I kept my gaze on her. I had a feeling the drinks she’d had would let her slide into saying something she’d regret.

  “Would you like me to confess? That I went to that hotel, slipped past your car, and threw him off the balcony myself?” She took a breath and rolled her eyes, then turned and looked across the yard.

  “I just want the truth,” I said. “I want to know the real reason you hired me.”

  She had her head turned, her eyes somewhere else. “Why does it matter to you?” She looked at me, gave me a nod with her chin. “You got your money. I paid you well.”

  “This has nothing to do with money. Alex is in the hospital. And nobody will guarantee she’s out of the woods. And it’s all because of whatever the hell happened that night at the hotel.”

  “I told you, I’m sorry about Alex,” Lynn said.

  “My point is, I know you invested your family’s money to help them get Chemcore off the ground. So, to me, I can’t help but think you had something to lose if the business fell apart. Or, on the other hand, you’d have plenty to gain if Chemcore was sold for as much as Tucker Dennison was hoping to sell it for.”

  “I didn’t kill my husband,” she said. “And you have some nerve trying to—”

  “I’m trying to get to the truth. There’s nothing more to it.”

  “Well, I wish you’d get it out of your head I have something to hide from you. You want to get to the bottom of what was going on at Chemcore? I’m not the person you need to talk to.”

  “I’ve already spoken to Tucker Dennison. I’m still trying to understand exactly why Tucker pushed LJ out of the business.”

  Lynn had a funny look on her face. “Is that what LJ told you?” She shook her head. “The truth is, Ted was the one who didn’t trust LJ. He was the brains behind Chemcore. LJ’s a smart man, but doesn’t come close to having what Ted had upstairs. Ted was a genius. A scientist. He was never driven by money the way LJ and Tucker are.”

  “But doesn’t that have something to do with not having to worry about money? I mean, he was married to you. And I understand money’s never been an issue for you or your family.”

  Lynn shifted in her chair. “I won’t deny the fact I had the money to support us while Ted tried to get his dream off the ground. But Tucker and LJ didn’t have that. We never had kids. But they had mouths to feed at home.”

  We both sat quiet for a moment.

  “This may be an odd question, but is there any chance you know anyone who spent time in Florida State Prison?”

  She had a surprised look on her face. “Me? Well, I mean… I know lots of people. I’ve been in Florida my entire life. And they’re not all good people.” She finished what was in her glass, got up from her chair, and walked into the cabana.

  She came out a moment later with her glass filled, two olives inside. “Like my mother used to say to me; you’re driving me to drink. I can’t be sure if you’re asking for my help, or if you're pointing the finger at me.”

  I reached for the glass in front of me and tipped my head back. I threw the whole thing down my throat and got up from the chair. “Lynn, I’m asking everyone. And I’m pointing the finger at everyone. Until I get to the truth, I have no other option.”

  Chapter 24

  The more the days passed without Alex by my side, the more I realized how much weight she carried on her back. I missed her. And it wasn’t just about work.

  Her health had improved, and when I stopped by to see her, she was sitting up in bed. Her parents were in the room, seated in chairs near the window, their eyes up on the TV.

  I leaned over and kissed Alex on the forehead. “You look better.”

  She smiled, and her eyes went to her parents.

  They both looked exhausted, like they’d aged ten years since they first arrived from Virginia. “Have either of you slept?” I said. “I’ll stay with her if you want to go back to the hotel and get some sleep.”

  Alex lifted her head from the pillow. “Mom. Dad. You don’t have to stay here. I’m feeling better. You’re going to get sick yourselves, if you don’t get some rest.”

  I had my hand on the rail next to Alex’s head, and she put her hand on top of it. “I’m sure Henry will let you know if I need anything. He’ll take care of me.” She smiled, but then her expression changed. “I miss Raz.”

  Her dog, Raz, spent some time at Alex’s neighbor’s house. But he was also under group care and even spent time with Billy.

  I nodded. “Raz misses you, too.”

  Her parents stood next to me, then each leaned down and gave her a kiss before they turned for the door.

  “We’ll be back in a couple of hours,” her mother said.

  Alex watched them both leave the room. Her eyes filled with tears. She wiped her cheek with her hand and closed her eyes for a couple of moments. She reached for the remote on the table next to her and turned off the TV. She turned and stared at me. “You look like shit, you know.”

  “Oh, thank you,” I said.

  “No, I mean it. You look tired. And you smell like you’ve been drinking. It’s a little early for that, isn’t it?”

  “I went to see Lynn Parker. She was already a couple of martinis into the morning, and forced me to have a drink with her.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she really had to twist your arm?”

  I ignored her questions and pulled the folded piece of paper from my pocket. “You recognize this?”

  She took the paper and looked it over. “What is it?”

  “It’s the tattoo on the arm of the man who held me and Annie. The same man who pulled the trigger.”

  She had a confused look on her face. “You saw this on his arm?”

  “I had a dream about it. I swear I don’t remember seeing it. But Annie did, as soon as I showed her what I’d drawn.”

  “You’re talking about the tall one with the Reagan mask, right?” she said.

