Parnell Hall - The Innocent Woman

“Yes, you do. You make the right assumption and the pieces fall into place. You and Frank Fletcher were an item. Used to run around together. Fancy nightclubs, the whole bit.” Steve shrugged. “Who knows, maybe even drugs. After all, the doctor got a trace residual cocaine reading in the autopsy.” Amy was glaring at him now. “I imagine that ran into money. And I imagine just like with Larry baby, you weren’t paying.” Steve looked at her. “Did you know it was Frank was dipping into the till? Or did you just suspect it?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because it fits. Like I say, you start putting the pieces together and you get a picture. Frank Fletcher is taking you around. To do this, he’s dipping into the till. Partner Marvin Lowery notices the shortage. Fletcher has to explain. At the same time, it comes to his attention that the girl he’s been blowing the money on is going out with nerdy twerp Cunningham. And Fletcher may not be as quick as I to accept the fact it’s platonic.” Steve shrugged. “I don’t know about him, but if that girl were working for me, it wouldn’t take too much thought to figure out if she got nailed for that shortage, it would kill a lot of birds with one stone.”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Amy said.

“Yeah. You want to point out where they’re wrong?”

Amy’s chin came up. “I have nothing to say on the subject. I… I just came in to thank you.”

“Your thanks are noted,” Steve said.

Amy looked at him a moment. Then turned on her heel and walked out.

“Wow,” Taylor said. “Is all that true?”

“I have no idea. I just threw it out there to see if she’d deny it. As far as Fletcher stealing the money, I doubt is she even knows.”

“You really think he did?”

“Well, somebody took it. It doesn’t have to be him. It could just as well have been her.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all. She’s told me so many lies, how can I separate what’s true? And it works either way.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, Amy wound up with two of the marked bills. There’s two ways she got ’em. She either got ’em because she took ’em. Or she got ’em because Fletcher planted ’em on her. It is, however, a moot point, since a jury of her peers found her innocent.”

“All right, never mind the money,” Tracy said. “What about the drawer? Who closed the petty cash drawer? Or is that another well-it-could-have-been-him-or-it-could-have-been-her?”

“No, I know who did that.”

“Oh yeah? Who?

“Larry Cunningham.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all.”

“Wait a minute,” Taylor said. “I thought Larry Cunningham took the money and left the drawer open.”

“He did.”

“And now you’re saying he closed it?”

“That’s right,” Steve said. “And I’m glad he did.”

“Why?” Tracy said.

“Hold on,” Taylor said. “Never mind why. I wanna know how. First you said he left it open, now you say he closed it, whaddya mean by that?”

“He left if open and came back and closed it,” Tracy said impatiently. “That’s obvious, Mark. I want to know why.”

“He did it to frame her.”

“What?” Taylor said.

“To frame Amy. He did it to frame her for the crime.”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Well, he doesn’t want the cops to pick on him.”

“Yeah, but why her? He loved her.”

“Yeah, but unrequited. And what a frustrating, one-sided love affair that was. And then she cheats on him. Gives everything he wasn’t getting to another man. He may have killed Fletcher, but who was he really mad at?”

“You think framing her fits the profile?” Tracy said.

“Absolutely. Particularly if the call-forwarding idea is bunk, and the guy is the obsessive, suspicious type who called her answering machine just to see if she had a message from another man.”

“So when does he close the drawer?” Tracy said.

“Right after we were in there.”

Taylor held up his hand. “Excuse me, gang. I don’t know anything about that. Wouldn’t know where you were talking about, or what.”

“Don’t sweat it, Mark. I promise you, Dirkson’s dropped the whole thing.”

“Yeah, come on, Mark,” Tracy said. “If you don’t want to hear it, leave.”

“ Leave ?” Taylor said. “It’s my office.”

“Then shut up and let him tell it. I almost went to jail over that damn drawer.” She turned to Steve. “Tell me how you figure.”

“Okay. Cunningham gets the message, goes down and kills Fletcher. Up to that point, he’s running on automatic pilot, knows what he wants to do, and does it. Fletcher falls dead, Cunningham wakes up. Uh-oh, I’m in trouble now, what am I gonna do? Then he realizes. Amy. She’s gonna get the message and go down there. All he’s gotta do is-” Steve broke off.

“What is it?” Tracy said.

“It just occurred to me.”

“What?”

“The answering machine. If Amy got the message and went down there, the answering machine must have been blinking. But it shouldn’t have been if Cunningham heard the message. That’s how you make it stop blinking-you play the message. If it was still blinking, it means after he heard the message, Cunningham must have saved it. You can do that over the phone, right?”

“Sure,” Tracy said. “You just punch in a code.”

“And that’s what he must have done. Otherwise, Amy never gets the message at all. Which means he didn’t shoot Fletcher and wake up. He planned to frame her all along.”

“All along?” Taylor said.

“I mean from the time he made the call. He hears the message, decides to kill him, and decides to frame her all at once. It had to be, or why would he save the message. In a way, I’m glad.”

“Why?” Taylor said.

“Same reason I’m glad he closed the drawer.”

“What?”

“The guy blew his brains out. And if you want to look at it that way, I helped him do it. It may be selfish as hell, but I like to think the guy was a creep.”

“He was a creep,” Tracy said. “We all agree on that. Tell me about the drawer.”

“Okay,” Steve said. “Cunningham kills Fletcher, intends to frame Amy. He’s left the message for her, so he knows she’s on the way. In point of fact, he has very little time. He kills Fletcher, gets out, waits for nature to take its course. When Amy shows up, he’s across the street, keeping an eye on the building from behind a parked car. He sees her go in, but that’s not enough, he wants to be sure. He waits for the arrival of the cops.

“Only they don’t come. Instead, he sees Amy go out. Better and better. She didn’t call the cops, she’s running away. That ought to stick her neck in the noose. He tags along just to make sure.

“What happens? She goes to the corner and makes a call. Then she goes and hangs out on 48th Street. Of course he has no idea why.

“What happens next?” Steve turned to Tracy. “You show up. Well, Cunningham has no idea who you are, but it sure is interesting. Particularly when Amy takes you up to F. L. Jewelry. And the two of you come out, and the cops still don’t come.

“You take Amy back to our office. Cunningham’s no dope. He checks the directory in the lobby, sees my name. He and Amy were talking about me at dinner. So now he knows what’s up. Instead of the cops, she called her lawyer. You must be connected with me, Amy must be upstairs in my office. So now he’s on the street waiting for me to show up.

“Only I don’t. Instead, you come out alone. Would Cunningham tag along? I would think so, when he sees where you’re headed. He follows you back to the office. Wonders what your plan is. Maybe, you’re going to find the body and call the cops. Try to leave Amy out of it. Cunningham wouldn’t like that much, but there isn’t much he could do about it.