Duplicity

by Jane Haseldine

  “No, but I assumed. I guess the woman in the pictures could be someone else.”

  “We’re checking out Brooke’s alibi, but it sounds pretty tight. She was second chair on a case down in district court at the exact same time of the recording’s date stamp.”

  “It could have been altered,” Julia insists.

  “I don’t think it’s her, Julia,” Navarro says. “Some balding guy was getting out of the shower when we walked in. Turns out it’s her boyfriend. He’s a law professor over at Wayne State University, and the two have been living together for the past couple of months.”

  “Then who was sending David the pictures?” Julia asks.

  “Must be the mystery blonde in the video,” Russell answers.

  CHAPTER 24

  Isabella Rossi hurries across her Detroit penthouse and gathers the last of her things she will take with her. She checks the local headlines online before she packs up her computer, and catches an article about the attorney’s funeral scheduled for the afternoon. Isabella fantasizes for a moment about attending. She closes her eyes and steals off to a memory four months prior with her unexpected business partner.

  * * *

  “Hold on, I have to take this. And please be quiet,” David says as he puts his index finger to his lips.

  David answers the call and looks away toward the sliver of light coming through Isabella’s penthouse bedroom window as Rossi’s wife moves on top of him.

  “Hey, Brewbaker. Yeah, I’m heading to California tomorrow. I’m confident I can get Sammy Biggs to flip.”

  Isabella tweaks David’s nipple, and he shakes his head until she stops.

  “No, I don’t need anyone else from the D.A.’s office to join me. I’ve got it covered. I’ll call you after my meeting.... No. Don’t worry about police protection. I’ll be fine.”

  David turns off his cell phone and throws it on the floor.

  Isabella arches her back and tilts her long, slender neck toward the ceiling. David grips her waist with both hands as the two of them finish together.

  Isabella pulls off David’s body and nestles on the bed next to him.

  “What happens after my husband goes to jail?” she asks.

  “Just like we agreed. We split the money Rossi gave me to pay off the juror and you get out from under your husband’s abusive thumb.”

  “I should be getting the payoff from Enzo any day now. Once the trial starts, Nick wants me to go back to California.”

  “I’m working on getting the security box set up for the cash.”

  “Where?”

  “I looked at a vault and safe company called Infinity Holdings this morning,” David says. “I’ve got two more places to check out before I decide. I need to be sure the place is discreet and there’s no way anyone can trace the cash back to us.”

  David gets up from the bed, slips his clothes back on, and hands Isabella the business card from Infinity Holdings.

  “How much does it cost to run for district attorney anyway?” Isabella asks.

  “I don’t care about the money. Your husband has something on me. Or at least he did until this morning. That’s why I had to agree to go through with this initially. I withheld evidence in a case that could’ve helped prove the innocence of a defendant. I was prosecuting a murder trial. Anthony Ruiz. He was accused of raping and killing a mother and her teenage daughter after he broke into their house over in Troy. The father was away on a business trip at the time. The father killed himself because he thought he could have protected his family if he had been home. I knew that asshole Ruiz did it. Ruiz was a day laborer with a drug problem and picked up a job blacktopping a neighbor’s house across the street for a week straight before the murders. A neighbor saw Ruiz talking to the girl a whole lot that week. He was a good-looking kid.”

  “So?”

  “Ruiz got pinned for a DNA match on the semen that was found inside the girl. That sealed the case for us. But my investigator found something, a security surveillance video from a dive bar down in Wayne that showed Ruiz at the bar around fifteen minutes after we think the women were killed. He was stupid. He made up a fake alibi claiming he was home alone at the time of the killings, because the footage caught him scoring drugs from one of Rossi’s guys. Ruiz already had prior drug convictions, and he was probably scared shitless that if he told the truth, he’d wind up serving a good chunk of time on the drug charge.”

  “And this security video. You didn’t turn that in as evidence?”

