Revealing Truths
"Dr. Michaelson, how nice to see you." Sheila had purred, when she and Tom entered his office.
"I'm sorry, I'm getting ready for a procedure…" He said.
"I know." Sheila said, "It's called being charged with accessory to murder and kidnapping." She paused and smiled, "With special circumstances."
"What?" He said, disbelievingly.
"Cut the horseshit." Tom said, "We just got back from digging the bodies up." He paused, "A male body and one of a little girl, and neither one, the ones that were supposed to be in the graves." He raised his eyebrows, "And amazingly enough, our ME said that even the most cursory investigation would have demonstrated that…" He dropped a paper on the desk. "Now, the ME who faked this certificate has gone on to his eternal reward—really, really conveniently, but I see your signature there as well, as assisting in the autopsy." He paused, "That's really odd, given that you're not a medical examiner, but a surgeon."
"Yes it is…" Sheila purred, "But I do think he'd still be able to tell man-hips from woman who has had three children hips." She walked to the side, so that he couldn't watch her and Tom at the same time, always something calculated to raise fear in the hearts of the guilty. "So that means, at the very least, you helped our dear departed fake that report…and maybe more, hmm? Decided that Mark might be a problem in the future and assisted him off this mortal coil?"
"Wha-you're, killed? You're insane!" He said.
"No, doctor, you're insane, for thinking you could pull this one off." Sheila said. "Now I want the truth, nothing but the truth, and you'd better hope God helps you if you lie, because I sure as hell won't." The doctor deflated behind his desk.
"I never assisted on the autopsy. I couldn't." He said. "That was Cindy's body."
"And your signature?"
"That was Mark's idea. He said that it was plain she'd committed suicide, so there was no need to actually have an autopsy." He sighed, "He asked me to sign off on it to spare the family any more pain."
"Uh-huh." Tom said. "And what else did Mark say?" Michaelson looked up at him.
"Um…he suggested I not write anything down about this, of course…and also, that I not do any prying into her suicide. Then he left on vacation."
"And got conveniently dead." Sheila said.
"That was an accident!" The doctor said, flustered.
"Oh really." Sheila responded in a bored, you idiot voice. "Right now our associate is looking over his financial records." She paused, "That's why we weren't back sooner—I had to clear that with my superiors. Now, before anything… incriminating comes up, would you like to tell us anything else?"
"No! I don't know anything else. Look, I'll say it under oath, but Mark came to me, told me this would be best for the family, and asked me to sign it, and I did." The doctor's face was white.
"So you assisted in a falsified death certificate."
"Yes!" Sheila nodded.
"Doctor, presuming nothing else comes up, I believe you. Don't leave town, and don't talk about this to anyone. When it goes public, presuming you have been completely honest with me, I'll do my best to make certain it doesn't come back to haunt you in criminal court. What happens to your medical career, is, of course, between you and those authorities." With that, Sheila turned and left the deflated man.
"Is that wise?"
"I got permission to wiretap his house and celphones." Sheila said. "But nah, I think he's just someone who honestly did think he was helping the family…which is probably why he's alive right now."
"And "Mark?""
"Captain-Calculus is hacking those files right now." Sheila raised a finger, "And no comments about leading him into the paths of temptation. I got a warrant."
"How the hell do you get those things so fast?" Mark asked.
"Karma, Good behaviour, and the fact that I bring in results."
"Does the fact that you throw plasma when you get upset have anything to do with it?"
"That too."
Outside, Wade was in his element—ignoring the merely physical world for the far more interesting data-world.
"So, you've been left alone for nearly thirty minutes. Results?" Sheila asked.
"Oh yeah." Wade answered. Sheila's eyebrows went up. She hadn't expected him to get results that fast. He hit a stud and the laptops integral printer fired out a half dozen sheets. Sheila picked them up and looked at him, frowning at them.
"So our ME was paid 250,000 dollars for a single signature." She said. "An electronic transfer from a bank in Switzerland." She snorted, "Well, good luck getting any information out of them."
"I know, but you authorized me to find the source of the money so I…" Sheila blinked.
