The Plane and the Parade (Veronica Barry Book 3)

by Sophia Martin

  “Haines is destroying evidence,” she said.

  He frowned, trying to force his eyes open wider.

  “He either already has, or he’s going to do it today. We have to hurry—maybe it’s today, and we can still get the emails and hard copies before he destroys them.”

  Squeezing his eyes shut, Daniel propped himself up on one elbow. He blinked several times and took a deep breath. “What did you see?”

  “Haines arguing with Roeder on the phone, and then telling his secretary to destroy the last six months’ worth of emails, and all the hard copies of the meeting minutes.”

  “For the last six months?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wonder how he expects to explain that.”

  “He said they’d blame a computer glitch.”

  “Maybe for the emails, but not the hard copies. I suppose he expects us to believe they didn’t keep hard copies.”

  “I bet the secretary typed the minutes up in a word processing document. Maybe they’ll forget to delete those,” Veronica mused.

  Daniel sighed and flopped back onto the pillow. “Even if what you saw happens today, we don’t have a warrant yet. I can’t compel them to give us anything.”

  Veronica flopped back too. “This is so frustrating.”

  Daniel covered his face with his palms. “Okay,” he said, his voice somewhat muffled. “So he was talking to his secretary. It stands to reason—she would have typed the minutes up and emailed them out. He’ll delete his own email, too. But other people must have gotten emails with those minutes attached.”

  “We need to know who attends those meetings,” Veronica said.

  With a heavy sigh, Daniel ran both hands into his hair. “I guess it’s time to get up and get to work.”

  Chapter 20

  Daniel drove Veronica home, promising that they would go get her car, still parked near the station, later that day. Harry was beside himself when she let herself into her duplex. He hadn’t had dinner, and he had spent almost twenty-four hours outside. She fed him first, walking gingerly as Binky snaked around her ankles, as if tripping her up would make his own meal materialize faster. Blossom contented herself with sitting on the counter, staring at Veronica with accusatory eyes.

  “I’m sorry, babies, okay? I’m moving as fast as I can,” Veronica said.

  As soon as the three of them were happily chowing down on canned pet food, Veronica fixed herself a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal. She hadn’t eaten at Daniel’s—she was too eager to get him started on his day. Daniel had informed her that they did have an address for Tim Roeder, and that while he had nothing he could arrest him for, he could bring him into the station for questioning.

  “Maybe you should just have someone follow him, for now,” Veronica had suggested as she sat on the edge of the bed, already dressed.

  Daniel smirked at her. “Telling me how to do my job?” he asked as he pulled his pants on.

  “No, I just was thinking—if he has an accomplice here in Sac, if you arrest him, the plan might still go ahead, and we’d have no way of knowing.”

  “Did he have an accomplice in any of your visions?”

  Veronica shrugged. “Maybe. Someone was handing out those water bottles, and it wasn’t Tim Roeder. I don’t know if they knew the water was infected, though.”

  Daniel considered this as he buckled his belt. “Surveillance,” he said. “Maybe so.”

  Now Veronica chewed her cereal, anxious to know what they would find out if the surveillance was successful. Maybe Tim would make a mistake—give them something concrete to arrest him for. They needed his fingerprints, and then when those matched the fingerprints found at the crime scene, they would be able to officially charge him with the murders of Ivy Landis and Robert Murphy, and Sarah Berkovich’s attempted murder. Maybe if they watched him for a few days, they would find out if he was working alone.

  Daniel also said that he thought they could contact INTERPOL to report the theft of Antoine Jossey’s credit card, and Leopold Victor’s intention to travel using his identity. They might be able to collaborate with the Belgian Federal Police to catch him at the airport. Daniel intended to contact the FBI that morning, too, in the hopes of getting them involved in the investigation.

  After putting the bowl in the sink, Veronica made her way to the couch and her laptop, intending to research the newspaper articles Amanda had translated in their original French. Her cell buzzed on the coffee table.

  Melanie’s name lit the screen. Scooping it up, Veronica brought the phone to her ear. “Hey Mellie,” she said.