  “No. Troy to Warren is ten miles. Ruiz could have conceivably made it to the bar if he floored it the whole way, but I couldn’t risk letting anyone see the footage. It could have put doubt in the jurors’ minds. The defense played it that the DNA match between Ruiz and the girl was because the sex was consensual. But I know Ruiz did it, and I couldn’t take the chance that he’d walk. He killed those women.”

  “Ah. Those who follow the law always get screwed. How does Nick tie into this?”

  “His guy who sold Ruiz the drugs used the bar as his distribution ground. He saw my investigator there and knew about the recording and what he was up to and told his boss. Rossi backed me into a corner and threatened me when he found out I’d be leading the prosecution against him. Either I could agree to throw the case and buy off a juror with the money he supplied, or he’d leak what I’d done on the Ruiz case. Rossi blackmailed me. I could be disbarred or go to jail if anyone finds out what I did.”

  “Where’s this recording?”

  “I bought it this morning from the bar owner for fifteen thousand. He promised there were no copies and he’d keep quiet. The only other person who knows about it is my former investigator, but he died two months ago in a car crash. So your husband doesn’t have anything on me anymore, even though he thinks he does. If he claims I withheld evidence in a case, it’s his word against mine. So now I try the case honestly—”

  “With Nick completely in the dark about what we’re doing,” Isabella interrupts.

  “Right. And Rossi goes to jail.”

  “And we split the two million dollars,” Isabella answers. “What about the juror?”

  “I got as far as pinpointing two I thought would be candidates, but I never approached them. So there are no loose ends.”

  Isabella turns to the wall so David won’t see her smile over his naivete. She knows all too well anything can be purchased for the right price and the right threat, including a copy of bar surveillance footage. She turns back to face David and tries to give him a look that she cares, even though she knows she’s already one step ahead of David in ensuring she has something on him if she needs to use it.

  “What if Nick finds out what we’re going to do?” Isabella asks.

  “He won’t. I set up the meeting with Sammy Biggs already. We’ll have a car waiting for him in the rear parking lot of the Santa Maria Temple. Your husband will never find out.”

  Isabella smiles and stretches her naked body across the bed like a cat.

  “How’s your wife? Are you still trying to get her to move back to Rochester so you can be one big, happy family again?”

  “Don’t talk about Julia,” David warns. “She’s off limits. This is the last time we do this, understand? It’s business from here on out. Things went too far between us.”

  David stares back at Isabella, realizing he made a horrible mistake crossing the line sexually with her. But once he got sucked in with Rossi, another dark alliance seemed to come naturally.

  “Fine. You go back to your little wife, but you better not screw me on my share of the money, or I’ll swear I’ll come after your family,” Isabella says. “I’ll start with your oldest son first. Once I’m through, he’ll be in so many little pieces, you won’t be able to ID the body.”

  A black cloud of fury moves through David, and he desperately wishes he could go back and act like the man he thought he was before all this mess started, someone who would spurn Rossi’s bribe even though it could mean his own pr
ofessional and most likely personal downfall. David looks on in disgust at Isabella naked in bed, her lithe body now coiled like a snake, and lets in the realization that maybe the true test of a man is not what he does when the chips are down but how far he allows himself to slither deeper into a pit with the devil.

  David jumps to Isabella’s side, throws her back down on the bed, and wraps his hands around her throat in a chokehold.

  “You touch my family, I’ll kill you,” he warns. “Do we have an understanding?”

  Isabella nods her agreement. David releases her, gets up from the bed, and stares coolly back at his reflection in the vanity as he knots his tie at his throat.

  Isabella sits up in the bed proudly and tries to recover her position.

  “You can’t take a joke. I lost a child. Do you really think I’m capable of killing one?”

  “I think you’re capable of anything.”

  “Such tough talk from a pretty boy.”

  “I mean it. Leave my family alone. Julia’s moving back home and things are going to work between us this time. We had a rough patch, but we love each other.”

