When Grace pulled their SUV to a stop at the curb in front of Howard Carver’s address, Laurie spotted Ryan Nichols across the street, looking at his phone as he leaned against a tree.
“You’re here,” she said, not knowing what else to say.
“Of course I am. You’ve abandoned me all day. You called me like an intern to email you Howard’s litigation records when I was the one who figured out the pattern in the first place. I deserve to be here for the conversation.”
“Ryan, it wasn’t personal—”
“You’re asking him about his work as a lawyer. I’m a lawyer, and you’re not. If I were Alex two years ago, you’d want me to help.”
“How’d you even know where to find us?” Laurie asked.
He placed his hands on his hips, clearly annoyed by the question. “You said you were going to the Wards’ house first and then to Carver’s. I can find an address.”
“Except you didn’t last time,” she said.
“Very nice,” he replied.
Grace coughed softly. “You guys, we don’t have time for this. And for what it’s worth, Ryan was the one who figured out Carver was shady.”
It was the first time she could ever recall Grace siding with Ryan over her. “You’re right,” she said. “We’ll do this together.”
Laurie looked at them, steadying her will, before ringing the doorbell. As they waited, she realized how much more modest Carver’s home was compared to the Wards’, while the Harringtons had had the most lavish property of all. They may have been partners, but that didn’t make them equals.
A moment later, the porch light turned on. When the door opened, they were met by a heavyset man with a receding hairline. He was wearing a cable-knit sweater and corduroys. As he acknowledged their presence with a nod, his gaze flickered among the three newcomers on his porch.
“Are you Howard Carver? I’m Laurie Moran from Under Suspicion. We spoke last week.”
“I knew who you were when I opened the door.” He gestured toward Ryan. “I recognized that one from the television. I already told you I’m not interested.”
“We’re airing the special,” Laurie said, “and you’ll be part of it one way or another—including the lawsuits you settled at deflated values to line your own pocketbook at the expense of your clients.”
“That’s defamatory,” Howard said.
Ryan extended his hand. “Ryan Nichols, the guy from the TV.” Howard reluctantly returned the gesture. “Since you’ve apparently seen our show, Mr. Carver, you must know we’re very careful. We have the evidence to back up every word, so this isn’t actionable. Two years of lucrative settlements. We can track down the clients to prove they didn’t get their fair share. Plus, we’re only asking questions for now. If you don’t answer them and we go to air with our evidence, that’s on you.”
“For what it’s worth,” Laurie added, “the statute of limitations for fraud has passed. And we don’t have any interest in exposing your past wrongdoings for their own sake. We just want to know what happened the night Richard and Sarah Harrington were murdered. You’re the only person who claims to have seen one of the twins near the Range Rover in the overflow parking lot.”
“I saw what I saw,” Howard said. “What do my lawsuits have to do with anything?”
“They put you at odds with Richard Harrington,” Laurie said, “who wound up dead after he discovered you were bilking your clients.”
“This is offensive,” Howard said. “I was friends with Richard for a quarter of a century. What exactly are you suggesting?”
Laurie put on her best smile. “Well, one possibility is that you deprived multiple clients of millions of dollars, and when your law partner caught you in the act, you found a way to silence him.”
“You’re so far off base,” he said, shaking his head. “Fine, come on in, but you can’t use anything I say on air.”
Grace looked to Laurie and Ryan, expecting another argument, but Laurie and Ryan exchanged a glance and both nodded.
Howard led the way into a small living room. A sofa and wing chair were situated in front of a fireplace. He nodded toward the bench in front of an upright piano in the corner, which Ryan pulled out for additional seating.
“You’re crazy if you think I killed Richard and Sarah.”
“He’s the one who figured out the scam you were running,” Laurie said.
“He’s also the one who was working to keep my rear end out of jail. Walter wanted to throw the book at me and lock away the key. Richard was furious, but he also told Walter he was being self-righteous to his own detriment. If they’d gone to the authorities, the entire firm could have been on the hook. Richard’s the one who found a way to come up with the money to cover the losses with the clients and keep it all quiet.”
“And how was that?” Ryan asked.
“Well, I downsized my real estate for starters. Bye-bye Beacon Hill. Bye-bye waterfront view. Hello modest little ranch house. Richard was always the rainmaker at the firm, which meant the biggest draw. He reached into his own funds to save the firm—minus me, of course. When Richard was killed, I was terrified Walter would back out of the deal and turn me in. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“You had a DUI stop around the same time,” Laurie said. “According to the police officer, you seemed off-kilter. And when you were questioned the day after the murders, the investigator who spoke to you said you seemed out of it.”