  “Veronica Delphine Barry!” Melanie yelled. Veronica yanked the phone away from her ear, wincing.

  “Jeez, Mel, deafen me, why don’t you?”

  “And just when were you planning to tell me you were arrested, may I ask? I had to find out from Denise?”

  “I—how did Denise hear about it?” Veronica asked, settling on the couch.

  “What do you mean, ‘how did Denise hear about it’? She heard it from Ken or someone—they all know you’re my friend, and they’ve heard rumors about you being psychic, even if you did manage to avoid talking about that when you were a witness in the Ahmad trial. Somebody got the paperwork and started talking about it at the coffee maker. The real question is, and I’ll note that I already asked it—when were you going to tell me?”

  Veronica sighed, tucking her feet up next to her and lying back into the couch pillows. “Sorry, Mel. I would have called you sometime today. It’s just that things are really getting complicated with the case, and I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do.”

  “Veronica! Tell me what happened. Right. Now.”

  How to explain and keep it simple? “You know how much Felsen hates me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, she figured out a way to nail me.”

  “V, you’re going to have to do better than that.”

  Veronica sighed and launched into a blow-by-blow account of what she’d done yesterday, starting with Chris Chavez, on through her minor investigation of the LCCP grounds and conversation with the gardener, and finishing up with her arrest at the hands of Felsen and the kid, Mike Lafley, “…and who knows who he is?”

  “I bet I can guess.”

  “Who?”

  “It sounds to me like Felsen caught one of the real vandals, and she’s using him as a witness against you,” Melanie said.

  Veronica frowned. “Do you really think she’d do that?”

  “Sure, why not? I mean, she’s just making a deal with a kid who vandalized the LCCP—it’s not like framing someone for a murder, or anything, and we know she would never do that.”

  “I see your point.”

  “Don’t worry, V. If my theory is right the kid will buckle under any kind of cross-examination. After all, vandalizing the LCCP kind of implies having a sense of right and wrong, rather than the opposite.”

  “We’ll see, I guess,” Veronica said. “But tell me how you’re doing.”

  “V…”

  “Seriously, Mel, what else can we say about this? It’s crappy. It’s upsetting. I don’t want to think about it anymore. Tell me about you.”

  Melanie sighed. “I’m fine.”

  Veronica’s eyebrows arched. “Riiight…”

  “V, you know, it all just sucks, the whole Chris thing, but I can’t think about it anymore. I have too much to do. Work is crazy, Angie’s bringing Joe Chapela over for pizza and a movie tonight—”

  “Really? That’s great!”

  “Yeah,” Melanie said, and Veronica could hear a smile in her voice. “I can’t wait to meet him. I hope he’s not totally obnoxious, but even if he is, as long as he’s being a good boyfriend to Angie, I’m going to treat him like a king.”

  “I’m glad you’re not letting the Chris thing make you bitter about all boyfriends.”

  “No, I won’t let it,” Melanie said. “After all, I have you and Daniel to hold up as a shining example of a go
od relationship. Right?”

  “Well, he did bail me out of jail, so yeah, we’re looking pretty solid these days.”

  “What a mensch.”

  “He won’t tell me how much it was, Mel. I think he’s still trying to compete with Eric a little bit.”

  “Can you blame him? At least he’s trying.”

  Veronica ran a lock of hair through her fingers. “Sure. It’s still not exactly a romantic getaway to the Maldives or anything like that, though.”

  “V, honey, if you want the Maldives you might have to revisit the whole Eric possibility. I don’t think Daniel’s got enough socked away for that.”

  “Yeah. I guess I’ll just save up for Paris, instead.”

  “Ooh, Paris. Even though Mon-seer E-reek Hoo-et is stateside?”

  “My love of Paris predates Eric by at least a decade, Mel. You know that.”

  “Yeah,” Melanie agreed. “Well, hon, I gotta get back to the stack-o-doom. Darnell just got two more cases and Denise is too busy gossiping about you to deal with them yet.”

