Lifeguard - James Patterson [70]
“I’m sure he’s okay,” Ellie said. “It’s who he works for I don’t trust.”
A gull cawed from a mooring a few feet away. Breen shook his head.
“You’ve sure come a ways in a couple of weeks since you stumbled into my crime scene. The most sought after suspect in America falls in your lap. Now you’re making accusations against one of the most important people in town.”
“Art’s booming, Carl. What can I say? And I wouldn’t have exactly called it ‘falling into my lap.’ I was abducted, remember.”
Breen raised his palms. “Hey, I actually meant it as a compliment. So, what’s in all this for me?”
“Biggest bust of your career,” Ellie said.
Breen let out an amused laugh. He took a last gulp of the coffee and crumpled the cup into a ball. “Okay, I’m listening. . . .”
“Stratton had Tess McAuliffe killed,” Ellie said, eyes fixed on him.
“Knew you were going to say that,” Breen sniffed.
“Yeah? Well, what you probably didn’t know was that Tess McAuliffe wasn’t her real name. It was Marty Miller. And the reason you haven’t been able to find out a thing about her is that she’s from Australia. She was a hooker down there. She was hired to do a job. Stratton.”
“And where did you get this?” Breen faced her.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ellie said. “You can have it, too. What does matter is that Dennis Stratton was having an affair with her, and that your own department knows about this and hasn’t done shit. And that he killed his wife in retaliation and pinned the whole mess on her and the bodyguard.”
“Killed her?” Breen’s eyes shone. “In retaliation for what?”
“In retaliation for conspiring with Tess. Liz wanted out. She was coming clean with us. Stratton did it. To get rid of her and get the heat off himself.”
“One thing I still don’t get,” Breen said, nodding cautiously. “You said my department already knew about this relationship, between Tess and Stratton? You want to explain?”
“Dennis Stratton was seen there, at the Brazilian Court, with Tess on several occasions. I saw a golf tee in his home that matched one found at the murder scene. I ran his picture by the staff of the hotel myself. The PBPD has all this.”
Breen’s blank expression took Ellie by surprise.
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise, Carl. You didn’t get this information passed along?”
“You think if we had, we wouldn’t have followed up on something like that? You don’t think we would’ve been all over Stratton? Lawson, too. I assure you, he hates the arrogant SOB as much as you do.” Breen screwed his eyes into her. “Just who was it that supposedly passed along this information?”
Ellie didn’t answer. She stared back at him just as blankly. A hollow, sick feeling had swelled in her chest. Everything changed. She had the sensation she was sliding, slowly at first, then faster, against her will.
“Forget it, Carl,” she muttered, rewinding everything she knew about this case, back to its very first moments.
Everything had just changed.
Chapter 86
IT WAS A LONG, quiet flight back to Florida. Agent Rodriguez and I barely exchanged a word. I had buried my brother. I’d maybe seen my father for the last time. And I was bringing something back with me as well. Something pretty earthshaking.
The name of the person who’d killed my brother and my closest friends.
As I came through the Jetway at the Palm Beach airport, I spotted Ellie waiting for me. She was standing apart from the usual crowd of giddy family members welcoming their relatives to the Florida sunshine. She was still on duty, I guess, dressed in a black pantsuit, her hair tied back in a ponytail. She smiled as she saw me, but she looked as though it were the end of a stressful day.
Hector Rodriguez bent down and took off the monitoring device strapped to my ankle. He shook my hand and wished me luck. “You’re back to being the FBI’s problem now.”
For a second, Ellie and I just stood there. I could see her reading the stress in my eyes. “You okay?”
“I’m okay,” I lied. I checked around to see if anyone was watching, then I folded