by Ingrid Thoft
“You really are unwell.”
Inside the station, Fina asked for Pitney and Menendez, and she and Milloy took a seat on a hard wooden bench to wait. The seating sent a clear message: State your business and move along. Nothing to see here, folks.
Fina was dozing on Milloy’s shoulder when Cristian emerged from a locked area behind the front desk half an hour later and beckoned for them to follow him to a bank of elevators. If Fina had had the energy or the inclination, it might have been an awkward ride, but she didn’t have either, and Cristian and Milloy seemed to be taking each other at face value; a cop and a member of the public, nothing more.
Pitney was waiting for them in an interview room. She was wearing purple trousers and a short-sleeve top with a starburst pattern. Her gun and badge were attached to her hip, and large gold hoops peeked out of her hair. Fina couldn’t tell if her wan complexion was due to a lack of sleep or the unflattering glow of the fluorescent lights.
“How about you gentlemen leave us alone?” Pitney suggested.
Both Cristian and Milloy looked to Fina to gauge her comfort with the suggestion.
“That’s fine,” she said, and sat down across from Pitney.
“Do you want a soda?” Cristian asked before leaving.
“If you don’t mind.”
Cristian pulled the door closed, and the two women looked at each other.
“You look like I feel,” Pitney said.
“You must feel like shit then. I do.”
“You’re early. When’s your brother getting here?” Pitney asked.
“I told him to come in at nine A.M.”
Pitney raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not going to make a statement about the shooting right now, but obviously, it was self-defense.” She pointed at her neck.
“It appears that way,” Pitney said, nodding slowly. “He’s going to live, by the way.”
Fina shrugged. “Well, at least he’ll look like shit for a while.”
Pitney folded her arms across her ample chest. “So why are you here so early without counsel?”
Fina reached into her bag, pulled out the folder and the thumb drive, and placed them on the table. “I know you think that all I do is obstruct and withhold.” She slid the items toward Pitney.
“What’s this?” Pitney asked.
“It’s information that might interest you about Bev and Chester Duprey’s criminal operations.”
Pitney raised an eyebrow. “Operations would suggest more than just the escorts.”
“How about online porn, underage girls, money laundering?”
Pitney began to flip through the file.
“I think if you dig enough, you should be able to connect Mark Lamont to Bev. I don’t have any direct proof that he killed Melanie, but you can get him on something with this stuff. At the very least, you could nail him for coming after me.”
There was a knock at the door, and Cristian reached into the room and handed Fina a cold can of diet soda. He backed out and closed the door. Fina held the can against her chest with her cast and tried to open it with her good hand. After a moment’s struggle, Pitney looked up from the file and took hold of the can. She popped it open and gave it back to Fina.
“Why are you doing this? Giving me this stuff?” the lieutenant asked, her face screwed in concentration.
Fina took a long drink. “Mark Lamont and Bev Duprey should go to prison.”
“But I can’t necessarily keep Rand out of this,” Pitney said.
Fina looked down at the table. She looked up at Pitney. “I can live with that.”
“You can?”
“I’ve told you all along that despite my family’s history of circling the wagons, I wasn’t going to let my brother get away with murder.”
Pitney peered at her. “But you’re telling me he didn’t murder his wife. I’d love to nail him for it, but if he didn’t do it—”
“I don’t think he should get a free pass. I’ve said that all along.” Fina slumped in her seat. She was exhausted and feeling prickly. “Frankly, it’s going to piss me off if you can’t acknowledge that I’ve been true to my word.”
Pitney put her hands up. “I can concede that, I just don’t get it. I would have thought you’d be okay letting the prostitution slide.”
Fina took another drink. “I would have been.”
Pitney studied her for a moment. “So what aren’t you telling me? What can’t you let slide?”
Fina smiled. “I’m not telling you what I’m not telling you. Take the information and do with it what you will. It’s a big fucking mess, though,” Fina said, gesturing to the file and the thumb drive.
Fina stood and put her bag over her shoulder. “There’s one name I want you to keep out of all this,” Fina said. She stared at Pitney. The lieutenant waited. “Haley Ludlow, my niece. She’s a minor.” She cradled the soda between her cast and her chest and grasped the doorknob with her good hand. “Can you do that?”
Pitney twisted in her seat to look at her. “We always try to protect minors.”
“Good. That’s all I care about.”
“I thought family was the most important thing to you,” Pitney said.
“Exactly,” Fina said, and left the room.
Milloy was waiting for her in a chair near the elevators.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
“Fine.” Fina sighed deeply. “An armed cop is nothing compared to my father.”
Milloy dropped Fina at Ludlow and Associates, and she took the elevator to the forty-eighth floor. At six A.M., the office was stirring with the night shift paralegals and secretaries wrapping up their day and a fresh crew trickling in.
“Mr. Ludlow isn’t in yet,” the front desk receptionist informed her.
