212

by Alafair Burke

  But Ellie didn’t care whether Sparks drove a Maybach or a Honda or a GMC Pacer. What mattered to her was that it was eleven o’clock at night, and he’d ditched his driver and was on the move.

  If Ellie had been asked to bet on Sam Sparks’s likely destination as the clock approached midnight, her imagination would have carried her on a luxury excursion through the city: a top-secret avant-garde performance art debut in SoHo, an exclusive club opening in Chelsea, the rooftop bar at the Gansevoort. Instead, she found herself in the burbs. Riverdale, to be exact.

  Riverdale was a perfectly decent place. Nice, in fact. Pleasant. Even fancy in parts. And she supposed that it technically fell within the limits of the Bronx and was therefore formally part of the city and not a suburb. But in all the ways that counted, Riverdale was the humdrum boring suburbs.

  But something had brought Sam Sparks and his Maybach here as the clock approached midnight.

  She had followed him crosstown on Seventy-ninth, and then north on the Henry Hudson Parkway. She had wondered if he was leading her all the way to his upstate country home when he turned off at Exit 22. The winding, hilly residential roads challenged her tailing abilities, but she managed to keep sight of him.

  She was one turn behind him when she saw the red blush of his brake lights. He parked on the street behind a blue minivan and turned off his engine. She killed her headlights and backed into a spot at the curb. Despite the angle, she could see his car around the corner if she leaned forward.

  With the twists and turns through Riverdale, she had not had a chance to take in the surroundings. Upper-middle-class residential neighborhood. Well-maintained brick Tudors seemed to dominate. Average-size lots. Average-size homes. Not the kind of place she’d expect Sparks to leave a Maybach on the street.

  She tried to make out the street names on the perpendicular green signs on the corner, but did not have enough light. Why was Sparks here? And why hadn’t he gotten out of his car?

  She waited. She watched. Nothing happened.

  Ten minutes later, she sensed a brightening somewhere on the street past Sparks’s car—a porch light—followed by the faint sound of muted voices. She saw the silhouette of Sparks’s head slink down in the driver’s seat.

  Rogan had mocked her for grabbing a set of binoculars before they left the precinct, but she was grateful for them now. She rotated the lenses until the street came into focus.

  She spotted the couple on the lit porch of a house two lots down from Sparks’s Maybach. Taller guy. Shorter woman with light-colored hair in a low ponytail, keys in her hand. They were kissing—nothing too passionate, but more than just a friendly good-bye.

  The kissing stopped, and she heard their muted voices again. The woman turned to leave. She had a bounce in her step. She looked back toward the porch when she hit the sidewalk and then headed toward a white Toyota Camry parked at the curb. The woman was Lieutenant Robin Tucker.

  Ellie swung the binoculars back to the porch, where Nick Dillon was waving good-bye. Tucker pulled away from the curb and returned the wave before driving off. When Tucker’s taillights were out of sight, she heard the engine of the Maybach. Sparks pulled forward two lots and turned into Dillon’s driveway.

  He remained inside his car, engine idling, as Dillon retreated inside his house. Seconds later, she heard a faint electric hum as one door of Dillon’s two-car garage rolled open. The Maybach pulled inside and the door rolled closed behind it.

  Five minutes later after Tucker had left, Ellie saw the white Camry pass her parking spot and turn again onto Dillon’s street. She expected it to pull to the curb in front of the house, but it cruised by, slowing slightly but not stopping.

  An hour passed. No one came. No one left. Nothing happened. At one in the morning, Ellie finally gave up and drove home. Something was important enough to bring Sam Sparks to the suburbs to talk to his head of security in the wee hours of the night, but watching Nick Dillon’s house wasn’t going to tell her what that something was.

  PART V

  SECRETS

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

  9:25 A.M.

  “Not to be rude or anything, Hatcher, but I think you looked better after that night you spent in the hoosegow.”

