I have a university to run.”
Wells turned and faced her. “I’m beginning to doubt your ability. I learned tonight Bastian did as well. The poor bastard was trying to have you ousted, or so I’m told. Now Snelling tells me research dollars are down. Some might say catastrophically. The mounting murders, faculty lack of confidence, and now this financial crisis; Meredith I don’t see how I can continue my support.”
Meredith glared at Snelling. She’d asked him to keep the financials quiet until she developed a plan to address the shortfall. True to form, he’d been unable to keep from sharing every little secret he knows.
“Carl.” Her voice was cold. “Leave us alone.”
Snelling’s head did a quick bob and he hurried out of the office. Wells and Meredith stared at each other for several long moments. Meredith finally took a deep breath and forced a smile.
“I think we can find a mutually satisfactory solution to all this.” She motioned to the fireplace. “Let’s make ourselves comfortable and talk.”
Chapter Forty-Four
“Damn it all to hell.” Mort had everything riding on the dogs. “They were chomping at the bit. They got nothing?”
Jim DeVilla thanked the canine patrol for their work and closed the door to Cameron’s shop. “Bruiser and I were with them every bark of the way, Mort. Noses to the ground right down to the water. Dogs can’t track what they can’t smell.”
Mort kicked his leg into empty air. “Call a dive team. Wells did Cameron, I know it. We find her body we’ll get something off it.”
“You gonna drag Puget Sound?” Jim held his friend’s stare. “Wells was at work when this went down. No fewer than thirty people can verify it.”
“Convenient, don’t you think?” Mort rubbed the back of his aching neck. “Don’t forget who he’s got on his rolodex. He sits back with thirty alibis while his goons do the wet work. But he’s good for this, Jimmy. Probably Bastian, too.”
“Guys like Wells have supermodels’ and movie stars’ numbers, too. You think he’s gonna stay lonely long?” Jimmy pulled a roll of mints from his jacket and popped a couple in his mouth before offering some to Mort and Bruiser. Mort took one. The dog took two. “Why would he risk offing Bastian and the caterer when he’s got Oscar nominees ready to be his date at the next White House dinner?”
Mort crushed his mint with grinding jaws. “Bastian humiliated him in front of the whole world. I don’t see Bradley Wells walking away from that.” He took a long look around Cameron’s shop. “Or maybe he thought with Bastian out of the way Cameron would come running back. When she didn’t, he got pissed. Look at all this blood, Jimmy. This is a crime of passion.”
“So now what?”
Mort took a seat at a bistro table and pushed out a chair for his friend. Bruiser clicked over to join them. “Now we connect the dots. Bastian to Buchner to Cameron. See if we’ve got enough to make a move on Wells.” He counted the steps on his fingers. “Buchner’s holding a voice synthesizer that proves a hired gun, code name Fixer, did Bastian. From what Robbie’s been able to uncover this Fixer doesn’t come cheap. Wells has the kind of dough that could bring her in. We can prove the money orders used to place the ads all came from Seattle. Buchner makes a second connection to the Fixer with that thank-you note. Hired guns don’t like to be remembered. The Fixer makes sure old Wally doesn’t get another chance to slip up. ”
“That connects Fixer to Bastian and Buchner,” Jimmy said. “We got nothing connecting the caterer. Besides,” Jim pulled his notebook from his jacket and flipped to a certain page. “Your number one pick for The Fixer, this Savannah Samuels? She was on a slab in an Olympia morgue when the caterer gets hit. And none of this connects Wells.”
“Work with me, Jimmy. Suppose Wells hires this Fixer to hit Bastian. Uses Buchner as his go-between.”
“You got anything connecting Buchner to Wells?”
