by Blake Banner
“‘It was K’s policy to keep photographic, video and audio records of his meetings as insurance against being shopped by his employers. He made electronic copies of all of these available to Thorndike. What Thorndike had in his article was damning, conclusive proof that Carol Hennessy had ordered the assassination of at least ten people who had threatened one way or another to expose her corrupt deals.
“‘These deals ranged from real estate scams in the 1980s and ’90s and illegal arms deals with oppressive regimes, to illegal deals with states that supported Islamic terrorism in the first decade of the new millennium. Most of the latter deals were conducted through the Hennessy Foundation in the guise of aid to third-world and developing countries.
“‘There were also allegations of mental and emotional instability against Carol Hennessy, ranging from sadomasochistic orgies, hysterical rages against her staff, in which she threatened them with violence, to inappropriate lesbian advances on members of her election campaign team.
“‘The victims listed were all either involved in investigations against her, or were witnesses who had volunteered to testify in those investigations. There follows a list of the ten victims that K confessed to have eliminated, along with the date of the execution, the price he was paid, method of payment, and the reason for the execution.’”
I turned the page. The names were listed by date. I scanned quickly through them without really paying attention.
Harold Little,
Albert Brightman,
Jack O’Connor,
Carl Beeman,
Emmanuel Odembe,
Kathleen Henson,
Danniele Frostrup,
Philip Olsen,
Ralph Denby,
Gustave Boucher,
I looked up at Dehan. She had just dumped a pile of diced lamb into a blue cast iron pot and the smell of herbs, frying onions, and olive oil was strong on the air. She said, “We need to work through those names systematically and check for any discrepancies.” She listed on her fingers. “Are they in fact dead, did they die as and where our informant says, did they have the connection to Hennessy that he or she claims…”
“If they check out, we need to find this informer.” I waved the letter. “And, above all, we need to find K.”
“Question: why hasn’t—sorry, what stopped our informant from giving us K’s name, and how does our informant have this information? The pool of people who could know all this is very small.”
I looked back at the letter. “It says he doesn’t know K’s name.”
“Okay, so we are looking at somebody who is close to Dave, but not so close that he confides everything. That narrows it to two people.”
“Lee and Katie.”
She made a face like brain strain. “But that doesn’t make any sense at all! Why tell us one thing face to face and then send an anonymous letter?”
I nodded. “What would make a person do that? Well… either they have a reason for concealing the fact that they know, because it puts them at risk somehow…”
She shrugged. “That’s possible.”
“Or there is a third person he was close to, who is remaining hidden.”
She puffed out her cheeks and blew noisily. “That’s a lot of hiding people, Stone. Dave, K, and now our anonymous informer.”
I grunted and sipped my drink while she cooked. I watched her put layers of meat, potato, and eggplant into the iron dish and then stand stirring a béchamel sauce. Eventually, she said, “Open the wine, will you? It’ll need to breathe. You want a salad?”
Absently, I said, “Do I look like a wabbit?” and grabbed the bottle.
She shrugged, put the moussaka in the oven, and reached for the salad bowl. “Yeah, a bit you do. We’ll have a salad.”
I moved her aside and took the corkscrew from the drawer and started pulling the cork. “Let me ask you something. If you were a world class assassin, and you had decided for some reason to turn on a client of the caliber of Carol Hennessy, would you hang around in New York?”
She turned and looked at me with a half-bisected avocado in her hand.
“No. No, I wouldn’t.”
“Where would you go?”
“I’d go somewhere remote. I’d probably go to an island in the Indian Ocean, or Brazil. If for some reason I stayed in the country, I’d go to Wyoming, or Colorado, one of the Dakotas.”
I pulled the cork and it popped loudly. I smelled it and she stepped over to smell too.
“That’s the ‘nose’, right?”
I nodded.
“The bouquet is different. It comes later.”
I smiled. “That’s right.”
“I’ve been reading about it.” She returned to the salad. “You don’t know how long you’ve got in this life, Stone. The end can come suddenly, out of nowhere. You have to appreciate every moment.” She waved her knife at me. “And you know something else I realized?”
“What’s that, Dehan?”
“People have to learn to appreciate. Appreciating, enjoying, they don’t just come naturally. You have to learn. It’s a way of thinking. It’s like thinking with your body instead of just your brain.”
“Wow.”
“So anyway, keep talking. K is not in New York. Where is he? Set the table.”
I grabbed a handful of knives and forks from the drawer. “The only person who knew is dead. But he can still tell us.”
I went and started setting two places at the table.
She was cutting tomatoes into the salad bowl. “He can? How?”
“Because at some point between his last article, where he was laying into Hennessy, and his taking the apartment in Manor Avenue and starting his investigation, he made contact with K. That was what triggered his sudden obsession. That’s why he was so excited. Because here was an opportunity to go after a really big prize. Now, if K wasn’t living in New York, that means either K traveled here to see David, or David traveled there, wherever he was, to see him. And that has to be the more likely scenario. So somewhere on David’s bank or credit card records, there are going to be trips to some location where he met K. It’s a place to start.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She thought about it a moment. “Plus, any visitors he received at his apartment on Manor Avenue, Mr. Gupta would have noticed. And he didn’t mention anyone… unless…”
“The woman he thought was Katie, on Friday night?”
