Bargain Hunting (25 page)

The sights and sounds around me became a blur as the knot in my stomach wound tighter with each passing minute. Building fiercely until I felt the spasm of satisfaction begin to wrack my body. Liam groaned against my ear as he joined in my release. His hold didn’t diminish and he kept placing tiny kisses against my damp brow.

“Told you it would be good,” he said without conceit.

“You didn’t tell me it would be fantastic,” I responded before realizing I’d spoken the words aloud. I felt kind of foolish at the admission.

He fell silent and gently stroked my hair.

I’d never had sex like that. I wasn’t even sure if sex was the right word. It was more like a fusion of man and woman, primordial, punctuated by the most mind-blowing orgasm I’d ever experienced. Only now came the hard part. After-sex silence or awkward chitchat? Should I discreetly slip into the bathroom and freshen up, or should I lie there, lingering in his arms? Someone needed to create a manual.
Postcoital etiquette for the woman who probably just blew a great friendship
.

Sometimes the truth hurts—literally.

The awkwardness was still
there in the morning when I was pouring two mugs of steamy coffee. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. Not because we had had sex, but because we had done it twice. My shower had been officially christened.

I was like a tightly wound watch, while Liam was the very picture of relaxed. It’s so much easier for guys. That’s because they don’t dissect every little nuance.

“Are you going to remain silent?” he asked, grinning.

“It’s the best plan I’ve got right now.”

“I’ve got to go to Ashley’s place this morning.”

I wanted to throw my coffee mug at him. “You’re a busy guy.”

He sighed. “I’m going over to let the dog out. You can come along if you want. You’d like Perry Mason.”

“I’m afraid of dogs.”

“Perry is harmless.”

“He has teeth, doesn’t he?”

“Well, you’ll have to meet eventually. I can’t leave him at Ashley’s forever.”

Pass, thanks, on the dog meet and greet. “I have a job,” I reminded him. “Tony has something he needs me to do on a case, and I want to take a second look at the guys from your unit. If Santos was telling the truth, someone’s sitting on some serious cash.”

“And if he was full of crap?”

“Then I’ll just have wasted some time.” I set my mug in the sink. “Why are you so resistant to the idea that some people on the force could be corrupt?”

“I worked with these guys. Trusted them. Cops have a special bond. We put our lives in each other’s hands. It’s just hard for me to think they intentionally got me booted from the force. Even harder to imagine that they’re responsible for the deaths of Stan and José.”

“But they threw you under the bus the first chance they got.”

“Now you sound like Ashley. Next thing I know you’ll be telling me you think I shot that kid.”

“Why would I do that?” I asked, puzzled.

“That was Ashley’s theory. She never thought I meant for it to happen, she was just convinced by the evidence and my attorney’s suggestion that I take a plea.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, thinking it was a lame response to what he’d just said.

“It got worse. I spent all the money we’d saved for her salon on my jackass lawyer. Cleaned us out. Ashley had to go back to work in one of those quickie nail salons.”

“But things turned out okay. She has her place now.”

“That didn’t seem like it was in the cards five years ago. She was convinced we’d go bankrupt before I went to prison.” He wasn’t looking at me anymore. His stare was far off in the distance and his face was devoid of emotion. “She made a decision that ended our marriage.”

“Ashley wanted the divorce?”

He scoffed. “I was not a very pleasant person back then. I was mad at the world and she was convenient. We were on shaky ground. She put up a united front for the media, but she had so many doubts. About me. About our future. I realize now I can’t blame her for what she did. And I’ve worked hard to replace every penny we spent on the attorney’s fees.”

“You’re partners?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. The salon is all hers. I just made good on what I’d taken from her.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why? It wasn’t like you intentionally blew through your savings. Your career—your
life—
was on the line.”

“That’s exactly what she said when she told me she’d had an abortion. She said she didn’t want to be a single parent raising a kid in poverty. We’d been trying for a baby for a year. It took me a long time to forgive her for that. She never even told me she was pregnant.”

“That’s a huge thing. But you’re past it now.”

“It took a while, but we learned to be friends again.”

I took a steadying breath. “Friends with benefits?”

His gaze met and held mine. “No,” he said with so much clarity something tense subsided in me. “Anything else you want to know?”

I felt my face warm. “Nope, I think I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one morning.”

He laughed. “Why would you be embarrassed?”

“For asking a question I had no business asking.”

Liam came around and drew me into a tender embrace. “You can ask me anything.”

“Really?” A day ago I had like a zillion questions. Now I could barely remember my own name. I guess things had changed between us. But for how long?

“Sure.”

“Could you save this hug for later? I’ve got to get to work.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Consider it a date.”

I smiled all the way to work. Who wouldn’t? Liam made me happy and it felt like forever since I’d been happy. I was more than happy, I was ecstatic. I didn’t even mind Margaret’s scowl as I breezed through the lobby and went to my office. I had a message from Tony to meet him in his office in thirty minutes. That gave me plenty of time to send e-mails to Jane, Liv, and Becky to arrange for a lunch. I just had to share my good news.

We made plans to meet at Five Brothers at one.

I gathered up my Travis Johnson material and a pad and headed up to the fourth floor. The executive secretary announced my arrival and I was allowed to walk down the hall to Tony’s office.

He looked a little tired. “You okay?” I asked.

“Only if you tell me I have a shrink for Travis.”

“He’ll be at the detention center at eleven.”