  “Enjoy that.”

  “Sure will.”

  Veronica hit end but remained reclined in the cushions. She blinked up at the ceiling, noting that the stain that had been there since she moved in four years before was definitely spreading. There must be a leak. She didn’t have the will to call the landlord and tell him, though, and she doubted he’d care anyway.

  With the arrest and her pending arraignment, she felt weird going about her life as usual. Would Kyung Park work some magic and get the whole thing dismissed tomorrow? She hoped so, but it seemed a bit optimistic to believe it could happen. How often did cases get dismissed at the arraignment? Probably not very often. She was meeting with him later that day, in any case, and hopefully she’d get a clearer idea of what she was up against then.

  Well, Harry wasn’t going to walk himself, and she was out on bail, so there was no law against leaving the house. It felt strange, though, being out on bail. She’d never have guessed her life would take such a turn—investigating murders, getting arrested, waiting for her own arraignment. She was supposed to just be a French teacher whose greatest worry was the bill collectors she couldn’t pay.

  ~~~

  Veronica was sitting on a bench at the dog park, watching Harry wrestle with a Doberman, when her cell went off. Daniel’s name came up on the screen.

  “What’s up?” she asked as she picked up the call.

  “I have good news, bad news, and a lunch invitation.”

  Veronica smirked. “Let’s start with the invitation.”

  “The diner on K? In say, an hour?”

  “Sure.”

  “Cool. So, the good news or the bad news first?”

  “Bad, always.”

  “I figured you’d say that,” Daniel said. He sighed. “Felsen screwed up the surveillance on Roeder.”

  “What? How?”

  “I’m going to talk to Lieutenant Johnson about her as soon as I have a chance,” Daniel said. “But I have to acknowledge that she was following up a lead, and she didn’t mean to screw things up.”

  “Just tell me what happened,” Veronica said, exhaling as she settled back against the bench.

  “I guess she’s been talking to Nakamura, in Property Crimes. The techs there have been working on a discrepancy in the LCCP accounts. Turns out, a large chunk of money was wired to one Antoine Jossey in Brussels, Belgium.”

  “You’re kidding,” Veronica said.

  “Nope. Felsen didn’t know the name was significant, but she’s had suspicions about Roeder’s connection to the church’s financial glitch, since he’s a computer wiz and had access to the church offices after hours because of the classes he was teaching. So when Nakamura told her they’d pinpointed the transfer, she figured she’d pick Roeder up for questioning.”

  “And she didn’t think to run this by you?”

  “Well, I didn’t tell her we started surveillance, either. I’m too pissed at her—it got in the way of communication.”

  Veronica closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “So she went to pick Roeder up, and what happened?”

  “He panicked. He clocked her and bolted. The guys I had watching saw him assault an officer and flee and started pursuit.”

  “Tell me they at least caught him.”

  “That’s the good news. He’s in custody, and his prints match some they found at the crime scene and on the bodies. We can charge him for the murders and the assault. Now he’s just waiting in interrogation room number three. And he hasn’t even lawyered up yet. Just thought I’d check in with you before I go in there, in case you have any pearls of wisdom.”

  “Nothing new in terms of special pearls, if that’s what you mean,” Veronica said. “How much are you going to tell him you know?”

  “I’m not sure yet. My goal is to get him to give me names, if he has accomplices, of course. Maybe if I let him know we’re going to get this Victor guy before he can hop across the pond… maybe he’ll see it’s all useless and give up the names in exchange for a good word to the DA.”

  “I look forward to hearing how it went at lunch.”

  “I look forward to telling you about it.”

  Veronica grinned as she ended the call. It was good to be back to normal with Daniel again.

  Letting Harry play a while longer, Veronica enjoyed the sun and the heat, glad to be free. It wasn’t going to do her any good to worry if her freedom was truly threatened, although her appointment with Kyung was in a few hours, and she supposed she’d get a sense for how precarious her position was then. Could Felsen really have enough for the charges to stick? Would Darnell try the case against her? Melanie had said he’d gotten two new cases. Maybe one was hers. Wouldn’t that be something—Darnell prosecuting her, just months after she’d served as his star witness in the case against Hamza Ahmad and his accomplices, who had abducted her friend Khalilah as well as another woman, and who had stabbed Daniel when he tried to rescue them. Of course nothing was said during the trial about Veronica’s abilities—although she had told Darnell about them when he questioned her about what had happened—instead she had solely testified to the events she had witnessed with her own eyes.

  Veronica fiddled with the hem of the yellow gingham sundress she wore, rubbing the edge of it between her fingers. Darnell was a very capable ADA. If he went after Veronica, would she really have a hope of beating the rap?

  Finally Veronica could bear to sit still no longer. She leashed Harry and led him out of the park, feeling guilty that he still wanted to stay and wrestle with the Doberman. “Sorry, Buddy,” she said softly. “Maybe Daniel will have a little free time this weekend, and we’ll make it out to Folsom for a picnic.”