  Ellie tossed her head back to drain the last drops of coffee in her Styrofoam cup and saw Detective John Shannon standing beside her desk, peering down at her.

  “Not to be rude or anything, Shannon, but do you mind moving to your right a few feet? The shadow from your stomach has caused a solar eclipse above my work area.”

  “Lay off,” Rogan said. “Hatcher was up late on a stakeout. Hard work, nothing you’d need to worry about.”

  “What’s this I hear about a stakeout?”

  Ellie hadn’t noticed Lieutenant Tucker heading toward her office, unbuttoning her tan trench coat as she walked.

  “Rogan and I were following up on some leads we got from the Prestige Parties bust last night.”

  “I heard Rogan mention a stakeout.”

  “That’s right,” Rogan said.

  “Pardon me if I’m mistaken, but ‘following up on some leads’ is quite a bit more vague than ‘a stakeout,’ which usually requires a suspect or at least a person or location of interest, neither of which you had the last time either of you bothered to update me.”

  Ellie spun her chair toward Tucker. “No suspects, Lou. Just some theories we’re working on.”

  “What’s going on with you two?”

  Ellie looked at Rogan, who shrugged. As far as he knew, they were being evasive because they still hadn’t told Tucker that Paul Bandon’s phone number was in Tanya Abbott’s cell records. Ellie hadn’t had a chance to tell him about spotting Tucker at Dillon’s house the previous night.

  “Maybe we can talk in your office, Lou.”

  “I am so absolutely mortified, I don’t even know what to say to either of you right now.”

  “Really, it’s no big deal. You were on a date. I didn’t mean to follow you. It’s just that Sparks led me—”

  “I’m not talking about my date, Hatcher. I’m talking about the fact that the two of you have known for two days that a sitting judge was engaged in criminal activity and didn’t bother to tell me.”

  “We wanted his cooperation,” Rogan said. “We thought we were most likely to get it if he trusted us to keep his confidences.”

  “So you put his confidences above mine.”

  “We thought you would feel obligated to report it,” Ellie said.

  “And why would that be? I care less about solving homicides than you? I’m a ladder-climbing bureaucrat who would sell out your best lead on a case to advance her own career?”

  “We didn’t want to put you in an awkward position.”

  “As if this isn’t awkward. Finding out two of my best detectives don’t trust me. Having one of them catch me making out on someone’s porch, for Christ’s sake.”

  “It wasn’t really making out—”

  Rogan stifled a snicker.

  “That’s quite enough, Hatcher. So let me see if I get this straight. Sparks is connected to both his dead bodyguard Mancini and the escort agency. Bandon’s connected to our missing prostitute, who was Mancini’s last date. So now you think Bandon’s special interest in the Mancini case is part of some deal with Sparks.”

  “Right,” Rogan said.

  She shook her head. “The whole reason Hatcher here got her panties in a bunch over Sparks was his refusal to let you inspect his books to look for enemies. If anything, this connection to Prestige Parties seems to help him. It explains what he was hiding. And Bandon? He wouldn’t be the first judge to cozy up to a rich corporate guy in the hopes of currying favor. It is, after all, what we ladder-climbing bureaucrats do.”

  “We know it’s a stretch,” Rogan said. “But we don’t have anything else.”

  Ellie defended the theory. “This whole thing started with Sparks’s bodyguard, who happened to be
in Sparks’s apartment, on a date set up through Sparks’s escort service. Sparks has been resisting us from day one, and I refuse to believe it was all because of this escort-service business. An experienced lawyer like Guerrero would have told him that he could have quietly cut a deal in exchange for his cooperation.”

  “But he might not have trusted the two of you to be quiet about it after you hooked him up that first night, Hatcher.”

  “I still can’t imagine obstructing a murder investigation over that. He certainly isn’t the first wealthy, successful man to pay for it. Ask our former governor.”

  “Exactly, and look what happened to him. Maybe Sparks didn’t want to be Spitzered.”