  “Whatever you say. I’m sure you’ll win the husband of the year award. You going to take that?” she asks as David’s phone rings again.

  “No. It’s the mayor,” David answers as he looks down at his phone. “He’s trying to get me to come work for him.”

  “How rich.”

  * * *

  Isabella thinks wistfully about the expression “the best laid plans” and curses herself for nearly getting caught. But she knows she’s lucky she got out with her life by lying and narrowly convincing her husband and Enzo Costas she didn’t know that David planned to double-cross them, until the day Costas caught her in the room at the MGM Grand.

  Isabella grabs her purse, feeling flushed with excitement as she prepares to head to Infinity Holdings to pick up the bribe money, more than enough for her to disappear and escape from her life with her husband. Isabella gets as far as the penthouse door when her phone sounds and her husband’s name appears across the screen. Isabella pauses for a moment and then picks up.

  “I booked you a flight. You’re coming back to California first thing in the morning,” Rossi instructs. “Things are getting messy. Enzo was killed by the lawyer’s wife and a Detroit cop.”

  “Christ, is that all?”

  “The lawyer died.”

  “Ah, I didn’t know that,” Isabella lies.

  “It saved me some trouble, him dying of natural causes. He screwed me, and I already planned to kill him after the trial. But this way the police won’t try to pin me for his death. I called Tarburton. He said the police don’t have anything to connect me to the bombing. Enzo worked it out so there was no direct link to me with the sniper, so Enzo will be blamed for the L.A. cop’s murder and hiring Meter to take out Sammy Biggs.”

  Isabella digs her fingernails into her palm until she can feel the skin break. “So you won’t face any new charges?”

  “Yeah. Good luck is finally turning my way. What did you find out about the two million?”

  “Spent. David Tanner was a liar. He never used the money to pay off the juror. The lawyer stole your cash and used it to buy property, and the rest he invested in his upcoming run for political office. Don’t worry, though, Nick. You can recoup two million dollars in two minutes.”

  “That stupid lawyer and his wife.”

  “Don’t worry so much. I’m leaving the penthouse right now so the police won’t know where to find me if they want to question me again.”

  “Just lay low until you hear from me. Tarburton thinks we’re okay, but he wants me to take it easy until things quiet down.”

  “Of course, Nick. Whatever you say.”

  “You’ve redeemed yourself,” Rossi says. “I’ll give you something special when you get back to California, something that will make you feel good all night long.”

  Isabella rolls her eyes, grabs her Prada bag, and turns off the lights to the penthouse.

  CHAPTER 25

  The portable heating lamps strategically positioned in Julia’s backyard take the bite off the late-afternoon April chill and draw a gathering crowd away from Julia’s house and the spread inside that Helen laid out for guests after David’s service.

  The somberness of the day has temporarily lost its effect on Logan, who plays with Will and some of his friends from school up in the tree house David built three years earlier.

  (Stop worrying, Julia, I took woodshop in high school, and this tree house is as sturdy as our own home. How about we meet up here tonight after the kids are in bed? I’ll bring a bottle of champagne.)

  Julia puts her hands over her ears, as if trying to drown out David’s voice.

  “Julia, we’ve been looking for you.”

  Julia looks up to see Gavin Boyles and Mayor Anderson hovering above her. Gavin rubs his finger in nervous circles around the parameter of the port wine stain on his temple, and Anderson offers Julia his hand and a sympathetic smile that looks sincere.

  “I’ve been at a loss when I heard about David,” Anderson says, and kneels down next to Julia. He leans in for one of his trademark hugs, but Julia pulls away.

  Anderson settles for Julia’s hand instead and reaches out to grab it before Julia can object.

  “Are you taken care of?” Anderson asks.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I mean with money. Did David leave you enough for you to get by? You can’t be surviving on what the paper pays you with two young kids. I realize there’s nothing I can say or do to help you right now, but I need good talent on my team. Whenever you’re ready, I’d like you to come work for me. I guarantee I’ll pay better than what you make reporting.”

