Watch Your Back

by Karen Rose

  ‘And the gun he was pointing at you,’ Clay said tightly.

  ‘That, too.’ Silas had been willing to kill her that day so that he could escape to save his own child. It was a few hours later that she’d found him holding Cordelia, his gun pressed to her daughter’s side in order to force Stevie to help him.

  You’d sacrifice my child, she’d asked, to save your own?

  In a heartbeat, had been his answer.

  She’d considered that while doing her thinking surrounded by five dozen roses. Silas had proven already that he’d had no loyalties, had proven he’d murder to further his own agenda. That Silas Dandridge had forced the murder of her husband hadn’t been all that hard to accept.

  ‘I remember watching Silas drive away that day and it was in that moment that I finally realized that I’d trusted, at times even unwittingly aided, a monster. I was in tears. Then I turned around and there you were.’ She swallowed hard. ‘Every time I need you, you’re there.’

  He closed his eyes. ‘Please don’t thank me. Do not.’

  ‘All right, I won’t. Can I ask why you filled the front room with flowers?’

  He lifted a shoulder. ‘I told you. I thought you deserved a little romance before—’ He cut himself off, pressing his lips together to keep from saying more.

  ‘Before? Before what? Before you told me about Silas? Why—?’ She stopped because she knew the answer. I love you. I need to say it out loud.

  She thought she’d heard a goodbye in his words. She’d been right.

  He believed she would, in her heartbreak, walk away from him.

  And why wouldn’t he? It’s what I’ve done before. I shut myself away for eight years. She’d pushed her friends away for months, trying to fix the world all by herself. Stevie, you’re an idiot.

  ‘You were going to give me a perfect night before you had to break my heart, weren’t you?’

  He surged up out of his chair, walking to the closet where he needlessly straightened the shirts he’d hung there. ‘That was the idea. I thought you deserved it. That we deserved it.’

  Her throat closed and she cleared it roughly. She knew how long he’d waited for her to come around. Hell, half of Baltimore knew how long he’d waited. Two years. But he’d told her a most painful truth, all the while believing she’d retreat, that she’d pull back into herself again. And even believing she’d already done so, here he was. Protecting her still.

  What are you waiting for, Mazzetti? A neon arrow to fall from the sky?

  ‘Clay, I’m not . . . broken. I’m still in shock and I don’t know what I’ll be like tomorrow or the day after. But I do know that at some point, the reality of this is going to hit me hard and I’ll need someone to hold me up. I’d really like that person to be you.’

  He turned slowly, his expression one of total relief. ‘Good. Because I want it to be me, too.’

  ‘Lucky for me, then, that you’re so damn good at it,’ she said soberly. Because this was important. ‘You hold me up, Clay. You have for a long time, even when I didn’t think I wanted you to. You’ve always been right there for me.’

  ‘Because I love you,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m sorry if you’re not ready to hear it, but it doesn’t change how I feel.’

  She walked over to him, gripped his tie in her fist and yanked his head down for a hard and fast kiss. When they drew back for air, she kept her grip on the tie, keeping his face close to hers. ‘I’m ready to hear it.’ She watched him draw a breath. Watched him hold it as he waited, his dark eyes vulnerable. Expectant. ‘Because I love you, too.’

  His eyes closed. ‘Could I hear that again, please?’ he whispered.

  Releasing his tie, she traced the hard angles of his face with her fingertips, then kissed him again, more softly this time. ‘I love you. I think I have for a long time. But I wasn’t ready to accept it. I know you don’t want me to thank you, but I’m going to anyway. Thank you for letting me have the time and space I needed, tonight and for the last two years.’

  He pulled her to him and she willingly, eagerly went, wrapping her arms around his waist. ‘I thought you’d blame yourself,’ he said unsteadily. ‘I was afraid you’d punish yourself. That you’d build a wall around yourself again. That you wouldn’t let me in.’

  ‘I don’t want to build any more walls around myself. I missed so much because I did that before. But I do blame myself. How can I not?’

  He sighed. ‘Stevie, what Robinette did . . . what Silas did . . . you didn’t cause any of that.’