“Could it be? K changes his mind and takes out David?”
“K is a woman…?”
She sipped and smiled. “Man… I am no expert, but I always thought female assassins were just in Hollywood. Usually they are ex-military, or CIA.”
“I am inclined to agree, but the fact is we don’t know.” I sighed and shook my head. “Let’s face it, Dehan, we still know practically nothing. It is all allegations, hints, theories… But we have zip in the way of facts.”
She sucked her teeth for a moment and pointed at the letter. “But that, that baby might change everything. If we can track K, that will change everything.”
We stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, I said, “Dehan, we are looking at political conspiracy. These people are very powerful and very dangerous. I know what you are going to say, but I have to ask. Do you want out?”
“Really? Come here so I can smack you in the mouth. No, Stone, we take these bastards down and we make them pay. That’s our job. So let’s do it.”
I nodded and went to check the table and finished setting it. I stared at it unseeing for a few seconds. Then, without really knowing why, I said, “Dehan?”
“What?”
“I never had a partner like you.”
She turned to look at me. Her face showed surprise, and something else; a smile.
I gave a stupid grin. “You’re the best partner I ever had. You should know that.”
She waved a salad fork at me and turned away. “Stop it. You’re going to embarrass me. You want the salad as a starter?
We could start with the salad. Did you put salad plates out…?”
I watched her, sipped my martini, and smiled.
THIRTEEN
Morning brought patches of cold blue sky and frothy mountains of very white cloud tinged with watery turquoise. It was a relief to have a break from the relentless gray and the steady downpour. There was a hint of spring in the morning light, but the wind still bit with icy teeth.
Our first stop that day was to have the note and the list copied before sending them to the lab for fingerprinting. After that we went up to update the inspector and ask about contacting David’s bank and credit card agency to have them release his records to us, for 2007 and 2008.
When we asked him, he nodded with interest and frowned.
“What is it exactly you are looking for? Have you got a copy of the letter with you?”
I handed him the copy we’d made. He took it over by the window and put on his reading glasses. He read it with care, twice, and sighed heavily before handing it back to me.
“You’ll review all of these deaths, obviously.”
“That is Dehan’s task for this morning, sir.”
“And you want the financial records why?”
“If this alleged hit man exists, sir, we think he would have lived somewhere fairly remote. He would logically want to stay away from Hennessy and her operation. He would want to be somewhere where he left the smallest traceable footprint possible. So David would presumably have had to travel to meet with him, wherever he was, and record his interviews. We are hoping to find a record either of a long trip somewhere, or several repeated trips, that might give us some indication of where K is. It’s a first step in tracking him down.”
The inspector looked depressed.
“This is going to be one unholy mess.”
Dehan coughed. Newman raised an eyebrow at her. “With all due respect, sir, it’s not going to be a mess, it already is a mess. What we are going to do is clean it up.”
“Thank you, Detective, for that enlightening perspective. Sadly, I don’t think our political masters share your view.” He sighed again. “But there is no way of avoiding it, is there?”
I shook my head.
“Very well, Detectives, I’ll see to the records. Proceed with great care and be very, very sure of each step you take. If even half of this is true, we are up against a very formidable opponent.”
We promised him we would be very careful and left. On the way down the stairs my cell phone rang.
“Stone.”
“Detective, this is Jackson Lee.”
“Hello, Mr. Lee, how can I help you?”
Dehan turned and watched me. Lee was saying, “Look, I wonder if I could come in and see you today? I’ve been troubled since you left, about our conversation yesterday. Thing is, I wasn’t totally transparent with you, and I’d like to have a fuller discussion. The situation is not simple or straightforward.”
“Of course. I appreciate that. When are you likely to be here?”
“I’m on my way now. Say in about half an hour?”
“That will be fine. Just tell the sergeant at the desk and one of us will come and get you.”
I hung up and we stood frowning at each other on the stairs. Dehan said, “We rattled her cage, and next thing everybody is volunteering information.”
“How about that?”
“You think it’s connected?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Let’s see what he has to say.”
He arrived about forty minutes later in a sharp Italian suit that was as vulgar as it was expensive. I had a uniform lead him up to interrogation room number three and left him waiting for ten minutes while I sat with my ass against the desk and spoke to Dehan.
“The anonymous letter incriminates Hennessy, so I don’t see that that can be a direct result of our rattling her cage. But now, less than twenty-four hours after talking to D’Angelo, Lee turns up wanting to change his story. What I’m interested to see is if he also incriminates her, or if he is going to try to shift suspicion away from her in another direction.”
“If he does, you’re thinking think maybe he’s on Hennessy’s payroll?”
