Death Dance

39

"I didn't know you guys were cops," Briggs said, blanching as he planted the champagne bottle on his late father's desk and led us into a small study off the main room."I'm-uh-I'm sorry for- uh- "

He didn't seem to know for which offense he was apologizing, but the display of Mike's shield had sobered his disposition.

"We've got to make a couple of calls. You mind leaving us alone in here?"

Briggs closed the door behind him and must have signaled the reveling mourners to quiet down. Mike called the ME's office and reached the attendant on duty.

"Get me Dr. Kestenbaum," he said to the clerk who answered the phone.

"Talk about dancing on the grave," I said. "What a disgusting display."

"You expected better from the Berks? I just want to know who pulled the plug on him. Too many happy people in there. And pretty ironic that he and Galinova are sleeping together again, side by side."

"No wonder Mona was in such a rush to get here for the celebration."

"Hello, doc? Chapman here. You got the Wizard of the Great White Way ready for his surgical debut?" Mike winked at me. "What do you mean, who? Joe Berk. I'm talking about Joe Berk."

Chapman listened for several minutes and then repeated the conversation to me after he hung up. "They're going to do the autopsy tonight, but his death has all the signs of a stroke. Damn, I would have bet the odds he didn't die of natural causes. Especially before I got to rattle him."

"I wonder what Joe's medical condition was. I mean, I hope that we didn't-"

"Don't go feeling all guilty on me, Coop, like we brought it on by aggravating him this morning. Kestenbaum says it's a logical after-effect of the electrical event."

"Electrical event? He makes it sound like a Broadway production. Meaning what?"

"Berk survived the jolt from stepping on the manhole cover. But apparently people who live through that experience can develop clotting in the blood vessels along the path that carried the current through the body. So it's not unusual to have a-what'd he call it?- an arterial thrombosis in the first few weeks after the accident. A stroke is what killed him."

"And I was just beginning to feel we were so close to connecting Berk to Galinova's murder, to figuring out what was going on between them."

"Let's keep at it. Suppose he did it, suppose he's still the main suspect? There's stuff to tie up here," Mike said, opening the door to the office.

It looked as though several people had left while we were in the study, but Mona Berk and Ross Kehoe had come downstairs to talk to Briggs. Before I could get any farther, the elevator doors opened and the squat figure of Rinaldo Vicci burst into the room.

"Briggsley, my boy," Vicci said, rolling his r in dramatic fashion, ignoring both of us and embracing the young man. "I came as soon as I heard the news. It's impossible to believe. Such a force, such a great life force."

Mona let them talk and walked over to us, glass in hand. "Some things are just meant to be, Mike, aren't they?"

"Seems to me you could have waited another few days before starting the celebration."

"You know, in my head I had it figured he was dead a week ago, the first time I got the call. Sort of like a dress rehearsal," Mona said, smiling. "Made it so much easier to take when I got the news today. It wouldn't become me to fake my grief, would it?"

Briggs turned back to us. "Mona told me why you were here last week. This really isn't the right time to be bringing a criminal investigation into my father's-"

"Oh, yeah? And you're giving death etiquette lessons while you got a party going on here? Let me start by extending my sympathy to you. Sincerely. You can't imagine quite bow sincerely because of how unfortunate the timing of your father's passing is for me. I had bigger plans for him."

"Why don't you tell us what happened today? " I said.

A semicircle had been formed now. Briggs in the middle, facing us, with Mona next to him and Ross Kehoe stroking her back as he watched the scene. Vicci was on the other side of Briggs, his hands clenched and poised against his lips, as though in prayer. There were four men and one woman gathering across the room.

Mike told them to be sure not to leave before giving us their names.

"I'm so tired I can't even think straight," Briggs said.

"When did you get back to New York?"

"From the coast? I took the red-eye Saturday night. I've been up since then."

"Did you see your father yesterday?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I was here. Look, do I have to answer your questions right now? I mean, I'm sure my lawyer would like to be here."

"Your lawyer? You in some kind of trouble?" Mike asked facetiously.

Ross Kehoe answered for Briggs. "Not a criminal lawyer, Mr. Chapman. Obviously, Briggs had to get Joe's attorney over here right away. There's a lot to attend to, a lot of financial matters to work out."

Kehoe had left Mona's side and was trying to create some physical distance between Briggs and the two of us.

"We don't mean to upset any of you any further. We'd just like to know-well, how Joe died and who was with him," I said.

"He was alone," Briggs said. "I mean, the nurse was here. She's the one who found him. She said he'd had a bad night."

That didn't make me feel any better about having dropped by to stir things up in the morning.

"Your visit with him on Sunday-was it just a regular-well…?" I didn't even know how to phrase the question. I couldn't imagine anything normal about the Berk family, but I didn't want to put the word confrontational on the table.

