Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER Thirty-Four

Dana Cutler decided that she couldn’t put off telling the detectives in charge of the Blair case about the Ottoman Scepter any longer, so she drove to Lee County to watch Horace Blair’s bail hearing, certain that one of them would be a witness. The courtroom was packed and the only seat Dana could find was a narrow space in the last row of the spectator section between a slovenly, obese man in a malodorous tracksuit and the bright-eyed assistant commonwealth attorney who had created the space by edging away from her foul-smelling benchmate. The young prosecutor was one of several who were in the courtroom to watch Rick Hamada in action.

When Dana finished wedging herself in place she shifted her attention to the front of the room, where a guard was escorting Horace Blair to the defense table. Charles Benedict walked over to his client, giving Dana her first chance to get a good look at Horace Blair’s lawyer. She studied him closely and could not shake the notion that he looked just like the man Dana had seen with Carrie Blair when Dana was working the Lars Jorgenson insurance case.

Dana had a copy of the photograph she’d taken of Carrie and the mystery man on her phone so she could show it to the detectives. She found it and compared the man with Carrie to Charles Benedict. There was no question in her mind that Carrie’s companion and Horace Blair’s attorney were the same person.

Why would Horace Blair’s lawyer and Horace Blair’s wife be together so early in the morning? There was one obvious answer, and Dana realized that she had more to talk about with the detectives than she had thought when she entered the courtroom.



Dana listened intently to Frank Santoro’s testimony. When the lawyers were through with him, Judge Gardner called a recess. Santoro spoke briefly with Hamada before heading up the aisle. Dana intercepted him at the courtroom door.

“Detective Santoro, my name is Dana Cutler. I’m a private investigator and I’d like to talk to you about the Blair case.”

Santoro remembered Carrie’s Internet search for information about the investigator. Then he remembered something he had read about Dana and he frowned.

“You write stories for that supermarket tabloid Exposed, don’t you?”

“I don’t want to interview you. I’m not writing a story. I have information about this case you should know. There’s no quid pro quo involved.”

“What kind of information?”

“Look, it’s complicated. Can we meet after court?”

Santoro hesitated.

“I was a cop before I went private, Detective. I’m not going to jack you around. You have my word.”

“Okay. There’s a coffee shop about two blocks from here, Fallon’s. I’ll meet you there when we break for lunch, and I’ll bring my partner.”

“See you then,” Dana said.



Dana was in a booth, sipping a cup of black coffee, when the detectives walked in.

“It’s an honor,” Stephanie Robb said as she and Santoro slid into the bench seat across from Dana.

Robb had just made detective when Dana butchered the bikers who gang-raped her. That act made Dana a hero to Robb, and to many other women in law enforcement.

Dana nodded but didn’t say anything. She hoped Robb was referring to the case involving President Farrington and not the incident with the bikers. She’d been insane when she killed the meth cooks, and she’d killed to survive. Fortunately, the waiter appeared, so Dana was able to change the subject.

“You told me that you have information about the Blair case,” Santoro said when the waiter left with their orders.

“I do, and it’s pretty weird. I don’t know what you’ll make of it, but I felt I had to tell you what I know.”

The detectives listened intently as Dana told them about her quest to find the Ottoman Scepter and her discovery that the assignment had been a hoax perpetrated by Carrie Blair. The waiter brought their food just before Dana finished her tale.

“Why do you think Carrie paid you and those actors all that money?” Robb asked when Dana finished.

“You think the prenup is the motive for the murder, right?”

Robb nodded.

“I think Carrie got me away from D.C. because she thought I had information that Horace Blair could use to void it.”

“What information?”

“Before I tell it to you I’d like you to answer a question for me.”

“Shoot.”

“Have you seen the prenup? Can you prove it exists?”

“We’re having trouble confirming its existence,” Santoro told her. “Horace’s lawyer won’t let us talk to him about it and Jack Pratt, his civil attorney, refuses to meet with us. But if you were in court during my testimony, you heard that we have an informant who will testify that Horace told him he killed Carrie because he didn’t want to pay her twenty million dollars when the prenup ended.”

“What were the conditions Carrie had to meet to get the money?” Dana asked.

“The informant says that Blair told him she would get the money if she didn’t divorce him or cheat on him during the first ten years of the marriage,” Santoro said.

“We don’t know if that clause is really in the prenup since we haven’t seen it,” Robb said, “but it makes sense.”

“What I know might blow a hole in your theory.”

Dana showed the photograph of Carrie and Benedict to the detectives.

“That’s Carrie Blair and Charles Benedict outside Benedict’s apartment shortly before seven a.m. on the day Carrie contacted me, pretending to be Margo Laurent.”

Wheels turned in Robb’s head as soon as she realized what the photo implied. “You think Benedict was f*cking Carrie Blair?”

“I was in a car, taking pictures of an insurance cheat for United Insurance. I didn’t know who Carrie Blair or Charles Benedict were. But Blair went ballistic when she spotted me. She started screaming and she charged at my car, so I took off. Blair acted the way a person with a guilty conscience would act. It’s definitely the way I would act if I thought a PI had caught me cheating on my husband, especially if cheating on my husband was going to cost me twenty million dollars.

“I think Carrie Blair memorized my license plate and used it to figure out who I was. Later that day, she called Alice Forte, a lawyer I work for, and got my phone number. Then she called me, pretending to be Margo Laurent.

“Here’s your problem,” Dana concluded. “Horace Blair would have no reason to kill Carrie if he knew she’d violated the prenup.”

“Blair may not have known that his wife had something on the side,” Robb said. “If he didn’t know she was cheating, he’d still have a motive to kill her.”

“That’s true,” Dana said, “but the odds are good that a person with Horace’s resources would know that Carrie was having an affair.”

“That still doesn’t let Blair off the hook,” Robb countered. “Husbands kill cheating wives all the time. Maybe he’s just a jealous husband. But there’s something else that makes me think that Blair definitely didn’t know about his wife and Benedict.”

“What’s that?” Dana asked.

“If Benedict was having an affair with Horace’s wife, and Horace knew about it, why would he hire Benedict to defend him? Doesn’t that tell you that Horace didn’t know about the affair?”

“That’s a good point.” Dana shrugged. “Look, I’ve been pretty busy making up for lost time since I got back from my ‘quest,’ so I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking this through. I just thought I should tell you about the scepter and Benedict.”

Santoro looked at his watch. “Court is going to start in ten minutes. We’ve got to get back.”

The waiter brought the bill. Santoro took out his wallet, gave him cash, and laid his wallet next to himself on the seat.

“Thanks for lunch,” Dana said.

“Thanks for talking to us,” Santoro said.

The detectives left and Dana picked up her sandwich. She felt relieved that she had fulfilled her duty as a citizen and could put the Blair case behind her. The feeling lasted the length of time it took Frank Santoro to reenter Fallon’s and walk back to her booth. He reached across the bench on which he’d been sitting and picked up his wallet.

“I left this here so I’d have an excuse to come back,” Santoro said as he slipped the wallet into his back pocket. “I need to talk to you and I don’t want Steph to know. Is there someplace we can meet tonight?”