The Rock 'N Roll Detective's Greatest Hits - a Spike Berenger Anthology by Raymond Benson Read Free Book Online Page B

right, Berenger?” McTiernan asked as he shut the door. He sat in the single chair on one side of the table while Berenger and Patterson took seats across from him.
    “That’s correct, lieutenant.”
    Patterson spoke up. “As I said on the phone, we’ve come to talk to you about Mister Duncan. It’s going to take a while for the DA to supply me with the evidence that’ll be used to prosecute my client. We were hoping that you’d give us an idea of what we’re facing.”
    “I don’t have to tell you guys jack shit, you know that, don’t you?” McTiernan said.
    “We’ll find out eventually once the DA—”
    “I know, I know. I just don’t know if I want to help you. The guy’s a major scumbag and he murdered his own father. And I could care less about the victim being some famous fucking rock star. I’m not into that crap.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Berenger said. “Your favorite singer is Raffi.”
    “Who?”
    “Never mind.”
    McTiernan glared at Berenger and then addressed Patterson. “Look, we’ve got an ironclad case against Adrian Duncan. I’ll tell you what we’ve already told the press. Duncan’s fingerprints were all over Flame’s office and in the bedroom where the crime occurred. He was seen fleeing from the townhouse by two witnesses, before the discovery of the body.”
    “So?” Berenger suggested. “Adrian was Flame’s son. He’s probably been to Flame’s place a zillion times and left fingerprints. Maybe he was in a hurry to get home. There’s plenty of doubt there.”
    McTiernan looked at Berenger and said, “Yeah? Well we also have several witnesses that saw the suspect in a heated argument with the deceased earlier in the evening. Before Flame’s concert. And even more witnesses observed the suspect in a very agitated state backstage after the concert.”
    “Could have been a typical father and son spat,” Berenger said.
    “And then there’s the post-mortem,” McTiernan continued.
    “I’m very interested in hearing about that,” Patterson commented.
    “Well, I’m not going to tell you fucking everything, but suffice it to say that it proves that Peter Flame didn’t commit suicide. He was already dead before he was hung from the ceiling. Duncan strangled him prior to that, then strung him up and tried to make it look like Flame had killed himself. I’m not going to list all the goddamned pieces of evidence that confirm it. We know a staged crime scene when we see one. And this one was definitely staged.”
    Berenger had figured as much but he wasn’t going to let on. “At first you were fooled, though, isn’t that right? Didn’t you believe Flame had committed suicide?”
    McTiernan shrugged. “At first glance, sure. Anyone would. But we’ve got a lot of experience with shit like this. Lots of things struck me as just-plain-wrong about the crime scene. The next day when I was looking at the photographs it hit me. The post-mortem confirmed it.”
    “You did a good job keeping it a secret,” Patterson said.
    “Yeah. We didn’t want the killer to bolt so we conducted our investigation quietly and privately. We had our eyes on Adrian Duncan within twenty-four hours of the murder. Given the history between the father and son, it didn’t take a leap of faith to conclude that he was the prime suspect.”
    “Weren’t there other fingerprints at the townhouse?” Berenger asked.
    “Sure! Lots of ‘em. But Duncan’s just happened to be in all the right places, or rather, in all the wrong places.”
    Berenger rubbed his beard and asked, “I understand you’ve got something linking Adrian to the Jimmys?”
    McTiernan smiled. “I think I’ll let the DA give you that. If you ask me, it just proves that Duncan was up to no good.”
    Patterson looked at Berenger. The lawyer didn’t have to say anything for Berenger to know what the guy was thinking. This was going to be harder than they thought.
    “But just ‘cause I’m a nice guy,” McTiernan said,