Don't Look Twice (15 page)

B
y ten, Hauck made it back to the station. He went straight upstairs and knocked on the door of the chief's office. “Must be important, huh, Ty? You got that look in your eye…”

“Yeah, Vern, it is.”

The chief waved him in with his mug of coffee; Hauck pulled up a seat across from him. “So what happened up there?” He laughed. “You get lucky or something, Ty?”

“You could say.”

Hauck told him about Raines and the video he had shown Hauck of David Sanger at the table. The conspiracy Raines had mapped out about the prosecutor and his inside friend. And what might have befallen them.

“You're suggesting Vega and this DR-17 were merely acting out a hit for the Pequot Woods?” Fitzpatrick looked up at him and asked.

“I'm suggesting Sanger and Kramer may not have been as innocent as they appeared. Raines tossed out the possibility that people up there might've been handling things in their own way.”

“A gambling scam? This ‘false shuffle'? An up-and-coming federal prosecutor? With everything going for him?”

Hauck shrugged. “I know what you're saying, but there's the bank account he kept secret from his wife. Several of the deposits seemed to match up. Everyone's got their vices, Vern. I saw the guy walk away with a sizable pile of chips.”

“Which proves he had a gambling bug, that's all. This Raines, he implied this was how the resort took care of it? How they ‘balanced their books'?”

“He threw it out. Among many possibilities…”

“But I can see you're not exactly giddy about his explanation.”

Hauck shrugged. “I'd like to shoot a fucking missile through it, if it's okay with you.”

Fitzpatrick shifted back in thought. He tapped his fingers against his lips. “You're not taking on a bunch of Wall Street people here, Ty. You have any idea what type of interests you're stepping into?”

“Funny, Raines asked the same thing to me.”

“Well, that's because you don't. You don't even have a goddamn clue. And I'm not even talking the general scum who are usually a part of this kind of business operation.” Vern looked at him. “Those casinos up there are the principal reason we have a balanced budget in this state. That new thruway they're widening, between here and Fairfield? You think it's the declining real estate tax pool that's ponying up the funding for that? Or the new sports arena they're building up near Hartford? Trying to attract an NBA team? Half the goddamn high schools in this state—all those science labs and fancy new gyms and scoreboards…Who do you think's paying for all that, Ty? Or how we can support one hundred and twenty officers on our own force? Just what is it you think those billions in gambling revenue actually buy?”

“Three people are dead, Vern. Some piece of shit who empties his gun at a state trooper has his case mysteriously dropped. Makes you think they might be covering something up.”

Fitzpatrick directed a stern look into Hauck's eyes. “You think there was pressure from Hartford when this drive-by initially took place, you don't even know the meaning of ‘pressure' if we start looking into the Pequot Woods. Besides the obvious question of jurisdiction. Every politician in the state has their hands out to them.”

Hauck stared in the chief's steady blue eyes, which, for the first time since Hauck had known him, looked haggard, even a bit afraid. Vern was going on seventy. He'd had the job as chief in Greenwich for almost twenty years, well past what anyone expected. Eighty percent of their job here was waving traffic down Greenwich Avenue, smoothing out spats at the high school or a fender bender between BMWs and Mercedes. Complaints between neighbors who could buy and sell them in a single trade.

“You asking me to back off, Vern?”

“I'm asking you to know what the hell you're doing, Ty!”
Fitzpatrick pushed back in his chair, ran a hand through his wavy white hair. “Listen, son, what do I have—maybe two years left on my term? Then what? You'd be the logical choice to take over. You've got the experience. Everybody's behind you. You can build a good life here.”

Hauck knew that was always the plan.

“But you step into this, Ty, you step into things you're better off just letting go. There's no telling where it takes you or who you may piss off. Ninety percent of what I do”—the chief winked with a modest grin—“is just not pissing the right people off.”

“Too late for that,” Hauck said with a halting smile of his own.

