Chapter Five
Detectives Jack Harmon and Diane Mitchell had been investigating the murders of Elias Colton and Quentin Hunter. Their primary suspect, Daniel Beason, had disappeared without a trace, as had Andrea Frazier, the chief operating officer of his bank, Rockville Guaranty Savings and Loan. The two were last seen leaving their office in Frazier’s BMW on the day Hunter was murdered.
In the days since, the investigation had gone cold, and the detectives caught another case: the murder of Oliva Deacon. She had been reported missing three months ago by her daughter. The missing person case became an active murder investigation when a set of dentures and the partial remains of a foot were found in the sewer by a city worker. After a forensic dental analysis, a positive identification was made using a discreet identification code that was embedded in the denture base.
The investigation quickly led to George McSwain, who had sold Deacon fraudulent stock shares from the estates of his deceased clients at below-market rates. When she became suspicious of the scheme, McSwain feigned interest in a house that she was selling and lured her to his home office. He shot Deacon in the head and then put her body in a forty-gallon drum of concentrated sulfuric acid. Two days later, McSwain found that Deacon’s body had mostly dissolved, and thinking that if there was no body, there was no crime, he emptied the drum into a sewer, confident that he had gotten away with murder. That morning, Jack and Diane were on their way to McSwain’s house to arrest him for her murder, but he wasn’t at home.
“So what do you wanna do now?” Diane asked as they walked away from the door.
“We could check out the phony office again,” Jack offered.
“That was a waste of time the first two times we went there,” Diane said as they got to the car.
“Maybe the third time is the charm. I don’t know.”
She leaned on the car. “Or we could take another run at Susan,” Diane suggested. She was the wife of their primary suspect, Daniel Beason.
“You think he reached out to her?”
“He might have. You never know. What else do we have to do?” Diane smiled as they got in the car.
“Nothing.”
“And you know you wanna see what Susan wears for you today.”
Jack started the car and drove away. “She does not dress for me.”
“Yes, she does. Unless she prances around the house with her hair and makeup done, dressed like she just walked off the cover of a magazine, she dresses for you, Jack.”
“Maybe she dresses for you.”
“Right.” Diane laughed. “It’s true, women do dress to impress and outdress each other, but look at how I’m dressed. Dark blue suit, white blouse, and flat shoes.”
Jack chuckled. “You dress like a cop.”
“In case you forgot, I am a cop.”
“I noticed, being your partner and all.”
“In every sense of the word.”
“Okay,” Jack conceded, “maybe she does get dressed up when we get there, but I’m more interested in knowing if he reached out to her or if she remembered something we could use.”
“I bet she wears something that shows off her abs and the belly ring.” She giggled. “Since you stare at it.”
“I do not stare at her belly ring or her amazing abs,” Jack laughed, and Diane nodded her head.
“See?” She laughed. “She knows you like it, so she shows it off for you. The woman craves male attention. After being married to a man who ignored her for as long as she claims Beason did, she needs to feel attractive and desirable to men.”
“So what are you saying, that I should cater to that need?”
“If it gets us information, by all means. Just don’t cross the line.”
“Noted, don’t cross the line, but I honestly don’t think she knows much more than she’s told us. Remember she told you that she wasn’t his partner.”
“She was his property, I remember,” Diane said sadly, remembering how she felt when Susan first told her that. Property or not, Diane believed that Susan was holding something back.
When they arrived at Susan’s house, she surprised the detectives by answering the door herself. Since Beason had come under suspicion of murder, her mother, sister, and her nephew, Wesley, had been staying at the house with her, and it was usually Wesley who answered the door. That day, Susan was wearing a red pleated tent minidress with red embellished satin wraparound high-heel sandals, and much to Diane’s surprise, she wasn’t showing off her abs.
Susan smiled when she saw Jack. “Good morning, Detective Harmon,” she sang, and Diane rolled her eyes.
“Sorry to keep showing up like this and bothering you, Mrs. Beason,” Jack began.
“No bother at all,” Susan said, stepping aside to let them in. She was getting tired of them just showing up. “But I only have a few minutes. I was just on my way out.”
Diane leaned close to Jack. “That explains it,” she whispered.
“Behave.”
“And before you ask,” Susan said, leading them into the living room, “I haven’t heard anything from Danny.” She lied easily. She sat down, crossed her legs, and Jack got an eyeful of her thigh.
“What about Andrea Frazier? Have you heard anything from her?” Diane asked, and Susan looked at the detective as if she had spit in her face.
“No,” she said angrily. “And why would I have heard from any of Danny’s whores?”
Jack and Diane looked at one another. “Was your husband involved with Ms. Frazier on something other than a professional level, Mrs. Beason?” he asked, attempting to be delicate because Diane had struck a nerve.
Susan smiled warmly at Jack. “I don’t know that for sure, but I accepted his relationships with his senior female staff a long time ago, Detective Harmon. I imagine Andrea was no different from the rest.”
