Page 41

H ayes looked up from the computer to see Reese sitting up on the couch, blinking owlishly. “Feeling better?”

She scrubbed her hands over her face, wincing when her fingers came in contact with the bandage. “How long was I out?”

“Only a couple of hours.”

She pushed away the throw he’d covered her with after she’d dozed off. “Long enough, then,” she muttered. “What’d I miss?”

“I had Dryver pick up the keys and bring Julia’s car home. You received a call. And a voicemail, I believe.”

Her phone was on the table across from him.

Reese rose and walked woodenly toward it.

Stiffness had set in from being crammed in that trunk and struggling with McNulty.

But things could have been far, far worse.

Picking up her cell, she saw that Hayes was right.

There was one missed call from the SDPD. Maybe Gibbons or Jennings.

But she was proven wrong when she listened to the message. Her stomach lurched hard once. Reese was aware that Hayes was still studying her, but she couldn’t have hidden her reaction if she tried. When it ended, she put her cell on speakerphone and played it again so he could listen.

“Ms. Decody. This is SDPD Detective Usher from Central Division. I’d like to sit down with you to discuss Tyler Greenley’s death.

Please return my call so we can set up a date and time.

If I don’t hear from you, I’ll have to send a couple of officers to bring you downtown. That will be far less pleasant.”

“Friendly guy.”

She snorted at Hayes’s obvious sarcasm. So she hadn’t been imagining the note of intimidation in the detective’s voice. “Sounds like a real hard-ass. I think I’ve had my fill of SDPD’s finest this week.”

“You’ll need to call him back, but you don’t have to sit down with him right away. Monday will be soon enough. When’s your appointment with Sedgewick tomorrow?”

“Eleven. I could do it in the afternoon.”

“We need time to line up a defense attorney to be there with you.”

The thought hadn’t occurred. “What? Why?”

“It’s just good sense. He or she can make sure you don’t inadvertently waive any of your rights. And shut things down if the detective tries to coerce you.”

She felt suddenly chilled. “Monday would still be short notice.” Did she even know a defense attorney? Reese didn’t think so.

“I’ll take care of it.” Hayes picked up his cell. “You call Usher.”

She took her phone and went out to the balcony.

She hadn’t expected the police to find Greenley’s killer in two days, but it would have been nice to hear that they’d eliminated her as a suspect.

Nothing in the detective’s message had given an indication of that.

The man had left his number and extension, so she was able to reach him directly.

“Usher.”

“This is Reese Decody, returning your call.” She leaned against the outdoor railing, her gaze on the small courtyard below with its bubbling fountain.

“Ms. Decody. I’m anxious to set up an interview with you.” Her imagination filled in a face to go with the raspy, pack-a-day smoker’s voice sounding in her ear. “I have time tomorrow morning. Or I can come to you.”

“I have a prior engagement tomorrow. How about Monday? That will give me an opportunity to engage an attorney.”

“Time is of the essence in a murder investigation. Sooner would be best.”

Reese looked through the glass door at Hayes. He was turned away, the phone pressed to his ear. It was tempting to get this over with. But he’d been adamant about the lawyer.

“Detective. Today I’ve been kidnapped and assaulted and spent some very long hours in the ER. I’ve had my fill of fun. I’m open anytime Monday.”

“Did you report that incident to the police?”

“SDPD Detective Sergeant Jennings, at the Northern Division, is handling the case. He’s already caught the assailant.” If the man caught the subtle gibe in her words, he ignored it.

“Any reason to believe today’s events were connected to your visit with Tyler Greenley?”

The question took her aback. “I don’t see how. Why would it?”

“I don’t know, Ms. Decody.” His voice was sour. “You’re the one who holds all the answers. Let’s say 1 p.m. Monday.”

“We’ll see you then.”

“We?”

“I’ll be accompanied by my attorney and Hayes Moreland. He was with me when I stopped at Greenley’s office and observed me speaking to him at breakfast.”

“I know who Moreland is.” Was it the mention of Hayes or an attorney that had turned the man so snappish? Obviously, he’d done enough research to figure out Hayes’s identity. “I was hoping we could have an open and honest discussion. Just the two of us.”

Maybe it was the attorney he objected to, after all.

“I’m sure we will.” She disconnected, holding the cell as she stared blindly into the courtyard.

