Joel Goldman - Final judgment

“I’m glad everything worked out so well for you. Too bad I can’t say the same thing for Fish,” Mason said.

“Fish had a heart attack. That wasn’t our fault. He should have stayed home.”

“That’s an easy out,” Mason said. “All you cared about was your investigation. If someone gets hurt or dies, you toss that off as collateral damage.”

“You should know, Counselor. You’re pretty good at that yourself. You’re the one who dragged Lila into this case. Webb caught her on his computer. It didn’t take much to get her to tell him she was doing a favor for you.”

Mason felt a flash of heat in his face. Kelly was right about Lila. He could add her to the list with Vanessa Carter. He was about to pay his debt to Judge Carter and would have to find a way to make it up to Lila.

Kelly’s cell phone rang. She looked at the screen, ignoring the call.

“Brewer?” Mason asked.

“Yeah. We don’t have much time.” Kelly stood up. “Get up and hit me,” she said, pointing to her chin.

Mason stood, his arms at his side. “I’m not going to hit you.”

“Look, if you don’t hit me, Brewer and Webb aren’t going to believe that you escaped without my help. You’re right about one thing. This investigation is more important than me or you or any other collateral damage. I’m going underground and tracing this ID network as far as it goes. I can’t take the chance that my case falls apart because you don’t have the stomach to hit a woman.”

“Get out of my way,” Blues said, pushing Mason to the side and dropping Kelly with a hard left hand. “You people talk so much it makes my head hurt.”

Mason helped Kelly onto the sofa, cupping her chin in his hand until her eyes focused. The right side of her face was red and swelling fast. There was a trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth. He wiped it with his sleeve. She draped her arm over his shoulder and pulled him close.

“I want you to know something,” she whispered.

“I know. It could have been Brewer instead of you.”

“Not what I mean,” she managed. “That night in Fiori’s office, I found some of the tapes. Brewer was in another room. I took them with me to listen to later. You were on the tapes talking to Fiori about Blues and Judge Carter. There was also a call from Fiori to the judge.”

Mason stared at her, unable to move. “It was you?” he finally said. “You were the blackmailer. Was that another chip you tossed onto the table for Webb?”

She shook her head and sat up, rubbing her jaw. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I burnt the tape after I listened to it.”

Mason heard voices for the second time that night. This time it was Vanessa Carter telling him that they had a problem, followed by Fish reminding him that the mark never feels the hook until it’s in too deep. Fish had warned him, but the hook was in too deep for Mason to understand.

“Why did you do that?”

“Blues was innocent. The judge was already compromised. It didn’t matter and I didn’t want you to end up as collateral damage.”

“Why tell me about it now?”

“I saw the look on your face when I told you about Brewer’s tape. Besides, this way you’ll know that I’m not as bad as they will say I am. Now get out of here.”

Mason drove Fish’s rental car, with Fish’s body lying in the backseat, to Fish’s house. The charge of mail fraud and the suspicion of murder would be buried with his client. Mason wanted more for him than that. He wanted Fish’s daughters to believe their father had died peacefully in his own home, his debts paid in full, their memories of him not tainted by murder. That meant finding Charles Rockley’s killer. Though Fish had no connection to the murders of Johnny Keegan and Mark Hill, Mason’s gut told him they were dominoes that fell when Rockley’s body hit the ground.

Blues followed in his pickup with Lila, awake but still groggy, riding shotgun. They were surprised that a police car wasn’t parked in front of Fish’s house after the APB had been issued for him.

They sat Fish in his easy chair, expecting that his body would be found in the morning by the housekeeper or perhaps by one of his daughters. His death would be classified as unattended, requiring an autopsy that would reveal his body had been moved after he had died. There would be questions to answer, but no crime had been committed.

After another trip to Lake Lotawana to pick up his SUV, Mason took Lila home. She rejected Mason’s apologies, insisting she’d known what she was getting into and making her own apology for getting caught.

“I would have gotten away with it,” she said, “if I had quit after I found the e-mail Johnny sent to Mr. Webb, but I kept poking around. Mr. Webb had an e-mail folder for travel. He had made a reservation for Johnny to go to New York and then make a connection to Saudi Arabia.”

“When was he supposed to leave?” Mason asked.

“Last Saturday,” she said. “The day after he was killed. The weird thing about it was it was a one-way ticket. Johnny was leaving and he wasn’t coming back.”

“Why were you so curious?”

“I know this makes me a real bitch, but me and Johnny had been spending time together again. He said he was finished with Carol Hill, but he didn’t tell me he was leaving. It made me wonder if he told her.”

It made Mason wonder too. It was after midnight when he left Lila’s house. He called Samantha Greer on her cell phone.

“Things are going crazy around here, Lou. What do you want?”

“Did you get a ballistics report yet on the bullet that killed Mark Hill?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Do me a favor. Check for a match with the bullet that killed Johnny Keegan.”

“Do you know something I should know?”

“Carol Hill was cheating on her husband with Keegan. Her husband was beating the crap out of her.”

“That I know. Carol may have killed her husband for beating her, but why would she kill her lover?”

“Because he dumped her for someone else and he was leaving the country on a one-way ticket,” Mason said.

“What about Rockley?” Samantha asked. “You think she went for the hat trick?”

“Carol says he raped her.”

“Even so, I don’t see Carol cutting him up.”

“She didn’t. I’m betting Keegan did. He knew about the connection between Fish and Webb and dumped Rockley’s body in the trunk of Fish’s car to throw suspicion at Fish.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What connection between Fish and Webb?”

“It’s complicated. Ask the FBI.”

“We’re being overrun by the FBI at the moment and the lab doesn’t open until seven o’clock. It’ll have to wait till morning.”

“What’s with the FBI invasion?”

“You won’t believe this. The bank robbery was an inside job. The two agents-what were their names? Brewer and Holt-set the whole thing up. The feds released Mickey and want our help catching their agents. We cancelled the APB on Fish. Be sure you tell him.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.”

“One other thing,” Samantha said. “Griswold told me about your come-to-Jesus session. You didn’t leave him much choice. He had to take it to the prosecuting attorney.”

“I know. Any word from Ortiz on what he’s going to do?”

“Ortiz doesn’t have much choice either. Hard to give a criminal defense lawyer a pass at the same time a couple of FBI agents make the Ten Most Wanted list. Are you going to be all right?”

“It’s no hill for a climber. Call me in the morning when you get the ballistic results.”

Mason parked across the street from Carol Hill’s house just as the morning sun was burning the horizon. He’d managed a few hours of sleep, enough to sort out what he thought had happened. If he were right, this would be his only chance to hear it from Carol.