“Okay, give me what you’ve got,” Danni said.
Allison gave her the name and phone number. She picked up her car in Lincoln Park and drove as fast as she could to Andersonville. By the time she entered the alley behind her house, Danni called back. She stopped the car.
“That was fast,” she said. She put the car in park and got out a notebook.
“Computers are pretty freaking fast. They leave me with not enough to do. Anyway, Jim Braddock is licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey. He’s forty-nine, divorced, attended Yale Law School, and was in the U.S. attorney’s office for quite a few years. He now has his own practice in Jersey City. Not much else on him in this initial sweep, other than he filed for bankruptcy last year.”
“This helps a lot, Danni,” Allison said. “Can you e-mail that info to me?”
Allison got off the phone and pulled into her garage. As she did so, Peg entered the garage from the house with a bag in her hand. She knew she only had a moment to decide how to handle the situation, how to bring Peg to the truth and not shut her down. She got out of her car as Peg stood at the front of hers.
“Come into the house with me,” Allison said. “I have some information for you. She held the door to the garage open, waiting for Peg to walk through it. She didn’t move.
“I’m not going inside. I have a plane to catch.”
“There’s a plane to LaGuardia every hour. That’s not an issue. I know you’re annoyed with me right now, but you’ll have to suck it up and bear with me. I have to tell you something, and it’s important to you and to us that you hear it.” Allison reached over to take the suitcase from Peg’s hand, smiling to herself as she felt her grip tighten and then, at last, let go. She looked into Peg’s eyes and saw beneath the stern gaze someone who really didn’t know what to do. “Come on, darling.”
Peg gave her an exasperated look and walked into the house. She sat at the kitchen table and Allison sat across from her. “Well? What’s this about? Why are you so worked up over my business trip.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with your supposed business trip.” She clasped her hands together and looked Peg directly in the eye. Or tried to. Peg’s eyes kept wandering all over. “Before I say anything, I’m asking you again to tell me what’s going on. You know you stink at hiding your emotions. It’s obvious something’s upset you.”
“Jesus, we just had this conversation an hour ago. I told you there’s nothing going on. I don’t know why you don’t believe me. It’s starting to piss me off.” Peg kept moving about in her chair. She didn’t even realize how transparent she was.
“All right. If you won’t tell me what you know, I’ll tell you what I know. This morning, a man named Jim Braddock called and you interrupted an important meeting to take the call. You sent Carly away on an absurdly early lunch. You called me to say you unexpectedly had to leave town. You sounded cold and removed and not at all yourself. Then I came to see you and we fought because you felt I was in your business too much. I sweet-talked Carly into giving me what information she had, and then I got a private investigator to look into Jim Braddock. She’s already given me a short bio on him.”
Peg looked incredulous.
“I imagine you think I’m too much in your business right now,” Allison said.
“Truthfully? I feel like I’m suffocating.”
“Why?” Allison asked. “Do you believe I care so little for you I would ignore it when you’re in pain, possibly in trouble?”
Peg shook her head. “It feels more like you don’t trust me to conduct my own life. It feels controlling, and I don’t respond well to that.”
Allison stood and started pacing around the kitchen. She stopped in front of the table. “I’m going to try to explain myself and hope to God you understand. I’m in love with you. I feel like I’ve met my life partner in you. We have a lot in common, but we’re fundamentally different in some ways. I’m an open book and you’re a closed book, and that’s not working for us right now. Normally, I can completely respect your need to reveal things in your own time. And I see you slowly coming to realize it’s safe to do so with me. But there’s something going on today that has me really concerned. You have to tell me what it is. My guess is you’re not telling me because there’s something you want to protect me from or keep me from knowing about you, but I’m telling you we can’t be in a relationship if you don’t trust me to love you.”
Peg stared out the window as Allison made her speech. She kept her eyes fixed on the garden. “Allison, I’m going to tell you this one last time. There’s nothing going on. Braddock was a law school classmate and former colleague. We were catching up.”
Allison put her hands on her hips, trying to maintain her cool. “There’s some chance that’s true. But I don’t believe it, and I trust my instincts. Even you trust my instincts. I know you love me. I can feel it when we’re together. But you don’t know how to trust that love. You have to trust me, Peg, or we have nothing. I won’t live with another woman who isn’t honest with me.” She sat down and reached across the table for Peg’s hands. “Please don’t do this to us. Don’t let fear be what separates us.”
Peg didn’t withdraw her hands, but she didn’t look Allison in the eye, either. She looked at their hands for a long time. She finally raised her eyes to look at Allison. “I don’t know what it means to trust love. I’d never even thought about it until you brought it up. I do love you, and it’s because of that I’m terrified to tell you what today was about. You won’t ever think the same of me.”
Allison didn’t say anything as Peg struggled to say more.
“The thing is, I don’t really have a choice now. You said you won’t stay with me if I don’t tell you the truth, but I know you won’t stay with me when I do. And that is the most devastating thing I can imagine, far worse than what I have to tell you. You say I should trust in your love. If that means there’s a slim chance you’ll keep me after hearing all this, then it’s worth doing.”
