The Other Path
Chapter 39
"What the hell!" Lynch exclaims as his Chief of Staff Matt Billings plays the video of Buck Paulson's show from the night before. "I got a call that he was sounding off, but I had no idea he was spouting anything this crazy. I don't even know Marion Menkin. We've nodded at each other when we were on a podium together, but that's the extent of our contact. How could Paulson be insisting that we colluded to kill her husband? And why would I appoint that jerk, Phizbin? He couldn't find his butt with two hands and a flashlight. And Paulson must have let him know what was coming down. He couldn't just spring something like this on an idiot like that. Get Phizbin on the phone. I want to talk to him."
"That could be a problem, Sir," Billings suggests. "I've already put our people on reaching out to Phizbin. They couldn't find him, and as far as we can ascertain so far, his staff doesn't know where he is. A gaggle of reporters camped out on his lawn, and from everything they could tell, he wasn't there. And his wife claimed she doesn't know where he is either. She thought he had a political thing last night. But his assistant didn't have one on his schedule."
"So just when he should be greeting enthusiastic crowds, he disappears?" Lynch queries.
"That's about it, Sir."
"Then, get the state troopers on it," Lynch orders. "I want him found."
"What do you mean no one can find Phizbin?" Buck Paulson demands.
"I put all our people on it, Buck," Fuhrman explains. "They've called every contact we have for him and come up empty. The staff at the FIX bureau in West Virginia doesn't have anything either. It's like he fell off the edge of the Earth."
Buck snorts. "More like rolled. Maybe he found some piece of ass to celebrate with and shacked up with her for the night. Have the staff check bars, motels, anywhere that might have seen him. If he's done anything that could embarrass us, we need to put a lid on it before the press on the other side picks it up."
A loud alert sounds from Fuhrman's pocket. "That's a 911!" He grabs for his cell phone and scans a text. "West Virginia State Troopers found Phizbin's body in some brush on the side of Route 25."
"Does it say how he died?" Paulson's eyes brighten. "If he was murdered, we've got a whole new charge we can dump on Lynch and Marion Menkin."
Fuhrman shakes his head. "It doesn't say, but I'll switch everyone over to finding out."
"Phizbin's dead," Lynch echoes Matt Billings. "What happened? If someone attacked him, this mess could get even more out of hand."
"The medical examiner called to the scene looked him over. There weren't any signs of an attack. The doctor found a large blondie in his throat."
"A what?"
"A brownie without the chocolate," Billings explains. "Apparently, Phizbin choked to death and was dumped."
"Then make sure we find out who dumped him ASAP."
"Yes, Sir."
Rick studies the newsfeed on his phone. "Wow! Spend an evening cheering on the crew of the Enterprise, and what do you miss? Buck Paulson announces that West Virginia Governor Lynch colluded with Marion Menkin to murder Joe. Paulson challenges Lynch to appoint the party's pet pick Phizbin to prove his loyalty. Then Phizbin ends up dead of overindulgence in sweet treats."
"Did Paulson say what proof he has that Lynch and Marion Menkin were behind her husband's death?" Kate inquires.
"Oh, the usual secret file. He's claiming that he can't hand it over to the authorities because, as a journalist, he's obligated to shield his sources. My guess is his only source is the hole in his ass. Every other conspiracy he's claimed has been thoroughly debunked. And if there were anything to the connection between Marion and Lynch, Feldshuh would have known about it. Also, Lynch could have found Marion a way around Judge Jeffries. The story doesn't track."
"Whether it does or not, we still have to check it out, especially since we already liked Marion for the murder." Kate's cell sounds. "We've got the rest of Marion's files. The digitized stuff. That's as good a place to start as any."
"You've got the Homicide Squad's forensic accountants to help you with that. But we saw some puzzling payments Marion made 25 years back in the hardcopies we went through. They were obviously too long ago to go for a hit on Joe. It didn't look like they had anything at all to do with Joe's murder, but now I'm not so sure. There's a story there, and stories have consequences," Rick insists. "I want to see if I can track down that tale."
"How?" Kate asks. "Those records weren't digitized, and you saw everything that was there."
"Those personal records weren't digitized, but vital records, births, deaths, marriages, pop up in computer databases. Finding that sort of thing was a lot of the training I got in my PI course. It was hardly the most exciting part, but I think it could come in handy right now. I need to work from the loft, but I'll call you if I come up with anything. Will you call me if you uncover an incriminating transfer?"
"I'll call," Kate promises.
What would have happened 25 years ago that would have affected Marion today?" Rick murmurs aloud as he opens his laptop and signs onto a subscription search engine. "The thing that drove her to finally file suit was a threat to her grandchildren. Could one have been in trouble that long ago?" Rick starts checking for a Menkin-related grandchild born around that time but finds nothing. Maybe that was the problem. The relationship wasn't on the books. Rick tries again using Marion's middle name, Guillebeaux. Only one hit pops up. That's not surprising to Rick. In the whole country, only about a hundred people have Guillebeaux as a surname. A 22-year-old Petal Guillebeaux gave birth to a little girl named Violette in Fayette County. And as Rick recalls, throughout the records he checked, Marion Menkin wired funds to Fayetteville.
Rick needs to know more about Petal and Violette Guillebeaux. He signs onto another search engine, the one featuring obscure blurbs from small newspapers. Fortunately, he couldn't have a much more specific keyword than Guillibeaux. And there's the story, the root of it all. Twenty-five years before, a freak storm dropped a tree on a car with three people inside. Two survived: the mother, Petal Guillebeaux, and her newborn baby. The father died at the scene. The pictures with the story are in grainy black and white. But the dead man's features are classically African-American. And Petal looks a lot like photos taken of Marion when she was younger.
According to the story, the baby was gravely injured and would require lifetime care. Considering how tightly Marion's family and the Menkins guard their names and fortunes, a disabled biracial child born out of wedlock would hardly be welcome. But Marion would make sure her grandchild would have the care she needed. Petal and Violette give Marion a stronger motive than ever. Joe was endangering their future for his political gain. Hopefully, Kate will come up with evidence of how Marion could arrange the kill. He checks his watch. A search for recent transfers shouldn't take long. If Marion did pay someone, Kate will know about it soon.
