Killer Ambition

44

I stomped back to my office in what Toni would’ve called “a mood and a half.” What was I going to do with some dippy showbiz kid who probably only got hired because some management jerk wanted invites to premieres? Then it occurred to me that “useless” was the least of my problems. Vanderhorn didn’t just throw Declan Shackner in to be a Hollywood token. He intended for Declan to be his spy. This just got better and better.

I slammed the space bar on my keyboard and pulled up the forms to start the filing process. I decided to call Bailey and let her weigh in. She said she might as well come over and do it in person. “That way, you can be there when I negotiate with Powers’s lawyer to have him surrender,” she said.

“Who’s his lawyer?”

“Wagmeister-”

“I thought he was representing Averly.” He couldn’t ethically represent both Powers and Averly-the possibility for a conflict of interest was too great.

“I’d guess it’s just for the moment.”

“He’ll probably keep Powers and push Averly off on someone else.”

“And that someone else is probably already on deck. See you in ten.”

My stomach grumbled loudly. I glanced out my window at the Times Building clock. It was almost two thirty. Where had the time gone? I ran down to the snack bar and grabbed a couple of sandwiches for Bailey and me, knowing she’d probably forgotten to eat too. I wondered whether I’d be able to send my new second chair on errands like this in the future. It occurred to me that I was finally getting my very own assistant. It also struck me as a classic example of “be careful what you ask for.”

“Food.” Bailey dropped her feet off my desk and onto the floor when she saw me walk in with the sandwiches. “Bless you, my child.”

I picked up the turkey and Swiss and gave Bailey the BLT, her favorite. Then I closed the door-something we seldom did in these shoebox-sized offices. Bailey raised her eyebrows, then nodded. “Probably a good idea,” she said.

“And one we’re going to have to get used to.” I gestured around the building. “Lots of ‘interested parties,’ and now there’s going to be a big market for them.”

“Speaking of which, any idea who leaked to that tabloid guy?”

I shook my head. “I’m leaning toward filing the same charges on Averly and Powers,” I said.

“Either one could be the accomplice, I guess. Even though we think Powers has to be the mastermind, that doesn’t necessarily mean he did the killing.”

“Not yet, anyway. They’re still testing everything, so we might learn differently. But for now, let’s bang out a working theory so I can sort out the charges. I can always amend later.”

“We don’t know how he did it, but somehow Ian got wind of the kidnapping. Then, although the drop site was Fryman Canyon, they all wound up on Boney Mountain-”

“Man, I hate that part of the case.” The more “somehow’s” and “for some reason’s” we had, the more ammo it gave the defense to argue we didn’t have enough proof.

“No more than I do.” We both sighed. “Anyway, I think Powers called in our boy Averly to at least help, if not do the heavy lifting, and be his ride up to the mountain-”

“Right. And based on the messages on Hayley’s cell phone, my guess is that Ian ambushed Brian-”

“Ian? Why not Averly?”

“Charging-wise, it may not matter. But the evidence seems to shake out that way, and he’s the only one with both the motive and the smarts. The way I see it, Ian kills Brian, or knocks him out, gets his cell phone, and sees the texts from Hayley, so he knows Hayley’s in on it and she’s nearby-”

Bailey balled up the sandwich wrapper and tossed it into the wastebasket. “He kills Brian, buries him, but not well because he doesn’t have a whole lot of time, then sends the text to Hayley to lure her out. He kills Hayley, dumps her into the trunk of Brian’s car-”

“Right,” I said. “I’m not sure he planned on seeing Hayley up there-”

“Yeah, I don’t think he planned to kill her. After all, she’s his buddy’s daughter. He might’ve figured that with Brian out of the way, she could be scared off from taking things any further. But when he realized that she was there on the mountain, he couldn’t let her go-”

“Because if Brian’s body was ever found-”

“Which in fact it was-”

“-she’d be a bad witness to have floating around. So he kills her and puts her into the trunk of Brian’s car-”

“Which gives us the blood on the trunk.”

I nodded. “That’s the nail in Ian’s coffin as far as Hayley’s murder.” It’s very rare for someone to kill with a knife without cutting themselves, so the fact that we had Ian’s blood mixed in with Hayley’s showed he likely committed her murder. “As far as Brian’s murder…the physical evidence doesn’t do much for us one way or the other in terms of showing whether it was Ian or Averly. But Ian’s got the motive to kill Brian-”

“Yeah, so I’m with you that Ian probably did them both. Then Averly drives Brian’s car to the airport and takes off to New York.”