  She notices that Boyles has left his boss’s side and is now weaving in her direction with a male news anchor and a TV camera crew from the local Fox news station.

  “Thank you for the offer, but if you want to do something for me, get your boy out of here with the TV people, or I’ll sic the cops on him.”

  Anderson turns his back and notices Boyles and the rabid media quickly approaching. He holds up his hand to warn Boyles and his entourage to stop.

  “Oh Lord. I’m so sorry, Julia. I’ll be damned if that boy isn’t such a horse’s ass sometimes.”

  Mayor Anderson kisses Julia’s hand lightly and then puts an arm each around Boyles and the cameraman as he corrals the group away from their hoped-for shots of the mourning widow.

  Julia rolls her eyes at Navarro as he approaches with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Julia grabs the cool green bottle of beer from his hand and downs its remains in a series of rapid swallows.

  “I can get you your own,” Navarro says. He takes off his suit coat and drapes it around Julia’s shoulders.

  “No thanks on the beer. I just needed something to take the edge off.”

  “You need me to ward off the press for you?”

  “No. Mayor Anderson took care of it. I’m starting to think he’s not such a bad guy. Just the people who work for him are pretty slippery.”

  “It’s cold out here. Why don’t we go inside?”

  “I want a minute to breathe without everyone hovering over me saying how sorry they are.”

  “I’m going to Infinity Holdings in a little while. If David took a bribe, Infinity Holdings is probably where he stashed the money. But the question is, who did he take the money from? The thing that doesn’t make any sense is, if it was a bribe from Rossi, why did David go to all the trouble of bringing Sammy Biggs in to testify? And the other part that I never understood is why David was in Judge Palmer’s chambers all alone at the time the bomb went off without opposing counsel there.”

  “Maybe David recruited Sammy Biggs before Rossi got to him. And then Rossi paid David to throw the case and David got a freebie thrown in with the blonde who Rossi used as the money currier,” Julia says. “David knows Rossi is going to plant the bomb when the Butcher enters the courthouse, so a
t the last minute David tells the cops and everyone else he can’t escort the Butcher because he has to meet with the judge.”

  “It’s possible. But David told you he thought the bomb was meant for someone else.”

  “The more I think about what he said in the hospital, the more I’m starting to believe David’s doctor. David was confused and piecing together memories that didn’t connect.”

  “But what about the bar surveillance footage? Nick Rossi had something on David, so why would he give David money if he already had a hold over him?”

  “Maybe to ensure his future services. We need answers. Rossi is in hiding. How about Isabella?” Julia asks.

  “Russell just paid a visit to her penthouse. She didn’t answer, and the property manager said she terminated her lease this morning. Big surprise, she didn’t leave a forwarding address.”

  “Can we go to Infinity Holdings now?”

  “You tell me. You’re the host, and if you feel it’s okay to leave an hour after your husband’s funeral with a guy you used to date while everyone else is still here, I’m game.”

  Julia shrugs her shoulders, not worried about what anyone thinks of her. She looks back to the tree house and can see Logan’s dark hair through the rectangular window David almost lost his thumb trying to cut out and makes her decision.

  “All right. We’ll stay.”

  “Russell and I can leave now.”

  “No way. I’m coming too.”

  The door to the rear deck opens, and an attractive redhead in a tight black dress carrying a giant floral arrangement cranes her neck as she searches the yard for someone.

  “Your girlfriend is here,” Julia comments.

  Navarro quickly turns toward the house and grimaces when he sees Bianca.

  “We broke up. I have no idea why she’s here. Let me get rid of her.”

  “I’m sure she’s here to pay her respects, so don’t worry about it,” Julia says.

  Bianca spots the pair and carefully picks her way down the stairs in her stiletto heels.

  “Just try to be civil,” Julia says, and walks in Bianca’s direction. “I’m not up for anything else today.”