Salvation In Death Part 38

"Still they'd have looked at this Aldo, wouldn't they?" Roarke took her coffee to have some himself. "Isn't that what you do? Suspect the spouse first?"

"Rule of thumb. They'd have run him, asked questions. He was smart, it was smart to pick Vegas for it. Gambling, s.e.x, make sure they're seen together. Maybe talk Ortega into some high stakes. He wins, he loses, it doesn't matter. Money, loss or gain, it's always a motive for taking off.

He'd have played that right with them," she considered. "Admit maybe they weren't getting along perfectly well, having a few marital problems, but they loved each other. He's just so worried. He just wants to know Jose is all right. He had to lay some groundwork for it. I f the cops weren't complete idiots, they'd check with people who knew the MP, who knew the person who reported him missing."

"I t just takes knowing the right people, and how much they cost.""Yeah, there's a point. I t's earlier there, right, in Vegas. The stupid time zone c.r.a.p actually works for me this time. I can get those investigators'

reports tonight."

"And your killer's killer?"

"Working on it. I 've got more pressure to put on Penny now. She knew all of this. He'd have told her the details of it. And if she had a part in his murder-and she d.a.m.n well did-she had a line to the Ortega money. No way she'd have given up millions just to ditch Lino. She helped kill him so shekilt i could have it all. I 'm going to need the name of that lawyer."

"I 'll get it now." He turned toward his office, glanced back. "That's quite a bit from one cake, Lieutenant."

She grinned fiercely as she went to her 'link. "I t was one h.e.l.l of a cake."

In short order, she read over the initial report, the statements, the interviews. I t didn't come as much of a surprise to read one of those statements came from one Steven Jorge Chavez, identified as a longtime friend of the MP who'd come to Vegas to meet up at the MP's request.

"Chavez, Lino's co-captain in the Soldados, backed him on Ortega," Eve told Roarke. "As Ken Aldo's data stated he'd been born in Baja, and had spent his childhood in California and New Mexico, there was no reason to look for a connection between him and Chavez. He told the cops Ortega had confided in him one night that he was feeling closed in, pressured-by his marriage and his responsibilities back East. That he wished he could just 'disappear.' "

"Laying it on a bit thick," Roarke commented.

"Yeah, but they bought it. Had no reason not to. And the high stakes played through. Ortega rolled in a couple hundred thousand at the blackjack tables two days before he was reported missing."

"Lucky streak, good or bad, depending on your point of view."

"Yeah, could have been the springboard for getting rid of him."

"In any case"-Roarke studied her board, crowded now with all the players-"it's enough to buy a new face."

"The rest of the finances wouldn't zip straight to the spouse as, until they had a body, the MP would be considered alive and well. At least for seven years."

He looked over at Eve. She was revving now, he noted. Juiced. Between the adrenaline and the coffee, she'd run half the night. "And Chavez goes in the wind shortly after the statement."

"Both he and Flores. Check this. In the investigators' notes, they mention that Aldo was so distraught, he asked if there was a priest or a chaplain he could talk to."

"And Flores was there."

"I think Flores was in the wrong place at the wrong time on his sabbatical. I think when Lino worked a con, he went into it deep. When he came back to check with the police the next day, he had Flores with him. The report says he identified himself as Miguel Flores, and Aldo referred to him as Father. The cop did the job, checked Flores out, ran him, and got the background, verified. He came in twice more, with Flores, then stated that he intended to return home, to T aos, and left his contact information with the investigators. He checked in weekly for three months, and every month for a full year. Then he dropped it."

She sat back. "I think we narrow our search for Flores, for his remains to Nevada. A lot of desert around Vegas. A lot of places to bury a body. Or two. We'll focus that on the area from Vegas to T aos, figuring if he convinced Flores to travel with him at all, he'd have stuck to the route he gave the cops."

"You won't be able to close this, not in your mind, until you find Flores. Or what remains of him."

She sat back. She didn't need the board, the photos to see Flores. She had his face in her head. "Peabody said that cases like this make her wish bad guys would just be bad guys. There are plenty of those, that's what I said. Somebody like Flores, he never did anyone any harm. He got a big cosmic slap when bad guys took his family, but he doesn't do any harm. Tries, in fact, to live a life that does the opposite."

"I t's more often than not innocents, isn't it, who get caught in the cross fire."

"Yeah, and this one wanted to examine his life. His faith, I guess. That's what I get from it. They took that life because he tried to help someone he thought was in need." No, she didn't need the board, didn't need the photo. "I 've got to find who killed Lino Martinez. That's my job. But Flores deserves somebody to stand for him. He deserves that. Anyway." She glanced at the memo cube Roarke had put on her desk. "Is that the lawyer?"

