Catch a Falling Knife

Chapter 20

“Thanks for coming, Aunt Lillian,” Burt Brown said as he gave me a hug and ushered me into his office. “I want to tell you everything I’ve found out and get your opinion. You know these people better than I do.”

That corresponded perfectly with my wishes because I had been starved for information since yesterday morning and wanted desperately to get back in the loop.

“When can you get Mark out of prison?” was my first question.

“Not so fast.” Burt smiled, running his hand through his dark hair. “It may take a few days. Murder is a serious charge. There will be a bail hearing, but I’d better warn you, it’s possible that the judge will deny bail or set it impossibly high.”

“And then Mark would have to stay in prison?”

“It could happen. Of course, if we can prove that somebody else killed Elise…”

“The Perry Mason approach.”

“Perry Mason, the idol of all defense attorneys. He never lost a case.”

“I guess I am trying to move too fast. That’s how I almost lost a chess game yesterday. Why don’t you tell me about the new evidence.”

“That’s what I want to do. It seems that this girl Donna went to the police Wednesday afternoon.”

“Donna?” I exclaimed. “Donna testified against Mark? Donna likes Mark. Donna has a crush on Mark.”

“That’s what she said in her testimony,” Burt said, glancing at some computer-printed pages. “In fact, that’s the reason she gave for not telling this before. Evidently, she was trying to protect Mark and hoped somebody else would be arrested for the murder. But her conscience got the better of her.”

“I talked to Donna Wednesday at noon. Everything seemed to be hunky-dory with her then.”

“Why don’t you let me tell you what she said and then we can discuss it. As I said, Donna went to the police. Detective Johnson and somebody else took her testimony. She said that on the evening Elise was murdered she, Donna, was getting ready to go to Club Cavalier to perform as the Shooting Star. Elise was also getting dolled up, as if she was going out.

“Donna asked what she was doing because Elise usually studied in the evenings during the week. According to Donna, Elise hemmed and hawed for a while and then said she had a date with Dr. Pappas.”

“But that’s impossible. Mark was lost on Mt. Mitchell at the time. And Elise had filed a sexual harassment charge against him so why would she go out with him? Besides, Mark has a girlfriend-Sandra.”

“All good points,” Burt said, smiling, “and we will address them. As to the harassment charge, Elise confided to Donna that she was dropping it and that it had been a mistake for her to file it in the first place. And of course Elise left a message for you saying somewhat the same thing.”

I couldn’t deny that. But it did seem to take away Mark’s motive for murdering Elise.

Burt continued, “Elise said Dr. Pappas was crazy about her and she was crazy about him and that’s all there was to it. Now let me finish Donna’s story. She said that she left for Club Cavalier before Elise left. When she returned a little before 11 p.m., as she pulled up in front of the apartment she saw another car pull away. She didn’t know who it was at the time, but a few days later she saw the car of Dr. Pappas and realized that the car she had seen looked a lot like it.”

“She saw Mark’s car at Albert’s farm because I was stupid enough to invite her there to brunch. Great. I gave her the ammunition for her story.”

“Unfortunately, I’ve saved the worst for last. When the police arrested Mark yesterday they searched his car, using a warrant, and found a carving knife in the trunk, wrapped in a towel. There was dried blood on both the knife and the towel. The police lab is matching the blood with that of Elise.”

It took me a minute to recover from that one. Finally, I said, weakly, “Donna could have put the knife in the trunk at the farm. Mark doesn’t usually lock his car-he jokes that he wishes someone would steal it-and you can open the trunk with a latch inside the car.”

“So you think Donna is the murderer?”

“She could be making accusations to save her own skin.”

“Actually, her skin didn’t seem to need saving before because there wasn’t any evidence against her, other than the fact that she discovered Elise’s body. Could somebody else have put the knife in the trunk when it was parked at the college?”

“Possibly. But I remember now that the police had searched Mark’s car before and hadn’t found anything.”

Burt made a note and said, “Of course we will explore all of this.”

“When can I see Mark?” I asked.

