Bury the Lead

43



I BELIEVE THAT ROSALIE was Eliot Kendall’s missing sister. Eliot had said his sister had never been found, but I think he was lying and that he had learned where she was. I also believe he hired Lassiter to kill her, and to kill the others as a way of deflecting attention.

I have to wait until four P.M. to find out if I’m right. It’s like waiting for a jury verdict. People are going to march in and tell me whether or not Eliot Kendall is guilty of murder. They won’t be doing it as part of a decision they’ve reached, but rather with the information they’ve spent the day gathering. But I feel just as powerless as when I’m waiting for a jury verdict: The final result is in the hands of others.

By three-thirty Kevin, Sam, and Vince have arrived. Only Vince hasn’t brought the answers with him; they are being dug out of the Cleveland newspaper archives and being faxed directly to me. Laurie puts out food and drinks, and we begin.

Sam has done his usual amazing job of digging information out of that bewildering world inhabited by computers and the geeks that run them. He has come up with a copy of the recently deceased Byron Kendall’s will, which is part of the public record because it involved a significant transfer of ownership of Kendall Industries, a publicly traded company. Byron, whose wife, Cynthia, died eight years ago, split his entire fortune evenly between his two children, Eliot and Tina. It notes that Tina has been missing for seven years and that if she is not found within three more years, she is to be considered deceased for the purpose of the document. In that case, Eliot would become the sole heir. As best as Sam can tell from his computer snooping, the total value of the estate is six hundred million dollars.

Kevin’s job was a lot easier: simply to get a list of all visitors that Daniel saw at the prison, as well as the dates he saw each of them. He shows that to us, and it’s consistent with our theory, but now we have to wait for Vince’s information to be faxed.

We sit by the fax machine, watching it and waiting for it to ring. This is not the most fun I’ve ever had, and by six-thirty I want to slam the silent machine against the wall. Finally, it rings, and the material from the Cleveland Plain Dealer starts to come through. As requested, they have sent all their stories on the disappearance of Tina Kendall those seven years ago. Included are the stories Daniel wrote, and as Eliot described them, they were compassionate and not exploitive.

Some of the stories included photographs, and one of them shows the entire Kendall family, two years before Tina’s disappearance and one year before Cynthia’s death. In the picture are Tina, Eliot, Byron, and Cynthia. It is impossible to tell if the young Tina is the same girl as the one found slain behind the Dumpster. But there is no doubt that Cynthia Kendall is the woman whose picture is in the locket.

The group now turns to me to hear my theory on what has taken place. I caution them that there is much I don’t know, but I lay it all out to see if they can poke holes in it.

“Vince, I’m sorry, but I believe that Daniel hired Lassiter to have his wife killed.” Vince winces slightly when he hears this, but he doesn’t answer, so I continue. “And when Lassiter didn’t successfully frame someone else for the murder, Daniel withheld some of the payment. If you’ll remember, Marcus reported that someone else was originally charged with the crime, but the case fell apart. I think this was because Lassiter was sloppy.

“Meanwhile, Eliot’s father was dying, and Eliot wasn’t about to risk sharing the six hundred million with a sister that ran away. He tracked her down and then decided to kill her.

“Cindy Spodek of the FBI told me today that Kendall Industries has long been suspected of having mob ties and that it’s assumed they’ve laundered money. Eliot must have used these connections to hire Lassiter to murder his sister, cutting off her hands so she couldn’t be identified. Eliot would then wait the three years to get her removed from the will.

“Lassiter, whether on his own or with Eliot’s approval, murdered the other women to deflect attention from the main target, Rosalie. Then, to get revenge against Daniel, Lassiter set him up to be the fall guy. I’m sure he found it fit together quite well.”

Laurie asks, “So the entire time Daniel was communicating with the killer, he knew it was Lassiter?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. I think he found out the night of the Padilla murder, which is why he didn’t call the police when he got the cell phone call. I think Daniel went to the park hoping to kill Lassiter himself.”

“So why did Lassiter kill the fifth victim, which let Daniel off the hook?” Kevin asks.

“Here I’m guessing, but I think it’s a good guess. In court the day Calvin let in the murder scene pictures of the previous victims, Daniel asked for their files. I think that’s the day he recognized Rosalie. The day he put it all together.”

Kevin nods and quickly thumbs through the logs showing visitation to Daniel at the prison. “And he saw Eliot at the prison the next day.” I can hear the excitement in his voice.

“Right. Daniel pieced it together and told Eliot that if he didn’t get him off, he would reveal Rosalie’s identity to the world. Eliot had Lassiter do another killing, which ensured Daniel’s freedom.”

“But Lassiter wasn’t about to let Daniel walk away, so he killed him at his house,” says Laurie.

“And then Eliot killed Lassiter so there couldn’t be a link back to him,” says Kevin.

I nod. “Except for Sondra. It’s why Rosalie was killed in her apartment and the place was ransacked. Eliot was looking to eliminate any possible connections between Rosalie and her real family. It’s also why there were two attempts on Sondra’s life; Eliot was covering another base on the chance that she knew something.”

As I’m talking, another piece clicks into place. “You know, Eliot met Sondra in my office, and Willie and I both noticed he was staring at her. What I think he was really staring at was her locket. He recognized it, and it was soon after that he tried to have her killed. Which is why the killer grabbed at her neck.”

We continue talking, and I can feel myself, as well as the others in the room, grow more excited. Eliot wasn’t here out of concern for Daniel; he was here to monitor the situation. It’s why he offered help; he wanted to be as close as he could to the source of information.

We’ve figured it out, I’m sure of it, and it’s a damn good feeling.

It’s left to Sam Willis to bring us crashing down. “So what are you going to do about this?”

For a group with all the answers, we shut up mighty fast. Eliot seems to have covered all the bases; the only ones who could testify against him, Daniel and Lassiter, are gone. Through DNA we can conclusively prove that Rosalie was Eliot’s sister, but we have no concrete evidence at all that he paid for her murder.

Laurie thinks we have an obligation to turn this information over to Captain Millen, and while I’m sure she is right, I want to think things through first. I feel like our advantage, slim as it may be, is that Eliot doesn’t know we are onto him. As long as our information stays within our group, we possess the element of surprise, and I’m not ready to give that up yet.

The group leaves at a little after midnight, and Laurie and I stay up for another hour or so talking about the situation some more. As a longtime criminal attorney, I’ve seen some pretty awful things, but the fact that so many women were brutally murdered as nothing more than a smoke screen sets a new standard.

Eliot Kendall is a scumbag, the lowest of the low, and I am going to bring him down.

All I have to do is figure out how.