Ties That Bind (13 page)

“I just finished arguing a motion.”

“Did you win?”

“It was a push.”

“You have time for coffee? It’s almost three. Coffee-break time where I come from.”

“Thanks for the invite, but I’m up to my neck in work and I’ve got to get back to my office.”

“Can I walk with you?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Jon Dupre. The Wendell Hayes killing.”

“Why are you interested in that? There’s no federal crime.”

“No, not directly, but Dupre may be connected to an international drug dealer who is financing terrorism. So it’s peripheral, this interest in Dupre. Just loose ends.”

“Who’s the drug dealer, in case I run across something?”

“Mahmoud Hafnawi. He’s a Palestinian living in Beirut. Let me know if Dupre mentions him.”

“I will.”

Hunter shook his head. “Dupre is one weird dude.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The guy murdered his lawyer. Why do you think he did it?”

“That’s a question we’re all asking.”

“Did Hayes and Dupre know each other? Was there bad blood between them?”

“Hayes knew Jon through his parents, but we haven’t found any other connection. Dupre didn’t even hire Hayes. The presiding judge asked him to take Dupre’s case as a favor.”

“I’d have thought he’d already have his own lawyer.”

“He did. A guy named Oscar Baron, but Baron wouldn’t represent Dupre because Dupre couldn’t pay his fee.”

“Any question about Dupre’s guilt?”

“Of the Hayes murder? None. Wendell was killed in a contact visiting room up in the jail. They were locked in together. It’s as clean a case as I’ve ever seen.”

Hunter was quiet for a moment. Then he shook his head. “Considering the trouble he’s in, it sure is odd he’d off his lawyer.”

“Have you ever figured out why these people do the things they do?”

“You’ve got a point. Still, Hayes was one of the best, no?”

Tim nodded.

“You’d think Dupre would want a guy like Hayes running his defense, creating reasonable doubt, saving him from death row. If I was in Dupre’s shoes, Wendell Hayes would be the last guy I’d kill.”

“But he did. We have an eyewitness, a jail guard. He saw the whole thing. Poor guy was shaken up so badly that he’s on administrative leave.”

“I’m not surprised. Watching someone get sliced up like that and not being able to help. What did Dupre use?”

“A piece of jagged metal,” Tim answered. “It looks like the lever they use to open and close the air vents in the jail. It had been sharpened to a point.”

“Where did he get it?”

Kerrigan shrugged. “It’s your typical jailhouse shiv, homemade. We’re checking Dupre’s cell and the rest of the housing unit to see if he made it himself, but Dupre could have bought it from someone.”

They arrived at the elevators. Kerrigan pushed up and Hunter pressed down. The up arrow turned green.

“You heading back to D.C.?” Kerrigan asked as the doors opened.

“In a bit.”

“Safe journey.”

“Hey, I forgot,” Hunter said. He handed Kerrigan one of his business cards. “In case anything comes up.”

Hunter was smiling when the doors closed, like he knew some secret. Something about the agent bugged Kerrigan. He remembered feeling the same way when they’d first met at the Travis crime scene. There had been something about Hunter that had bothered him then. Suddenly he realized what it was. The cleaning people had discovered the senator’s body only a few hours before Richard Curtis had called Tim and told him to go to the cabin. J. D. Hunter had told Kerrigan that he was picked to investigate Travis’s case because the FBI wanted an agent from Washington involved in the murder of a senator. How had Hunter gotten to Portland so quickly? It would have taken time for Washington to learn about the senator’s death. Even if Hunter flew to Portland on an FBI jet, there was no way he could have gotten to Travis’s house as fast as he had.

Kerrigan was still mulling over this thought when he walked into the reception area of the district attorney’s office and found Carl Rittenhouse waiting for him, unshaven, his eyes bloodshot, looking worse than the last time they saw each other. Tim’s first thought was that he was taking his boss’s death extremely hard.

Rittenhouse stood as soon as he spotted Kerrigan. “Tim, do you have a minute?” he asked anxiously.

“Sure, Carl.”

