Chapter 11
Getting Evidence
House Googled Susan's trustee, Melody Caldwell, and found that the company had offices in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. She had an MBA from Harvard and her resume stated quite proudly that she took over the Susan Friday Trust three years ago. She was thirty-nine and single, married once, divorced two years ago.
When Finley showed up she handed him a coffee and a sandwich. He showed her what he had found as he unwrapped his sandwich.
"Not much to go on is there?" Finley said.
"Nope. Crap, I can't just sit here. Let's drive up to Philly."
"Philly?" She asked.
"I called and they said that Caldwell was in the Philly branch this week."
"Let me check on Susan and then we can go, okay?"
"Fine."
Half an hour later they were on their way to Philadelphia. This time they talked about books and personal philosophy. Finley argued with him over her faith and religion, laughed over his personal philosophy about women and was fascinated when he talked about medical ethics and surprised to find that her thoughts often mirrored his own on the issues discussed.
"Greg, women are like phones. We love to be held, talked to, but if you press the wrong button you'll be disconnected!"
House laughed out loud at Finley's remark. "The problem is that they're too much like cell phones, they often aren't receptive and their ringtones can be annoying."
We both laughed and then stopped and stared at each other.
"Crap." He said.
"What?"
"I can't believe you might actually be tolerable. It's like finding out that Darth Vader is really Luke's Dad."
"You mean you were wrong about me?"
"No, I'm right about you. You're a prude, a workaholic, a Patch Adams, but, contrary to outward appearances, you do have a personality."
"Careful now, don't let your brains go to your head." She looked down and smiled. "No, seriously, I have to admit that you're not what I expected."
"Wait, don't get mushy. I don't want you to turn the other cheek, it's just as ugly."
She rolled her eyes and grinned at him. "You are a piece of work."
Arriving at the Philadelphia branch of Caldwell and Caldwell, the receptionist refused to even tell Melody Caldwell that she had visitors until House threw a fit, claiming that they were discriminating against the handicapped. Despite the fact that there was no discrimination, Melody Caldwell showed up in the lobby and motioned them into a conference room.
Closing the door behind her, she asked in an agitated voice, "Who are you two and what do you want?"
"I'm Susan Friday's boyfriend and this is her best friend, Finley Doyle."
"Oh, no! She's dead!" The woman suddenly cried out.
House and Finley looked at each other suspiciously.
"Why would you assume that?" House asked.
"She was stabbed in the heart, right?"
"No, not exactly." Finley said, narrowing her eyes.
"She wasn't?"
"Where did you hear that?"
"The news."
"Really?" Finley commented more than asked. "We need to ask you some questions."
"I doubt I can help you without Susan's approval."
"We can get her on the phone." House said calmly, still eyeing the trustee.
"She's awake and talking?"
The grin that crossed House's face would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. "Yes, she is."
"Oh." She sounded surprised. "What did you want to ask?"
Finley piped up, "Did Susan have—"
"A prenup?" House yelled out, giving Finley a look to make her shut up.
"Yes, but that's common knowledge."
"How much did he eventually get?"
"One million after all the court fees were paid."
"Where does he live now?" House asked.
"The last contact I had with Keith he was living here in Philadelphia."
House nodded. "Did Susan have a life insurance policy?"
"You mean did the trust pay for a life insurance policy?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, without Susan's approval, I can't give out that information."
House dialed and was put through to Susan's room. He spoke to her and then handed the phone to Caldwell. Within minutes, Melody was singing.
"When Susan was married, part of the prenup was that a life insurance policy was taken out in his name. He would not inherit her trust, which would return to the Friday Family Trust, but he would be the beneficiary of a twenty-five million dollar policy."
Finley's jaw dropped. "Oh my God! What happened when they divorced."
"The trust stopped paying the premium and we gave Keith the one million after the courtroom battle."
"Who was she insured through?" House asked.
"Company?"
"Yes."
"American General Life."
House nodded. "How much was the premium?"
"$50,000 a year, why?"
House whistled. "That's a big premium."
"It would be a very big payout."
"Would have been…right?" House asked.
"Yes, that's what I meant."
House stood up and grabbed Finley by the elbow. "Come on, Finley, let's let Ms. Caldwell get back to her work."
Finley was a little surprised at House's insistence that they leave, but realized that House had an idea and wanted to explore it. They hustled out of the office and into the elevator. Finley started to ask House, but he shook his head as a warning not to say anything. They reached the car which was parked a block down the street and climbed inside.
"What?" Finley said.
"Obviously, you're not as bright as you look. Didn't you hear what she said?"
"Of course I did."
House gave her a look as if he didn't believe her.
Finley sighed. "She referred to Keith by his first name and when she talked about the policy paying out it was in present tense."
House looked shocked. "You were listening. Did you also hear her say that Susan had been stabbed in the heart?"
"Yeah."
"The police only released the information that she had been stabbed."
"Yes, but it's possible her father or brother told her."