  ‘No, not directly. But my actions caused Robinette to react and my family paid the price. Paul, Paulie . . . they’re gone. And Cordelia’s been paying the price her whole life because I built a wall around my heart. That’s why this time has to be different.’

  He rested his cheek on top of her head, his sigh weary. ‘Stevie, saying it has to be different won’t make it so. As long as you blame yourself, it won’t be different. It can’t be.’

  She pulled back far enough to see his face. ‘But it is. The blame is different. And what I’ll do with it is different, too. That’s what I was thinking about when I was in the other room.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘See, when it was random, losing Paul wasn’t my fault. He stopped at that store every night to buy a lottery ticket for his mother. Paul was going to be there at the same time the robber was, regardless of anything I did or didn’t do. But Paulie was my fault. If I hadn’t been so focused on my work, I would have saved my son. That’s always been the hardest part for me.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Losing Paulie isn’t any easier to accept now than before. Nothing about that part has changed.’ Her little boy’s face was in her mind, the way he smelled. Like cookies. Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away. ‘If I’d picked him up like I was supposed to, he’d be alive. I own that. But Silas knew he’d be with Paul. He knew, and he let the hit happen anyway.’

  Clay frowned. ‘Silas knew? How?’

  ‘While I was in there thinking, I made myself remember the last hours of that day, before Hyatt came to tell me about the shooting. Silas left on time that night, but he stopped by my desk on the way out. Saw me working on the request to get Robinette’s case reopened. He gave a big sigh and reminded me that it was my night to pick up Paulie.’

  ‘Had he ever done that before?’

  ‘No. I thought it a little odd at the moment, but after Hyatt notified me . . . Everything just folded up and disappeared. I didn’t forget anything. It was just too painful to remember.’

  ‘I can relate to that. Tell me what you’re remembering now.’

  ‘Paul and I planned day care pickup, put it on our calendars at the start of each week, but some nights we’d switch off at the last minute if something came up, just like most couples do. Silas had to have checked my calendar to know it was my night, but when he reminded me, I told him I’d asked Paul to get him. Silas knew Paulie would be with Paul.’

  ‘Sonofabitch.’

  ‘Yeah. Well, he proved other times that he didn’t care who he hurt to get his way. I don’t know why I thought I should have been exempt. That I wasn’t is what makes this scenario different from a random killing. I mean, Robinette reacted because I couldn’t leave well enough alone. But I shouldn’t have left it alone. You can’t let the bad guys win. The moment you do, you’re part of the problem. Does that make sense?’

  He rested his forehead on hers. ‘Yes. It does.’

  She drew a breath. ‘I have to live with the fact that Paul and Paulie are dead because of a choice I made. Paul . . . He would have understood. I think he would have made the same choice. But Paulie . . .’ She closed her eyes against the pain stabbing her chest. ‘He never had the chance to choose. So do I blame myself for that? Yes. I will every day forever. Would I make the same choice again, knowing what I know now? Probably not and I have to live with that, too. But now I know it was orchestrated. For eight years I believed it was bad luck. Karma. Cir
cumstance. Whatever. But other than killing myself, there wasn’t anything I could really do to punish myself. I’ve felt so damn helpless.’

  ‘But now you have someone real to blame,’ he said softly.

  She nodded. ‘Now I have someone to make pay. And to do that I need your help. Silas is dead, but Robinette is alive and kickin’. Help me nail him to the wall.’

  His smile was harsh. ‘I’d like to see anyone try to stop me. What do you need?’

  ‘A connection. Somehow, somewhere, Robinette and Silas crossed paths. Silas worked for Stuart Lippman, the defense attorney, and all of Lippman’s dirty work we’ve uncovered to date originated within the justice system. Lippman would note the arrest of anyone from a rich family, call them and say, “I can make your troubles go away – for a price.”’

  ‘But Robinette was never actually arrested,’ Clay said, ‘so there would have been no reason for Stuart Lippman to contact him with an offer to make his troubles go away. Yet Silas was involved and to your knowledge he only did dirty work for Lippman, and only because Lippman had threatened Silas with harming his child. If Robinette had approached Silas on his own, Silas might have turned him in.’

  ‘Exactly. Which means Robinette and Lippman connect some other way.’

  Clay thought a minute. ‘I think I know where to start. Why don’t you call for room service? I’m going to call Alec.’