“And Ian drives back down the mountain and shows up at Russell’s house,” I said. “So here’s my question: Is it at all plausible that Averly didn’t know about the plan, and just thought he was giving Powers a ride up to Boney Mountain, then got roped into putting a body into a trunk and driving it away? If so, he’s an accessory after the fact, not an accomplice. On the other hand, if he did know that the plan was to kill someone, he’s an accomplice-at the very least to the killing of Brian if not both Brian and Hayley.”

“Do we have to choose now?”

“We have to file something now. And if we file just the accessory charge, and he pleads to it, we could be shut out of ever getting him for murder.”

“But if we file murder charges and later have to reduce or dismiss them, we look pretty raggedy, don’t we?”

“Yep.”

Bailey folded her arms and stared at the floor.

“I’m going to vote we take the risk of looking raggedy,” I said. “Overcharging Jack Averly won’t take any options off the table, but undercharging will. Besides, it’ll give us more bargaining power. If he’s facing a life sentence for murder, he’ll be a lot more interested in taking a deal in return for testimony.”

“So two murder counts each for Averly and Powers. What about a kidnapping charge?”

“Well, the texts on Hayley’s phone seem to show they got to the mountain under their own steam.”

“Not for Hayley,” Bailey said. “I meant for Brian. We found his body in such a remote spot. Either Averly or Powers had to have made him go out there.”

“That’s logical. Problem is, there’s no way to prove any kind of force was used to move Brian around. But it’s the difference between what I believe and what I can prove. Besides, if we do luck into some evidence, I can always add a count of kidnapping.”

Bailey nodded.

“So just to play it all the way out,” I said, “Averly drops the car at the airport, then hops a plane to New York-”

“Where he buys the ticket to Paris in Brian’s name to throw us off-”

“Using Hayley’s iPad, right. And then, when the iPad got stolen, he had to get out of Dodge. Fortunately, I made my brilliant move of calling Averly-”

“Let it go, Sherlock.” Bailey tapped the desk. “So who bought those first two tickets to New York? Brian? Or Averly, using Brian’s credit card?”

“My bet would be Brian. He and Hayley were about to come into a million bucks. May as well live it up.” They’d deal with Russell’s wrath later. “We’ll need to get into Powers’s and Averly’s backgrounds, build up the history between them. Show they had a connection before the kidnapping.”

“Already did the background checks. Averly’s you know about. Ian Powers had no time to get busted. Daddy was a drunk, and by the time he was eight, he was a child star who was supporting his whole family.”

“Great. Now we’re prosecuting a charity sponsor, child star, and a kid who pulled the freight for the family. Anything else? Maybe he flies in care packages to the starving in Nigeria?”

“Don’t think he has a pilot’s license, but I’ll look into it,” Bailey said. “As for his connection to Averly, I’ll go back into Averly’s phone bill and check out the pattern of calls between them. They had to have known each other for a while for Ian to feel safe enough to pull Averly in-even if he didn’t let Averly in on the plan to kill Brian.” Bailey pulled Jack Averly’s rap sheet out of her file folder and laid it on my desk. “Here’s your copy. I highlighted the drug busts in yellow. So far, I’m still on board with our theory that he was Ian’s dealer.”

“We should interview everyone at the studio. See if we can find anyone who’ll say Averly was dealing.”

“You really think anyone’ll talk to us now?”

I shook my head. “But we have to try.” I turned back to my computer and started to type. “So two counts of murder for each of them, plus use of the knife, arming with a deadly weapon. And it’s a special circumstance of multiple murder, so it’s a mandatory sentence of life without parole.” I hit “Print” and the pages began to roll out.

“Meant to tell you. Just before I left the station I got word that Averly’s on a plane. Should be landing late tonight.”

“Great. I’ll get this paperwork downstairs. With a little luck, we’ll get these guys arraigned tomorrow morning.” I stood up to go.

But at that moment someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find a slender young man in a black Hugo Boss suit and silk tie flashing me a thousand-watt smile. His dark brown eyes with thick, curly lashes, rosy cheeks, and fine features gave him an almost delicate handsomeness. “Rachel Knight?”

“Yeah, can I help you with something?”

He put out his hand. “I’m Declan Shackner, your second chair.”