Lion & Lamb, page 12
Once more I sit in an ice-cold car on a freezing street in downtown Philadelphia. I think I’ve been doing this job too long. When I die and my life flashes before my eyes, about eighty percent of it will be me sitting in an ice-cold car on a freezing street in downtown Philadelphia.
Except this time is different, because this city is on the verge of exploding and I’m watching a bunch of volatile chemicals swirl around, ready to combust at any moment.
Speaking of volatile…
Hi, Maya Rain. Your lights are on. You awake up there? Cleaning up messes? Did you fall asleep studying? Or are you entertaining someone special at this late hour? Perhaps the same someone who is paying for that condo, since I know even a top-drawer nanny couldn’t afford a place like that.
Yes, I know this is sort of stalkerish behavior. Scratch that—this is straight-up stalker behavior. But Maya is the one piece that doesn’t quite fit. Doesn’t make sense that someone this special would be involved in this case by accident.
Okay, yeah, I heard what I just said about Maya being special. Victor, you can stop rolling your eyes.
Let’s talk about the other volatile chemicals at play. Starting with the chemicals in my own lab.
Francine is potentially the most volatile chemical of all. In a weird way, it’d be so much easier if I knew she did it, because then I could take steps to minimize the blowback. Hell, those psycho texts from Archie would acquit her in the eyes of most Philadelphians. The bastard essentially threatened to break her beautiful face. Not a good look, Mr. Greatest of All Time.
But I know she didn’t kill Archie, even if she’s not telling me everything. But why is that? Is it because she’s protecting her children? If so, from what? Let’s say Archie and the Sables were up to some shady Super Bowl stuff. Any kind of shame associated with fraud the children might feel is nothing compared to seeing their mother sent to prison for life. Must be something else.
Who can tell me about that something?
Maybe Lisa Marchese. Wait—of course she knows, otherwise she wouldn’t have handed me those text messages, right? Victor, redouble your efforts on her law firm’s servers. I know you’ve already searched them, but there must be something in a file somewhere. Maybe there’s a hidden server inside Marchese’s office, one that requires the talents of one of your secret sausage men.
Okay, I can’t believe I said that last part out loud.
Who else, who else…well, who else is obvious. I’m parked outside of her condo right now.
Maya Rain had a front-row seat to the Hughes Family Drama for the past few months. She’s in a unique position to know most, if not all, of what Francine is so desperate to hide.
Maybe I should just climb out of this cold car, walk up to Maya’s condo, and ask her in person.
Chapter 56
1:04 a.m.
“WHAT’S THIS?”
“One hundred American dollars, my friend. And this is the part where you nod your head, pocket the cash, sit back, and return to whatever show you’re watching on your cell phone.”
Curt the doorman sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I really can’t do this again.”
“Again?” Cooper Lamb asked. “What, do you have total strangers handing you a hundred bucks all the time?”
Lupe, waiting patiently, let out a tiny yelp as if to underscore his master’s question.
“You’d be surprised what people offer me to let them sneak into this building. Look, brother, I need my job more than I need a hundred bucks.”
“So now we’re negotiating. Cool. Tell you what—I’m going to leave three hundred dollars with you for safekeeping. Who knows how dangerous it is up there? One of your residents might try to mug me and my dog.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And if I don’t come back down to reclaim my money, just pocket it until you see me again.”
“I’ve got an awful memory for faces.”
“Even dog faces?”
Curt the doorman tucked the money into his breast pocket without so much as another glance at Cooper, as if to prove how bad he was with faces. Cooper walked to the elevator and rode it up to the penthouse level. Thanks to Victor, he knew exactly where to go and which doorbell to ring. And hey, the lights were on.
“Come on, Lupe, let’s see if your favorite nanny is awake.”
Lupe matched Cooper’s pace the entire length of the hallway, though he did give him a side-eye glance: We really doing this? Bothering this poor lady at one o’clock in the morning?
She answered almost instantly, which both relieved and worried Cooper. Had she been expecting him? Did she catch a glimpse of him down on Eighteenth Street; was she reverse-stalking him?
“Hey, Maya,” Cooper said. “Is this a bad time?”
Chapter 57
Transcript of private conversation between Cooper Lamb and Maya Rain, captured using an ambient recording app on Lamb’s smartwatch
MAYA RAIN: Hello, Mr. Lamb. And hello, Lupe! So great to see you again.
COOPER LAMB: Great to see me or great to see the pooch? And please, call me Cooper.
RAIN: Actually I was talking to Lupe. I know you make house calls, Cooper. I just wasn’t expecting you at my house.
LAMB: And this is a very nice house, in one of the most desirable areas of the city. Do you have, like, seventeen roommates or something?
RAIN: No. I live alone. And right now you’re about to say, “Gee, the Hughes family must pay really well if you can afford a place like this.”
LAMB: That would be rude, and I am nothing if not professional. I was about to insinuate that you had a sugar daddy.
RAIN: I don’t have one of those either. I’m just a simple girl from West—
LAMB: Virginia, yeah, you’ve mentioned that. Can I come inside to talk for a minute?