"I don't think so. I don't think they'd stop their twenty-four hour rush to Susan to call her trustee to share her condition. There was no reason."
"I'm not surprised that she called him Keith because she's known him for several years."
House snickered, "There's more to this. Why is she in Philadelphia when the internet said she lives in Boston? She said that Keith is in Philadelphia too."
"Was in Philadelphia. We don't know if he's still here."
"We have some work to do…here in Philly."
"I need to call Chase and find out how Susan is." Finley pulled out her iPhone and dialed Chase's cell. After several minutes, Finley hung up and turned, frowning , "Greg, you're in violation of your bail by being in Pennsylvania. We need to get you back to New Jersey."
"Yeah, in a few hours. How's Susan?"
"Better. She has a lot of visitors so they've been regulating who can get in. Chase said that I'm not needed at this moment. You need to call her though; she asked where you were."
He grimaced, but nodded that he would. "Hey, isn't that Melody Caldwell?"
Finley looked up just in time to see a harried Melody pushing her way through the crowds, rushing east in a big hurry. House looked at Finley with an eyebrow raised. "Yo! Cripple here! I can't follow her! You're going to have to get your lazy ass out there and do it. I'll try to follow both of you in the car." House said pushing Finley to get out.
"Oh, Jesus Christ!" Finley grabbed her purse and jumped out scowling but grateful that she had on some comfortable walking shoes. Short in stature, Finley had trouble spotting where Melody had gone until she looked back and saw House pointing to a crosswalk. In it was Melody, racing as the walk sign turned red. Finley dodged through traffic, jaywalking to catch up with her. House swallowed hard when she had a near miss. Strangely, watching her chase Melody made him appreciate her for her agility, quick thinking and faith in him. He pulled out into traffic and had to get into the left lane to turn left and follow behind them. House grinned to himself when he realized that Finley had almost over took Melody and had to cut back to keep from being noticed. About five blocks down, Melody ducked into a building with residential lofts above a large furniture store.
Finley looked over her shoulder and noted that House was pulling into a yellow zone while she went up to check. She watched as the elevator stopped on the fourth floor. Taking the stairs, she made it to the fourth floor huffing and puffing. When she got into the hall, there was no sign of Melody. She had obviously disappeared into one of the lofts. Finley started walking the hall, listening at each of the doors. Reaching one close to the elevator, she heard the television on but no one was talking. Moving down the hall, there were only three lofts left. She hit pay dirt at the next one. She could hear Melody arguing with a male inside the door, but couldn't make out the words. The number on the loft was 4E. Not quite knowing what to do, she went down to the end of the hall with the stairs so she'd have a quick exit if she needed it and then dialed House.
"Yeah?" He said, wondering what the hell she was doing calling him.
"She went into 4E and there's someone in there with her. They're arguing but the doors are heavy and I can't make out what they're arguing about."
"Who lives in 4E?"
"I don't know!"
"Well, do something brilliant like look at the mailbox or something!"
"That means I have to go downstairs."
"Duh…not much you can do up there anyway."
"Fine!" She snapped, turning off her phone and running down the stairs. Down at the mailbox, there were no names on the boxes and none on the intercom outside. She stepped outside and shook her head so House could see her. He waved her to the car.
"I don't feel like sitting around waiting for her to come out so let's go back to Princeton and see if we can find anything. I'll call and see if my favorite detective can find out who lives here."
Finley took down the address and they headed home to Princeton. As they exited the elevator to Susan's apartment, they discovered that the police tape had been put back up and a note attached. "Dr. House, please refrain from entering until further notice."
House grabbed the note and yanked it off along with the police tape. Finley winced but followed behind.
"Greg, this may not be the best idea."
"Oh, yeah, maybe you're right." He rolled his eyes. "Look, I live here. My stuff is here."
"You don't have to get cheeky with me. I've been trying to help you."
"With help like yours, I'd be sitting in your flat eating my sorrows away." He stopped and realized that it probably wouldn't be too bad if he was sitting in her apartment being fed. Turning he gave her a look that said he understood how stupid he sounded. "Maybe we should go down and you could feed me."
"No! We're here now, let's look for it."
He stepped in front of her. "You will feed me later, right?"
"Get out of my way…" Finley pushed him to the side and headed towards the small office. Sitting at the desk she started pulling drawers open and closing them, looking for anything that seemed legal.
House, who had already been through everything of Susan's when they had first moved in together and he was home alone, shook his head. "You won't find it in that desk. The only place that might have something is under the beds. I've been through everything from the knees up."
"You've searched through her personal things?"
"You're point?"
"Greg, did she say you could?" She said jumping out of her seat to go to the bedroom.
"No, but she didn't say we could today…so are you calling the kettle black?"
"Black, black, black…now let me by." She pushed past him and into the master bedroom. Getting down on all fours, she lifted the bed skirt to look under the bed.
