Bargain Hunting (22 page)

“Don’t worry,” she said with a flick of her wrist. “He’ll take like a gazillion pictures.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing them.”

I was torn between
the Versus one-shoulder dress and the Versus ruched-front jersey dress. The one shoulder showed off my tan but the jersey dress clung in all the right places. The problem was, I didn’t want to look all that sexy. At the end of the day, I was still having dinner with my boss, so I didn’t want to send out the wrong vibe. I went with the ruched front and the much-coveted pair of Jimmy Choo shoes my sister had given me as a maid-of-honor gift. I was just putting my lipstick in a tiny silver shell clutch when I heard the door open.

I walked out into the living room; Liam stopped and his jaw literally dropped. “Wow.”

I’d flat-ironed my hair, so I had swing factor going on. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the brown paper bag in his hand.

“Dinner. I brought you moo shu.”

“Sorry,” I said in the most chipper tone possible. “I have a date tonight. And it isn’t with Izzy.”

“I figured that out from the dress. Who is it?”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. I made a mental note to call the alarm company and let them know they had somehow
killed the motion sensors when they responded to the window smashing.

I brushed by Liam and opened the door. Tony looked dreamy in his black suit, gray shirt, and monochromatic tie. He smiled broadly. “You look great.” He looked past me. “Hey, Liam. How are you?”

“Fine,” he answered in a clipped tone.

“Would you like something to drink, Tony?” I asked.

“No, we have seven-thirty reservations at the Breakers.”

“Then let me get my wrap.” I waltzed past a very pissy Liam and grabbed my pashmina off the back of the sofa.

“I’d invite you along,” Tony said to Liam, “but the reservation is only for two.”

“How nice.”

Tony placed his hand at the small of my back. “Help yourself to anything you want,” I called over my shoulder.

“I’ll get right on that,” he grumbled as I closed the door.

It wasn’t until Tony pulled out of the driveway that he said, “I think that went well, don’t you?”

“I thought Liam was going to hit you. Or maybe me.”

Tony laughed. “That was the point.”

“Excuse me?”

“I have a confession to make.”

“We’re going to Burger King?”

“No. When Liam told me he was staying at your place, I thought it would be a good time to give him a little shove.”

I turned and looked at his profile, illuminated by the lights on the dash. “You’ve lost me.”

“I didn’t have an emergency the weekend of your sister’s wedding.”

“Then why didn’t you go?”

“Because I knew Liam wanted to. I just didn’t know he’d blow it.”

“It was one dance,” I said, just as I’d argued with my mother.

“We’re not on the same page here. Look, Finley. Liam and Ashley had a nasty breakup.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“They did. He’s been a little gun shy since then. Well, until you.”

“I think you’re reading the signals wrong,” I told him. “You’re on the wrong page now.”

“No,” Tony insisted. “I’m on the right page. Liam will sit in your house all night wondering what we’re doing.”

“We’re having dinner.”

“I know that and you know that, but Liam doesn’t.”

“So you did this just to make Liam jealous? I’m playing the role of the pawn now?”

“Not a pawn. I thought seeing us together might get him off the fence.”

“What makes you think he’s on the fence?”

“I know Liam.”

“Well, your daughter is going to be pissed. She thinks we’re about to start something.”

“I had a talk with Izzy. When I told her what I was doing, she thought I was terribly romantic. Apparently that appeals to her fourteen-year-old brain.”

“You could have told me.”

“It was more fun this way.”

“Not for Liam,” I told him.

“We’ll eat. We’ll walk along the seawall. You’ll smudge your lipstick and we’ll let Liam’s imagination do the rest.”

“He’s going to be mad.”

Tony smiled. “That’s what I’m banking on.”

When in doubt, lie.

I came home to
find Liam laid out on my sofa watching football. He barely glanced up when I walked in and tossed my pashmina on the chair. “Have a nice dinner?” he asked in a casual tone.

So much for Tony’s grand plan. “Lovely, thanks for asking.” I went to the countertop and checked my cell for messages. I hadn’t taken it with me because the cute silver shell bag was only big enough to hold a lipstick and a credit card. It wasn’t a problem. Tony was a wonderful conversationalist.

Liam got up and headed toward the hallway. “See you in the morning,” he said.

“You’re going to bed?” I asked. It was barely eleven.

“Long day. ’Night.”

“Good night,” I said as I slipped off my shoes.

I went back to my room and pulled on some soft cotton drawstring pants and double cami tops. I was more than a little
annoyed by Liam’s lack of reaction. His silence spoke volumes. Obviously I was in a one-sided lust-a-thon.

Barefoot, I went back into the living room where he’d rained paper and files all over the place. I wasn’t the least bit tired, so I started reading the various pages. At the bottom of one box I found a copy of the grand jury transcript. Liam had dog-eared several pages.

Most of them were sections of testimony where each officer except Stan Cain testified that they’d seen Liam pull a gun from his ankle holster. Then each one detailed their duties and responsibilities after the shooting. Diego Ferrer had stayed with the cache of drugs. Miguel Vasquez stood sentry over the guns, and Armando Calderone secured the cash. Liam and José had followed the ambulance with Fernàndo Peña to the hospital. Carlos Santiago didn’t seem to have a responsibility beyond hanging with ASA Alberto Garza, who’d shown up at the scene because of a police-involved shooting. Stan Cain was responsible for overseeing the arrests of the five Latin Bandits they had in custody.

