Authors: Phillip Margolin
Tags: #Fiction, #Thrillers, #General, #Suspense, #Mystery & Detective
“Is Megan asleep?”
“For hours.”
“We need to talk.”
Tim led his wife into the living room. “I’m going to tell you everything. I want you to know that I love you.” Tim looked down. “I haven’t always loved you but I know I do now. You might not love me when you hear what I have to say.”
“Just tell me what happened tonight,” Cindy said. Her tone was neutral and Tim could see how hard it was for her to hold in her emotions.
“My father has been arrested for conspiracy to commit murder and the attempted murder of several people, including me.”
Cindy stared as if she did not understand.
“Harvey Grant and several other people—some of whom we know very well—are also in custody.”
“My God. That’s impossible.”
“They are guilty, Cindy. They are ruthless. You have no idea.”
“Did you . . .? Were you a part of this?”
“No! I’ve been working with the FBI.”
Tim dropped his head again. He felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“Then what have you done?” Cindy asked.
Tim took a deep breath. He was going to confess everything, absolutely everything. Then he would accept whatever Cindy chose to do.
“I am not the person you think I am. I am a bad person.”
He choked and could not go on for a moment. Then he inhaled, he looked Cindy in the eye, and he began by telling her how he had deserted Melissa Stebbins a week and a half before the Rose Bowl.
“He’s in surgery. The doctors don’t think there’s any permanent damage. They’ll be done soon and I’ll find out for sure.”
“Are you okay?”
“Physically, yeah. I was lucky. But I’m . . .” She shrugged.
“I know all about it, Amanda. One part of you is thrilled that you’re alive and the other guy isn’t, and another part feels guilty as hell, even though you know you didn’t do a damn thing wrong.”
Amanda nodded. “It’s something like that. I’m trying not to think about what happened at the house. Mostly, I’ve been worrying about Frank.”
“I’ve got something for you that will help take your mind off Frank for a little bit. Jack Stamm called the office. He’s scheduled a hearing at two to dismiss all the charges against Dupre.”
“What?”
“Daniel is going to handle it, so you don’t have to worry. And there’s more, and you’re going to love it. Harvey Grant, Stan Gregaros, and Tim Kerrigan’s father are in custody.”
“The Vaughn Street Glee Club?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. And there’s something else. Did you hear what happened to Tim?” Kate asked.
“Someone had a newspaper in the intensive care waiting room, so I saw the headline. I can’t believe that Maria Lopez tried to kill him. Does anyone know why she did it?”
“All I know is that she’s under arrest. I’ve tried some of my sources, but either they don’t know anything, or they’re not talking. But whatever is going on, our client is in the clear. Daniel will call when the hearing is over. I asked him to try and find out why the charges are being dropped and if it has anything to do with these arrests.
“One more thing. A patrol car went out to Jon’s safe house after I phoned in the shooting. The basement door was wide open and the police recovered some shells and found some blood, but no bodies.”
“So your friends got away.”
“It looks like it.”
“I think that solves the problem of what to do with the duffel bag.”
“Are you going to turn it over to Jon?”
Amanda stirred her coffee and stared into space. Kate let her think.
“An awful lot of people would be hurt if those tapes got out,” she said. “And maybe they deserve to be. These men are supposed to be the pillars of our society—they’re the ones who are always talking about getting tough on crime—and it’s all a fraud.”
“I can’t disagree with anything you’ve said, but I don’t know if I want to be the one who brings everyone down,” Kate said. “Maybe the best thing for all concerned would be for the contents of that bag to disappear.”
Huge had been right. He had been hiding in the DA’s office. Where he would go from there was another question. With his sordid past, politics was no longer an option. Burton Rommel had made that clear during a hastily called meeting a few days after the case had exploded. He wouldn’t be able to do anything much for a while, anyway. Testifying for, and debriefings by, the state and federal prosecutors would keep him busy. He was actually grateful for the time off. It was helping him heal the wounds he’d inflicted on his family.
Tim had always longed for his father’s approval and never received it. William had made him feel small his whole life. Now he knew that his father was a fraud, and he had finally accepted that his worth was not tied to his father’s approval.
Tim’s confession to Cindy had been the most difficult thing he’d ever done. He could see the disbelief and pain etched on her face as she sat in shocked silence during his recitation of his deceits. Then he’d told her about the turning point—the day he’d spent with her and Megan at the zoo.
