Always Watching (41 page)

I wasn’t convinced. 
When we compared the records of Datello’s smaller ships to those
from
The Celeste
it was pretty obvious that the variances had become the norm
with the company’s largest ship.

“
Do you think it’s
enough?” Dev asked while we drove from Hennessey Island back to my
home in Beach Cliffs.

“
Of course it isn’t,” I
snorted.  “Zack would laugh us both out of his office if we
took what little we’ve got to him now and asked for a warrant to
search that ship.  I suspect that we’ll find what we need when
we start talking to women.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll
identify
The Celeste
as the vehicle that brought them into Darkwater Bay in
bondage.”

“
Wouldn’t that be
nice?”

“
Hey,” I reached over the
console and bumped his deltoid with a fist.  “You want to stay
for dinner?  I can change afterward and we can head over to
Mercer Boulevard from here.”

“
Ah, I’m pretty sure
that’s a bad idea, Helen.”

“
Why?”

“
Because of what happened
yesterday when Johnny shared the good news.  I didn’t react
very well.  I’m pretty sure I’m the last guy he wants to see
hanging out at the house as a dinner guest.”

The embers of temper smoldered.  “He
needs to get used to the fact that you’re my friend and that it’s
not going to change.”

“
I’m sure I’d feel the
same way if our roles were reversed, Helen.  I wouldn’t want
some guy hanging around, especially if I knew he had… well,
harbored some intense feelings.”

“
Devlin –”

“
I’ll have Crevan come
pick me up.  It’s no big deal really.”

“
Then I’ll ask
Crevan
to stay for
dinner too.  It’s not like it’d be you, me and Johnny
anyway.  David Levine is staying with us too.”

“
If Crevan comes and stays
for dinner, I will too.  I’d prefer not dining on my ripped
off hand anytime soon, if it’s all the same.”

“
Besides, Johnny isn’t
even going to
be
here tonight.  He told me that he’s going to be holed up
out at OSI working on this other thing Collangelo wants him
resolving.”

“
The Sanderfield
thing?”

“
How much do you know
about him, Devlin?”

“
Who, Terrell
Sanderfield?”

“
Yeah.  You told me a
few months ago that he was courted pretty hard by Datello to
challenge Joe in the next election.  I know nothing about him
beyond the smarmy campaign ads on television.”

“
He’s older, close to
sixty at least, a real career politician.  I think he used to
practice law, though rumor has it that his professional goal was
always to do something as a stepping stone into politics. 
He’s been a state senator for close to 30 years, I
guess.”

“
Republican?”

“
Obviously.  Although
I guess he could challenge Joe on the party ticket for the
nomination.  It’s pretty rare for an incumbent governor to
lose a primary that way out here.  In fact, I don’t think it’s
happened in my lifetime.”

“
And he represents
traditional Republican lip service to smaller
government?”

“
In theory,” Dev
grinned.  “None of them practice what they preach.  Joe
on the other hand, his platform was always accountability.  I
suppose that’s why the story in the paper this morning stung so
hard.”

“
You saw it?”

“
Andy faxed it to
me.  He does that from time to time.  Says it’s his God
given duty to keep me abreast of events in the real
world.”

“
Collangelo was livid with
Johnny yesterday.  For a moment, I thought he might fire
him.”

“
That would’ve been a huge
mistake,” Devlin said.  “Would’ve fed right into Sanderfield’s
allegations that something sneaky happened behind the taxpayer’s
backs.  I think Collangelo handled it perfectly.”

I gnawed the inside of my cheek.  “If
Collangelo shuts OSI down because of political pressure, it
wouldn’t be very good for a lot of people that I love. 
Crevan, Chris, Johnny… you.”

Eyes pierced me from the side.  “I
think we’d all manage, Helen.  We’d probably be absorbed by
the state police.  Except maybe Johnny.  I’m not sure
he’d want to stick around if they shut down OSI.  How do you
go from running everything to being a foot soldier again?”

“
Not easily.  At
least he’s got his security business to fall back on.”

“
Do you think
Sanderfield’s pressure will be the end of OSI?”

“
I’m not sure,” I
said.  “Even if Joe is reelected, the suggestion was made that
Johnny has abused fiscal resources.  It might be harder to get
funding for OSI during the next budgetary session.  If
Sanderfield wins, forget it.  Johnny and everything he did at
OSI will be history.”

“
Guess we need a big win
for more reasons than justice this time,” Dev said.

“
I can’t think about it
that way.  No matter what happens, the victims in
this
case have to be my
sole motivation.  The rest of it is some distant future, a
distraction we can’t afford right now.” 

Flicking the turn signal, I waited for the
gate to open on my property.  “Tonight, we might get the break
we really need to confirm that this is more than me being paranoid
or Florence Payette having something a little bit off in her
head.”

“
I think you’re on the
right track, Helen.  And I’m not just saying that because of
how I feel about you personally.”

“
Someone postulated that I
could suggest you roll naked through hot coals and you’d think it
was a good plan.”

Cautiously, he reached for my hand. 
“That’s ridiculous, Helen.”

“
I know.”

“
But I love you too,” he
said softly.  “My friend.”

Chapter 35

David met us at the garage door. 
“You’re home.  You just missed Johnny.  He’s headed back
out to OSI.  Asked me to remind you that he won’t be here
until late tonight.”

“
I remember,” I
said.  “How did it go with Sarah Holmes?”

He shrugged.  “Her attorney was present
while we talked to her.”

“
Curtis
Marcel?”

Devlin cursed under his breath.

“
No, she’s got her own
representation through legal aid.”  He glanced at
Devlin.  “Detective Mackenzie, it’s good to see you
again.  What say we come inside and exchange stories of our
progress over coffee?”