“I’ll wait,” Fina said as she started down the hallway, not waiting for permission.
Carl’s door was locked, but Fina had learned to open it ages ago and could achieve access with a bobby pin, let alone a lock pick. Once inside, she pressed a button to lower the automated blinds, grabbed a blanket from the closet, and curled up on her father’s couch. She didn’t sleep—the chatter and phones in the background kept her buoyed on a sea of consciousness—but it felt good to close her eyes and lie on the couch, demanding nothing of her body.
“Why’s it dark in here, Shari? I didn’t put the blinds down,” Carl said when he strode into the room an hour later.
“I don’t know, Mr. Ludlow.” She hurried in after him and punched the button for the blinds.
“It’s me, Dad,” Fina said, covering her eyes from the bright light that flooded the room.
“I thought my door was locked,” Carl said to Shari.
“It was,” she protested.
“It was,” Fina agreed.
Carl looked ready to rebuke Fina, but paused after he studied her appearance. “Get me some breakfast, would you?” he asked his secretary. He shrugged off his suit jacket and handed it to her.
“Ms. Ludlow?” Shari looked at Fina.
“Whatever he’s having, but the full-fat version, please.”
Carl walked around his desk and laid his briefcase on it. He pulled out a few file folders, shut it, and placed it on the floor. He took his phone out of his jacket pocket and put it on his blotter.
“I assume you have something to tell me?” he asked after settling into his chair.
Fina got up slowly and shuffled over to his desk. She lowered herself into the chair across from him.
“Are those new?” He pointed at the bruises encircling her neck.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Mark Lamont sicced a goon on me.” Carl cocked an eyebrow. “The guy tried to kill me,” Fina continued.
“Unsuccessfully.”
“Beca
use I shot him.”
“Is he dead?”
“No, but not for lack of trying on my part.”
Carl squinted at her. “Why would Mark Lamont want to kill you?”
“Because he killed Melanie, or had her killed.”
“What?” Carl leaned forward and squeezed his hands together.
“It’s complicated, Dad, and I’m tired.”
“I need to know what’s going on.”
Fina let her head loll back and stared at the ceiling. “You’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like most of what you tell me.”
“And you’re not going to believe it,” Fina added.
Carl tapped out a staccato rhythm with his fingertips. “Try me.”
“The reason Melanie was so upset the day she died was that she found out Haley has been working for Bev Duprey.”
“Who?”
“I told you about her the other day when Pitney was here. The woman with the porn business. Ludlow and Associates won a suit against her son. Is this ringing any bells?”
“Get to the point, Fina.”
“Haley has been working for Bev Duprey.”
“What kind of work?”
“She’s been working as an escort.”
Carl guffawed. “That’s absurd.”
Fina ignored him and kept talking. “Bev Duprey runs an escort agency, and she was pissed at Rand because he sued her son, a doctor, and ruined his life—” Carl started to protest. “According to her,” Fina finished. “To get back at Rand, she positioned herself so he’d use her escort service, and she also lured Haley into working for her.”
“Haley would never do something like that, Fina. It’s totally fucked up. She’d have to be fucked up to do it.”
Fina let the words hang in the air between them and looked at her father.
A gentle tap on the door announced Shari’s return. She carried a tray into the office and placed it on Carl’s desk. She pulled the door closed behind her as she left.
The tray was made of a lustrous dark wood and had a delicate white cloth protecting its surface. It held two toasted bagels, two small ramekins of cream cheese, capers, red onion, diced hard-boiled egg, and thinly sliced smoked salmon. There were also coffee, a bowl of mixed fruit, a carafe of orange juice, two mugs, and two glasses. Carl and Fina glanced at the food, then back at each other.
“Melanie found out, confronted Rand, and eventually ended up at Bev Duprey’s office. They had a confrontation, and it would have ended there, but Melanie had the misfortune of bumping into Bev’s business partner, Mark Lamont.”
“So he killed her?” Carl said incredulously.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, but I imagine she threatened to expose his business connections, maybe tell you.”
“You have proof that Mark did this?”
“I can connect Mark to the attempts on my life, and I can connect him to Bev Duprey. And the eyewitness he fed me just turned up dead.”
Carl poured some coffee into a mug and took a sip. “I don’t believe this business about Haley, and even if I did, we need to keep her out of it.”
Fina scooted forward on her seat. “Do you want proof? Do you want me to find some of her johns? Get you pictures?”
“You’re talking about my granddaughter!” Carl yelled, and flinched as coffee slopped over the sides of his cup.
“And my niece! Aren’t you at all interested in figuring out what the hell’s been going on? Don’t you wonder what her parents were doing when they were supposed to be raising her?”
“Enough. We need to get control of this. And we need to keep Rand out of it.”
Fina exhaled loudly. “That isn’t going to be possible.” She inched back in her seat. Her father wasn’t violent, but she felt better out of arm’s reach. Trust Allah, but tie up your camel.
