“So you’re saying Blake Gray killed Rachel?”
“Like I said, I don’t have the proof, but I’m a hundred percent sure in my mind,” Bennett said. “Either he killed her himself or he set someone else up to do it. Either way, she was a problem for him, and then the problem went away.”
“I follow you.”
“Then the firm hires Aspen Wilde,” he said. “She starts this stupid ad hoc Nancy Drew investigation into Rachel’s death. The problem is that she’s actually finding stuff out. We were worried that if she kept digging, that she’d end up getting into the Robert Yates deal. So we tried to scare her off. Blake Gray hired someone to break into her apartment to make it look like she was in danger.”
“So that was Gray’s deal?”
“Right.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“There’s more,” Bennett said. “He tried to get her to take a job in the D.C. office to get her nose out of our business. But she wouldn’t go. So then Blake set up an associate attorney by the name of Christina Tam to be his spy and to keep an eye on her. Aspen kept digging and Christina Tam keep giving us the updates. We kept getting more and more worried.”
“Aspen’s a digger,” Teffinger said.
“Then something happens out in New York,” Bennett said. “Robert Yates’ widow-a society icon by the name of Rebecca Yates-threw herself in front of a bus. The rumor was that she was despondent over the death of her husband and daughter, and committed suicide-by-bus. Well, this hit Jacqueline Moore right in the gut. She was already feeling guilty and this put her over the edge. Blake and me were getting more and more worried that she’d crack any day.”
“So you killed her?”
“Hold on,” Bennett said. “I’m getting there. Anyway, then you walk into my office this afternoon and put the heat on me in connection with the deaths of both Rachel and that stripper, Chase. After you left, I met with Jacqueline Moore and Blake Gray because they had a right to know. I had to disclose to them that I’ve been frequenting Tops amp; Bottoms, including what I’ve been doing there. I also told them that I had a session with Chase about a year ago, which the cops would find out about sooner or later.”
“You had a session with Chase?”
“Yeah, but I had nothing to do with her death,” Bennett said. “Anyway, when Jacqueline Moore found out what I’d been doing down at Tops amp; Bottoms, that was the last straw. She turned in her resignation a couple of hours later. When Blake Gray found out about it, he busted into my office, frantic that she was about to spill everything to the police. Then, tonight, she turns up murdered.”
“So you’re saying Blake Gray did it.”
Bennett nodded.
“It was either him or me and I know it wasn’t me,” he said. “I’m not a perfect man, but that was even more than I can tolerate. That’s why we’re talking right now. The bottom line is that you got the wrong person. You want Blake Gray, not me.”
Sydney leaned on the table and looked at Bennett.
“Did you drive by Christina Tam’s house earlier this evening?”
Bennett looked at her as if she was nuts.
“No. Why would I do something like that?”
Teffinger chewed a mouthful of pancakes.
Then he cocked his head and said, “How do we know you’re not making all this up? To try to put the blame on Blake Gray, now that we’re closing in on you?”
Bennett smiled.
“Well, for one thing, I was giving a speech in Colorado Springs this evening and have about two hundred people who will back me up. So if I didn’t kill Jacqueline Moore, who do you think did?”
Back in the Tundra, after the meeting, Sydney asked, “So what do you think?”
Teffinger wasn’t sure.
“He might be telling the truth. On the other hand, he has all the same motivators that Blake Gray does. As far as his alibi for this evening goes, assuming it checks out, he could have hired someone to take Jacqueline Moore out.”
92
DAY THIRTEEN-SEPTEMBER 17
SATURDAY-2:00 A.M.
After Draven screwed Davica Holland the second time, he rolled onto his back and stared at the wood beams on the ceiling, amazed at how much her struggle had intensified the feeling.
He patted her stomach.
“You did good.”
Then he pulled off the rubber and dropped it on the floor.
She tried to say something but the gag kept the words mumbled. No doubt she was telling him to let her go; and what an asshole he was.
Well, guess what?
He didn’t give a shit.
He tweaked her left nipple. “What are you trying to say? How pretty I am?” He laughed. “Yeah, that’s it. Save your breath, I already know.”
Then he got curious and removed the gag.
She gasped for breath.
“You asshole!”
The words startled him. Not the words themselves but the sound of her voice. He recognized that voice from somewhere. In fact, it was so familiar that he sat up, straddled her and brought his face in close. “Do I know you?”
“Jesus, asshole, it’s me-Swofford.”
The minute she said the word, he knew she was right.
She was Swofford.
The boss-lady herself.
In the flesh.
“What the hell’s going on?”
“I’m here to save your ass,” she said. “Get me out of these goddamn ropes.”
He stayed where he was.
“What do you mean, save my ass? How?”
“Let me loose.”
“Sure. Just tell me first.”
She pulled at the ropes and screamed. He let her struggle until she calmed down.
“Feel better now?”
She turned her head and said nothing.
“Tell me how you’re saving my ass and what the hell you’re doing here,” he said. “Then I’ll let you go.”
She grunted in frustration. “Things were getting too hot,” she said. “The cops have been investigating the shit out of the four women at the railroad spur. They already figured out that Brad Ripley killed one of them. They even got their hands on his snuff film. And now they’re on the edge of figuring out who killed Rachel.”
“So what? Who gives a shit?”
“We do. The more they figure out, the closer they are to us,” she said. “Then you went and killed that tow-truck woman. I’m not blaming you. You had to. But that’s bringing even more heat.”
“I don’t get it,” he said. “Even if you’re right, I don’t get why you’re here.”
“To give you an alibi,” she said. “It goes like this. I called you and set myself up as a new victim. I did that so that when you took me it would be real. The detective in charge is too smart to fall for a charade. I didn’t want to be hurt, though, which is why I kept telling you not to mark the woman up. Once you took me, then I’d stay with you for a day or two while the cops figured out I was missing. Then I’d show back up and tell them that I was abducted by a man who admitted being involved in all these murders that they’re looking into. I’d say I escaped. Now here’s the important part. I’d describe the person who took me. It wouldn’t be a description of you. Then the cops would be looking for the totally wrong person. In the meantime, you go back to California and then we cool it for a while, until things are safer.”
Draven smiled.
“Brilliant,” he said. “Gutsy, too.”
She tugged at the ropes.
“So this whole thing was to give you an alibi,” she said. “Now say Thank you and untie me.”
He ran his index fingers in circles on her nipples.