Maria slept like the dead.
When her eyes opened, she turned, expecting Carla to be sleeping next to her, only to realize that she was alone on the couch, and Carla would never be sleeping next to her again. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and put her head in her hands. She wanted to go back to sleep.
Who was she kidding? She wanted to close her eyes and never open them again.
Maybe, when this was done, she’d go that route. Maybe once she’d solved this crime and told Millie to go screw herself and melted her badge and left it in the bottom of a fireplace, maybe after all of that, she’d drive to California and find the highest craggiest peak possible, and leap right off.
But right now, she had a target.
Patrick Miller.
The one thing Maria didn’t have was a plan.
She started the coffeemaker and jumped through the shower. As she was drying off, the beginning of a way forward was coming into view. She’d call Hiller. Sure, he was retiring, but his retirement date would still be a few weeks out, and maybe he’d be up for kicking the powers that be in the nuts one last time. She’d ask him to bless a special task force of one. Tell him everything she’d discovered and what she’d witnessed. The attempted killing of a political candidate by a police officer would be a tense situation. Something that needed to be handled with dexterity and tact. But what she’d witnessed and knowing what she knew about Ariella would give her a reason to go back to the Patrick Miller campaign. She knew connections she hadn’t known before, and with that information, she could press, but she needed some official backing or else no one would let her in the door.
As she stood in front of the kitchen counter, work slacks and button-down shirt on, pouring coffee into her mug, she was sure that it would be difficult, but she could find a way to make them all talk. She had to because if she didn’t find Carla’s killer, she’d never forgive herself, and Hiller wasn’t like Millie. He’d want to do the right thing, not only because it was right, but also because it would probably piss some people off, and there wasn’t anything they could do to him. His papers were filed. He was just about done.
As for Maria, she didn’t care what they’d do to her.
Even as she stood there thinking it over, she doubted Hiller would go for it. Too many ways for it all to go wrong. Too fanciful an idea. She’d have to pull her father’s memory out. Use duty and honor as a motivation. He’d still probably say no. But she had to try.
More than anything else, she couldn’t go prepared with some long speech. The whole presentation had to be natural. Everyone knew what she’d been through. Everyone understood the stakes. But sometimes that made people less likely to help out. Personal vendettas had a way of boomeranging around and turning into disasters, and promising it wasn’t personal would be a waste of time.
Even as she stood there thinking it over, she doubted Hiller would go for it. Too many ways for it all to go wrong. Too fanciful an idea. She’d have to pull her father’s memory out. Use duty and honor as a motivation. He’d still probably say no. But she had to try.
The doorbell rang.
She walked to the front door and looked through the peephole.
Patrick Miller was in front of her door.
Patrick Miller looked tired. Exhausted even. Big circles around his eyes. Wrinkles on his face that Maria hadn’t noticed the last time she’d spoken with him. Either he was due for a Botox appointment or something very heavy was crushing his spirit.
Maybe both.
“I want to start by telling you how sorry I am for the terrible loss that you suffered,” Patrick said.
The tone of the voice, the facial expression, how he was holding his hands, everything was perfectly situated to be believable. If he was lying, Maria would have been shocked.
But he had to be, didn’t he?
Maria nodded her thanks because she was afraid that if she spoke, her tone of voice would betray what she was really thinking.
“Something unfortunate happened last night. Something I have kept from the press for now, and I want to keep it from the police as well,” Patrick said.
“Then why are you here talking to a cop?” Maria said.
“Because I believe there may be connections between the murder of your girlfriend and the unfortunate happenstance from last night,” Patrick said.
“I’m starting to get annoyed with all the fancy words. Why don’t you just tell me what happened?” Maria said.
“I would need your promise that you won’t share this with anyone outside of this room,” Patrick said.
“I can’t promise that,” Maria said.
Patrick grimaced. In his head, this conversation was going to be easy. Of course, Maria would be interested in finding out whatever it was that would lead her towards Carla’s killers, but he hadn’t considered that Maria wouldn’t trust him, nor did he know she’d been there during the unfortunate happenstance, as he’d put it. He looked away from Maria. Pondered his options and then returned to her.
“I need your help solving an attempt on my life,” Patrick said.
“Someone tried to kill you last night?” Maria said. She hoped she was putting the proper amount of surprise on her face, but the reality was Maria had always been a stoic, and no one who had met her once expected much in the way of a reaction. Only her mother and Carla could get her to react openly. Well, them and people who expected her to bow to political bullshit on the job.
“A drive by via minivan, now that would have been an embarrassing way to die,” Patrick said.
“So, why are you hiding this?”
“Why do politicians ever hide anything? Fear of bad press. Now is a particularly important time in the campaign, and I’m worried about losing whatever momentum we have,” Patrick said.
