Authors: Deirdre Savoy
Body Of Truth (19 page)
As segues went, that wasn't a bad one. “Somewhere safe.”
“I figured as much.” She let out an annoyed sigh. “I hope you know what you're doing, Stone.”
He knew what concerned her. “When have I ever let anything get in the way of getting the job done?”
“Uh, never,” she said in away that suggested that's why she was concerned this time.
The sound of Shea's office door opening drew his attention. Although the blinds to the office had been closed since Jonathan walked in, he would have been surprised if anyone other than the police commissioner had been closeted in the office with him. No doubt both men wanted a briefing so that they could plan what to tell and how much to the press attending Pierce's funeral.
Shea appeared in the doorway. “Stone, Velez.” He nodded toward his office.
Jonathan glanced at Mari to gauge her reaction. She winked at him. “Showtime.”
Fourteen
“I understand you have something happening in the Pierce case.”
That came from the commissioner, Franklin Brooks, a man it was easy to distrust on first glance. His long nose and thin face lent him the look of a ferret. As far as Jonathan knew, he was an okay guy in that he gave the appearance of putting his men's welfare ahead of his own ambitions. Whether that was true or not was anyone's guess.
Brooks was the only one sitting in the room, perched on the end of Shea's desk. Shea stood behind his desk with his knuckles resting on the blotter, looking like a bulldog awaiting word to pounce. He and Mari stood facing the other two.
“Someone made a move on the one witness we have in the case, the last person to see Pierce alive. But it's not certain the two incidents are related.” He gave Brooks a brief rundown of what had happened, the same one he'd given Shea.
Brooks listened with a thoughtful expression on his face. Without missing a beat, he said, “It does appear the two cases are related, but we don't want to be premature about this. We can get Moretti up here. He can work from up here under your direction. You work your end of the case, he works his. Hopefully the twain will meet up somewhere.”
If he thought it would do him any good he might argue the wisdom of cutting Moretti loose. But since he hadn't told the chief anything new, he figured the decision was made before he set foot through Shea's door.
Brooks stood and rebuttoned his jacket. “I'd better get back to my wife, then. She's giving the eulogy this afternoon.”
Brooks shot him a pointed look that was unnecessary. He didn't need the reminder of the chief's personal stake in the investigation. Nor did he need any prodding to hurry the case along. Dana's life might depend on that.
“If you boys need anything, let me know.”
As he walked out, Shea asked, “This witness of yours is in a safe place?”
Jonathan felt Mari's eyes on him as he answered. “Yes.”
“Has anyone spoken to this Pee Wee person?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Then let's get to it.”
Shea's usually gruff dismissal. As they walked back to their desks, Mari said, “You suppose Moretti will bring his IAB tail with him or leave them back at the ranch?”
Damned if he knew or really cared. The real question was why the powers that be wanted Moretti on the case in the first place. Maybe they wanted him off his home turf for some reason. Or maybe no one wanted to admit that a bunch of gang bangers might have some connection to Amanda Pierce's death.
At least he'd have a chance to ride Moretti's ass on the case or ride over him if he chose. Somehow he expected it to be the latter.
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Dana waited until the reasonable hour of ten o'clock before calling Tim on his cell phone.
“Hey, Sis. What's up?”
She heard the wariness in his voice. She should have expected that. The last time she'd called him out of the blue it was to tell him that she was in the hospital. “I'm fine,” she began, to reassure him. “But something's come up. Nothing major.”
“Right. That's why you're calling me the day before I'm supposed to come home.”
“Really, it's nothing.”
“Fine. Don't tell me. I'll be home tomorrow. I'll find out then.”
“That's why I'm calling you. You remember my friend Joanna's brother Jonathan? He's one of the detectives working on my case. He thinks I'll be safer if I'm not at home while they work on the case.”
“So where are you?”
That was the one bit of information she hadn't planned on sharing with her brother. “That's not important.”
“Like hell it isn't.”
“For the time being, I'm at his apartment.”
“How convenient for him.”
“Tim . . .” she started in an exasperated voice, not really knowing what to say to him. She wanted to tell him things weren't how he thought they were, but that wasn't exactly true, either. When had her baby brother become such a man anyway, with a man's sensibilities and thought processes? “He is not taking advantage of me, if that's what you're thinking.”
“If you say so, Sis.”
By the tone of his voice she knew he thought she was deluding herself. Maybe she was, but it annoyed her that he at seventeen thought he knew better than she. Youth was never too young to display its own arrogance. “Look, kid, the reason I called you was to find out if you can stay with the Kenners another few days.”
“Why, he wants you all to himself?”
“How about I don't want you embroiled in whatever this is. You haven't been around this whole time and I want to keep it that way.”
His exasperated sigh reached her through the phone. “Hold on. I'll ask.”
A few moments later, Linda Kenner came on the line. “ Hi, Dana. We don't mind keeping Tim another few days. Is everything all right with you? Tim told us about the shooting.”
“I'm fine.” And at least Tim appeared to have enough presence of mind not to let on the reason he needed to stay with them. “I have to be away for a few days. I don't want Tim getting into any trouble while I'm gone.”
“I hear you,” Linda said. “Even at this age they need supervision. But Tim's no problem. Let us know when you get back.”
“I will.”
“I'll put Tim back on, then. I hope you enjoy your trip.”
“Thanks.”
“Anything else?” Tim said when he came back on the line.
Hearing the hostility in his voice, Dana sighed. He had to know she kept something from him and he didn't like it. Too bad. If he knew her true situation, he'd wangle his way onto the next plane to get to her. From the time he was a small boy, he'd been protective of her. She'd always encouraged that sort of protectiveness for others, especially those weaker than himself, in him. She couldn't fault him for growing into the kind of young man she'd trained him to be.
