“Did her voice sound ‘off’ at any point? As if she were trying to disguise it?”
“No,” he said after a moment, “but I’m not an expert. It sounded natural.”
“What else?” Robert asked after the young man paused.
“I can’t say, but there was something about it that...”
“That you recognized?” Robert said, trying not to sound too hopeful.
“Naw, man, I don’t think I’d ever met this woman before. But her voice was...she knew what she was saying, you know what I mean? She didn’t have to stop and think. She was smart, you know? And she was one of those people that was, like, in charge. You didn’t want to argue with her.”
“You are positive about the physical description? Average height, average build?”
The man nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I can’t tell you how tall she was, but she wasn’t too tall or too short, you know?”
“Just blends into a crowd until she wants to talk,” more to himself than anyone else. Why did that have to sound so much like Hannah?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Robert had left two messages for Amos White since his first call. He hadn’t received a reply to either, but this was too important a lead to abandon.
When he called for a third time, White’s secretary was silent for a moment. “Hello?” Robert asked.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said politely. “I was trying to see when he could fit you in. Would three o’clock today work?”
Robert grinned. “That would be perfect.”
Hope and White’s offices were on Beacon Street, right across from King’s Chapel. The furniture in the lobby and common areas was hip, modern, and expensive, but Amos White’s office furniture probably hadn’t changed since the early eighties: the walls were white, the carpet dark blue, and much of the furniture was oxblood leather. It was an office for a serious client who wanted only the best.
“So sorry for the delays,” White said after their handshake. He was of medium height, slightly stooped, and entirely gray, but his eyes were as sharp as his grip was firm.
“Not to worry,” Robert said as he sat down. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.”
“Alex Sheldon had been a client of this firm for decades. Of course I’d like to help track down his murderer in any way I can. You wanted to ask about a meeting he had?”
What else did White know? “I did, but I have another question first, if you don’t mind.”
White smiled. “No law against asking.”
“Was there a woman? I mean, one that Sheldon was spending time with toward the end of his life?”
White chuckled. “Oh, there was always a woman, and there was usually more than one.”
“Did you get a look at her, or them? Is there anything you’d recall?”
“Alex had a type,” White said simply. “I’m afraid I don’t have any names, but they were all roughly similar: tall, but not as tall as he was, blonde, and light-eyed. Preferably green. And all of them could hold forth in social settings.”
That sounded exactly like Miranda’s late mother, Tatiana Hamilton. Robert almost felt sorry for Sheldon as he thought of him chasing after a ghost. “So, not someone who could be anyone? Someone who would stand out?”
“I think that was a requirement.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be.” Robert forced a smile. The woman who met with Bryson and the other kids didn’t know Sheldon...that way. “So then let me ask what I called about: why did he have a meeting at City Hall?”
“You don’t want to ask with whom?”
“No, because I’m pretty sure he met with Hwang himself. All of his friends from Cervino’s days are gone, and the only person who could get him to come in would have to be someone important.”
“It was the mayor,” White conceded.
“So what did they meet about?” Robert asked again.
“That is the question,” White said, and Robert could tell he was sincere. “I’ll tell you what happened, and then you can tell me.”
“Fair enough.”
“It was brief,” White began. “As you guessed, there was no love lost between the two, never mind that Hwang had never laid eyes on Alex before that day. As you know, it was shortly after Hilary Sayles’s arrest—”
“Who he posted the bail for.”
“He did,” White answered in a neutral tone of voice.
“So Hwang wanted to ask him about Hilary Sayles?”
“No. Hwang got the idea that Alex had something to do with the FBI keeping your department in the dark about their trafficking investigation.”
“So I heard,” Robert said carefully. “And I also heard that they have a witness to that effect.”
Amos scoffed. “A witness that was in a compromised position and that a first-year law student would be able to discredit with ease.”
“Were there any other witnesses?”
“Not yet. It was their idea that they could compel Cervino and his chief of staff Merrick Levar to testify.”
Robert was confused. “And why would they do that? I know politicians do a good job of avoiding self-incrimination.”
“Angelo Cervino is living in Italy now,” White said in a slow, steady voice that belied his years. “It would be very difficult to compel him to testify from there. So Hwang made it clear that the young woman Hilary Sayles was accused of kidnapping would have his office’s support if she decided to sue Cervino for damages personally.”
He could not have heard that correctly. “‘The young woman’,” he repeated. “Do you mean Mariela Bruges?”
“I think I do, although to my knowledge, she was unmarried at the time of the meeting.”
Quid pro quo, tit for tat, and Mariela had been the bargaining chip. “She couldn’t have gone through that kind of a trial.” Did Hwang not know that? “That was a bluff. So what did Hwang want in return for making sure that didn’t happen?”
“For Alex to answer his question.”
“And what did he say?”
Amos smiled knowingly. “He ended the meeting. So tell me, what do you think that meeting was about?”
Mariela was the chip, but maybe Sheldon could give her a reason to take herself off the table. “Is there anything else you want to tell me, Mister White?”
