Haggerty had already claimed a corner table when she and Muñoz arrived. He stood and kissed her cheek. She turned her face to touch his lips with hers, and in that instant she imagined Brandon wanting to kiss Baiba that way, and she felt a little sad for him—for what he’d wanted but never received. Muñoz was staring at them so she asked, “What?”
“Nothing. I’m just getting used to this new development.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, when do we get to meet your new development?”
She took a seat against the wall so she could look out. Haggerty and Muñoz ordered beers, and she asked for Perrier. While they studied the menus, Haggerty said, “You’ll be interested to know that the local news now has a name for your case. The Park Manor Murders.”
“That’s not very creative,” she said. “We could put our heads together and do a lot better than that.”
She pulled off her jacket as Haggerty asked, “So are the deaths are related?”
Codella scanned the other tables in the dimly lit room. The music was loud and no one was sitting close enough to hear their conversation. She leaned in and told him about the interviews at Manhattan North. “Brandon, Merchant, and Baiba Lielkaja were part of one very unhappy love triangle. Before Lielkaja turned up dead, I wondered if she might have been responsible for Lucy Merchant’s murder. I was starting to buy Brandon’s theory that she murdered Lucy so she could have Thomas Merchant all to herself. Now this so-called suicide note suggests that she and Thomas conspired to kill his wife. But if they worked together, then why was Lielkaja murdered—because I’m telling you, she didn’t kill herself.”
“Maybe Merchant didn’t conspire with her out of love,” suggested Haggerty. “Maybe he was just sick and tired of being chained to a woman with dementia. Think about it. He wants his freedom. He wants her out of the picture, but he can’t get the job done alone. So he wines and dines Lielkaja. Makes her feel special. Promises she’ll be the next Mrs. Merchant. And as soon as Lielkaja does her part, he gets rid of her, too.”
“And types the suicide note,” finished Muñoz.
“Right.” Haggerty sipped his beer.
Codella pictured Merchant in the interview room hours ago. Was he a murderer? “We know they were having an affair,” she said. “We know he sexually assaulted at least one woman in the past. And we know he went to Lielkaja’s apartment yesterday because a neighbor saw someone leaving the building who matched his description perfectly. Assuming Brandon told me the truth, then Merchant is the last person we know of who entered that apartment. The question is, would he really go to all that trouble to get rid of his wife? What’s in it for him to take a chance like that?”
“Maybe he really did love Lielkaja,” Muñoz suggested, “and they killed the wife together, but then Baiba got cold feet and threatened to go to the police.”
They considered this for a moment. Then Haggerty said, “And there’s the other possibility, of course.” He was warming up to his favorite game of what if, Codella observed. How many times had she and Haggerty played that game over the years? His mind was agile, and he could spin scenarios faster than anyone she knew. “Let’s still assume Baiba killed Lucy Merchant. Let’s say she acted alone, that she wanted Lucy out of the way so she could seduce Merchant and marry him. There’s plenty of motivation for that—billions of dollars’ worth. But then Brandon Johnson finds out about her affair with Merchant, and he murders her out of jealousy.”
“But Baiba’s the one who told Brandon about the affair,” Codella countered.
“According to Brandon,” Haggerty replied. “But maybe that’s just what Brandon told you. What if it didn’t really happen that way? What if he found out on his own, went over there, and took his revenge.”
Codella stared across the restaurant and remembered Brandon’s forceful denial just an hour ago. Was he a far more calculating individual than she had assumed him to be? She remembered Constance Hodges’s merciless deconstruction of his psyche. She reviewed the simple and damning facts: He had loved Baiba. He had felt crushed by her betrayal. He had gone back to her apartment last night and told no one about it.
She shook her head. “No. It didn’t happen that way.”
“What makes you so sure?” Haggerty asked.
“Think about it. Would he let himself be seen by residents of the building if he were on his way to kill her?”
“Maybe he didn’t know he was going to kill her until he got up there. Maybe he lost control.”
Codella couldn’t think of any way to counter this. She sat in silence for several seconds. Why was she so determined to believe he was innocent? Why did she find herself rooting for him? What if he had lied to her about everything? What if her instincts about him were dead wrong?
“I need to know a lot more about that kid. I just wish there were someone other than Constance Hodges to talk to.”
“There is,” said Muñoz. “There’s a personal reference in his employment file.”