Part 67 (1/2)
”On what charge?”
”First-degree murder.”
She jumped up, all five feet of her, and stood with her mouth dangling open.
I held up a forefinger and repeated the news: ”Murder one.”
She gulped. I had never heard anybody gulp before, but she definitely gulped.
”Who the h.e.l.l did he kill?”
”How about Harry Raines for starters?”
”Oh my G.o.d!” she said, and the ”G.o.d” stretched out for several seconds.
I walked into her office and dropped the Baggie-cased .38 on her desk.
”I'd feel better giving this to you than the Keystone Kops down in homicide. It's the gun Donleavy used to do the trick. We dug it out of the river about half an hour ago.”
”Harry Raines,” she said with awe, staring at the .38.
”Donleavy has an alibi but it won't hold water,” I continued.
She hadn't caught up with me yet.
”Harry Raines?” she repeated, still staring at the gun, as though she expected it to say something back.
”You may have a little trouble proving premeditation,” I went on. ”I don't think the idea occurred to him until about thirty minutes before he did it . . . ”
This time she heard me and cut me off in midsentence. ”That's plenty of time,” she said quickly. ”h.e.l.l, if he gave it five minutes' thought, that's premeditation enough for me.”
”If you can make it work in court, that's okay by me.”
”Why did he do it?”
I gave her the basic details as quickly as I could, including background on the pyramid accounts, the Hollywood boxes, and Seaborn's questionably benign role in the matter.
”So the motive was fear of exposure by Raines,” she said. ”Seems to me he was on borrowed time, anyway. Tagliani would have surfaced sooner or later.”
”By that time Donleavy hoped to have established such a strong power base of his own that he could override his 'error in judgment.' That's what he likes to call it.”
”What do you call it?” she asked.
”Graft,” I said. ”Besides, as I told Donleavy, murder leads to murder.”
”You mean he killed somebody else?” she asked, her eyebrows flirting with the ceiling.
”Accessory,” I said.
”Before or after the fact?”
”Both.”
”Who was it?”
”Ike Leadbetter.”
”Ike Leadbetter! Ike Leadbetter!”
”Yeah, you remember him, don't you? He used to be chief of police.”
”Leadbetter's death was an accident,” she said.
”Only because you couldn't prove otherwise,” I told her.
She closed one eye and gave me her sternest look. ”Don't get uppity with me,” she said.
”Dutch Morehead thinks it was murder and I'm inclined to agree. At first I figured Dutch was angry and wanted to make a case out of the Leadbetter drowning. It wasn't Tagliani's style to kill a police chief, particularly when Tagliani was on the dodge. And there weren't any other likely suspects. Then I thought better of it.”
”Oh? How come?”
”I don't believe in accidents any more than Dutch does. Not in this town. Not when the police chief is the victim.”
”Why was Leadbetter killed?” she asked.
”Look, Ms. Galavanti, if one person in this town was likely to make Tagliani, it was Leadbetter. He had done some time on the force in Atlantic City before coming here, so he was more than just a little familiar with LCN and how it operates.”
”You think Leadbetter recognized Tagliani?” she said.
”Right, and Leadbetter went to Donleavy with it, the natural thing to do. After all, Donleavy was Harry Raines' personal choice to head the Committee. Donleavy was facing exposure himself, so he panicked and took it to Tagliani, who had Leadbetter burned. That's when Rio was set up and Tagliani put Donleavy on the sleeve. ”
”And had him on the hook forever,” Galavanti said.
”You get an A in the course. Want to try Cherry McGee next?”
”Cherry McGee? How about the Kennedys and Anwar Sadat?” she said. ”Let's not leave anybody out.”
”You want to finish the story for me?” I said.
”Go ahead, you're doing great,” she said. ”Except that Longnose Graves killed Cherry McGee and his hoodlums.” She paused for a moment, then added, ”Didn't he?”
”Nope.”
”Humph,” she said. ”I'll admit we tried everything but prayer to hang it on Graves.”
”And couldn't,” I said, ”because he didn't do it. At least Graves says he didn't and I'm inclined to believe him.”