Diagnosis Murder 4 - The Waking Nightmare Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
    "It was a nonjudgmental 'uh-huh'," Steve said.
    "Uh-huh." He waved over a waitress and asked for a thick slice of apple pie and a cup of coffee. Steve asked for the same and Mark thought about Rebecca Jordan, lying in the ICU, being fed her dinner through an IV.
    "It might help if I knew more about the suspects," Mark said, forcing the image out of his head.
    "As you can tell from the short time you spent with the board of directors of Brant Publications, they are a swell bunch of guys," Steve said. "Each one of them is a multi-millionaire, as Clifton Hemphill was so quick to point out— once to you and twice to me before you got there."
    "Clearly Mr. Hemphill derives his identity from his money," Mark said. "It's like you saying you're a cop or me introducing myself as a doctor."
    "But neither one of us whips out our bank statement when we do it," Steve said. "He could've said he's in the construction business and that he bought a big chunk of Brant Publications when Winston took the company public."
    "When did Brant do that?" Mark asked.
    "About five years ago," Steve said. "The magazine industry was in a slump and he'd expanded too fast, putting out other magazines that strayed too far from the corporate identity established by Thrill Seeker . He had to go public to generate the capital to keep his company afloat."
    "Who told you all that?"
    "Dean Perrow," Steve said. "A professional investor, likes to swoop in and gobble up companies when they're the most vulnerable. He's got his hand in all kinds of enterprises."
    "Where do his millions come from?" Mark asked.
    "Other people's millions," Steve said. "He used to be an investment banker, specializing in hostile takeovers, before he decided to go solo."
    "And what's Virgil Nyby's story?" Mark asked.
    "You mean besides bringing down the Ten Commandments and parting the Red Sea?"
    "He does project a tremendous amount of authority," Mark agreed.
    "He has the voice, which makes sense, since he owns a bunch of radio stations," Steve said. "Mostly talk-radio and all-news in the major markets, and country-western stations in the smaller ones. His father was a radio preacher and built his station group to spread the gospel."
    "I bet you won't hear Winston Brant's murder referred to as 'The Case of the Dropped Dead Skydiver' on any of the newscasts on Nyby's stations."
    "Don't be so sure," Steve said. "Despite his Charlton Heston voice and commanding demeanor, his broadcast philosophy has changed quite a bit since his father's day. His stations have been slapped by the FCC with some of the largest indecency fines on record. His LA and Chicago stations run Mike and Ken."
    "The guys who once broadcast naked from a vat of pig excrement?"
    "It beats listening to Dr. Laura," Steve said. "Though I think she gets her advice from the same vat."
    "You listen to Dr. Laura?"
    "You've got to do something on an eight-hour stakeout to relieve the boredom," Steve said. "And distract you from your bladder."
    "Good to know," Mark said. "What did the skydivers tell you about what happened today?"
    "Besides how rich they are and how much they wanted to go home? Basically they told me what you already know," Steve said, pausing while the waitress set down their pies and coffee. "They met at the Airventures hangar at the Van Nuys Airport. Nothing unusual happened during the ten-minute flight to the drop zone. They engaged in some small talk that no one remembers, then jumped out of the plane."
    What was important to Mark now was the chronology and choreography. He needed to know who did what, when, and where, before he could even begin to figure out who killed Brant and how they managed to do it.
    "Who jumped first?" Mark asked.
    "Brant, of course, followed by the dive instructor, Justin Darbo, and then the three others," Steve said. "They met in midair during their free fall, joined hands to form a circle for forty-five seconds, then let go. A few seconds later, they pulled their rip