The Sixth Man kam-5

by David Baldacci

  “Neither can I, Hilary. The FBI are investigating right now.”

  “The FBI?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “How, how did he die?”

  “It wasn’t by natural causes, obviously.”

  “Who found the body?”

  “I did. I mean me and my partner, Michelle.”

  At that moment Hilary’s professional façade completely dissolved.

  Sean waited patiently for her to stop sobbing. When it didn’t look like she was going to cease he said, “We can talk again later, Hilary. I’m really sorry to have been the one to have to tell you.”

  With a massive effort she composed herself. “No, no, I’m all right. It was, it was just such a shock. I just saw him yesterday morning, before he left on his flight.”

  Sean had only talked to Hilary on the phone before and had never met her in person, but he could envision the woman wiping the tears and perhaps most of her makeup and mascara away with a tissue.

  “What time was that?”

  “His flight or when I saw him last?” To Sean it seemed she was concentrating hard on the details in order to take her mind off her boss being dead.

  “Both, actually.”

  “Eight o’clock at the office,” she answered promptly. “He had a puddle jumper from Charlottesville to Reagan National. And then a noon flight from there to Portland.”

  “Jet or prop?”

  “One of those regional jets. United, I think.”

  “Same type of plane we took. Okay, they fly high and fast, so that would have put him in Maine a little after one?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do you have his schedule? I’d like to know if he met with Edgar Roy while he was up here. And also any times in the past he might have done so.”

  “Well, I know he went there yesterday. He told me he had an appointment there at six o’clock. He was concerned that if his flight was delayed he wouldn’t get there in time. I understand it’s quite a drive from Portland.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “And he’s certainly been to see Mr. Roy in the past. I don’t recall the exact dates, but I can look them up on the computer and e-mail them to you.”

  “That would be great. Uh, I know Ted’s wife had passed away, and I don’t believe they had any kids. But is there anyone that needs to be contacted? I mean any extended family?”

  “He had a brother. But he passed on about three years ago now. I never heard him mention anyone else. His family was his work, I guess.”

  “I guess.”

  Michelle caught his eye and held up two fingers.

  Sean nodded and said, “Hilary, did Ted have anyone else working with him? I just assumed he was solo but it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know that for sure. I’d been out of touch with him for a couple years.”

  “He has an associate. A very bright young lady barely a year out of law school.”

  “Really? What’s her name?”

  “Megan Riley.”

  “Is she in the office now?”

  “No, she’s at a court hearing. She said she’d be back a bit after lunch.”

  “Was she working on the Roy case?”

  “I know that she knew about it. Small firm and all. And she’s done some research on it for Mr. Bergin, because he mentioned it to me.”

  “Can you have her contact me when she gets in? I really need to talk to her.”

  “Absolutely, I sure will.” She paused. “Sean, are they going to find out who did this awful thing?”

  “Well, if the FBI doesn’t, we will. I promise you that.”

  “Thank you.”

  Sean put the phone down and looked at Michelle.

  She said, “Well, that’s good news. He had an associate.”

  “A first year. That’s not good news. No way a judge will let her rep a capital murder case. Not one with this high a profile. Too much risk for an incompetent counsel affirmative defense on appeal.”

  “But you’re an experienced lawyer.”

  “Michelle, I told you, I’m not even sure if my license is active.”

  “Then if I were you I’d find out.”

  Sean made a few calls. He clicked off the last one with a tiny smile.

  “I forgot I had some carry-forward credits. I’m still active.” His smile faded. “But I haven’t been in a court in a long time.”

  “Like riding a bike.”

  “No, it’s really not.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be right there with you the whole time.”

  “If going to court consisted of shooting the wings off butterflies and kicking ass there’d be no one I’d rather have with me. But it doesn’t.”

  “From what I’ve seen of some trial lawyers, a good ass-kicking sounds like just the ticket. So what do we do now?”

  “We wait to hear from Megan Riley.”

  “Think she’ll take the case given the fact that her boss just got murdered maybe for repping Edgar Roy?”

  “Not if she’s smart she won’t.”

  “Do you really think that’s why he was killed?”

  “We have no evidence to support that conclusion.”

  “Have no worries—you sound just like a lawyer. But put away your analytical side for a sec and answer from your gut.”

  “Yes, I think that was why he was killed.”

  Michelle leaned against the wall and stared moodily out the window.

  Sean said, “Okay, what are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking how long do we have before they target us?”

  “You want to quit and hop on a plane back to Virginia?”

  She looked at him. “Do you?”

  “I thought I was clear on the point. I’m going to find out who killed him.”

  “Then I thought I was clear, too. We’re a team. Where you go, I go.”

  “You don’t think I can take care of myself?”

  “No, but I can take care of you better.”

  CHAPTER

  9

  SEAN WAS OUTSIDE taking a walk along the rocky coast when his cell phone buzzed a bit after two o’clock. Megan Riley sounded young, green, and stunned. His hopes sank. There was no way the young woman would be able to handle this.