“
That sounds fantastic,” I
said.  We skipped lunch and my stomach was
rumbling.

David grinned.  “That husband of yours
was right, I take it.  He said you probably worked straight
through lunch today.  I know you didn’t have breakfast.”

No, just the ginger ale and soda crackers
Johnny had Joe’s staff deliver to the guest room before we left
Montgomery this morning.

“
He stopped and picked up
something he said you call
fat, sugar and
caffeine in a cup
.  Cinnamon
something or other, and an enormous cinnamon roll.”

Not-so-inexplicable tears sprang to my eyes
at the small gesture from Johnny.  “I’ll have to call and
thank him later.”

Over our coffee and my confection, Devlin
filled in the blanks for David regarding our day, and the unusual
information we had about Ms. Gerard’s behavior.

“
Interesting,” he
said.  “Given her former employer’s history with the police,
it would be wise not to jump to conclusions over this.  It
might be that she’s worried that she’s next in your crosshairs,
Helen.  You’re a formidable opponent.  Even if she’s done
nothing wrong, that wouldn’t ease her paranoia, I’m
afraid.”

“
Mmm,” I nodded.  “I
considered that she might be feeling guilty by association. 
The thing is, I can’t understand why she’d feel that way. 
Johnny says that Datello kept his businesses squeaky clean,
particularly after the brush with Salvatore Masconi sneaking in the
back door with a well concealed criminal history.  If
anything, Datello responded with hyper vigilance.  I can’t
remember who told me the story, probably Tony Briscoe, but Masconi
brought a bunch of outsiders into the casino for the top management
positions.  After his disappearance, Datello cleaned house and
hired local people to fill the spots.”

“
And Gerard is one of
them,” Devlin said.  “Born and raised right here.”

I turned to David.  “How did the Holmes
interview go?”

“
She’s sticking to her
story, and unfortunately, her alibi is ironclad, Helen.  She
was tending to the children of another family the night that Sofia
Datello arrived in Montgomery.  She says that she and Mrs.
Sherman had become acquaintances during Sherman’s pregnancy, that
she was hired from the get-go to be the nanny once the child was
born.”

“
Yet we have no evidence
that this child was more than a prosthetic that Sherman wore for
several months,” I shook my head, sucked on the straw in my
cup. 

“
If she did wear one, I
didn’t find it at the house,” Dev said.

“
Of course you wouldn’t
have,” David postulated his theory on Melissa Sherman.  “She’s
very crafty, that one.  Were you paying attention to her in
court this morning, Helen?”

“
I was more focused on
that geriatric judge, praying that he wouldn’t take pity on the
lovely young widow.”

“
Judge Hathaway was far
more shrewd than you give him credit for,” David chuckled. 
“He saw exactly what I did.  A woman with very cold eyes
playing the role of the aggrieved, wrongly-accused widow.  She
cried a bucket, or so she’d have had the court believe, into a very
dry handkerchief by the end of the arraignment.”

“
So what about Florence’s
claim that Holmes kept an eye on her in Darkwater while she was
working for the past month or so?”

“
Holmes backed up the
story.  Says she’s got the pay stubs to prove it was legal
too.  Apparently, Mrs. Sherman called her, distraught after
Eugene’s untimely death from old age and said she couldn’t deal
with having Sherman’s favorite ancient employee hanging
around.  She paid Holmes to camp out and look after a woman
who she claims Sherman described as
borderline retarded
.”

“
She’s a registered nurse,
for heaven’s sake.  She’s hardly developmentally
disabled.”

“
Oh, I know that,
Helen.  And Holmes said that while she found Payette to be a
little socially different, perhaps even emotionally stunted, she
found nothing in her behavior that indicated she was incapable of
caring for herself.  Her exact words were that Flo is an
excellent cook.  Still, it was easy money, so she stayed on
the job until another gig brought her back to Montgomery a few days
before the infant abduction. Then she got a frantic call from
Sherman the night the Datello baby disappeared.”

“
And Sherman said what
exactly?” Dev asked.

“
That she was coming home
with the baby earlier than anticipated and would need Holmes at the
house first thing in the morning,” David said.

“
Did you believe her,
David?”

“
I did,” he nodded. 
“I believed every word she said.  I know there were concerns
because Sherman did in fact want to keep Florence out of Montgomery
after the old man croaked in his sleep.  Have we considered
why that might’ve been?”

“
Because maybe Florence
wouldn’t have felt owned anymore if she knew Eugene was gone,” I
slurped the last of my cinnamon latte out of the cup.

“
He brought you two,”
David said.  “Made me promise that you’d drink both of
them.”

I watched him retrieve the second from the
refrigerator and drop it in front of me on the table.  “Drink
it.  I’ve considered your theory on why Sherman wouldn’t want
Payette around.”

“
You disagree?”

“
I think it was sarcasm
peppered with an unhealthy sprinkling of frustration,” David
said.  “Let’s forget about who decided to steal the Datello
baby for a moment, as it’s really not germane to the discussion in
this context.  Johnny showed me Florence’s employment
record.  Employee of the quarter, of the year on more than one
occasion.  People love her.  Patients, visitors, her
peers.  In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re all reeling in the
aftermath of what Florence did last week.”

“
All right.  We
already know this, David,” I said.

“
How does one achieve
employee of the quarter or year?” he asked.

“
It’s a popularity
contest,” I scorned the award not so secretly.  “It doesn’t
make her the most dedicated or competent employee.”

“
True enough.”

“
In fact, there are plenty
of people who wouldn’t have a kind bone in their body if something
wasn’t in it for them in the end.  I saw plenty of nurses like
that when I performed my residency at UCLA.”