The Original Alibi

Chapter 34

Eddie walked into the study where I sat in one of the overstuffed leather chairs near the glass door out to the patio. Charles closed the door behind him.

“Hello, Mr. Kile. Charles told me you wished to see me.” He sat across from me.

“You grandfather’s attorney, Reginald Franklin, has given me a copy of the general’s will.”

“That fat fuck, excuse me, but he can’t even see his dick without a handheld mirror.”

“You really are a little prick, you know. Your grandfather is dying and Mr. Franklin is doing more to help the general than you, who will receive the lion’s share of the general’s estate. Don’t you think it’s time for you to grow into the position and responsibility you are about to inherit?”

“I don’t see that as any of your business, Kile.”

“I think anyone who wastes talent and opportunity is everyone’s business, or maybe just everyone’s disappointment. I’m rather fond of your grandfather, and I’d like him, just once before he leaves us, to see you as a level-headed responsible adult.”

“Oh, can the sob story. You don’t give a shit one way or the other.” He stood up. “Your only interest in any of us is to get somebody arrested so you can grab your fat fee.”

I stood and reached out pushing him hard against his chest. The push hurt my rib area, but I liked doing it just the same. Eddie fell back into the leather chair across from where I had been sitting. He started to get back up. “Get up again and I’ll close my fist the next time.”

He took his hands off the arms of the chair.

“You’re an educated guy, Eddie. A smart guy, but you got no style.”

“I have style.”

“A smart mouth isn’t style. Treating everyone with disrespect may be consistent, but it’s not style. You’re a punk in rich man’s clothes and an empty suit isn’t style either.”

“Is there a reason for this meeting, Kile, other than breaking my balls?”

“What was your interest in the industrial building in San Pedro on 22^nd Street? You drove by there twice the other day.”

“How did you know I did that?”

“Answer the question.”

“It’s a family holding. I’m trying to get familiar with all of our assets.”

“In a bit of a hurry, aren’t you?”

“It seems like we are always at odds, Kile.”

“It seems like you’re always more interested in the general’s assets than in the general.”

“Are we through here?”

“We haven’t even started. You stay where you are. I’ve got some things I want you to hear.” I took the tape recorder out of my satchel, put in the first tape and played it. The tape being Quirt Brown telling the story of how his half brother Cory Jackson had been bribed to testify about watching Eddie Whittaker kill Ileana Corrigan.

When it finished, Eddie said, “Old business, Kile. We all know Cory Jackson lied when he claimed he saw me.”

“Old business? You knew about how Cory Jackson was bribed?”

“Not that part. Just that he had to have been. The person who bribed him would have been the killer who wanted me convicted. That tape would be hearsay since Cory Jackson’s been murdered and the telling on your tape is second hand.”

“Who do you figure bribed Cory Jackson?”

“I have no clue,” Eddie said with a flip of a soft wrist. “I gave up trying to figure that mess out years ago. That’s your job.”

“I have another tape for your listening enjoyment.” I put on the tape of Tommie Montoya telling his story of a flashlight being shined in his eyes when he opened the door to the ladies’ bathroom at the gas station where he worked. Where he had been bribed to tell the cops he sold you gasoline shortly after Ileana was murdered.

When it finished, Eddie said the same thing. “Everyone has known that part of it too, except for the how. Same hearsay rule will likely make it inadmissible. This is all a waste, Kile. We all knew about that. You told the general. The general told us. All these tapes do is let us hear these claims first hand.”

“I agree, the Quirt Brown tape would in all likelihood be inadmissible, but Montoya is still alive and I made this tape with his knowledge and consent. Still, we’ll leave the admissibility to be resolved by the legal people.”

“Okay, but so what. All it proves is that Montoya admits he lied to the district attorney. Beyond that, it proves I wasn’t nearby. If you’re trying to pin the murder on me, that tape helps me, not you.”

“No. This tape does not prove you weren’t nearby. It only proves that Montoya lied about seeing you nearby.”

Eddie stood up, this time turning quickly to avoid my reach. “I’ve wasted enough time with your silly evidence of nothing. I’m leaving.”

I stood up across from him. “You’re staying. Sit back down. I’ve got one more tape for you to hear, and you’ll want to hear this one.”

“So, now I get to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Yarbrough talking about being bribed to confirm my being in Split Pea Anderson’s at the time my Ileana was murdered? Same old, same old, Kile.”

“This is one you don’t know about, Eddie. I think you’ll find it fascinating.”

Eddie looked disgusted, but he sat back down, crossing his legs, curiosity leaking from his pores. I put in the tape of him and me talking outside the apartment building where his date lived.

It had played only a few seconds when he sat upright. “Where did you get that?”

“That was me you were talking with. I taped my own conversation with you. I think you should hear it all. Then we’ll talk some more.”

He had been there, but I wanted him to hear just how clearly he had confirmed hiring Podkin to kidnap and batter me. I knew the general was also listening. It would be tough for him to hear, but the general personified toughness and he needed a straight shot of what his grandson had grown into. How Eddie had agreed to pay a bribe to keep the police and his grandfather from hearing the tape. The charges against him through this tape were serious, but they didn’t establish murder or even connect Eddie to the Ileana Corrigan homicide.

“Kile, you’ve got me on paying Podkin and being responsible for your getting worked over. If you turn it over to the cops, my attorney will fight it on the grounds that I incriminated myself without my knowledge as I didn’t know you were taping our conversation. Now, I know you don’t have anything that ties me to Ileana’s murder. You can’t. So, can I leave without you doing the fight club routine again?”

We sat staring at each other for several minutes.

“Get out of here.”