  “Yes, and they had the same masks when they held me and Annie. The shorter one is dead. He’s the one Mike shot from the rooftop.”

  She stared at the drawing, then shifted her eyes to mine. “It’s all so blurry. I barely remember being back there.”

  I put my hand on top of hers, then looked toward the door just to make sure her father, by some chance, wasn’t still standing there. “Your dad was pretty upset,” I said. “I don’t think he wants you involved in this shit anymore. And I can’t say I blame him. It just seems to—”

  “Henry, he was a cop for forty-three years. He has no right to say anything.”

  I stared into her eyes, then shook my head. “You’re his little girl, Alex. No matter what. And no man wants to see his little girl shot not once, but twice in the same couple of years.”

  I pulled a chair over and sat down next to Alex’s bed. My head had started to feel heavy. My vision was blurry, and I rubbed both eyes trying to clear the fog.

  “Are you okay?” Alex said. She pushed herself up in the bed.

  I took a deep breath and nodded. “I think I just need something to drink. I’m a little dizzy.”

  “Why don’t you go get some food? Get yourself a drink. I don’t care if you were forced or not, it’s pretty foolish of you to start drinking early in the morning.”

  “I swear, I wasn’t going to touch it. She pushed it in front of me. Right before I left, I threw it back. You know I hate to waste a good drink.”

  I started to stand from the chair but fell back down. The room had started to spin.

  “Henry?” Alex reached for me from her bed.

  I had my head down in my hands, my elbows down on my knees.

  “Henry?” she said again. “Are you okay?”

  I looked up at her and shook my head. “No, I don’t think I am.”

  All I could taste was the booze. “I feel like I’ve been poisoned.” And then it hit me. “That drink. She… she put something in my drink.” Before I got another word out, everything turned black. I felt myself fall from the chair. I hit the floor, but that was all I remembered.

  I woke up in a small room in the hospital, lying on top of a gurney. Curtains were pulled all around me. My head pounded with each beep from the machine next to my bed, the wires from it taped to my chest. It hurt to open my eyes. I had a needle in my arm attached to a thin tube up to the IV hanging on a hook over my head. My throat burned. The pain in my stomach was almost unbearable.

  The curtain was opened, and a young doctor, or maybe a nurse—I had no idea—stood at the foot of my bed. “Good to see you awake,” he said.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I said. I grabbed my throat with my hand. “Can I get a drink?”

  The young man nodded. “We pumped your stomach. You were poisoned. Your friend upstairs, Alex Jepson, said you told her you’d had an early morning cocktail. If that’s all you had, then it’s likely that was the source of the toxins we detected in your urine.”

  I stared at him, still in disbelief. “It was Maker’s Mark.”

  He nodded. “You’re lucky you were here in the hospital. It could have killed you if you weren’t.”

  The doctors had wanted me to stay overnight for observation, but there was little chance I’d let them do that. So I went up to see Alex hoping they’d have the results of whatever it was Lynn must have slipped in my drink.

  “Why would she poison you?” Alex said. She was sitting up in bed and looked a lot better than how I felt.

  “It doesn’t make any sense at all,” I said. “I mean, she was our client. She knew I was there watching Ted. For her to try to kill me to stop me from getting to the bottom of his death?”

  “What if she knows who killed Ted?” Alex said. “And she’s trying to protect whoever it was?”

  I nodded. “I thought about that.”

  We were both quiet, and neither had an answer.

  “You need to call Mike,” she said.

  “I was planning on it.” I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “You okay if I leave?”

  Alex smiled with a nod. “Of course I am.” She gazed into my eyes. “But are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I said. “Get better. I know your father would rather have you give it up, but I’m working without thumbs when you’re not around.”

  “Without thumbs?” She smiled.

  “Whatever you want to call it. I need you back on your feet.”

  I called Mike Stone as soon as I left the parking lot at Memorial.

  “What the hell happened to you?” he said. “We just got word from the hospital you were a victim of poisoning?”

  “Yes, turns out that’s a fact. That’s why I’m calling.”

  “I’m on my way there right now,” Mike said.

  “To where? The hospital?”

  “Yes. They said they’d have the results of whatever it was you ingested.”

  “Well, I don’t know what it was. But Lynn Parker slipped it in my drink.”

  “Your drink? From last night?”

  I hesitated a moment. “No, this morning.”

  “Jesus, Walsh. You drink in the morning? That’s a problem in itself, don’t you think?”

  “It’s not the point,” I said. I didn’t need anyone, especially Mike, to lecture me.

  “Why don’t you wait for me at the hospital,” he said.

  “I already left. I’m going back to Lynn Parker’s.”

  “Christ, no. You have to wait. You gotta do this the right way. If she intentionally poisoned you as you’re saying, then you can’t just go over there, start throwing around accusations. You’ll blow the whole goddamn thing up.” He shook his head. “You’re acting like these young officers I have to deal with all the time. You should know better.”

  Mike Stone leaned against his Crown Victoria, smoking a cigarette when I pulled up next to him at the back of the parking lot at Memorial Hospital. He looked at his watch. “Where have you been? I told you ten minutes.” He reached into his car and pulled out a folder.

  I stepped out of the Jeep.

