SEVEN
The next day Lilly and Nick returned to the Kiminski house. This time Mr. Kiminski was home.
"You weren't exactly honest with us yesterday," said Lilly after they were seated.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," said Mrs. Kiminski. "I answered all of your questioned as honestly as I could. I'm not sure what else there is for me to tell you."
"You never mentioned you were associated with Dominic Cordilini," said Nick. "The loan shark that Martin owed money to."
"Hold on, detectives," said Mr. Kiminski. "Are you implying that my wife had something to do with Gayland Martins' death?"
"We've learned that there was an association of some type," said Lilly. "We were told if we wanted to learn who tried to kill Martin in 1989 we should ask your wife about one of Cordilini's co-workers."
"I never met Mr. Cordilini," said Mrs. Kiminski. "And I'm sure I don't know any of his co-workers."
"Are you familiar with the name Constantine Marconi?" Lilly asked.
"I am," said Mr. Kiminski. "He's head of an organized crime family here in Philly. I understand that he's in the hospital right now and is not expected to live beyond a few months."
"That's right," said Nick. "He told our boss we should talk to your wife. Said she would be able to point us in the right direction of whoever tried to kill Martin that night."
"I don't know why he would tell you that," said Mrs. Kiminski. "As I said, I never met this Cordilini or any of his co-workers. I have no idea why Mr. Marconi would tell your boss something like that."
"That's not exactly accurate," said Mr. Kiminski. "Tamara, if you remember you did see Cordilini once. That time at the mall, remember?"
"Oh, yes, I had forgotten that," she said.
"You saw him?" Lilly asked.
"Only from a distance," said Mrs. Kiminski. "This was before Robert and I were married. When I was still seeing Gregory. I was at the mall and ran into Gregory there. He was talking to a man I had never seen before. When I told Robert about it he told me that the man was this Dominic Cordilini."
"It wasn't hard to determine who he was," said Mr. Kiminski. "He always wore lots of jewelry, especially rings. I think he wore a ring on each finger. He always reminded me of a pimp in those old '70s movies and television shows."
"You knew Cordilini?" Nick asked.
"My law firm represented him in a couple of cases," said Mr. Kiminski. "I never handled him personally but I was acquainted with him."
"So you're a criminal defense attorney?" Nick asked.
"That's right, detective," said Mr. Kiminski, smiling slightly, "I'm the enemy. Seriously, though, as I said I never represented Mr. Cordilini myself but I did know who he was."
"And you said Warzinski was talking with Cordilini?" Lilly asked.
"Yes. As I said I didn't know who he was at the time and I never saw him again. Gregory just said it was an old friend he had run into at the mall."
"Mrs. Kiminski," said Lilly, "was that the same day you ran into Martin at the mall? The incident you told us about yesterday."
"Why, yes it was, as a matter of fact," said Mrs. Kiminski. "I never gave it much thought, really. Like I said, I only saw this Cordilini the one time and Gregory never brought him up again."
"Exactly when was that?" Nick asked.
"About a week before Gayland was forced off the bridge. To be honest I had forgotten all about it. Kyle was arrested the following week and an incidental meeting with an old friend didn't seem important."
Lilly and Nick just looked at each other. They both knew their conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Kiminski was over. And they needed to get back to the station right away.
"Mrs. Kiminski, thank you again for your time," said Lilly. "You've been very helpful. We can see ourselves out."
"Sounds as if Officer Warzinski wasn't exactly honest with us," said Nick. "He said he only knew Cordilini by reputation. I wonder what else he wasn't totally honest about?"
"Let's go see if we can find out," said Lilly as they got into the car and headed back to the station.
* * *
"Officer Warzinski, I'm Lieutenant Stillman. We asked you back here so we could clear up a couple of questions about our current investigation."
"Anything I can do to help, lieutenant. Only I don't know what else I can add that I didn't tell you detectives when they came to see me."
"For one," said Lilly, "you can explain about your relationship with Dominic Cordilini."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't know Cordilini."
"Is that so?" Lilly questioned. "Tamara Lord says that you do. That you introduced him to her as an old friend."
"I'm sure she just misunderstood," said Warzinski. "It was 14 years ago."
"I never said when you told her," said Lilly. "How did you know it was 14 years ago?"
"We weren't together that long, that's all," said Warzinski.
"Maybe you could clear up another matter," said Stillman. "You told my detectives that you were injured and had to be transferred to the property room."