He opened the manila envelope he'd been keeping on his lap and laid out the series of photos of him and Josie.

Fitzpatrick groaned. The color in his cheeks waned. “Looks like you did get a little lucky up there…”

“I wanted you to see these, Vern. I should've known better. I just got careless.”

Fitz put them back down on the desk. “So I would know the kind of headlines we're about to receive?”

Hauck winced. That had already crossed his mind.
LOCAL COP INTERROGATING WITNESS ON CASINO LINK TO SHOOTINGS.

“To know what kind of people we're dealing with, Vern.”

“I damn well already know what kind of people we're dealing with, Ty.”

“This was all just a threat, Vern. To get me to back off. They'd never dare use it. The whole thing would explode right back in their faces.”

Fitzpatrick stood up. He came over to the edge of his desk and sat, leaning over Hauck. He looked at the photos one more time and began to rip them into tiny pieces. Then he tossed the piles into his trash. “You're a smart man, Ty—
generally
…It's just that sometimes you can be a bit naïve. Good people generally are. Seems to me you're still carrying a small reminder of what kind of people we're dealing with in your own right leg.”

“Yeah.” Hauck nodded. “I am.”

“These types are far worse, Ty.”

Hauck's eyes glanced to the torn-up photos in the can. “You want me to back off, Vern, I will. You want me to step aside on the case, I'll do that too.”

“I'm not telling you to stop!” Fitzpatrick looked back at him,
gritting his teeth. “I just want to make sure you know what the hell you're dragging us into here. I'm telling you to be careful, son.” He placed his hand on Hauck's shoulder. “If they already killed a federal attorney, that badge won't protect you much. I'm telling you to watch your ass, Ty.”

H
auck sat outside the gray shingled house on Pine Ridge Road. He ran through what he would try to say. What he was about to unleash.

Basically, destroying a good man's reputation. His family's memory of him. With only the most circumstantial and trumped-up evidence to back it up. If he decided to take this forward.

And over what?

Over a crime that hadn't been proven and could easily be swept away.

Maybe Fitz was right. Opening all this up would only unleash a torrent of misery and pressure. And what was he prepared to do? Indict Raines on a heresay comment? Subpoena the tapes? They'd be destroyed or misplaced before they ever saw the light of day. Pry open the questionable dealings of the largest tax generator in the state?

One day he could take over Fitz's job. He could build something here.

Be careful what you get yourself involved in, Ty…

Hauck stepped out of the car. Flurries had begun to fall. He rang the chime on the red front door.

“Haley, watch Ethan for me!”

The door opened. Wendy Sanger was dressed in a blue velour set, her short blond hair clipped up in back. “I saw you waiting out there,” she said. “In a way, I was hoping you'd drive away.”

“You said you wanted to know.”

“What are you going to tell me, Lieutenant? That my husband was involved in something bad? That he wasn't the nice, perfect person I knew? That all these noble things—”

“You said you wanted me to find out wherever it led. To find out what happened.”

Hauck looked in her wary eyes.

“Everyone has a side to them they don't want people to know, Ms. Sanger. But not everyone is killed for it.”

She opened the door. “Come on in,” she said, “it's cold.”

Hauck stepped inside, wiped his shoes on the mat. A large pink orchid brightened a table in the foyer. “I asked you if your husband had a gambling problem.”

“And what if he did?” Wendy shook her head. “David didn't hurt anyone…”

“And what if he did”—Hauck wasn't sure if he shouldn't just turn around and walk away—“
hurt someone
? What if he'd been going up to the Pequot Woods a lot more frequently than you knew? What if he had something illegal going on? With his friend, Kramer…”

“What kind of thing?” Wendy asked, growing frustrated, anxious.

“He kept that account hidden from you.”

“That money could've come from a lot of things,” she said with a hint of desperation.

“But it didn't.” Hauck shrugged. “What if it wasn't entirely legal?”

