David Rosenfelt - New Tricks

“Gee, I wouldn’t know,” she says.

Richard introduces the restaurant’s record that night, which show no credit card payment by Steven. “If he didn’t pay by credit card, then it must have been cash, correct? There’s no other choice, is there?”

“No, that’s it.”

“So there’s no way to identify his check?” he asks.

She shakes her head. “Not really.”

“And no way to know what time he left?”

“No.”

“Thank you.”

I bring in a waitress and a patron at the restaurant that night, both of whom basically say the same thing: They’re pretty sure they remember Steven, but they can’t say for sure when he left.

We’re not exactly generating headlines here.

At lunch, a court messenger brings Kevin an envelope, and he opens it and takes out some papers. “The security gate logs from that week,” he announces, as he tries to locate the night in question.

“Robinson? Tell me he was at the house that night,” I say, hoping it will show Robinson can be shown to have arrived at the house and left with Walter Timmerman.

“No,” Kevin says, looking up at me. “But Thomas Sykes was. He arrived at a quarter to seven.”

The name surprises me. “Could he have been shacking up with Diana at that house?”

“Either that or he came to see Walter,” he says. “There’s no way to tell from this whether Walter was home.”

“Does it say if Sykes left alone?”

Kevin shakes his head. “No.” Then, “So what have we learned?”

“We’ve learned something; we just don’t know what it means, or if it has any value. We’ll figure it out tonight.”

I go outside and use my cell phone to call Laurie. “How are you feeling?” I ask.

“I feel fine,” she says.

“Ready to go to work?”

I can see her smile through the phone. “You’d better believe it,” she says.

“LET’S MAKE SOME ASSUMPTIONS about Thomas Sykes,” I say. “Let’s assume that he was not at the house that night for a quickie with Diana Timmerman. And let’s further assume that he was involved in the murder of her husband.”

“We have nothing to base that on,” says Kevin.

“I would say almost nothing. We do at least know he was at the house that night, and we know he was having an affair with Timmerman’s wife. But I’ll concede the point; we aren’t close to implicating him. I’m just suggesting we assume the worst, and try to figure out the pieces. If it doesn’t fit, then we’ll move on.”

“Okay,” Kevin says. “Sykes went to the house, grabbed Walter Timmerman, and drove him to Paterson, where Jimmy Childs was waiting to shoot him.”

Laurie says, “The head of security, Durant, says that if Walter Timmerman had been in Sykes’s car when he left there should be a notation to that effect.” I had asked Laurie to interview Durant while we were in court today, and she did so.

“He was in the trunk, or tied up in the back if Sykes had an SUV.” They both stare at me as if I’m an idiot, so I say, “Assumptions. Assumptions.”

“Fine,” Laurie says, going along. “He tied him up, and then when they got away from the house, he forced Walter to call Steven.”

Another piece, something I had completely missed until now, clicks into place, and I can feel my excitement starting to grow. “What happened to his phone?” I ask.

I pick up my own phone without waiting for an answer to my question, but before I dial I ask Kevin to dig out all the cell phone records. “The ones in discovery and Sam’s as well.”

I dial Billy Cameron, the public defender who was representing the young man originally accused of the Timmerman murder. He’s not home, but when I tell his wife who I am and that I am calling on an urgent matter, she gives me his cell number.

“Billy? Andy Carpenter.”

“Let me guess: They nailed you on the dognapping and you need me to arrange bail.”

“No, if that happened I would call someone competent. But I do have a question I need you to answer.”

“Shoot,” he says.

“Your client was picked up with Timmerman’s wallet. Did he have anything else of Timmerman’s on him?”

“I don’t think so. Like what?”

“Like his cell phone.”

Billy thinks for a moment. “No. I would remember that. I can check the files when I’m in the office, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t have it.”

“Thanks, Billy. That’s what I needed.”

“I just got back to town yesterday. How’s the case going?”

“Getting better all the time.”

When I get off the call, Kevin is ready with the cell phone information. “Sam’s documents never showed the call on Timmerman’s cell phone, but that was explained in court. The phone company rep said that the call was made from Timmerman’s business phone, under the Timco account. I was never much interested in checking on whether the call took place, because Steven had confirmed to us that he received it.”

“What if it was Sykes’s phone?” I ask, and by now I’m almost yelling. “Everybody assumed it was Timmerman’s phone because it came up as Timco, but Sykes’s phone would show the same thing. He’s the goddamn CEO. We need to call Sam and get records from that cell phone. And I need Steven’s home phone records for the last year.”

“Okay, let’s take a step back and look at the big picture,” Laurie says. “Why would Sykes want Walter Timmerman dead?”

“To take over the business entirely?” Kevin asks. “Or maybe so that Diana Timmerman could inherit her husband’s money, and then Sykes could marry her?”

“That didn’t work out too well,” I say.

Kevin is getting into this. “It could also have to do with Timmerman’s work. Sykes is a scientist; maybe he found out about it and wanted to take it over for himself. For all he knew, Timmerman was working alone and in secret. If Timmerman were to die, Sykes might be able to walk in and take over without anyone knowing. Especially because Timmerman’s lab was in his house, and Sykes would have access through Diana.”

“So why blow up the house?” Laurie asks.

That’s a tough one, but I take a shot at it. “Maybe Sykes had already gotten what he needed, and he didn’t want anyone else to get it as well. And maybe this way he was able to get rid of Diana, who was the only witness to what he was doing.”

“Holy shit,” Laurie says, thereby exposing her delicate side. “I just had a thought; try this out. Maybe Sykes killed Timmerman for personal reasons, and then someone else blew up the house. Maybe with Timmerman dead, someone wanted to make sure no one had access to his work.”

“What are you basing that on?” I ask.

“Childs never told Marcus he killed Walter Timmerman, remember? All he told him was that he blew up the house and tried to kill Waggy. We just assumed he didn’t admit to killing Walter because Marcus didn’t ask the question, but maybe it was because it never happened.”

The three of us just look at one another for at least sixty seconds, as we all come to grips with the fact that, at the very least, we’ve come up with a very viable theory.

“Now, how are you possibly going to prove all this?” Laurie asks.

“We don’t have to prove it,” I say. “We all think this is possible, right? We just have to get the jury to think like us.”

We talk for another hour, and then Kevin heads for home. As Laurie and I are about to get into bed, I say, “You ready for a stakeout, and maybe a phone call?”

“Sure,” she says.

“Good. Go to Sykes’s office, and when he leaves, give him a call on the cell phone number we got from Sam’s records.”