Chapter 11
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Doreen had a very different perspective on Birdie now.
It was hard to correlate what she had just heard with the woman she had met this morning.
Nothing like broken families to create all kinds of chaos.
And when money was involved, or love, it got complicated.
In this case, there was the love of a mother for her daughter, but there were obviously other issues as well.
Issues that sounded like a lot of broken family drama.
Doreen wasn’t sure what to do with that information at present, but she tucked it away in the back of her mind.
The thing that really got her thinking was the drunk driving comment.
If Birdie had managed to quash a report on Cassandra’s drunk driving, what would be the consequences for the family of the poor man who was killed in that accident?
Would they see it as Birdie having the power and a position to get her daughter off on something major like this?
Would they have done something to get back at her?
Like taking out Birdie’s grandson?
Could that be the issue?
And how did Cassandra actually die?
Was it a car accident, or had it really been something else instead? Maybe something more than an alcoholic spree?
Doreen frowned as she realized so much more was going on here than she had first expected.
And yet there wouldn’t be easy answers for any of it.
She texted Mack the updated information—knowing he would update the captain as well—and then tried to get through to Derrick in jail.
He was another piece of the puzzle that she needed to sort out before anything else.
Mack phoned her. “So, hang on a minute. You’re saying that Birdie got her daughter off on a drunk driving charge that could have potentially been declared a homicide?”
“Apparently, according to her prison-bound, breaking-and-entering former son-in-law.” And then she explained why he was charged with breaking-and-entering.
“Of course, you have to realize …”
“I know, I know,” she interrupted, “but a B&E charge when it was once his home sounds a lot like payback. This is an awful lot of grief in family land. What I don’t know is how much of it is potentially viable information and how much of it is more or less just sour grapes.
Duke did ask about a will for Devon, and I told him that I had no clue, and that we weren’t to that point yet. ”
“No, we aren’t,” Mack confirmed in a contemplative tone. “And he won’t be entitled to see it anyway.”
“It is a question though. Did Devon have a will in place?”
“I don’t know, but, if he had that kind of money, … it could be the motive. But why did he need to go to his grandmother for money then?”
“That’s a very good question.”
“If he had the house, was he living in it or was he living at college?”
Doreen replied, “From what I gathered, he was living at home, while taking online college courses. Yet he wasn’t found close to home.
So, I mean, … if he wanted to do drugs or to shoot up even a little bit,” she began, thinking it over, “wouldn’t you want to do that in your own home? For privacy and all that?”
Mack snorted. “I don’t understand the mentality of doing drugs in the first place,” he replied, “so I can’t really tell you. But, if it were me, yeah, … I would absolutely prefer to do something like that in my own home and not out in public, where I’ll just be found out.”
Doreen argued, “But Devon probably wasn’t expecting to be found out though. That’s the next issue,” she pointed out. “I’m sure, from his perspective, whatever he was doing, he wasn’t thinking of ending up dead and somebody finding his body there.”
“No, I don’t imagine so.”
Mack sounded distracted, and she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Trying to pull up the information on the car accident that the daughter was involved in,” he replied.
Doreen heard the keyboard clicks over the phone. “Would an incident like that be something that Birdie could write off or could take out of the public records?”
“Shouldn’t be … but still it could have been a vehicular manslaughter charge with a possible DUI charge,” he pointed out. “So, the family of the dead guy is one thing, and maybe she paid them off to keep it quiet. Yet there still shouldn’t have been an opportunity to make a DUI or worse go away.”
“Can it happen though?” Doreen asked.
“I guess, but let’s not tar the entire police station with the same brush.”
“Right,” she agreed, “and I guess the question is whether this happened under the current captain or somebody else, like his predecessor?”
“Let’s hope it’s his predecessor,” Mack stated immediately, “because we already know there was some looseness in the interpretation of the law in his cases. And he was known to drop some cases or charges if he felt it wouldn’t be beneficial to him and his career.”
Doreen snorted. “Which is completely wrong.”
“Of course it is, and we all know it is. Thankfully, that no longer happens with our current leadership,” Mack noted. “And, given the higher-profile cases nowadays, we have a lot more checks and balances. So, I can’t imagine anything like that would happen in our current department.”
“Okay. So you’ll let me know?”
“Yes,” he replied reluctantly. “Yet you need to keep an open mind.” Then he added, “What are you doing now?”
“I’ll call Duke’s son, Derrick, the violent jailbird. And, by the way, whether it’s a case of somebody trying to get out early or whatever, Duke told me how his son was quite capable of killing, had always hated Devon, and that prison was exactly where Derrick needed to be.”
“That’s interesting. Not too many fathers would acknowledge that.”
“Well, Duke’s also gotten into trouble, trying to protect his son after he got into a scrap, which hurts Duke’s ability to get time off for good behavior or consideration by the parole board. He’s got eight months until he’s out. But again, he reiterated that his own son is right where he belongs.”
“We also have to consider,” Mack pointed out, “that some people will say things for sympathy, and others will try to keep their motivations a little bit more obscure.”
“Maybe,” she noted. “I don’t know the man. All I can tell you is that Duke sounded fed up, sincere, and honestly … maybe a little scared.”
“Well, the idea that he could be scared is interesting because that would imply that maybe his son has something on him.”
“Or maybe the son doesn’t want him to get out and will sabotage his efforts.”
“Also possible,” he murmured. “Gosh, the crazy tales we weave.”
