It’s left to Sam Willis to bring us crashing down. “So what are you going to do about this?”
For a group with all the answers, we shut up mighty fast. Eliot seems to have covered all the bases; the only ones who could testify against him, Daniel and Lassiter, are gone. Through DNA we can conclusively prove that Rosalie was Eliot’s sister, but we have no concrete evidence at all that he paid for her murder.
Laurie thinks we have an obligation to turn this information over to Captain Millen, and while I’m sure she is right, I want to think things through first. I feel like our advantage, slim as it may be, is that Eliot doesn’t know we are onto him. As long as our information stays within our group, we possess the element of surprise, and I’m not ready to give that up yet.
The group leaves at a little after midnight, and Laurie and I stay up for another hour or so talking about the situation some more. As a longtime criminal attorney, I’ve seen some pretty awful things, but the fact that so many women were brutally murdered as nothing more than a smoke screen sets a new standard.
Eliot Kendall is a scumbag, the lowest of the low, and I am going to bring him down.
All I have to do is figure out how.
• • • • •
MY PLAN IS NOT EXACTLY brilliant, but after twenty-four hours of intensive thinking, it’s the best I can do. I’ve gathered our group together again this evening to present it, first asking if anyone else has come up with anything.
Vince volunteers to “kill the son of a bitch,” but other than that, everyone seems to want to hear what I have to say. So I say it.
“I’ll call Eliot, tell him I want to see him about something related to the case, but I won’t let on that there is anything wrong. When we meet, I’ll tell him what I know, make him believe I have evidence to go to the police, and try and blackmail him.”
“Blackmail him?” asks Kevin, making no effort to hide his incredulousness at my plan. “Why would you possibly blackmail him?”
“So I can get him to incriminate himself,” I say. “I’ll be wearing a wire.”
Laurie seems less impressed than Kevin. “Andy, this isn’t a TV movie. You try wearing a wire, you’ll electrocute yourself.”
Next, it’s Vince’s turn. “Andy, this guy is responsible for at least six murders. He killed Tommy Lassiter himself. What if he decides to make you number seven?”
We kick it back and forth for a couple of hours. Nobody is crazy about my plan, not even me, but the advantage it has is that it’s the only plan we’ve got. We decide to try it, with the understanding that if it doesn’t work quickly and smoothly, we turn everything over to Captain Millen.
“And the press,” Vince hastens to add.
Laurie is going to go to Cleveland with Marcus, where they will await my arrival. Their job will be to listen in on the wire, but more important, to protect me if things go wrong. Which they very well could.
I don’t sleep much, trying to decide how I should approach Eliot. It has to be a matter significant enough to make me travel to Cleveland, but not ominous enough to alert him to any danger.
In the morning I walk Tara and then go to the office. It would seem more natural for the call to be coming from there. Eliot isn’t there when I call, but he gets back to me within ten minutes.
“Andy,” he says, his voice open and friendly, “I didn’t expect to hear from you. What’s up?”
“I didn’t see you at Daniel’s funeral, and I-”
His tone goes somber on me, the grieving friend. “I took it pretty hard . . . I just couldn’t stay around anymore. I mean, after all that he went through, after all you did, after he got off, for him to die like that . . .”
“It was terrible,” I agree.
“Any news about who might be responsible?” he asks, trying to sound conversational.
“Could be. That’s actually why I’m calling.”
“Oh?”
“I have reason to believe Walter Castle may have been behind it after all. I know you had your investigators checking into him, so I wondered-”
He interrupts. “They really didn’t come up with anything important.”
“Maybe so, but maybe it would look different in the light of the information I have. I’d like to fly out and sit down with you about it.”
“It must be important to you,” he says.
“I hate to see a killer go unpunished.”
We make a plan to meet tomorrow evening, and he agrees to my request to maintain “discretion” by meeting at my hotel. I’ve already made a reservation, and Laurie and Marcus will be in the adjoining room. I chose the hotel Marcus had stayed in before; he knows the layout, it’s near a Taco Bell, has no spa, but does have an ice machine.
Laurie and I go out to Charlie’s for dinner, and we talk about everything but the trip to Cleveland. We’ve already worked out the arrangements, purchased the recording equipment, and made our plans, so there doesn’t seem to be anything more to say. In any event, if there is, neither of us wants to say it.
It isn’t until we get into bed that Laurie says, “I’m concerned about this.”
“Don’t be. If I’m too virile for you, I’ll stop and give you time to rest.”
“Let me see if I understand this,” she says. “You’re making a bad sex joke? Now?”
“I didn’t think it was so bad, but it was definitely a sex joke. I thought it was pretty funny.”
“Andy, I’m worried about you. This guy is dangerous.”
“I can take care of myself,” I say.
“Since when?”
That didn’t go too well, so I try another approach. “You and Marcus will be there.”
“I guess . . . ,” she says uncertainly. “But there will be a wall between us. If anything goes wrong, if you suspect anything, you holler as loud as you can.”
“I will. I promise.”
She leans over and kisses me. “Good night, Andy.”
She then rolls over to go to sleep, clearly playing hard to get. “You know,” I say, “men can relax themselves by making love the night before they go into battle.”
“Good for them. Good night, Andy.”
“Good night.”
Within seconds, I can tell by her breathing that she’s already asleep. I guess women deal with impending battle differently.
Laurie and Marcus are on an eight A.M. flight the next morning, and I spend the hours before my three P.M. flight hanging out with Tara. I’m a little nervous, not too bad, and being with Tara calms me even more.