“I remember exactly where that was,” Nora said, pointing at the computer on her kitchen table. “About six months after I got here, Helen and I had dinner, and wine, at Artisan in Southport and walked home. Before we went our separate ways, I kissed her, which I shouldn’t have, but she was great about it, telling me it was nice but we couldn’t, given our roles. She was right, of course, and I was a little embarrassed, but that was the end of it.” Nora stopped and shook her head.
“What?” Carmen asked.
“The deeply weird part is that someone was following us that night and waited two years to do something with the video they took? How does that make any sense?”
“It doesn’t,” Porter answered.
From behind them, Benny’s voice boomed. “Somebody’s been trying to fuck with Helen or you or both for a long time. I’m guessing whoever took that also whacked Helen and is the same piece a shit wiping her blood on your car.”
“Yup,” Carmen added. “And I’m guessing there may be more on this romance angle as your motive.”
Benny exhaled loudly and gestured at Nora. “So the spurned lover here waits two years to kill Helen in her own canoe, then uses her hatchback as a napkin? Give me a fucking break.”
“First of all, there’s no date stamp on that video and the detective said there’s no metadata,” Carmen said, “so I don’t know whether we’ll be able to show how long ago that kiss happened. But, in a way, it doesn’t matter, because if you’re really going to set Nora up, you need more than that to get it done. Nothing about that video suggests Nora was some kind of spurned lover doing wild shit. I’m not worried about it.”
Nora shook her head again. “So glad not to be wild, spurned, or stupid. But I’ll do my best to figure out the exact date it must have been. Then you can pass that to the cops.”
“Agreed,” Carmen said. After a pause, she turned to Benny. “So how’d it go last night with Laslo?”
“He’s on team Nora,” Benny said. “Good guy. We just gotta figure out the best way for him to help. For starters, I’m thinking it’s using Saugatuck info to track down this Holtzer character from the funeral.”
“Can he help us on Helen’s PI, Singh?” Nora asked.
“Nah,” Benny said, “he never heard of the guy or of Helen using a PI. He also never heard anything about Helen havin’ any private files, so I didn’t show him any leg on that at the start, but I’m gonna take him through the files. I figure for sure I use him on the Holtzer piece and ask him to give us a heads-up if he sees any squirrelly behavior by the Saugatuck crowd.”
Nora and the two attorneys all nodded. “Is there something else?” Carmen asked.
“Yeah,” Benny said. “I already ran this by Nora and we’re convinced the killer is on the inside at Saugatuck and the motive is in Helen’s files. As strange as it sounds, I think Laslo and I could run an internal at Saugatuck—with David Jepson’s blessing, of course—to see what we could see. Laslo’s up for it, although he wants the good cop role, which is fine by me. He thinks Nora could pitch it to Jepson as a search for truth—which it would be, by the way—and we’d promise full transparency to the MC, at the appropriate point.”
Carmen turned to Nora. “That seems completely bizarre. And why would they go for that, exactly?”
“Because he built this whole place around the idea that truth is what he calls ‘the paramount value.’ It’s all that matters and David believes Saugatuck finds it better than anywhere else, including the criminal justice system.”
“Okay,” Carmen replied, “I think I get that, maybe, but why would he go for Benny being part of it?”
“Because Benny is my proxy,” Nora replied. “I can’t do the questioning—what Saugatuck calls ‘the plumbing’—because I’m conflicted and have the cops coming after me. But I can ask that Benny stand in for me, working with Laslo to find the truth. I think if I ask, David will agree. I already talked to Rob Arslan about the idea. He likes it. Said he’ll push David to do it. ‘Consistent with our values,’ Rob will tell him.”
Porter had his glasses off, cleaning furiously with his handkerchief. Without looking up, he said, “Craziest thing I ever heard of. But it would get us ahead of the cops, that’s for sure. Worst case it gives us stuff to get them off Nora.”
Carmen grimaced and turned to Nora. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you should pitch Jepson on it.”
As Nora nodded, Carmen turned to Porter and changed the topic. “So what’s likely to be our next touch with the cops?”
“They’ll get back to us once they compare Nora’s hairs to the ones found on Helen. And I’m gonna poke the State’s Attorney to see where they are with getting records from Saugatuck. If you’re right about other stuff coming, that’s likely where it will come from.”
“And have you spoken to Louis Lambert about what help we’ll get on the company’s end?” Nora asked.
“I did, on the phone,” Porter replied. “Honestly, the guy was a bit of a dick to me, so I’m going to go see him in person.”
Nora shook her head. “Won’t be any less of a dick, I’m sorry to report. But let me know, so I can go over his head to Jepson or Baum if need be. I’m headed over there now for an MC meeting.”
“He looks to be more than just a dick,” Benny added. “The shit in Helen’s file has to put Louie boy at the top of our list.” He looked up at Porter. “So, good luck. And you might mention to him that you’ve been practicing for forty years.”
Porter looked confused.
“Just a thought,” Benny shrugged before walking out of the kitchen.