“You took a big chance back there,” Herc said as we hit the road to Shasta. His tone was serious for Herc. Not angry but the same kind of excited that I was.
“I don’t understand. What are you referring to?”
“You don’t know? You came down pretty hard on the warden. I thought I was handling him, bringing him along to giving us as much information as he had to give, even though he seemed to be resisting at first.”
“Was I supposed to be nice just because of his position? I get that you were attempting to maintain amicable relations between the department and the state prison system and didn’t feel you could call him on his reluctance to be more helpful. But that didn’t pertain to me. Yes, I know I work for the department in a special capacity, but if Markham complains to Watkins about our interrogation, let the onus fall on me. I’d hate to be taken off the case, but I’m ready for that contingency if it happens. We needed to get Markham to tell us as much as possible.”
“Let’s just hope we won’t be summoned to Watkins’s office when we get back.”
“Are you excited about everything we learned while we were there?” I asked him.
“Yes, but mostly we got the 4-1-1 on the elder Halpern, not our victim.”
“Herc! The man is turning out to be the key to our solving this case.”
He scrunched up his eyes even though he kept them on the road. “You mean because she visited him just before he died?”
“Her visit appears to have been life-changing for her and possibly life-ending in the end. I’m guessing he told her something about his prison sentence that convinced her he’d been wrongly convicted. And that tidbit is what caused her to break up with Scott Sheridan, lose interest in her business and in general, transform from a happy, well-adjusted young woman to a moody, unhappy person who would argue with her brother, her only living relative, and go to the home of her childhood and get herself killed.”
“Whoa, don’t you think you’re getting a tad carried away with a simple report that she came to see her father while he was ailing? Nice theory, but can you back it up?”
“With proof at this moment? No. But we know enough now to start digging for it.”
“I’m concentrating on the road right now, so my brain is only half-focused on the case. Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
Half-focused, my eye! For some reason, he wasn’t tracking. Had he not gotten enough sleep last night?
“For the better part of his life, he was a happy, upstanding citizen who taught high school English. Then, rather than change his teaching style, he quit and took a job in an area in which he had no background or skills. A few years later, he’s accused of scamming money from innocent homebuyers. A lot of money, once an investigation was concluded, and he’s tried for fraud to which he pleads guilty. Though not a model prisoner, Halpern got along well with both the staff and the other prisoners most of the time. He never protested his sentence or claimed he was innocent. He was turned down for parole three times for no apparent reason, at least one that was shared with him. Nonetheless, he kept a good attitude until he became ill this past year. When it appeared he wouldn’t revive or even live until his upcoming release, he summoned his children to his hospital bed. The son came first. The daughter, our victim, came next. Only after her visit did the man appear to relax, accepting his fate. Meanwhile, we’ve heard from more than one witness that the daughter’s mood changed almost overnight around the time she visited her father, just before his death. Doesn’t that suggest, no, scream that he told her something about his sentence she didn’t know until then and what he told her sent her into a tailspin?”
We traveled several miles before Herc spoke. “Let’s say your theory is correct. It all hinges on whatever Halpern said to Lila when she visited him. Would you agree?”
“Ye-es?” Where was he going with this?
“What did he tell her?”
“We don’t know that at the moment, Herc. That would appear to be where we need to place our investigative efforts, wouldn’t you say?”
“Okay, I agree with that much. But where? We have no idea what he told her.”
“Let’s play ‘what if’ for a bit,” I said. “What if he told her he was innocent of the crime he pled guilty to all those years ago? What if he told her who the real guilty party had been? What if said party was still around, perhaps no longer scamming innocent homebuyers but still working on the wrong side of the law?”
“Supposing someone else did the dirty, why did Halpern say he did?” Herc asked. “Not just at the time of his arrest and trial but all through his prison time until the very end.”
“That’s the question of the hour. And if he reversed his plea at the very end of his life, what did he expect his children to do about it?” I asked.
“Children? I thought you speculated he only spilled his story to Lila?”
“He asked for the son first. We can assume he told him as well. That’s what I think Lila and Kyle were arguing about. Kyle must not have believed his father or even if he had, he decided not to act on the information.”
“But Lila did,” Herc said, his interest increasing.
“I knew you’d catch up, sooner or later,” I told him.
“I was there about the same time you arrived there back at the prison, but it was so far-fetched, I didn’t think it worth our time unless you picked up on it too.”
He was tap dancing, but there was no point calling him out now that we both appeared to be on the same wavelength. “I’d say it’s now time to talk to Kyle Halpern again, don’t you think?”
“Not just yet,” he said. “I’d like to go through Bradley Halpern’s case file again. I just took in the main points of the case before. Didn’t see a need to know more because the father wasn’t our victim.”
“You’re right. We need to know why an English teacher got a job in accounting at a real estate company. At first blush, it seems to me that someone wanted it that way, to put him in charge of that area when he had no real competency in order to use him.”