Mona started to speak. "My uncle loved Briggs. Why don't you sit down?" she said, turning to her cousin, who seemed to be wilting before our eyes.

Kehoe picked up the conversation. "Detective, the kid's been through a lot. None of his siblings give a damn about him. He and his father were getting along really well these past few months. How about a couple of days to let him absorb this?"

"Whatever the doctor says. Take some Tylenol, get plenty of rest, and, by the way, lay off the buckets of champagne. They don't mix well with formaldehyde."

Mona was trying to keep Briggs calm, so I asked Ross Kehoe, "What did the nurse say about Mr. Berk's death?"

"Only that she checked on him at about eleven a.m. He was complaining of a headache and she put him back in bed for a nap. When she went in to bring him some food an hour later, she couldn't wake him up."

"Did his physician-"

"Yes, of course. The nurse called nine-one-one. EMTs arrived first but it was all over. Joe's personal physician was here within the hour."

"You and Mona?"

Kehoe held up his hands. "Hey. Briggs called Mona to tell us about it and we came over because of how Mona feels about Briggs. Joe and Mona in the same room would have been a recipe for disaster."

"How'd you get along with Joe?" I asked.

Kehoe put his hands in the rear pockets of his jeans. "Which day of the week?"

"Didn't you work for him once?" Mike asked.

"That's right. I had no beef with Joe. He was good to me back then. No surprise he didn't like to think of me marrying into the bloodline, but he treated me fine."

Of all the people in the room-and all those we had met in the course of the investigation-Mike seemed to get the most out of Ross Kehoe. Something about his blue-collar background, the rough edges of his city accent, reduced what Mike liked to call the bullshit factor. I imagine his appearance had changed once Mona came into his life-finer clothes, expensive suede loafers that he sported today, a stylish haircut-but the basic bones looked as much like a cop's as did Mike's.

"What'd you do for Berk?" I asked.

"Everything. Met him in one of his theaters. My old man was in the union-you know the way this business is. Joe thought I could do things-I don't want to blow my own horn-but I was kind of a jack-of-all-trades, and I could deal with his temper better than most."

"What did you do for him, exactly?"

"Stage crew kind of stuff, originally. A couple of years back, before I met Mona, I was his driver. That's when we got kind of friendly. He even put me into some investments. Some good deals that I scored on. Mona likes bling-and it got to the point I could buy it for her myself."

"Joe fire you?"

"Nah. I just left. It wasn't gonna work with me getting so close to Mona."

While we were talking, I saw Mona Berk walk away from Briggs and start back up the staircase, nodding to Rinaldo Vicci to join her.

I elbowed Mike, who followed after them.

Mona paused on the fourth step and turned to face him. "Once again, it's time for me to tell you to get out of here, if you and your girlfriend don't mind."

Mike kept jogging up the stairs.

"Detective, where do you think you're going?"

"I just need to check out something in Mr. Berk's room."

She raised her voice. "Where's your warrant, detective?"

"Where's your standing?" he said to her as she tried to catch up with him.

"What do you mean, standing?"

Mike was at the top of the stairs. "This is Joe Berk's place. And since Uncle Joe has gone to meet his maker, you haven't got any more legal right to tell me to get out of here than Houdini does. You got no standing."

"Ross, is that true?"

Kehoe shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not getting into this one. I'm not a lawyer, babe. I don't know who's right here."

"Briggs? Say something, goddamn it," Mona screamed to her cousin.

I dashed up the stairs to try to broker a deal but Mona raced past Mike into Joe's bedroom and pulled the door shut behind her.

"Wait a minute, detective, will you? What do you want? What are you looking for?" Briggs trudged to the bottom of the steps and held on to the banister. "I want to be there when you're looking around my dad's stuff, okay? Don't you think that's fair?"

"Fair isn't in my vocabulary for you or for anyone else in your family-for this whole cast of characters. You're all so used to dealing with make-believe that you don't know when to wake up and tell the truth."

Mike walked to the bedroom door and turned the knob. Neither one of us should have been surprised that Mona had locked it when she went inside.

Mike kicked and pushed against it, but the heavy oak panels didn't budge. Briggs climbed the staircase while Ross called out to Mona to be reasonable and open the door.

Rinaldo Vicci went to Berk's desk and pulled out the top drawer."Piano, piano. Slow down, everybody. Calm yourselves."

Vicci walked to the bottom of the staircase and Mike trotted down for the ornate brass key. He put it in the lock and the door opened.

The room was empty. Even Berk's bed had been stripped of its linens and all the medications on his nightstand. The only things that looked out of order were a few open dresser drawers and a closet left ajar.

Mona Berk had taken the private elevator-the one that had ferried showgirls directly to the bedroom for David Belasco and the late Joe Berk-and left the building. I couldn't imagine what she might have taken with her.