There was a scratching hiss, then, “You are here now, yes?”
“Goscha? How are you? How is the child?”
“The baby, ah, ah, the baby. Please, you must help her.”
“But the money isn’t ready yet, Goscha. Do you understand about the money?”
“I am overhearing conversations. Bad things are happening, and right now. You must come.”
“Goscha, who is behind the kidnapping?”
“This also I am wondering. I hear Reiner Klatz speak to his wife. You know Klatz?”
“Erin Brandt’s manager.”
“They say ten million dollars is coming.”
Kirsten inspected the cracked stone wall in front of her face, searching for understanding. “They told Dale five. I’m sure of it.”
“Ten million. Herr Klatz, he says something about new instructions. Please, you are helping now, yes?”
CHAPTER
———
49
THE WILMINGTON district attorney’s office was attached to the police station and city lockup. All were built of the same Carolina brick, with slit windows and an air of grim functionality. The DA’s appearance was a perfect fit to her voice—big-boned and heavy, a shiny black force that cleared everything from her path. She greeted Marcus with, “Hamper Caisse would not be doing a trial of two would-be robbers down in Wilmington. How many cases does he have running at any one time, thirty?”
“More.”
“Call it thirty cases to stay conservative. Even for a DUI he’d be clearing five hundred dollars a pop. Bound to have five or six cases on a decent day.”
“Somebody else is pulling Hamper’s strings,” Marcus agreed. “Did you call the Raleigh courthouse?”
“Just like you suggested. Judge Sears is a fine lady, by the way. Sends you her regards. She heard me out, then brought Hamper into chambers and put me on the speaker phone.” She had a brilliant smile. “I tell you what, that made my day. He hit a high note. Several of them, in fact.”
“Is he coming?”
Wilma Blain ushered him down the hall and into her office. “Made a lot of noise about how we had to put this off. So me and Sears, we struck Hamper with a double whammy. Sears ordered him down, just like we hoped.” She pointed Marcus into a chair. “I told him we were opening the case again, starting from scratch, seeing what else we could hit these guys with. Man didn’t even let me finish. Soon as he realized this was a happening thing, he was up and headed for the door.”
“A happening thing.” Marcus returned the grin. “How did I ever miss working with you up to now?”
“Shoot, you’re too busy chasing dragons from what I hear. Got your guns loaded with high-velocity heat-seekers.”
“I’m just another Carolina country lawyer.”
“You can go sell that one down the street.” She settled into her chair. “I hear Charlie Hayes was a friend of yours.”
“That’s right.”
“Says a lot for you. He was a good man.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry. Don’t know what else I can say except we aim on tracking down the killers and putting them away. You can take that to the bank.” She gave him a full-on inspection. “Straight up, now. Did Dale Steadman murder his wife?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Dale Steadman held two fund-raisers for me at that Disney castle he built. Went out of his way to help me when most of the wealthy citizens of this good town would just as soon have shown me the back of their hand.”
“If I was his judge and not his lawyer, I’d be telling you the same thing. Dale Steadman is innocent of everything except loving his child.”
“I believe you.” She tightened her gaze. “Ain’t that a shocker? A DA admitting such a thing to a defense attorney.”
“It’s the nicest compliment I’ve had in a long while.”
“Okay. Enough of the talk-talk. Here’s what we got.” She opened the files. “Local boy, James Walker, aka all sorts of silly old names, most recently going by the highly original guise of Studley.”
“Studley Walker. I can see him already.”
“Boy’s so smart he thinks Cheerios are doughnut seeds. Been arrested a grand total of nineteen times, not bad for somebody still making a grab for twenty-five.” She stabbed the second file. “Skyler Cummins. Altogether different ballgame. You run across him before?”
“No.”
“You must not do much criminal work. He’s from Durham originally, then Raleigh by way of Chicago. Extortion, assault, battery, armed robbery. Two stints of hard time.”
“A bad one.”
“You’ll see.” She closed the files. “So let’s hear your impression.”
“Two-bit was approached by the heavy.”
“Looks that way to me as well.”
“Heavy is the only one who knows who’s behind this. Which means we have to turn him.”
“I want to work on Studley first. One thing we might use. When I spoke to our chief jailer about the visitor’s log, he mentioned James Walker had words with him a few days back. The begging kind. Like he’d be willing to do something if it meant getting him away from his present digs. At the time, the jailer didn’t give it much thought, seeing as how we were dealing with a simple B&E.” She motioned to the coffeepot. When Marcus shook his head, she asked, “So how do you want to play this one out?”
“This is your turf.”
Wilma Blain shook her head. “I like your style, counselor. Help me out here.”
“I like the fact he’s already approached the jailer. A lot.”
“Our man James may not be the brightest penny in the roll. But he’s managed to smell out something’s not right with this picture.”
“Or he’s been threatened.”
“That thought crossed my mind as well.”
“So have the jailer bring him over, and on the way let it slip about these visits Hamper made to the other man.”
“I’m with you.”
