Archer Mayor - The surrogate thief

Bartlett stared at him in silence for a split second before saying, "That's awkward. And it explains the SA's cold feet, since Gail used to work for him. Big-time conflict."

Spinney smiled and held up a finger of his own. "Don't quit yet."

Joe sighed and explained, "Bander was born T. J. Ralpher, who was a Brattleboro bad boy when I was starting out. I've got a pretty strong notion that Ralpher grubstaked both his name change and his new life with the twelve thousand dollars he stole from a mom-and-pop store after beating pop to death with a pistol."

Kathy's eyes widened. "Jesus Christ, Joe. What the hell is this?"

"I think," Joe said, emphasizing the word, "it's two killers and three murders, one of which happened before you left grade school." He removed a file folder from the briefcase he'd arrived with and laid it on her desk. "Those're the basics. I didn't want to send them to you without being here in person."

Bartlett let out a sigh and reached for the file. "How thoughtful."

She flipped it open and leafed through a few pages, getting a feel for its contents. She then glanced at them and said, "It's a pretty day-fall in Vermont. Why don't you two go out and catch the sights for an hour? Let me dip my toe into this mess."

It was a pretty day, the air sharp but not too cold. Kathy's office was directly adjacent to the capitol building and the sloping expanse of slightly weather-beaten grass surrounding it. The bright, cool sun made the capitol's golden dome sparkle like an oversize Christmas ornament, complemented by the bowl of surrounding hills burning with the vibrant hues of a New England fall.

"You gotta admit, it is going to be complicated," Spinney commented as they walked the grounds.

"And that's just on the surface," Joe agreed. "Tack on the possibility that Ed Parker is even vaguely inside the loop, and you've got something with real teeth on it."

"Does Gail know anything about this?" Spinney asked reasonably enough.

This was potentially explosive-pillow talk indiscretions that could end a career. Wisdom and self-preservation dictated silence or evasion right now. As was his style, however, Gunther chose neither. It wasn't the kind of precedent he wished to set, especially with a trusted colleague.

"I gave her a heads-up. She said she'd keep it to herself."

Spinney took the confidence in stride. "I can see that. She must've been surprised."

Gunther remembered the moment in more detail than he would ever share with Lester. "'Stunned' might be a better word."

When they returned to Kathy Bartlett's office an hour later, they found her standing by her window, looking down on the same scene they'd just left.

She faced them as they entered. "How solid are you on Bander being Ralpher and Ralpher being good for the Oberfeldt thing?"

"Very on the first, still putting it together on the second," Joe told her.

"What about Greenberg?" she asked. "I saw you have the bartender's ID, a gas charge receipt from Gloucester dated the day Shea was killed-presumably as Greenberg was leaving town-the photo of him at the Tunbridge Fair, the witness statements about how Hannah Shriver seemed to be running from him and his pals… By the way, any luck rounding them up?"

Spinney answered, having been assigned precisely that. "We've got some names-haven't put our hands on anyone yet, but I think we're close."

"What else?" she asked rhetorically. "How 'bout the knife he was found with?"

"At the lab right now," Joe said.

"And how's he connected to Bander?" she continued, gaining steam. "What was his job?"

Joe glanced at Lester. "Full-time staff," Spinney answered, "complete with health and bennies-listed as head of internal security. His job description, from what we've put together, was to coordinate the security at all of Bander's various enterprises, meaning everything from hiring rent-a-cops to getting buildings wired against break-ins, to running checks on employees. A sort of generalized Mr. Fix-it."

"I bet," Kathy commented. "He have any kind of record?"

"Military background, some fancy training there and a few comments about being prone to violence, but either he kept out of trouble as a civilian or nobody ever caught him."

Bartlett pulled on her earlobe. "Okay," she said. "We've got a mishmash here. I know you think everything's connected, Joe, and I won't argue with that. But right now we have one strong case-Greenberg-which looks like it'll only get stronger, and a second, much older one-Bander/ Oberfeldt-that still needs a lot of work. I suggest you look at these two the way I am, and divide and conquer."

"I see what you're saying, Kathy," Joe replied. "But I'm not sure I can nail down the older without cherry-picking from the newer. The connection is Greenberg's motive. I know you guys don't like to mess with that, but I'm almost positive Shriver and Shea-and Katie Clark, for that matter-are all dead because of the Oberfeldt killing. If we only hang Greenberg for Hannah's death, we'll be missing the bigger boat."

"I'm not saying that's what we will do, Joe," she countered. "I'm saying I want at least one guaranteed bird in hand. If we get that, I'm not opposed to casting a wider net. For one thing, I wouldn't mind using Greenberg to roll on Bander."

But Joe wasn't ready to so quickly give second billing to a case that had played such a big role in his life.

"I'd like to get hold of some of Bander's DNA-try matching it to the drops of blood found at the Oberfeldt scene," he said almost stubbornly. "There are ways I could do that without him even knowing it-people leave their DNA all over the place."

Kathy surprised him by turning his proposal around, a good example of her practical thinking. "All right, then, try this on: If you go after his DNA, don't go sneaking for it-hit him straight on. All you need is reasonable suspicion for a judge to sign for it. You pull that off, it might put a little extra heat under him from an unexpected quarter. Trick is, you have to satisfy that judge. Can you do it?"

Joe had been pondering the same problem, and hoped he'd come up with a possibility. "I think so."

"Good luck on getting Greenberg to talk, much less roll over on anybody," Lester commented, still on Kathy's first topic of interest. "So far, he hasn't said a peep."

"I wouldn't have, either," she agreed. "His lawyer's probably told him to sit tight and wait to see what we'll spring. What I'd like to do, assuming we get enough ammunition, is to threaten him with the death penalty and then bargain down."

Gunther and Spinney didn't immediately respond. Vermont had no such penalty, nor did Massachusetts for the moment.

"You want to go federal?" Joe asked.

Kathy smiled. "Maybe. Mostly I want his lawyer to know we've got the urge and the ability. If I and the Massachusetts DA and someone from the U.S. attorney's office all show up to that first meeting together, the message should be pretty clear."

"Does that mean we build our case using federal rules?" Lester asked. The question had merit, since the feds allowed for much broader latitude with rules of procedure.

But Kathy looked at him sharply. "I'm only threatening federal. No cutting corners here, okay?"

Both cops nodded in response.

"Good," she concluded, pushing herself away from the window ledge she'd been leaning against. "Go round up some ammunition."

"That sounded pretty good," Spinney said later in the car, clearly sounding out his silent boss.

"Yeah."

Spinney hesitated, pretending to watch the multihued panorama of trees painted across the string of low mountains of the valley they were traveling.

"You want us to do a full-court press on Shriver, then? Nail that down so Kathy can use it to squeeze Greenberg?"

"Yup."

Lester nodded to himself. "Right. Like she said, better that than digging around ancient history."