"I t is, yes."

She turned to her 'link with the memo.

"Eve, you're in the same time zone now, and it's closing on midnight."

She only smiled. "Yeah, there's this small, petty satisfaction I 'm getting at the idea of waking up a lawyer. I t's wrong, but it's there."

CHAPTER 20

THE LAWYER DIDN'T APPRECIATE THE MIDNIGHT call, but she snagged his interest.

"Mr. Aldo and I are in contact regularly, and have been since Mr. Ortega's disappearance."

"You've met Mr. Aldo."

"Not in a personal sense. We correspond via e-mail most usually. He lives in New Mexico, and has a secondary residence in Cancun. He travels extensively."

"I bet. Mr. Ortega owns a number of properties in New York, businesses, his residence, rental properties. How are those finances handled?"

"I really don't see how that's relevant, or how it warrants being disturbed at this time of night."

"The investigation into Mr. Ortega's disappearance may be cold, but it's still open. As his spouse and only beneficiary on record, Mr. Aldo stands to inherit a big, fat bundle if and when Mr. Ortega is declared legally dead. You ever wonder about that, Mr. Feinburg?"

I t was hard for a guy with a sleep crease across his cheek to look snooty, but Feinburg gave it his best shot. "Mr. Aldo has handled every aspect of this matter by means both legal and aboveboard."

"I have evidence that Ken Aldo is an alias for one Lino Martinez, a violent criminal who I suspect duped and disposed of your former client. I can and will get a warrant, within the hour, to access the financials on the Ortega properties, or you can answer the question and get back to sleep a lot sooner."

"You can't possibly expect me to believe-"

"And as Lino Martinez is currently cooling it down at the morgue, I don't believe you have a client left alive in this matter. Do you want me to wake up a judge, Feinburg?"

Feinburg blinked like an owl blasted with sudden sunlight. "I 'd require verification before-"

"Let me ask you this," Eve said, and played another hunch. "Did Aldo contact you recently? Say in the last few weeks, to inform you that he had a beneficiary? A female. He'd want her listed as his legal partner, with full power of attorney."

There was a long silence. "Why would you ask that?"

"Because I believe the con got himself conned. Your client's dead, Feinburg, and his killer will continue to correspond with you under his name, and whatever name she's opted to use. Answer yes or no: The profits from the Ortega properties go into some kind of escrow or trust, and will-once Ortega is declared legally dead at the end of another year-become Aldo's a.s.sets."

"That would be the usual procedure, yes."

"When did you last hear from Aldo?"

"About six weeks ago. I did, however, hear from his ... new partner only yesterday. I t's my understanding that Mr. Aldo plans to travel for several months."

"I can pretty much guarantee he's doing his traveling in h.e.l.l."

"Lieutenant." Feinburg s.h.i.+fted, tugged on the robe she a.s.sumed he'd pulled on before unblocking video. "What you're outlining is very disturbing."

"You think?"

"But at this time, I 'm bound by client-attorney confidentiality. I can't give you information."

"We'll work around that. You can do this. Do not correspond or contact your clients until I clear it. I f the woman claiming to be Aldo's partner contacts you, don't respond. Contact me. I don't think she will, not yet, but-and trust me on this-I will find a way to tangle you up in obstruction and accessory after the fact if you give my suspect the smallest clue she's on my screen. Understood?"

Unable to pull off snooty again, Feinburg just looked aggrieved. "I 'm a property and tax lawyer, for G.o.d's sake. I 've done nothing to earn threats from the police."

"Good. Keep it that way. I 'll be in touch."

She ended transmission, then frowned at the bowl Roarke set in front of her. "What's this?"

"Food. We had cake for dinner, if you recall. And since you show no signs of winding down for the night, we're going to eat."

She sniffed at the soup. She'd bet a month's pay there were vegetables lurking around under the surface, but it smelled good. "Okay. Thanks. You don't have to stick.""You couldn't peel me off with dermalaser." He sat across from her, sampled his own soup. "Do you think Lino opened himself to all this by making Penny his legal partner and heir?"

Eve ate. She'd been right about the vegetables. "Do you?"

"You said he loved her. Love blinds and binds and often makes b.l.o.o.d.y gits out of us. So, yes. She likely nudged him along that route, using s.e.x or withholding it-as s.e.x makes b.l.o.o.d.y gits of us even more often than love. He'd have told her all of it, every detail. A bit at a time maybe, but over these five years? He'd have laid it all out for her. How smart is she?"

