“Do you have the names of the employees?”
“Yes and no.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“HFM filed with the secretary of state to set up the LLC, and they’ve filed their tax returns on time. The initial filing is public—which we have—but tax returns are not. As it is a private company, none of their financial information is available to the public.”
“Are you deliberately not answering my question?”
“While you were in with Monroe, I may have broken a tiny law. I may have copies of all security badges allowed to access the building.”
“That’s not a tiny law.” She smiled. “But it’s not like we’re going to turn the information over to the FBI and hinder a prosecution.”
“We’ll keep this between you and me. I want to know who that guy is. He may not be on the master list, but my guess is that Monroe wants to keep his personal thugs close. Even private contractors are often given security passes.”
“What are the chances that the guy who threatened Stanley Grant is on the list?”
“If it were me, zero. But Monroe is cocky, and that guy had a scar.”
“How do you know he’s cocky?”
“I listened to your entire conversation. He was calm, reasonable, didn’t respond with any suspicious questions, showed no anger or animosity, only a slight reserved boredom. He was humoring you, and he knew it.”
“I still want to talk to Andy Tompkins.”
“My guess is that he won’t say a word to you.”
“He talked to Ben.”
“Before you put him back on Monroe’s radar. My guess? By now Monroe either has called him and threatened him or had someone pay him a visit to keep his mouth shut.”
“If you won’t drive to Dallas, maybe I should.”
“Save the time and call him. I guarantee you, he will not help.”
Sean didn’t know her well. She looked up Tompkins’s number and punched it in. “Mr. Tompkins, this is Maxine Revere. I work with Ben Lawson at—”
“You fucking bitch. Lawson said you wanted information! Just research, he said. Now Harrison is going to destroy me.”
“I can help—”
“You can go to hell.”
He ended the call.
“I told you,” Sean said.
“I didn’t think Monroe would act that fast.”
“As soon as we were followed, I figured he was reining in the horses, so to speak. But we have to tread lightly. If Monroe is behind both the Albright murders and Victoria’s murder, he’s running a large conspiracy and has more people than we know about working for him. That’s both good and bad.”
“Good because all it takes is one person to flip and bad because we don’t know where he might come after us.”
“Exactly.”
“We also have a team,” Max said. She had been a lone wolf for so long, and she was still getting used to working with others to investigate her cold cases. She both liked and disliked having a team. She was used to doing everything herself and only having herself to answer to, but in a case like this she needed help. Victoria Mills wasn’t a cold case, at least not the kind she generally investigated. She would have been far more comfortable looking into the Albright family murders than Victoria.
“I have to make some arrangements.”
Sean got on his phone again. “I’m sorry to bother you, Mateo,” he said. “I was hoping Jesse could stay at Saint Catherine’s for a day or two … If he can go home with Brian after soccer practice?… Thank you. And he’s going to miss school tomorrow. Give him some chores, it’ll be good for him.”
When Sean got off the phone, Max said, “Are you worried that Monroe is going to go after your son?”
“No, I’m being cautious. I won’t put Jesse in a position to be used against me, and while my house is safe, I don’t want him home alone all night. It would take Monroe a lot of digging to find my connection to Saint Catherine’s, and even if he did, he wouldn’t think I’d send my kid over there. Jesse’s safer there for now. We’ll reevaluate after tomorrow.”
Sean called Jesse and left him a voice mail telling him he and Lucy might not be home tonight and to go home with Brian and stay at St. Catherine’s. “Call me when you get this message,” he added. “Love you.”
Sean ended the call, then said to Max, “What does your gut say about Simon Mills? Is he involved?”
“I’ve been thinking about it since we learned that they all went to college together. I don’t know.”
“And Corta?”
“He was acting squirrelly yesterday.”
“He has a bank in Austin. A safe-deposit box. You made him nervous.”
“Yes, I did. He’s involved somehow. But…” She hesitated.
“You have a theory. Spill it.”
“Not much of a theory. I’m wondering if they’re both involved, but in different aspects. Meaning, maybe they were involved in whatever illegal shenanigans Monroe is dealing in, but not in Victoria’s murder.”
“Is that based on evidence or emotion?”
She considered. She wasn’t an overly emotional person and could generally assess information with a clear head. She looked at facts—but recognized that many people acted on their feelings. And those feelings could lead them down different paths.
“Denise Albright was a friend. I believe that Mitch or Simon could be involved in the murder of a friend but have a harder time believing that they’re involved in the murder of someone they loved. A sister … an ex-wife. When I was at Mitch’s office, he had a photo of him, Stanley, Denise, Simon, and Victoria on his desk. Most of the ex-spouses I know despise their former partner, or are minimally cordial. And no one seems to know why they divorced. Grover had the best explanation—that they were friends, and didn’t have the passion for marriage.”
“Some people don’t need a reason—or it’s personal.”
“I get that. David called off his engagement to the mother of his child because he couldn’t continue living the lie that he was straight. I’m not judging Mitch and Victoria, but I … Let’s put it this way. They separated at the same time that Harrison Monroe moved to Texas. They divorced shortly after Denise Albright disappeared—we now know she was dead. I think Mitch knows what’s going on, and has from the beginning. I think he’s the weak link.”
“Why not Simon? He’s her brother.”
“Because Simon truly believed that Stan killed his sister. He knows more than he said to anyone, but his grief was real.”
“Sometimes, grief and guilt are interchangeable.”
“What if he knows why Victoria was killed but not who did it?”
“I’m not following you.”
“Go back to my timeline. Victoria was killed the day after the bones were uncovered—the day the media reported they’d been found.”
“But they weren’t identified.”
“It’s reasonable that the killer would know that DNA would prove the identities of the bones and then Victoria—who was Denise’s best friend—might expose them. Because of emotion. Because she thought her best friend had left the country because of something else … like a crime they both committed.”