"You didn't hack their system, did you?" Sheila said. Then she held out her hand. "Never mind, don't' tell me. Just… arrrggghhhh."
"What?" Wade asked.
"Kid…" Tom said, "Illegally obtained evidence can't be used, usually. Oh there are exceptions, but it can be dicey, and anything you discover from that evidence is also inadmissible, 'Fruit of the poisoned tree.'" Sheila glared at Wade.
"Hang on, I need to make another phone call." She said, and walked over to the other side of the lobby. Tom and Wade waited, hearing snippets of Sheila's conversation.
"…yes, he did."
"NO! I didn't tell him to do that, I told him to find…"
"…well he did, sort of…."
"Look I don't want this thrown…"
"Uh-huh… OK… fine." Sheila looked down at the celphone, closed it, and came marching back.
"Your lucky day, Wade." She said, and Wade blinked, looking at her.
She is really upset. He thought.
"The Bureau thinks this is doable—the warrant we got did say the right to examine his financial transactions, and so, technically sort of, you're within the letter of the warrant." Then she leaned down, and frowned at him. "But for future reference, do not hack foreign computers without asking me first." She paused, "So what did you find?"
"This." Wade said, printing out another sheet and handing it to Sheila.
"Oh…oh." Sheila said, in quiet wonder. She knew that name from the case…
"What is it?"
"This money came from the checking account of the then-DA…the one who filed the charges against Cindy Possible…"
Tono sat in his office, thinking.
Killing the officers, even if it wasn't against the backward traditions of the other families, would be useless. That would only confirm the suspicions of their superiors.
Planting evidence?
More likely, although it to would seem…convenient to all too many individuals. Yet, he only had to delay things for a few months and then his tool would be in position to quash any possible inquiry. Just as long as nobody did anything precipitous, all would be well.
"So what do we do?" Tom asked.
"Arrest the DA?" Wade asked. Sheila and Tom looked at him.
"The Then-DA." Sheila said, "Currently he's the favored candidate for U.S. Attorney General…"
"And you don't accuse someone like that without a pretty iron case." Tom continued, "Because we're not likely to get more than one shot." He shrugged, "So first we check the hospital records."
"And visit the Possible family again." Sheila said. She shrugged, "Get ready for a long day."
Hospital records. Wade groaned, looking at the piles of documents that Sheila and Tom were going through. She hadn't been kidding. They'd checked every one of Cindy's cases, and so far found nothing. Sheila had gone and gotten Dr. Michaelson to sit at the end of table and quiver, between pointed questions.
"So, she was nervous…you thought it was the kids…was there anything else." Sheila said, simultaneously flipping through a book of drug purchases.
"She did go out once or twice…signed out and didn't sign in for a few hours."
"Why? Did she normally do that?"
"No." He said.
"Did she go with anyone?"
"Um…not that I was aware of… I mean a car picked her up, but-"
"Hold on." Sheila said, "You didn't tell me that. A car picked her up?"
"Um, yes…I didn't think anything about it, until now."
"License plate?" he looked at her.
Right, twelve years.
"Color, make?"
"Um…dark. And it was a new model." Sheila sighed at that.
"Maybe…" Her phone rang.
"Hello? Oh, Hello Ms. Possible… What? He did? I see. I see. We'll be there."
Sheila put the phone down.
"What is it?"
"They have something for us." She said quietly.
Another office, another step up the ladder of power, the man thought. But now…now that ladder was swaying, alarmingly. His former coworkers had told him simply because they thought he'd be interested in a case that had been so important to that small town.
More, far more, important than they realized. More devastating than anyone could realize, especially now.
He had to shut them up, to shut up those three who had in a single week, come closer than anyone had in twelve years.
Except Tono, of course, his good friend, his helper…his master. No, there was no other word for it. Tono held the secrets that would destroy him, and even if he wasn't crass enough to say it, as long as he lived, there would be no freedom. Especially since it seemed like the bitch and her brat were still alive.
But now, he had a plan to kill two birds with one stone.
Or rather…arrange to have them kill each other…
TBC.