MEGAN ASKED if she could be directed to the bathroom.
Fox flicked his head. “Down the hall, on the right.”
As Megan left the room, Gallo addressed Marshall Fox. “I’m sure you know my first question.”
“Why didn’t I tell you before? Why do you think? It was something private between Cindy and me. It has no significance to what happened to her.”
Gallo was already shaking his head. “Not good enough.”
“It’s going to have to be.”
Ross began, “Someone like Marshall-”
Gallo cut him off. “Please. I really do need to hear this from Mr. Fox.”
“It’s okay, Alan.” Fox turned to Gallo. “Look. It’s pretty simple. Doing what I do, the first thing that goes is a private life, okay? The entire population of the state I come from could probably fill up the buildings between here and the Hudson River. I could go entire days without seeing a single soul. So, yeah, I tossed that out the window. My choice, I’m not whining. Or fine, maybe I am. But ever since the separation from my wife, I’ve really lost anything like a personal life. You’ve just got no idea. I’m trying to patch things back up with my wife, Mr. Gallo. I miss her. Hell. I need her, is what it is. And it’s touch and go, believe me. I screwed up pretty big over this last year. Now, you’re a smart man. Maybe you can figure out which way she’s going to lean if she finds out that I slept with my producer and got the damn girl pregnant. Do you want to do the math for me on that one?”
Gallo understood. Fox was human. The homicide lieutenant wasn’t certain what he himself might have done under similar circumstances.
“Okay,” Gallo said. “I hear you. So why are you coming forward now?”
Megan was returning to the room. It seemed to Gallo that his junior detective was giving Fox a peculiar look. But when she glanced Gallo’s way, she seemed to be giving it to him as well.
Alan Ross spoke up. “I’d like to answer your question, Lieutenant, if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead.”
“Marshall?”
“Run with it, Bunky.”
Ross’s cell phone went off. He checked to see who it was but didn’t answer it. “Both Marshall and Zachary received a call recently,” he said. “They’ve decided that it is in the best interest of this whole event not to reveal who it was who called them.”
“You can just refer to her as ‘little bitch,’” Fox muttered. “That’s what I’m doing.”
“So you knew the identity of this caller,” Gallo said.
“Oh yeah, I knew her. She knew me. The whole thing. Zack hasn’t had the pleasure, but I’m sure he’ll live.”
“And the call? What was it about?”
“She knew about me and Cynthia. That we’d been naughty little boys and girls.”
Megan asked, “And she knew about Ms. Blair being pregnant?”
Fox tapped his finger to the tip of his nose. “That’s it, lady. And that one’s my own fault. Trusting people I now know I shouldn’t have trusted. One of the occupational hazards of being on top of the world.”
“And this person contacted both of you?” Gallo asked.
Riddick answered, “That’s right. Short and sweet. ‘I’ve got Marshall by the balls, now what are you going to do about it?’”
Megan addressed Fox. “So you decided to tell us the news before this friend of yours did?”
“I never called her a friend.”
“But that’s what you decided?”
“That’s right. If you’re going to hear this anyway, I want it to be from me. Mouthpiece here wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. My word against hers and all that. But I’m not a fool. How would I look if I held back on this and you found out from some other source?”
“You did hold back,” Megan reminded him.
“Well, I’m laying it out now, aren’t I?”
Gallo said, “It would help if you’d be willing to tell us the identity of this person.”
Fox shared a glance with Riddick, then with Alan Ross. “We’ve all sort of decided there’s no point in that, Lieutenant. If she’s looking for publicity, we’re damn well not going to give it to her.”
“I’m correct, though, that this is someone close to you?”
Alan Ross answered, “A person in Marshall’s position attracts a lot of people. They’re like barnacles. This was one of his barnacles.”
“I understand.”
“The point is,” Fox said, “all those calls you’re probably getting, this one would have credibility. So I decided to preempt it. I thought I’d go ahead and take me a chance with the truth.” He smiled at Megan. “Hell of a concept, isn’t it?”
AN ELDERLY COUPLE WAS on the elevator when it arrived. Megan and Gallo rode in silence. Once they reached the street, Gallo asked, “What did you make of all that?”
“He killed her, Joe. He killed them both.” Megan craned her neck, looking up at the apartment building. “Bastard.”
Gallo unlocked the driver’s-side door. “He got the woman pregnant. It’s a far leap from that to murder.”
“When I went to look for the bathroom, I made a wrong turn and found myself in Fox’s bedroom.”
Gallo’s eyes narrowed. “Very clumsy of you.”
“Yes, it was. Since I was there, I went ahead and conducted a quick unlawful search. The unflappable Mr. Fox likes to play with handcuffs, Joe. I found a pair in his bedside table. Top drawer.”
“Lots of people have handcuffs, Megan. You have handcuffs.”
“But do lots of people have this?” She pulled something flat and pale blue from her pocket.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a sympathy card for Cynthia Blair’s family. It never got delivered. It was in the top drawer, too.”
“A sympathy card.”
“A blue one.”
“And you’re making a point with this card?”
Holding the envelope by the edges, Megan worked the card out and handed it to her boss. Gallo handled it gingerly. The fuzzy photograph on the front was of a disembodied hand holding a large bouquet of flowers.
IN SYMPATHY FOR YOUR LOSS
“When Nikki left her apartment the night she was killed, she had a square blue envelope with her. Open it.”
“Anything we learn from this is completely inadmissible. This is stolen property.”
“I’ll return it when we’re arresting Fox.”
“You mean plant it?”
“I mean return it.”
“I don’t like this, Megan.”
“Sorry, but I don’t want him destroying it. He’s been a fool to keep it as it is.”
“Taking something from a suspect’s residence is just as foolish.”
“Fine. He’s a fool and I’m a fool. But he’s a fool who killed two women in cold blood. The way I score it, this makes me the one with some latitude. Why don’t you just look at the card and we can talk about it later.”
Gallo opened the card and read the printed inscription. It was a six-line verse, a message of sympathy as disembodied as the fuzzy hand on the front. But it wasn’t the inscription that was holding the detective’s focus. It was the personalized scrawl beneath it. Gallo gazed at the inscription for nearly ten seconds while Megan dropped onto the hood of the car. “Well?”
Joe Gallo turned his gaze to the apartment building. Specifically, up to the twenty-sixth floor. His whistle was low and strong.