“You better have proof, Lieutenant! You want to come in here and make accusations about David—you better show me the goddamn proof, you hear. Not just a bunch of questions. Or innuendos. Not asking all these what-ifs…
Proof!
”

“We found an American Express card in your husband's name he was paying on a separate account. I can show you the receipts. It seems David had been up to the Pequot Woods several times over the past year and a half. Nine times, to be exact. I went up. They showed me some things. Video they had taken of him.” Hauck shifted awkwardly. “They were suggesting they were involved in a card-cheating scam up there. His friend, Kramer, on the inside, trying to manipulate the system.”

“I don't believe it!”
Wendy's blue eyes flashed. “I don't believe it.”

“I saw it,” Hauck said. “They had this thing going on. It's called a false shuffle. You can look at the deposits back in his account after he went up there.”

“I spoke with Judy Kramer,” Wendy said. “Keith was on his way home to take his son to hockey practice. David was just filling up the car. These were just two people—good people, Lieutenant—who were murdered. Find out who did it. Don't turn this around on us.”

There was a noise upstairs, her son crying. Ethan. Haley yelling,
“Mom!”

Flustered, Wendy brushed back her hair.

“I'm saying that's exactly what I want to do, Ms. Sanger. I'm saying the people up there might have uncovered this thing and done something to them, maybe not fully knowing who he was. To right the affairs, in their view.”

“Right the affairs?”
Her eyes shone bright with tears. “You're saying David was cheating and these people had him killed?
To right affairs…?
”

“We both know their deaths weren't a coincidence, Ms. Sanger. What I am saying is that if I go forward on this, things are bound to come out. The kind of things I'm telling you now. I can't stop that…”

“Did it occur to you that maybe he was investigating something? That maybe he and Keith were cooperating? And maybe that's why these people had him killed?”

“There's no open case file on this at his office. And we have his bank account, which is hard to explain.”

“No.”
Anger flashed on Wendy Sanger's face. “It's not hard to explain. What's hard to explain is you coming in here like this. David represented people's interests his whole life. He went after securities firms and drug companies. He exposed fraud, he didn't create it. He could've gone to any big law firm in the city but he chose to work for the government. He did this all because it was what he thought was right. That's who my husband was, Lieutenant. Not some cheat who stole money from a casino. You've got the wrong guy.” She shook her head. “There's something else.”

“The people who did this are already trying to pressure me off the case.” Hauck lowered his voice. “The man who pulled the trigger on your husband is dead. He was murdered last week in the Dominican Republic. The person in charge of the gang he was a part of had an attempted murder case against him dropped—by the FBI. These things aren't happening because of some casino gambling scam. You want to know why your husband was killed, I want to help you, Ms. Sanger. I just don't know if I can stop what may come out…”

From the top of the stairs, Haley's voice rang out. “Mom, what's going on?
Who's here?
Is everything okay?”

Wendy looked up. “Yes, honey, everything's fine…Lieutenant Hauck is just here. He's giving me an update.” She
cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair. “You have a daughter too, don't you, Lieutenant?”

Hauck nodded. “Thirteen.”

“I bet she adores you. Daddys and their little girls…”

“When she's not trying to play me under the table.” Hauck smiled.

“So then you know how it is…So what is it you want me to tell my daughter, Lieutenant? David's already been taken away from her once. Now you want to do it all over again. Not without proof.” She shook her head. “Not even then.”

A knot dug in deep into Hauck's chest. He pulled the door back open. “I'll leave you guys alone.”

“You want my okay, Lieutenant? Well, I can't give it to you. You're saying these people killed my husband…? I hope they fucking rot in hell. Do what the hell you have to do. But you better be right. You goddamn better be right in whatever you find. Because I choose to believe in David. And if you hurt my daughter all over again, if you drag my husband's memory through the mud and it turns out you're wrong, then goddamn you, Lieutenant, I'll never forgive you for that.”