Chapter 10
When the wheels of the American Airlines jet touched down at Washington National Airport the next day, Steve and Linda immediately headed for Headquarters and a meeting with the Captain. As they entered the Squad Room and placed their luggage next to their desk, the Captain was summoning them into his office. As they entered his office, they discovered that the District Attorney of the Judicial District of Washington, D.C. was seated in one of the chairs. The captain introduced everyone around and the District Attorney proceeded to speak to the three of them.
“You guys are doing a great job on this case, but I need a name for an indictment. The public is getting restless and many people are feeling insecure over this murder. Detectives, believe me, I want a case I can win, so don't feed me a sacrificial goat,” Mr. Lucius H. Marco, the Washington D.A. stated. “I want the killer of Mrs. Smith-Hughes just as bad as you do, but don't hesitate to nail someone, no matter who they are.” This Steve and Linda knew referred to Vice President William Anderson.
“How did your trip to Chicago go, people?” the Captain questioned as he sat back in his chair. He wanted to hear positive trends to make the trip worth the money spent.
“We have a strong lead, Captain, but our suspect has yet to be identified,” Steve commented. “Our Hr. Petersen looks like a good suspect but unless we can connect him to Jonathan Smith-Hughes. As of right now, the connection has not been made.”
“How about Anderson in this case? Where does he fit in this scenario?” the D.A. questioned Steve and Linda.
“He was there at that time, but swears he left her alive. He can't prove hi innocence, but, we can't prove that he's our killer. Do you wish to indict him on such weak evidence and circumstances?” Steve asked the D.A. with a stern face.
“Unless we have more evidence, like a murder weapon with his prints on it, we don't stand a chance in court,” the District Attorney declared. “We need a suspect who has evidence linking him to this murder.”
“We need to find the blackmail material that made someone a killer,” remarked the Captain, as he turned in his chair behind his desk. “That material will allow us to circle in on our killer. You know, I thought we might have had our killer in this recent murder at Watergate, but it too lacked vital evidence.”
“You mean the MacGyver murder, chief?” Linda asked.
“That suicide note left by our illustrious Senator Klausburger put that case to rest real quick,” the District Attorney stated, “he's a slime-ball Republican this town won't miss, but it did reveal that at least two women living at Watergate liked to screw government officials and blackmail them too.”
The Captain rose from his desk and started to chew on his cigar again. “So far in that case, our people haven't linked Klausburger to the Smith-Hughes woman, even though he was on her probable blackmail list.”
“What kind of a woman was this MacGyver girl, Steve? You had some contact with her,” the D.A. asked Steve.
“She was a mover and from her social actions, she maybe played the same game Laura Smith-Hughes played but at a lower level,” detective Ciminelli replied.
“That case was a simple scenario of a man who found himself trapped by his mistress and decided to end the affair permanently. The case goes no further as of now,” the Captain interjected to the people in his office.
“Well, Mr. Marco, are you going to indict Anderson for the Smith-Hughes murder?” questioned Linda, as she wanted a definitive answer to it.
“As of now, no, but if a new viable suspect isn't handed to me by next Friday, I'll have to make a decision about an indictment on the Vice President and let a trial jury free his ass,” was his reply. “Well guys, this gives us about ten days to come up with a suspect to pin this murder on or our best suspect for now goes before the Grand Jury. So, let's burn the midnight oil and turn over every stone,” ordered the Captain to Ciminelli and Hannigan. The detectives nodded that they understood the challenge, and they reassured the District Attorney that they would do their best to give him Laura's murderer. Before they left the Captain's office, Linda retrieved the complete case file on the Smith-Hughes murder from the Captain's cabinet. “Let's go over this material and try to see if he can match some of it to your projected theory Steve.” They moved into one of the interrogation rooms and closed the door. Steve proceeded to retrace the material and evidence on the case, from the beginning.