“I understand.”
“Do you know anything about Quentin Hunter’s murder and if it relates to the Colton murder?” Diane asked.
Susan looked sternly at Diane. “I’m going to tell you this again, Detective Mitchell. I have no idea what Danny was engaged in, where he might be hiding, or how it relates to Quentin’s and Elias’s murders. I honestly don’t want to know, and I honestly don’t care. I’m sure by now he’s out of the country.”
“Thank you very much, Mrs. Beason. We appreciate your time,” Diane said and stood up.
Susan stood up, looking annoyed at Diane. “Yes. I’m sure you do.”
“Sorry to have bothered you,” Jack said.
Susan smiled. “No bother at all, Detective Harmon. I’m happy to cooperate in any way that I can,” she said and led them to the door. When she opened the door, Susan smiled again. “See you in a couple of days,” she said, waving as the detectives walked to their car.
Once they were in the car, Jack looked at Diane. “Okay, I see what you mean.”
“She was damn near hostile to me. But you . . .” Diane said, laughing as Jack drove away. “‘No bother at all, Detective Harmon. See you in a couple of days.’ Pathetic.”
“Where you wanna go now?” he asked to get Diane back on task.
“Since we’re following up today, I say we roll by Executive Flight Lines. I’m thinking that it’s been a couple of days. Maybe he went back and caught a flight out of the country.”
When Jack and Diane got to Executive Flight Lines, they found that the small private airline was under new management. The previous manager had been extremely helpful and had willingly provided the detectives with all the information they asked for. Her cooperation with the police in the delicate investigation had cost the young manager her job. Therefore, when Jack and Diane asked the new manager if Beason had booked a flight in the last seven days, he advised the detectives that Executive Flight Lines would no longer provide any information on their clients without a warrant.
“You do understand that this is a murder investigation. Two men are dead, and a woman is missing,” Jack said.
“Yes, Detective Harmon, I am fully aware of the situation, and although I am sympathetic to your request, I can’t release any information to you without a warrant.”
“Fine.” Diane pointed in his face. “You need a warrant?” She took out her phone. “You got one.”
“Who are you calling?” the manager asked.
“I’m calling Judge Peterson to expedite a warrant. And then I’m gonna go wait outside and introduce myself to all your clients as they come in. You know, the ones whose privacy you’re trying so hard to protect. I’m going to tell them that I’m waiting here for Judge Peterson to approve my expedited warrant request for their personal information.”
“What do you think your clients will do when word gets around?” Jack asked.
“And believe me, I will make it my mission in life to make sure word gets around.” Diane leaned over the counter and stared directly into his eyes. “Because I’m a cop, and I don’t have shit else to do all day but find new and creative ways to fuck with you until I get what I want.”
The manager quickly turned to his monitor, tapped a couple of keys, and a few quick clicks later, he said, “He hasn’t boarded a flight since he returned from his trip to Paris.”
“Was that so hard?” Jack asked and turned to leave.
Diane smiled. “Thank you for your time and cooperation. You’ve been immensely helpful.”
And with that, Jack and Diane left Executive Flight Lines. “I love it when you play bad cop,” Jack said on the way to the car.
Diane stopped and looked Jack in the eyes. “Whoever said I was playing?” She paused. “It’s just that nobody ever tries me.”
“Remind me to stay on your good side.” He held the door open for Diane, and she got in the car.
“What now?” Diane asked when Jack got in.
“Let’s see if George McSwain is home,” he said and drove that way.
When they got to McSwain’s house, the detectives approached with weapons drawn. Jack knocked on the door and identified himself. “NYPD!”
The suspect began firing at them through the door.
Diane got on the radio. “I have shots fired at this location!” she said as Jack kicked in the door and went in. “Requesting backup!”
When Diane entered the house, a man she’d never seen before fired at her. She dove for the floor and crawled behind the couch. She looked for Jack. He was exchanging gunfire with McSwain. The shooter fired at Diane and then ducked into the hallway. She got to her feet and started down the hall after him, but she didn’t see him.
“Jack!” she yelled when she heard shots being fired in another part of the house.
Then she heard footsteps. Diane turned in time to see a door open. The man appeared, and he shot at her. She returned fire and hit him with two shots in his chest. Diane walked up to him and kicked his gun away.
She reloaded her weapon. “Jack!” she yelled once she had cleared the hall.
“He’s going out the back!” Jack yelled, and Diane ran toward the back door.
McSwain tried to make it out the back door, firing shots blindly at Jack. When Diane heard footsteps coming toward her, she raised her weapon and set herself. When McSwain ran out, she was waiting.
“Freeze!” she shouted and took aim.
When McSwain raised his gun, Diane fired and hit him in the chest. The impact of the shot took him off his feet. Jack kicked the gun away.
“You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”