  Wednesday, March 19, 8.00 A.M.

  All eyes were on them as Clay and Stevie walked into the conference room on the homicide floor. Very tired eyes, Clay thought. He and Stevie appeared to be the only ones who’d gotten any sleep the night before. After a late dinner, she’d fallen asleep in his arms. Before she did so, she told him once again that she loved him. Clay had the best night’s sleep of his life.

  The faces around the table . . . not so much. Hyatt, Grayson, and JD looked shattered. Joseph, weary. His team – Novak, Coppola, and CSU’s Dr Brodie – were sympathetically grave. To have dirty cops in the department was bad enough, but Silas’s act was one of ultimate betrayal.

  ‘I’m okay,’ Stevie said without preamble as she and Clay sat on either side of Joseph, who sat at the head of the table. ‘I take it that we’re all assuming that Silas didn’t wake up that morning and decide to have my husband and son killed. He was hired to do so, and at the time, the person who had the most to gain was Todd Robinette. He wanted me off his tail eight years ago, because I believed he’d killed his wife. Killing my family distracted me so that his case was dropped. Given that Robinette’s the one shooting at me now, it makes sense that he hired Silas and he doesn’t want me to expose him for all of his past acts.’

  ‘That’s where we are,’ Joseph confirmed.

  ‘Good,’ she said with a hard nod. ‘Because I’m pissed off and ready to take Robinette down.’ Murmurs of agreement rippled around the room. ‘Do we have a warrant for his home and business yet?’

  Grayson scowled. ‘I couldn’t get a judge to sign one based on the ramblings of a “clearly deranged woman” who broke into a hotel room. Everything else we have is circumstantial. We’ll need physical evidence to bring him in. I told the judge we had blood and hair, tried to get a court order forcing Robinette to provide a DNA sample, but I got shut down. I underestimated Robinette’s PR machine. He’s made a lot of friends in high places over the last eight years.’

  ‘Pretty much what I figured,’ Stevie said. ‘Do we even know if he’s still in the country?’

  ‘He is,’ Joseph said. ‘I’ve had agents outside his home and his factory since you told me his name last night. Told my people to stay out of sight. We don’t want to spook him into running. He left his factory at about noon yesterday afternoon and went straight home. My agent said Robinette “didn’t look so good”. His wife picked him up and drove him.’

  ‘He was shot in the arm,’ Clay said. ‘But it wasn’t serious. He didn’t bleed that much.’

  ‘I don’t know how badly he’s hurt. The word from my agents was that he looked like he was about to throw up. His wife appeared most displeased.’

  ‘Have we talked to her?’ Clay asked.

  Joseph nodded. ‘I did, personally, an hour after she brought him home. A maid answered the door, wouldn’t let me in. Neither would Lisa Robinette. I told her that I was pursuing an allegation made by Jean Henderson, who’d served with Robinette in the Gulf War.’

  ‘And she said what?’ JD asked.

  ‘What you’d expect. That Henderson was delusional. And that if I had any other questions, to contact their attorney. Then she shut the door in my face. But she had been taken by surprise. And she was pissed, although she tried to hide it. About thirty minutes after I left, the PR person arrived – Brenda Lee Miller – and left a few minutes later. One of my agents followed her, too. Other than that, there hasn’t been any movement outside their house. Hopefully Lisa hasn’t killed him. She was pretty mad.’

  ‘Trouble in paradise?’ Clay had run a background check the night before when Stevie had been doing her thinking. ‘They haven’t been married that long. Robinette married Lisa Laffley, wife number three, about two years ago. The Laffleys are prominent fixtures on the political scene. Very rich. Lisa was considered a top catch when she chose Robinette after her debut.’

  ‘Her debut what?’ Hyatt asked.

  ‘Her debut ball,’ Stevie said. ‘The wealthy elite apparently still do this.’

  ‘You’re joking,’ Agent Kate Coppola accused, eyes narrowed.

  Stevie shook her head. ‘I was surprised too, but it’s true. Lisa had her debut ball right after she graduated from Bryn Mawr. She seems smart enough.’

  ‘Why did she choose Robinette, then?’ Coppola asked.

