“Howard…?”
“Yes?’
“Can a woman love a man too much?”
“What?”
Her voice was dead. “Philip has left me.”
It suddenly explained a lot. “I…I’m sorry, Lara.”
She had a strange smile on her face. “It’s funny, isn’t it? I’m losing everything at once. First Philip, now my buildings. Do you know what it is, Howard? It’s the Fates. They’re against me. You can’t fight the Fates, can you?”
He had never seen her in such pain. It tore at him. “Lara…”
“They’re not through with me yet. I have to fly to Reno this afternoon. There’s a grand jury hearing. If…”
The intercom buzzed. “There’s a Lieutenant Mancini here.”
“Send him in.”
Howard Keller looked at Lara quizzically. “Mancini? What does he want?”
Lara took a deep breath. “He’s here to arrest me, Howard.”
“Arrest you? What are you talking about?”
Her voice was very quiet. “They think I arranged the attack on Philip.”
“That’s ridiculous! They can’t…”
The door opened, and Lieutenant Mancini walked in. He stood there, looking at the two of them for a moment, then moved forward.
“I have a warrant here for your arrest.”
Howard Keller’s face was pale. He moved in front of Lara protectively and said hoarsely, “You can’t do that. She hasn’t done anything.”
“You’re right, Mr. Keller. I’m not arresting her. The warrant is for you.”
Chapter Thirty-five
Transcript of Interrogation of Howard Keller by Detective Lieutenant Sal Mancini.
M: You have been read your rights, Mr. Keller?
K: Yes.
M: And you have waived the right to have an attorney present?
K: I don’t need an attorney. I was going to come in anyway. I couldn’t let anything happen to Lara.
M: You paid Jesse Shaw $50,000 to attack Philip Adler?
K: Yes.
M: Why?
K: He was making her miserable. She begged him to stay home with her, but he kept leaving her.
M: So you arranged to have him crippled.
K: It wasn’t like that. I never meant for Jesse to go so far. He got carried away.
M: Tell me about Bill Whitman.
K: He was a bastard. He was trying to blackmail Lara. I couldn’t let him do that. He could have ruined her.
M: So you had him killed?
K: For Lara’s sake, yes.
M: Was she aware of what you were doing?
K: Of course not. She never would have allowed it. No. I was there to protect her, you see. Anything I did, I did for her. I would die for her.
M: Or kill for her.
K: Can I ask you a question? How did you know I was involved in this?
End of Interrogation.
At 1 Police Plaza, Captain Bronson said to Mancini, “How did you know he was behind it?”
“He left a loose thread, and I unraveled it. I almost missed it. In Jesse Shaw’s rap sheet, it mentioned that he took a fall when he was seventeen for stealing some baseball equipment from a Chicago Cubs minor league team. I checked it out, and sure enough, they were teammates. That’s where Keller slipped up. When I asked him, he told me he had never heard of Jesse Shaw. I called a friend of mine who used to be a sports editor for the Chicago Sun Times. He remembered them both. They were buddies. I figured it was Keller who got Shaw the job with Cameron Enterprises. Lara Cameron hired Jesse Shaw because Howard Keller asked her to. She probably never even saw Shaw.”
“Nice work, Sal.”
Mancini shook his head. “You know something? In the end it really didn’t matter. If I hadn’t caught him, and if we had gone after Lara Cameron, Howard Keller would have come in and confessed.”
Her world was collapsing. It was unbelievable to Lara that Howard Keller, of all people, could have been responsible for the terrible things that had happened. He did it for me, Lara thought. I have to try to help him.
Kathy buzzed her. “The car is here, Miss Cameron. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She was on her way to Reno to testify before the grand jury.
Five minutes after Lara left, Philip telephoned the office.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Adler. You just missed her. She’s on her way to Reno.”