Burt smoothed his hair with his hand again. He said, “As his attorney, I can see him. I’m going to talk to him this afternoon. At the place where they’re holding him at the moment, they have a funny system. They’re not set up for visitors so friends and family members can’t actually visit him, but they can talk to him on the telephone. They have sort of an intercom setup.”

“Do we have to go to the jail to use it?”

“Yes.”

“May I hitch a ride with you when you go?”

“Of course. And don’t worry. We’ll get Mark out of this. But we should eat first. Are you up for lunch?”

“Always.”

It wasn’t actually a jail. The Bethany Police Station had several holding cells and Mark was in one of these until they sorted out what to do with him. His arraignment hearing was scheduled for Monday.

I only got as far as the waiting room inside the main entrance. It wasn’t the sort of place where you would choose to spend a lot of time. It was clean enough and the walls were painted in pastel colors. Large bulletin boards had notices about the benefits of joining the police force. Computer printouts contained alerts on recent local crimes and several posters had graphic propaganda about the dangers of taking drugs. I didn’t see any of the “wanted” posters that one associates with places like this. Maybe all the known bad guys were behind bars.

People kept coming in and going out. Several uniformed police officers passed through; others not in uniform appeared to be police employees. It was the other people I saw who made the place depressing. Some were there to report problems to the officer at the counter. Others came to talk to inmates, as I did. They looked worried or bewildered or upset. Family members clung together. None of them smiled.

When my turn came the officer instructed me to pick up the phone. I pressed it to my ear and said hello. Although the noise in the waiting room wasn’t overly loud, conversations between the desk officers and civilians created a constant hum and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hear Mark. My hearing isn’t what it used to be.

“Hello, Lillian,” Mark said. “Burt told me you were here. It was nice of you to come.”

He sounded all right; Burt must have given him encouragement. I said, “I wanted to let you know that we’re working for you.”

“At least you are. You’re my most faithful friend.”

I hoped that wasn’t true. I would make sure that Sandra came here tomorrow. I couldn’t talk long so I had to get to the point. I said, “When do you think the knife was put in the trunk?”

“I don’t know. I had the trunk open the day before-that’s the day you and I went to Bethany-but I didn’t see the knife. However, the police found it in the wheel well underneath the mat so I wouldn’t have looked there unless I had noticed something suspicious, such as the mat being out of place. But everything looked all right to me.”

“Have you kept your car locked for the past few days?”

“I lock it when I’m working at the restaurant. I never lock it at Silver Acres because that’s such a safe place.”

“How about at the college? For example, when you and I were there.”

“No, I didn’t usually lock it there.”

That corresponded with my memory. Donna-or somebody-could have placed the knife in the trunk at the college. Mark had parked the car in the faculty parking lot where it would have been easy to find. He still had a sticker that allowed him to do that.

“What about this new story of Donna’s?” I asked.

“It’s a complete fabrication. I don’t know why she told it, unless she’s trying to protect herself.”

I knew that already, but I wanted to hear Mark say it. We chatted for a few more minutes until our time was up. I promised to get him out and tried to raise his spirits. He thanked me for caring.

As he drove back to Durham in his leased Lexus, Burt told me that the stains on the knife and the towel had definitely been identified as the blood of Elise.

“So that’s the murder weapon,” I said, abandoning a ray of hope I now realized I had been clinging to, subconsciously.

“It appears that way.” Burt glanced at me, having heard the disappointment in my voice. “But don’t let that get you down. There were no fingerprints on the knife. We can use the fact that Mark rarely locked his car as evidence of how easy it would have been to plant the knife in his trunk. The case against him is circumstantial, at best. I hope you wouldn’t mind going on the witness stand to verify that he didn’t usually lock his car.”

“Of course not. But I hope it never gets that far. How did you find out that the blood was Elise’s?”

“I ran into Detective Johnson and waylaid him long enough to get him to tell me that.”

“Speaking of Detective Johnson, I need to talk to him too. But I don’t think he’ll want to talk to me when he finds out what I want him to do. You’re going to have to help me with him.” “Anything for you, Aunt Lillian. And to help prove that Mark is innocent.”