Chain of Evidence

CHAPTER 32

“What the hell?” Ted Bragg’s shirt was buttoned lopsidedly and there was sleep dust stuck to the lid of his left eye. “Richardson is on call tonight. This morning,” he corrected, checking his watch. It was 3:00 A.M. Dart had been at 11 Hamilton Court only a few hours earlier. It seemed like a lifetime to him now.

“I needed the best, Teddy. I needed you.”

“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. Richardson is good.” He sized up Dart. “You look like shit.”

“I feel like shit,” Dart said.

He checked his watch again.

“So what’s so fucking important?” He added, “I tell ya, this had better be good.”

“Do you have your stuff?”

“It’s in the car.”

“I’ll help you,” Dart offered.

Bragg shook his head in disgust. “May I remind you: I am not on call tonight.”

They removed two heavy bags from Bragg’s trunk. Dart was trying hard to reveal none of the turmoil and excitement he felt. Convinced that he finally understood each of the suicides, only Bragg was capable of confirming these, for him and for Bragg himself. But to be truly effective, he would have to trick the man.

“Where is everybody?” Bragg questioned.

“I haven’t called it in,” Dart answered, leading him up the flight of stairs.

“Smells like smoke in here,” Bragg said, moving up the stairs slowly. “Are you trying to tell me that you’ve called me to a crime scene that you haven’t called in?”

“That’s right.”

Bragg stepped inside the apartment door and set down the bags. “That’s not like you, Ivy.”

“No.”

“I tell ya, if you’re yanking my chain-”

“I’m not. I need an over-the-top is all,” Dart told him.

“Yeah, right-an over-the-top,” Bragg repeated caustically. “Since when do I do a half-ass job, Ivy? Answer me that.”

“You’re the best, Teddy.”

“Fuck you.” Bragg stooped toward the bags. “You’re playing assistant, I’ll tell you that much. This just became a two-man team.” He snapped on his gloves and went to work.

Dart heaved a sigh of relief.

Forty minutes later, Bragg sat down, clearly exhausted.

He had scrutinized every detail of the crime scene, collecting and bagging evidence at each step. He had been particularly intrigued with his discovery that the carpet below the broken window appeared to have been vacuumed. He had given Dart an all-knowing look that the detective had relished clear to his core.

Bragg packed up his gear, keeping the dozen or so evidence bags separate. He sat on a wicker chair. Dart leaned against the wall. “Well?” Dart asked.

“I tell ya, I see what it is about it that gave you the hard-on. I’ve got glass from the broken window-inside, on the carpet-that says the perpetrator most likely entered from the fire escape. Mud and some familiar organic matter-it looks like those same cypress needles to me-those from his shoe soles-good supporting evidence. All this in an area that appears to have been vacuumed-again, familiar. Maybe we find rock salt and potting soil when all is said and done-my guess is that we will. But I’ve got synthetics and what looks like cotton fibers on top of that area, meaning we’ve got timing problems-just like at Harold Payne’s suicide.”

Dart answered him with a nod, attempting to keep any emotion off his face.

Bragg said, “It looks like some guy comes in and taps someone. You have a body, I’m assuming?” Dart didn’t answer. Annoyed, Bragg said, “The blood splatter is telling me small weapons fire at close range. Drags the body, from yea to yea,” he said, pointing to the carpet marks that ran from the television to the window, “and, judging by the blood smear out there, tosses the stiff over the rail toward that Dumpster. The Dumpster is next, Ivy. I gotta get a look down there.” He smiled proudly. “You found the body in the Dumpster, am I right?”

Dart said, “You’ve never been to my place, have you, Teddy?” He rounded the corner into the kitchen and retrieved a beer from the refrigerator. He handed it to the forensics man.

“Your place? No. Why do you ask?” Bragg drank generously from the can.

“Did I tell you that Ginny took most of the furniture when she split?” Dart looked out into the empty living room. Bragg’s eyes followed his closely.

“Is that right?” Bragg asked uneasily. He shifted in the chair restlessly.

Dart drank a long gulp of beer. “Yup.”

“Left you three chairs, did she?” Bragg asked, counting the chair he was sitting in and two others by the breakfast table across the room.

“Three. That’s right.”

Bragg’s eyes filled with concern. “What the hell’s going on?” Agitated, he glanced at Dart sharply. “This is your place, huh?”

“Yup.”

“Oh, shit. Listen, we all lose our cool eventually, Ivy. It happens. If you called me because you want help getting rid of the evidence … I can’t do that for you. I can walk away from here. I can never mention this. But I can’t help you.”

Dart smiled. “It’s that convincing, isn’t it?” he asked.

“What?”

“The evidence.”

Bragg looked around. “What are you saying?”

“I had to make sure it was convincing.”

Bragg said, “You called me because we’re friends. I understand that-”

Interrupting, Dart said, “I called you because you’re the last line of defense. You’re the final arbiter. You’re the one who signs off on this stuff. You’re the guy, Teddy.” Dart reached down and sorted through Bragg’s evidence bags, all neatly marked and labeled. He found three of those he was after and dropped them into Bragg’s lap.

Bragg studied them. His forehead was shiny with perspiration. “I won’t destroy evidence for you, Ivy.”

Dart laughed. He met eyes with the man and said, “Those fibers are from the basement of 11 Hamilton Court. A fly-tying setup in the basement. Everything in little containers.”

“Fishing?”

“It has nothing to do with fishing.”

Bragg lifted one of the bags then and inspected its contents closely, confused and nervous.

“Animal hairs, metal shavings, synthetics, feathers-all there on that fly-tying table.” Dart explained, “The crime scenes-the suicides-were works of fiction. The hairs and fibers were props, Teddy. Planted by a very clever individual. They told a story that we were comfortable reading.” He pointed to the living room. “It took me a little over two hours to set this up-but then I’m new at this.”

Bragg’s eyes went wide as he began to comprehend. “You staged this?”

“I had to see if it could be done. I had to see if I could fool the best. You are the best, Teddy. It couldn’t be Richardson. I scripted this crime scene, and I used the necessary props to be convincing.”

“You woke me up for a staged crime scene?” Bragg checked his watch.

“We’re predictable, Teddy. You, me-all of us.” He added, “If you know us well enough.”

Bragg put down the beer and got out of the chair and walked a few feet to the edge of the living room and looked it over. “Staged?” he asked incredulously.

Dart gave the man time to think it over, to see the various ramifications of someone planting trace evidence at a crime scene. He finally announced, “They were all homicides, Teddy. Every last one of them.”

Bragg considered this for a long time. “Yeah? Think so? I tell ya-to be this good,” he declared strongly, “you gotta be better than smart. You gotta be one of us.”

“That’s right.”

Bragg paled. “You know who it is?”

Dart nodded. “Yeah,” he answered. “I know.”