You Can't Hide (53 page)

“It is a little room. You’re probably wondering what’s going to happen to you now.”

Tess could only stare.

“You’re thinking
She’s insane.
” Amy grabbed her hair and jerked her face up, her eyes now flat and cold. She shook her hard. “Aren’t you?” She threw Tess’s head back and it hit the floor with a thud Tess more heard than felt. She felt… dissociated. Floaty.

“The tranquilizer’s stil wearing off. You know, all that worry about your heart, all that exercise, the aspirin, the glass of red wine a day? Not necessary. You’re strong as an ox. If that tranq didn’t kill you, nothing will.” She opened the door then laughed. “No, wait. I will. But I want you totally coherent when I do. I want you to feel everything.” She closed the door, leaving Tess stunned. Defenseless. Terrified.

Her father moaned.
I have to get him out of here. He’ll die.
Then a horrified laugh scraped her throat.
Of course he will. So will I
.

Friday, March 17, 5:15 P.M.

Aidan looked at the conference room whiteboard, aware of every one of the five hours she’d been gone. The board was covered with names of customers he’d found in Lawe’s ledger. All were corporations that made nothing, served no purpose other than to link to other corporations that made nothing. Arrows pointed in every direction.

In the middle of it all was Deering, which linked to Davis, which linked to Turner and back to Deering. The elaborate labyrinth of corporate entities smacked of money laundering, of someone with assets or activities to hide. Who was Lawe’s customer?

The elaborate labyrinth did not tell them where to find Tess. Vito and Jon and Amy frantically called every hour and each time he had to tell them the same thing.
She’s still missing.
We’re still working on it.
He’d never felt so desperately helpless in his life.

“What the hell is that?” Murphy demanded behind him. He came into the conference room and stared at the board, his normally placid face hard and angry.

“I take it you can’t find Swanson.”

Murphy’s jaw twitched. “Not a trace. Customs has no record of him leaving the country. I checked with a stamp expert who said the stamp from Chad is sold in collector packets on eBay. The postmark is a fake. Nobody has seen Swanson. He’s either dead or gone under.” He closed his eyes. “Sorry. It’s just that it’s been five hours.”

Aidan shoved back the fear that was clawing its way up his throat. “I know.”

“So what the hell is this? Looks like Madden’s Monday night play-by-play.”

“These are the corporations listed as Lawe’s customers. I checked all the individuals in his ledger and most of them were divorce cases, so I assumed Lawe was looking for assets or doing

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Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

surveillance for custody disputes. These corporations are suspicious because it’s the perfect way for a person to operate under the radar.”

“It’s a shel game,” Murphy said.

“Exactly. A and B partner to form company C, which hires and pays Lawe. I can’t find a single individual on the officer’s roster. But Deering is the main entity.”

Spinnelli and Jack came in and frowned at the board. “Nothing?” Spinnelli asked.

“Nothing,” Aidan confirmed bitterly. “It’s driving me insane.”

“Well, here’s something new for you,” Jack said. “I examined Dr. Carter’s coat, the one he wore to the viewing yesterday.” He held out his hand and in his palm was another sewn-in needle-sized microphone. “I went back to his place and checked the rest of the clothes in his and Archer’s closets. This was the only one that was wired.”

“Then he was there last night,” Murphy said. “At the viewing.”

“There’s a few more things you should see. One of my guys found this in Parks’s apartment.”

It was a small plastic bag that held a hair. “It’s not Parks’s fiancй’s. I’ve established that. It could belong to his maid. I’m checking. It appears to be a woman’s hair. There is evidence of chemical color. Highlighting.”

Aidan stared at the hair, his mind speeding ahead. “But the shoes.”

“We examined the plaster casts we took of the footprints outside your back door, Aidan. The outline perfectly matches the shoeprints we found on Bacon’s bathroom floor. But the pattern in these new footprints isn’t consistent. The depth changes from front to back, side to side with every step, like the feet inside the shoes slipped around. And, the person who left the prints weighed between one twenty and one thirty-five.”

“Not a man,” Spinnelli said. “A woman. Masterson?”

“Denise Masterson fits that description, but she wasn’t at the viewing last night, at least not while we were there,” Murphy said while Aidan thought about the night before, the people he’d seen. A snippet of conversation stood out in his mind.