  “I can’t believe that Mr. Bergin is dead,” she said. He could envision her eyes filling with tears. A perfectly normal reaction under the circumstances, but he didn’t need normal right now, he needed extraordinary.

  “I know. It’s a shock to all of us.” As he spoke he watched Michelle make her way over from a rickety pier with an equally rickety fishing boat tied up to it. She reached him and sat down on a huge boulder that served as riprap to keep the ocean at bay.

  “Who would do such a thing?” asked Megan.

  “Well, we’re working on that right now. Hilary mentioned that you had worked on the Roy case for Ted?”

  She sniffled. “I did a little research for him that he asked me to do.”

  “Did he ever talk to you about his theories of the case? What defense he was planning, steps he’d taken, conversations he’d had with Edgar Roy?”

  It would have been a one-way conversation, obviously.

  “He did go into some of that with me. I guess I was a sounding board for him. And I talked to him yesterday.”

  “What time?”

  “Around six.”

  “What did he want?”

  “Just checking on some cases I was handling.”

  “Did he talk to you about Edgar Roy?”

  “He said he was going to meet with him. In fact, I think he was on the way there. In a car, I mean.”

  “Nothing else?” asked Sean.

  “I called him back about nine o’clock.”

  “Why?”

  “To go over a court hearing I had the next day. I needed his advice.”

  “Okay, Megan, this is really important. Did he mention that he had seen Edgar Roy last night?”

  “No, he didn’t talk about that.�
��

  “Did he mention to you where he might have been going late last night? I mean other than to meet with Michelle and me?”

  Her voice sounded frightened. “No, he didn’t say anything about it. I didn’t even know he was meeting with you. I just assumed he was in for the night.”

  “Nothing at all, you’re sure?” Sean persisted. “Just some comment he let slip?”

  “There was nothing. Most of the conversation was about the court hearings I had the next day. He didn’t say anything about Edgar Roy and I didn’t ask.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because if Mr. Bergin had wanted to discuss the case he would have. I’ve only been working for him a short while. I wasn’t comfortable just injecting myself into a case I wasn’t really working on. He was always very particular about client confidences.”

  Sean said, “Okay, let’s get down to specifics. Do you know whether you’re on the papers filed with the court?”

  “As a matter of fact I am. Mr. Bergin said it was always good to have another attorney on the papers. Just in case something happened.”

  “Well, unfortunately, he was prophetic. Look, we’ll need to talk to you about what Ted’s theories and strategies were. And anything else that might be connected to Roy.”

  “Have you talked to Edgar Roy?”

  “We’ve seen him. Talking is somewhat problematic. Can you fly up here?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve got some cases I’m working on and—”

  “Megan, this is really important.”

  He heard her take a long breath. “Of course. I know it is. I… I can get continuances. And bring work with me. The legal community down here knows and respects Mr. Bergin. They’ll understand.”

  “I’m sure they will. And can you bring with you whatever files Ted had on the case?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Sean checked his watch. “You can catch a seven o’clock evening flight to Portland from Dulles. Think you can make that?”

  “I think so, yes. I can get things organized here and then drive really fast.”

  “I’ll make the reservations and e-mail you the details. We’ll pick you up at the airport in Portland.”

  “Mr. King?”

  “Just make it Sean.”

  “Sean, um, should I be scared?”

  Sean looked over at Michelle before answering. “We’ll stick to you like glue.”

  “I guess that means yes.”

  “It’s never a bad thing to be scared, Megan.”

  “I’ll see you in Portland,” she said in a shaky voice.

  Sean clicked off and filled Michelle in on his conversation with the young lawyer.

  Michelle nodded. “So she had two conversations with the guy and Roy never came up. Obviously Bergin was playing this really close to the vest. Maybe he realized there was some danger involved here and wanted to keep Riley out of it.”

  “That actually sounds like Ted. Chivalrous to the last.”

  Michelle said, “So what do you think about Riley?”

  “I think it’ll be a miracle if she’s actually on the plane.”

  “If she weren’t scared that would be telling, too. In a bad way.”

  “I know. I’m sure she’s smart and a good lawyer, or else Ted wouldn’t have brought her on. But this is a hell of a situation to throw a baby attorney into.”

  “Well, we just need any info she has and what she can tell us about Bergin’s discussions about the case. I don’t think anyone really expects her to step into the man’s shoes and try this sucker.”

  “Problem is, if another counsel comes in we’ll find ourselves off the case.”

  “Not if we work hard now and make ourselves invaluable to said counsel.” Michelle’s expression changed. “Who was paying Bergin’s bill? If Edgar Roy can’t even talk, someone else had to hire Bergin.”

  “That’s a good question. It should be in the files.”

  “Did Roy have money?”

  “Well, he had the farm and he had a government job.”

  “But probably not rolling in cash.”

  “Probably not.”

  They walked back toward the inn.

  The breeze off the water was chilly, and Michelle dug her hands into her jacket. “So until we leave to get Megan in Portland, what’s on the agenda?”

  “How about a ride over to Gray’s Lodge?”