  “Here,” he said, handing me the folder. “Fentanyl.”

  It was the paperwork from the toxicology report. “That’s what killed Olivia Peckham,” I said.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Mike said. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, then dropped it on the ground. He crushed it with the front of his shoe, then leaned over, and picked it up.

  “So if Lynn Parker’s the one who poisoned me—”

  “She killed Olivia Peckham,” Mike said. He pulled another cigarette from his pack and stuck it in his mouth. He cupped his hand around the end and lit it with his Zippo. He took a drag, then exhaled in front of my face. “I want you to stay out of this,” he said.

  “Stay out of what? Are you kidding me?”

  “I told you, we’re going to do this the right way. We get a search warrant, follow the rules, and if we can prove it was Lynn Parker, we’ll nail her right then and there.”

  I said, “But here’s what doesn’t make sense. If she had anything to do with Ted’s death, or even Olivia’s, then why the hell would she hire me in the first place? It makes no sense.”

  Mike took another drag from his cigarette. “I still haven’t seen any real proof Ted Parker’s death was anything more than a suicide.” He reached for the handle on the driver’s side of his Crown Victoria and pulled open the door.

  I put my hand against the door and prevented Mike from opening it.

  He knocked my arm out of the way. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “How can you still believe Ted Parker jumped from that hotel? You have to be a moron not to believe somebody killed him?”

  “What I believe and what the evidence proves are two different things, Walsh. You don’t have to worry about things like evidence, because you can just fly around by the seat of your pants.” He scratched his head, the cigarette stuck between his fingers. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this: I’m more interested right now in finding the man who shot Alex. If you can’t understand that, then—”

  “Why does it have to be one or the other?” I said. “I’m telling you right now, they are one hundred percent connected. I just don’t know why you don’t care about the truth.”

  Mike laughed. “You always make it sound like you’re the only one interested in finding the truth. What the hell do you think I do each and every day of my life?” He shook his head. “The thing is, Walsh, sometimes you gotta make choices.” He pulled open the driver’s side door and stepped inside. He pulled it closed, started the engine, and rolled down the window. “Just do me a favor. Stay out of the way, will you? Let me do my job. I need anything from you, you’ll be the first to know.” He slapped the shifter on the steering column and backed up out of the parking space, drove across the back of the parking lot, and disappeared into the sea of parked cars.

  Chapter 25

  I sat at the bar at Billy’s Place with a glass of soda water with a lime, in front of me. It wasn’t often you’d see me at any bar without a bottle of beer or a whiskey. But I knew my carelessness had finally gotten the best of me.

  Of course, I wasn’t about to blame booze. But the point was, I’d thrown back a shot of bourbon at a time of day I normally didn’t drink. And it almost killed me.

  Billy grabbed my glass and topped it off with more soda from the gun behind the bar. He leaned on the bar, his hands spread wide from his shoulders. “So you’re really not going to do anything? I don’t believe it.”

  I took a sip of soda and leaned against the back of the stool. “I’ll see how long I can sit on the sidelines. The problem with law enforcement is there are a lot of rules officials need to follow. To me, it just makes it harder to get things done. I mean, I don’t mind rules, but—”

  Billy laughed. “You don’t mind rules? Tell me another one.”

  “If you'd let me finish. What I was going to say is I understand the need for rules. But when you know something needs to happen, but it’s held up because of red tape or bureaucracies, questions don’t get answered fast enough. And when you lose time… ”

  “Mike told you to stay away from Lynn Parker’s house. He didn’t tell you to stop investigating entirely, did he?”

  I shook my head. “No. Because he can’t.”

  I knew I had to get to the bottom of what’d happened to Ted if we were going to find the person who shot Alex. And in my mind, I started to question every single person I’d come across ever since Ted fell from that balcony.

  “You know,” I said, “if Lynn Parker could’ve had something to do with it and she was my client, then maybe I need to look at Ted’s brother, Jack, too. I have no idea what the ulterior motive would be for Jack to hire me if he was behind anything that’s happened. But I don’t think I can rule anybody out.” I finished my drink and got up from the stool. “I’m heading up to my office.”

  “Raz is up there. Chloe said she’d take him for a walk when she gets back.”

  “Thanks. Maybe I’ll take him for a walk. I could use some fresh air, do some thinking. I have a feeling if Raz could talk, he’d make a good partner.”

  It was almost midnight, and I’d been at my desk for more than a few hours going through the video we copied from the hotel. I was sure I’d watched every second of it already, but it didn’t hurt to go through it one more time. I was tired at the point I couldn’t look at the footage any longer. I watched at double speed and saw very few people come and go the night I was there to watch Ted.

  But I stopped on the same pizza delivery person who stood near the elevator that Alex and I had noticed the first time we watched the video. He wasn’t a young kid, although it was hard to see the face with a hat pulled down low over his eyes. The metal, gold-rimmed glasses reflected the light from the ceiling over where he stood.

  The elevator door opened and the man disappeared inside. Nobody else stepped off the elevator. And for the next few minutes of footage, nobody else got on.

  Alex would have been able to zoom in on the man, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to use the software she’d installed on one of the computers.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17