Lisa Scottoline - Moment Of Truth

He knocked again. He had to talk to Brinkley, face-to-face. It was a risk but he would take it if Paige were in danger. He'd been calling her but there had been no answer. He'd left a message with the name of his hotel and had told her to call there as soon as possible. He was worried about where she could be and who she was with. He. hoped it wasn't Trevor.

Jack pounded hard on the door as the little boy wandered up to him. About seven years old, he wore a black knit cap pulled low over his eyes and his hands were shoved into a hand-me-down jacket. 'He ain't home,' the boy said. 'I seen him go.'

'Oh, thanks.'

'He a cop.'

'I know.' Jack turned from the door, scanned the block, and walked back down the stoop. 'I think I'll wait for him. Mind if I stay?'

"S all right with me.' The boy shrugged, staring frankly at Jack's battered face. 'You get in a tussle, mister?'

'In a way.' Jack smiled, then eased onto his haunches to strike up a conversation with the only person in Philadelphia who hadn't read today's newspaper.

'It's you!' Mary said, amazed. She took one look at the blonde with the nose job and recognized her instantly. 'You're the woman who was at the train station with Trevor.'

'Do I know you?' The blonde looked politely puzzled as she greeted them at the glass door of the bustling, modern offices of the FBI in the federal courthouse downtown. 'I'm Special Agent Reppetto,' she said, extending a hand, which Mary shook.

'Special Agent? Mary couldn't help repeating. The woman looked more professional wearing a shiny FBI badge on the pocket of her blue blazer. Or maybe it was because her tongue wasn't buried in Trevor's mouth. 'No, you don't know me. I saw you meet Trevor at the train station. I didn't know you were an FBI agent.'

'You're not supposed to. I was undercover.' Agent Reppetto grinned, apparently guiltless about her public make-out session, and Mary wondered if she were some new breed of Italian. 'We've had our eye on Olanski a long time. He moves a significant amount of drugs out of New York and is distributing to a network of dealers here. Mostly he sells to dealers in private school. He sold to the wrong kid a few months ago, the son of a United States Attorney.'

'Not a smart move. What will happen to him?'

'We'll charge him, but he'll make bail. We're gonna try our best to put him out of business, keep him away from other kids. It's mandatory sentencing and we'll prosecute him as an adult.'

Paige groaned softly. 'Does that mean he'll go to jail?'

Agent Reppetto nodded. 'I can't discuss that with you. In any event, he should be out on bail tonight.'

'I see,' Mary said, but noticed that Paige's face fell. The teenager was going through so much and she was probably remembering Trevor's cheating on her. The least Mary could do was to clear up the confusion, however awkwardly. 'Agent Reppetto, did you have some sort of affair with Trevor, to bust him?'

'No, I'm not a spy,' Reppetto answered, with a laugh. 'He wanted to make a buy in New York, then take me to Petrossian to celebrate. We never got to the caviar. I just wanted to go to the buy.' She clapped her hands together. 'Now, we've briefed the interrogating agent on your facts. Shall we go watch the interview?'

Ten minutes later, Mary and Paige gathered at one side of the two-way mirror into the interview room, and Detectives Kovich and Donovan stood on the other side. Mary had cautioned Paige not to say anything in their earshot as the FBI agents conducted the questioning. The agents had arrested Trevor on the 'buy-and-bust,' as they called it, but had been willing to cooperate with the Philadelphia police on investigating the Newlin murder. Trevor had agreed to talk with them, hoping for leniency. He slumped at the table in his brown leather jacket and white shirt, sullen as he fiddled with a can of Mountain Dew.

'I told you, I don't know anything about it,' Trevor said, and the FBI agent sitting across from him nodded. The agent was a middle-aged man with dark hair, who looked fit in his dark suit. In front of him sat a can of diet Coke.

'You don't know anything about the Newlin murder?'

'No.' Next to Trevor sat a white-haired man in a three-piece suit, whom Mary pegged instantly as his lawyer. She couldn't tell an undercover agent, but she could smell a lawyer through glass. The lawyer stayed quiet during the interrogation, taking occasional notes.

'Were you at the Newlin house that night?'

'No.'

'Have you ever been in the Newlin house?'

'A coupla times.'

'Why?'

To meet the 'rents.'

'Where were you the night Honor Newlin was killed?'

Trevor paused. 'What night was that again?'

'Monday.'

'I was home studying. I had a French final the next day, and you can check it.'

'So you weren't there, with the daughter, Paige Newlin.'

'No.'

'Do you know if the daughter was at her parents' house that night?'

'She wasn't. She was at home. She gets migraines and shit.'

'So you weren't there that night, but you were dating the daughter.'

'Yes.'

'The daughter is pregnant by you.'

'So she says,' Trevor said, and at the window Paige winced. Mary gave her a warning nudge.

The agent sipped his soda. 'What do you know about the Newlin murder?'

'Nothing but what I read in the paper. That the father killed her.'

'Did you give Paige any drugs that night?'

'No, I was home studying that night.'

'Did you ever give Paige drugs?'

'Sometimes. It got her goin',' Trevor said, and it sounded so ugly that this time Mary winced.

'Did you help her calm down after the murder?'

'No.'

'Didn't give her any drugs to calm down?'

'No.'

'Did you tell her to tell the cops that you weren't together that night?'

'No.'

'Did Paige kill her mother?'

'I don't know. Her father did, as far as I know.'

'Did you?'

'Objection,' said the lawyer, but Mary had heard all she had to. She took Paige's arm and led her away. When she left. Detective Donovan was smiling.

But Kovich wasn't.

It was a gloomy cab ride back to the office, with Mary kicking herself for not asking about Paige's bruises before they'd gone to Walsh. She'd been too eager to get Paige to the police and now Trevor was lying, doing his best not to implicate himself. She looked out the window at the chilly city, speeding by. She felt sick at heart. She had screwed up her only chance to help Jack. How could she have been so dumb?

Paige shifted in the seat next to her, looking out her window on the other side, and Mary could only guess how she must be feeling. Her father, in jail because of her, and her lover, betraying them both. Her perfect profile faced the city, but her eyes remained remarkably dry. And this on the day she had buried her mother. Mary couldn't fathom it. She reached over and patted Paige's hand, resting loosely on her coat. 'I'm sorry I goofed up, with Captain Walsh.'

Paige smiled sadly. 'Don't worry about it. It was my fault, too, and I'm sorry.'

'We're gonna figure this thing out, you and me. We have to.'

'I know we are,' Paige said, and Mary heard a new determination strengthen her tone.

'How are you feeling, Paige? I mean, I'm surprised you're not a mess after what Trevor just said.'

'Not at all.' Paige shook her head. Trevor lied to save his own ass. I think I'm finally seeing him for what he really is.'

'I was wrong about him cheating on you, and I'm sorry.'

Paige waved her off. 'You apologize too much, you know that?'

'Do I? Let's make a deal. I'll apologize less, and you say "thank you" more. Fair enough?'

'Fair enough.' Paige smiled. 'And Trevor did cheat on me. He left me and went to New York with another woman. He didn't know she was with the FBI. That's cheating, isn't it?'