“The jailer might even mention how talking to you without his lawyer present isn’t possible unless he first dismisses Hamper.” Defense counsel was required by law to be present whenever a representative of the opposition wished to speak with the accused, unless of course the accused fired his counsel. “Bring the guy out here. Hold your meeting in a courthouse chamber. No manacles. Leave the guard outside the door.”
“You mean, when he talks to us.”
“Do you have a room with one-way glass?”
She showed surprise for the very first time. “You want to hide yourself away?”
“Only,” Marcus replied, “until we spring our trap.”
“Reiner Klatz.”
“Reiner, this is Kirsten Stansted.”
There was an astonished silence. “You are finding me even at ten thousand meters?”
“What?”
“Never mind. I had hoped for the pleasure of never hearing from you again.”
“The feeling is mutual, Reiner. Now tell me about the other offer.”
A pause. “Please?”
“The other offer, Reiner. The one not coming from Dale Steadman.”
A muffled curse sent Kirsten bounding off the bed and shooting for the corner of the hotel room where she had stowed her empty suitcase. “Ten million, do I have that right?”
“Goscha,” he muttered. “It could only be.”
“Focus, Reiner. It’s either answers or the police. Take your pick.”
“No police!” The man moved to high falsetto and stayed there. “I am told the baby will die!”
“Who’s talking with you, Reiner?”
“I know nothing! Nothing! First I am slave to Erin Brandt, now to mystery men who have her child! I am an opera manager!”
“Slow down, Reiner. Tell me what you know.”
“Did you not hear me? I know nothing at all! I receive a call from people, bad people. They say they have the child. They tell me you will be coming with money.”
“Then what about—”
“You just wait! Then I receive another call.”
“Same people?”
“Who am I to know? They are not giving me answers to anything! They say forget you and forget Dale’s money. Now there will be other money.”
“From where?”
“They tell me asking questions will only cause pain and death, you understand? All I am told is, I am to travel to Wilmington to receive the money. They have sent for me a private plane. I will be the go-between for the child.”
“But if Dale isn’t to pay then why—”
“Please, you are to ask no more questions. You are to call me never again. You are to go away and never reveal yourself to me. Are we clear on these matters? Good. For the first time since this horror began, I have a gladness.”
CHAPTER
———
50
JAMES STUDLEY WALKER wore a pompadour two inches tall. From behind the one-way glass, Marcus watched him saunter into the room rubbing his wrists where the manacles had just been removed. The blond pompadour looked waxed. He carried cigarettes rolled into his right sleeve and a foot-long comb in the back pocket of his prison coveralls. No tattoos, no earrings, no jailyard jewelry. James was a redneck hood, pure and simple. Marcus checked his sheet. James’ last attempt at the straight life had lasted sixteen months and seen him pass through eleven different jobs, all construction. He had been arrested while still on parole. Bar fight. James Studley Walker had used a bar stool and steel-toed boots to dance all over five other men.
The first words out of his mouth were “I’m not stupid.”
“I’m glad to hear that, James. Because I don’t have a second to waste on stupid men.” Wilma Blain gestured across the scarred table. “Take a seat, why don’t you.”
“Is it true what the guard said?”
“What’s that?”
“How the lawyer’s been down to see the other guy and not me.”
“Six times, James.”
“That can’t be right.”
She lifted the broad register, set it on the table between them, opened to the relevant pages, and swiveled it around. “This is the official prison logbook. You know the routine. Everybody signs in and out. Have a look where I’ve marked. See that name? Hamper Caisse. And see the next column here? Who he’s here to visit. Skyler Cummins. No mention of you, now, is there?”
“I don’t believe this.”
“Six times, James. Count ’em.” She leafed through the pages, pointing to the highlighted entries. She let him brood for a moment. “Tell me what he said to you, James.”
“Who?”
“Come on now. Work with me here. The attorney who’s forgotten all about you. The one you just told the jailer you’ve decided to fire. That is correct, isn’t it?”
“The dude’s left me here to rot!”
“Just what I said.” She slipped a sheaf of papers from her briefcase and set it on the open logbook. “This is a formal statement that states you are hereby dismissing your defense attorney. Put your John Henry down by the cross there.” She waited for him to sign, then flipped the page. “And this says you are talking to me of your own volition, and have elected not to have any legal representation present at this time.”
She stowed the pages away, shut the logbook, and drew a tape recorder from her case. The same one that had been running since James walked in the door. “You don’t mind if I tape this conversation, do you, James? It’ll save me having to repeat all the questions later for the record.”
“The guy never even offered to bond me out!”
“He couldn’t, James. The judge denied you bail. Now, see how I’m playing it straight with you? I could have given you the runaround, agreed with you just to make it seem like I was on your side. But I didn’t. Because I’m looking to receive the same from you, James. The straight skinny.” She folded her hands upon the table. “So tell me what happened.”
“We went in to do this deal, okay?”
“You were hired to break into Dale Steadman’s residence.”
