Apocalypse

30

Katherine Abell sat at a table in a waiting room inside the courthouse, two police officers guarding the door as Ethan and Lopez leaned against the wall opposite her. A knock at the door preceded Captain Karl Sears and Doug Jarvis, who closed the door behind them. Sears walked up to the table and looked down at Katherine.

‘Mrs Abell, I understand that the chief justice has asked you to remain in the courthouse for the time being?’

Ethan watched as Katherine Abell nodded without looking up at Sears, her small fists clenched around a tissue and her eyes darkened where the little make-up she wore had smeared. There seemed little doubt that she was innocent of any involvement in the murder of Macy Lieberman but then again, beauty was often the veil that concealed hideous evil, and Karl Sears clearly saw just that.

‘We would like to understand,’ the detective asked her, ‘what you know about what happened.’

Katherine looked up at him, speaking from behind her lawyer’s facade of calm.

‘I told the police outside everything,’ she said. ‘Both my assistant, Peter, and I saw it all happen from the courtyard. Macy got into her car and left, and then another vehicle crashed into her…’

Jarvis moved forward and took a seat on the edge of the table.

‘That’s right,’ he agreed. ‘But is it not true that, before the accident, you and Macy were involved in some kind of argument?’

Katherine sighed and nodded.

‘Macy came out at me, trying to suggest that I was involved in some kind of conspiracy at my husband’s company. She wound me up and I snapped.’

‘You hit her,’ Sears pointed out, ‘in front of almost a hundred witnesses, all of whom will be on the record once the uniforms finish taking statements.’

‘Then I guess those of them that were close enough will have heard what Macy was saying, too, won’t they?’ Katherine shot back.

Jarvis raised an eyebrow and glanced briefly at Ethan, who pushed off the wall and approached Katherine.

‘You were defending IRIS in a lawsuit case brought by the Uhungu family,’ he said. ‘You can see why the uniforms are suspicious when the prosecution’s star lawyer is killed just hours before she was due to deliver incriminating documents and evidence that might have resulted in convictions at IRIS.’

Katherine leveled a steady, cold glare at him, clearly not intimidated.

‘Alleged documents, alleged evidence,’ she snapped, ‘and all of it brought to her by a man wanted for the suspected murder of his own wife and daughter. It meant nothing to the case unless whatever was in those documents could be verified.’

‘Which it now can’t,’ Lopez said from further back in the room.

‘No,’ Katherine acknowledged softly, as though recalling the horror of what had transpired.

‘IRIS has been accused of hoarding government funds instead of using them for charitable acts,’ Jarvis said. ‘Macy Lieberman was attempting to prove that accusation when she died. Do you know of anyone at IRIS who might try to do something like this?’

Katherine shook her head.

‘No. IRIS is a charity and its employees are paid to help others, people in need. Going around killing lawyers isn’t exactly part of the company’s charter.’

‘Are you sure?’ Ethan asked.

‘What the hell do you mean?’ Katherine shot up out of her chair. ‘Do you think that my husband is involved in this?’

‘We don’t know,’ Ethan replied curtly.

‘That’s right, you goddamned well don’t know!’ Lightning flashed behind Katherine’s eyes as she rounded the table to confront him. ‘I’m a lawyer. Do you think that you can just waltz in here and start tossing accusations around? My husband has done more for the needy out there in the last ten years than most people do in a lifetime. Why is it that some people seem so determined to drag others down to their own goddamned level? How much does IRIS have to do before people start realizing that it’s there to help, not to destroy?’

Ethan stood his ground before Katherine’s wrath, but it was Lopez who stepped forward and spoke.

‘This isn’t a witch hunt, it’s a murder investigation,’ she said. ‘We couldn’t give a damn if Joaquin Abell and IRIS have found a cure for cancer, taken man back to the moon and found the original copy of the Bible. Everyone is a suspect when there’s a possible motive, no matter how trivial or unfair it may seem. As a lawyer, you of all people should understand that, or maybe you’re just too close to the client to have an objective view of what’s happened?’

Katherine Abell glared at Lopez, but then suddenly all of the anger went out of her and she slumped back down into her chair. She rubbed her temples with one hand.

‘I know how it looks, but surely it was just an accident?’

Lopez looked at Karl Sears, who nodded once.

Lopez slipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved a printed image taken from the cellphone of the kid who had witnessed the car wreck. The pixilated photograph showed a huge blond man turning to flee the scene. She turned it around and laid it on the table beside Katherine.

‘This image was taken on a cellphone by an eyewitness,’ Lopez said. ‘Do you recognize this man?’

Ethan watched carefully as Katherine looked down at the picture, and he saw her lips part and her hand clench tightly around the tissue in her hand. Lopez didn’t miss her reaction.

‘Who is he, Katherine?’

Katherine shook her head. ‘I don’t know who he is.’

‘You’re lying,’ Lopez said.

Katherine looked up sharply and for a moment Ethan thought that bolts of lightning might blaze from her eyes and strike Lopez down.

‘I said that I didn’t know him,’ Katherine hissed, her words laden with venom, ‘not that I didn’t recognize him.’

‘Where have you seen him before?’ Ethan asked.

‘He was in the public gallery,’ Katherine replied, ‘watching the case.’

‘Are there cameras in the courtroom?’

‘Yes, but they’re not routinely turned on,’ Katherine replied. ‘Besides, what difference does it make?’