“First, our murder victim was the wife of one of the wealthiest men in this country. She was unofficially separated from him and lived in his apartment at the Watergate Complex. She was a wheeler-dealer and a prime mover in this town, having affairs with some highly prominent people. We believe she was also blackmailing some of these people. She received a large amount of money for her endeavor. Even her husband was giving her a personal check for $25,000 each month. We don't believe this was for support for she still had access to her husband's wealth.” Steve took a breather by taking a sip of his coffee. “Second, on the night of her murder, Laura Smith-Hughes was visited first by the First Lady, Nancy Patterson, herself, to _discuss plans for a late summer social. Mrs. Patterson states that she was alive when she left the apartment before 7:15PM. Our lady then gets herself ready for her lover, the Vice President, William Anderson, who arrives around ten. She forces him to have sex and when he informs her that their affair is over, she scratches his back in anger. Our Mr. Anderson relates that Laura was angry, but that he didn't kill her or strike her and that he left the apartment at eleven. He swears on the Bible that she was alive at that time, but, outside of our killer, he's the last person to see Laura Smith-Hughes alive.” Linda starts to look through some of the evidence they have on the case. Steve pulls out the photos the I.D. boys took of the murder scene. They start checking out the photos, step by step, refreshing their memories of the murder scene. “In this one, the victim is laying dead in her bed, stabbed over six times and only wearing her night gown. This doesn't favor Anderson's testimony on her being alive when he left,” comments Steve as he points to the body on the bed. He then threw the photos on the table.
“Fingerprints at the murder scene matched those of the Vice President and the First Lady of the United States. The First Lady, Nancy Patterson, can be scratched from our list of suspects because she left Mrs. Smith-Hughes alive. We can't be one hundred percent positive with Vice President Anderson. His prints and his admission that he was with the murder victim from ten to eleven that night makes him a viable suspect for her death,” admitted Steve as he read from his notes.
“That leaves us with at least two other viable suspects,”
replied Linda, as she looked up from her case file, “and that is the murder victim's husband and this mysterious Mr. Petersen.”
She reached across the table and looked at her list of suspects.
“We can scratch Senator Klausburger too at the same time, Steve.”
“Yeah, his suicide eliminates him as a suspect,” remarked Steve.
“You were correct on that one, Steve. He was having an affair with Vanessa MacGyver and decided to end it by drowning the MacGyver woman in her bathroom sink. Stupid, he left his prints allover the place, and then he blows his brains out because he doesn't want to face the music of this scandal,” continues Linda as she leans back in her chair. “Klausburger's one of our holier than thou type of conservatives and to be caught screwing another lady was too much for him.”
“The pompous ass could not stand being on that high cloud and the emptiness of his life had to end in the way it did,” remarked Steve. “It's a shame Vanessa had to act like the Smith-Hughes broad. They both got snuffed out for it.”
Linda nodded in agreement and reached over on the table and started to glance at the I.D. photos again. She moved them around and tried to study their importance. Suddenly she spotted something and she sat up straight in her chair. She pointed to one photo and stated loud and clear: “This is it, Steve, I've found it.”
“Found what, partner?” Steve asked excitedly. “The place where Laura Smith-Hughes hid her blackmail material,” exclaimed Linda as she picked up the photo. “Look at this shot. What do you see?”
“It's nothing but a shot of Mrs. Smith-Hughes's autos in the Watergate garage.”
“Look at the license plate on the Bentley, Steve. Read those numbers out.”
“The number is 1-0-7-2-1-2,” Steve stated as he read the license plate on the photo.
“That's the same as the check stub for one Claude Benjamin Smith-Hughes. It's a match and I wonder if these numbers are the plate numbers of the other cars in that garage,” remarked Linda with excitement in her voice.
“I think you cracked it partner,” Steve replied as he reached over the table and kissed Linda on the forehead. “Let's go over to the Watergate Complex and check those cars out. I'm willing to bet the material we're looking for is in those cars.” Before they left Headquarters, they checked with the Captain and related their findings to him. He, too, showed some excitement in his voice as he ordered them to check it out as quickly as possible. The ride to the Watergate Complex was slow as the traffic was building up at that time. Steve tried to move from one lane to another but some of the other drivers were doing the same thing and they nearly caused a severe accident involving our dynamic duo.
“I wonder why our I.D. and forensic boys didn't find anything when they first checked these autos out?” Steve remarked as he moved his vehicle ahead of some buses who were slowing down the traffic on that street.
“They checked for blood and hair samples chiefly, and for items in plain sight. They didn't strip the cars down,” replied Linda as she held on as Steve moved the auto from one lane to another.
“I'll bet the material is in the trunk of the car,” Steve interjected. “Our lady wouldn't hide it so as to dirty her hands. I'll bet on it.”
“You're probably right Steve, for I believe the trunks were only checked for content, not stripped down,” Linda replied. As she stated that, Steve's auto was moving quickly into the Complex parking lot and to a screeching halt.