“Right.” He unfurled his sleeve, pulled out a cigarette, waited while she lit it for him, dragged deep. “I handled the locks and the security system.”
“No big deal.”
“Your basic snatch and grab, only we came in by boat. Which at the time seemed kinda cool. But once we were inside, the guy wouldn’t let me touch a thing.”
“Skyler Cummins, the other inside man.”
“Right. The guy told me once we were finished, he’d give me money. He was looking for something particular and didn’t want anything else touched. Only I never got paid.” A heavy drag. “So I didn’t do a thing.”
“James, you’re forgetting one thing here.”
“What.”
“You were caught on the premises after breaking into this guy’s house.”
“So they’re gonna give me ten months for taking a walk?”
“Remember the list of priors, James. Try three to five.”
“This is nuts.”
“Hard time, James. You know how they treat repeat offenders in this state.”
He slung one arm over the back of his chair and smoked. Patches of sweat began spreading across his back. “So are you gonna help me out here or what?”
“That depends on you, James.” She remained an utterly calm presence, her eyes as flat as her voice. “My guess is, you know what was going down here.”
James just sat and smoked and sweated.
“You said it yourself. You’re nobody’s fool. You know this wasn’t a straight B&E. You know something bigger was going down.” She leaned in close. “Now tell me what Hamper Caisse said to you the first time you met up with him.”
“The guy came in, said he was a bigshot attorney from Raleigh sent down to take care of me.”
“Take care how?”
“Exactly what I said. The guy just tells me to sit tight. Says I don’t know what I’ve gotten into, like it was my fault.”
“You’re saying he threatened you?”
“Pretty much. Told me not to talk to anybody, inside or out, and he’d be back. Does that make sense to you? I mean, a lawyer’s supposed to get me out, not tell me to hang around inside.”
“So why did you stick with him until now?” She sat and waited with him for a while, then said very quietly, “Somebody got to you, didn’t they.”
“The other guy.”
“Skyler Cummins.”
“Told me if I said a word to anybody, I was gonna get shanked.” His shirt was plastered wet and shiny to his frame. “Which is exactly what’s gonna happen if you put me back in the cage.”
“Like I said, James. That depends on you.”
“I don’t know what I’m into here and I don’t care. I’ve had all I’m gonna take of somebody else playing me like a fool.”
She inspected his face, tight now, peeling the skin back with the force of her gaze. “You’re telling me you don’t know who was behind all this?”
“They never mentioned a name to me. Not once.”
“But you know what they were after.”
He responded by mashing his cigarette to a pulp in the ashtray.
“Come on, James. Work with me here. You know it. I know it. I want to hear you say it.” Her voice was a gritty whisper. “Tell me what the other guy was going to take.”
“He never said.”
“But you know.”
“Sure. Okay. It was the kid.”
“Celeste Steadman. He was there to kidnap Dale Steadman’s baby girl.”
“It had to be, right? I mean, what else could it be?”
“Just one more question, James. Tell me about the other man.”
“The boat guy?” He shrugged. “Didn’t even get his name.”
“Skyler brought him along as well?”
“No idea. The driver didn’t say a single word the whole time.”
“He dumped you in the pinch, James. There’s no need to prot
ect him.”
“I’m telling you I don’t know a thing.”
“So describe the man.”
“Hard-time guy. Red hair. Crazy grin. Awful smell.”
“If he didn’t speak, how do you know he was a repeat felon?”
Marcus was tightly attached to the window, close enough to see James display his own bare knuckles. “Guy carried some real jailhouse art.”
“On his hands?”
“Body art everywhere. But some older stuff on his knuckles you know had to be done inside.”
Wilma Blain leaned back. “Okay, James. You’ve been very helpful here.”
“So you’re not gonna put me back in the lockup, right?”
She clicked off the tape player and slid it back into her briefcase. “You’ll be transferred to another prison and registered under an assumed name until we need you to appear in court.”
“I didn’t sign up to be a stooge.”
“Not a stooge, James.” She rose, walked over, knocked on the door, then stepped back as the guard entered. As the guard refitted the manacles, she gave him a grim smile. “Think of it as your one shining hour.”
CHAPTER
———
51
MARCUS’ PHONE RANG just as he was exiting the cramped glasswalled room.
Dale Steadman demanded, “Where are you?”
“The DA’s office. Dale, I think we may have found the missing link.”
He might as well not have spoken. “Coastal Citizens Bank. First and Harbor. I need you to come now.”
“Dale, I’ve got the DA here with me, and we’ve—”
“Get over here now!”
Marcus let the dead phone fall from his ear, slightly embarrassed by the way he had been publicly treated. The DA met his gaze with the hard warmth of one who had been there before. “Client?”
“I think,” Marcus replied, “Dale Steadman is about five minutes away from coming totally undone.”
“Take your time. We can’t move on Skyler until our mister rat gets down from Raleigh anyway.”
“The third man James mentioned. I have a name for you.”
Winner Take All Page 32
