Kingpin by Mike Lawson

Author:Mike Lawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Olivetti waited until eight, until his boss arrived at work, and then told him what had transpired and what DeMarco wanted.

His boss called the chief of detectives, who called former congressman Jimmy Cooper, who called Grady.

Grady’s secretary heard something shatter against the wall in Grady’s office.

28

DeMarco walked into Perry’s office and closed the door. He was exhausted, as he’d gotten only a couple of hours of sleep the night before. Perry was slurping coffee and eating a vending machine donut while speed-reading a document thicker than a King James Bible.

DeMarco said, “Your pal Jane’s a rat.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Last night I used Honoré to arrest a guy who broke into Brian’s apartment.”

“You what?”

“He was looking for the flash drive I told you and Jane about. And you and Jane were the only people I told about it. Well, the flash drive doesn’t exist. I made up that story to see if I was right about Jane.”

“Right about her? What are you—”

“Yesterday, something finally occurred to me. How did anyone know that Brian had information pointing to a bunch of crooked politicians? Somehow, somebody learned that he had found things that could cause people problems, and one or more of those people had him killed to stop him from talking and stole his laptop. Well, Brian, as near as I can tell, only told three people what he’d found. He told his mother, his girlfriend, and this professor at UVA, but he didn’t tell them anything specific. Now he may have talked to people I don’t know about, but there was most likely a fourth person he talked to, and that person was Jane. She told us that he asked a lot of questions. And she was his immediate supervisor. She had to have had some idea about whatever it was he’d learned.

“So yesterday, I told you and her about the flash drive—and like I said, you and she were the only ones I told—and last night a guy breaks into Brian’s place and tries to find it. Which means either you talked or Jane did. Did you tell anyone about the flash drive?”

“No,” Perry said.

“I didn’t think so. And the guy that broke in was using a circuit tester when we caught him.”

Perry shook his head. “I can’t believe this. The woman’s worked for me for years.”

“Yeah, well, get her ass in here and let’s find out who else she’s working for.”

“Wait a minute. What about the guy who was arrested? Who is he?”

“He’s a private detective named David Morgenthal. He was most likely hired by someone to retrieve the flash drive. I don’t think he would have had any motive for killing Brian. But Morgenthal isn’t talking. The cops interrogated him, and he refused to say anything. But let’s deal with Jane first, and then we’ll talk about Morgenthal and what to do next.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.