J. Jance - Trial By Fire

Ali nodded as the woman quickly produced an ID wallet, complete with a Phoenix PD badge.

“Detective Maria Salazar, I presume,” Ali said.

The woman, fairly tall and clearly Hispanic, smiled and nodded. “Word gets around, doesn’t it?” she said. “I would have called ahead, but it’s a matter of some urgency.”

“What can I do for you?” Ali asked.

“I’ve just come from Bishop Gillespie’s office,” the detective said. “Naturally he’s quite concerned about what happened to Sister Anselm. Believe me, if Bishop Gillespie is concerned, our department is concerned.”

“Naturally,” Ali agreed.

“Most of the kidnapping unit has spent the last night trying to free a drug dealer from the hands of the people he ripped off. They grabbed him during a carjacking yesterday afternoon. It took until five o’clock this morning to bring that one to a close. As a consequence, we haven’t had much time to deal with the Sister Anselm situation, which appears to be quite different from our usual cases. But we’re dealing with it now. In the meantime, Bishop Gillespie has had some of his people working on the problem as well. That’s where you come in.”

“How?”

“Donna Carson is in the process of selling her condo. She listed it for fifteen thousand dollars less than she paid for it originally. She’s about to accept an offer that will mean a fifty thousand loss.”

“In other words, a fire sale,” Ali said.

“An unfortunate choice of words,” Detective Salazar returned with a half smile, “because this is a fire sale of sorts. The point is, she’s on her way out of town in a hell of a hurry. The closing is scheduled for half an hour from now, then she’s due to fly out of town later this afternoon. First stop is L.A. Second stop is Caracas, Venezuela. The U.S. has no extradition agreement with Venezuela.”

“So unless you stop her today…” Ali began.

“At this point, we don’t have probable cause to arrest her. We’re working on that,” Detective Salazar said, “but we have enough for a sit-down. I’m told by two separate people, Detective Holman from Yavapai County and Bishop Gillespie, that you know more about this situation than anyone else. So I’m asking you to go along on the interview. You can brief me on the way in far less time than it’ll take me to read through those transcripts.”

“If I’m in on this and the ATF isn’t, Agent Donnelley will have a fit,” Ali said.

“They might,” Detective Salazar agreed, “but as far as I know, both Agent in Charge Donnelley and Agent Robson are up in Payson right now. Donna Carson is due at the airport in a little under two hours. Do you have a vest?”

“Yes,” Ali said, hefting her briefcase.

She had stuffed the rest in the briefcase along with the wig when the admitting clerk had returned her goods to her as she was leaving the ER the night before. Fortunately, it was still there.

“Good girl,” Detective Salazar said. “Come on. I’ll drive. I’ve already programmed the escrow agent’s address into my GPS.”

The escrow office was in a newly constructed office building at the corner of Scottsdale Road and Indian School. On the way there, Ali told Maria Salazar everything she knew, or thought she knew, about Donna Carson, including the fact that it seemed that Donna was Winston Langley’s niece, and Ali’s own private suspicion that even though Donna was Winston’s blood relation, she might have been one of his sexual conquests.

“I suppose that would make sense,” Detective Salazar allowed. “Powerful men often go looking for people who, for one reason or another, can’t fight back. If you look at the Langley family history, though, growing up, Winston was the fair-haired boy to Leah’s black sheep. She’s the one who ran away from home as a teenager, got herself knocked up, and got married-in that order. That was also when her parents disowned her.”

“Being an upright local banker and having a juvenile delinquent for a daughter probably didn’t mix too well.”

Detective Salazar nodded. “Later on, after Leah’s divorce, she went right on making bad decisions. She got caught up in a gang of arsonists and went to prison. At that point, Winston stepped up and took his niece under his wing. He saw to it that she got an education; gave her a job.”

In exchange for what? Ali wondered.

“There was no mention of Donna’s being a relative in any of the discussions I heard,” Ali said. “When Serenity talked about her it was as a long-term employee, but not as a relative. There was even some mention about letting her go.”

“In other words,” Maria Salazar said, pulling into a parking garage, “Donna’s a charity case. She’s the poor relation who’s allowed to have a job, but she’s also expected to know her place in the family pecking order. Sounds like a possible motive to me.”

Ali and Maria Salazar exited the unmarked Crown Victoria.

“So here’s how we’re going to play it,” Detective Salazar said as they walked through the lobby and toward the elevator. “So far Donnelley has done an incredible job of keeping the lid on all this. McGregor’s ID has not yet been given out, pending notification of next of kin. Your involvement has yet to be made public, either. Did Donna ever see you in the waiting room?”

“She may have,” Ali said, “but I looked different.”

Detective Salazar smiled again. “Right,” she said. “I heard. The infamous red wig.”

“Most of the people in the room assumed I was part of another patient’s group of visitors,” Ali added. “Nobody there paid much attention to me. There’s a good chance Donna didn’t, either.”

“Let’s hope,” Detective Salazar said. “Now, as far as the interview is concerned, she’s only a person of interest, but you and I are going to pretend that McGregor gave her up. We’ll see what that gets us. With any kind of luck, we’ll be able to provoke her into doing something stupid. By the way, are you carrying?”

Ali nodded. “I doubt your supervisors know I’m doing an armed ride-along on this one.”

“Don’t worry about my supervisors,” Maria Salazar said. “Bishop Gillespie has the ability to pull any number of strings. I believe he’s already pulled several.”

Ali believed it, too.

They rode the elevator in silence. Arriving at the sixth floor, they found their way through a maze of corridors to the office marked Pan American Escrow . While they were still outside in the hallway, Maria Salazar produced a tiny tape recorder. After switching it on and re-stowing it in her pocket, the detective pushed open the door and flashed her badge in the direction of the young woman seated at the reception desk.

“We’re here to see Donna Carson,” she said brusquely.

“I’m sorry. She’s involved in a signing. Her escrow officer has asked that they not be disturbed.”

“This is police business,” Maria insisted. “Which way?”

The receptionist capitulated. She pointed. “That way,” she said. “The conference room at the end of the hall.”

The conference room telephone was ringing as Ali and Detective Salazar reached the door. Before anyone had a chance to answer, Maria flung open the door and marched inside with Ali on her heels.

The escrow officer’s name tag identified her as Louise Wilson. She and Donna Carson were seated side by side at a large conference table. Two separate stacks of documents were spread out in front of them. Louise was just reaching out to answer the ringing phone when Detective Salazar stopped her.

“Don’t bother,” the detective said. “That’s just your receptionist calling to let you know we were on our way.”

After two more rings the phone fell silent.