Weak with relief, Allison managed an encouraging smile. “There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me leave your side.”
“We’ll see,” Peg said. “Why don’t we make some coffee? This is going to take a while.”
For the next hour, Peg told her the story of the Scarpelli shooting and her role in it. She realized she’d had no idea what Peg’s alcoholism really meant, that she was truly a different person in those years. And not a particularly good person. She felt like she’d been gazing at a grassy hill, only to discover it was gutted by caves running beneath it. She’d had no idea what was going on down there.
“I think you’re leaving out a crucial part of the story,” Allison said.
Peg smiled limply. “And what is that?”
“That you went on to get sober. And also that you acted to protect an innocent woman and her family.”
“Can you honestly tell me you don’t think less of me as a person knowing I blurted out such important classified information?” Peg looked resigned.
“What I think is it wasn’t a great move to tell Jenna the witness’s location, but I find it hard to believe that whoever hit Scarpelli used that as his source. I also know you’ve punished yourself far more than anyone ever could. It’s time to let this go.” Allison walked over and sat in Peg’s lap, running her fingers through her floppy hair. “Let’s figure out how to handle Braddock’s absurd blackmail and get on with our lives.”
“Do we have to figure it all out now?” Peg asked. “I feel like someone pulled the plug on me. I’m circling the drain.”
Allison kissed her. “Let’s draw a bath and get you put back together.”
Peg held Allison tightly to her. “I don’t know why you love me, but I believe you do. And that’s an unimaginable gift to me.”
Allison kissed her again. “Maybe now you won’t resist me so much.”
“I can’t resist you, Allison. You must know that.”
*
All
ison leaned back against Peg, whose arms were wrapped firmly around her. The claw foot tub held them comfortably, and the water was just beginning to cool after fifteen minutes of lying together in peaceful silence. It was nearly dark out, their only light a candle flickering at the side of the tub. Peg’s hand disappeared below the surface of the water and made its way between Allison’s legs. Allison gasped as Peg’s hand caressed the inside of her thighs.
“What are you doing?” Allison said. “I thought you were shattered.”
“Not totally shattered. I’ve been revived.” Her hand found its inevitable destination and gently explored Allison above and below, inside and out. “Actually, I’ve been more than revived. I’ve been somehow redeemed. You seem to love me despite my whoppingly large flaws. I trust you when you say that, which is a sea change for me.”
Allison was trying to concentrate on what Peg was saying, but all she could focus on was what Peg was doing. “Would you please hold on to that thought, at least until you’re done making love to me. You might as well be speaking Urdu right now.”
Peg dried Allison from head to toe and led her to the bedroom, where she worshipped her body as thoroughly and lovingly as she could. She saw a tear running down Allison’s cheek.
“Why are you crying, sweetheart?” Peg hovered over Allison’s body, as if protecting her from whatever was making her cry.
“I don’t know. Because I feel extraordinarily close to you, I guess.”
Peg shifted to lean against the headboard and brought Allison into her arms. “I feel that, too.” She paused. “But I still have a big fucking problem.”
Allison turned to look at her. “No, we have a big fucking problem, though I have some ideas on that. It may not be as big a deal as we think.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I don’t think I told you in the middle of our fight that one thing we discovered about Mr. Braddock was he filed for bankruptcy in the last year or so. I think that’s significant.”
“I guess,” Peg said. “It would explain his current motivation to blackmail me. He must be desperate, but I don’t see how that gives us any more leverage.”
Allison had sat up on her crossed legs and leaned toward Peg. “It seems likely to me that if Braddock had trouble managing his finances now, wouldn’t he also back when you knew him? Wouldn’t his financial troubles give him a motivation to sell the witness location information to whoever was in the market for it?”
Peg could see that Allison was going to try to figure things out. She should stay out of her way. “My brain was mush back then, and my judgment completely unreliable. But I did have a strong belief that Braddock wasn’t the one who leaked the information. He offered a lie detector test. And in the years of knowing him at the U.S. attorney’s office, I didn’t see anything bent about him. I think his blackmailing me for a hundred thousand was an afterthought. He was more interested in getting my job. But you’re right. It could’ve been Braddock. I think at the time, Jenna would have been the greater suspect of them. Plus, I don’t think he had the balls to deal with the mob directly. They scared him.”
“Who do you think did it?” Allison asked. She slid out of bed and grabbed her robe.
“I simply don’t know. I didn’t think about it much back then. Once I saw that Jenna had a grandmother and a sick child to take care of, I was worried she’d be used as a scapegoat. She heard the witness information from me, she needed extra money, and she had access to members of various families through her work on the case. She’d be the number one suspect.”
Peg stared into space. The sheet was pushed down to her hips. She drew Allison back to her side. “My brain is mush, just like it was back then. I don’t know what to do.”
Allison grabbed onto Peg’s hands and used her most persuasive voice. “We don’t have to figure it out right now. Just stay with me here tonight and we’ll come up with a plan tomorrow.”
Peg smiled. “Okay.”
