Brian Freeman - Spilled Blood

‘Did you know Marco Piva?’ he asked Rollie.

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘I did. It was a tragic thing. He was a decent man.’

Rollie snorted. ‘Decent? You’re kidding.’

‘No, it’s true. Decent men can do abominable things.’

Rollie gave him a strange look and didn’t reply.

‘I wonder what I would have done in his shoes,’ Chris said. ‘Florian blackmailed his wife, exploited her weakness. The guilt she felt must have been unimaginable. After all, she met the parents in St. Croix, right? She talked to them. She saw what had happened to their children. The ugly, slow, awful deaths.’

‘Yes, she did,’ Rollie said. ‘She interviewed all of them.’

‘She could have given them comfort and closure, and instead she covered up what had been done to them. In the end, she couldn’t live with the lie. It destroyed her. It destroyed Marco, too.’

‘Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?’ Rollie asked.

‘No, I’m just saying, it can’t be easy, living your life in the grip of a horrible addiction.’ He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. ‘Florian was a master of manipulation. He was like that in law school, too, finding people’s pressure points, twisting the knife. I wonder how long it took him to find Lucia and figure out how he could influence her. I guess most people have dirty secrets if you know where to look.’

Rollie stared coldly at Chris, and then he checked his watch. ‘I should go find Tanya.’

The younger attorney began to climb off the bench, but Chris stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder. ‘One thing bothers me, Rollie. Ever since I found out the truth about Lucia, I couldn’t understand how Florian could be so sure that the judge would pick her to be the special master in the litigation.’

‘I imagine he approached her after she was selected,’ Rollie said.

‘Florian? No, he was much smarter than that. He only agreed to have a special master appointed because he knew Lucia Causey would write a report that exonerated Mondamin. He would never take a risk on the judge picking someone who couldn’t be compromised. I checked her property records. Lucia started getting money shortly after the lawsuit was filed. Florian had her in his pocket from the beginning.’

‘They fooled everyone. It was a good plan.’

‘Yes, it was, but only if the judge actually selected Lucia,’ Chris said. ‘Of course, if the plaintiff and the defense put the same name on their lists, it was a lock that the judge would pick her. I know why Florian put Lucia on his list of special master candidates. She was the one he wanted. So I’m curious. Why did you put Lucia on your list, Rollie?’

Rollie’s eyes were dead calm. He was a lawyer, unfazed by cross-examination. ‘She had the credentials. There aren’t many epidemiologists with the expertise to handle a project like that.’

‘It was just an accident? A coincidence?’

‘It must have been.’

Chris shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. Florian didn’t bet the future of his company on a coincidence.’

‘I don’t know what to tell you, Chris. I used freelance researchers to provide me with names for my special master list. Maybe Florian got to them.’

‘Maybe so.’ Chris let the silence linger. ‘You know, something else has been bothering me, too.’

‘What’s that?’

‘It’s the note that Aquarius sent you,’ Chris said. ‘Aquarius warned you to keep quiet. He didn’t want Tanya talking to the police about what Ashlynn had told her. About her digging into her father’s secrets. About the proof she had.’

‘So?’

‘So why would Marco think that Tanya knew anything at all?’

Rollie hesitated. ‘Ashlynn must have told him.’

‘No, Ashlynn called Tanya on the night before she was killed, remember? She was in Nebraska. She never made it back home. There’s no way she told Marco.’

‘Maybe she said something to him while they were in the ghost town,’ Rollie said.

‘You mean when he killed her?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I thought that, too. It made sense when we didn’t know who Aquarius was, but now we do. The trouble is that Marco didn’t kill Ashlynn. He had an alibi. He wasn’t there.’

Rollie frowned. ‘Well, he found out somehow. He was afraid that Tanya knew enough to expose him.’

‘Actually, I don’t think Marco knew anything about Tanya.’

‘Then why did he send me that note?’

‘That’s easy. He didn’t. The note was a fake.’

‘A fake? Why would someone go to that trouble?’

‘Not someone, Rollie. You. You faked the note. You needed a reason for Tanya not to tell anyone about Ashlynn’s phone call. You needed to be able to explain why you didn’t tell the police about that call. Aquarius gave you the perfect excuse. You were afraid your daughter was in danger.’

‘What are you saying, Chris?’ Rollie asked, but he knew. He couldn’t hide it.

‘I’m saying that the phone call from Ashlynn was your worst nightmare.’

‘That’s crazy.’

‘Is it? I’m trying to imagine what was going through your head when Ashlynn called. Did she only talk to Tanya, or did Tanya give you the phone? It must have been a shock. Here was Ashlynn talking about her father covering up Mondamin’s role in the deaths in St. Croix, and she says she can prove it now. Did she give you any specifics? Did she mention Lucia Causey? I bet she did.’

Rollie’s face was stone. He said nothing.

‘Poor Ashlynn,’ Chris went on. ‘She thought she was telling the one man who could help her. She thought she was giving you a chance to go back into court and be a hero for the people of St. Croix. She was willing to betray her father and expose his corruption, but she had no idea that exposing Florian meant exposing you .’

‘Exposing me?’ Rollie asked impassively.

‘Florian didn’t just blackmail Lucia,’ Chris said. ‘He blackmailed you, too.’

‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Yes, I do. It must have seemed so simple. So safe. All you had to do was put Lucia Causey on your list for the judge. One little betrayal. No one would ever question it. Like you said, she had the credentials.’

Rollie scratched the stubble on his chin with his thick fingers. He didn’t look at Chris; instead, he stared across the trampled mud of the field. Finally, his lips folded into a small smile. ‘It’s a shame you’re not a trial lawyer, Chris. You’d be good with juries. You really know how to tell a story. Hell, I almost believed it myself. Then I remembered. This is the man who would do anything to protect his daughter from a murder charge. He’d lie. He’d destroy reputations. Don’t play those games with me. You’re shooting in the dark. You don’t know a damn thing.’

Chris leaned closer to him. The proximity made his flesh crawl. ‘I know about the sick shit that Kirk Watson was selling you, Rollie.’

The young lawyer froze. He looked like an invisible man who suddenly realized the world could see who he was. Chris saw a glimmer in his dark eyes of what it had been like for the man to live two separate lives, one in public, one for his private desires.

‘Kirk told Florian you were one of his customers, didn’t he?’ Chris said. ‘That was the leverage Florian had. It must have been devastating when he came to see you. The litigation was your shot at redemption, wasn’t it? You thought you were doing something noble for once in your life, but your addiction poisoned it like everything else. Did Florian humiliate you? Did he treat you like a criminal? If you didn’t play along with him, you’d be arrested, exposed, disbarred, destroyed. Everyone would know what kind of man you really were. Including your daughter.’