For the first time since Patrick had entered the apartment, Maria didn’t believe the words as they came out of his mouth, but then his expression changed to hard anger.
“My wife was in the car. My wife, who has never hurt anyone who has never done anything but be a helpful and kind person, and these scumbags took a shot at us while I was with my wife,” Patrick said.
“I don’t really understand what you want me to do. I would have to be assigned the case in order to investigate it,” Maria said.
“I don’t want an official investigation. I’m hopeful that no one ever even figures out what happened. My driver was able to outmaneuver the attackers. It was a quiet street. No other cars except for one at the traffic light. Only one shot was fired, and it missed, so since no one has reported it by now, I’m sure no one will report it,” Patrick said.
“So, what exactly is it you want me to do?”
“I want you to work with my head of security to find out who is involved. I have to believe someone inside the campaign was feeding information about my schedule. The event last night wasn’t on the official schedule. It was a surprise event, so the press wouldn’t be there,” Patrick said.
“I still don’t see what this has to do with Carla,” Maria said.
“I understand you were in the room when Ariella Matos died,” Patrick said.
Maria nodded.
“Watching someone die is traumatic, isn’t it? And you must have been very suspicious of me. A sniper shot from a great distance. Ariella was volunteering for the campaign and had become close friends with my wife. You must have wondered if I was involved, yet you never asked,” Patrick said.
“Were you involved?” Maria said.
“No, I was not,” Patrick said.
Maria believed him as he spoke. What she didn’t believe was his reasoning for keeping the events of the night before from the press. So how could she believe him sometimes but not at other times and more importantly, did she have it reversed? Was he really lying when she thought he was being honest and vice versa?
“You still haven’t explained the connection,” Maria said.
“I think Ariella was a plant,” Patrick said.
“A plant? She looked like a human being to me,” Maria said.
Patrick rolled his eyes.
“I think Ariella was placed on my campaign in order to find out damaging information about me,” Patrick said.
“What damaging information is there to find out?” Maria said.
“That’s the thing. There’s nothing,” Patrick said.
Now it was Maria’s turn to roll her eyes.
“I’m serious.”
“So, if Ariella found nothing, then why kill her?” Maria said.
“To frame me or someone I work with for the murder. The press hasn’t figured out that she was working on my campaign because she was a volunteer, but the minute someone tips them off, the stink of that scandal along with the sniper rifle angle will fry me, so I need you to figure out who actually killed her,” Patrick said.
“I thought you wanted me to figure out who made an attempt on your life last night,” Maria said.
“I think they are all related. I think if you solve one, you’ll solve all three,” Patrick said.
“I don’t see how this has anything to do with Carla,” Maria said.
“Seems a little unlikely that it wasn’t. She was held in the same way Ariella was, was she not?” Patrick said.
“I need to know what you’re not being honest about,” Maria said.
“I’m being completely honest. I want this all solved as badly as you do, but I just want it to be done quietly,” Patrick said.
“So, what exactly are you offering?” Maria said.
“I’ll give you total access to my campaign. All the people working on it. I’ll let you in completely, but you have to agree to sit on whatever you find,” Patrick said.
“If I was interested, which I’m not, to be completely honest, but if I did take this offer from you, there’s no way I could sit on knowledge of a murderer. Not only would I be risking my job by agreeing to do this while I’m technically on leave, but as a sworn officer of the law, I can’t be hiding evidence of a crime,” Maria said.
“I’m not asking you to hide anything. I’m just asking that if it isn’t time sensitive that it waits until after the election,” Patrick said.
“How can I sit on an active murder investigation? The person could easily kill again. Do you really want that to be the headline?” Maria said.
“We aren’t going to let any murderers walk around able to continue killing. That much I can promise you,” Patrick said.
“That’s what they do when they don’t go to prison,” Maria said.
“I’m a soldier, Maria. Where I come from, we don’t use handcuffs to neutralize threats,” Patrick said.
“And I solve murders. I don’t commit them,” Maria said.
Patrick took a long moment to really look at Maria, as if he was trying to weigh the contents of her soul. Whatever he saw, he liked. He broke out in a big smile.
“Let’s stop dancing around. You like catching bad guys, and you are dying to get your revenge. Is there any other way that will get you there quicker?” Patrick said.
Maria didn’t say anything, but they both knew what her answer was going to be. Patrick, for all his belief that he was successfully manipulating the detective, was actually the one in the dark, but Maria was realizing that if Patrick was the guilty party, he wouldn’t have invited her into his campaign.
Unless he was a very twisted deviant.
Or unless he wasn’t working alone and the whole thing was a setup to find out what she knew. It’s possible they knew she’d seen the attack. Maybe someone recognized her car, and he was here to rope her in and neutralize her. But the opportunity was too good a chance to pass up.
“How do we start?” Patrick asked.