Killer Look

THIRTY-FIVE

“I’m not only slouched down,” I said to Mike, from my cell. “I’m practically stuffed under the steering wheel.”

“Is he coming your way or mine?”

“His driver picked him up right in front. He pulled up from somewhere behind this car, so unlikely he saw you.”

“Are they gone?”

“Gone. I’ll be right there.”

I sat up and turned the key in the ignition, waited for traffic to pass, then drove around the corner to get Mike.

“I’m choosing the drop-me-at-home option,” I said, shimmying back over to the passenger seat to let Mike drive. “I am so screwed. Curious but screwed.”

“I’ll let you out at your apartment. I need to go up to the office and fill Lieutenant Peterson in on things. Stay off the telephone, Coop, and don’t go near the bar, okay?”

“Who’s the Wolf Savage homicide assigned to? Someone from the DA’s Office must be on it with you by now,” I said. “I’ve got to apologize for butting in. Tell them all I know.”

“You’re safe,” Mike said. “Trust me. Don’t go calling around to all your buddies to find out who’s on it.”

“Safe means it’s one of my guys on the case.”

“That’s why I was so pissed when you showed up this morning. Even with your damn button,” Mike said. “You have a way of complicating things.”

“I meant to help.”

“It’s Ryan Blackmer. More than you need to know, Coop, but maybe you can back off now and leave things to us.”

I let out a deep sigh of relief. Ryan and I worked together well and he distrusted Battaglia almost as much as I did.

“Let me brief Peterson and then I’ll come home. We can stay in tonight. I’ll pick up some pasta and salad from Primola on my way.”

“Why do you think Paul Battaglia was meeting with George Kwan?” I asked.

“Don’t go there.”

“I bet they’re huge contributors to his reelection campaign,” I said. “I bet Kwan wants a favor from Battaglia-like keeping his name out of the murder investigation. Bad for business and all that crap.”

“Ryan and I will have all the answers for you next week. Give it a rest.”

“Ryan can’t go up against the boss.”

“But you think you can?”

“I’m already on his shit list. Why put anyone else’s job on the line?”

“You’re way ahead of yourself, as always.”

“Do you know how much an individual can contribute to a candidate running for DA in New York?” I asked.

“Nope,” Mike said, turning into the driveway in front of my building.

“You can contribute twenty-seven hundred to someone in a presidential race,” I said. “For Manhattan DA? The limit is forty-four thousand. Can you believe that?”

“That’s absurd.”

“I’m sure there’s a way-public filings and all that-to find out how much George Kwan has contributed to Battaglia,” I said. “That could be useful to know.”

“You’re going off-the-wall on me again, Coop. You mind your own business and I’ll tell Ryan to check it out.”

“What other reason would Kwan and Battaglia have to be together, especially with a homicide investigation under way that has Kwan Enterprises smack in the middle of the players?”

Vinny opened the car door and greeted us. “Going upstairs, Ms. Cooper?”

“Yes, thanks.”

“Draw yourself a steaming hot bath, Coop,” Mike said. “Gets out all those odd thoughts that bump around in your brain.”

“What is it I’m supposed to say?” I said, walking into the building. “‘Yes, Mike.’ Right?”

“See you in a couple of hours.”

I got upstairs, threw off my coat, took out my notepad, and texted Ryan. “Call me. Urgent. Home alone.”

“You’re too toxic,” he replied five minutes later. He was smart and skilled, with a great sense of humor. “Need hazmat gear to talk to you.”

“Suit up. Call.”

Ryan Blackmer phoned me ten minutes later. “I forgive you,” he said.

“You don’t even know.”

“Chapman and I just talked.”

“I do owe you an apology. I didn’t mean to step all over your case, but there actually wasn’t a case until we made it one,” I said. “So I feel like I’m emotionally invested in this investigation, Ryan. And yes, I’m supposed to be staying chill till I’m back on my feet, but that seems impossible for me to do.”

“I ought to get you one of those exercise wheels-human size-like my gerbils have in their little habitat, Alex. They run off a lot of energy that way. Might be good for you,” he said. “Good for Chapman, too.”

“Can I tell you everything I know?”

“Don’t make me say what I want to say.”

“About this. About my impressions of the family members and the others-”

“Sure you can,” Ryan said. “Your view is always helpful.”

We talked for about twenty minutes. I went through all the details I had jotted on my notepad.

“Have you seen the boss yet?” I asked.

“Six o’clock tonight. He wants me to come to his office to fill him in.”

“He knows that I was at the morgue with Mike and Mercer,” I said. “He’s already confronted me about that. I don’t want that to come as a surprise to you.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

“What he doesn’t know is that I showed up unexpectedly at the Savage offices this morning. I mean that even Mike and Mercer had no idea I was coming. I was trying to catch up with them before they started doing reinterviews, because I thought I’d found an important evidentiary link-”

“The button? Chapman told me about the button.”

“But they had already started, Ryan. So I was there again today, after the boss told me to back off. I saw Lily and then Hal, and was still there when Reed Savage and David Kingsley came back from lunch,” I said. My instincts were to protect the detectives. “I mean, Mike directed me to keep my mouth shut, but there were some legal issues that popped into the questioning-like offshore trading and precatory letters-so I have to admit I got more involved than I planned.”

“You might need two exercise wheels, kid. That’s a pretty busy day,” Ryan said. “And it was all before you saw the boss coming out of Kwan Enterprises.”

“I’m so glad Mike told you that, too. You’re one of the guys who had my back when Battaglia and the Reverend Hal situation came to light-right before my-my…” I stuck on the word “kidnapping.”

“I know what you’re saying. I know when it was.”

“You don’t need to fight my battles, Ryan. Just keep your eyes open so you don’t walk into quicksand,” I said. “And tonight, if Battaglia tells you to back off George Kwan for any reason, just promise you’ll call me.”

“No can do, Alexandra Cooper.”

“But you have to.”

“I have strictest orders from Chapman,” Ryan Blackmer said. “No further case communications with you.”