by Joel Goldman
“Every square inch except this suite. You don’t own it and I didn’t invite you in. That makes you a trespasser. Vince Bongiovanni doesn’t give frequent-defendant discounts, and I don’t think he’ll make an exception for you.”
Webb aimed a finger at Lila. “Go on. Get back to the office.” Lila ducked her head, her confidence evaporated, the two goons grinning as she walked past them, both of them following her out into the hall. Turning to Mason, he said, “You keep showing up where I don’t expect you. Why is that?”
“Somebody’s bad luck.”
Webb took a deep breath, calm descending on him, the craft of the con man clicking in. “Don’t make it yours. What did you want with Lila? And don’t lie to me because she won’t.”
Mason didn’t know whether she would, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance. He also didn’t want to say anything that would make Webb resist the bait that Fish was about to dangle in front of him. If Webb were suspicious of Mason, he’d be even more suspicious of Fish.
“I’ve got a case that involves Ed Fiori. Lila used to work for him. I wanted someplace private to talk with her. Vince Bongiovanni told me about this suite. I asked him if I could use it. I was afraid Lila wouldn’t meet with me if she knew what I wanted to talk about so I asked Vince to have Carol Hill call her and say she wanted to meet with her to settle her case. Lila showed up with her entourage. One of them belted me hard enough to renumber my ribs. She and I were just getting acquainted when you showed up.”
Webb smiled as if he’d already known that was what happened, renewing Mason’s suspicion that the suite was bugged and confirming his decision not to lie.
“Fiori, huh?” Webb asked. “Wasn’t he the guy that owned the casino before Galaxy bought it? He’s been dead for what, three years?”
“Long before you came to work here. Too bad you never got to meet him. He was an interesting guy.”
“The dead don’t interest me, Mason, because they don’t gamble.”
“So you won’t be interested in me, because I don’t gamble either.”
“Then I guess there’s not much difference between you and a dead man,” Webb said.
“If you don’t count breathing.”
Webb looked around the suite, walked to the door, and closed it. He took his time coming back into the living room, stopping to examine the fruit basket, polishing an apple before setting it down. He ambled over to the windows, gazing at the full parking lot.
“You know,” he said at last, “that story you told Lila about working on a case involving Ed Fiori is pure bullshit, but I liked that you told it so well. You made it believable. That’s talent. Then, you didn’t lie to me. That’s judgment. Those are two important qualities in a man. Now what’s all this about someone at Galaxy trying to blackmail Judge Carter?”
Mason had taken a chance throwing that comment at Lila, hoping to shake her up. He expected her to press him for details. Instead, she let him change the subject to Fiori’s tapes. He had a sudden image of Webb and Lila scamming him. Lila’s job was to draw him out, find out what he knew. Webb would then burst in like a jealous husband at the first mention of blackmail. Only Webb cut them off before they got into any of the details. Maybe Lila wasn’t involved and Webb didn’t want her asking any questions. Everything in this case had at least two sides and everyone had at least two faces. The permutations were making him crazy, reminding him not to trust anyone.
“Just talk.”
“Just talk,” Webb repeated. “Who’s doing the talking? Bongiovanni? That’s the kind of rumor he’d spread. He probably hopes it gets back to the judge and makes her rule in his favor just to prove there was no blackmail.”
“Can’t help you. Client confidentiality.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Webb said, waving his hand at Mason. “Everything is confidential until you need something that’s more important than keeping the client’s secrets secret. Believe me; I know how you lawyers work. Anyway, from what I read in the paper, I would think you’ve got your hands full with Avery Fish’s case.”
Webb was back in full huckster mode, his voice silky, his manner ingratiating, and his outburst at Lila the impetuous act of another man. He dismissed Mason’s blackmail claim, more interested in talking about Fish. Mason wondered whether Sylvia McBride had already spoken with Webb, pitting Webb’s greed against the prospect of exposing his real identity. He knew that Webb was playing him, probing for anything that would help him measure the odds. Mason decided to give him something he hadn’t read in the papers, knowing that inside information was the hallmark of credibility.
“The prosecuting attorney and the U.S. attorney have ganged up on my client. They think he murdered your late employee, Mr. Rockley. They’ve offered to dismiss the federal charge and not seek the death penalty if he’ll confess to Rockley’s murder.”
“Sounds like the framework for a deal,” Webb said.
“Not this time,” Mason answered. “My client had nothing to do with Rockley’s murder and the police have no evidence that he did except that the body was found in his car. That won’t get them a conviction. He’ll never take a deal that makes him look like a killer. The state will have to back off on the murder charge and we’ll beat the federal charge.”
“Seems like quite a risk. Your client could go to jail for the rest of his life.”
Mason understood Webb’s concern. If Fish was willing to make a deal, Webb couldn’t trust him. If Fish wouldn’t deal, his proposition to Sylvia would have more credibility. He invoked Fish’s appeal to Sylvia about his grandchildren.