  ~~~

  Daniel was already at the diner, waiting in a booth. He waved at her and she joined him.

  “I like the dress,” he said with a grin.

  She smiled back. “Thanks.”

  Sitting down, she opened the menu and scanned it. They ate there often, since Daniel returned to work, but she liked to try something new every time. “Have you had the salmon burger?” she asked.

  “Yep. It’s alright. Just one of those frozen ones, but you know, still pretty good.”

  “How’s the interrogation going?” she asked, deciding on the burger.

  Daniel grimaced. “He’s not giving us anything. The best I can get from him is a lot of LCCP propaganda—the world is going to hell, did you know? Because we tolerate sin and blasphemy, apparently.”

  “Nice,” Veronica said. “I wonder what Ivy saw in him.”

  Daniel shook his head and put down his own menu. A young female server with blue hair and a pink uniform trotted up.

  “I’ll have the salmon burger with a side of coleslaw,” Veronica told her. “And an iced tea with lemon.”

  “And for you, sir?” the girl asked.

  “The barbeque chicken sandwich, fries, and I’ll have an iced tea, too.”

&
nbsp; Veronica waited until she’d walked off to say, “When we’re done, I could go back to the station with you. Maybe I’d get something off him.”

  Daniel frowned. “I wish you could, Ronnie, but it’s not a good idea for you to go to the station right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because of the case against you. I’ll bet they’re going to argue that you’re obsessed with finding evidence so you can perpetuate your con, you know.”

  “My con,” Veronica echoed.

  “Ronnie, you know as well as I do that Felsen is doing this to discredit you.”

  “So you think the DA is going to buy it? That I broke the lock on that door so I could snoop around and then pretend I got whatever information I found from a vision?”

  “I don’t know what the DA’s going to think. I mean, you did tell Darnell you had a vision that brought you to that grocery store after I got stabbed. And that ghosts helped you rescue us all.”

  Veronica groaned.

  The server returned and set iced teas down in front of them before whirling away again. Veronica picked up one of the lemon wedges the waitress had set down on a small white plate, and squeezed juice into her tea.

  “It’s such a nightmare,” she muttered. “I’m not planning to out Felsen. I wish she’d just chill and let me do my thing in peace.”

  “I don’t think she can live with you knowing what you do, even if you never tell anyone,” Daniel said, stirring sweetener into his tea. “I’ve been thinking about it. She’s not really acting out of paranoia. I think she’s acting out of shame. You’re a constant reminder to her.”

  “Her actions led to an innocent man’s death. I hope she is ashamed.”

  Daniel nodded pensively.

  “But in any case, it doesn’t change the current problem. If you can’t get Roeder to give you the names of his accomplices, and I can’t come see him at the station, how are we going to find out who they are?”

  “And you really believe he has accomplices?”

  Veronica rested her chin on one palm. “I think so. I keep going back over what I saw in the parade dream. Someone was passing out water bottles, but it wasn’t Roeder. I would have recognized him from the vision I got from Sarah.”