"Not very, I 'd say. More hotheaded. But he was, yeah, I think Lino was pretty smart. And all she had to do was springboard off the game he'd already laid out. He'd have gotten away with it," she added. "Another few months, the properties and trust transfer to Aldo-all legalschmegal. Aldo sells out to Martinez. Martinez gets his face back, and comes home rich and important. Yeah, he was smart enough, but Penny Soto was his athlete's heel."

"Achilles'." Roarke paused, studied her face. "Do you do that on purpose? The misnomers?"

"Maybe. Sometimes. Anyway, she'll know what happened to Flores."

Roarke smiled at her. "How much will you bargain with her for the information?"

"I won't. Can't. But I 'll get it." She scooped up soup. The vegetables weren't such a bad deal when they were disguised in noodles and a thick, zingy broth. "Yeah, he told her all of it. Pillow talk, bragging, puffing himself up. And she has to figure, what does she need him for? She can have it all if she works it right. She's waited almost as long as he has, right? Why does she have to share it with this loser?"

"Left her once, didn't he?" Roarke pointed out. "What's to stop him from tossing her aside once he's riding the money train. So she tosses him first.

Permanently."

"Plays the right tune for me. She gets him to hook her up first. I f you loved me, you'd respect me. I f you loved me, we'd be partners. I f you loved me, you'd make sure I had security. Don't you trust me, Lino, don't you love me-all while probably giving him a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b." Eve wagged her spoon at Roarke. "Men are d.i.c.ks so often because they have one."

"I can use mine without thinking with it."

Eve grinned over another spoonful of soup. "I f I went down on you right now, you'd give me anything I asked for."

"Try me."

Now she laughed. "You're just trying for a bj, and I 'm working."

Saying nothing, he took out his memo book, keyed something in. Then smiled when she c.o.c.ked her head in question. "I 'm just making a note that you owe me a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b to prove your theory."

Amused, she finished off the soup. "Okay then, if you're going to stick, the next step is to check out the families and close ties to the fatalities and injured at the two bombings back in '43. I 'm working on the theory that Lino was behind both. I 'm starting with the rties second, because of the eye- for-an-eye thing."

"Because most, if not all, would have no reason to think Martinez set the boomer, on his own turf."

"But the second," Eve agreed. "People knew, or strongly suspected he had something to do with it. He made sure that buzz got around. Plus, the single fatality in the school bombing has no close friends or relatives left in the area. Her family moved to Barcelona three years after her death."

"So you study the fatalities on the second, as death has more weight."

"Your kid, brother, father, best pal, whatever, gets hurt seventeen years ago and you have a chance for payback, you find a way to hurt them back.

Exposure, a good a.s.s-whooping. But death? I t's final. Payback needs to be final, too."

"Yes. And the law is often transitory."

She knew he thought of Marlena again, what had been done, what he had done. His eyes came to hers.

"I f I 'd stepped away, if I 'd never exacted payment from those who tortured, raped, murdered an innocent girl, Jenny would be alive. I t ripples, and you can never know how or where they'll spread."

"Sometimes the law is transitory, and sometimes, even with it, those ripples spread out too far or in the wrong direction. But without the law, well, eventually, we'd all drown."

"Some of us are excellent swimmers. I 'm more inclined to believe in the face of the law, since I look at it every day, than I ever did before I saw it."

He reached in his pocket, took out the gray b.u.t.ton that had fallen off her suit the first time they'd met. When she'd viewed him as a murder suspect.

"And I have my talisman to remind me."

I t never failed to baffle her-and on a deeper level delight her-that he carried it with him, always. "What ever happened to that suit anyway?"

Humor flickered in his eyes. "I t was hideous, and met the fate it deserved. This"-he held up the b.u.t.ton-"was the best part of it."He was probably right. "Well. Break's over," she announced. "Computer, list fatalities in East 119th Street incident from Detective Stuben's case file."

Acknowledged. Working ...

"There would have been others," Roarke commented. "Other fatalities, on both sides of the war, while your victim was a captain. And therefore in charge."

"Yeah, got that covered. Stuben's going to get me the data by tomorrow. I don't hit here, I 'll start looking there."

Task complete.

"Display, screen one. Five fatalities," Eve said. "There's another whose injuries were severe enough I 'll need to look at. Guy lost an arm. Three of the fatalities were members of the Skulls. Of the other two, one was the manager and one was a part-time counter guy. All fatalities were minors, except the manager."

"Four children dead."