“I think Duke just wants out,” she shared.
“I’m sure he does. The question is whether he’ll actually get out, and that could literally be his motivation. And, if there happens to be any money coming his way when he’s out and free, that will make his life that much easier.”
“Easier but not necessarily easy. I don’t even know what guys like him do when they get out because, if he doesn’t have a support system of family or friends, how is he supposed to get a job?
How’s he supposed to avoid getting right back into the same situation he was in before?
It seems like there should be more help for them. ”
Immediate alarm filled Mack’s voice when he interrupted, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t go down that pathway. I don’t know all that’s available, but there are opportunities for them. I just don’t think it’s something you want to get into.”
When she hesitated, he continued. “No, Doreen. You can help lots of people and causes out there, but I don’t want this to be one of them.”
She frowned and said, “I just mean—”
“I’m just trying to keep you safe,” he interrupted yet again.
“Donating to that cause will tip off the whole criminal community, and the minute they find out the kind of money you have, you’ll be in danger.
As you well know, some of these people are killers.
They won’t think twice about knocking you down to size and filling their bank accounts while they’re at it. ”
“When you put it that way …”
“I’m putting it that way for a reason,” he declared.
“You cannot look at these guys like general members of society. Some of them may not have done very much in the way of a crime, and others have done stuff that is unimaginable. You’re not going there.
I know you think Mugs and Goliath and the rest of us would save you, but, in reality, we might get one handled, but by then there will be ten more criminals in line to try something, and who knows how many more making plans.
You would be bombarded by scammers and con artists and armed convicts as well. ”
“Okay, okay,” she muttered, “point taken.”
“I don’t want to belabor the point,” he added, “but in your case …”
She snorted. “Sometimes I don’t think you trust me.”
“Sometimes I don’t think you trust me,” he snapped.
“Otherwise … I would think we would be clearer than we are on many of these topics. Now, sometime down the road—after your philanthropy money is set up properly under several layers of corporate names, so no one can ever figure out that you are involved—if you wanted to set up some charity to help inmates re-enter society, we can do it, but only in a safe way that keeps you protected.”
“Oh, I like that idea.”
“Yeah, you would,” he muttered, with a sigh. “I’ll get back to you on that … someday.”
“Good enough.” Just as he went to hang up, she added, “Oh, and don’t forget.”
“Don’t forget what?” he asked, immediately suspicious.
She snorted. “Don’t forget that I still have to come up with a solution for … Robin’s place.”
“Oh, right,” he muttered. “And you want to do that one personally?”
She sighed. “Since she left me everything in a show of contrition and apology, she deserves at least a personal walk-through her place,” she explained. “I know it’s not what you want to do.”
“I just remember our last holiday,” he quipped, with a note of humor back in his tone. “I’m still not recovered.”
“Neither am I,” she said immediately. “And we do have to wait for it to get a little bit further down the legal process, and we’ll have to contact that lawyer to sort out anything that needs to be done on the property.”
“You mean, properties. We haven’t even finished sorting out Mathew’s properties.”
“No, I was kind of wondering about that though.”
“Wondering what?”
She could tell from his tone that he was a little bit distracted. “Just wondering if you wanted to go to France.”
After a moment of silence, he asked, “To see the house?”
“Yeah. I mean, how many times will we have a place to stay in France on a holiday? And it would allow us to go over the place and to contact whomever we need to contact or to meet up with, to do whatever is needed in order to sell it.”
“That’s possible,” he conceded. “We can discuss that one when I get home. I don’t get a ton of holidays.”
“I know,” she replied, “but this would be a holiday in France.”
“And would you want to go alone to this one?” he asked curiously.
She frowned. “Not really. I would much rather travel with you.”
His voice warmed considerably. “Well, I would much rather travel with you too,” he replied.
“So let me figure out what else I have for holidays and get a rough time frame figured out. Then you can have Nick contact Robin’s lawyer because that one probably needs to come first, before we go to France. ”
Doreen laughed. “What do I know about selling foreign properties?”
“That might be a conversation better suited for my brother.”
“That’s a good point,” she admitted. “I’ll send him a message and ask him about that.”
“Good enough.” And, with that, Mack got off the phone.
Doreen sent off a quick text to Nick, then she immediately dialed the prison again.
It took a little bit longer this time, but she was better at it now.
Eventually somebody came on and told her that the prisoner she was asking for wasn’t allowed calls without prior appointments.
She groaned at that. “Okay, I didn’t realize that.
In fact, earlier today I spoke to his father. ”
“Duke Hanson is not an easy man.”
“No. So, what do I have to do to talk to Derrick Hanson?”
“Well, first he has to want to talk to you, and, if he doesn’t know you, he may not agree to it.”
“Maybe, but you could also tell him that Devon is dead and that I’m investigating his death.”
Silence came on the other end. “Okay, that could work,” the man replied. She heard him scratching down notes. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I can get through to him.”
“Thank you,” she said.
She wasn’t sure whether that time frame meant five minutes, five hours, or five days, considering that these were prisoners and all. But when she got the call later that afternoon, she was surprised.
“He’s willing to talk to you. I can set it up for tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
And, with that, he hung up again.
She wasn’t even sure how the system worked, but, so far, it was working fine. She’d had reasons to call the different prison systems in a few cold cases already. Each time it just took a little maneuvering to actually get any of it to make sense.