Until Hayes had brought it up, Reese wouldn’t even have considered taking an attorney with her to the police station.

But after talking to the homicide detective, she could see the wisdom of the idea.

Whatever he’d discovered in the last couple of days, it apparently hadn’t lessened his suspicion of her.

But ultimately, the detective would still need evidence.

And an anonymous delivery to Greenley with her name on it wouldn’t cut it.

Reese had only one story, and she’d given it to Hastings and Fenton.

If Usher didn’t accept that, he was going to be very unhappy to hear what she had to say next week.

Hayes was still on the phone with Adam when Reese came back inside. She went to her room for a few minutes and walked back out with a stack of documents, which she put on one of the end tables flanking the couch. When he’d finished his conversation, he turned to her.

“Interview set for Monday?”

“One p.m.”

Hayes picked up his cell and texted the details to Adam. “How can we be sure Raiker can line someone up by then? After speaking to Usher, I can see the wisdom of having an attorney with me.” She grimaced. “I think I’m his main suspect.”

“Adam has contacts everywhere. And his reputation opens a lot of doors. He’ll find someone.” Hayes had no doubt that “someone” would be high-powered and experienced. Because his employer settled for nothing less.

Reese approached the tabletop, her fingertips tracing across the chairs as she circled it to his open laptop. “What did you discover today while I was sleeping like a bum?”

“I submitted details of today’s assault into ViCAP.

And then I spent the rest of the time drilling down on Langrath and McNulty.

” He set his phone down and joined her, scrolling through the multiple tabs he had open on the computer.

“I didn’t find anything further on Kervin.

He’s got no record except for some speeding tickets.

If there’s a connection with Thorne there, I didn’t discover it.

As for McNulty, Jennings will have pulled up his criminal record already.

” He tapped the tab he’d opened for the National Crime Information Center and positioned the laptop so she could take a look at it.

“He’s had multiple run-ins with law enforcement.

The first listed was when he was nineteen. ”

“But this wouldn’t show a juvie record?”

He shook his head regretfully. “Only those crimes committed where he was charged as an adult. He’s got a solid history of B&Es. That’s?—”

“Breaking and entering,” she murmured, her fingers shoving his aside so she could scroll at her own pace.

“He did a four-year stretch at Lompoc. Got out three years ago.”

She lifted her gaze to meet his. “Was it for…”

“A string of break-ins. He has no documented history of sexual assault.”

“Maybe he hasn’t been caught at it yet.” She returned her focus to the computer screen.

He studied her for a moment. Reese seemed very certain of the hunch she’d had that morning regarding McNulty.

Not for the first time, he wished the ViCAP match response would hasten.

It would validate—or invalidate—her idea.

Hayes wasn’t certain which outcome he’d bet on.

“No record of drug use. A spotty employment history. Right now, he works part-time at Nelson’s Plumbing and Heating.

The address on his license isn’t valid, but he did update it with the DMV.

He lives about five minutes from that diner where you met Kervin.

The property is owned by his stepmother—Lorna Eckworth. ”

Shock widened her gaze. She clutched the back of the chair as if needing its support.

“The woman contesting Ben’s guardianship.

She was there, this morning. At the diner.

I was a few minutes late, and when I opened the front entrance, she was standing at Kervin’s table.

Even from that distance I could tell it wasn’t a pleasant conversation.

Something about her body language and his reaction.

I only saw her from behind. He said later that it was her. She left by the rear entrance.”

“I fucking knew it. Kervin is entangled in this mess. He could have told her he was meeting you.”

Reese appeared unconvinced. “It seemed like there’s no love lost between them.

He had a lot to say about how she’s always throwing her weight around at the facility.

He may have mentioned to her that he was meeting someone there.

If she’s as nosy as Kervin says, she might have hung around to see who. ”

Hayes wasn’t yet persuaded the CNA hadn’t sold her out, but her theory was plausible.

“Or…what if Eckworth somehow discovered that I’d registered for conservatorship over Ben and researched me the way we did her? Then she’d know what I looked like. Perhaps even the kind of vehicle I drive. “Maybe…” She swallowed hard. “She summoned McNulty there.”

“It’s a possibility,” he said noncommittally. Conjecture was useless until they could back it up with facts.