“You mean his immediate supervisor or the company itself?” Herc asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe both.”
“Given our interest in the file, as much as it pains me to suggest it, sounds like we have to visit Al.”
“Didn’t expect to see you two back so soon. What happened? Did you get yourselves thrown out of Palmetto Prison?” Al asked when we approached his desk.
“Don’t you wish,” Herc returned. “Actually, they were quite helpful. We’re back with a whole new line of questions.”
Al lifted brow. “Yeah? Like what?”
“We want to know more about Bradley Halpern, starting with that file you’ve put together. Mind if we take it with us?”
“You can’t review it here?”
“I suppose we could,” Herc replied, “as long as we can commandeer the conference room so we can sort out the contents.”
“I think it’s available. Go on down. I’ll grab some coffees.”
“Can you put up with Al trying to help us?” Herc asked me once we got to the conference room.
“I’ll try. It has to be a great disappointment not to be working the entire case,” I said, attempting to be sympathetic.
Herc had laid out most of the documents in the file by the time Al arrived with the coffees. “You’ve been busy,” Herc told him. “Looks like you’ve got the man’s whole life in here.”
“What I could find of it. There wasn’t much between the time he left his teaching job and when he was arrested.”
“Why was that?” I asked, intrigued. “Any idea?”
He shrugged. “Couldn’t say. I got what I could get and didn’t worry about the rest. Didn’t realize you might be interested in it. I’ll go back and see what I can find. Got any ideas where I should start?”
I tried not to gulp too hard. Had I heard him correctly? Al, Aloysius Buford, was asking me for advice? Be still my heart. “Get us anything you can find about the company he worked for,” I replied.
“You mean the Trent Corporation? They expanded since Halpern worked for them when it was just a real estate firm. A large one, though. They got more into land development shortly after he went to prison, if I remember right. I’ll get you more on them, if you want it.”
“Mainly we want to know who he reported to, especially who hired him and who his supervisor was at the time of his arrest.”
“As for me,” Herc said, entering the exchange, “I want to go through the arrest warrant and the trial transcript.”
“They’re already in the file,” Al said. “Funny thing. Coincidence perhaps. Or karma. Check out the name of the officer in charge on the arrest warrant.”
Herc retrieved the copy of that document. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said, once he’d glanced at it. He turned to me. “The arresting officer was none other than our old friend Daryl Henson.”
Our paths had crossed with Henson in a recent case. He appeared to have been on the payroll of a local madam, but we hadn’t been able to follow up because the woman was dead and Henson was now retired. We didn’t have fond memories of the man. Herc in particular had difficulty letting go of his need for justice. Now, alarm bells sounded in my head when I learned that Henson had been the one to arrest Bradley Halpern. I was pretty sure it was the same for Herc.
“That guy managed to hang onto his reputation and retire with a full pension, but over the years I’ve heard a lot of rumors about his integrity,” Al said. “Do you think he played a less than scrupulous role in Halpern’s arrest?”
Herc scratched his chin. “Guess it’s possible he was paid to not to look too closely at the evidence, but Halpern hurt himself when he pled guilty.”
The fact that Henson had been involved at the beginning of the Halpern case could be meaningful, but for now, we needed to focus on Trent. “How soon can you get us the background on the Trent Corporation?” I asked. I didn’t want to sound too pushy or Al would drag his feet.
“Is it worth a pepperoni pizza to you?” he replied.
“Since when have you liked pepperoni pizza?” Herc asked before I could say yes.
“I’ve always liked it,” Herc’s regular partner said. “I just don’t like to eat it on the run like we usually do. But since I’ll be stuck at my desk a while longer, it would be a welcome change.”
“Deal,” I said before Herc could ruin the bargain. “We’ll go get a late lunch for all three of us while you do your research. Any other toppings?”
Al’s eyes took on a glow. “Really? On you?”
I nodded. Had I known it was so easy to placate this guy, we might have been friends long ago. I’d keep this in mind for the future.
Later, at our favorite pizza place, Herc placed his chin on his hands. “That was pretty slick of you back there. Trading a quick return on his information-gathering for the price of a pizza. He was actually nice to you for once.”
“He liked being in the catbird seat. Perhaps you should keep that in mind for when the two of you are working together again.”
“What? You mean let him think he’s in control more often?”
“Not so much control as just being the lead. You’re more than capable of doing that, Herc. You let me think I’m the star at least once every hundred questions when we’re interviewing.”
“That’s because you’re you. You are a star. Al’s—well, Al’s not there yet.”
“And he’ll never get there unless you let him practice,” I said.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Message received. I’ll keep it in mind. Now then, eat up so I can get back to that background on Halpern’s arrest and trial. The more I’ve considered your theory, I think we’re onto something.”