“That’s all I remember. Perhaps you should ask the mayor’s office for their side.”
“I don’t think Hwang’s going to answer anything I ask him.”
“Perhaps not, but the other person who was there with us might. I believe his name was Martin Shepard.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Robert tried to call Hannah when he left White’s office, but she hadn’t answered. He was going to talk to her no matter where she was hiding, but he wasn’t going to look for her yet.
He had what he needed by five. He hadn’t realized until he was on the steps of City Hall how long he’d been waiting for this.
He flashed his badge perfunctorily through security as he made his way to Martin’s office. He flung the door open without a knock. “You asshole.”
Martin was confused for just a second before anger settled on his features. “What do you want, Teague? Other than a call to your captain?”
Robert shook his head. “Yeah, you do that, and make sure you tell him everything. I know what you did, you sanctimonious prick. You and your fucking boss.”
Martin laughed incredulously. “You finally decided to go into a full self-destruct? Thanks for giving me a ringside seat.”
“Enjoy the view of this.” Robert threw a copy of the last month of Martin’s credit charges at him. “You took Jonas Maxwell to lunch two days before Alex Sheldon met you and Hwang here.” Martin looked at the paper but didn’t pick it up. “And you stayed there for three hours. You ordered a lot of scotch, but I talked to the waiter and he only remembers Maxwell drinking it. Maxwell, who used to be the assistant to Cervino’s chief of staff and who’s now working for your old boss Jack Donnelly. Maxwe
ll, who used to date the mayor’s girlfriend. Maxwell, some schmuck you could probably get to say anything in order to make up a reason to get Sheldon into this office.”
Martin came from around his desk. “Do you have any doubt that Alex had Cervino make sure the FBI kept the Hilary Sayles investigation from this office? I don’t think you do, and I think you would have wanted to know why just as much as we did.”
“But now we do! And your boss had the nerve to dress down the commissioner over the lousy job we did looking into Tom Bartolome without having the guts to tell us what he did. And do you know what you did? You didn’t get a clue when you saw the headline about his donation?”
Martin looked at him like he was crazy. “What are you talking about?”
“You blackmail Sheldon: ‘if you don’t tell us what we want to know about Cervino, we’ll squeeze him through his money and he’ll want to talk anyway.’ Think about it, Shepard. What did you put on the table? Money. Big mistake, because he knew how to use it better than anyone. What did you think he was going to do?”
The fight animating Martin’s features began to recede. “He’d make sure she couldn’t sue Cervino.”
“That’s right.” Martin seemed smaller to Robert, but so did the entire building. “Remember what you told me in that hospital, right after Michael Abbot was shot and Tom Bartolome was arrested? You told me that if I ever went near your friends again, you were going to have my career. And then you told me not to bother looking for anything on you because—what was it?—oh right, you were so clean that soap used you to wash up. Guess what?” Robert thought he should enjoy this moment more, but every word he said felt like the floor falling out from under him. “You need a bath now. You and your boss wanted to be the people who finally brought Alex Sheldon down, but you didn’t have the guts to do it yourself or the smarts to bring it to us. Who did you think was going to do it for you?”
Martin was white as a piece of paper. “Did Mariela Bruges kill Alex Sheldon?”
“No.” Robert was sick to his stomach. “Someone did it for her.”
Chapter Thirty
Robert wished he could talk to Hannah first, but if she wasn’t going to pick up and make his job easier—finally—then he was going to do what he had to do.
He parked in front of Josh and Mariela’s apartment. Mariela must have known, he thought as he ascended the stairs, but there was no way she could have done anything. And that was probably what set this off.
The first thing he noticed when he got to the door was how quiet it was. Three people should have made more noise, even if they were completely still. Robert felt the floor sinking from underneath him again, but he knocked anyway.
“It’s unlocked.” He gripped the doorknob as he recognized Hannah’s voice.
He found her sitting on the living room floor. She looked at him as if she’d been waiting for him. Her phone was next to her, but she’d turned it off. “They’re not here,” she said before he could ask the question.
She put her head on her hand as he turned to go into the hallway. He looked in Josh and Mariela’s bedroom and saw clothes on the bed and the closets and drawers open. He looked in Mariana’s room and saw a similar but neater scene.
He walked back to the living room. Hannah hadn’t moved from her spot. “Where are they?” he asked, trying to act as if she were just a witness.
She still wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t know.”
He grabbed her by the arms and forced her to stand up. She didn’t resist. “Sheldon didn’t give you the money, did he?”
She looked at him now. “No,” she answered just above a whisper.
“He gave it to Mariela, and it was so she wouldn’t sue Cervino, wasn’t it?”
She pulled back, and he let go. “What? Cervino? He gave it to her so she’d leave town.”
Six of one, half dozen of the other. “Did he come by himself?”
“He didn’t even come.” Hannah ran her hand through her hair. “He sent some big guys to give her the message. Or so I heard. I wasn’t here.”
“Was Josh here?” She shook her head. He could tell she was trying to keep from crying. “Mari was by herself?”
