Peter Clement - Mortal Remains

A woman occupied the seat to Dan’s right. She had come forward in response to all the media coverage. In her late twenties, she wore a stylish gray business suit and had black hair drawn back into a single long braid. From time to time she’d laugh at something Dan said and touch his arm. Dan’s smile would widen, the way it usually did when someone appreciated one of his jokes. Mark had never met her before, but instantly recognized her voice when Dan introduced her.

Beside her sat Tanya Wozcek, dressed in jeans, opposite Dr. Roy, in whites as always.

Hunched over by himself a few places away, Detective William Everett, pasty-faced and sullen, played with a paper clip.

There were two no-shows – Walter and Samantha McShane.

Mark had expected as much since this wouldn’t be all about Samantha.

The one whose presence surprised everyone – Chaz Braden – occupied the far end of the table. Mark hadn’t faced the man since they’d hauled him off his father in the coffee shop. But he looked different somehow. The circles under his eyes sagged less heavily, but the change seemed more substantial than that. He possessed a steadiness in his gaze and a stillness in the way he sat that Mark didn’t remember seeing before.

Time to get under way. He snapped on the portable tape recorder he’d brought with him and placed it on the table. “Thank you for coming everyone. I remind you that what is discussed here must remain confidential, and it will be entered as part of my final report on the murder of Kelly McShane. I’ve already talked to you individually and gone over what each of you knows. I’ve also collaborated with my colleagues, Sheriff Dan Evans and Dr. Earl Garnet, to piece together the findings. What we ended up with is a story of murder and how trying to find out old secrets uncovered a trove of current ones. This meeting will give all of you a chance to correct any omissions or errors. I caution that for some, the testimony will be painful.”

He paused and glanced around at his audience, paying particular attention to Chaz. No signs of anger. So far so good. “Dr. Garnet will begin.”

Earl leaned forward, clasped his hands on the table, and looked around him with the easy assurance of a man used to addressing large groups.

“As most of you have seen in the media, I met with Kelly on the eve of her disappearance. While she had already confided in me her intent to end her marriage and drop out of sight, she kept the specifics of her plans private, other than mentioning she had some matters to take care of first. Such secrecy you may find strange, but she didn’t want me or any of her friends to search for her, in case we unwittingly gave away her hiding place.”

Prior to the meeting, Earl had indicated a willingness, albeit reluctantly, to explain his relationship to Kelly for the record, “So as to avoid any claims later that I’ve been less than forthright. Otherwise, some idiot’s liable to say I compromised the credibility of the whole inquiry by covering up my own role in what happened.”

“Don’t feel obliged to bring it up unless someone else does,” Mark had advised. “But anybody who can read a newspaper has already guessed the truth.”

Nevertheless, Earl paused, giving his audience every chance to question him, his gaze tactfully fixed on Janet, presumably to avoid the appearance of trying to stare down whoever might feel inclined to request that he tell all.

Janet gave him a smile of encouragement, as if whatever he had to say would be all right with her.

Chaz seemed to be holding his breath.

No takers.

“So despite her furtiveness, what do we know about Kelly’s actions on the last day of her life?” Earl continued. “Direct testimony gave us some leads, we deduced a great deal more from the evidence we gathered, and speculation will have to fill in the gaps.” He glanced toward Chaz. “One of those ‘matters’ she mentioned, we subsequently learned, involved a confrontation with her husband, Dr. Charles Braden IV, when she announced her intention to leave him. The encounter occurred in the street outside his office.”

Chaz didn’t so much as flinch an eyebrow at the disclosure. He’d been the source of this information, including it in his statement to the police. Everett then passed it along to Mark as a professional courtesy.

“By our investigation of phone records for that day we were also able to determine she’d made a call to Charles Braden III at his maternity center in Saratoga. Presumably at the time he convinced her to come and meet with him in the evening. She did, and, we think, confronted him about the irregularities in his statistics for the facility, specifically the impossibly low number of newborns with congenital defects.”

There’d been no statement out of Charles since his arrest other than asserting his right to remain silent. The only information Everett had been able to provide about him – “The son of a bitch sure looks good in an orange jumpsuit.”

“We also think it’s safe to assume that Kelly did not leave New York without confronting Melanie Collins…”

Earl went on to recount the saga of the digoxin toxicity cases.

Confront your fears, went the pop jargon, Mark thought, half-listening to the familiar account. Yet here a woman who’d run from confrontation all her life finally stood her ground, and got killed for it.

“… Knowing Kelly, however, my own opinion is that she probably intended to give Melanie the chance to do the right thing by turning herself in, and hadn’t told anyone the full extent of her suspicions. If she had confided in somebody, it most likely would have been to Dr. Cam Roper, Mark’s father and her mentor. But if he’d known the whole story, wouldn’t he have acted on it after Kelly disappeared? Instead, I think she may have only asked his opinion on the files, without naming the culprit, but promising to take care of the problem before her departure. When no headlines to that effect appeared, I think Cam Roper tried to check it out himself, following the same paper trail I did and going after the original charts. Except he never got a chance to finish…”

Mark had gone very still at the mention of his dad. Ironically, he’d talked to Lucy a lot about him as he kept a vigil at her side, not sure if she could hear but driven to try and reach her. And as he talked, he eventually admitted what he hadn’t been able to face before. That in seeking justice for Kelly, he might also be tracking his father’s killer.

“… However, Melanie Collins’s suicide means we will never know for certain what happened between her and Kelly on that day.” Earl looked over at Dan. “Sheriff Evans will now outline the reason Kelly, and possibly Dr. Cam Roper, were killed.”

Dan reflexively looked toward the end of the table where Chaz remained motionless, face calm, eyes steady.

Mark couldn’t tell for sure, but Chaz seemed to give Dan a nod to proceed.

Dan nevertheless took a few seconds to scan some notes that he had in front of him. “I’ve spent the last week taking statements from the bankers, family solicitors, and tax accountants who have managed the Braden fortune for years. It seems they would rather testify under oath than be considered in cahoots with Braden Senior. I also took statements from families whose babies he delivered in his Saratoga maternity center. And have contacted at least twenty orphanages. It soon became abundantly clear that Charles Braden III did what he did for money, pure and simple.” He stopped and took a sip from a bottle of water he’d brought with him.

Mark could tell he was nervous.

“In the midfifties, stock market reversals and heavy inheritance taxes on Charles Braden’s various properties put him in a precarious financial position. I won’t go into the details of how he reversed this situation, but in short, he exchanged healthy babies for deformed ones at twenty-thousand dollars a child, for a total of three and a half million, tax free, over twenty years. In most cases only the fathers knew, and the only crime committed by them had been to forge the mothers’ names placing the babies for adoption. So far I’ve managed to turn up records of 171 children with congenital defects that Braden placed in orphanages throughout the state during that period, and I still have several more institutions to check.” He paused, and slid Mark a glance this time. “There were no smotherings. I think he created that rumor himself, to make any accusations against him seem over the top and therefore unbelievable. But as Dr. Roper will now explain, there were bodies.”