“I demand to know when I will be released from this hellhole,” Nicoletta said to the guard who’d brought her breakfast, if you could call the slop on the tray “breakfast.”
“You’ve been held without bail, which means there’s no chance of you leaving for now.”
“I could pay for a better lawyer.”
“I believe your assets have been frozen by the U.S. Attorney as the investigations proceed.”
“My son is the president of the United States! When he finds out how I’m being treated here, he’ll have your jobs.”
“From what I’ve read, he has no interest in what’s happening to you.”
“You’ll pay for that. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure you pay.”
“Okay,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away.
The outrage was compounding with every day she spent in this miserable place. How could her son, the most powerful man on earth, allow his own mother to rot in jail when he could get her out of there with a single phone call?
They’d allowed her to shower in a trough with a bunch of other women, and she’d traded the now-ratty red silk dressing gown for an orange jumpsuit that was too small for her. She was constantly dealing with a wedgie that only added to her outrage.
“Is your son really the president?” one of the other women asked.
“He is.”
“Then how come you’re still here?”
Nicoletta took a seat next to the first woman in the cell who’d spoken to her since she’d been there. She was a buxom redhead with big green eyes. “We’re not on the best of terms, I guess you could say.”
“Still, you’re his mother. He ought to have some respect.”
“That’s what I say, too, but what can I do from in here?”
“I know a lawyer who’d take your case for free to get the exposure.”
“You do? Who is he?”
“His name is Collins Worthy, and he’s an absolute shark. If you want attention for your situation, you need him on your team.”
“You heard what the guard said. I was denied bail, and my assets are frozen.”
“He’d take a case like yours for free for the exposure, and he can get you a new bail hearing.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I’m a mother, too, and my kids don’t care about me either. We have to stick together.”
“Yes, we do. How can I get him on my case?”
“Ask the guards to call him for you.”
“And they’ll do it?”
“They have to.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Not my first rodeo, sugar.”
“What’s in it for you?” Nicoletta asked, leery of anything that seemed too good to be true.
“Maybe you could keep a spot for me when you get back to work.”
“Have you worked in the field before?”
“Here and there, but not with the success you’ve had.”
“Did you know who I was before I mentioned my son?”
“I sure did. You’re a legend in these parts.”
“Is that so?” Nicoletta sat up straighter. “That’s nice to hear.”
“We need to get you out of here and back to doing what you were born to do.”
“From your lips to God’s ears. What’s your name?”
“Amber Richmond.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“You, as well. Tell them to call Collins for you. He’ll get you out of here and make your son sorry he disrespected you.”
“I’ll do that.”
“And when I get out of here, you’ll take my call?”
“You’re damned right I will.”
Freddie began his day with a call to Cara Quinn. “This is Detective Cruz circling back with another question.”
“Whatever I can do.”
“You said you spoke daily with Liliana, right?” he asked, even though he already knew that from the data found on Liliana’s phone.
“Yes, we rarely missed a day.”
“Did she mention anything about an affair she might be having?”
After a long pause, Cara said, “No.”
“It took you a long time to answer that question, Ms. Quinn. Are you sure?”
“I, uh… Lili was such a good person. The best person I ever knew. She’d do anything for anyone.”
“But?”
“No buts,” she said, sounding tearful now. “She was so good to everyone.”
“I understand this is very difficult for you, but we’re trying to figure out what happened to her and her family.”
“It was Marcel. I’m sure of it.”
“We’ve uncovered evidence to the contrary.”
“What evidence?”
“I’m not at liberty to share that. I’d really like to know if Liliana was involved with someone outside of her marriage.”
“If I tell you, will it be smeared all over the place?”
“I’ll do my best to avoid that.”
“But you can’t make any promises.”
“No, not in a homicide investigation.”
“I’m still in denial that this has happened. How can they all be gone?”
“I’m sorry again for your loss and for compounding it by asking questions you’d rather not answer.”
Her deep sigh echoed through the phone. “It wasn’t a sexual affair.”
“Okay…”
“It’s important that you know she never slept with him.”
“I’ll need you to elaborate.”
“She struck up a friendship with one of the dads at Gus’s preschool. They met while waiting to pick up the kids. One thing led to another, and they began talking every day by phone. He’s a single dad, so it wasn’t as big of a deal for him. But she developed very significant feelings for him.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Keenan. I don’t know his last name.”
