Plan A was hiring the Canadian gigolo to seduce Beverly. He figured Frank would get pissed off and do something stupid and get himself thrown in jail. After the Articles of Partnership came to light, Mr. Hugh knew that would be best. With Frank having to line up credit to buy out Beverly, he would lose the financial stability necessary to win the Baker’s Realty contract.
Even though Canadian Bacon did his job well, Frank did his better. He filed divorce papers one day before Beverly filed to dissolve the business.
Plan B was the hit man. Since dead men can’t win five million dollar building contracts, he figured if he had Frank killed, he’d get the construction job.
The interrogation of the hit man proved more difficult. He’s been in and out of prison for so long he knew how to play the game. He was a non-violent offender until about ten years ago when he went to the dark side. Since that time he had served time for aggravated assault and was suspected of several strong arm robberies. Only recently was it rumored he hired himself out as a killer.
After being presented with the signed confession of Mr. Hugh, he admitted to accepting a job to kill Frank Nelson but denied even trying. OK, I expected this fucker to lie, doesn’t mean I have to like it, but I did expect it.
He had difficulty holding his breakfast when I told him we had his fingerprints at the scene of the double murder and the scene of a motel shooting. After the mention of a capital crime he wanted to talk deal so he could keep the needle out of his arm. The District Attorney was running for re-election this November so he wanted a conviction badly and started to consider it.
As an act of good faith, our wannabe killer provided information that seemed to implicate my other suspect as he had eyes on the individual twice that night. The second time was when he did try to kill Frank by shooting up his motel room.
After knowing a hired killer was involved, the running theory was that Mr. Hugh gave the hit man poor intelligence on Frank so he went in and killed our friendly Canadian thinking he was Frank and since Beverly was a witness, he had to do her also. Only after did he realize his mistake did he try to kill Frank at his motel room.
But now after the man confessed to one attempted murder and giving information that could lead to the actual killer, I had my doubts.
In case he was telling the truth about not being Beverly’s killer, the D.A. agreed to the deal only if the information he gave resulted in a conviction of the other person or persons he implicated.
Home was exactly what I needed after dealing with those two. Helen knew how to bring me back to the land of the living after a day like this. She has always been the light in the darkness I walked in.
The next morning I drove over to the offices of Nelson Construction to talk to my old friend. He seemed a little surprised to see me. I guess the expression on my face wasn’t hidden as well as I hoped. I told him he needed to clear his schedule because we had more to discuss concerning his whereabouts the night of Beverly’s murder. He asked if he could have an attorney present. After telling him that would be a good idea, he made a quick phone call and said his divorce attorney would meet us there.