Мэри Эндрюс - The Newcomer

“I have. It’s like flushing money down a toilet. Nobody can tell me anything. That’s why I thought of you.”

“Really? Because I am a criminal mastermind?”

Evan got a laugh out of that.

“No, seriously. I want you to ask around. Talk to her friends at that diner. You have the kind of face people trust. I bet people tell you stuff all the time.”

“And then what? What if I were to find out where she is? I tell you and then you tell the cops and they arrest her and bring your kid back home?”

“Something like that … Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or we deal with Letty ourselves. You know what the courts are like. She’s a woman. Some guys probably even think she’s hot. She’d probably get off with a slap on the wrist—even for killing her own sister. No. She should have to pay for what she did to my family. Like, really pay.”

Letty felt a chill run down her spine. Joe had been watching her face carefully. He reached across the table and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Vikki Hill saw, but said nothing. She tapped the phone and the recording stopped abruptly.

“It goes on like that for a few more minutes. He dances around, blames you for killing Tanya, blames her for wrecking his business. He has some not very nice things to say about you, Letty. I tell you, he’s pretty paranoid right now. Apparently, Tanya told him she knew he was paying off city inspectors, and she threatened to take what she knew to the police.”

Letty’s voice was hoarse from anxiety and lack of sleep. “About a month before she was killed, Tanya told me Evan was going to have to agree to giving up custody of Maya, and that he’d have to agree to her move to LA because she had the goods on him. But she never told me what she knew, or how she knew it.”

“Your sister was full of secrets, wasn’t she?” Vikki Hill asked.

Letty stared down at the tabletop, at the greasy, yolk-streaked remains of the FBI agent’s breakfast. It reminded her of the thousands of dishes she’d cleared in her years of waiting tables at the Lazy Daizy. And of sitting down, that first time, across from the polite, generous customer all the waitresses referred to as Table Two.

What if she’d blown him off, told him to take a hike that day, when he invited her to see the apartment he suddenly had available? What if she’d never met Evan Wingfield, or allowed Tanya to guilt-trip her into allowing her to move in with her? The what-ifs were relentless. They woke her up every morning, came to her in her sleep, or at odd moments when she was reading with Maya.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Secrets within secrets. That was Tanya.”

Joe drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “So far, all we’ve heard is Wingfield blowing off steam, which is not the same thing as asking you to find somebody to kill Letty. Did he eventually stop dancing around?”

Vikki Hill picked up the phone and tapped the fast-forward button on the recording. “Give a listen,” she said.

It was her voice, midsentence.

“Why don’t you tell me the real reason you want Letty dealt with?”

“I told you already. Call it frontier justice.”

“No. I call it bullshit. I know you, Evan. It all comes down to money, doesn’t it?”

“That crazy Tanya had a will. Who knew? Some Indian woman she met at AA. Who hires a drunk lawyer for estate planning? Tanya Carnahan, that’s who. Long story short, she left everything to Maya, in a trust with Letty named as Maya’s guardian.”

“So?”

“So, when we were together, before things went bad, I put a bunch of my holdings in an LLC and transferred it into Tanya’s name, which I never mentioned to her.”

“As a tax dodge.”

“It’s perfectly legal. Now though, with Tanya dead, my four-year-old kid and her crazy aunt hold title to, like, twelve million dollars’ worth of prime New York real estate. My apartments. And my lawyers tell me I can sue, but unless I can prove Letty killed Tanya, the apartments are held in a trust that Letty controls.”

“But you’re Maya’s legal father, right? Can Tanya just cut you out of the kid’s life like that?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But we don’t need to go into that right now. Let’s get back to Letty. Can you find her, or not?”

“Maybe? I mean, what’s it worth to you?”

“Ten thousand.”

“Bwhahahaha. Seriously. I’ve got a job, you know. I’ll have to take time off, call in some favors, that costs money. Plus, travel, if it comes to that. Plus, if you want me to hire someone to take care of Letty, that ain’t free. I mean, I don’t even know how much it costs to hire a hit man.”

“Christ! Will you quit saying that word?”

“What should I call it instead? A consultant?”

“Whatever. Just get it done.”

“Fifty thousand. And don’t even try and dick around with me. I know you’ve got the money, Evan.”

“Okay. Do it. I don’t want to know any of the details. Just take care of it.”

“And what about the kid?”

“Yeah. Of course. Maya. You’ll see that she’s not hurt, right? Look, I gotta go. Text me when you know something.”

31

THE FBI AGENT TAPPED THE phone and the recording ended abruptly.

“Take care of it,” Letty said, her tone bitter. “That’s what Evan used to tell me when I worked for him. If the cable was out in an apartment, he’d say ‘Take care of it.’ If one of the tenants in a building was making waves, or a mattress needed replacing, my job was to ‘take care of it.’ I’m just another messy inconvenience to him. And Maya? She’s an afterthought.”

Vikki Hill nodded in agreement. “Wingfield sees her as an asset. Like one of his apartments.”

“Do you think he knows he’s not really Maya’s father?” Joe asked.

“Doubtful.” Vikki motioned for the server to refill her coffee. She turned to Letty. “You heard the man, in his own words.”

“We all did. He was hiring you to hire a hit man to kill me. So arrest him. That’s a crime, right? Why do you need me?”

Joe and Agent Hill exchanged a knowing look. “Because it’s not enough,” Joe said gently. “Solicitation for murder is difficult to prove. Even when you have the accused on tape. And Wingfield is careful. He never actually says he wants you killed. Even though that’s clearly his intent.”

“What are you telling me?”

Agent Hill leaned across the table, locking eyes with her. “This sucks, I know. But if you want to put Evan Wingfield in prison, make sure he never threatens you, or your niece or anyone else, ever again, you need to help us, Letty.” She glanced over at Joe, who reluctantly nodded.

“Here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna text Wingfield today and tell him I found a guy who’ll ‘take care of things.’” She pointed at Joe. “Officer DeCurtis is that guy. It’s going to be tricky, because Wingfield is cautious, and he’s paranoid. But on the plus side, he thinks I’m just another dumb broad. I’ll play along with that, ask for specific directions. We have to get him on the record, directing the hit on you. And after, after he’s convinced I’ve done my job, and he pays me, we drop the net. He’s trapped and can’t get out.”

“This won’t work,” Letty said. “I’ve known Evan way longer than you. He always covers his ass. He has layers of people around him, doing the dirty work.”

“Okay, what do you suggest? I’m listening.”

“I don’t know,” Letty admitted wearily. “I feel like I’m living in a nightmare. When does this go away?”