“Why not?” Carl sipped his coffee.
“Because the police have information about Bev Duprey’s businesses, and it’s bound to come out.”
“What kind of information?”
“Dad, she’s going to be busted, and it’s going to be a circus.”
“Fuck.”
Fina took a deep breath. “And some of the information the cops have came from my investigation,” she said. She struggled to maintain eye contact with her father.
“What?”
“They would have found it on their own eventually.”
Carl tilted his head. “Are you saying that I paid for the evidence that’s going to destroy your brother?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes, but he’s not going to be destroyed.”
Carl sprang up and came out from behind his desk. He didn’t touch her, but got right in her face. The memory of Rand’s hot, scotch breath was replaced by her father’s coffee-laden exhalations.
“You are a goddamn traitor,” he seethed.
“And your son is a fucking pervert. While you’ve been busy building your empire, he’s been molesting your granddaughter,” Fina spat. “You better hope that doesn’t come out.”
Carl’s features froze for a second. Fina watched his eyes scan from side to side.
Fina stood and poked her finger at his chest. “I will lie and cheat and commit all kinds of felonies, and I will look the other way when you and my brothers go after good people, but I will not stand by and let Haley be abused.”
Carl stared at her. His face was flushed, and beads of sweat dotted his brow.
“You pretend whatever you want, believe whatever you need to,” Fina said, “but he doesn’t get to be her father, not anymore, and if you get in my way, you’ll regret it.”
“Don’t threaten me, Josefina. I’m your father.”
“Exactly. You of all people should know what I’m capable of,” she said, and threw open the door.
“I just heard you were here,” Scotty said, breaking off his conversation with Shari when Fina strode out of the office. “I thought we were going to meet at the police station.” He looked at his sister and father, trying to determine what bomb had just detonated.
“Let’s go now,” Fina said. “I’m exhausted.”
Carl looked at her and slammed his door shut. Shari fussed with the papers on her desk, and Fina walked down the hallway with Scotty trailing behind.
The three hours Fina spent being questioned about the shooting were the most pleasant she’d ever spent in the presence of cops (with the exception of Cristian, of course). Pitney was firm, but even, and the usual verbal barbs that marked the women’s interactions were absent. Scotty threw searching looks in Fina’s direction, but she ignored him and just answered the questions. It was only in the final moments of the interview that Pitney alluded to their earlier meeting. Fina supposed that Pitney had done her a favor; she was going to have to tell Scotty, and now she had a jumping-off point for the conversation.
Like any lawyer worth his fee, Scotty waited until they had privacy before laying into her. They’d taken one of the chauffeured town cars to the police headquarters, and Scotty directed the driver to a nearby gas station mini-mart, where he ordered him to park the car and take a walk.
“What is wrong with you?” Scotty erupted as soon as the door slammed closed behind the driver. “You never, ever talk to the cops without counsel!”
“I know that.”
“So . . . ?” Scotty threw his hands up in frustration.
“I knew you would try to stop me.”
“Of course I would!” Scotty groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. Fina watched him. “What did you tell them?”
“I gave them information about the madam, Bev Duprey, and her businesses. She’s connected to Mark Lamont, and she’s been out to get Rand from the beginning.”
“By supplying his hookers?”
“By employing Haley as a
n escort.”
The color drained from Scotty’s face. “What?” he whispered.
Fina told him about the Duprey lawsuit, her meetings with Bev, Cristian’s tip about Haley, and Haley’s arrival at Bev’s office the day before.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I’m sure. Obviously, Haley doesn’t want anybody to know about it.”
“Obviously.” Scotty sagged into the car’s leather seat. “But why? I know she gets mixed up in the wrong stuff, but this is crazy.”
“Which brings us to the next part. The worst part,” Fina said. She turned in her seat to face him.
Scotty looked at her expectantly.
“Rand molested her.”
Scotty’s face became animated, but in slow motion. Fina saw disbelief and disgust mingle with confusion.
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not,” Fina insisted. “Ever wonder why she’s so jumpy around him? Why she locks her bedroom door at night? Why she was so pissed at her mother?”
“Enough, Fina. I don’t want to know!”
“You think I do?! You think it’s been easy uncovering this piece of information? Contemplating it?”
“Who else have you told?”
“Just you and Dad.”
Scotty looked aghast. “You told Dad?”
“I had to. I had to tell him that some of the evidence on Bev might be trouble for Rand.”
“What’s the point of getting Rand in trouble with the cops?”
Fina glared at him. “Aside from the fact that he should be punished by somebody for something, now he won’t have any leverage for a claim on Haley. She’ll be free of him, and people will think good riddance.”
“We could have handled it—in the family,” Scotty grumbled.
Fina shook her head vigorously. “No, we couldn’t have.”
“Well, you didn’t give us the chance, did you?”
“What would have happened, Scotty? Really? Explain to me what the consequences would have been within the family?”