“How about a starving grad student gets a call from the university’s biggest benefactor?” Mort asked. “Wells shows Buchner the tape of Bastian slaughtering Ortoo. We know Buchner’s an animal rights activist. Maybe he hooked him that way. Or how about Childress’ talk about research assistants living and breathing for their next endowment? Maybe Wells promises him a big fat check to underwrite his work on that voice-producing thing. All he has to do is go to the warehouse and hire The Fixer.'
“You think Bucher’s got it in him to hire a hit?” Jim rubbed the spot between Bruiser’s ears.
“People do lots of things for money, Jimmy. If Wally became convinced there was no other way to stop Bastian’s research, he might justify it.” Mort leaned forward. “Let’s say The Fixer takes the job. Kills Bastian.” His voice endowed his developing theory with credibility. “Wells thinks he’s done. Bastian’s out of the way and he’s clear to win Cameron back. But Wally goes all sentimental and thanks The Fixer for a job well done. The Fixer goes rogue and takes Wally out. Wells learns about it in the morning papers. He couldn’t care less. In fact, maybe he feels like sending The Fixer a thank-you of his own for tying up a loose end.”
Jimmy nodded and gave a sly grin. “Or maybe it’s not The Fixer who took Buchner out. That would explain the different M.O.’s.”
Mort like that his friend was warming to his ideas. “That bloodbath at Buchner’s apartment isn’t like any of the hits we’ve tied to The Fixer, that’s for sure. It’s much more in tune with Wells’ pals from back in the day. But that wouldn’t explain why Savannah was so upset she went running to her psychologist crying about being responsible for Buchner’s death.”
“That shrink’s turning into your inside source, isn’t she?” Jimmy asked. “When do I get to meet this secret weapon of criminal investigation?”
Mort flashed on Jimmy’s infatuation with Micki and worried that his friend might think Lydia was more his type. He shook his head. “Let’s focus on the work at hand, shall we?”
Jimmy caressed the canine head resting in his lap. “So Bastian and Buchner are both out of the way and Wells goes a-courtin’. That what you’re thinking?”
Mort leaned back and nodded. “He didn’t count on Cameron being so deep in mourning. She rejects him. Maybe even a few times. I call on Cameron that morning, tell her Bastian didn’t die of a heart attack. Wells just happens to stop by later in the day. He’s heard the sad news from when he stopped by Bastian’s house.”
“I always thought the timing of that drop-in with the university president was a little too perfect.” Jim drummed his free hand on the table. “He finds the caterer crying in her cupcakes. Tries to soothe her and she turns on him. She can think of only one person who might want Bastian dead. She accuses him and threatens to call the cops.”
“Wells loses it and Cameron ends up dead.” Mort loved the moment everything dropped into place. “He realizes what he’s done, calls a few of his old cronies to come get the body, cleans himself up, and heads back to his office where he calls an emergency meeting with thirty of his closest advisors.”
The two partners sat in silence and let the plan marinate. Mort ran every contingency through his mind.
“Okay, loose ends,” he said. “Name ‘em and tie ‘em.”
Jim scribbled in his notebook. “Voice synthesizer left at Buchner’s.”
“Easy,” Mort said. “The thing had been scrubbed clean. Memory banks and outer casing. There’d be no reason for anyone to take it. In fact, taking the center of Buchner’s research might raise red flags.”
“The Fixer suicides.” Jim looked up from his writing. “What kind of cold-hearted killer does that?”
Mort shook his head. “Robbie and I don’t believe for one minute that The Fixer was cold-hearted. In fact, she’s busted people looking for a run-of-the-mill hit. This woman kills out of a drive for justice for the little guy.”
Jim fixed a stern gaze on his friend. “I wouldn’t mind having the balls to do what she’s done.”
Mort was quiet for several seconds. His mind drifted to Meghan Hane, dead behind a dumpster; Angelo Satanell’s jeering face taunting him. He recalled the indescribable grief of Meghan’s father as Mort walked him through booking. He inhaled deeply and shook the images away.
“This is about The Fixer, not us. I think her suicide was more about falling in love. She was going to leave the