RAIN: Sure, but not with your recording device running.
LAMB: I don’t have any recording devices running. (Extended silence) Okay, fine. How did you know?
RAIN: Because you are a professional…or something like that.
LAMB: Fair enough, Ms. Rain. Here, I am officially turning off my top secret recording device, which no one ever notices.
RAIN: Oh, I noticed—
Chapter 58
“I FIGURED it was a smartwatch,” Maya Rain continued. “Men don’t wear wristwatches anymore, not since the smartphone came along. Come on inside. Can I get you something to drink? Some water for Lupe?”
“Actually, would you mind if I used your restroom for a moment? I spent a long time down in my car in the freezing cold working up the courage to knock on your door.”
Cooper used a casual tone of voice meant to put her at ease. He was also taking a mental snapshot of her condo. Spare, high-end furniture (possibly rented), generic framed art, not much in the way of screens or electronics. If his daughter, Ariel, were here, she would tag this place a “grown-up apartment,” a jab at his own cluttered digs.
“The guest bathroom is to your left,” Maya said. “And before you waste too much of your time, because it’s awfully late and I suspect we’ve both had a long day, you’re not going to find anything personal in the medicine cabinet.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You know—no telltale prescription bottles, no bag of heroin taped to the inside of the toilet tank, nothing like that. Isn’t that what detectives do, pretend to use the bathroom and then engage in a little impromptu profiling?”
“Uh, I really just have to relieve my bladder. But thanks for the heads-up.”
She’s good, Cooper thought as he closed the door behind him. Too good to be true. Of course he intended to scour her bathroom for any revealing details. Just because she’d told him not to bother didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.
But as Maya had warned, there was literally nothing to reveal, except that she had a taste for expensive grooming products and furnishings. The vanity was white Carrara marble on top, solid wood below, with soft-close drawer glides and brushed-chrome fixtures. This guest bathroom was pristine enough to perform brain surgery in. Cooper felt like a heathen using the facilities.
Back in the living room, Maya was waiting for him with an ice-filled tumbler garnished with a wedge of lemon.
“I probably shouldn’t,” Cooper said. “I still have to drive Lupe home.”
“It’s mineral water, to help replace your fluids.”
“I didn’t have to go that badly.”
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked, guiding him to her midcentury-modern couch, made of an impossibly soft woven fabric and supported by stubby walnut legs.
“Can I be totally straight with you?” Cooper asked as they sat down. “I’m trying to save your boss, and for whatever reason, she’s reluctant to tell me the truth. I know she didn’t do it. I’m just looking for evidence so I can prove it to the rest of the world. You’re in a unique position to help me do that.”
“You want me to betray my employer’s confidence?”
“No. I just want to know what you saw.”
“Which is also betraying her trust.”
“Maya, I’m just going to come out and ask you: Did you see Archie hit Francine?”
For the first time, the nanny seemed speechless. This was good. Cooper pressed his advantage by pulling out prints of the photos that Victor had found. He fanned them out on her walnut coffee table. It was difficult to look at them, even though he’d seen them before.
“Oh,” Maya said.
“Look, I know Francine didn’t kill Archie. But after seeing these, I wouldn’t blame her if she had.” Instead of looking at the photos, Cooper studied Maya’s face. She was taking it all in, but there was a hardness there, as if she were unwilling to let it all in. He saw a professional detachment in her eyes. Cooper doubted they taught that in grad school.
“Yes,” Maya said after a while. “There were incidents.”
“You saw Archie hit Francine.”
Maya nodded. “I asked her if she needed my help finding someone to talk to. She swore me to secrecy but also assured me that this was nothing new, and she knew how to handle her husband. I knew better than to press.”
“Even as a crime happened right before your eyes?”
“This is just between you and me, Cooper,” she said quietly. “But Francine gave as good as she got.”
“Does that include murder?”
Maya smiled and shook her head. “I should know better than to talk to a private eye at one in the morning.”
“Come on, you know how this looks. And it’s going to look even worse when it all comes out. I’m trying to help Francine.”
“When all you’ve got is a hammer,” Maya said, “everything looks like a nail.”
“And that means?”
“You think I was Archie’s side piece, that he bought me this penthouse apartment and filled it with beautiful things—a taste of the good life I’d always craved back in West Virginia. Is that right?”
“If Archie wasn’t paying for it, who is?”
“That’s none of your business.” Maya reached out and touched the side of Cooper’s face. “Don’t get me wrong. I like you.”
“I like you too,” Cooper said, then gently took her wrist and guided her hand back to her lap. “Which is why I hope you’re not hiding something. Or worse. Because I’m not going to stop until I find out what really happened.”
“I know,” she said. “Which is why you should be careful out there.”
“Why is everyone always telling me that? Do I have a bull’s-eye pinned to the back of my jacket or something? And if so, does it at least match my socks?”
Maya stood up, indicating their late-night meeting was over. Lupe took the cue and popped up from the floor expectantly.
“If multiple people tell you the same thing,” she said, “it just might be the truth.”
Chapter 59
“I NEED to see you. Right now.”