“You don't have to worry about me, really.”
“Just let me know when I can come home.”
The line went dead. With a growl of frustration she disconnected the call on her end. While she was in such a jovial mood, she might as well get the other call she wasn't looking forward to out of the way. She punched the numbers for Joanna's room at the hospital and waited. Joanna picked up on the third ring.
“Hey stranger,” Dana said to Joanna's hello.
“Dana? Where are you? I thought you were going to come over this morning,”
Dana gritted her teeth. She should have known that would be the first question out of Joanna's mouth. “Listen, Joanna, something's happened since I left you last night.” There was no other way to say it except flat out. “On my way home someone tried to hit me.”
“Oh, my God! How did that happen?”
Dana recounted the rest of the night's events to the point that Mari and Moretti walked out her door.
“So where are you now? I hope you're not still at your house. They could find you there.”
“No, I left this morning.” She hesitated, wondering what Joanna's reaction would be to what she said next. “I'm at your brother's place.”
“Jonathan's? Why?”
“He offered and I had nowhere else to go.”
“Had nowhere else to go or didn't want to go anywhere else?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Tell me my brother spent the night somewhere other than in your bed and I will drop the subject.”
Since she couldn't tell her that, she sighed and said nothing. But she wondered at the negativity she heard in her friend's voice, especially considering all the times Joanna had harped on her to find a decent man.
“Oh, Dana,” Joanna said. “There is a reason I've never tried to set you up with any of my brothers. I love them dearly, but I know how they are. I can't explain how Barbara has stayed with Adam all these years and Zack is, well, Zack. But Jonathan? I don't know of a single woman that's lasted more than a few months with him.”
Well, that explained it, but Dana wasn't about to let anyone dictate what she did, no matter what their feelings were. “And I'm not aiming to be the first. All I did was sleep with the man.”
“Is that all you want there to be of it?”
Dana blew out a heavy breath. That was the question of the hour. Although he'd offered her a choice of where to sleep, she knew she'd be a fool to spend her time anywhere except in his bed. She wanted him. He wanted her. They were both adults. If all she got from being with him was a few nights of hot sex, what was so wrong with that? Nothing, as far as she could see, even if she acknowledged that, somewhere inside her, other alien feelings that had nothing to do with lust had begun to simmer. For all she knew, she'd end up with her heart broken. Oh, well, there had to be a first time for everything. All she knew for certain was she wasn't ready to turn him loose yet.
She knew she could tell Joanna to mind her own business and she would back off, but she didn't do that. Instead she offered her most honest answer. “No.”
“Then I hope you know what you're doing.”
Dana laughed without mirth. “That makes two of us.”
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Jonathan stood at the back of St. Patrick's Cathedral as the mourners started filing in for Amanda Pierce's funeral. He hadn't been raised Catholic. In fact, he hadn't been raised with much religion at all. But the beauty and grandeur of the building stood as a testament to both art and architecture if not the divine.
Outside, uniformed officers kept the curious and the vitriolic at bay, including the sort of press that packed cameras. Banks's own people would be filming the event and doling out tapes to whatever media outlets they saw fit.
Those people actually making it into the church were often people he recognized, either from the media, the entertainment industry or the field of politics. Everyone from the Bronx Borough President to the Democratic Representative from Staten Island had shown up, which surprised him. From what he knew of her, Pierce's métier was celebrities not politicos. He'd love to hear an explanation for that.
In the periphery of his vision he saw her agent, James Burke, sidling up to him. “May I have a word with you, Detective?” the man asked.
“Sure.” He didn't mind talking to Burke considering he had a few questions of his own. “What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you have any suspects yet. Any idea who killed her?”
He told Burke the same thing he told everyone he deigned to give an answer to. “We're working on several strong leads at the moment.”
Burke nodded. The grim expression on his face intensified. He nodded toward the long rows of pews that were about a quarter of the way full. “A bunch of vultures. They're all probably here just to make sure she's dead.”
“You mean the Hollywood people?”
“All of them. I thought I made it clear when we talked. Amanda may have given up the political beat, but she still had her hand in things. There hasn't been a political scandal in this city in the last two years that Amanda didn't have some role in uncovering. Amanda had few friends, but she knew everybody. And she had a knack for uncovering people's dirty secrets no matter what the arena. And if you think celebriphiles get bent out of shape when their idols get toppled, imagine the average politician's response to finding out the candidate they just endorsed has a skeleton in his closet big enough to knock him out of the election. You can ask your former boss about that.”
Burke moved off, going to join a tall blonde who'd obviously been waiting for him. Jonathan's gaze followed him down the aisle. He found some small satisfaction knowing how disappointed those vultures must be to find Pierce laid out in the closed coffin the beating to her face necessitated. But her political involvement added a whole new layer to the investigation he hadn't considered.
He moved farther into the church as the hour for the service neared. He wanted a vantage point from which he could see which of the mourners might show guilt, fear, strain or any combination of the three. But so far, most of those gathered here seemed more jovial than somber, glad to rub elbows with their neighbors or perhaps advance their careers in some way. The only people who seemed to actually be in mourning were Pierce's brother, her agent and a few grim faces scattered in the crowd.
Well, he hadn't come here expecting to gain much insight into Amanda Pierce's soul. As his father used to say, a person's funeral was the only time they could fully expect that ninety percent of what was said about them would be lies. But the commissioner's wife surprised him, delivering a heartfelt tribute to a woman she hadn't had much contact with since college but who she still revered as a close friend. As Mrs. Brooks returned to her seat next to her husband he noticed Mari come up beside him.
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