“I was in shock. My friend and his wife had been killed in their own home.”
“Or maybe you were intoxicated,” Ryan said, cracking his knuckles.
Laurie noticed Grace’s eyes widen.
“You were stealing a lot of money from those clients,” Laurie said, “and yet, once you were caught, you couldn’t cover the losses. That means the money went somewhere. If you were drinking a lot, maybe you were also gambling? Or maybe you told police the truth that night about only having a glass of wine, and you had a different drug of choice.”
Howard began to usher them out of the house, but they remained seated. His shoulders slumped. “What exactly do you want from me?”
“To talk about the night of the graduation party,” Laurie said. “The evidence points to someone close to the Harrington family, but you’re the only eyewitness to place one of the twins near the Range Rover after the murders were committed. Ethan and Simon both swear they stayed at the party the whole time.”
“The police contacted me the next night. I think they were questioning everyone who had been at the party. They were obviously suspicious of the twins by then. I had arrived at the party late and got stuck in the overflow lot. Given my standing with Richard and Walter at the time, I was really just making an appearance, trying to keep things cordial so they didn’t change their minds about helping me out of my jam. When I left, I wasn’t paying close attention, but I remembered seeing the Harringtons’ Range Rover, which seemed weird because presumably they would have arrived at the party early.”
“But you didn’t merely say you saw the car,” Laurie said. “You claimed to have seen one of the twins nearby.”
“Some people could tell them apart, but I never could.”
“But are you absolutely sure it was one of them?”
“If I said it to the police ten years ago, then, yes, I was sure.”
“No offense,” Ryan said, “but ten years ago, you were telling clients you settled cases for four thousand dollars when you settled them for forty. You can’t vouch for your past honesty here.”
“I know this is hard,” Laurie said. “You had that DUI stop. Did you have a substance abuse problem?”
Howard pressed his lips together and closed his eyes. “This is embarrassing. I thought this was all in the past.”
“There’s no camera here,” Laurie said. “Ethan and Simon have been estranged for years over this—each of them convinced the other is the one you saw in that field. Lives are in the balance. If you were impaired that night—”
He shook his head, wiping back a tear. “It was pills. A lot of them. It’s a wonder I didn’t die. It started with chronic pain after a bad fender bender. My dosages kept going up and up until no legitimate doctor would write the prescriptions anymore. Then one of the quacks who was helping me get the pills asked me about representing injured patients who had viable lawsuits. When Richard figured out everything I’d been doing, I really did try to get clean. But I was stressed about having to go to that party and put on a good face—which mattered so much to Richard. I wanted to keep him happy. I took a few pills to make my way through the night.”
“So did you see one of the twins or not?” Laurie pressed.
He shut his eyes, as if trying to replay the evening on a screen in his mind. When he opened them again, his gaze was distant. “It’s hard to explain. When I told the police I had noticed the Range Rover, I immediately told them one of the boys had been nearby. When they asked me if I was sure, I began to doubt myself. It was common back then for me to black out, and I couldn’t pull up the actual memory of seeing them. Even now, I can’t really picture it.”
“So how do you know it was one of them?”
“He was wearing a white shirt, white pants, white jacket, just like the two of them at the party. And I distinctly recalled seeing the Range Rover and turning away because I didn’t want my law partner’s son to see me in my current state and tell his father I was using. It’s like I remembered the shame and the fear of getting caught more than the person I actually saw. Does that make sense?”
It did. It also meant that Howard’s perceptions could have been impaired. Laurie leaned forward on the sofa to get his full attention. “Is it at all possible, Howard, that you saw the Range Rover, knew it belonged to the Harringtons, and simply assumed the person nearby was one of the twins because of what they were wearing?”
Ryan was nodding along with her theory. “Especially if you were impaired and anxious about the possibility of being seen by them?”
Laurie had read countless articles about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. “Your mind may have filled in the gaps. You saw the Range Rover. You saw a young guy from the party nearby. You didn’t want Richard to know you were using again. And therefore you assumed that the person you saw must have been one of the twins.”
Howard squinted again, struggling with fragments of a distant memory. “I guess it’s possible. It was the shame that I most remembered, the threat of being caught by my law partner’s son. But was it actually one of them? Maybe it’s like you said, and I jumped to conclusions.”
This was the break Laurie had been praying for. Maybe—just maybe—the Deadly Duo were both innocent.