“Cooper, it’s two in the morning. I’ve got a long drive ahead of me. Don’t you remember? We did this dance already.”
“It’s not about that. I’m talking about our case.”
“I have to leave for Atlantic City in…ugh, like four hours.”
“It will just take a minute. You and Janie hitting the craps tables?”
Veena Lion paused. She was wide awake and wouldn’t be going to sleep anytime soon. She’d been at her kitchen table poring over stacks of documents and was feverishly mapping out their case and all of its possible tangents on a legal pad. She’d tried to shake off the effects of the martinis (and her bar-side make-out session with Cooper) with work and endless cups of black coffee. None of it helped. Veena felt jittery. Maybe she should just power through the rest of the night and try to catch a nap tomorrow. Even though she never, ever took naps. “How soon can you get here?”
“I’m parked in front of your building.”
“Of course you are.”
Cooper was at the door before Veena could decide what to cover with a blanket or push into a closet. Whatever. They’d known each other a long time. If a messy apartment was a deal breaker, then so be it.
“You know, it’s been forever since I’ve been here,” Cooper said. “I like what you’ve not done with the place.”
“I wasn’t expecting company at two a.m.”
“Anyway, I just spent some time with the elusive Maya Rain.”
“At her invitation?”
Cooper raised his eyebrows. “Are we jealous, Counselor?”
“No. I’m just trying to figure out her game.”
“Me too,” Cooper admitted. “But I think she’s one of the good guys.”
“Do you think that because you want to justify sleeping with her?”
“That’s absurd.” Cooper made a show of looking around the messy apartment. “Speaking of, do you still keep your bed in the adjoining room?”
“Cooper…”
“I just don’t see a place for us to sit down and discuss the case. We’re both tired, and I know I think better when I’m lying flat on my back.”
Veena didn’t respond. She knew Cooper’s argument style; they’d dance around it and he’d try to slip something past her on a technicality. And she was honestly too exhausted to go through the steps to reach that point, so she reached out, took his hand, and led him toward her bedroom.
“Wait—is this a yes?”
“This is us lying in bed and discussing our case.”
“Pants on or off?”
“Pants,” Veena said, “are absolutely on.”
Chapter 60
COOPER LAMB stared up at something he’d never thought he’d see: the ceiling of Veena Lion’s bedroom.
He’d certainly hoped to gaze at it at some point. But Veena was mercurial. There was no way to confidently predict what she’d do at any given moment. For example, this: Veena leading him down the narrow hallway to her dark bedroom. Taking him by the shoulders. Leveling her gaze at him, her eyes almost glowing in the dark, so close he could feel her warm breath on his neck.
And then Veena shoving him backward until he bounced onto the surface of her bed, which was covered in stacks of clean laundry.
Veena spun around and dropped backward too, bouncing him—and the tumbled stacks of laundry—a second time.
“Was it good for you?” Cooper asked, deadpan, as they lay next to each other.
“The case,” Veena reminded him.
“We should move in together,” Cooper said.
“We’ve had this conversation on a number of occasions, remember? We determined there was no way we could be with each other all the time.”
“Right, right. Because one of us would end up trying to hide the other’s corpse and attempt to get away with the perfect, untraceable murder—”
“Even though we both know there is no such thing as the perfect murder.”
“Well, that’s only when we are investigating them,” Cooper countered. “If one of us is dead, and the other is determined not to get caught, then I think that person would have a strong chance of getting away with it.”
Veena sighed. “See, this conversation right now is why we could never live together. I’m literally dizzy.”
“Good, because now that you’re weak and swooning, it’s my turn to ask a question.”
Lupe naturally chose this moment to jump onto Veena’s bed. He selected a location near her head and curled himself into a ball. It had been a long, cold night for him, much of it spent outside in a cold car or inside a stranger’s apartment. Veena’s home, however, was one of Lupe’s favorite places. He adored her and everything associated with her.
“Hi, loopy Lupe,” Veena whispered, giving him scritches behind his ears. “Such a good boy.”
“So, um, back to my question. It’s serious. A matter of life and death.”
Veena rolled over and gave Cooper affectionate scritches behind his ears too. “Aw, is someone jealous?”
“Not in the least. But my belly could use some rubbing.”
“You said something about a serious question?”
Cooper hesitated. He never let his guard down completely with anyone. Not with his ex, certainly, not even when she was his wife, which might have been the root of their problems. And not with his children, because they deserved a steady, stable presence and he was a grown-ass man; they didn’t need to know when he was worried or stressed.
With Veena, however, it was different. Sure, they joked and sparred and flirted. He drove her more than a little nuts. But a rock-solid trust had developed between them over the years, probably because they were variations of the same animal. He loved that she took off her sunglasses for him. So what the hell, right?
“There’s a strong chance that someone will try to kill us if we keep going with this investigation,” Cooper said.
Veena narrowed her eyes. “What makes you think that?”
“People keep warning me away. Even Victor is telling me to watch my step, which is an astounding display of emotion for him.”
“Since when does Cooper Lamb listen to warnings?”
