“Oh, man,” Mike said, throwing up his hands as he began to circle the rock garden. “Where are these broads? How come nobody’s ever after my ass? Her fault, was it?”
“Nothing is Salma’s fault,” Leighton said. “I’m not blaming her. I didn’t have to meet with her, make dates, become involved. I responded-okay-I was just as excited about things as she was. You want blood from me? Is that what you want? Take it, Mr. Chapman.”
“Calm down, Ethan,” Lem said. “Just let them get this done.”
“When you began dating Salma, was she seeing other men?” I asked.
“Obviously, Ms. Cooper. She came to my event with another man, didn’t she?” Leighton’s smooth tone was developing an edge.
“How often did you get to be with her?”
“Truly, not often at all. Maybe you know something about the congressional schedule,” he said. “Monday’s my day in New York. Pretty much like clockwork I could see her on Monday. But then I fly to D.C. every Tuesday morning, and the weekend, well-that was always saved for Claire and the kids.”
“But this week you were with her on Tuesday night?”
“We’re not back in session yet, Mr. Chapman. Salma called. She told me Ana was sick and she wanted to see me.”
“And two years ago, when she told you she was pregnant, was she still dating other men?”
“Probably so. Well, yes, I know it was so. And we fought about that.”
“About that, or about the baby’s paternity?”
Ethan Leighton was steaming now. “You’re damn right I wasn’t happy about the fact that Salma was pregnant. She’d been on the pill for years before I met her. She knew how I felt about the whole idea, about how an out-of-wedlock child would compromise my political viability. I couldn’t figure how she had conceived. And I’d spent so much time in Washington the month she became pregnant I just didn’t think it was possible.”
“So what happened?”
“We fought. She flew down to Texas, where her older brother had finally moved and had a home. And I was going crazy without her,” Leighton said, putting his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. “I guess it was like an addiction.”
“Did you bring her back to New York?”
“Yes, yes, I did. She didn’t want me around for the birth,” he said, as Mike looked at me, “because I had been so vehement in my denial. But once we did the DNA test and she gave me the results, I sort of embraced the whole thing.”
If his tic was anything like a lie detector, it was speeding off the charts when he spoke about embracing the news of the child’s paternity.
“You bought the apartment for her?”
“I did everything I could to set her up comfortably with the baby.”
I leaned in and looked at Leighton’s face. “This last year, year and a half, was Salma still seeing other men?”
“You’re asking me to think about things I don’t want to know, Ms. Cooper. I wasn’t going to leave Claire-never. I’m sure Salma had her ways of taking that out on me.”
“And Ana, did you see Ana often?”
He was shifting positions, trying to get comfortable. “Look, I wasn’t good about the baby, okay? No point lying. Sometimes she was asleep when I got there, sometimes Salma had her spend the night at a friend’s house. You find that child and I’ll make up for all of that. I swear it to you.”
“Money, Mr. Leighton,” Mike said. “How’d you pay Salma’s bills?”
“You’ll see when you get my banking records. I keep an office at my father’s business. Family money, nothing that Claire ever had any access to or reason to see. There’s a corporation I set up, within my father’s firm. The checks were all written on the Leighton Entertainment account. He assumed it was for things I needed for my political advancement.”
“How about cash?” I asked the congressman. “Did you give Salma large sums of cash?”
“Five hundred dollars when I saw her, sometimes a thousand if she wanted something special for the baby.”
He really didn’t seem to be aware of, nor try to explain away, the unusual amounts of cash we had found in Salma’s closet.
“Who knew about your affair with Salma?” I asked.
“My secretary,” Leighton said, taking time to think. “She wrote the checks. I never told anyone else.”
“No one at all? No friends, no colleagues?”
“My closest friends are guys like Donny Baynes, Ms. Cooper. I didn’t go there.”
“And no one at work?”
“Just Kendall. Kendall was around at the beginning. He picked up on it. He’s got a nose for trouble. I’m sure he figured it out.”
Mike was all over this. “Kendall Reid, the city councilman who was just indicted on the phantom funds scheme?”
“Yes. Kendall actually worked for me before he ran for the council job. He knows Salma.”
“Kendall knew about her, or actually met her?”
“They’ve met. He knew her, that’s what I meant.”
“How well?” Mike asked.
Ethan Leighton seemed surprised by the direction of the questions. “I guess, just through me. I guess.”
“And it was Reid you called after your accident?” I said. “He’s the guy who tried to take the weight for you.”
“Yeah, yeah, he did. Crazy, I know.”
“Have you talked to him since you found out Salma was murdered?” Mike asked.
At the same time that Leighton answered with a single word-“Yes”-Lem Howell spoke. “Ethan hasn’t talked to anyone about this except Claire, his father, and me.”
Leighton exhaled as Mike stepped between Lem and the congressman.
“When did you talk to Kendall Reid? Exactly when?”
“I’m sorry, Lem. I should have listened to you,” Leighton said to his lawyer, before answering Mike’s question. “I met him yesterday, just for a few minutes. Just to commiserate about my arrest and the news of his indictment.”
It took a lot to get under Lem Howell’s skin, but the long fuse had been lit.
“Where? Where did you and Reid meet?” Mike asked.
“At City Hall. I didn’t go in. I was dressed like this-with the hood up, nobody makes me,” Leighton said. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the distinctive twitch. “Kendall just came out, down the steps-we talked for a few minutes out in front. Sorry, Lem. Sorry I didn’t tell you.”
I knew the lecture Ethan Leighton would get from Lem the moment they were away from Mike and me. He wouldn’t tolerate any stray actions from his client. The congressman didn’t need to be lockstepped with another allegedly corrupt politician.