Other than the fact that I believed Liam could not shoot an unarmed kid, the grand jury should have been a slam dunk. But it wasn’t. No matter how hard he tried, Garza couldn’t get his witnesses to testify clearly. The worst example was Armando Calderone when he was questioned by Garza:

Q: Garza: Approximately how much cash did you recover from the residence?

A: Calderone: Around three hundred thousand.

Q: Garza: Would you take a look at the evidence sheet, please?

A: Calderone: Oh, sorry, I got confused between the guns, the drugs, and the cash. We confiscated fifty thousand in cash.

Q: Garza: Did you participate in counting the cash?

A: Calderone: Yes, myself and Deputy Santiago did the on-site count. Then we drove the money, the drugs, and the weapons back to the station house. A second verification count was done by the crime scene unit as well as the property clerk, Deputy Kronck.

Q: Garza: What was the rest of your unit doing while you were handling the evidence?

A: Calderone: I’d have to review my notes.

I may not be Gloria Allred, but I knew assistant state’s attorneys prepped their witnesses. Calderone had come off like a buffoon who couldn’t keep his numbers straight, and the only one who didn’t fumble the ball was Stan Cain. No wonder Liam didn’t get indicted. The witnesses sucked.

Or maybe Garza just did him a favor and didn’t prep the witnesses. Liam said he was a nice guy. Which was good to know because the officers I’d seen today weren’t exactly there to serve and protect. At least not me.

I went surfing through the files on the Latin Bandits. Jimmy Santos had been a member since the ripe age of thirteen. According to his rap sheet he’d been arrested more times than he’d had birthdays, and by the time of the raid, he was the prime suspect in at least three murders. The other Latin Bandits arrested that night were all low-level gofers. They just had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not that
they were angels, but none of them had violent crimes on their sheets.

My cell phone rang and I leapt off the sofa to get it before it disturbed Liam. Not that I would have been crushed if he was disturbed. I was disturbed that he wasn’t disturbed. No, I was just being an ass. Why I thought that high school move would work is beyond me.

“Did you get my text?” It was Izzy.

“No.” Which was weird since I’d checked my phone as soon as I’d walked in the door. “How was the dance?”

“Cole was great. He can dance, too.”

“Good. I’m glad you had a good time.”

“Well?” she squealed.

“Well what?”

“Did Liam go all nuts and stuff? Dad wouldn’t tell me and you didn’t answer my text.”

“Hang on,” I said, then I scrolled over to my text messages and there it was, big as life.
Did you fool Liam with the fake date?
That smarmy bastard. He knew it was a sham! “Izzy, I’m glad things went well. But it’s almost one, you should be asleep.”

“Hang on, Dad wants to talk to you.”

“Finley?”

“Hi. Thanks again for dinner.”

“Did it work?”

“It kinda backfired. Nothing I can’t handle. What do you need?”

“My forensic pathologist is only available tomorrow. Can you meet him at the morgue at eight?”

I rolled my eyes and my shoulders slumped. “Sure. If you’ll
call Justin Haller at the
Palm Beach Post.
I sorta told him you’d call.”

“Why?”

“Long story. I’ll let you know if the pathologist finds anything.”

“Great. Call me when he’s done.”

Call him? Was he going to sleep in while I did dead person duty? “Are you sure you want me to go? I’m not great with all that pathology stuff.”

“I need you. I’ve got to go see Travis Johnson at juvie in the morning.”

“Okay then. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“ ’Night, Finley.”

I wasn’t sure what had me more pissed. Going to work at the morgue at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning or knowing that Liam had read Izzy’s text and that’s why he’d been so nonchalant about the whole situation. It was my own fault. It may have been Tony’s idea, but I should have known better than to try to trick Liam into bed.

I set down my phone and took a vow of celibacy.

One of the boxes contained all the reports and statements the officers had given to Internal Affairs. Again, with the exception of Stan Cain, they all told the same story. The raid was over and then the Peña kid was shot. No one actually witnessed the shooting, but the ballistics reports all confirmed that it had been Liam’s gun that had fired the fatal shot.

I looked at Liam’s signed statement, then at the sign-out sheet from the gun cage. It looked like Liam’s signature. In fact it looked exactly like Liam’s signature. I placed one sheet on top
of the other and held them up to the light. They weren’t close. They were exact. As in traced. Someone had gone out of their way to make Liam look guilty. Someone inside the department.

I found the name of the gun cage attendant, Deputy Young. I turned on my laptop and did a Google search. It was the best I had until I went by my office. The only reference I could find was a commendation ceremony for Deputy Young, held on his retirement day three years earlier. I checked the white pages and found seventeen Donald Youngs listed. Frustrating.

I made a note to myself to find out everything I could about the retired deputy. Then I moved on to the property clerk. Deputy Kronck had signed the evidence receipts. I tried Googling him but all I found was his obituary. Still, I added his name to my list.