“She’s a difficult person to care for,” Aidan murmured.

Jack frowned. “What?”

“Amy Miller said that about Tess last night at the viewing. I thought she meant Tess was hard to take care
of
.” He was reluctant to believe where his mind was headed.

“She’s the right height, right weight,” Murphy said quietly, voicing Aidan’s thoughts aloud.

“Her blonde hair is streaked blonder.”

“But they’ve been friends for twenty years. She took care of Tess when she was sick, defended her when she thought we suspected her. She and Amy are practically family. But she does have a key to Tess’s apartment, and access to her office, too.” He rubbed his temples. “She’s been calling me every hour, asking if there is any news. Why? Why would she do this? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Can we tie her to Rivera or Bacon?” Spinnelli asked tightly. “Or Lawe? We need to be able to tie her to more than just Tess to get a warrant.”

Aidan rose, every muscle tensed. “If there’s a link we’l find it. For now, let’s check her apartment. She could have Tess there. I’l go right now.”

Spinnelli held him back. “No. Not you.”

Desperation clawed, but he control ed it. “I won’t do anything stupid.”

“Not knowingly. But if it is Miller, she’s smart. If she suspects we’re on to her she could go under and then we won’t find Tess. Let’s at least get her in here where we can watch her while we get a search warrant for her place. I’l call her, tell her we have a lead and ask her to come in and look at some mug shots. You find a link.”

“What about Swanson?” Murphy asked. “Should we stop looking for him?”

Spinnelli pursed his lips. “You’re sure Swanson wasn’t at the viewing last night?”

“I checked the funeral home video we made,” Murphy said. “He wasn’t there.”

Spinnelli nodded. “Then focus on Miller. Find me a link.”

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Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

“Bacon was an ex-con,” Aidan said. “Rivera’s brother’s in jail waiting trial, and Miller’s a defense attorney.”

“That’s a place to start,” Spinnelli said. “Call me when you find something.”

In thirty minutes Spinnelli was back. “Miller’s not answering her home phone or her office phone. Do you have a cell number?”

“No. Tess had it programmed into her cell phone. I have Jon Carter’s numbers, though.” From his wallet Aidan pul ed the emergency list Jon had given him the day Malcolm Seward nearly killed Tess. “This time of day he’s probably at the hospital.”

Spinnelli hesitated. “I don’t want him tipping Miller off.”

“I don’t think he would, Marc,” Murphy said thoughtful y.

Aidan stared at the paper in his hand, remembering the afternoon Carter had written it. “I agree. In fact, I think we should bring him in. He knows Amy. Knows her habits. We have to get inside her head to know what she’s going to do next.”

Spinnelli nodded stiffly. “All right. Call him. But ask him to come here. We tell him
here
. And since we’re bringing in the people who know Mil er best, let’s get Vito Ciccotelli and his mother in here. He’s got to be going crazy sitting on his hands.”

Friday, March 17, 6:00 P.M.

The stage was set. All the actors in place. But there was a sense of dissatisfaction. The end would come all too soon. So much planning, so much anticipation required a longer, more meaningful payout. Ciccotelli’s life could be ended with a simple bul et to the head. Either of the Ciccotellis in fact. It would probably be safer that way.

But far less satisfying.
I’ll play with her for just a little longer. Make it last a little longer.
Because when it’s over, there will be nothing.
The future loomed, empty and desolate. Because of her. Because of Tess Ciccotelli. Goddamn her to hell.

Rage pulsed and visions of Ciccotelli’s body, torn and mutilated taunted. Beckoned. Not yet.
Get control of yourself. Sit down and get control of yourself.
The computer chair was the only place to sit, but from there the computer screen called. It was better than magic. It was access. Total and complete access to anyone, anytime. Access was information. Information was power. And power was everything. There were microphones to check. Fewer now that Ciccotelli’s apartment and office had been swept clean. But the upside was that Ciccotelli no longer occupied either place. She was in essence, homeless. Jobless. It made losing the access worthwhile. That the police had found the devices was an expected outcome. What had been unanticipated was Ciccotelli’s discovery of the mike in the cat’s col ar. Bad luck there. The recording quality had been poor, the cat’s purring a source of interference, but the information obtained had been of the highest quality, little Rachel’s anonymous tip to the police and Reagan’s concern over finding a little boy’s killer perhaps the most useful. It had only taken a few discreetly placed calls to find out who the little boy was and his father’s name. A call to a female client with something to hide guaranteed a series of randomly placed phone calls luring Reagan to various points around the city where the boy’s father would allegedly be. He’d figure it out quickly, but wouldn’t be able to resist any of the cal s on the off-chance it could be real. People with scruples were so easy to manipulate. Now Joanna Carmichael was another story. Hers was one of the few devices that remained, but the mike worked elegantly. The girl had done a good job, tailing Ciccotelli. Her threat to expose Ciccotelli’s friends had been alarming at first, but so far, she’d done nothing more in depth than the amateurish exposй on Jon Carter. Unfortunately the buzz would do nothing more than boost business at Robin’s bistro.

