Phillip Margolin - Ties That Bind

Amanda tried to sound calm but her heart was going as fast as it did at the end of a race.

"Next time, I could probably manage at least a minute," she said.

"How about this weekend?"

"I've got to check with my dad. He's out of the hospital, but he's still recuperating. Can I call you?"

"Yeah." Toby grinned. "This'll give me time to figure out how to recruit you for the team."

"Try bribing me. Dinner at a classy restaurant might do it."

"I'll check my bribe budget and await your call," Toby said as he slipped back into the water.

Amanda headed toward a lane. Somewhere during their talk she'd stopped feeling scared.

The maitre d' led Amanda, Toby Brooks, Kate Ross, and Daniel Ames to their table in the back of the packed restaurant. Mephisto's was Portland's latest attempt to replicate New York hip. It was noisy, crowded with trendy dressers, and Amanda figured herself for one of the oldest people in the joint. Toby had suggested the place for their second date, because the food was supposed to be good and the people-watching great.

An anorexic waitress introduced herself as their server and took their drink orders, which had to be shouted over the din.

"If I lose my hearing I'm suing you," Amanda yelled at Toby. He grinned.

"I'm going to the ladies' room," Kate shouted in Amanda's ear.

Amanda told Toby where the women were headed and followed Kate's back through the crowd. As they passed the bar, which was three deep, someone touched her arm. Amanda turned and found herself face to face with Jon Dupre.

"You here alone?" he asked.

"No. A date and friends."

"Point out the table and I'll have a bottle of champagne sent over."

"That's not necessary."

"Of course it is. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here, tonight, and able to treat you."

Dupre's smiled faded and he looked serious. "You did a great job, Amanda."

"You really should be thanking Ally."

"Have you heard anything about where she is?"

"She's in the witness protection program and has a new identity. They won't tell anyone where to find her. The only thing I did hear is that she has custody of Lori Andrews's daughter."

"That's great. I hope she has a terrific life."

"She deserves one. You'd still be in jail if it weren't for her. She must have loved you a lot to risk so much for you."

Dupre looked puzzled for a moment.

"You mean romantically?" he asked.

Amanda nodded.

"You've got that all wrong."

Amanda looked confused. Dupre laughed. "You didn't know, did you?"

"Know what?"

"About Ally. It's why she took Lori's kid. She wasn't in love with me. Lori was her lover."

"But she told me that you and she . . ."

"What? That we screwed?"

Amanda nodded.

"We did, once--a threesome with Lori, actually. But it was clear that they were a lot more interested in each other than they were in me, so . . ." Jon shrugged.

But Amanda had stopped listening moments before. Ally and Lori had been lovers . Suddenly everything made sense.

"What's wrong?" Dupre asked.

"Ally must have been furious with you for sending Lori to Senator Travis."

"Jesus, was she ever. Ally went off the deep end when they discovered the body."

"She forgave you, though, didn't she?" Amanda asked.

"After I was busted. She came to the jail and told me she'd do anything to get me out. I guess she meant what she said."

Amanda felt so stupid. Suddenly, a heavily made-up redhead in a skintight, low-cut dress pushed through the crowd and latched onto Dupre's arm. Amanda noticed that her pupils were the size of wagon wheels. Dupre saw her checking them, and colored.

"Who's this?" the redhead asked suspiciously.

"Maggie, meet my attorney, Amanda Jaffe."

Maggie nodded and flashed Amanda a proprietary glare.

"Nice meeting you," Amanda said. "See you around, Jon."

Kate Ross was waiting for Amanda outside the door to the restroom.

"What did Dupre want?" she asked.

"Just to say hello."

"That pencil he's with had a cocaine mustache when she left the little girls' room."

"I'm his lawyer, Kate, not his mother."

"Touche."

"I want to run something by you," Amanda said. There were no other women waiting, but she checked around her to make certain that no one could overhear them. "Jon said something that got me thinking. Did you know that Ally Bennett and Lori Andrews were lovers?"

"No shit!"

"Maybe The Vaughn Street Glee Club wasn't responsible for Senator Travis's murder. They had the motive to kill him--he was out of control and putting the conspiracy in danger--but think about the MO."

"You're right. It wasn't the same."

Amanda nodded. "The club sedated its victims to fool the police into thinking that a murder was a suicide. But there was never any question that Travis was murdered."

"And look at how he was murdered," Kate said, more to herself than to Amanda. "The person who killed Travis hated him."

Kate was quiet for a moment. "Are you thinking that Ally killed Travis to avenge Lori Andrews?"

Amanda nodded. "Carl Rittenhouse told Tim about a phone call that Travis got the night he died, telling him that Jon Dupre wanted to make it up to him for the incident at the Westmont. A police report says that a call was made from Jon's house to the senator's house that evening. We know that Ally was the only person with Jon after Joyce Hamada and Cheryl Riggio left, and Hamada said that he had passed out."

"So you think Bennett made the call, lured Travis to the A-frame, drugged him, and beat him to death?"

"It's possible. I mean, it all makes sense. Even Wendell Hayes's attempt to murder Jon. Hayes and the others thought that Dupre had murdered one of their own. Maybe they were trying to kill him to avenge the death of a member of their secret circle."

"Wait a minute. What about the earring? Dupre's earring was found at Travis's cabin. How did it get there?"

"Ally blamed Jon for sending Lori to the senator after the way he beat her the first time. I think she doped Jon, too, then took the earring from Jon's house and planted it to frame him. But once he was arrested, she regretted what she'd done and tried to save him."

"I guess it's possible," Kate said. "But can you prove it?"

"I'm not even going to try. My job was to clear Jon. I don't have to find Travis's killer. That's a job for the police."

"And you're not going to help them, are you?"

"Travis was scum. He murdered Lori Andrews and he got what he deserved. Whether it was Jon who killed him, or The Glee Club, or Ally Bennett, it can remain a mystery, as far as I'm concerned."

"What if Grant or Kerrigan or someone else is convicted for killing Travis?"

Amanda remembered how she felt when Castillo kidnapped her and the terror that had almost paralyzed her in Frank's basement. Castillo had been acting on Grant and Kerrigan's orders. They wanted to break her, to kill her. And it wasn't just her. How many other people had they murdered? If they went to death row for a crime they didn't commit, so be it. Justice would be served when The Vaughn Street Glee Club failed to exist.

Chapter Fifty-Nine.

Pedro Aragon was sunning himself on the patio of his hacienda when one of his men brought him the phone. A nubile, brown-skinned woman in a thong was lying beside Pedro. The woman looked a lot like the fantasy woman in the dream that he'd awakened to on the day he met Harvey Grant, Wendell Hayes, and William Kerrigan so many years ago.

"It's Senor Kerrigan."

Pedro had been expecting the call but he had hoped it would never come. He was sad that Bill had made it.

"There's a lot going on, Pedro."

"I know. I get the papers here. Poor Harvey and Stan. It doesn't look so good for them. How are you doing?"