The 24th Letter

EIGHTY-SEVEN

O’Brien jerked his cell off the table in front of him and hit Lauren Mile’s number. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a break-in at your place?”

“What?”

“Ron Hamilton told me. When was the break-in?”

“Friday or Friday night.”

“It was after I’d given you the second page from the notebook that Sam Spelling used to write his letter to Father Callahan.”

“Yes. That night I left work and joined some of my girlfriends at a watering hole. As I recall, I invited you to join us.”

“Lauren, has Christian Manerou’s lifestyle changed much since the Russo investigation and bust?”

“What do you mean? And please be careful with your answer.”

“I know it’s been a decade, everybody changes, but did you see anything tangible with Christian, not things out of character per se, but maybe a slight lifestyle change…maybe a few vacations to places that a special agent’s salary might not stretch, but yet things or places that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow?”

“Not at all. And I don’t care for this line of conversation-no, this questioning. What’s this about? Christian is one of the finest, most ethical agents in the bureau.”

“Did you take the Spelling paper, the file, home with you?”

“Yes.”

“Did Christian know it?”

“I mentioned it to him in passing that afternoon.”

“Lauren, did he ask you about it, or did you bring it up?”

“Let me think a second…he mentioned it, why?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Sean! Please, for Christ-sakes, come on! Drop it, okay? I trust Christian with my life! You’re way off base.”

“You’re right! I was way off base because Christian helped point me there. He pointed me in the direction of Russo, and he did it very well. Maybe because of the deadline in the race to save Charlie Williams, I didn’t see it. Maybe, like you, I had no reason not to trust an FBI agent.”

“No!”

“I’ll call you back.” O’Brien hung up and began looking through Alexandria‘s file. He started to glance at his watch to see the number of hours left for Charlie Williams, instead he poured through the files in front of him. Where did he see or hear something that was incongruous with the timelines of Alexandria Cole’s murder and Charlie William’s sentencing? He closed his eyes and let the slate go black in his mind.

Think.

Max sat at his feet and looked up at him.

When O’Brien had originally questioned Russo and Sergio Conti, it was a time when Russo had already been arraigned on a drug charge. And his trial was not even on the radar.

“As we were about to drop the hammer on a big bust, it looks in retrospect, that he may have killed the girl the same night.”

The words played back in O’Brien’s mind. He could see Christian Manerou standing in Lauren Miles cubicle, quoting Russo’s alibi: “ Ate them from his penthouse balcony and tossed the shells down to the beach below them. Called it ‘raining crabs.’”

O’Brien leafed through the case files, found the spot and read:

Subject, Jonathan Russo stated he had dinner on the terrace of subject Sergio Conti’s condo and said they picked up a jug of chardonnay, a few pounds of stone crabs from the marina, ate them from his penthouse balcony, and tossed the shells down to the beach below them. Called it ‘raining crabs.

O’Brien looked at the dates. Alexandria Cole’s murder was Friday, June 17th, 1999. He went online, typing fast. In a few seconds the arrest records of Jonathan Russo were on the screen. O’Brien scanned the information and stopped at the dates of Russo’s arrest for possession of contraband-cocaine-more than two kilos with the intent to distribute in the United States of America. The date of the arrest: May 3, 1999.

Why was the FBI doing a wiretap after Russo was arrested and booked?

“As we were about to drop the hammer on a big bust, it looks in retrospect, that he may have killed the girl the same night.”

O’Brien leaned back and his chair and whispered, “You didn’t tie the wiretap alibi to Alexandria Cole’s murder because you never heard it…you read it. You weren’t about to drop the hammer. You didn’t hear Russo’s statement in a wiretap. You read it my report. You bastard!”