“Thinking about that, how did they have him killed?”
“No idea. The family signed off on his cremation after the autopsy, without Freida’s consent. Apparently, they’d gotten Fredrick to sign over power of attorney to the trust's lawyers, and had someone at the trust assigned to handle the probate. That was all done only a few weeks before he died, which can’t be a coincidence.”
“So all we have are the medical examiner's notes on the autopsy, which could be suspect.”
“Maybe, but I didn’t catch any whiff of the M.E. being dirty. I’m not even sure they would have had to go that far. Someone in Fredrick’s condition, anyone doing the autopsy, wouldn’t have looked that hard. From the expert we had look at the report, the post mortem x-rays do show a burst aneurysm right where the M.E. said it was. For my money, I’m betting they gave him something to cause it, and no one thought to look any harder since they saw what they expected to see.”
“Okay, back to the documents Frieda found. What was on them?”
“A lot of payment records, some internal memos, legal motions, that kind of thing. Each on its own wouldn’t be notable, but when put with Fredricks's journal, it’s not hard to see the pattern. I didn’t have the resources to really follow up on them, but what I did track down wasn’t hard to make out as dubious activities on the Trusts part at best.”
“Shit.”
“What?”
“I found the invoice you stashed listing the storage locker and went there with Graf. Some guys jumped us, and Graf was hit accidentally. Afterward, Graf said they had to take the documents back to the station to catalog. He’d just been shot by the people trying to kill us, and there’d been no indication that Graf was dirty, so I didn’t think anything of it. Hell, Joe Solomon was the one who introduced Graf to me. He eventually let me go through the documents, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why you’d stashed that crate. Of course, in hindsight, it seems pretty obvious Graf destroyed anything incriminating before he let me see it.”
“Shit. Without that, nothing in the journal helps us. We can only get out of this if we prove Graf is dirty, and I didn’t kill Frieda. Without those documents as corroboration, I don’t have anything to prove that now.”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I thought he was clean too, and someone had just played him for a fool. I looked into him before coming out to talk to him, and nothing stood out to suggest he was dirty, beyond the weird warrant.”
“Still, it kind of screws us.”
“Yeah.”
“So …”
“Yeah. Once I got the documents, I was convinced enough that maybe someone had Fredrick killed and started running down the documents to try and build up a picture of what was going on. I was heading back to ask Frieda some questions about one of those leads when I found her. Her neck was…”
“Yeah, I saw her. So you had the journal and the documents. That wasn’t enough?”
“Not once Frieda was killed. The journal pointed to illegal activity, but wouldn’t tie anyone to Frieda’s death. Sure, it’s enough to make authorities look at the family twice, but not enough to keep me out of jail as a possible witness. The journal suggests that quite a few judges and members of law enforcement are in their pocket, which means I don’t like my chances of staying alive while in custody. With her death, my priority switched to finding out who killed her and clearing myself.”
“Have you had any luck?”
“No. The only real connection I had was that it had something to do with the family, so I’ve been trying to work back who they would have had do it, and follow the money. Of course, now that we know your friend Graf is both dirty and leading the investigation into Frieda’s death, he seems the most likely candidate.”
“You know they have video of you entering and leaving the building right around the time she died?”
“Yeah, I’d heard that. I’m not surprised. Frieda was still warm when I got there, so it’s not surprising my showing up at the apartment was in the window. Seeing how she was killed and knowing what I knew about members of the police being in the family's pocket, I was positive I was going to be framed with her death, so I didn’t stick around.”
“Something just occurred to me. I only ever saw a video file containing a loop of you coming in and then leaving the building. Graf told us that you were the only person to come or go from the building within several hours of the murder. Still, considering he just pointed a gun at my head, I’m starting to think his word can’t be trusted. I’d really like to see the original video.”
“Didn’t Graf take the video? Even if we got it out of police lockup, I guarantee he’s cut out any parts that would incriminate the real killer.”
“The quality was digital. Frieda’s building was pretty high end, and the cameras I saw were all newer models. I’d bet it’s stored digitally, and Graf just got a copy of it. The building management probably still has access to the original file.”
“Our best bet is probably the building manager. I was coming and going enough that the doorman got tired of constantly checking to make sure I was allowed in the building. He didn’t have the authority to allow me to pass without stopping on his own, so he called down the manager, who talked to Frieda and okayed it. If anyone
