High Chicago

CHAPTER 21

She came without McDonough, as I'd asked. Instead, she was accompanied by two other detectives, Graham Neely and Todd Gavin, who'd been assigned the case. I walked her through the flat, showing her everything I'd done, every item and surface I'd touched, as the detectives and crime scene officers examined Will Sterling's body and set up their equipment.

"You wanted proof that Martin Glenn's murder was tied into the Harbourview project?" I said. "This is it."

"How?"

"Will Sterling knew something about the project that was going to stop it cold."

"You don't know that for a fact."

"He knew Maya Cantor. She was trying to help him. I think they found out something they weren't supposed to know."

"You think."

"Will said this morning it had something to do with PCBs."

"But he didn't tell you what exactly."

"Because they killed him first."

"They who, Jonah?"

"How about Mike Izzo?"

"Who is…"

"He owns Izzo Construction. They're building the Harbourview condos."

"What connects him to this?"

I gave her an abbreviated version of what happened when the two goons accosted Jenn and me in our office.

"You don't have any proof that Izzo sent them."

"They were working for Lenny Corazzo and he's Izzo's son-in-law."

"I work in the real world, Jonah. You think I can bring in someone like Izzo for questioning or get a search warrant based on that? You should have called us when you had Tallarico in your office."

"He told me everything he knew. And I have his address."

She copied it into her notebook then flipped it closed. "All right," she said. "We'll bring him in for questioning. See if he has an alibi for Glenn's murder. Now let us do our work here. If there's a connection between these two killings, we'll find it."

"Three killings," I said.

"Maya Cantor's death was ruled a-"

"I know damn well what it was ruled."

One of the crime scene techs lowered his camera and looked at Hollinger. She grabbed my elbow and steered me into the kitchen. "Listen," she said in a low voice. "I value your opinions, I do. I respect your judgment. But don't raise your voice or second-guess me in front of my team. I'm a Homicide detective, Jonah. I have to let the facts speak for themselves. Facts, not guesswork or theories. The most the coroner did was concede Maya could have been-could have been-pushed. Not that she was, not even that it was likely. We are actively investigating the links between Glenn and his work for Cantor Development. We're looking into his bank records, his phone calls, his email. If there's a connection to Maya, we'll find it. And we'll do the same thing here. If Will Sterling was killed because of something he knew, we will find evidence of it. Evidence, Jonah."

Her arms were folded across her chest, her lips tight, and her eyes, those eyes, whose colour always seemed to fall in the warmest part of the spectrum, looked flat and cold.

"Are you done with me?" I asked.

"Is this you pouting?"

"No, this is not me pouting. This is me asking if I'm free to go."

"I'll have to check with Neely," she said. "He's the lead on this one."

Neely was about forty and had a brush cut that would have made a drill sergeant stand up straight. He made me go through everything from the start again: why I had been there, why I had broken in, why I thought Will's death was linked to other deaths. He took no notes, just stared at me while I spoke. After he'd heard it all, he said to Hollinger, "You buy any of this crap?"

"We'll check it out," she said.

"You know where to find him?"

"Yes."

"All right," he said. "He can go."

"Thanks," I said.

"After we test him for gunshot residue."