Hannah nodded. “Josh wanted to get her some flowers, but he wanted to pick them out by himself. When he came back, Mari was hysterical. He couldn’t get it out of her for a while, but he saw the check and he knew—”
“Did they hurt her?”
“They didn’t have to. They knew she’d get the message.”
Robert remembered Hannah crying about her brother’s family and Mariana needing to be away from her parents. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She scoffed. “What kind of a witness was she going to be?”
“You had a check!”
“He wasn’t going to spend one hour behind bars for that, and you know it.”
He stepped in closer to her. “Is that what you told Josh?”
“No.” She quickly wiped her face. “I told him I’d take care of it.”
The MFA benefit. The article in the Boston Globe. “So you warned Sheldon to leave before your brother could get to him.”
“I tried.”
He backed her against the wall. “When did you know?” She tried to look away, but he grabbed her face. “When did you know Josh had killed Sheldon?”
“Ten minutes after it happened.” She closed her eyes. “Mariana called me because her mother was upset that she couldn’t find her father. I called him, and for some reason, he picked up.” Robert’s stomach twisted as he realized it was because Josh wanted to brag. “He told me what he’d done, and he was starting to panic. I told him—I asked him why he hadn’t listened to me in the first place, but then I told him not to worry.”
He grabbed her arm. “So you went into Sheldon’s security system.”
“Not me,” she said. “A friend. I told him what happened. He couldn’t erase the record, but he could make it look like someone entered later. And then he could strip out enough information from when Josh entered to make it look like there was a glitch.”
“How did Josh get past the system in the first place?”
Hannah sucked in her cheeks. “A mechanic has to know a couple of things about alarm systems, and Josh is a good mechanic. He also spent hours teaching himself about networks while he was waiting for his family to come home and he had nothing else to do.”
“Good enough to get in,” Robert said, “but not good enough to cover his tracks. Isn’t it lucky his little sister was always there to clean up after him?”
She pressed the back of her head to the wall. “It wasn’t like that.”
He pressed in closer. “And then after you fixed it for him, you climbed back into bed with me.” He squeezed her arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes were bloodshot and she was exhausted. “Because there wasn’t anything you could do.”
He pulled away from her. “Hannah Bruges, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.” He turned her around and pulled out his cuffs. “Anything you say can and will be used against you.” But only because you waited this long.
Chapter Thirty-One
Hannah didn’t say another word from the time Robert put on the cuffs to when she was photographed and fingerprinted. She also didn’t look at him.
Why did he feel like he was still sinking? How much further could he fall?
“Can I have my phone call now?” she asked when they were done photographing her.
Robert started to walk away once he heard her start her call. Listening to her talk to Graham was going to be another punch—
“Emily, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be able to pick up Mariana tonight.” Robert stopped in his tracks and turned around. “I’m at the station and I’ve been arrested. Please tell Mariana...” She looked up at the ceiling. “Please tell her I’m okay and I’ll be there for her as soon as I can. And I’m sorry, Emily. Yeah, I guess you should send Mitch here.”
�
��Mariana didn’t go with her parents?” Robert asked as soon as she was off the phone. She glared at him but didn’t reply. “What were you doing at their place?” He remembered how much neater Mariana’s room was from her parents. “You were stopping them from taking her, weren’t you?”
She narrowed her eyes and swallowed. “Detective Teague, you’re going to have to wait for my attorney before I tell you anything else.”
“Bob.” He turned around to see Baptiste behind him. “A word. Now.”
“Put her in a room to wait for her attorney,” Robert told one of the officers. He took one last glance at Hannah before he followed Baptiste to his office.
Baptiste sucked in a breath when Robert was done with his update twenty minutes later. “Hwang set this off? You’re sure?”
“Amos White enjoyed telling me all about their meeting.”
“I bet he did,” Baptiste said through gritted teeth. “He doesn’t like Hwang or Lucy Bartolome any more than Sheldon did.”
“And then Martin Shepard confirmed it,” Robert said tersely. “On the plus side, they can use this in their next campaign: ‘Hwang conquers Boston’s Public Enemy Number One’.”
A young officer knocked on Baptiste’s door. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but there’s a Mitch Graham here, and he wants to speak to Detective Teague.”
Baptiste looked at his watch. “That was quick.” He regarded Robert. “I’m taking point on this.” Before Robert could object, Baptiste stood up. “Let’s go.”
Hannah turned her head to the side when Robert and Baptiste walked in, and there was no trace of the snark Mitch usually had for him. “You are letting my client go tonight,” he said.
“She’s an accessory after the fact to murder,” Baptiste said calmly. “If she can tell us where her brother and sister-in-law are, I’m sure the DA will agree to a lesser sentence.”
Mitch shook his head. “You’re not going to charge her because if you insist on taking this to trial, you know the jury is going to see a devoted sister who was willing to risk her own safety many times over to protect her brother’s family. And that’s before I mention Alex Sheldon’s connection to organized crime.” Mitch didn’t appear to be enjoying this. He was angry, but there was something else that Robert couldn’t identify. “She’s not the one you want.”
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