The Body of David Hayes by Ridley Pearson Read Free Book Online

jury.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “What if it comes down to his word against yours that you had nothing to do with the original crime?”
    “We’re past that. We’re
way
past that. Don’t you think that just might have come out in the original trial?”
    “How is the bank going to feel about you taking a meeting in secret with a convicted embezzler? Was the bank notified?”
    “It’s none of their business!”
    “It’s exactly their business. It’s none of your business, or shouldn’t be.”
    She processed this and knew he was right, and this filled her with an added dread.
    “I’ll talk to Danny,” Boldt said again.
    She didn’t want Lou comparing notes with Danny Foreman, but any thought of containing this was long gone.
    “Who else has access to I.T. the way you do?”
    “That’s what Danny wants too.”
    “I’m not Danny.”
    “I do. Tony does, of course. Phillip—goes without saying.”
    “Maintenance?” he asked. “Programmers?”
    “A dozen or more for the UNIX system, sure. Not the AS/400s. Tony’s the only programmer we have who works with the AS/400s. Typically we outsource that work to IBM anyway. They’re their own worlds, the AS/400s.”
    “So, in some ways, Tony LaRossa is more important to Hayes than you.”
    “Except that David has a past with me. He thinks he can use it to his advantage. He’d have to strong-arm Tony or try to bribe him, and neither of those is even a remote possibility.”
    “Either is a possibility,” Lou said. “These people drugged Danny. You said they pulled a couple fingernails off Hayes. They killed a dog. Threatened an old lady. What makes Tony LaRossa immune?”
    “Okay,” she said. “So Tony’s in the picture as well. I’ll call him.”
    “No,” Lou said sharply. “You’re discounting the possibility that Tony was involved from the beginning.”
    “Tony? He’s my director of I.T.!” She said this but felt a worming sensation overcome her. “Tony? We barbecue with Tony and Beth. The twins—”
    “… were an expensive adoption,” Boldt interrupted, finishing her sentence for her. “The failed in-vitros must have run in the tens of thousands. Where’d Tony get that kind of money?”
    “He makes a good living.”
    “He’s worth a look.”
    “We all get favorable loan rates. Don’t lump Tony in with David Hayes. He’s not that kind of person.”
    “And
you
are? Stay clear of Tony, Liz. Not a word until we’ve had a chance to run some background.”
    “I didn’t come here to turn the investigation over to you, Lou. I came here to be honest with you, to include you.”
    “Consider me now included.”
    “Not like this.”
    “What’d you expect? I’d let Danny run you?”
    “No one’s running me.”
    “Hayes is running you. Or trying to. Going to Dannybefore coming to me…How am I supposed to
feel
about
    that?”
    She hadn’t considered his professional pride might be more wounded than his husband’s pride. Then, realizing the two were impossibly intertwined, she resigned herself to the fact that she’d botched the whole thing from the start. Without thinking, she asked, “Are you alright with this?”
    “‘Conflicted,’ I think it’s called.” Sarcasm was misplaced in him, like a preacher swearing. “I obviously failed you as a husband. No matter how far in the past, that kills me. Your taking this to Danny before me also hurts and, I might add, makes it all the more difficult for us both. Unlike Danny, I put your safety first, the investigation second. Whether or not I can make that happen at this late date is anybody’s guess, but it has to happen because I am not exposing you to this guy again.”
    “I won’t have his mother’s murder on my conscience, Lou. That might not make any sense to you, but I want you clear on this. I
will
be involved, at least to the extent David
thinks
I’m involved. I want to be cooperative, I want to work this out, yes, but as wife and husband, not informant and