And, thinking of Jon and Robin, it was likely the police had found the video at Parks’s apartment and even now suspected the pair. Parks had been a loose end that desperately needed

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[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

snipping and there had been no time to lure him away to a safe place. The shoes had been a clever ploy and combined with the calls luring Reagan to the far sides of the city should throw the police off for a while. When all was said and done, most of the bastards in blue couldn’t find their asses with both hands. Although Reagan and Murphy were a little smarter than most and unflaggingly loyal to boot.

That kind of loyalty never ceased to mystify. Saps, all of them. The file holding feed from Joanna’s home phone was open now. Six telephone calls had passed in and out of Joanna’s phone since Wednesday. A mouse click had the tape rol ing. The first five calls were of no consequence, but the sixth…

“Joanna Carmichael, this is Kelsey Chin.”

A jolt of shock permeated. She’d found Chin. Chin, who knew things. Private things. Joanna had made an appointment to see Chin… this morning. Like Bacon, Joanna now had unauthorized information. Like Bacon, Joanna would have to go.

Friday, March 17, 6:10 P.M.

Murphy hung up his phone. “Guess who defended David Bacon?”

Aidan didn’t look up from the list of people who’d visited Nicole Rivera’s brother in jail. Amy Miller was nowhere in sight. “Arthur somebody from Legal Aid. I checked that.”

“But guess who Arthur the Legal Aid guy took the case from when she excused herself for conflict of interest in the middle of the case?”

Now he looked up. “Amy Miller?”

“None other. Arthur said she got as far as filing the motions when Eleanor Brigham was assigned the case. Because Miller knew Eleanor through Tess, she asked the judge to excuse her. At the time Arthur thought it was because she had a ful caseload.”

Aidan’s pulse spiked. Finally, something they could use. “It’s a strong link. She knew Bacon’s talents. She put him on her contact list for future use.”

Murphy picked up the phone. “I’ll call Patrick.”

“You have something then?”

Aidan twisted in his chair to where Vito Ciccotelli stood with his mother in the doorway, Spinnelli just behind them. Vito looked terrible and Aidan’s heart bent in sympathy. He had a harder time with Gina Ciccotelli. On the way to the viewing the night before, Tess had told him of her reconciliation with her father. She’d also related her mother’s role in the whole terrible misunderstanding. Aidan didn’t think he could be as forgiving. Still, his own mother had taught him respect and he came to his feet.

“We may,” Aidan confirmed. “Sit, please. We’d wanted to bring you two together with Jon Carter, but he’s in surgery for the next hour.” Aidan pul ed out a chair for Tess’s mother, then straightened to meet Vito’s dark eyes, so like Tess’s he once again had to press the fear back. “It’s a woman,” he said directly. “We think it’s Amy Miller.”

Gina gasped, her hand flying to cover her heart. “No. That’s simply not possible. She’s like my own daughter. She’d never hurt Tess.”

But Vito sat very still. “I don’t know, Mom. I think she would.”

“Why, Vito?” Murphy asked. “What do you know?”

“Nothing specific,” he murmured. “Just a feeling I’ve had for years. I didn’t want to have it, so I told myself I was wrong.” His mouth twisted. “I should have listened to myself. You know Amy lived with us from the time she was fifteen.”

“Tess said they were like sisters,” Aidan said, “but no. I didn’t know she lived with you. Why did she?”

“Because her father was murdered. Amy’s father and my father were business partners and good friends. Amy’s mom had died… oh, a long time before.”