Kerrigan motioned Rittenhouse to follow him to his office.

“Yesterday, at the house, you were talking about Dupre,” Rittenhouse said as soon as Tim shut his office door. “You said he ran an escort service and some woman was killed.”

“That’s right.” Kerrigan dropped his files on his desk and sat behind it.

“I wanted to tell you then, but I wasn’t certain, so I found the article about her murder in the paper. There was a picture.” Rittenhouse hung his head. “It was the same woman.”

“I’m not following you, Carl.”

“I’d seen the woman before, Lori Andrews. I took her to the cabin.”

“The Senator’s cabin?” Kerrigan leaned forward. “When was this? The night she was killed?”

“No, a few months before. We were back in town for a round of fund-raisers. Harold asked me to meet her and drive her out. That’s all. I never saw her again.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“What if the argument Dupre had with the senator at the Westmont was about Lori Andrews? What if the senator was involved in her death?”

Rittenhouse was sweating.

“Have you helped the senator with women before, Carl?”

“Once or twice. I’m not proud of it.”

“Did he ever do anything to any of them that would make you think he hurt Lori Andrews?”

The AA looked down. He wrung his hands.

“There was one time, this one girl. It was in D.C. There had been a party at an embassy. He called me at home, late, about three in the morning. I brought her home, to her apartment. She had a black eye and some bruises.”

“The senator beat her?”

“He said that she’d had an accident.”

“What did the woman say?”

“Nothing. She was really scared and I didn’t ask. Harold told me to bring money, five hundred dollars. I gave it to her. The senator never mentioned it again.”

Kerrigan asked Rittenhouse a few more questions, told him that he would have Sean McCarthy take his statement at a convenient time, then thanked him for coming. As soon as Rittenhouse was gone, Kerrigan grabbed the police reports in Travis’s case. On page seven of a report written by one of the investigators from the crime lab, there was mention of traces of blood found on the baseboard of a wall in the living room. This blood appeared to be old. Kerrigan called the lab and spoke to the person who had written the report. Before he hung up, the prosecutor asked the investigator to run a DNA test to see if the blood on the baseboard was Lori Andrews’s.

“I’m Amanda Jaffe,” she said, holding out a business card, which Ally looked at but did not take.

“So?”

“I’m an attorney. This is my investigator, Kate Ross. I’ve been appointed by the court to represent Jon Dupre. We’d like to talk to you about him.”

Amanda hesitated for a moment, hoping for a response. When she didn’t get one, she forged on.

“He’s facing a possible death sentence, Miss Bennett. Kate and I want to save his life, but we need information to do that. Right now I don’t know very much about him. That’s why we’re here.”

Ally opened the door and ushered Amanda and Kate into a small, spotless front room. The floor was partially covered by a throw rug. Framed Monet and Van Gogh prints decorated the walls. The furniture was inexpensive but in good taste. Ally dropped into a chair and folded her arms across her breasts; her body language told Amanda that Bennett didn’t trust her.

“What do you want to talk about?” Ally asked.

“The DA has charged Jon with killing Wendell Hayes, a lawyer who was appointed to represent Jon before I was, and U.S. Senator Harold Travis. We’re interested in anything you can tell us about Jon or these two men that will help us defend him.”

“I don’t know anything about Hayes, but I can tell you about Travis,” Ally said angrily. “The papers are making him sound like a choirboy but he was scum.”

“Why do you say that?”

Ally’s eyes misted. “He murdered Lori.”

All good trial lawyers develop an ability to keep their emotions hidden when the unexpected happens, so Amanda managed to conceal her surprise.

“Are you talking about Lori Andrews?” Kate asked. “The woman who was found in Washington Park?”

Ally nodded.

“The police think Jon killed Lori Andrews to keep her from testifying at his trial,” Kate said, keeping her voice level.

“The day Lori disappeared, Travis asked for her specifically. He had one of Pedro Aragon’s men take her someplace so he could meet her later.”

“How do you know that?” Kate asked.