The superintendent of the Complex must have thought that Steve and Linda wanted permanent residence at the 3C apartment when he had to open the Smith-Hughes garage. The garage contained four automobiles, all belonging to Laura Smith-Hughes. She had four car keys on her key chain and Linda opened the trunk to the Bentley. It was empty and when Steve lifted the trunk carpet up, he proceeded to remove the spare tire cover. On top of the spare tire was a plastic envelope containing the spare tire manual instructions. Steve checked under the spare tire and the whole trunk area. He even looked for rips in the carpet cover and came up empty. “I was sure she hid: it here in the “trunk,” he stated. “Look, the plates of the other autos match the numbers in her checkbook. That material might be in the other car trunks.”
“Let's check them out to be sure,” stated Linda, as she opened the trunks to the other three cars in the garage. Steve checked one and Linda the other, and again, all they found was a plastic envelope with spare tire manual instructions. All four car trunks revealed the same thing, nothing but spare tire instruction envelopes.
“We can't be drawing a blank here,” Steve remarked, as he looked at the four plastic envelopes. “Each one of these envelopes contains materials on the spare tire.” He proceeded to open one and pulled the material out. Suddenly, he made a howl and pulled a plain envelope out of the instruction papers and when he opened it, there in front of him was the material he was looking for. “We finally have it Linda. This is it. Look at this material.” He started to identify each plain envelope they found to the license number from the car it came from.
“This is heavy stuff, Steve. Let's go back to Headquarters and place this material into their respective places in this case,” Linda remarked as she glanced over the material as Steve drove the two back to Police Headquarters. “This lady had some hot stuff over these four people, Steve. Some of this material is serious enough to cause someone to kill her.”
“Babe, I think “we may be able to nail our killer with the help of this blackmail material,” Steve remarked as he parked his car in the Headquarters parking lot. They entered the Squad Room and headed for the Captain's office, and upon entering the office, they informed the Captain of what they had uncovered. Steve closed the door and Linda placed the material on the Captain's desk, one envelope at a time.
“Our lady was surely blackmailing these people, chief. She had some control over some very powerful people,” Linda related as she started to go over the material in the envelopes. “First, Laura states that Nancy Patterson had an abortion when she was attending college, and if that was known to the public, her husband's conservative political views would be seen in a serious negative mode. But, since President Patterson may not run for re-election, I really don't know how effective this was on him.”
“But what if he wanted to run for re-election, Linda, that material would destroy him politically,” Steve related as he settled into a nearby chair.
“Steve's right, Linda, but I don't picture the Pattersons committing murder to stop this woman's blackmail hold on them,”
J remarked the Captain as he chewed on his cigar.
“So, we can scratch them off our list of probable killers in this case. This leaves us with William Anderson, our chief suspect in this scenario. The material Laura had are photos of him in bed with her and this Senate office memo of Senator William Anderson causing a young member of his staff to be pregnant. The memo, signed by him, authorizes that funds from his office account be used to have her pay for an abortion,” Linda rattled off as she read the material in the Vice President's envelope.
“Enough material to politically destroy the bastard,” remarked Steve. “This makes an excellent reason for committing a murder, and this is enough to have the District Attorney hand out an indictment on him.”
“Vice President or not, the jerk has gotten himself into so much hot water. It's hard to believe that some people believe he should be our next President and lead this country. His sexual appetite is worse than some previous Presidents, and that's saying some,” Linda remarked as she tossed the Anderson file on the Captain's desk. “This character is our best bet to hand over to the D.A.”
“How about Senator Klausburger's material?” the Captain stated with a slight smile.
“We can forget about him in this case,” Linda was quick to state. “It was rumored that the ex-Senator had an affair with a young sixteen year old several years ago, while he was on vacation in South Carolina. It's statutory rape there as well as here in D.C.”
“He probably thought that Vanessa had the same information over his head, and it scared him into murder and suicide. He did Laura Smith-Hughes’ dirty work when it had to be done. I'll bet he paid a good amount to keep her mouth silent, but I don't believe he killed her. Vanessa was another story, for she was a ticking time-bomb and her threats to Klausburger's well-being drove him over the edge,” replied Steve as he closed the file on Senator Klausburger.
“This leaves us with Claude Benjamin smith-Hughes,” the Captain interjected, “and where do we stand on him in this case?”