"That's right," said Warzinski. "It's in my record."
"Oh, I know it is," said Stillman. "I checked your record. Only you weren't transferred to the property office right away. You spent several months working in the impound lot before being transferred to the property room."
"During the same time that Gayland Martin was forced off the bridge in 1989," interjected Lilly.
"Oh, that's right. I had forgotten about that. It wasn't very long. It had totally slipped my mind."
"A lot of things you can do in the impound lot," said Stillman. "Like make a spare key to any cars that have been impounded."
"And Kyle Lord's car had been impounded about a week before Martin was forced off that bridge," said Lilly. "What did you do, Warzinski? Realize that Lord was constantly getting his car towed and decided to make a spare key in case you needed it sometime? You would have known where Lord lived. And you knew he was drunk most of the time. It would be an easy matter to wait until he got drunk one night and then borrow his car. Then you could put it back with no one the wiser."
"That never happened," said Warzinski.
"No?" Lilly questioned. "You know what I think? I think you got scared when Martin saw you with Cordilini at the mall that day. I also think you were scared that he might tell Kyle Lord about your affair with his wife. So you waited until Lord got drunk, as you knew he would. Then you took his car, forced Martin off the University Avenue Bridge, and then returned the car knowing that Lord wouldn't be able to offer an alibi for what had happened at the bridge."
"I think I'm through here," said Warzinski. "I think I want my department legal representative before I answer any more questions."
"That's probably a good idea," said Stillman, laying a folder on the table. "Maybe then you can explain this."
"What's what?"
"Your bank records for the mid-1980s to the present," said Stillman. "Maybe you can explain how you've been able to put away so much money on a cop's salary. According to the records you have nearly half a million dollars in the bank."
"My ex-wife came into an heritance, that's all," said Warzinski.
"No she didn't," said Lilly. "We checked with your ex-wife. She said you got divorced because you kept working double shifts. Only the records show you rarely worked more than a single shift."
"Something else you might want to explain," said Stillman. "Martin was shot with a .38 caliber pistol. We got the ballistics back on the gun. According to the records, that same pistol was turned in to the property room 5 months ago. And it seems to be missing now."
"And your sergeant said that you suddenly remembered an appointment the other day," said Lilly. "The same day that ADA Johnson asked you about anything you knew about the attempt on Martin's life in 1989. Less than 2 hours before Martin was murdered in his hotel room."
Warzinski didn't say anything. He just looked at Lilly and Stillman. There were too many questions he didn't have the answers to.
"I also did some digging," said Lilly. "In 1989 Gayland Martin was driving a midnight blue 1967 Pontiac Tempest. He said it was the first car he ever owned and his dad made him earn the money to buy it. At that time you were driving a midnight blue 1972 Buick Skylark. Similar body styles and the same color.
"He told Lord he had seen his car at the motel where you and his wife used to meet. I think it was your car he saw there. Lord doesn't know anything about cars. To someone like him the two cars were probably indistinguishable. So you had 2 reasons to want Martin out of the way.
"Then when Johnson came to you asking what you knew about the attack on Martin that night in 1989 you realized that he was still alive. You couldn't risk that Martin might be able to identify you from the attempt on his life in 1989. So you got a gun out of the property room, went to the hotel where Martin was staying, and killed him. Then left the gun there knowing that Lord would almost surely be blamed for the murder.
"That's it," said Warzinski. "I'm through saying anything until my legal rep gets here."
"Suit yourself," said Stillman. "We've all ready turned what we have over to Internal Affairs. They're waiting in my office to have a little chat with you. Things will go a lot easier on you if you come clean now. You know how those boys in IA can be. They're relentless. They'll scour every bit of your background exposing every dirty little secret you have.
"You were also seen leaving the hotel the night that Martin was killed. I'm willing to bet that the witness can identify you as the one leaving the hotel that night. And we all ready have the gun linked to you. You wiped the gun off but you forgot to wipe the bullets off that you loaded it with. Pretty sloppy for a seasoned police officer."
"Give it up, Warzinski," said Lilly. "We've got you dead to rights. The lieutenant is right about one thing. It will go a lot easier on you if you tell us what happened now. Otherwise. . . ."
Warzinski just dropped his head. It was over and he knew it. His career was ended and there was no way to stay out of prison. The only question was how much time he would spend in prison.