“I had convinced myself that I could kill Ally and get away with it, but I knew it would be like committing suicide. Deserting Melissa Stebbins had almost killed me. Murdering Ally Bennett would have finished me off.
“But that’s not what stopped me. It was Megan.” He had choked up and had to wait before going on. “I’d betrayed you in every way possible but I was still a hero to her. When I met with Hunter I felt like I was making my ninety-yard run again, but this time on my own, with no blockers. I knew that every sin I’d committed would become public knowledge but I hoped, when she was old enough to understand, that she would think of me as . . .” He’d paused again. “Not a hero. I’ll never be that. But as someone who tried to do what was right.”
He and Cindy had slept apart that night, and Tim was convinced that his marriage was over. Cindy was civil but distant for the next few days. He didn’t see much of her anyway, because he was at FBI headquarters, the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, and the U.S. attorney’s office, night and day. One evening, he’d come home late and walked past the open door to their bedroom toward the guest room where he’d been sleeping. Cindy was still awake and she’d told him to come to bed. Neither of them said much while they made love, but Tim knew that she’d taken him back and was going to give him a chance to start over.
Up ahead, Megan had found a piece of driftwood and was calling to him to come see. Cindy smiled at him and squeezed his hand. If that warm pressure was all he got back for his ordeal, Tim decided that it was more than enough.
The previous evening, Amanda had slept through the night for the first time. She had dreamed, but it was a normal dream. Today, during her weekly appointment, she’d told Dr. Dodson that she wasn’t taking the pills. He was supportive, but he warned her that one good night did not mean that her problems were over. She knew she had a way to go, but she felt better than she had in months.
Frank was still recuperating at home. He thought he might try working half days starting next week. Amanda wanted to move back to her condo, but she was still camped out in her old room because she didn’t want Frank to be alone. His left arm was in a sling and he was limping badly. It was hard for him to get around, and cooking was especially difficult with one arm.
A week ago, Amanda had driven to the Y for her first workout since the home invasion. By the time she walked onto the pool deck, several of the swimmers in the Master’s program were in the lanes set aside for the team. She was walking to her lane when Toby got out of the water.
“Amanda!”
“Hi.”
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw you on TV. Are you okay?”
“Not completely, but I’m getting there. I thought I’d try to get back in my routine.”
“Good idea.” Brooks shook his head. “It must have been awful for you.”
Amanda didn’t answer. She felt uncomfortable talking about the attack on her father’s home.
“I actually thought of giving you a ring to see how you were doing,” Toby said. “I almost called you twice.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Toby shrugged. “I didn’t want to hassle you. I figured you probably had enough people calling. I know if something like that happened to me I’d probably want to be by myself.”
Toby hesitated. Then he looked into Amanda’s eyes. “And I don’t really know you. We only talked twice for a few seconds.”
Amanda tried to sound calm but her heart was going as fast as it did at the end of a race.
“Next time, I could probably manage at least a minute,” she said.
“How about this weekend?”
“I’ve got to check with my dad. He’s out of the hospital, but he’s still recuperating. Can I call you?”
“Yeah.” Toby grinned. “This’ll give me time to figure out how to recruit you for the team.”
“Try bribing me. Dinner at a classy restaurant might do it.”
“I’ll check my bribe budget and await your call,” Toby said as he slipped back into the water.
Amanda headed toward a lane. Somewhere during their talk she’d stopped feeling scared.
“If I lose my hearing I’m suing you,” Amanda yelled at Toby. He grinned.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room,” Kate shouted in Amanda’s ear.
Amanda told Toby where the women were headed and followed Kate’s back through the crowd. As they passed the bar, which was three deep, someone touched her arm. Amanda turned and found herself face to face with Jon Dupre.
“You here alone?” he asked.
“No. A date and friends.”
“Point out the table and I’ll have a bottle of champagne sent over.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Of course it is. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here, tonight, and able to treat you.”
Dupre’s smiled faded and he looked serious. “You did a great job, Amanda.”
“You really should be thanking Ally.”
“Have you heard anything about where she is?”
“She’s in the witness protection program and has a new identity. They won’t tell anyone where to find her. The only thing I did hear is that she has custody of Lori Andrews’s daughter.”
“That’s great. I hope she has a terrific life.”
“She deserves one. You’d still be in jail if it weren’t for her. She must have loved you a lot to risk so much for you.”
Dupre looked puzzled for a moment.
“You mean romantically?” he asked.