  “To Bergin’s room? You know Agent Murdock will have that locked down tight.”

  “But we might run into our friend Eric Dobkin of the Maine State Police.”

  “You really think he’ll be our inside guy on this?”

  “Never hurts to ask. And if I’m reading Murdock right, he’s probably pissed off the entire Maine constabulary by now.”

  “We still don’t know if Bergin met with Roy yesterday.”

  “And we also don’t know where he was headed last night.”

  “It would be great to get a list of all his phone calls and e-mails.”

  “Wouldn’t it?” agreed Sean.

  “But Murdock has all that.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “All we can do is try.”

  “Crossing the FBI? Not a smart career move,” she said.

  “Finesse is the key.”

  “Finesse is not my strong suit.”

  “Which is why I’ll be handling that end of the equation.”

  “Opposites attract.”

  He smacked her on the arm. “Apparently so.”

  CHAPTER

  10

  A WALL OF COPS and Feds enveloped Gray’s Lodge. Guests had been interrogated and their rooms searched. And then they’d been told to get other lodgings but not to leave the area. Posing as tourists, Sean and Michelle, by a bit of luck and deduction, happened on the lodge owners, a husband and wife in their sixties, who were visibly upset by what had happened.

  “Damndest thing,” said the man, a burly fellow with soft white hair and a tanned face, over a cup of coffee at a gas station within sight of the lodge. He wore a bright red flannel shirt and new jeans.

  “The cops just came in and told everyone to clear out?” asked Michelle.

  The wife nodded. She was slender, wiry, and looked like she could work her larger husband into the ground. “After they gave them the third degree and searched their underwear drawers. Some of our guests have been coming here for decades, too. They had nothing to do with that man dying.”

  “Well, those guests may never come back after this,” said the husband miserably.

  “And the dead man, this Bergin guy, he’d just arrived that day?” prompted Sean.

  “That’s right,” said the husband.

  “But we’d seen him before, of course,” added the woman.

  Sean pounced. “So he’d been up here before?”

  “Twice before,” said the husband.

  “Did you know what for?” asked Michelle.

  “Wasn’t for the hunting or fishing,” answered the wife.

  “He was a lawyer,” opined the husband.

  “Any idea what he was doing up here?” asked Sean.

  The husband studied him. “You folks aren’t from around here.”

  “No, we just came up yesterday. Staying at Martha’s Inn. Mrs. Burke is really nice.”

  Michelle stifled a snort.

  “Yeah, she’s a real nice gal,” said the husband in a way that made his wife purse her lips.

  “I’ve never been around a murder before,” said Michelle. “Pretty eerie. But I love those true crime shows.”

  Sean added, “I wonder why anyone would want to kill a lawyer. He was probably just up here on vacation.”

  The wife started to say something, but then looked at her husband questioningly.

  He said, “He wasn’t here on vacation. He was Edgar Roy’s lawyer.”

  “Edgar Roy?” Sean said blankly.

  “Serial killer they got up at Cutter’s Rock. Waiting
to be tried. Local paper did a big story on it when they brought him here. They say he’s nuts. I say he’s just playacting so they won’t send him back to Virginia and execute him.”

  “My God,” said Michelle. “What’d he do?”

  “Murdered a bunch of people and buried them on his farm,” replied the wife, as she shuddered. “He’s not a man. Wild animal, more like it.”

  “And this Bergin fellow was his lawyer?” said Sean. “So he had to go to this Cutter’s Rock place and talk to this guy?”

  “Well, I guess he had to if he was representing him,” said the husband. He looked at his wife. “And the man’s not been convicted yet.”

  “He’s as guilty as sin and everyone knows it,” his wife shot back.

  “Well, anyway, I guess it takes all kinds to make a world. Wouldn’t have figured a fellow like Bergin would be a lawyer for the likes of a person like that.”

  “So you got to know him?” asked Michelle eagerly. She looked at Sean and feigned naïve excitement about such serious business. “I mean this is so creepy, it’s like a TV show or something.”

  The husband nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is. Anyway, the lodge isn’t a large place. Not many guests even when we’re full up. Bergin would come down for breakfast and such. We were close in age. Natural that we would talk about stuff. Interesting fellow.”

  Sean said, “And he just told you what he was doing up here? Thought he’d keep that confidential, being a lawyer.”

  “Well, not at first and not in so many words. But he asked for directions to Cutter’s Rock one time, and I asked him why he was going up there. And that’s when he told me what he was doing.”

  Michelle said excitedly, “Gosh, maybe he was going up to Cutter’s Rock when he was killed?”

  “No, don’t think so,” said the husband.

  “Because he’d already been there,” said the wife.

  “How do you know that?” asked Sean.

  The husband answered. “He told me he was heading up there right away. When he checked in he was in a hurry. His flight had been late and he needed to get up to Cutter’s before visiting hours were over. In quite the rush he was.”

  “Okay, but maybe he never made it.”

  “No, he did. Because he came back here. Had a cup of coffee. I asked him how it went. He said okay, but he didn’t really seem like it had gone okay.”