“My client is at an age when any prison sentence is likely to be a life sentence. If he pleads to murder one, he never gets out. If he pleads to murder two, he does fifteen years, which is the same thing. If the state drops the murder charge, the U.S. attorney says he won’t make a deal on the mail fraud. There are enough counts in the federal charges that they add up to a life sentence if he’s convicted. So, there’s no deal he can make that keeps him out of prison. His only real concern is his four grandkids. All he cares about is making certain they are taken care of.”
“Do you do estate planning as well as criminal defense work?”
Mason shook his head. “Not me. I leave that up to bean counters.”
“Mr. Fish must have a lot of money to protect if he can afford you,” Webb said.
“One thing you learn in my business is not to ask questions about how much money your client has or where he got it. All I care about is that he has enough to pay me. The rest is none of my business.”
“Another honest answer,” Webb said. “It’s trite but true. We all have a price, don’t we?”
“We are a nation of buyers and sellers,” Mason said with a tight-lipped smile, his eyes locked on to Webb’s.
“So, then. That brings us back to this business about blackmail. You wouldn’t answer my question before when I didn’t offer you anything in return. That was rude. I suppose that makes me the buyer and makes you the seller.”
“It’s trite but true,” Mason said. “There are some things that money just can’t buy.”
“That doesn’t mean they can’t be bought though, does it?”
Mason looked at him. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Then name your price.”
History was repeating itself. Webb was standing a few feet from Mason, his suit jacket open, a smartphone clipped to his belt.
Mason eased out of his chair, closing the distance between them, flashing his take-me-home-with-you smile. Webb grinned until Mason’s hand shot out, clamping Webb’s lips together. Mason shoved him against the wall while he yanked the phone from Webb’s belt. Pressing his forearm against Webb’s neck to pin him in place, he tapped the audio record app icon and listened to his conversation with Lila followed by the one he had been having with Webb. He pressed erase and turned it off.
“You figure it out,” Mason said, releasing his grip and dropping the phone to the floor.
SIXT
Y
As Mason pulled out of the Galaxy Casino parking lot, a Lexus pulled alongside, the driver tapping lightly on the horn. He turned and saw Lila Collins behind the wheel, signaling for him to follow her. Mason let a couple of cars cut in front of him but kept her in sight as he called Detective Griswold.
“Homicide. Griswold speaking.”
“It’s Lou Mason. How many murders have you solved today?”
“Counting the ones committed by your client—one. Forensics found fibers on the plastic wrapped around Rockley’s body that match fibers from Fish’s house.”
“Big deal,” Mason said. “The fibers were already in the trunk when the body was put in there. I’d have been surprised if they didn’t find some. That would have made it look like he cleaned the trunk.”
“Could be Fish kept the plastic in the house before he used it to wrap Rockley up. Either way, it adds to the body of evidence. You got something for me, or are you just lonely?”
“Did you talk to Lila Collins about Johnny Keegan?”
“Collins? Yeah. She’s the HR director at Galaxy. Gave us the usual employee-of-the-year crap.”
“Did you tell her that Keegan was trying to get in touch with me?”
“No. Did she tell you that?” Griswold asked.
“Yeah. Is that enough to get your feet off your desk?”
“And my ass back to the casino,” Griswold said, hanging up.
When Griswold interviewed Lila again, she was certain to tell him about Mason’s blackmail inquiry and Ed Fiori’s tapes, but Mason couldn’t help that. He had to know who was telling him the truth. At least he would get another shot at Lila before Griswold did.
She led him to Berkley Riverfront Park, a landscaped strip on the south bank of the Missouri River that drew kids, couples, and kites in nice weather but was deserted on a cold, blustery Tuesday afternoon in February.
She parked her car, got out, and walked down a footpath toward a grove of trees that provided shelter from the wind and witnesses. Mason waited until he was certain they were alone and then followed her. When he caught up to her, she was clutching her coat tightly around her thin frame, her collar bundled around her face.
“I don’t have much time,” she said. “Webb will be all over me when I get back.”
“Why are we here?”
“Because I work for a piece of shit and we weren’t finished talking.”
Anger in the ranks was a powerful motivator, strong enough to make people take chances they would ordinarily avoid, especially when they’d just been humiliated. It also made them vulnerable, especially when caught in a lie. His suspicion that she and Webb had stage-managed the scene in the suite faded.
“I just talked to Detective Griswold. He didn’t tell you that Johnny Keegan was trying to get in touch with me. How did you know that?” She turned her back to him. “Griswold is on his way to the casino to question you. Tell me and maybe I can help you.”
She faced him, her thick makeup streaked with tears. “Boy,” she said, wiping her face with her coat sleeve. “I can really pick ’em. Ed Fiori was married. Never ever promised me he was going to leave his wife and marry me, but I didn’t care. Then Johnny comes along. He really could light up the room. I knew he saw other girls, but it didn’t matter. Last week he asked me if I knew a good lawyer. I remembered you from when Ed got killed. Then I saw you on TV about Avery Fish and Rockley, so I gave him your name.”
“Did he say why he needed a lawyer?”
She shook her head. “Just that he needed the name for a friend.”
“Did you know that Webb had bugged Bongiovanni’s suite?”
“That prick!” she said, renewed anger stemming her tears. “One minute he’s practically making love to you the way he talks; the next minute he cuts you open.”
“Why do you stay?”