House tilted his head to have a look at her ass. Not bad. Why haven't I noticed that ass before? What I could do to –
"Stop staring at my ass and give me your cane. There's a huge box pushed back under here." She said it without even stopping to confirm that he really was looking at her ass.
"Who said I was looking at that bean bag you call an ass?"
"Just give me the damn cane!"
He handed her the cane and she used it to push the box to the other side and then went around and pulled it the rest of the way out. Inside the four by four box were hundreds of envelopes and pieces of papers. She pulled out several envelopes and half of them were unopened.
"What the hell?" House said as he started going through the envelopes. "The ones from her trustee and attorney aren't even opened."
"It doesn't surprise me. She did the same thing in med school. It was because they'd call her if there was anything important. Or if she had to read something, they'd have her come into the office to explain it to her."
"Well, we better go through them." House said, pulling more and more unopened envelopes from the box.
"Jesus…this goes back five years. Okay, so we're looking for any clues as to who might want her dead or any life insurance policies or anything to do with the divorce?"
"You said you'd feed me. I could use sustenance before I start."
"I will, but we better make it a working dinner, grab a handful." Finley said.
Finley went out to the kitchen and placed an armload of envelopes on the island and then began chopping tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lettuce and then fried up some hamburger meat with spices for tacos. After heating the refried beans she sat out the plates. She fried up four corn tortillas and put them on a plate, handing it to House, placing the bowls of the other ingredients and a jar of salsa in front of him.
He thought it smelled pretty good. He dressed the corn tortilla and began eating as she nodded towards the stack of envelopes.
"Come on, start going through them. Do you want a beer?"
He nodded. She brought him a beer and he grinned. "Who said you're good for nothing?"
Rolling her eyes, she ate one of the tacos and began the laborious task of reading hundreds of letters, invoices and pleadings from her trustee and lawyer. They retired to the couch and continued while they played and watched The Dog Whisperer in the background.
Half way through the night, Finley got up and refilled their drinks and brought him out a bag of pretzels. They sat reading like an old married couple.
"Oy! I've got something!" House yelled.
Finley jumped up and went to the end of the couch, nudging his shoulder with her hip for him to scoot over so that they could both read. She sat down next to him and then read it together. It was a letter from the attorney enclosing a copy of the prenuptial agreement and a title page to the life insurance that was bought as part of the prenup.
"Damn, she's right. Twenty-five million. American General policy number GLC390-3289. Where's your laptop?"
She went into the bedroom and grabbed her laptop bringing it out to the living room. They plugged in the policy number, Susan's social security number and her date of birth.
The screen refreshed and Finley's eyes grew big. She turned, latched onto House and planted a kiss on his lips.
"We did it! We did it."
House grabbed her back and planted a kiss on her, only this time it was slow, lingering over her soft lips, their noses brushing each other's. House's hand reached up behind her head and pulled her into his mouth again, their tongues slipping through to touch. When the kiss was over they both pulled back slowly, unable to look each other in the eye.
"Sorry, got carried away." He said as he swallowed hard and turned back to the screen.
"Yes, yes, just the excitement."
"Well now we know that the premium is still being paid by one Keith Jeffries."
"My God. It's been two years which means he's had to go through $100,000 of his $1 mil to keep the premiums paid."
"Well there had to be a decent period of time between the divorce and the murder to throw off suspicion."
"But wouldn't the insurance company question him paying the premium?"
"I doubt it. Apparently it must have been a part of the prenup that he could assume the policy if he wanted." House's cell phone rang. He pulled it out and answered, spoke for a few minutes and then hung up. "It just gets more and more interesting."
"Why?"
"4E belongs to Matilda Kasinsky."
Finley jumped up. "What?"
"It make sense."
"What makes sense?" Finley said, shaking her head in amazement.
"They needed a way into the apartment to tape the lock. Matilda joins the party, tapes the lock and leaves with everyone else. Asshole sneaks in after the women leave, stabs her, plugs in the alarm, takes the tape off the door and leaves making it look like I did it. He didn't count on you being the one to find us and test my blood, start the ball rolling. Without you, I'd be toast. Thanks."
"We need to let the police in on all of this."
"Yeah. You're right."
"Poor Susan, when she finds out that Matilda was an accomplice..."
"Better her girlfriend than her boyfriend." House said with a wide 'thank God' grin.
"Yeah, I guess so. Greg, I'm so glad it wasn't you."'
"You're going to have do a better imitation of hating me from now on, especially after you sexually molested me with your tongue."
Mouth wide opened, she shook her head. "That was your tongue."
"Sorry, it frequently gets in my way when I'm trying to give someone a tongue wagging and their mouth is over mine."
"Fuck you."
"See, everything's sexual with you." He said with a twinkle in his eye.
"I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, well tomorrow we go to the police and hopefully, this will all be over."
There was a silence filled with confusion as House leaned ever so slightly towards her. Finley drew in her breath and waited, watching his lips. House stopped and then pushed himself up like a Jack in the Box.
"Bedtime. Good night." He said cheerfully. He disappeared into the bedroom.