“I was there. Travis had a fund-raiser for a bunch of high rollers at this big house in the country. He arranged for Jon to bring me, Lori, and some other girls to entertain these special guests after the regular guests had left.”

“You’re talking about sex?” Amanda said.

“What do you think?” Ally asked with a roll of her eyes.

“What happened with Travis and Lori?”

“Me and the other three girls were at the party most of the evening. We were told who our dates would be, but we circulated most of the night so no one would catch on about the real party that would take place after the straight guests left. As soon as we were the only ones left, Jon drove up with Lori, and Travis told one of Aragon’s men to take her away.” Ally paused. When she spoke again there was a catch in her voice. “Lori was scared to death. I tried to get Jon to stop it but . . .”

Ally shook her head.

“Why would Pedro Aragon be getting women for Senator Travis?”

Ally shrugged. “All I know is that Travis dated Lori before. The first time he beat her bad. One of Aragon’s men drove her to emergency. He told her if she called the cops he would kill her and her daughter, Stacey.”

“If Travis beat her, why did Lori see him again?” Amanda asked.

Ally looked sick.

“She didn’t know what Jon had done until she got to the fund-raiser. Then it was too late.”

“Why did Jon put Lori in that position?”

“He needed the money. Ever since he got busted, he’s had trouble running his business. I’m guessing that Travis paid Jon a lot for the evening.”

“Wasn’t it dangerous for the senator to deal with a pimp who was under indictment?” Kate asked. “What if it got in the newspapers?”

“Lori worked for Jon, and Travis had this thing for her. She was small and she looked young. Travis made her pretend she was a bad little girl. Then he would punish her.” Bennett’s eyes welled up with tears. “And I’m sure it never entered his mind that he could get in trouble. He was going to be president. He probably thought he could get away with anything.”

Bennett paused and her features hardened. “A little rough stuff was something we’ve all put up with, but what he did . . . I picked up Lori at the hospital after he got through with her that first time. You should have seen her.”

Bennett shivered.

“I don’t suppose she considered going to the police,” Kate said.

“She wouldn’t tell anyone but me what happened. She was afraid of Aragon but she was just as afraid that Children’s Services would take Stacey away from her if she admitted what she did, which is what happened anyway. Besides, who would have believed her? Lori was a whore and Travis was a big shot.”

“Do you like Jon?” Kate asked.

The question surprised Bennett. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“If you testify for Jon, the prosecutor can ask you about anything that would give you a motive to lie for him,” Kate explained.

Ally thought about the question. Then she straightened up and clasped her hands in her lap, her shoulders folding in from tension.

“It doesn’t matter whether I like Jon. I owe him.”

“Why?”

“My mother died a few years ago and my father . . . He needed a woman,” she said bitterly. “I was the closest one. I got out of there as fast as I could and I ran as far as I could and ended up living in an apartment in the same building as Lori. I was barely making it when she introduced me to Jon.” She shrugged. “It was easy money and I’m good,” she added forcefully. “But Jon saw that I was smart, too. No one ever saw that in me before. He showed me how to run the phones, then he showed me how to handle the accounting.”

Ally looked down at her lap. When she looked up, Amanda saw strength in her that had not come through before.

“Jon trusts me and he made me believe in myself. I’ve even started taking some courses at Portland Community College to get my GED. Jon encouraged that.”

“Are you and Jon lovers?”

“Lovers?” Ally laughed. “We’ve screwed, but our thing is different. Jon fucks the other girls and he parties with them, but I’m the only one he trusts. I’m the woman he sends when someone important wants one of his girls. And no one else knows anything about the business. When the cops tried to frighten me into turning on Jon I told them to get fucked. So, no, we’re not lovers, but Jon means something to me.”

“Ally, I’ve got a problem and you can help me solve it. Jon may trust you, but he doesn’t trust me. When I met him at the jail he walked out on me. You need to know that I am the only lawyer in Oregon who will take his case, which means that I’m the only lawyer in Oregon who can keep Jon off of death row. I need you to talk to him, to tell him to cooperate with me. Will you do that?”

“I’ll talk to Jon. He’ll see you.”