The Alibi Man

Chapter 50

“So much for that last-minute phone call to notify Estes,” Weiss said, walking up to the front door of Bennett Walker’s little weekend house: six thousand square feet of stone and marble that looked like it had been uprooted from Europe and planted in South Florida, gardens and all.

Edward Estes’s black Town Car pulled around the circular drive, and the attorney got out of the back, his face taut and drawn, pissed off, Landry thought. Good.

“Hell,” Landry said, “I thought he would have been here an hour ago having the rugs shampooed.”

“This is an outrage,” Estes snapped, his anger directed at the assistant state’s attorney. “The governor will hear about this.”

“He already has, Mr. Estes,” Paulson said. “These are Detectives Landry and Weiss. They’ll be conducting the search.”

Estes ignored the cops and looked down his nose at the papers Paulson’s hand. “That warrant is invalid on its face. I have a call to Judge Beekman to-”

“Do you have a key to this place, or do we have to let ourselves in?” Landry asked, unimpressed with Edward Estes and his attitude.

“You’re going to proceed with this?” Estes said to Paulson. “When this warrant is thrown out, anything taken during this search is fruit of the poisonous tree.”

Landry raised his eyebrows and looked at Weiss. “Did you hear that? Mr. Estes seems to think we’re going to find something here to incriminate his client.”

“That isn’t what I said, Detective.”

“Maybe he knows something we don’t,” Weiss suggested.

“Yeah,” Landry said. “Like how many bodies Bennett Walker has gotten rid of over the years that we don’t know about.”

“Make a remark like that in front of the press, Detective,” Estes said, “and you’ll be looking for a new profession.”

Landry shrugged as if it made no difference to him.

“Professional poker,” Weiss suggested. “Money for nothing.”

“I thought maybe I’d become a defense attorney,” Landry said to him. “How hard can that be?”

“You’re a very amusing comedy act, Detectives,” Estes said. “Unfortunately, being a buffoon isn’t a trait that will impress a jury.”

“I don’t know,” Weiss said. “Seems to work for most of you guys.”

Paulson cleared his throat. “Mr. Estes, our office notified you as a courtesy. As you can read in the warrant, we have sufficient grounds for the search. Why don’t we get on with it, so it can be completed with the minimum amount of fuss?”

“I would prefer we wait for my client,” Estes said.

“Where is he?” Weiss asked. “Out burying the murder weapon?”

Estes turned to him. “Mr. Walker is an innocent man. He is to be presumed innocent. If you have an obvious bias, Detective-”

“Not at all, Mr. Estes,” Landry said. “We only go where the evidence leads us.”

“What evidence?” Estes said. “You’re here on a fishing expedition.

“We can put the victim here the night she died,” Landry said. “We have a witness who puts your client in the victim’s car, leaving the premises, less than twenty-four hours later. We can connect the car to the site where the young woman’s body was found, and I’m betting we’ll be able to put your client’s foot in the boot that left a print both in the car and at the dump site.”

“My client has a very solid alibi for the night Miss Markova went missing.”

“Mr. Barbaro has recanted his earlier statement,” Landry said.

He had to imagine it wasn’t very often anyone got to surprise Edward Estes, but he had just managed to do it. With information Elena had given him. She would have been pleased.

“That’s news to you, isn’t it, Mr. Estes?”

Estes didn’t respond. He pulled his cell phone from the inside breast pocket of his tailored suit and stepped aside without a word.

Landry smiled like a shark. “Tell your client Elena sends her regards.”