Page 75 of The Accomplice
‘What ?’
‘A body bag.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
EDDIE
All the way back to court, Peltier talked. He was giving Harry and me a lift in his Mercedes, so I guessed he got to talk all he wanted.
‘This is all very clever, but how the hell are you going to get an acquittal without Carrie ? She has to testify if she’s going to have any kind of chance. I mean, shouldn’t you be helping me look for her ? Where is Kate ? She could help me at least ?’ he asked.
I couldn’t tell him about Kate. There was just no way I was taking that chance. Peltier was a straight-laced guy when it came to legal practice. I’m sure he would bend the rules as far as possible when it came to tax and inheritance law, but in the criminal field he was a baby, and babies get scared. If I told him about Kate I was sure he would tell the police, even if it was only to salve his own conscience.
‘Kate’s busy right now running down some leads. Look, I’d love to have Carrie here with us. I said it from the start, Carrie needs to look the jury in the eye and tell them she’s innocent. If she is as convincing as she was with me, I’m sure the jury will take her at her word. But if she’s not here it just looks like she’s on the run because she’s guilty. We’ve got a chance without her, but it’s thinner than paper. You know her better than us, where might she have gone ?’
‘She hasn’t contacted any of her old friends and if she uses a credit card the police will catch her right away. She’s lying low somewhere and using cash, or she’s found a way out of the country. Those are the options,’ he said.
‘Does she have any distant relatives anywhere she might trust, or friends in out-of-the-way places ? Come on, Otto, we need something.’
He was quiet for a second, concentrating either on the road or the question, or both.
‘She has no one,’ he said. ‘Her parents passed away. When it all came out about Daniel her friends abandoned her. She’s been dealing with this all on her own. I can’t think of a single person she would go to. They all hate her now. How sad is that ? We’re the only people she has.’
‘Shit,’ said Harry.
‘Look, we’ve got a better jury and the prosecutor doesn’t look so sweet to the judge right now. That might help us get some room when we cross-examine White’s witnesses, but we don’t have much to throw at them. We can’t actually put it to any witness that Carrie is innocent. Because we can’t do that without the firm knowledge that she’ll be called to the stand to testify. All we can do is shake the prosecution tree and hope the roots are shallow enough for it to fall over,’ I said.
‘That’s not going to be enough,’ said Peltier.
I thought about Kate, gritted my teeth and said, ‘We have to make it enough.’
My phone vibrated. Email from Denise with several links attached. They were all for news reports on the killings yesterday of Teresa Vasquez and the two FBI agents. I clicked on theTimesreport, read it. Then the rest. Most were syndicating the same story from Associated Press, but one wasn’t. ThePosthad a little more detail as they’d managed to reach Teresa’s family in Tijuana for comment. I read the article twice. Called Denise.
‘I need you to get in touch with Mrs. Vasquez in Tijuana. You speak a little Spanish, don’t you ?’
‘Por supuesto,’ she said, in a good accent.
‘The article says Mrs. Vasquez was due to move to Manhattan in the new year, how she was looking forward to it and she hadn’t seen her daughter in years. I want to know everything about her plans. She’ll need to make arrangements for her daughter ; tell her we can help with that.’
‘What’s this all about ?’ said Denise.
‘I don’t know yet, it’s a hunch. I want to help Mrs. Vasquez no matter what. Oh, and there’s one more thing.’
‘This a hunch too ?’
‘It is. I need an arrest record for Chester Morris, the doorman who was murdered the same night as Delaney. In fact, do a full background check, but the arrest records should be easy, it’s all publicly available.’
‘I’ve got our log-in details for the database. No problem. I’ll get right on it. Is there any word—’
‘No, not yet,’ I said.
I hung up and turned to Harry. He had his elbow up on the door frame, his arm bent, and his fingers stroking his upper lip.
‘Kate is going to be okay. We’ll get her back,’ I whispered.
‘I can’t go to no more funerals, Eddie. I just …’
Harry didn’t finish the thought. Didn’t want to say any more in front of Otto. The Mercedes pulled up outside the court building in Center Street. Before we got out, Harry gave me a look, said, ‘It’s all riding on the next few witnesses. You up for this ?’
