Austin Camacho - Collateral damage

“Hannibal? It’s Cindy.”

Even on the worst of days, it brightened his heart to hear her voice. “I know who it is sweetheart. Have you talked to Francis? What did she think of Dean’s theory?”

“Well she was sure glad to know her son doesn’t think she’s a murderer,” Cindy said. “But his basic idea is all wrong. She says she didn’t know that Joan was married and never met or talked to her husband. She couldn’t have told him about her husband’s affair with his wife, and she says she wouldn’t have told him anyway.”

“So Dean’s out of the guilt trip area,” Hannibal said as the elevator smoothly raised him into vertical space. “No way he can be responsible for either of the killings, even by proxy.”

“Yes, but where does that leave you for a suspect?”

“I still like the ex-husband,” Hannibal said in front of Mark’s door. “And I have to say Joan’s tastes seem to be consistent. The description of her husband sounds an awful lot like the guy behind this door I’m knocking on right now. Better talk to you later, babe.”

Mark Norton answered the door in jeans, tee shirt and white socks. One small lick of his hair stuck up in defiance from the back and he hadn’t shaved. He clearly was not on his way anywhere that day. Hannibal smiled his small menacing smile and stepped past him into the great room, which reminded Hannibal of Walt Young’s place.

“Okay Mark, let’s not dance around. Where’s Joan?”

Mark didn’t bother with bravado. He closed the door and headed for the kitchen area as if Hannibal was an invited guest. “She’s not here. Look around if you like. Drink?”

“No thanks,” Hannibal said, “but you go ahead.” He waited for Mark to gulp down half a bloody mary so that he could have his attention again. “She seems to take off quite a bit, unannounced. You should keep better tabs on your wife.”

Mark’s answer was a slight surprise. “Joan isn’t the type of cat you put a bell on, Mr. Jones.”

“So I’ve learned,” Hannibal said. “She’s been really hard for her uncle to keep track of. He hasn’t seen her in days. And he has no idea she’s married you know. How’d you manage to keep such a secret over so many months? And why?”

“So many what? Boy are you confused. We’ve only been married for two weeks. How about some fruit juice?”

This time Hannibal nodded and moved over to take a seat on one of the stools in front of the counter, keenly aware that his position was now the reverse of what it was when he chatted with Francis Edwards in Walt Young’s condo. He decided that he didn’t need to play hardball to get answers here. It was obvious that Mark wanted to keep this friendly, and that was fine with Hannibal.

“So, you weren’t married when you spent the summer together in Vegas?”

Mark handed over a glass of chilled apple juice. “Now you’re fishing, buddy. I’ve never been to Las Vegas before the day you saw me in the hotel room, and Joanie spent the summer in Australia.”

Hannibal sipped his juice and watched Mark’s face closely. Leaning on the counter he was quite relaxed, his mind not really centered on the conversation. If he was lying, he was a pro. On the other hand, he might just feel safe standing behind the truth. That would make him just about the only innocent in this case.

“Yeah, that’s what her uncle thought too. Now don’t tell me. She e-mailed you every day, right?”

Mark adopted a smug smile and pulled open a kitchen drawer. “Yeah, she did, as a matter of fact. But of course, e-mails can come from anyplace. You’ll be more interested in these postmarks.”

With the flourish of a stage magician, Mark flipped his wrist and laid a fan of post cards on the counter in front of Hannibal. And like the mark at a carnival, Hannibal spread the postcards out with one hand, pictures toward himself, considering which one to pick out. Except this time he knew it was the magician who had been fooled. There was no longer an ounce of doubt in his mind that Mark had been dodged as easily as Langford Kitteridge had.

Hannibal soon found the card he wanted. Its glossy cover featured a picture of the Sydney Opera House. “Ah, this one’s from August 12th,” he said blandly. Mark’s brows knit as Hannibal raised the card and held it at arm’s length with the picture toward himself. He looked over the edge of the card at Mark’s now startled face “Didn’t stay for an opera today,” Hannibal said, as if reading right through the card, “but it was well worth stopping just to see this place. Love you always, your Joanie. Right?”

Mark snatched the postcard out of Hannibal’s hand. “How the hell did you do that?” “Sorry, pal,” Hannibal said. “She sent the same card to her uncle. On the same day. With the exact same message. But none of that changes the fact that court records show she was in Las Vegas at the time getting a divorce.”

“Divorce?” Mark built another bloody mary while he talked. “How can that be? I mean, Joan wasn’t married before.”

Hannibal enjoyed the sweet aroma of his apple juice before draining the glass. “Don’t feel bad. Her uncle missed her getting married twice. I figure she got somebody to send her the postcards from Australia, filled them all out, and sent them back.”

Mark swallowed most of his new drink and walked around to the couch. He stood for a while, as if he wasn’t sure sitting down was safe. “That would be an awfully elaborate ruse, don’t you think? Just to keep me from knowing she was married before? Besides, she doesn’t have any friends in Australia.”

“Well, maybe a professional contact, or a business associate.” Hannibal said. Then he froze in place staring right past Mark. The word professional had done it. A memory jumped into his mind. The only papers he found in Oscar’s bedroom were airline ticket stubs, neatly folded in the table beside his bed. In the last year, he’d flown to Canada, Japan, Russia and yes, Australia.

Hannibal lifted the yearbook onto the counter and stared down at it. “Oscar Peters was there,” he said. “Oscar, her employee. She knew him when he was just a kid, way back in Germany.”

“Really?” Mark moved back into the kitchen and reached for the refrigerator, but the book Hannibal had just put down drew his attention.

“Yeah, they went back that far. He did this for her, to deceive both you and her uncle about her having been married previously.” Hannibal opened the book and began slowly flipping the pages.

“Do you really think that was a secret worth killing for?” Mark asked, sounding uncertain for the first time. “Could she have done such a thing?”

Hannibal kept the pages turning slowly, staring down at a time most of us remember as being more innocent. “He was a real person Mark. A human being, with a past, and hopes and dreams just like the rest of us. It’s hard to avoid the fact that Joan is connected with his death.” Then he looked up. “Where is she, Mark?”

Hannibal turned the book upside down and Mark stared down into it as if hypnotized by the moving pages. Learning so much so quickly about his new bride had drained all the fight out of him. “I heard her say something about going to see Gil Donner today.”

Hannibal turned the book back around to face himself. “Wonder how she knows Gil,” he said. “Any ideas?” He had fanned past the general crowd scenes and club photos to the glamorous poses of the senior class pictures. Right that minute he hated the world that turned some of those winsome faces into selfish, hate filled or dangerous people. Then his hand fell flat onto the page just under one of the pictures and he drew in a long, deep breath. She was very lovely back then, and now he knew her deep, blood tinged auburn hair was natural. Her skin was still as creamy and clear as it had been in high school, and her eyes were just as dark. As she looked up from the page at him his mind pulled the scattered threads of the case more tightly together around her.