“Thank God. I spoke to the prosecutor this morning and
he’s out for blood. He really wants that kid tried for murder as an adult.”

“Is there anything you need me to do?” I asked.

“How are things going on getting the records on Travis?” he asked.

I shrugged. “DCF will only provide information under subpoena. The school won’t release the information without a waiver from the parent or legal guardian, which is DCF. Ditto with the medical records. I filled out the subpoenas and they’ll be messengered over this morning. We should have the paperwork in a day or so, then I can get the information. Is there anything else I can do?”

Tony rubbed his hands over his face. “Yeah, I need a miracle.”

“Then you’re in luck,” I said. “I think I have a lead on Liam’s case.”

Tony sat back in his chair. “Shoot.”

“The Latin Bandits had an inside man.”

“A cop?” he asked, his interest piqued. “José? He had the tattoo.”

“I don’t know yet. I was thinking of going to see José’s ex-wife to see if she can shed any light on the accusation.”

“Just who made this accusation?” Tony asked.

I squirmed a little in my seat. “Jimmy Santos.”

He leaned forward. “Please tell me Liam went to see Santos and you didn’t ignore my very specific instructions.”

“I went to South Bay prison yesterday.”

“Jesus, Finley.”

“It’s a secure facility. I wasn’t in any danger. The worst part was getting through security,” I lied. No need to tell him I needed to tease Santos with a lacy bra to get him to talk.

“Do I need to staple you to your chair?”

“Not in this skirt. I paid full price,” I joked. It didn’t seem to help.

“Just so we don’t have any more misunderstandings, stay away from high-security prisons. Besides, Santos would lie about his own mother just for the fun of it.”

“But,” I argued, “why lie about being ripped off? According to Santos, every time there was a bust, cash went missing.”

“According to Santos. And he’s not very reliable.”

“Then let me talk to the ex–Mrs. Lopez.”

He was shaking his head. “I doubt she’ll want to talk to a paralegal representing the man who is accused of killing José.”

“They’re divorced. Maybe she won’t care. At least let me try.”

“Fine. But no one else. Let me or Liam handle talking to the cops.”

“Fair enough.” Good thing he didn’t know I had hand-delivered the letters. Although he might find it helpful to know Armando hid from me and the others all met me with hostility.

Once I was back at my office, I decided to dig a little deeper into the lives of the officers in the gang unit. I started with José Lopez only because I had a suspicion that whatever was going on had started with him. He was the only one I could tie directly to the Latin Bandits.

José was divorced, so I used LexisNexis to get information from the pleadings. It wasn’t a typical divorce. Mrs. Lopez got it all. And I mean all. The house in Ibis, the car, the boat, and the kids. What she didn’t get was alimony. And I think I knew why. Alimony is taxable, so instead José was paying a ton in
child support. It didn’t look good. I added up the figures and José’s expenditures far exceeded his salary. I also checked the property records and discovered José and his wife had bought the house in Ibis at the height of the real estate boom. On first blush, the house was now valued in the low three hundreds. But when they purchased it, the price was a hefty six hundred and seventy-five. They’d put down a 70 percent deposit, and up until the time of his death, José was paying the mortgage plus the rent on his house in Riviera Beach.

Now that I knew something about the scam, I rechecked the other officers’ assets. All had bought expensive properties using hefty down payments so their mortgages were in line with their income. The homes were well out of their price ranges. Well, everyone but Stan Cain. He and his wife had a nice ranch in the Acreage with a tax base of one hundred and ninety thousand. Whatever was going on, Stan wasn’t involved. Which was probably what got him killed.

I dialed Liam’s cell. “Hey,” he answered.

“Are you in a tunnel?” I asked.

“You’re on speakerphone. I’m heating up moo shu unless you’ve got a better offer.”

“Sorry, lunch with the girls.”

“Too bad. What’s up?”

“I know how they were hiding the money.”

“Who?”

“All of them. Well, except Stan Cain.” I explained how they had all invested in homes, boats, and cars and put assets in their wives’ names. It was really quite creative. Liam was quiet for a moment. “Liam?”

“I’m here,” he said. “José was the leak. The other guys must have caught on and taken a cut.”

“I know what they did with the money, I just don’t know how it actually worked.”

“Pretty well, obviously. I didn’t even get a whiff of it when I was in the unit.”

“I’m guessing they were afraid you’d catch on, so that’s why they set you up for the Peña shooting.”

“Sons of bitches.”

“How did a raid work? Who would have had knowledge of it?”

“Depended on who got a tip or who had the intel.”

“Then what?”

“We’d type out a probable-cause document to get the no-knock warrants from the judge.”

“Was it always the same judge?” I asked, excited.

“No. It was whoever was up in rotation.”

“So they had to coordinate things themselves. Maybe one of them shared that with a wife or a girlfriend.”

“I wouldn’t,” he said. “Marriages go south.”

“Well, they had to know
something.
They’re all living like queens, even the divorced ones. I’m going to see if I can get Ina Lopez to talk to me.”

“Good luck. If I remember correctly, she’s shy and not comfortable with strangers.”

“All I need is one person to tell the truth and the whole scheme falls apart.”

“And you put a target on your back. Maybe now would be a good time for you to step back. Finley, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“That makes two of us. Why don’t you come with me? But stay in the car. I doubt she’ll speak freely with the man accused of killing the father of her children.”

“What time?”

“Give me a few hours. Say, two thirty. Meet me here at the office.”