Amanda nodded.
“You’ve got that all wrong.”
Amanda looked confused. Dupre laughed. “You didn’t know, did you?”
“Know what?”
“About Ally. It’s why she took Lori’s kid. She wasn’t in love with me. Lori was her lover.”
“But she told me that you and she . . .”
“What? That we screwed?”
Amanda nodded.
“We did, once—a threesome with Lori, actually. But it was clear that they were a lot more interested in each other than they were in me, so . . .” Jon shrugged.
But Amanda had stopped listening moments before.
Ally and Lori had been lovers
. Suddenly everything made sense.
“What’s wrong?” Dupre asked.
“Ally must have been furious with you for sending Lori to Senator Travis.”
“Jesus, was she ever. Ally went off the deep end when they discovered the body.”
“She forgave you, though, didn’t she?” Amanda asked.
“After I was busted. She came to the jail and told me she’d do anything to get me out. I guess she meant what she said.”
Amanda felt so stupid. Suddenly, a heavily made-up redhead in a skintight, low-cut dress pushed through the crowd and latched onto Dupre’s arm. Amanda noticed that her pupils were the size of wagon wheels. Dupre saw her checking them, and colored.
“Who’s this?” the redhead asked suspiciously.
“Maggie, meet my attorney, Amanda Jaffe.”
Maggie nodded and flashed Amanda a proprietary glare.
“Nice meeting you,” Amanda said. “See you around, Jon.”
Kate Ross was waiting for Amanda outside the door to the restroom.
“What did Dupre want?” she asked.
“Just to say hello.”
“That pencil he’s with had a cocaine mustache when she left the little girls’ room.”
“I’m his lawyer, Kate, not his mother.”
“Touché.”
“I want to run something by you,” Amanda said. There were no other women waiting, but she checked around her to make certain that no one could overhear them. “Jon said something that got me thinking. Did you know that Ally Bennett and Lori Andrews were lovers?”
“No shit!”
“Maybe The Vaughn Street Glee Club wasn’t responsible for Senator Travis’s murder. They had the motive to kill him—he was out of control and putting the conspiracy in danger—but think about the MO.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t the same.”
Amanda nodded. “The club sedated its victims to fool the police into thinking that a murder was a suicide. But there was never any question that Travis was murdered.”
“And look at how he was murdered,” Kate said, more to herself than to Amanda. “The person who killed Travis hated him.”
Kate was quiet for a moment. “Are you thinking that Ally killed Travis to avenge Lori Andrews?”
Amanda nodded. “Carl Rittenhouse told Tim about a phone call that Travis got the night he died, telling him that Jon Dupre wanted to make it up to him for the incident at the Westmont. A police report says that a call was made from Jon’s house to the senator’s house that evening. We know that Ally was the only person with Jon after Joyce Hamada and Cheryl Riggio left, and Hamada said that he had passed out.”
“So you think Bennett made the call, lured Travis to the A-frame, drugged him, and beat him to death?”
“It’s possible. I mean, it all makes sense. Even Wendell Hayes’s attempt to murder Jon. Hayes and the others thought that Dupre had murdered one of their own. Maybe they were trying to kill him to avenge the death of a member of their secret circle.”
“Wait a minute. What about the earring? Dupre’s earring was found at Travis’s cabin. How did it get there?”
“Ally blamed Jon for sending Lori to the senator after the way he beat her the first time. I think she doped Jon, too, then took the earring from Jon’s house and planted it to frame him. But once he was arrested, she regretted what she’d done and tried to save him.”
“I guess it’s possible,” Kate said. “But can you prove it?”
“I’m not even going to try. My job was to clear Jon. I don’t have to find Travis’s killer. That’s a job for the police.”
“And you’re not going to help them, are you?”
“Travis was scum. He murdered Lori Andrews and he got what he deserved. Whether it was Jon who killed him, or The Glee Club, or Ally Bennett, it can remain a mystery, as far as I’m concerned.”
“What if Grant or Kerrigan or someone else is convicted for killing Travis?”
Amanda remembered how she felt when Castillo kidnapped her and the terror that had almost paralyzed her in Frank’s basement. Castillo had been acting on Grant and Kerrigan’s orders. They wanted to break her, to kill her. And it wasn’t just her. How many other people had they murdered? If they went to death row for a crime they didn’t commit, so be it. Justice would be served when The Vaughn Street Glee Club failed to exist.