Authors: Susan Slater
Hair of the Dog (22 page)
Fucher nodded, pushed back from the table and headed for the side door. Dan restrained Daisy who tried to follow. Fucher had a great way with dogs, maybe someday he'd apply some of his magic to Simon.
“I want him to know he's making a contributionâmaybe take his mind off of what happened earlier. And Carol shared some information with me that will make a difference to the case. If we can find the evidence,” he nodded at Carol, “we'll be able to see a pretty sophisticated information exchange system. Proof that this was a fairly well thought-out scheme overall.”
It didn't take long for Fucher to come back through the doors with a handful of collars. “These are old.”
“All the better, I think.” Dan reached into the pile on the table and handed a couple to Carol. Then he turned one inside out and looked at the series of numbers, letters, and dashes penned onto the leather collar's underside.
“These are not simple registration numbers.” Carol read off a series from one of her collars that was mostly letters. “I don't know the code but this shorthand let Mr. Falco call the shotsâlock up or not.”
Chief Cox took a collar from Dan, turned it over and studied the inscription, “Not bad. A pretty good system.”
“Yeah, the trucks delivered and picked up dogs every month or two and Falco could stay on top of operations long-distance.” Actually, Dan was impressed.
He didn't have a timeframe but it had obviously been working for awhile.
“As a precaution, we had Tony Falco transported to Jacksonville earlier today. He wasn't too thrilled to go from minimum security to maximum. But he filled in a lot of blanks for usâall in the name of blaming Franco Marconi. I imagine Tony's testimony is going to become a lot more explicit and incriminating now that Franco is dead.”
“In retrospect, Franco
could
be held accountable for a lot. And there's Dixie's tie-in to all this. Do you think you'll be able to separate fact from fiction when it comes to who instigated what?”
“Probably not, but we'll have enough to take away Tony's minimum lock-up privileges and give him a real long vacation at the government's expense. Probably no way to pin a murder on him but Tony simply outranked Francoâhe would have stayed in chargeâordered things done. The dog collars prove he had a finger on the pulse. However, it's a toss-up as to who hired whom. Tony says Dixie brought in Franco and Franco brought in Joey D'Angelo. That part's true but we believe that Franco was already working for Tony. The casino was a nifty little setup for a modest money-laundering operation. Must have been a feather in Tony's cap to run a few hundred thousand through the casino and race track every other month or so. And they didn't overdo itâno amounts that would have called attention to the casino. Excess funds needing laundering were kept nearby and funneled into foreign banks via Joey D'Angelo.
“But didn't you say that there was a mole? Someone on the inside giving you guys information as to shipments?”
“Kevin Elliott. We'd been working with Kevin for a few months. He'd come to us after sharing his suspicions with Wayne Warrenâalerted him to the fact that his casino was being used illegally. Seems the excess money had been hidden in his lab. He found it and saw who was putting it in and who was taking it out. We don't know what happened next, but somehow Kevin was able to figure out that Franco was behind the scheme. We think Kevin's punishment for talking to Wayne was having to cut up his friend's body and dispose of it. At least that's Tony's story. Played right into Dixie's wanting to get rid of five greyhounds. The crematory served two purposes. I think if there hadn't been a murder, the dogs would have just been âstolen.' Looks like she thought death certificates would hasten the payoff. A break for you that Sanchez decided to double-cross her and sell a couple for racers.”
“And then Sanchez got caught stealing from the mob?”
“Yeah. And he couldn't be trustedâtoo much boozeâthe old loose lips sinking ships sort of thing.”
Dan hadn't heard that one in awhile. “What brought you here tonight?”
“We checked into A. J. Bowman and came out to arrest Dixie Halifax. Using her mother's name on the offshore account maybe wasn't the brightest thing to do. But we were here for an arrest, not a robbery. It was a fluke that the robbery had been set up for this evening. Of course, with a cover like Halloween, the costumes helped the men blend into the crowd. Again, some good planning. Two of Tony's men were killed tonight but we're hoping the third will share what he knows.”
“Do we know who killed Jackson?” Dan was curious.
“Franco. You were right about maintenance being a torture chamber. We think we found where Jackson was tortured and killedâat least there's some rubber tubing that will probably test positive for alcohol and Jackson's DNA. Looks like they needed to find out just how much he knew and who he'd told.”
“I can believe the etching of âthief' on his forehead, but the stabbing? That doesn't make sense.”
“Not unless you look at the interior surveillance footage from the kennel.”
“Wasn't all that lost in the fire?”
“The new system makes use of the Cloud for storage of data. We have a very clear picture of Dixie Halifax bending over the body in the hallway, stabbing an already dead man, and then wiping the knife handle off.”
“Do we know why?”
