Final judgment

EIGHTY-ONE

Mason parked across the street from Carol Hill’s house just as the morning sun was burning the horizon. He’d managed a few hours of sleep, enough to sort out what he thought had happened. If he were right, this would be his only chance to hear it from Carol.

Lights came on inside the house at seven-thirty. Carol opened her front door and a puppy bolted outside, sniffing the crisp air. She was wearing a robe and slippers and padded down the driveway to pick up her newspaper. Mason waited until she was at the curb before he got out of his car.

“Nice morning,” he said to her.

“I wasn’t expecting company,” she said. Her hair was tangled from sleep and her eyes were puffy from having just woken up.

“I don’t blame you. I’ve got a busy day and wanted to be sure I caught you. It’s about Johnny Keegan.”

She clutched the unopened paper to her chest. “What about him?”

“I talked to Lila Collins. She and Keegan were close, but you knew that.” Carol’s eyes narrowed and she nodded. “Anyway, turns out Keegan asked Lila to recommend a lawyer and she told him about me. That’s why he was carrying around my name and number when he was killed. Small world, huh?”

“Yeah. Real small.”

“Remember the other morning when we met at Vince’s suite at the Galaxy Hotel, I asked you if Keegan told you why he needed a lawyer and you said he didn’t?”

Carol retreated a few steps toward the house. Mason kept pace with her, the puppy scampering between them. She nodded her head again.

“Lila told me that Keegan was leaving the country and not coming back. I was wondering, did he tell you that?”

“He said he didn’t want to go, but Webb was making him.”

“You offered to go with him, but he said no, didn’t he? Did he tell you that if he was going to take anyone, he’d take Lila?”

“If he wanted that skinny bitch, he could have her. It made no difference to me.”

“It will make a lot of difference to the police,” Mason said. “For starters, it means he didn’t need a lawyer. So he must have known someone who did, someone he wanted to help out even if he was dumping her. And, it means he was the second guy you put out for who crapped on you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carol said, swallowing hard and glancing at her front door. “I have to go.” She turned away, but Mason grabbed her arm.

“The police are going to compare the bullets that killed Keegan and your husband to see if they were fired from the same gun. When they get a match, they’re going to drive down this street and knock down your door.”

“What do you want?” she asked, her face trembling.

“I want to tell Avery Fish’s daughters that their father wasn’t a killer.”

“I can’t help you,” she said, pulling her arm free.

“Sure you can. Tell me if I’ve got it right. Let’s start with Charles Rockley. You and Vince cooked up your lawsuit to get even with Galaxy-maybe you even set poor Rockley up. Then everything came apart when Lari Prillman exposed your affair with Keegan. You were afraid Rockley was going to get away with it.”

Carol’s face turned red, her mouth turning down. “He raped me!”

“That’s your story. The jury might even believe you. Trouble is you waited so long to kill Rockley that it looks premeditated instead of in the heat of the moment. Especially since you cut off his head and his hands and stuffed him in the trunk of Avery Fish’s car.”

She dropped the newspaper, covering her face with her hands, her body convulsing. The tremors passed and her arms fell to her sides.

“I didn’t cut him up,” she murmured.

“Was it Keegan?”

She nodded, barely moving her head. “He said he’d seen it done on The Sopranos and it would make it impossible to identify the body.”

“Why did he put the body in Fish’s car?”

“He said he’d seen Fish on TV. The guy was already in trouble. He said that would really throw the cops off.”

“Did he leak Rockley’s identity to the press?”

“That was Vince’s idea. He said it would put the heat on Galaxy and it might help with my case.”

Mason wasn’t surprised that Carol had told Bongiovanni what she’d done. That explained why Bongiovanni had been so quick to assure Mason of Carol’s innocence, claiming that he too had received an anonymous tip and offering to work with Mason. No doubt Bongiovanni would refuse to testify against Carol, claiming that anything she said to him about Rockley was protected by the attorney-client privilege.

“When Keegan told you he was trading you in for Lila Collins and leaving the country, it must have been too much to take. I’ll bet killing him was a little easier after you had your first murder under your belt. Then, when your husband kept beating you, you knew just how to make him stop.”

The puppy nipped at her slippers. She scooped him up, stroked his neck, and held him to her breast, her eyes red but dry, a fresh defiance straightening her spine.

“They were shits. All three of them. They looked at me and all they saw was tits and ass. Well, they won’t see any of that anymore. Johnny said you’re supposed to be the best. Will you help me?”

Mason picked up the newspaper. Rachel’s story was on the front page above the fold. He tucked the paper under his arm as a convoy of police cars turned the corner. Detectives Griswold and Cates got out of one car, followed by Samantha Greer in another. A half dozen uniformed cops began securing the scene.

“I almost wish I could,” Mason told her.

He walked away as Griswold read her rights to her.