asked, “What is it you want from me?”
“I want to clear my name. I want the truth,” she replied, “and I definitely don’t trust the cops who are working on my case.”
The detective nodded. “I’ll get a major shuffle of the people assigned to the case. I’ll have to check the blackmail files you brought me to make sure that they’re not in any of those.” At that, his lips twitched. He looked over at Aiden. “Unless you want to tell me.”
“One is. One isn’t.” At that, Toby turned and stared at him. He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“I didn’t ask, so you didn’t just tell me?”
“It seemed like the safest bet at the time.”
She just shook her head. “No wonder they didn’t give a crap about getting me a fair shake. No wonder those fake cops wanted inside Moscow’s apartment. They’re probably afraid of what I’ll do with all this information.”
“And you have the capacity to do all kinds of things,” said the detective in front of her. “And I presume you have copies of all this?”
Aiden nodded. “We do,” he confirmed cheerfully.
The detective smiled. “So, if I don’t follow through, you have another recourse.”
“I know you’ll follow through,” Aiden stated. “But, should any of these weasels squeak away, we have the ability to make their lives miserable, once it’s public knowledge what they’re up to. Marriages will dissolve. Divorces will spike, and there’ll be a lot more resignations and lawsuits happening,” he declared.
At that, the detective nodded. “It will be quite a mess.”
“And yet it’s not our fault,” Toby declared defiantly. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this.”
“No, and you’ve been a long time trying to get out of this domestic abuse by both father and son,” the detective noted. “So let’s hope that, once I take all this in and go above the DA,” he said, rubbing his temples, “we can put a stop to that and to the murder charges.”
“And I presume you can get an appointment with the DOJ?” Aiden asked.
“Yes.” The detective nodded. “Like I said, there’s already been talk about the DA.”
“Good,” Toby said. “This is the ammo you need then. The gun alone may incriminate Moscow in even more shady acts.”
“It all might, indeed. I’ll check for the report. Somehow I doubt it will be that easy.” The detective stared down at the boxes and the bags of paperwork, like it would bite him. “It also won’t be a fun trip.”
“Nothing about this is a fun trip,” Toby admitted, “particularly for me. I just want a new beginning.”
“Are you planning on staying in town?”
“No,” she replied immediately. “I do hate to leave Michelle behind. However, as these men have just pointed out to me, my life will never be the same here, even if I am cleared.”
The detective nodded. “Your husband was a blackmailer, and you were his wife, even if just for a short period of time. Some people will always wonder,” he murmured, “and, for that, I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” she agreed.
“But it is what it is.”
She laughed. “That sounds like my father.”
“And how would your father handle all this?”
“He refuses to stand by me, and he won’t handle any of this,” she stated. “And you’ll find him in the blackmail files for having a gay romance. Then he’ll just blame me even more.”
He nodded. “Sorry, but it is what happens a lot of the time.”
“I know,” she said, “and that’s frustrating, but there’s nothing I can do about it. He made his choices, and he’ll have to pay for them.”
“And yet there isn’t any reason why he couldn’t have a relationship that he’s chosen, is there?” the detective asked her.
“No, except that he’s married,” she stated. “And you have to understand that my mother is all about appearances. It will be a very ugly divorce.”
He nodded. “I don’t think there is such a thing as a pleasant divorce.”
“Maybe not, but this one will take the cake.”
“Got it. Where are you guys off to now?”
Toby looked over at Aiden. “I’ll take them to see Michelle. And then we’ll go from there.”
“Good. Will you get in my way?” the detective asked the men, looking at Aiden and then at Mountain.
“Not if you don’t get in our way,” Mountain vowed, before Aiden could speak.
At that, the detective’s gaze narrowed.
“We need to find out who’s behind all these murders,” Aiden explained. “Otherwise Toby will never really be free. You can drop the charges, but, now that she has been charged, you know how almost everybody’ll think that it was her.”
Again the detective nodded. “That is a problem when the department charges people without thinking about it, without a shred of evidence. Lives are altered forever.”
“You can say that again,” Toby said. “I’ll probably end up leaving the state.”
“Well, don’t leave now,” he warned her. “Let us get to the bottom of this first.”
“I’m under bond and will not default. I also don’t have any intention of leaving today or tomorrow,” she replied. “But after that bond is released? Well, I don’t know.”
