An Insignificant Case

Chapter Thirty-Seven

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Guido had told Bridget Fournier that he did not want any police closer than one hundred yards to his barn, and the police had deployed in a circle around the barn at that distance.

Judge Noonan was driven to the farm in a car with a police escort, and Charlie and Elin were in a separate car that was part of the motorcade. The cars stopped when they reached the one-hundred-yard perimeter, and the judge, Elin, and Charlie got out. Charlie could see that Elin was very nervous.

“You’re going to be okay,” Charlie told Elin.

“I’d feel a lot safer if you were with me,” Elin said.

Charlie smiled. “Now who’s being unrealistic? I’d have as much chance against a battalion of ninjas as you would.”

Judge Noonan walked over to Elin. “I don’t believe we’ve met, Miss Crane.”

“No, sir.”

“Do you have any idea why Mr. Sabatini wants you here?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

“Then let’s go find out.”

The judge headed toward the barn, and Elin followed him. When they walked inside, Guido was working on a painting of the Ponte Vecchio. He turned from his easel and smiled.

“Thank you for coming. Possessing this flash drive has been a burden that I will be pleased to transfer to someone else.”

“Is the drive here?” the judge asked.

“No. It is in a safe place.”

Noonan frowned. “Then why are we here?”

“I will answer that question after you roll up the sleeve on your right arm.”

“What?”

“Do me that small favor and I will answer your question.”

The judge rolled up his sleeve, exposing a tattoo of a dragon that had been inked on when he was a marine.

“Thank you, Judge.”

“Okay. Mr. Sabatini, what is going on? I have never appreciated your stunts, and you are trying my patience.”

“I apologize for being mysterious. So, I will tell you why I wanted you two here. I took the flash drive because I was curious. Why would Miss Hall keep such a thing in her safe? I had no interest in her money, and everything else in the safe was too bulky to take while I was carrying my wonderful painting of Venice. But the drive fit in my pocket, and I hoped it would be a bargaining chip I could use to force Miss Hall to do the right thing and hang my painting in the dining room of La Bella Roma, where all who dined there could appreciate it.”

“Please get to it,” Judge Noonan said, unable to hide his impatience.

“Of course, Your Honor. Once I was home, I viewed the contents of the drive.” Guido looked at the judge. “It was very disturbing, especially the section that shows in graphic detail the rape and murder of a lovely young woman.”

Judge Noonan stiffened.

“The killer wears a mask and nondescript clothing to hide his identity, but there is a brief moment when the sleeve of his right arm slides back to reveal a tattoo that is identical to your tattoo—a tattoo I saw when I was in your courtroom on a day you wore a short-sleeve shirt under your judicial robe.”

Judge Noonan took out a gun and pointed it at Guido. “The rumors about your elevated IQ are not exaggerated, Mr. Sabatini. But you are too smart for your own good. I’m going to kill you—after you tell me where I can find the flash drive.”

“Aren’t you worried that Miss Crane will tell the police what you’ve done?” asked Guido, who was perfectly calm.

Noonan turned his head toward Elin. “I’m afraid she’ll have to die—”

The judge never finished his sentence. Guido stepped forward and knocked the arm holding the gun away from him while simultaneously reversing his paintbrush. The end on the side away from the bristles had been shaved down to a very sharp point, which Guido drove into the judge’s eye.

Noonan screamed. His hands flew to his eye, the gun fell to the ground, and Guido knocked him unconscious with a powerful blow to the head.

When Guido turned toward Elin, she was pointing Noonan’s gun at him.

Guido smiled. “You won’t have to threaten me to find out where I’ve hidden the flash drive. I invited you here to tell you where it is.”

“Why me?”

Guido’s smile widened. “There’s no need to keep up your pretense of innocence, Miss Crane. I know you killed Miss Hall, Mr. Makarov, and the poor man whose body was found in the woods.

“After viewing the snuff film on the flash drive, I concluded that you were fully justified in killing Miss Hall and Mr. Makarov. I suspect that you did that for revenge. But you also had a reason for draping my painting over Miss Hall’s body. You wanted to frame me for her murder. You thought that I would be forced to give the flash drive to the authorities if I was arrested. Then they could use it to prosecute Leon Golden and the men who abused all of those young women.

“I don’t hold that against you. Framing me was for a good cause. I also appreciated the fact that you did away with Brent Atkins, although your effort was unnecessary. I would have been able to deal with Mr. Atkins quite easily without killing him. I suspect that you killed Mr. Atkins to protect me. If I were dead, no one would be able to find the flash drive. When I saw you on my security camera, I didn’t know what you were up to, so I fled because I thought you posed the real threat.”

“How did you know I killed Hall and Makarov?”

“The first time I saw you, I thought I recognized you, but I didn’t remember seeing you before. Then it came to me. You have a very strong resemblance to the young woman who Judge Noonan killed in the snuff film. Is she a relative?”

“My younger sister. Are you going to tell the police?”

“Of course not. You will explain that the judge tried to kill us, but I thwarted his plan. Before we summon the authorities, there are one or two things that I would like to know. How did you lure Miss Hall to Tryon Creek park?”

“I told her I had the flash drive and I would give it to her in exchange for fifty thousand dollars.”

“But how did you know about the flash drive?”

“I broke into Leon Golden’s mansion and planted listening devices.”

“You know how to do that?”

“I know a lot of things,” Elin said as she used her blouse to wipe her fingerprints off the gun before handing it to Guido. “You take this. I don’t want it.”

“Thank you.”

“How are you going to explain why you wanted me here?”

“That’s easy. You’re the only person I could be certain was not part of Leon Golden’s criminal enterprise. And I needed a witness to back up my version of why I had to maim a circuit court judge.”

“Do you intend to turn over the flash drive to the authorities?”

“Most definitely. It has caused me to miss too much time from my painting.”

“Where is it?”

Guido laughed. “I believe you will find the answer to that question quite amusing.” He stopped smiling and gestured toward Judge Noonan, who was starting to moan. “I think it’s time to summon the authorities to pick up the garbage.”

Elin ran out of the barn. “Come quick, and get an ambulance. Judge Noonan is badly injured.”

Sally Blaisedale ran toward Elin with her gun out. “Did Sabatini attack him?” the detective asked.

“It’s Noonan. He attacked us. He’s on the flash drive. He’s the killer in the snuff film.”

Charlie ran up to Elin. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, thanks to Mr. Sabatini. He saved my life.”

Charlie walked into the barn and stopped dead when he saw Judge Noonan writhing on the floor of the barn with a paintbrush sticking out of his eye socket.

“Jesus, Guido, did you do this?” Charlie asked.

Guido smiled. “Just because I dress like the son of God, it doesn’t mean that I believe in turning the other cheek.”

The detectives had made sure that there would be an ambulance near Guido’s farm. While the EMTs tended to Judge Noonan, Guido told Detectives Blaisedale and Rawls why there was a paintbrush sticking out of the judge’s eye.

At first, his story was met with disbelief, but Elin backed him up. By the time the judge was in an ambulance under guard headed to a hospital, the detectives were almost willing to accept Guido’s assertion that Noonan was a rapist and murderer.

“The only problem we’re having,” Sally Blaisedale said, “is your claim that you can see Noonan’s tattoo in the snuff film on the flash drive. You have to give the drive to us if you want us to accept your version of what happened in the barn.”

“Of course. The flash drive will provide incontrovertible proof that His Honor is a perverted murderer.”

“Are you through playing games?” Charlie asked. “Where is the flash drive?”

“You have it,” Guido said.

“I do not,” Charlie answered emphatically.

“You have had it for some time. You just didn’t know it. Let’s go to your office.”