  ‘The man can be charming,’ Stevie said grimly. ‘If she believes herself in love, she could be a hard sell. But if the bloom is wearing off the rose, we might get to him through her.’

  ‘We’ll try,’ Joseph said. ‘But not until we can figure the best way to do it.’

  Dr Brodie spread lab reports on the table. ‘If we can somehow get her to supply us with a hairbrush or toothbrush, that would be great. We have the DNA profiles from the hair found at the beach house and the blood found at Daphne’s farm. They’re an exact match. Now if we only had something to match them to.’

  Stevie’s head came up, her eyes finding Clay’s. ‘We do, actually. What about Levi?’

  ‘You’re right,’ he murmured. ‘That would connect Robinette to the crime scene.’

  ‘Levi? Robinette’s son?’ Joseph leaned back in his chair, nodding. ‘We can show a familial relationship. Did you run DNA on Levi eight years ago?’

  ‘No,’ Stevie said, ‘because he was never formally charged and booked, but we can. The ME’s office keeps blood samples, right? They autopsied him.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Brodie said, typing on her phone. ‘Just texted the lab with the request.’

  ‘I just hope the kid’s blood didn’t disappear like his dad’s cigarette butt,’ Hyatt said darkly.

  ‘If it has, we can dig him up. Levi is buried next to his biological mother in a little parish cemetery, south of Baton Rouge.’

  ‘How did the boy’s mother die?’ Joseph asked.

  ‘Overdose,’ she said. ‘That Levi had followed in his mother’s footsteps was one of the things Robinette lamented when he brought us the boy on a silver platter. She died while he was stationed in Iraq and he couldn’t get leave to come home. He arranged with his friend, Rene Broussard, to take Levi in. Rene was married to Julie, who cared for Levi like he was her own.’

  ‘Hold on.’ Agent Coppola frowned. ‘Robinette married his friend’s wife? How?’

  ‘Rene had died a few years before,’ Stevie said. ‘He was found half-naked and dead in a known hangout for prostitutes. Julie was devastated according to her employees, and nobody thought she married Robinette for love. Remember the employee that created the distraction so that I could get Robinette’s cigarette butt? He told me that Julie was afraid that
Robinette would take Levi away, after Rene died. The employee believed that Robinette had leveraged Julie’s affection for Levi to get her to marry him and give him a “cushy VP job”.’

  ‘So Julie married Robinette,’ Coppola said, ‘and gave him the job he wanted. But then Julie was killed. Why?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Stevie swallowed hard. ‘I never had the opportunity to find out for sure. Julie was found in a car with her head chemist, made to look like they were running away together. I figured then that Robinette had gotten power hungry and killed Julie to gain control of the pharmaceutical company. I guessed that the head chemist was too loyal to Julie to cooperate after she was dead so Robinette killed him, too, or there was something else going on – like maybe the two knew something about Robinette they shouldn’t know. What that was, I don’t know. But one thing that everyone in the factory was sure of was that Julie loved Levi and that Levi loved her, too. I agreed. I didn’t believe Levi killed her. But after Levi was dead, Robinette apparently didn’t want him buried near Julie, so he shipped the body south.’

  Hyatt turned to her with a frown. ‘Wait. How do you know where the boy’s buried?’

  Her chin lifted slightly. ‘Because I went to the funeral.’

  JD’s brows shot up. ‘You really were on Robinette, weren’t you? Did he see you there?’

  ‘I didn’t think so at the time. Now, I’m not so sure.’

  Hyatt looked stunned. ‘You went all the way to Louisiana? How? I never approved it.’

  ‘I flew,’ she admitted. ‘I was on admin leave after I shot Levi and I had time. I believed his father had set him up. I wanted to watch Robinette’s behavior at the funeral.’

  ‘What did Paul say about this?’ Grayson asked, looking as stunned as Hyatt.

  Stevie smiled sadly. ‘He bought my plane ticket. He didn’t want me driving to Louisiana because I was pregnant and tiring more easily. We didn’t have a lot of money and I felt guilty that my stubbornness had cost us some of our savings.’ Then she met Clay’s gaze. ‘He said I wasn’t stubborn, that I was tenacious and he didn’t consider that a failing.’