“Claude Benjamin Smith-Hughes is the older brother of Jonathan Smith-Hughes, and he goes by the name of Claude B. Hughes. Claude B. Hughes is a school principal of an elementary school in Mount pilot, North Carolina. He is a leader of his church and the community. A good family man and churchgoer,” related Linda as she read his file. “Fifteen years ago, he was a Sunday School teacher in Peekskill, New York, and he was accused of sexually abusing some young girls. He was never prosecuted on the charge and he eventually moved from New York to North Carolina and changed his name and his life. It nearly destroyed him personally. The notation in this file by Laura states that Jonathan will protect his brother at any cost. She has noted that Claude is mentally disturbed when confronted with this old scandal.”
“Nice sister-in-law she was,” related Steve as he chewed on his pencil, “and that explains the monthly check for $25,000. It also is a good reason to commit murder. What do you think?”
“A very good motive Steve, but Jonathan has his ass covered. Unless we can prove that he was our Mr. Petersen, he's committed the crime but can't be touched by us,” returned Linda as she placed the papers on the table.
“Linda's right, Steve, unless we hook Smith-Hughes to our mystery boy Petersen, he's home free and he knows it. His smartass lawyer would dump any indictment right out the window. With this knowledge you just uncovered, we can now identify the killer and the reason for it, but this doesn't look too good for Vice President Anderson. The D.A. may still want to indict him for the murder and let the system run its course,” commented the Captain as he leaned forward over his desk.
“Well, we have one suspect with circumstantial evidence which could lead to an indictment, and we have another suspect who we can't prove as the murderer to this case. It seems we can see the guilty man walk away and can do nothing about it,” replied Linda as she rose from her chair. The Captain rose from his chair and walked over to the window and stared at the street below. He chewed on his cigar and after a few moments of thought, he turned to Steve, “Steve, do you think we can scare Smith-Hughes into confessing for the murder of his wife?”
“That play could be used, chief, but I'll need the results of the I.D. check on that rental car and plane first. I don't mind bluffing our case with him,” Steve encountered sharply. This new tact interested him and he was eager to perform it. “Linda, when did the boys say they would be ready with their results on the car and plane?”
“We can expect their report sometime tomorrow or the next day,” Linda replied. She and Steve then proceeded to put all their case papers and reports in their proper places and locked the files in the Captain's cabinet.
“Steve, try to put this case to bed as soon as possible. The department needs you two people on other cases for the workload is starting to mount up again,” the Captain interjected as Steve and Linda were leaving his office. They nodded in agreement, but they both knew that the Laura Smith-Hughes murder was far from being solved.
• • •
That evening, Steve and Maureen were found lying on a picnic blanket at the base of the Washington Monument listening to a concert put on by the United States Marine Corps Band. From marching music to current melodies, the Band put on an enjoyable concert and the price was right—it was free to everyone. As Maureen propped herself in a beach chair, Steve laid his head on her lap and took a few z's as the band played. The early evening sun was hot enough and the only cool place in Washington was on the Mall or by the river basin. As Steve made himself comfortable, Maureen was jotting some notes down in her notebook. This was personal business not the normal reporting material she usually filled that book with.
“Steve, wake up darling. I'm trying to figure out how many people to invite to our wedding reception. Counting my relatives and friends, my list is close to or over a hundred. How many do we expect from your side?” Maureen remarked as she was busily writing names down in her book.
“It doesn't matter how· many come from my side, sweetheart,” Steve mentioned slowly as he turned over to another side of his face. “The bride's father pays for the reception, so let's invite as many as we wish.”
“Steve, be serious, please. Daddy isn't going to object over the number, but he would like to know how many are going to be there from your side of the aisle,”
“Are you inviting the News Center crew and the big shots from ABC?” Steve returned as he leaned on his arm to look her in the eye.
“Yes, and several of my college friends too,” Maureen replied. “As I stated earlier, I want this wedding to be the type I always dreamed of—big and fancy. If my daddy doesn't mind, why should you?”
“You're right sweetheart,” Steve remarked as he reached up and kissed Maureen hard on her lips.
“Now that's the ·way for my lover-boy to behave,” she remarked as she patted his head. “I'm going to have this wedding at the National Cathedral and if I know John Hanks, he'll have prime coverage on it. I know him and my wedding is big news to him and the station.” Steve slowly turned over and tried to go back to sleep. This wedding stuff was starting to tire him out already.