“You’re so easy now,” Allison said. “What’s happened to your stubbornness?”
“You’ve completely conquered me.” Peg pulled on the tie of Allison’s robe.
“I have?”
“Yes.” She pulled Allison onto the bed. “And to the victor go the spoils.”
Allison laughed. “Does ‘spoils’ sound like something a victor would want?”
“Quit talking, my Conqueror.”
Chapter Twelve
Morgan followed Laura back to the kitchen. She’d just arrived, after spending fifteen minutes in her car to avoid being embarrassingly early.
“Did you have any dinner?” Laura asked. She pulled a beer and a bottle of wine out of the fridge.
“I grabbed a bite with my new partner.” They sank into the couch in the sitting area just off the kitchen.
“You haven’t told me much about him,” Laura said, sipping her wine. “Do you like him?”
“I guess. I was so used to having old Ben it was going to be weird no matter who replaced him.”
Morgan’s longtime partner Ben had abruptly retired from the department and moved to upper Wisconsin to teach genealogy at a community college. This made perfect sense to Morgan, as much as genealogy could ever make sense to her. Her new partner was also named Ben. He’d just been promoted to Homicide, and Morgan was training him. So far, the only thing in common between the two Bens was their first name.
“How’s work been for you lately?” Laura put her wine glass down and took Morgan’s hand. “As usual, I’ve been wrapped up in the FDA prep and haven’t kept up with what’s going on with you.”
Morgan shrugged, but she was secretly pleased at Laura’s effort. She didn’t want to seem desperate for this kind of attention, but the truth was she was. She didn’t have enough time with her new girlfriend, and she felt like a second fiddle to Laura’s work.
“It’s a little quieter in January, so I have more time to get Ben up to speed. People don’t murder as much in the cold as they do in the summer.” Morgan drank more beer. “Anyway, you have your big meeting tomorrow. I want to hear how today went.”
Laura stretched out on the couch so her legs rested on Morgan’s lap. “I think fine. I’m almost afraid to say so, but I can’t see what can go wrong tomorrow. We’ve tested the program on every system we can think of, with every variable we can think of, by every employee that we have. Short of sabotage or a power outage, it should go smoothly.”
“Sabotage? Is that a possibility?”
“I was kidding, but I suppose it is possible. It certainly happens in the world of product innovations. Corporations hire hackers to get at product code and incorporate it into their own products, after altering it a bit to hide their trail. Corporate espionage. I imagine it’s a big business.” She drank more wine, a small frown on her forehead.
“And you don’t think that’s what happened to you on the day everything blew up?”
“I think what happened that day was a one-off, an anomaly that we haven’t been able to replicate.” Laura swung her legs to the side and sat up next to Morgan.
“Are you aware of any other companies working on products similar to yours?” Morgan asked.
Laura looked impatient. “I can’t worry about that. I have to get through tomorrow.”
“But are there?” Morgan persisted. She was used to people being annoyed with her.
“That’s what the rumors are. I’m sure competitors have heard about my program. If I find out anyone’s been sabotaging me, I’ll have to shoot them.” Laura barely seemed to be kidding.
“You do remember I’m a homicide detective?”
Laura smiled, which seemed to break the tense atmosphere between them. “Oh, that. I won’t shoot in front of you, Detective. No one will ever know.”
Morgan grunted. She looked at Laura’s tired face and thought again how much she had invested in her project, how much of her well-being depended on how successful tomorrow’s demonstration went. The thought that someone could be sabotaging her made
the tops of Morgan’s ears burn. She leaned over to kiss Laura.
“Tell me what you need from me tonight. What will help you the most for tomorrow?”
“Let me see.” Laura sighed. “We could have a bath and make love. We could have a shower and make love. We could watch TV and then make love or have a snack before making love. We could simply make love.”
“All of the above?” Morgan said, and Laura laughed. “I’ll leave the details up to you.”
“Actually, what you could do for me tonight is take care of all the details yourself. Take all decision making away from me. It’ll feel like a barbell has come off my shoulders.” She sat up and leaned back into Morgan’s arms.
“What kind of decisions?” Morgan asked.
“All of them. When to eat, when to bathe, when to make love, how to make love. Everything.”
“Everything?” Morgan shifted and looked in her eyes, trying to see if Laura was kidding her.
Laura looked at her with a serious but sensuous expression. “Everything.”
“Jesus, you just lit me up like a light bulb.”
Laura grinned. “Then you better let me know what we need to do about that.”
“Gladly.”
Chapter Thirteen
Thursday, January 11
The following morning, while Peg was at the gym, Allison called her contact in Chicago organized crime, Johnny Bartoni. Back when she’d practiced law, one of the biggest cases she’d been assigned was a union pensioners’ suit against the board of directors of their pension fund. The pensioners found there were no funds for their retirements, and they were mad as hell. Bartoni was on the board, the members of which were almost entirely associated with the mob. Their investment strategy had been to funnel money into startup hotels, casinos, and restaurants in Las Vegas, many of which never moved beyond the planning stage. The mob-owned businesses would funnel the construction money into their pockets.
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