  “He’s not a politician,” Ellie said. “Or a judge like Bandon. It wouldn’t have been seen as a big deal.”

  “You should have come to me,” Tucker said.

  “We only decided last night about the tail,” Rogan said.

  “I don’t just mean the tail. I mean everything. Bandon and the girl. All these various theories you hatched yesterday. You should have come to me.”

  They mumbled their mutual apologies.

  “Well, if your plan is to catch Sparks meeting Bandon, why are both of you here right now?”

  “I bought us some time this morning by sitting on Bandon until he went to the courthouse. He’ll be doing arraignments until at least ten thirty. I’ll be on Sparks by then.”

  “From the looks of this one”—she nodded toward Ellie—“you can’t be getting any sleep. More importantly, I can’t have you on twenty-four-hour overtime. Hatcher, you go home.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but Tucker slapped her desk. “I’m throwing you a bone letting you tail Sparks at all. Rogan will cover him during the day. You can resume your spying tonight.”

  Rogan led the way out of the office. “I’ll be right out,” Ellie said.

  Waiting for the office door to close behind Rogan, Ellie started with the easy stuff.

  “I’m wondering what you make of the fact that Sparks went to Nick Dillon’s house so late last night.”

  Tucker shrugged. “It’s not like he was keeping it a secret. Sparks called Nick and said he was on his way. That’s why I left when I did, quite frankly.”

  “Then why did you drive by his house after you initially left?”

  Tucker’s cheeks flushed, and she threw her head back against her chair and sighed. “Maybe this is proof that I shouldn’t date. It’s been years since I tried this, and now I know why I gave it up. I go from being a giddy schoolgirl to a nervous wreck to a jealous stalker. I’m embarrassed to say, I drove by his house to make sure that it really was Sparks on his way over.”

  “Instead of another woman?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t see his car, but I did catch a glimpse of him through the living room window. Nick wasn’t lying.”

  “Sparks pulled into the garage,” Ellie explained. “His ride’s worth nearly half a mil. Too good for a driveway in Riverdale, I guess.”

  “My ex-husband ran around on me like an alley cat on Viagra. Old habits die hard, I guess.”

  “Didn’t it strike you as odd that his boss would come over at midnight?”

  “Nick said Sparks is like that. He works until all hours of the night and insists that the people around him cater to his schedule. Why? Wait, you think Nick—”

  “I don’t think anything. I’m asking the questions that anyone in my shoes should be asking, and as the person who was standing right there when Sparks called, you’re my best witness to whether we should be looking at Dillon harder. If Sparks hired someone to kill Mancini—”

  “Then Nick would be a likely candidate.”

  “I don’t like thinking this about an ex-cop. And a friend of yours.”

  Tucker brushed her hair out of her face. “You’re right. You should be looking at Sparks, which means looking at Nick. But I’ve got to be honest. I can’t see it. You should have heard him go off about Sparks’s refusal to cooperate. He was not happy with the man.”

  “But he didn’t quit.”

  “Come on, Hatcher. That’s not fair. You know how many times I would’ve left the force if I walked out every time I had to go along to get along? And, trust me, Nick knows Sparks should have been more helpful in the Mancini investigation, but I’m sure it has never dawned on him to suspect his boss of the actual murder.”

  “Would I be out of line to ask for your assurances that you won’t be planting that seed in his head any time soon?”

  “Yes, it would. You’re suggesting I have a conflict of interest?”

  “I’m suggesting that Nick Dillon works for Sam Sparks and might therefore be curious.”

  “Look: this is more information than you have any right to know, but the truth is, I’m a forty-eight-year-old divorced woman with a twelve-year-old boy at home. Guys like Nick Dillon don’t just show up in my office asking me out to dinner every day. He’s good-looking, single, and a truly decent guy. Ask anyone on the job who knew him. But maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m stupid to think he wants to spend his time with me. Maybe he’s only doing this to get an inside track on the case for Sparks.”

