Ties That Bind

Chapter Thirty.

Billie Brewster waved to Kate Ross across the dining room of Junior's Cafe, where you could get coffee, strong and black, but no lattes; and apple pie a la mode, but never ever a tiramisu. Brewster was a slender black woman with close-cropped hair who worked Homicide. She and Kate had been friends when Kate was with the Portland Police Bureau and they had reestablished their friendship during the Daniel Ames case. Kate paused at the counter to give Junior her order before joining Billie.

"How have you been?" Kate asked as she slid into the booth.

"I've been better. The Parole Board passed on my brother this morning."

"Did you go down there for the hearing?"

"No. I get too bummed out."

"I'm so sorry."

Billie had been forced to raise her younger brother from the time she was sixteen, the year her father deserted the family and her mother started to work two jobs just to get by. Billie blamed herself for her brother's failings. He was locked up at the Oregon State penitentiary for committing an armed robbery.

"When does he come up again?" Kate asked.

"It doesn't matter. This is his third fall and he's not getting out soon." Billie took a sip of her coffee. "Maybe it's for the best. Every time he's on the outside he messes up."

Billie shook her head. "Enough of this negative shit. What's behind the mysterious phone call?"

"Sorry I couldn't be more specific. I'm really just fishing around."

"Fish all you want, girl, as long as you're paying for my pie and coffee."

"You know Amanda is representing Jon Dupre?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Do you know what happened at the bail hearing?"

Billie threw her head back and laughed. "I sure do. That girl's got balls. Self-defense!"

"I'm glad we're able to bring some joy to your life."

Billie laughed again. "You aren't serious about this, are you Kate? You're the brain who went to CalTech. Don't tell me you went on a football scholarship?"

Kate said nothing. Billie stared for a moment. "You are serious."

"I know it's far-fetched but we have some evidence to back up Dupre's claim."

"That I'd like to see."

"When we're ready. But enough of your questions." Kate pointed at Billie's pie and coffee. "I'm paying this exorbitant bribe to pump you for information."

"Go for it."

"Have you ever heard that Wendell Hayes was dirty?"

Billie savored a piece of pie while she thought.

"If you're asking whether we have an investigation going, as far as I know, we don't. Of course, there are always suspicions when a lawyer represents drug dealers, and Wendell represented Pedro Aragon's people. You must have heard rumbles while you were working Narcotics."

"I wasn't in long enough," Kate answered, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. The Portland Police Bureau had recruited her out of CalTech, where she'd majored in computer science, to investigate computer crime, but Kate had gotten bored and asked for a transfer to Vice and Narcotics. While working undercover, she had been involved in a shootout at a mall that had left civilians and a key informant dead. Kate had been the department's scapegoat and had been driven off the force.

"The only other thing I can think of falls under the heading of an urban legend."

"Spill."

"Have you ever heard of The Vaughn Street Glee Club?"

"No."

"About seven years ago, while I was still in uniform, I was the first officer on the scene when Michael Israel, a prominent banker, committed suicide. It was classic. He shot himself in the head in his study and he left a note confessing to the murder of Pamela Hutchinson, a young woman he said he'd gotten pregnant."

"Was there a murder that matched up?"

"Yeah. Eight years earlier. Hutchinson worked as a teller at Israel's bank and she was pregnant. After Israel's suicide we ran a ballistics check on the gun that Israel used on himself. It was the same weapon that was used to kill Hutchinson

"Was Israel ever a suspect in Hutchinson's death?"

"Never. He was questioned at the time, but it was routine. We talked to everyone at the bank. Besides, there was no reason to suspect Israel. He was married, a member of a prominent Portland family. Hutchinson was found in a parking lot miles from the bank. She'd been beaten and shot. Her purse was missing. Everyone thought that she was killed during a robbery."

"How was Hayes involved?"

"Don't be impatient," Billie said as she took another mouthful of pie. "The year I made detective, the DEA arrested Sammy Cortez, a Mexican national who worked for Pedro Aragon. The feds had Cortez cold for a major drug conspiracy rap that carried a life sentence without parole. Cortez was talking a blue streak in hopes of cutting a deal, and one of the things he claimed he could clear up was the murder of a banker in Portland a few years before."

"Israel?"

Billie nodded. "He said that there was a conspiracy of well-connected, wealthy men who had ordered Israel's death and wanted it to look like a suicide. Cortez said that these men and Aragon went way back."

"Did he say that Hayes was involved?"

"He never mentioned any names, wouldn't say anything else without a deal, except for one thing. He said these men had been together so long that they even had a nickname for the group--The Vaughn Street Glee Club."

Kate looked skeptical. "What did Aragon ever have to do with a glee club?"

"Beats me, and Cortez couldn't explain the name either. He said it was an inside joke. Anyway, DEA thought Cortez was full of shit about the glee club thing but they notified us anyway. I went over to the federal lockup to talk to him because I knew about the Israel case. When I got there I learned that a lawyer had just spent half an hour with Cortez. When they brought Cortez into the visiting room he looked scared to death and he wouldn't say another word about anything. Want to guess who the lawyer was?"

"Wendell Hayes?"

Brewster nodded. "Now, I knew a little about Cortez from another case. He was a genuine tough guy, but he was also a strong family man. On a hunch I checked on his wife and their eight-year-old daughter. The daughter hadn't gone to school the day before Hayes visited or the day of his visit, but she went back the day after Cortez stopped cooperating. I tried to talk to the daughter, but the mother wouldn't let me near her."

"You think she was snatched to shut him up about this club?"

"Maybe, or maybe the talk about the club was bullshit. Cortez could have told the feds a lot about Aragon's organization. They had plenty of motivation to shut him up."

"Is Cortez still in prison?"

"Cortez is in hell. He was knifed in the yard soon after he started serving his term."