“My shrink says I have low self-esteem. That’s why I choose relationships that don’t have a chance. Makes me a perfect HR director, huh?” she asked, laughing at herself.
“I don’t know. You’re tough on the outside, soft on the inside. That’s not such a bad combination.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, I think. You’re going to have to tell Detective Griswold about Johnny, and he’s going to ask what you and I talked about.”
“What do I tell him?”
“The truth. Anything else will get both of us in more trouble. I just want a head start on Griswold. When we were in the suite, you didn’t say anything when I told you that someone at Galaxy may be blackmailing Judge Carter. Why not?”
“Because I’m not stupid. I don’t know anything about that and I don’t want to know. That’s out of my league. I was going to tell Mr. Webb and let him handle it.”
“And now?”
“Maybe I’ll tell Detective Griswold and let him handle it. What do you think?”
That was the last thing Mason wanted her to do, but it was the only thing she could do. He’d put her in this situation and he’d have to deal with the fallout.
“I think you should tell the truth. You said you spend a lot of time checking references. Did you check Charles Rockley’s and Johnny Keegan’s?”
“Of course I did. That’s my job. They checked out fine.”
“What about Webb’s references?”
“His too. If they hadn’t checked out, they never would have gotten the jobs. The Gaming Commission ran checks on them too.”
“How did you do it? By telephone?”
“What do you think I did? Hop on a plane?”
“Easy, Lila. I’m not the piece of shit you work for,” Mason said, changing subjects. “Did Ed Fiori ever talk about me?”
“He liked you. He told me how you stood up to him and how loyal you were to your friend—the one that was charged with murder.”
Mason knew he might not get another chance to ask her about the tape. He shivered, though not from the cold. “Did Fiori have me on tape?”
Her eyes widened. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You and your friend and Ed. You must have asked him for help with your friend’s case and now you’re worried it’s all going to come out.”
Mason had tightened the noose completely around his neck. He’d just told a woman he hardly knew enough to figure out what he’d done. On top of that, he’d pointed Detective Griswold at her like a heat-seeking missile, and instructed her to tell Griswold everything. If that wasn’t enough, she worked for Mason’s number-one suspect in the blackmail scheme. She’d probably also tell Webb as well if he yelled at her loudly enough or asked her sweetly enough. It would have been quicker if he’d thrown himself under the wheels of a bus.
“My friend was innocent,” Mason explained, to salvage something of his reputation with Lila. “Ed helped me prove that.”
“I’ll bet he helped you a little too much.”
Mason nodded. “A little too much. I need to know if Ed taped our conversations.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. He never let me listen to the tapes.”
“Webb showed up before you could tell me whether Bongiovanni took all of the tapes after Fiori died. Did he?”
“I don’t know that either,” she said as a ripple of cold wind wound through the trees. “Ed hid them in different places. I checked everywhere that night, but I don’t know if I got them all before the FBI got there.”
“The FBI. They were there too?”
“It was crazy. I was scrambling around looking for the tapes. Vince was hollering at me and packing everything I found into a couple of briefcases. One of the security guards called and said two agents were on their way to the office. Vince got out of there in a hurry.”
“What did the FBI agents want?”
“They tore the place apart. I asked them for a search warrant. They said they didn’t need one since Ed was dead. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Was one of them a big guy, built like a linebacker?” Mason asked, struggling for a better description of Dennis Br
ewer, kicking himself for not having a copy of his photograph.
“That description covers a lot of ground. But I made them show me ID. I remember names for a living and I remember theirs too.”
“Was one of them Dennis Brewer?”
“Yeah,” Lila said. “He was the big one. The other one was a woman.”
Mason sucked in his breath. “You remember her name?”
“Sure. Kelly Holt.”
Despite the cold, Mason felt a surge of heat sweep across his face. More than one piece of his past was bearing down on him.
“Did they find any more tapes?”
“I don’t know. They kicked me out. I would have called a lawyer, but Vince was the only one I knew and he ran for daylight as soon as I told him the FBI was on their way.”
Mason had drawn a dotted line between Brewer’s name and Fiori’s name on his dry erase board. He was ready to replace it with a solid line and add another one for Kelly and Al Webb.
“Have you seen Brewer hanging around the casino, maybe talking to Webb?”
She took her time, squinting and concentrating as the wind pelted her eyes. “I don’t think so. Not him. The other one, the woman, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her around the casino a couple of times. In fact,” she added snapping her fingers, “I’m positive I saw her in one of the bars with Mr. Webb. She was wearing dark glasses like she was hungover or hiding. It was maybe six in the morning. I’d come in early to catch up on some paperwork. I walked by the bar and did a double take, but I kept my mouth shut.”
“When was that?”
“A month or so ago, something like that.” She looked at her watch, her olive skin pale in the clouded light. “I’ve gotta get back. I shouldn’t have followed you. That was stupid, really stupid.”
Mason put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah. I’ll put you down as a reference when that asshole fires me.”
Mason waited until she’d been gone five minutes before he took the footpath back to his car. When he got there, a gray Crown Victoria was parked next to his. Kelly Holt stood next to it, leaning against the driver’s door.