We were, huh? Good, things usually fell into place when we were on the same page. I finished my bite of my sandwich of sliced turkey on focaccia bread and wrapped up the rest for later. I was no longer hungry. Time to get serious about solving this case.
Al pounced on the pizza after handing me his report on the Trent Corporation. While he ate, or should I say attacked his pie, I read over what he’d put together. The corporation began as Trenton Real Estate under the leadership of Randall Trent, a self-employed real estate agent in Maryland, who’d come to Florida twenty-five years prior. By the time Halpern came on board, the company employed three other agents, a personal secretary, a receptionist and two clerks. Halpern was hired without ceremony. He’d met Trent at one of Kyle’s high school softball games. Trent’s son played third base, Kyle played first. Halpern apparently let it slip that he was in need of a job, and Trent suggested he come in for an interview.
“I couldn’t find any description of the selection process, but given the fact he was offered the job within a week of his interview, it doesn’t appear he had much if any competition,” Al said.
“All of which bears out our theory he was hired because he knew nothing about accounting. Trent wanted someone with an unblemished reputation working with the numbers.”
Al stared at me. “You mean he was set up from the start?”
“We can’t prove it yet,” Herc said, “but yeah, that’s the idea.”
Al rubbed his chin. “So he’d have no idea what shenanigans were going on under his nose until it was too late. Diabolical.”
I nodded. “And premeditated.”
“Then why did the man plead guilty?”
“Why, indeed,” I said. “That’s what we’re trying to determine postmortem.”
“What’s the plan?” Al asked.
“We think he told both his kids before he died,” Herc said. “The daughter appears to be the one who reacted, but now she’s gone. That leaves the son, who up to this point has been less than helpful.”
“And Trent,” I added. “Plus anyone else who was privy to that inside information.”
“Over fifteen years after the trial?” Al asked. “That small real estate office no longer exists the way it was organized then. How’re you gonna track down anyone who was there at the time, let alone get that prince of industry to say anything?”
“Good question, Al. That’s why we want to know as much as possible about the corporation,” I said. “I’ve heard mention of them in some other respect, and I can’t remember what it was. Even if I remember, it may or may not mean anything other than relieve my brain.”
He set aside the few pieces of pizza still remaining and leaned in. “I haven’t learned much more about the Trent people from what I told you earlier. Shortly after Halpern went to prison, Trent acquired some land outside town. Farmland that had been overtreated with chemicals, thus reducing its worth and making it available for a song. Following that so-called success, he turned his sights on nearby land to increase the size. The scuttlebutt is that he completed the environmental impact statements required by the state but did the least work possible to improve the land to be able to build homes there.”
“But from what little I’ve managed to read of the case notes so far, Halpern had no connection to Trent’s development plans. That’s not what got him in trouble,” Herc said.
“Only tangentially,” Al replied. “Supposedly, Halpern used the real estate firm’s database to contact new buyers, telling them to wire their down payments, even full payments, to a nonexistent offshore account. Purportedly, he started doing this almost as soon as he signed on and managed to collect well over half a million before he was caught. Very slick.”
“If it was so slick, how did he get caught?” I asked.
“Obviously, as buyers discovered there was no record of their payments, they began to complain, first to the head of the real estate department and then to the authorities. Unbelievably, only a small percentage complained. Apparently many of the buyers were speculative investors who either wrote off their losses as the cost of doing business or didn’t even notice in the midst of their overall investments. That was the type of buyer the scam was intended for, but occasionally one or two actual home buyers or small investors got through the pipeline. The kind that didn’t go away quietly. It took months, but eventually the number of scams and amount of money tallied up, the latter drawing the most attention.”
I took a guess at the outcome. “And once the authorities got involved, the trail led them to Bradley Halpern.
“That would’ve been too easy,” Al said. “First, it had to look like he’d covered his tracks thoroughly through a byzantine web of emails and well-crafted company letterheads, but eventually, as the inevitable end of the scam, the investigators ended up with Halpern.”
Before I could get my mind around that scenario, I had to get it around the fact that Al had used the term “byzantine.” There was a lot I didn’t know about my partner’s partner. “So they get to Halpern and discover he’s their boy, except they can’t find the money,” I said, attempting to put this all together.
“Exactly,” Al answered.
“But if he’d been set up, why didn’t he say so? Why wait until he was on his deathbed and then tell only his children?” Herc asked.
“And we’re only assuming that last part happened,” I said. “Until Kyle Halpern decides to help us find his sister’s killer.”
“Can’t help you shed any light on why the older Halpern didn’t speak up and declare his innocence any time during his imprisonment,” Al told us. “But we’re all seasoned investigators. We know people rarely make altruistic decisions, especially when facing fifteen-year prison terms. There’s usually some less positive reason behind their motives.”
“Well said,” Herc replied. “Exactly what Ro and I have been figuring. We just have to connect the dots.”