‘He was driving the car that killed Macy,’ Lopez said. ‘Believe me, he had something to do with it all right. My partner and I chased him for three whole blocks. He got away but uniforms are looking for him. The car he was in belonged to the man in the passenger seat, who is dead. We’ll have to wait for autopsy results to find out whether he died in the wreck or was killed by this guy beforehand.’

Katherine looked down at the image of the fleeing man.

‘But if it was done on purpose then who would have wanted Macy dead? No supporter of IRIS would have wanted it, as it would have jeopardized my defense, and our detractors would have keenly awaited Macy’s prosecution evidence. It doesn’t make any sense.’

‘Unless the accusations have a basis in fact,’ Lopez pointed out, ‘and somebody at IRIS needed the prosecutor to be silenced.’

‘Based on the evidence of a suspected murderer?’ Katherine challenged. ‘You really think that there was something in those documents?’

‘We don’t know,’ Lopez admitted, ‘but we’re here to find a killer, not bring IRIS to trial.’ Lopez took a deep breath and decided to go for broke. ‘Were you aware that earlier today an aircraft with almost twenty IRIS employees crashed, out in the Florida Straits?’

Katherine nodded.

‘Yes, I was. It was a terrible tragedy.’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘It’s been a tragic day.’

‘Can you think of any reason why IRIS might want to silence members of its own staff?’ Lopez pressed.

‘You people just don’t quit, do you?’ Katherine uttered incredulously. ‘You think that those scientists were killed on purpose?’

Lopez leaned in toward Katherine.

‘We dived on the wreck of the aircraft,’ she said. ‘The black box had been removed. Whatever happened to that airplane it wasn’t an accident. We were then attacked and barely got away with our lives. It’s highly suspicious that so many people who might have been in a position to possess incriminating evidence with respect to IRIS have died recently: Macy, the scientists on that plane and Charles Purcell’s family. Purcell himself is on the run. Doesn’t that concern you?’

Katherine rubbed her face with her hands in exasperation.

‘Of course it does, but I don’t understand what’s happening here! Two hours ago I was defending my husband in a court case. Now one person is dead and you’re effectively implicating Joaquin in a homicide!’

Ethan thought for a moment. ‘Where is Joaquin, right now?’ he asked her.

‘On his yacht, out in the Florida Straits,’ Katherine replied.

Lopez stared down at Katherine.

‘You need to think carefully about what’s happening here, Katherine, because one way or the other we’re going to get to the bottom of it all.’

Lopez let the statement hang in the air for a moment and then turned and made for the exit, leaving Katherine looking down at the image of the blond giant as the others left the room behind her.

Ethan turned to look at Lopez as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘Nice work, but we really need to speak to Joaquin Abell himself.’

‘Agreed,’ Lopez replied, leaning on the wall outside the room with her arms folded. ‘There’s only so much we can do with Katherine if she’s innocent of any involvement in this.’

‘No,’ Kyle Sears insisted, and jabbed his thumb at his own chest. ‘We need to speak to Joaquin Abell. This car wreck is a homicide and therefore a police matter.’

Jarvis shook his head.

‘It’s a DIA case for now, Karl, and that’s the way it’s staying. Either way, right now we’ve got no grounds to bring Joaquin Abell down here from his lofty perch.’

‘I don’t care how high and mighty this guy thinks he is,’ Ethan replied, joining Lopez against the wall of the corridor, as lawyers and cops bustled past them, the entire building now a crime scene and closed down. ‘He’s got something to do with all of this, something to hide. The sooner we can get in his face the sooner we’ll figure out what that something is.’

‘This is a civil case,’ Sears insisted, jabbing a finger at Jarvis. ‘Nothing directly to do with Charles Purcell. I want my people in the loop.’

Jarvis looked back thoughtfully at the closed door behind which Katherine Abell sat.

‘Joaquin Abell’s too well-connected,’ he said finally. ‘I don’t see how we can get to him on evidence this thin — it’s all circumstantial, and his wife seems as surprised by all of this as we are. I don’t think she can help us, at least not yet.’

‘Leave that to us,’ Sears said confidently. ‘Threaten a lawyer with a prison cell and they’ll soon start squealing.’

‘Katherine won’t,’ Ethan said. He’d seen enough of her to tell that she was fiercely protective of her family but equally dedicated to upholding the law. ‘She’s too principled a lawyer.’

‘Not so principled that she’d betray her husband and family,’ Lopez pointed out. ‘Maybe we can turn that to our advantage. Let’s have a word with the uniforms and see if we can take her back to Joaquin ourselves.’

‘Like hell,’ Sears snapped, pacing up and down in the corridor. ‘She’s potentially a suspect and I’m sure the Chief Justice will agree. There’s no way I’m letting her out of the state.’

‘How do you figure that will help?’ Jarvis asked Lopez, ignoring the detective.

‘She’s innocent,’ Lopez said. ‘Sure, she might know more than she’s letting on, but she didn’t pull a trigger. Let’s get the police off her case here, and in return maybe we can find out if our big blond friend is on Joaquin’s yacht and if there’s any ammunition aboard that’s been dunked in Rubidium-82.’

Jarvis’s phone trilled in his pocket and he slipped it out and held it to his ear. Ethan watched the line of the old man’s jaw harden as he nodded, listening, and then ended the call.

‘What’s up?’ Lopez asked.

‘That was the Coastguard,’ Jarvis replied. ‘They turned up on the sandbar where N-2764C went down.’

‘They find the black box?’ Ethan asked.

‘Nope,’ Jarvis said, ‘they didn’t find a damned thing.’

‘What do you mean?’ Sears said.

‘The wreck’s gone.’