  Ellie started to interrupt, but Tucker held up a hand. “The point is, even if all that were true, it wouldn’t mean I’d fall for it. I know you’re used to being the smartest woman in the room, Hatcher, but you’re going to have to learn to start giving me credit. Nick hasn’t gotten one speck of information from me about your case. When he apologizes for Sparks or asks how it’s going or even when he defended you after your antics in the courtroom, I’ve never once given him a thing.”

  “Why have you been keeping us away from Sparks?”

  “I haven’t—”

  “You’ve got to give me some credit, too. We came to you on Thursday saying we wanted to look at Sparks again, and by Friday, we’re chasing the Megan Gunther callout.”

  “At first, the Sparks angle looked like a waste of time. And the Gunther case really was up your alley.”

  “And what about your comments? About me? Wunderkind, darling of the brass, promoted too early. Pretty strong hints as to what you think about me.”

  “I’m what my sister calls a strong personality. You shouldn’t take it personally.”

  Ellie looked at the floor and decided there was no need to respond. She had just risen from her chair when Tucker stopped her. “I can’t show you favoritism.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Tucker looked to the sealed blinds that covered the glass between her office and the squad room. “I can’t appear to favor you. With them. I’m new around here, but I’ve done this before, first as a sergeant and now as a lou. I know how it works. You think I don’t know what goes through their heads when they find out their new boss Robin Tucker isn’t a guy with a gender-ambiguous name? Bitch. Dyke. Affirmative action. I’ve heard it all, but I know how to get past it. It’s all about competence. And I’m good at my job, Hatcher. And despite some of the shit I’ve given you, I know you are, too. You fucking earned that Police Combat Cross. But if they think I favor you over them, we’re both toast. Is that any better of an explanation?”

  Ellie nodded, looking up from the linoleum long enough to catch Tucker’s eye. “Thanks.”

  “Now, if we’re all through with the girl talk, I’d suggest you get yourself some rest.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  6:00 P.M.

  Stacy Schecter was wearing new shoes, or at least new to her.

  She had spotted the black Christian Louboutin slingbacks last week at Housing Works. She’d found some funky vintage bargains before at her favorite used clothing haunt, but she rarely had the kind of luck to come across anything by an in-demand contemporary designer in like-new condition. Even though they might have been a half size too large for her feet, she nevertheless swept up the three-inch pumps as too good a find to pass up. The shoes might not appeal to Stacy the artist, but they suited Stacy the Honest and Attractive Brunette just fine.<
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  As she made her way west on Twelfth Street, she was cautious with her steps, mindful of the height of her heels and the looseness of the straps behind her ankles. At the same time, she was aware of the minutes passing on the clock and knew she couldn’t squander them.

  Ideally she should have left her apartment earlier. She liked to arrive at the meeting locations well before the clients. The extra time allowed her to still her mind and get into character. It also permitted her to watch the man arrive. Make sure he was on his own, no backup officers monitoring the conversation. No one waiting to bust her once they’d struck the agreement of sex for money.

  But tonight she’d continued painting long past the moment she should have begun preparing for her date, and now she was running late. She suppressed the urge to linger at the bargain shelves outside the Strand Bookstore and scurried across Broadway against the light, provoking a honk from a passing cab.

  She was only one block from her destination and her mind was still back in the apartment. She’d been working on the piece she had tentatively entitled Katie Was Miranda. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so confident. Somewhere along the way, she had transitioned from a college student who truly believed she would be the next Lee Krasner or Agnes Martin to an artist who chose palette colors based on the latest trends in yuppie home decor. Her painting no longer had anything to do with her. She had stopped painting for herself entirely.

  But her portrayal of Miranda/Katie was different. Some artists painted what they saw in life. It had been a long time since she had attempted even to do that. But with this piece, she was going further, painting not what she saw in those photographs of Miranda, but what she felt when she saw them. She had no idea whether anyone would enjoy the piece, or admire it, or even lay eyes on it for that matter.