“Interesting thing about that. Kalena told me about Robin getting Jared’s file ahead of schedule. She said no one in her office was responsible. West could have done it but we couldn’t figure out why he would, so I asked him. He admitted giving the file to Robin but said she asked him for it.”
“And you believed that?”
“Until Judge Steele told me different. When he heard on the news that a prostitute’s body had been found in Liberty Park, he was afraid it was Joanie even though her identity hadn’t been released. The only good news was that we’d arrested Jared. Steele was scared that Sonia might have killed Joanie and he called Judge West and asked him about the case.”
“He must have known what West was doing.”
“He did. They were hunting buddies, and West got drunk one night on a hunting trip and told Steele enough that he figured it out.”
“Did Steele tell him about Sonia?”
“Not directly. He just made it clear that this was one case that needed to go away in a hurry, and West said he’d take care of it. I don’t know if or how he made sure you were assigned to the case. West might have been telling the truth about that or he might have had something on Robin. We may never know for certain. What we do know is that you didn’t go along with West.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
Alex pursed her lips. “I hated what I’d become and I didn’t want to be that person anymore, and I was willing to let whatever was going to happen, happen.”
Rossi nodded and then stared out the window, lost in thought for a minute. “I guess you know what Bonnie pulled on me, that thing with the lawsuit?”
“Don’t blame her. She was just trying to help me. You don’t have anything to worry about. It was total bullshit. There isn’t going to be a lawsuit.”
“I know that. I checked up on the family members of those men. I don’t know who she had at your house, but they definitely weren’t who she said they were.”
“Now what?”
He picked up the photograph. “Nothing. This thing between you and me, it’s over.”
Alex was wide-eyed. “Why?”
“Bonnie was right. I probably didn’t have to kill those men, but I did. And the cops who investigated the shootings, well, let’s just say they take care of their own. After I left your house that day, I went home and got drunk, and when I sobered up, I realized something.”
“What’s that?”
“All this time I was chasing after you, I was really chasing the dead, and I’m done doing that.”
Alex went home. Bonnie was waiting for her with a bottle of their favorite wine, ready to toast Alex’s first day in her new job, until Alex’s cell phone chirped with a text. It was from Claire Mason, her law school mentor and the lawyer who had defended her when she was charged with murdering Dwayne Reed. Alex opened her phone and read the text.
“Who texted you?”
“Claire.”
“What did she want?”
“You know she’s part of that national group of defense lawyers who’ve volunteered to defend the detainees at Guantanamo?”
“Yes.”
“Here.” She handed Bonnie the phone. “Read it.”
Bonnie read the text aloud.
“I need you. Come to Guantanamo as soon as you can. And bring Bonnie.”