Hunter felt an uncharacteristic heat rise to his face. “Frankly I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll get me out of here. That would be a damn good start.” The general placed his cuffed hands on the table.
Hunter frowned and gestured to the guard. “Take them off.”
“But—”
“I’m his attorney and we need to talk. He’s not going to sit here for an hour like that. Uncuff him.”
The guard scowled but walked over to where Frank sat. “I’m going to be right here,” he said and patted his gun for effect before unlocking the shackles.
“Thanks.” Frank rubbed his wrists and leaned back in his seat.
“No sweat. We have a lot to discuss. You might as well be comfortable, because I want to hear all about your relationship with your partner and the night of the murder.”
Hunter pulled a yellow legal pad and a pen from his duffel. He hated the dank smell in the visitors’ room and he could only imagine the cell was worse. It was time the general began to deal with his recollections so Hunter could get him the hell out of here.
As much as bail was part of his legal strategy, Hunter couldn’t deny the need to see Molly’s grateful expression when he walked into the house with her father by his side. A part of him still wanted to be her hero and he hated himself for being so needy.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s start from the beginning. What was your relationship with the victim besides in general terms like partner and friend?” Hunter asked the older man.
“That’s easy enough. We enlisted around the same time, went through basic training together, climbed up the ranks together. Fought together, too.”
Hunter raised an eyebrow. “Vietnam?” he guessed.
The general answered with a quick nod of his head. “That was our first war and we decided Desert Storm would be our last.”
“Honorably discharged?” Hunter asked.
“In layman’s terms, yes.”
“I bought a house on the same street we’re living on now. Much smaller, though. It was all I could afford, but when the business took off and the children got bigger, I moved around the corner and Paul bought the house next door.” He shoved one hand into his back pocket. “My wife, Melanie, died a short time after.” The older man’s voice grew deeper with the memory.
“I’m sorry,” Hunter said.
“Thank you. Life isn’t fair. I learned that a long time ago and it was reinforced when my adult firstborn showed up on my doorstep and I knew nothing about her. How does a man deal with that?”
Hunter shook his head. “I have no idea.” He couldn’t imagine the general’s feelings of anger and betrayal.
“I could have killed Molly’s mother, let me tell you that. If I didn’t go after Francie for keeping my child from me, I sure as hell didn’t kill my best friend over stolen money.” A muscle pulled tight in the general’s temples, the stress obviously overwhelming him.
Hunter drew a deep breath and paused. He didn’t want to have the conversation he’d had with Molly, the one about guilt or innocence being irrelevant. “Let’s keep going,” he said in an attempt to keep the discussion on track. “So you and Paul Markham had a good relationship and you started up a real estate business.”
“That’s right. Property management as well as quick turnovers for profit.”
“Tell me about Paul’s personality. Was he calm? Mild mannered? Similar to you?”
The other man let out a harsh laugh. “Hell, no. We’re complete opposites. I think things through before acting. I consider options even when I’m burning on all cylinders. Paul had a hair-trigger temper that only got worse over time. Thing was, I never realized there was a reason for the change. I was his best friend. His partner. I should have known something was wrong. Even the little things had begun to set him off.” He kicked back his chair and rose to his feet.
The guard stepped up to the table immediately.
Hunter groaned and waved the armed man away, but he waited until the general reseated himself before moving back, arms folded against the wall.
He’d been listening carefully to everything Frank said, searching for anything that he could grab on to that might open another avenue of questioning. Something that would work in the general’s favor.
He’d found it. “So you noticed a behavioral change prior to Paul’s death.” Hunter hadn’t read over the client files yet, so he asked, “Did you tell the police about this?”
“I tried but they didn’t hear me.” The older man lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “The cops don’t care about details that might change their mind about my role in Paul’s death.”
Hunter jotted down some notes so when he had the files in hand, he could compare. “You said you should have known something was wrong. You said you had no reason to suspect Paul’s mood swings had a cause.”
“Right. Because the man had a dark side even back in basic training. But over the years he kept a lid on it. His wife Sonya’s soft personality tempered his harsher one, at least for a while.”
Hunter nodded in understanding. “Now I need you to take me back to that night.”
The general placed his hands behind his head, leaned back and glanced at the ceiling. “First you need to understand the nature of our business. I made the deals but Paul was the money man. I trusted him. I had no reason not to.”
“Go on.”
“We have properties that turn over quickly, money that’s passed around fast. We never had a problem in the past. That day I’d sent my assistant to the bank to pick up certified checks and the teller called to inform us that we didn’t have enough in one of the accounts to cover a closing the next day. It made no sense, considering the amount that was supposed to be available.” He ran one hand across the top of his closely cropped head. “I told them that Paul or I would go over the accounts and get back to them.”
“So you went to question Paul?”
Frank inclined his head. “He was in his office and he was as agitated as I’d ever seen him. He was pacing, cursing, muttering under his breath. I told him about the bank error and handed him the statement the bank had faxed over. Without looking at it, he told me there was no error. The accounts were accurate.” The color drained from the general’s face at the memory. “I realize now Paul was out of options and places to switch money. He admitted everything.”