“Dixie wanted the two hundred and fifty thousand insurance payout and she didn't take kindly to Sanchez potentially ruining her plan to claim itâand stand to profit from selling two of her dogs to boot. She didn't want to kill her dogs and she didn't want them found. They were supposed to have been placed in homesânever raced. Jackson helped her with the plan but then got the bright idea to sell the two best racers. He changed their tats after they were loaded that night, forged their registrations, and had sold them without her knowing about it. The hauler probably left a copy of the shipping papers in her office and took off. Either someone told her what was going on or she simply found the bills of sale for the two dogs and went to confront Jackson about pocketing an extra seventy-five thousand. I'm certain she was more than mad enough to kill him. Imagine how convenient to find him supposedly passed out in the hallway.”
“The money would have come in handyâmight have helped get her hauler back.”
“Wasn't sure you knew about that. The track was struggling. The perfect setup for the mob boys to move in. Who could refuse?”
“The insurance money still seems small potatoes compared to the rest.”
“It was money totally separate from the mob. Dixie wasn't above getting every penny she could. Her dealings with United Life and Casualty were never meant to interfere with the money launderingâtwo separate entities. Actually I'm surprised that Franco didn't nix the deal. I can't think that he'd want anything to call attention to the track. But Dixie went ahead. There didn't seem to be any reason that money laundering and missing dogs would overlapâbut that's when you showed up. And thanks to your mother there was a lot of overlap.”
“Who started the fire?”
“We're guessing Dixie. She needed to cover-up the murder she thought she'd committed and have a vehicle for the greyhounds to supposedly die. We're not sure when Franco decided to get Kevin to cremate human remains and claim the dogs' deaths. Somewhere along the line, Franco also moved the body around to implicate Fucher. He may have known Dixie did the stabbing and was protecting her. Or maybe he just needed a fall-guy. Knew if he provided a âmurderer,' it would keep the cops busy. He may have seen Fucher remove the knife and knew Fucher's fingerprints would be on the knife handleâhe just had to make sure the body wasn't burned. Nice way to set up his pal. And everyone knew Sanchez owed Fucher money. That would explain the “thief” carvingâwhich is something Franco probably did to further implicate Fucher.”
“And Wayne and Kevin Elliott?”
“Both deaths also the work of Franco. Thanks to your investigation, Kevin Elliott became a liability. Or maybe Franco found out he was working with the Feds. Someone thought threatening him wasn't enough; he couldn't be trustedânot after having to cut up his friend. Smart move to check the ashes in the urns. Franco had a nice little network of people working for him in the neighborhood. It wouldn't have been a problem to have someone alter the tires.”
“I guess it's my turn to offer an apology.” Officer Bartlett stood up. “We arrested Mr. Crumm to keep up appearances. We knew someone had gone to extremes to implicate him, and we didn't want to give the real killer a chance to run for cover. We especially needed youâ¦,” a nod toward Dan, “to believe we had our man.”
“I understand. Let me say how sorry I am about Kevin. I know you were good friends.”
“I knew he was a mole. He thought it was his civic duty. I tried to get him to talk about what was going on, but he refused. It was something we argued about all the time. He thought he was safeâthought he was needed too much around here to be expendable. And I know himâdoing what they made him do to Mr. Warren scared him to death. He had a former wife and two teenage kids; he was convinced that they'd be harmed.”
Elaine and Dan sat holding hands. There was finally a sense of closure.
“What's going to happen to Dixie?” Elaine asked.
“Attempted murder, defrauding the government, and United Life and Casualtyâwe don't know the extent of her involvement in the other deaths, but based on what we do know, I doubt Ms. Halifax will be out of prison any time soon. Franco seemed to be Tony Falco's puppetâhis eyes and ears on the outside. Maybe, so was Dixie. Tony didn't have much choice but he seemed to trust the two of them with his money scheme.”
“What will happen to the track?” And Fucher and Mel's jobs, Dan thought.
“I think the State Gaming Commission will get involved. I doubt they will even close itâunless they take some downtime to give it a face-liftâI think they'll bring in new personnel and keep it open to the public. It's been a viable part of this community for a long time.”
“Ms. Taichert, I know it's getting late but I need you to come down to my office for a statement. Shouldn't take long.” Chief Cox stood. “Mr. Mahoney, I'd like you to stop by in the morning.”
“Can I have some candy now?” A sleepy looking Fucher interrupted.
“I think I can handle that.” Officer Bartlett turned to Fucher. “I was pretty hard on you, pal. Even after we knew you hadn't killed Jackson Sanchez. But it gave us the extra time to build a case against the bad guys. Do you understand?”
“That's okay. Can I come back to work now?”
“I imagine you can.” Officer Bartlett looked at his boss and got a nod from Chief Cox. “How about I give you a ride home in a cruiser? You could help me with the lights and siren maybe.”
“Yeah. I'd like that. But I have to take Daisy home.”
“We'll do that. You need to get some rest for work tomorrow.” Dan watched as Officer Bartlett pulled a Snickers bar from his jacket pocket and handed it off as the two headed toward the exit. Fucher's happiness was complete.
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