Nick and Glynnis watched Wanda until she was out of the house. Glynnis turned to Nick. "Okay, handsome, let’s go."
"When we get to him, Glynnis, introduce me as Patrick Mitchell."
"Patrick Mitchell, right."
When Nick and Glynnis approached Marshall he was talking to two men. "Hello Martin," Glynnis said and tapped him on the shoulder.
Marshall turned around. "Glynnis, it’s so good to see you," he said and turned to the men he was with. "Will you gentlemen excuse me?" he asked.
"I’ll give you a call, Marty. We can discuss this further over 18 holes," one of the men said.
"I’ll make some time on my schedule," Marshall promised and the men went away. "Thank you for coming to my rescue, Glynnis. Lobbyists, always want something."
"I know how that goes, believe me. I want to introduce you to Patrick Mitchell. Patrick, this is Martin Marshall, he’s a state senator."
"Patrick, right? Good to meet you."
"It’s an honor to meet you sir," Nick said and the two shook hands.
"Oh," Glynnis said. "There goes Chris. I just have to talk to him. I’ll be right back, Patrick." Glynnis hurried away leaving Nick alone with Marshall.
"So, what business are you in, Patrick? Don’t tell me that you’re a lobbyist." Marshall joked.
"No, sir, nothing as complicated as that. I’m a private investigator."
"Really?" Marshall said and laughed a little. "What are you investigating? And please don’t say your’re investigating me."
"Actually I wanted to talk to you about a murder."
"A murder?"
"Tavia Hawkins. Do you know her?" Nick asked and Marshall’s facial expression changed.
"I’m afraid I do. That woman has made a career of writing lies about me. Did she send you?"
"No sir. She was found dead last night."
"Oh my goodness, that’s terrible. How did it happen?"
"An overdose of sleeping pills."
"Sleeping pills? I thought you said she was murdered?"
"I never said she was murdered. I just asked if you know her."
"I see. How can I help you, Mr. Mitchell?"
"I know the story she was working on was about you" Nick lied. "I was wondering what you could tell about that?"
"I have no idea what you’re talking about." Marshall smiled. "But I’d be happy to do what I can to help. Let’s get together and talk about this at another time." Marshall handed Nick his card. "Call me at my office and I’ll look into it. Now if you’ll excuse me."
"Yes, of course, you have guests to attend to and I’m monopolizing your time. I’ll give you a call tomorrow and we can talk more then." Nick extended his hand. "Once again, it was an honor meeting you, sir."
"You as well, I’ll look forward to your call." Marshall stood and watched Nick until he lost sight of him. He looked around the room again and began walking very quickly through the crowd. Marshall approached a man talking to a group of ladies. "Excuse me for interrupting, Ladies. Scotty, can I speak with you in my office. I promise it will only take a minute Ladies, and then you can have him back."
Marshall and Scotty made their way through the crowd to Marshall’s office. By that time, Nick was in the van with Monika and Travis. Marshall entered the office and slammed the door. "I thought you were gonna take care of Hawkins?"
"I did," Scotty answered with blank expression on his face. "I did just like you told me. Made it look like she OD’d on sleeping pills."
"Right. Then maybe you can tell me why I just got finished talking to some private detective about her?"
"What?"
"You heard me. He said he wanted to talk to me about a murder, not a suicide, Scotty, a murder!" Marshall yelled. "He was here, in my house."
"I’m sure that the police ruled her death a suicide. I checked with my source."
"Then it would make sense that the only way he could connect her to me is the evidence."
"Marty, I took care of that, I shredded the paper trail and wiped her files from her work and home computers, I even took any disks she had laying around."
"Then why was he here? Are you sure you didn’t leave anything on her computer?"
"I’m sure. The program I use is called Evidence-Eliminator. It eliminates the specific application files, temp files, system backups, it even wipes Outlook’s deleted items and sent items. And when it’s done, it eliminates the program. You know I’ve used it to clean up hundreds of times and it’s never failed me before."
"Then why was he here?" Marshall asked softly this time.
"I don’t know," Scotty answered in the same tone.
"Then you better find out."
"What’s his name?"
"Patrick Mitchell. He’s going to call me tomorrow. You get on top of this, find out what he knows and who he’s told and do it quick."
"I understand."
"And don’t mention any of this to DeFrancisco, he’s an idiot and he talks too much."
Outside in the van, Monika laughed. "Yeah, asshole, you talk too much too. Got your ass on tape."
"Nick," Travis said. "I was tellin’ Monika that I got something that I recorded earlier that I think you need to hear."
"What’s that, Travis?"
"It’s a recording of two men talkin’. I knew it was important when they started talkin’ about Black. And now I’m sure one of the voices was Marshall’s."
Travis played the recording back for Nick and Monika. After listening to the recording Nick agreed that it was Marshall that Travis recorded.
"But who’s the other guy?" Monika asked.
"Diego Estabon."