“This is very helpful. Thank you.”
“Please be kind to my friend in how you use this information. She was a wonderful wife and mother. The lawsuit… It wrecked her. She believed the women and had come to the realization that she needed to leave Marcel, which was devastating. They’d been so happy together for such a long time.”
Freddie took notes as she spoke. “Is there anything else we should know? Anything at all?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“You’re sure? Because withholding information in a homicide investigation is a crime.”
“I’m sure.”
“Thank you again for your time.”
“I hope you get justice for my friend and her children.”
“We’re doing everything we can.”
Freddie ended the call and went looking for the dump of Liliana’s phone, zeroing in on any lengthy late-night phone calls, figuring that’s when busy parents would have time to talk. He was able to eliminate the numbers belonging to Kelly, Cara and Liliana’s sister, Esme. That left one number unaccounted for, which he assumed belonged to Keenan.
He ran upstairs to IT. “I need a favor,” he said to Archie.
“What’s up?”
Freddie circled the number and handed Archie his notebook. “I need a name and address.”
With a few keystrokes on his computer, Archie produced the name Keenan Coleman. “He lives in Berkley on Meadow Road.” Archie returned the notebook with the address written next to the number.
“Thanks, man.”
“How’s it going?”
“Slow but making progress.”
“You don’t think it was the dad?”
“We’re all but sure it wasn’t.” He told Archie about Marcel being left-handed and gunpowder residue being found on his right hand.
“Wow, that’s a good catch.”
“Gotta give the LT credit for that.”
“Is she doing okay?”
“I think so. She’s back to work after the briefest leave of absence in history.”
Archie grinned. “I knew she wouldn’t stay gone for long.”
“Same. Thanks again for the help.”
“Any time.”
Freddie went back downstairs to find Gonzo. “I’ve got a lead on a guy Liliana Blanchet was having an emotional affair with.”
“What the hell is an emotional affair?”
“The kind with no sex.”
“What’s the point of that?”
“She was going through a rough time with the lawsuit about to blow up their lives. I guess the other guy provided support and comfort.”
“Interesting. Let’s go see what he has to say.”
Jake Malone had been awake all night thinking about the dreaded task he needed to deal with first thing that morning. He ought to have someone else with him, but this was so intensely personal, he’d decided to do it himself. After he finished a second cup of coffee at home, he left the house in his MPD SUV and drove to the familiar address off Grove Street in Petworth.
He'd been there many times before for parties, poker nights and other gatherings of friends who became family when you worked together every day.
That was the part of this situation that galled him the most.
Bill Gibbons had been like family to him, Joe, Skip and many others who’d come up through the ranks with them. Gibbons had loved being in charge of IT and reminded Jake of Sam Holland and how she was perfectly content to lead the Homicide division with no desire to move up in the ranks.
That described Bill to a T. He’d balked at any suggestion of doing any other job within the department. Like Archelotta now, Gibbons had been the best at what he did, adapting to each new technological development to make things easier for the rest of them. He’d been their go-to guy any time a computer acted up at home or at work as they transitioned to the electronic age.
Gibbons had led seminars for his colleagues on how to use new technology to solve their cases.
And the son of a bitch had enabled Len Stahl’s criminal activity.
With twenty-four hours to process the info Archie had given him, Jake still couldn’t believe it had been Gibbons who’d archived Stahl’s bogus reports on investigations that’d never happened.
But Archie’s evidence was irrefutable.
He should’ve started with Gibbons, the department’s technology wizard, the one person working there at the time the reports were archived who would’ve known how to give himself captain-level status, which was required to archive reports in inactive cases. That’s how Stahl had buried investigations involving Calvin Worthington and Carisma Deasly, two Black teenagers who’d gotten a fraction of the attention they should have after being murdered and kidnapped, respectively.
Jake’s blood boiled over the blatant racism that had led Stahl to ignore cases that could’ve been solved years ago, and he wanted to know what the hell Gibbons had been thinking when he enabled that son of a bitch and helped him get away with it.
He parked outside Gibbons’s townhouse and stared at the door he’d passed through many a time before he worked up the energy to get out of the SUV to clean up yet another mess on behalf of the department he’d served with honor for close to thirty years. He was sick to death of the rot that kept surfacing from within the ranks, past and present.
After taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly so he wouldn’t lead with rage, he rang the doorbell.
The Bill Gibbons who came to the door had gotten grayer and heavier since Jake last saw him. His face lit up with a big smile. “Hey! This is a nice surprise. Come in.”
Jake followed him into the warm, cozy home he shared with his wife, Elaine. Their four kids were now grown and out on their own. Once upon a time, Jake and his wife, Val, had been there with their kids to help celebrate their birthdays and graduations. Gibbons’s son Billy had dated Jake’s daughter, Mel, when they were in high school. They’d joked then about sharing grandchildren one day.
“How’s Val?” Gibbons asked.
“Doing great. Retired from teaching and volunteering. How’s Elaine?”
“That’s been a little tricky. We’re spending some time apart. She’s staying with her sister in Baltimore.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Gibbons shrugged. “We found we didn’t have much in common when it was just the two of us again.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Thanks. It is what it is. Coffee?”
“No, thanks. Already had my two cups for the day.”
Gibbons poured himself a cup. “I hope you got my note when Skip died. I felt terrible I couldn’t be there for you and Joe and the family. I was in San Diego for my mother’s funeral when I got the news.”
“I did get your note, and I was sorry to hear about your mother.”
“She made it to ninety-two and said she had no regrets.”
“Good for her. She was a great lady.”
“She was. We miss her. And Skip’s son-in-law... What a tragedy that was.”
“Indeed. Fucking fentanyl is a scourge like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”
Gibbons shuddered. “I miss the job like crazy, but stuff like that and guns everywhere you look? Retirement is looking pretty good to me. You ought to give it a whirl.”
“One of these days.” Jake told himself to get on with it. What he’d come here to do wouldn’t get easier with procrastination. “So, the reason I came by is we’ve been looking into some of Stahl’s old cases and came across some irregularities.”
“I heard you solved a couple of them. I couldn’t believe you found Carisma Deasly.”
“I couldn’t believe how easy it was to find her and Calvin Worthington’s killer once we knew what Stahl had been doing with case files he no longer wanted to deal with.”
Jake was watching the other man so closely that he saw the second it registered with him why Jake was there. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?” Jake asked, keeping his gaze focused intently on Gibbons.
“I do,” he said softly.
“What I want to know is why? Why would you do anything to help that scumbag?”
“He had shit on me.”
“What kind of shit?”
“The sort that ends marriages and causes guys to never see their kids again.”
“Do better than that.”
“I was seeing one of my detectives outside of work,” he said as he looked down at the table. “Do you remember Trish Linney?”
Jake’s mouth fell open in shock. “Wasn’t she married with kids, too?”
“Yeah, hers were little when we were together. The husband was a dick, though. Didn’t help her with anything.”
“How long did this go on for?”
“About four years.”
“And Stahl found out.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I never did figure out how. We were super careful.”
“How’d it go from him knowing about the affair to you archiving case files for him?”
“He said he’d tell Elaine about the affair—and Trish’s husband—if I didn’t do what he wanted me to do.”
“And you were willing to commit a crime to keep the affair a secret?”
“My kids were still at home. Trish’s were babies. I was afraid we’d both lose custody if it got out, not to mention the rap I’d take on the job for dating a subordinate.”
“Jesus Christ, Bill. What the fuck were you thinking?”
Gibbons dropped his head into his hands. “My marriage was shit almost from the start. I was miserable with Elaine. Trish made me happy. She gave me hope that my whole life wasn’t going to suck. The thought of giving her up was unbearable. I made stupid decisions, and I admit that, but I never meant any harm.”
“Well, you fucking failed at not harming anyone. Calvin Worthington’s mother waited fifteen years for justice for her son. Carisma Deasly was trapped in hell all that time. If you could’ve seen her after she was rescued from that filthy prison she was held in… All because you didn’t want your affair found out?”
Gibbons broke down into sobs. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I hated myself for it at the time, and I’ve been sick over it ever since, especially since the news broke about those cases being solved.”
“I’m sorry to have to tell you that you have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney—”
Gibbons looked up at him, his expression one of complete shock. “Wait. You’re arresting me?”
Jake put the cuffs he’d put in his pocket earlier on the table. “You’re goddamned right I am.”