The detective turned toward Aiden. “You know perfectly well that she needs to stay until this is done.”
“I know that,” Aiden agreed. “It’s been a pretty rough ride on her already. So we’ll spend the day following clues, seeing what we can find, and go from there.”
“And what about the other murders?” the detective asked, now looking over at her. “Do you have any idea who’s involved?”
She immediately shook her head. “No. All six men, including Moscow, won a lot of money at my table,” she shared. “I think the cops’ prevailing theory is that I let these six guys win, and then I went to get my share of their earnings. Supposedly, when they wouldn’t share, I killed them and took all the money.” Toby frowned. “From what we’ve read in the police reports, none of the dead men were found with any money on them, but you also know that any number of people gamble at a casino in any given day, and so there’s thousands of faces and heads to track through their casinos’ camera software. So you’ll see that any number of other people could have found out that these six men just won big. When the big winners went outside the casino, they became victims of greed.”
“It’s not all that uncommon,” the detective noted. “It’s just happening so fast that no really good answer explains it.”
“Well, there is one,” she stated. “I just don’t know what it is.” As she stood up, Toby added, “Thank you for this. At least, I thank you.”
Aiden gave the detective a fat smile. “Hey, you’re it, so do a good job.”
“Or else, right?” the detective teased.
“No. No threats,” Aiden said. “You were given the highest recommendation possible for this,” he noted, “so I trust that you’ll do the best job you can.”
“Oh, great,” the detective said, with a wry smile. “No pressure.”
“There’s always pressure in life,” Aiden noted, with a laugh. And, with that, he headed out to the front door. As soon as he stepped outside, he looked over at Toby and said, “You did well back there.”
“I don’t feel like it. Kind of feels very much like I’m failing something majorly.”
“Let’s go see your sister-in-law,” Aiden said, changing the subject and moving forward.
At that, she stopped, looked at him, and said, “Wow. She really is my sister-in-law, isn’t she?”
“You really disassociated from all of it, didn’t you?” Mountain asked.
“Sure,” she murmured. “I mean, understandably so.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed. “It’s just odd to see you always argue about the naming of things, the titles, and the labels.”
“That’s because I wasn’t even married but a few days,” she muttered.
“And somebody did you a hell of a favor.”
She nodded. “I know that. I really do. The trouble is, I also know that whoever did that probably has no clue what kind of trouble they put me into.”
“Or, if they did, it was deliberate,” Aiden pointed out.
“And I can see that maybe with Moscow. However,” she argued, “when you think about it, why take out him and the other five? Or can there be two different killers?”
“I was wondering about that. Your husband was what? The third murder?”
She nodded. “Yes, third. Well, per the estimated time of death, pending the coroner’s report, but not in the order of dead bodies found.”
Aiden nodded. “So, it’s pretty easy to kill them and then just toss their bodies in a Dumpster. I mean, all they have in common regarding their deaths are the same manner of killing—a knife—and their bodies found in Dumpsters in the same general location.” Then he asked for directions on how to get to Michelle’s group home.
As soon as they pulled up at the large institutional-looking home, he studied it from the vehicle and asked, “So who all lives here?”
“Special needs individuals who can handle independent living with some assistance,” Toby replied. “Michelle can live just fine on her own, but, of course, making some decisions and looking after the house and whatnot are difficult for her. She doesn’t cook very well and is not very capable in the kitchen. She’s great at helping but not in making a whole meal, so this is kind of like a care home or a halfway house environment.”
“So everybody here is dealing with some sort of mental disability?”
“Yes.” Toby nodded. “I think the bulk of them are chromosome-type diseases, like Down syndrome, but I can’t be sure. I just know Michelle has that.”
“She’s been diagnosed as having Down syndrome?”
“Yes,” she murmured. “Although I know that Moscow and his father would never acknowledge it.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter if you acknowledge it or not,” Aiden said. “It would make it a lot easier on Michelle if people did understand just what the problem was.”
“Exactly,” Toby agreed, “and honestly Michelle and I have been close for a long time. I know that she’s still not sleeping well, but I haven’t seen her since her brother’s death.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t know what to say to her,” she admitted. “Yet I have talked to her by phone. I even told her Moscow was dead. I know somebody at the home already explained that to her.”
“Right. And who would that be?”
“Her assigned matron maybe?” she replied, with a shrug. They got out, walked up to the front door, and entered without anybody stopping them.