I thought for a long moment, then shook my head. “To be honest, I don’t know, Dehan. I haven’t got a handle on this yet. Let’s go see what Lee has to say. We’re going to play our cards real close, okay?”
She nodded and we went upstairs.
When we stepped into the room, Lee was studiously unruffled and stood to greet us. “Detectives, how are you? I must apologize. This whole thing has taken me a little by surprise.”
I gestured at his chair as I pulled out my own and said, “Please, sit down, Mr. Lee. I am grateful to you for coming in. You want to add something to your statement from yesterday?”
He frowned. “Yeah. It’s a little complicated.” He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled at Dehan. “See, David was a very talented journalist. I mean, really good. And we had a good rapport. Frankly, I saw in him not just a friend but a damn good client for the future. A guy like David on a paper like the Telegraph…” He laughed, “That’s the goose that just keeps on laying! But, you know, it was always the policy on the paper that they would publish the most controversial articles, they didn’t care who they went up against or who they upset, as long as the facts were solid. And that was one area where David had always been really meticulous.”
Dehan raised an eyebrow. “But?”
“Well, here’s the thing. What I told you yesterday was true, so far as it went. I was fond of Samantha, and it did piss me off to see Dave screwing around with another woman. But there was more to it than that.”
“What, exactly?”
He shrugged and made a face. “It was like he was becoming obsessed. He had lost all objectivity. It seemed like to him all the hearsay and stories and accusations had become facts and evidence. You were right, of course, he always discussed his stories with me so we could consider the legal implications. And I kept telling him that all he had regarding the Hennessy story was what you could find on the ’net. It was unsubstantiated rumor.”
I frowned. “That was all he had?”
“Pretty much, detective. And, well, I couldn’t help feeling it was Katie who was getting to him. The two of them seemed to be…” He shrugged, shook his head, appeared to search for a word, and then repeated with more emphasis. “…obsessed! It’s the only word that really describes their behavior. When he asked to meet me, I was expecting something sensational. If you have spoken to Bob Shaw, then you know he was talking in terms of Watergate and shaking the foundations of the constitution.” He shook his head again. “But there was nothing like that in what he showed me. If I say that the evidence was circumstantial, I am being generous. It was more like innuendo. If he had published that article, as he showed it to me, Hennessy’s lawyers would have dragged him over the coals, bankrupted him, and he would never have worked again.” He gave a small laugh. “Except that Bob would never have published it in the first place.”
I took a deep breath and drummed my fingers on the table. “Forgive me, Mr. Lee, but I am finding it difficult to believe that a professional with David’s reputation and experience could delude himself to that degree.”
He answered quickly. “And I would have to agree with you. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it myself. But there he was…” He spread his hands and looked apologetically at Dehan. “I don’t mean to sound sexist, but the fact is that when people fall in love they can become…”
Dehan supplied the word, “Stupid.”
He laughed. “Well, yes. Stupid is as good a word as any. And the impression I had was that he was besotted with Katie, and she was driving him on this, frankly, pointless crusade.”
She smiled and gave her head a little twitch to the side. “Wouldn’t be the first time a woman drove a guy crazy, that’s for sure.” Then she became more serious. “So you think she had some kind of axe to
grind?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t honestly know. I never met her in person. But when I spoke to Dave, he just wouldn’t shut up about her. I know this, he involved her in his investigation a damned sight more than anybody before—including myself. She was privy to stuff he wouldn’t share with me.”
“Like what?”
He made a ‘really?’ face. “I don’t know because he didn’t make me privy to it. But he repeated several times that ‘he and Katie’ had unearthed information that was dynamite. More than dynamite. But when I asked him what it was, he refused to tell me and made excuses. In the end, I came to the conclusion there was no actual information. It was all the product of late-night drinking, smoking dope, and getting paranoid.”
I said, “You think he was paranoid? Actually paranoid?”
He made a face. “I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist. But from what I know as an informed layman, he certainly had started to display a lot of the behavior patterns associated with paranoia.”
I studied his face for a few moments.
“How close are you to the Hennessys, Mr. Lee?”
“You asked me that yesterday, detective, and the answer is the same today as it was then. I am not close to them. We have barely a passing acquaintance.” He sighed. “I am not trying to protect Senator Hennessy, if that is what you are implying. I have no love for her or her politics.”
“Here is what I don’t understand, Mr. Lee…” I frowned and scratched my head. “What is there in what you have told me today, that you could not have told me yesterday?”
He nodded several times like he understood my question perfectly, but the answer was plain to see.
“You must remember, Detective Stone, that David and I were friends for a long time. As I told you yesterday, I was also very fond of his wife, Samantha. We moved, and to some extent still move, in a fairly small social circle. In a small circle like that, reputation counts for a lot. David had, and still has, a very good reputation, and believe it or not, Samantha still benefits from that reputation. She is an editor, her late husband was a well respected journalist. They are both part of, if you like, the ‘clan’. If it gets out that he was not only being unfaithful to her, but also that he had lost it and become delusional, that would be humiliating and even damaging to Samantha. I am sure you can see that.”