“Because if it was an accident, he wouldn’t be here,” Alex said, pointing to Rossi. “So what’s going on?”
Wheeler deflected her question. “When was the last time you saw Ms. Norris?”
Alex turned her head to the side, thinking for a moment. “I’m not sure. I probably saw her in the office yesterday or the day before.”
“When was the last time you spoke with her?”
“Like I said, yesterday or the day before.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Just hi and how are you, in the hall, that sort of thing.”
“Nothing more substantive, maybe something about one of your cases or something going on outside the office?”
“No. Robin was always under the gun. She didn’t have a lot of time for chitchat and there was nothing going on in any of my cases that we needed to discuss.”
“What’s your cell phone number?”
Alex frowned. “My cell phone number? Why do you ask?”
“Please, Ms. Stone, your number?”
“Don’t worry,” Rossi said, “he’s not going to call and ask you out.”
“Maybe you should give him yours. He might ask you, and the change would do you good,” Alex said.
Wheeler coughed into his fist, unable to hide his smirk. “Your number, Ms. Stone.”
“Fine, if it will get this over with faster. It’s 816-555-1331. Now it’s your turn. Why do you need my number?”
“We recovered Ms. Norris’s cell phone at the scene. Her last call was to you.”
Alex grimaced. “Really? If you knew that, why did you ask for my number?”
“Just confirming that we had the right one.”
“Well, I didn’t get a call or a message from Robin.”
“Do you have your phone?” Rossi said.
Alex didn’t like that she was the only one answering questions, though she knew that was a standard cop interrogation technique. Although she had nothing to hide, she couldn’t stop her pulse from racing as she retrieved her phone from her pants pocket.
“Right here,” she said, holding it up.
“Can I have a look at it?” Rossi said.
“After I do.” Alex unlocked the phone, her mouth dropping open when she saw that she had a message. “That’s weird. I’ve got a message, but I don’t remember getting a call.” She clicked through to the voice message screen. “The caller ID says it was from Robin.”
“Put the phone on speaker and play the message,” Rossi said.
Alex hesitated, hating that she had to share the message with anyone, especially Rossi. Robin had intended the message for her, not them. What could be more intimate, more private, than a friend’s last words?
“Play it, Counselor,” Rossi said.
She nodded, realizing she didn’t have a choice, tapping the touch screen, taking a quick breath when she heard Robin’s voice.
“Alex! I’ve got to talk to you! Oh, my God!”
The message ended with a garbled mix of Robin’s scream and the crunch of collapsing steel.
The three of them sat in silence, staring at Alex’s phone, each of them hard-bitten enough to think they’d heard it all only to find out in that moment how wrong they were.
“We’re going to need your phone,” Rossi said, his voice surprisingly soft and gentle. Alex nodded and turned away, clutching her middle. “You can get a new phone with the same number.”
“What about saving Robin’s message? Won’t I lose it when I change phones?”
“I’ve been down this road before,” Rossi said. “Your voice mail is saved on your carrier’s server. Do you have any idea what she needed to talk to you about?”
Alex shook her head. Robin rarely called her after hours, respecting her employees’ needs for a private life. So the call had to have been some kind of emergency, and the only one she could think of was Jared Bell’s case. And that wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with Rossi. “None.”
“The accident happened north of the river, way west on Barry Road. Can you think of any reason she was in that area?” Rossi asked.
Alex was glad for a question she could answer with a clear conscience. “No idea.”
“What time was the call?” Wheeler asked.
Alex examined her phone. “Last night. Ten fifteen.”
“Where were you when the call came in?”
Alex straightened, feeling a little less vulnerable for the moment. “At a bar. I’d turned my phone off. That’s why I didn’t hear it ring.”
Wheeler took Alex’s cell phone and dropped it into an evidence bag.
“Were you with anyone? Can anyone vouch for you?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. Him,” she said, pointing at Rossi. “Your partner and I were having a beer.”
Chapter Fifteen
Wheeler and Rossi waited until they were out on the street before discussing their meeting with Alex.
“So what’s your take?” Wheeler said.
“Other than that Alex is lying about not knowing what Robin Norris wanted to talk with her about?”
“What makes you think she was lying?”
“The way her face fell when you asked her the question. She couldn’t even look at you. I’ve seen that face a thousand times. It’s the what-who-me-couldn’t-be special. Never fails and never works.”
“You sure you’re not reading too much into that given your history with her? She’s got a solid explanation for why she didn’t get the phone call, since the two of you were kicking back a few brews. And by the way, what were you doing going drinking with her?”
Rossi crunched his brow, staring at Wheeler. “I didn’t go drinking with her. I was at the Zoo drinking by myself. She came in. I sat down next to her. End of story.”
“No, it’s the same old story. You didn’t have to sit down next to her. You’re never going to leave it alone, are you? What did you think was going to happen? You’d get her drunk and she’d confess? And even if she did, so what? She was acquitted. And that is the end of the story.”
“Not for me. And don’t forget, you invited me to this party after her name popped up, so quit telling me to let it go.”
“Look, I get it. We’ve all got at least one case that will eat our ass until the day we die.”
“Even in traffic?”
Wheeler stepped back. “Fuck you, Rossi!”
Rossi put up his hands. “Sorry, Mayor. That was out of line.”
“Damn straight it was. I know why you can’t let this one go.”
“And now you’re gonna tell me even though I’m not going to ask.”
“You know I am. You don’t give a rat’s ass about Dwayne Reed. Nobody misses that prick. But you can’t get over the fact that Alex Stone beat you.”
“It’s more than that.”
“What?”
“She used me.”
“How?”
“To put a bullet in Gloria Temple. That’s how she beat me. I killed the one witness who would have put Stone away.”
“You’ve told me that story a dozen times. No way Alex could have set that up. Shit, you saved her life.”
“Like you said, she beat me.”
Wheeler studied him. “Man, you are fucked-up.” He pulled the evidence bag containing Alex’s phone from his jacket pocket. “I may regret this, but are you in?”
“Yeah. I’m all in.”
“Okay. My boss will square it with yours. Just be sure you’re all in on Robin Norris, not Alex Stone.”
Rossi put his hand on Wheeler’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I know how to multitask.”
“Oh, yeah?” Wheeler grinned. “What’s next on your to-do list?”
Rossi pointed across the street to Ilus Davis Park. “I’m going to have a seat on a bench, let the sun shine down on me, and watch all the girls go by.”
“And hope that Alex Stone is one of them?”
“You’re a wise man for a mayor.”
Ilus Davis Park was an outdoor mall flanked on the north by the federal courthouse and on the south by city hall and named after another former Kansas City mayor. The five-acre park had a statue of Davis, a reflecting pool, a memorial to the more than two hundred city employees who’d lost their lives in the line of duty, and a monument to the Bill of Rights.
It also had enough trees and shrubs to make it a perfect place for Rossi to sit and watch the entrance to Alex’s building without her knowing it. He was betting that she was so shaken by the message on her phone that she’d have to get out if only to clear her head and, if Rossi was lucky, talk to someone, probably Bonnie. If she did that, he’d take another pass at Bonnie. He settled onto a bench with a good line of sight and waited.