Ridley Pearson - The Body of David Hayes

“No. It would have been me,” the man said, indirectly confirming he’d done the others.

Regardless of gaining some clarity, Boldt felt pushed more deeply into the labyrinth rather than finding a clear way out. He then asked the question that LaMoia had posed to him, converting it into a statement. “Paul Geiser is on Svengrad’s payroll.”

Alekseevich hesitated, looking over at Olson.

She said, “You’re dipping into privileged territory, Lieutenant.”

“It’s not privileged because it’s not on the record, Detective.”

She nodded back to Alekseevich.

“Perhaps,” the Russian said.

“That’s not good enough.”

“It is best I can do. I have seen this man, Geiser, only but once, out at the Whidbey house.” Alekseevich was slowly working away from plain answers, and Olson, to her credit, was making no attempt to stop him.

Boldt asked Olson about the Whidbey house and she informed him this was the Svengrad residence, a palatial estate on the southwest shore of Whidbey Island.

Boldt said, “Geiser was supposed to help get the injunction lifted-get Svengrad’s caviar out of federal impound.”

The man shrugged. “I do not know.”

Olson explained, “Malina happened to see Geiser in a hall over at the U.S. Attorney’s Office during a grand jury prep. It was a fluke-a dedicated elevator stopped and opened on the wrong floor. Malina looks out and recognizes Geiser from seeing him at Svengrad’s estate. We never connected the dots any further than you just did, assuming the meeting had something to do with the caviar, but we’ve been careful to shelter ourselves from the prosecuting attorney’s office. That’s why we’re dealing with the U.S. Attorney’s Office instead-because of this thing.”

This turned Boldt’s world upside down. He now believed that for the past several hours he’d had Foreman’s and Geiser’s roles reversed. None of this fully ruled out that Hayes had been hidden by Foreman as part of a cooperative deal between the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Geiser’s office, as Foreman had told Liz. It seemed entirely possible that the two agencies might have discovered Alekseevich’s informant status and wanted to protect the “ownership” of the Hayes case by keeping Alekseevich all to themselves. Turf wars could make monsters out of a common investigation.

Even if it proved true that Geiser had taken a bribe, or was still on Svengrad’s payroll, it might involve nothing more than working on Hayes’s parole and the injunction on the caviar. Svengrad’s knuckle man wasn’t going to have the answers to these deeper questions. The bottom line was that Boldt could trust neither Foreman nor Geiser. He knew Svengrad was seeking answers to some of the same questions that he had, meaning the race for the money still seemed to be on, which kept Liz squarely in it. This both excited and terrified him.

“Does Svengrad plan to kidnap my wife?” Boldt asked. The big man shrugged, and Boldt accepted the answer, believing Svengrad unlikely to include his subordinates in his long-term plans. It didn’t confirm or deny the possibility.

“The comment about my son and his playing piano,” Boldt said, distracted from his intended line of questioning. “Is Svengrad willing to play that card? My children? A police officer’s children?” Boldt felt a bubble in his throat. Olson tensed; this was clearly news to her. LaMoia looked unruffled, but Boldt could feel his concern like heat.

“Not me,” Alekseevich said. “I not harm children. This man from bank? The one with heart problem? This was not me.”

He meant Tony LaRossa and the abduction of LaRossa’s family.

Boldt pushed, “But Svengrad is willing to play that card.”

Alekseevich stared across the table and took a long sip of the vodka, draining it.

“Answer the question,” Olson told him more vehemently than anything she’d said yet.

But Alekseevich already had answered the question, whether she’d picked up on it or not. That cocksure silence of his spoke loud and clear.

“What now?” Alekseevich asked, never breaking eye contact with Boldt.

That was Boldt’s question as well.

THE SATURDAY BEFORE THE GALAreception and the ceremonial switchover from WestCorp to MTK proved the longest day of Liz’s life. The waiting for the phone to ring; the surveillance/protection by both uniformed and plainclothes SPD officers, some of whom lingered in her living room; the temptation to call Kathy and the kids, versus Lou’s determination not to make any contact whatsoever for fear of Svengrad somehow tracking it.

The only break in the day arrived in the form of a briefing. Pahwan Riz, the director of Special Operations, asked for a meeting with Liz and Lou to discuss what was expected of her “in the event” she was contacted. Lou agreed to the meeting, in part because he had to, in part because she was looking to relieve the tedium and monotony of waiting for the phone to ring. But Lou’s primary reason for taking the meeting was to gather as much information about Riz’s plan as possible in order to thwart it. If the combined efforts of Seattle Police and BCI prevented Svengrad from getting his money wired out, then the video was certain to surface, damaging if not ending both their careers. Quite possibly Miles and Sarah would be put permanently at risk. Lou had to defeat his own people while figuring out a way to protect his family. If he could double-cross Svengrad in the process-so much the better. Whatever Riz planned played into that.

Lou briefed her before the others arrived. “I’m cooking something up.”

“I thought so.”

“It’s complicated.”

“It is, isn’t it?” She enjoyed the irony, though Lou seemed to miss it.

“It’s going against my own guys. You’ve got that, right?”

Her faced knotted in concern. “You can’t do that, Lou. Not for me. Not for anyone.”

“The kids?” he inquired, silencing her. “Going against the very people who are about to be in this room, which is why it’s important you go along with anything they tell you. It doesn’t mean you will go along with it, but for now you’ll tell them you will.”

She nodded, cringing at the idea of his turning against his own team.

“Danny Foreman is not to be trusted. The deeper I look into all this, Danny keeps showing up.”

“And he’ll be here?”

“I suspect he will.” “

I told you he seemed off when he paid me that visit,” she said.

“The point is, I don’t want us giving anything away, to Danny or any of the others, something they could use later on or something to tip them to my plan, so for now I’m keeping some things from you, and I just wanted to be up front about that.”

“So noted.”

Lou took in a lungful of air and held it, and she knew this to signal something important about to be said. She felt herself brighten with anticipation.

He said, “But you need to know that John and I took Hayes into custody last night.”

She felt faint, unable to speak.

“Private custody. Not downtown. We got him out of a difficult situation, and I’m hoping he’ll repay us by cooperating. That’s a work in progress.”

She clarified, “You got him out of a difficult situation. That’s what you’re saying?”

“However improbable, it’s true.”

“Private custody? What does that mean?”

“The point is, I’m working on something.”

“I never doubted that, Lou. I just regret-”

He interrupted. “It’s a long shot. In all honesty, it probably has only a faint chance of succeeding. But for right now, it’s all I’ve got. And it’s already in motion.”