“That thing with Charlie was Gary’s deal. He wanted to shake him down, see if he could scare him into parting with some cash. When Freddy was alive no one would touch Charlie, but Charlie was a rabbit and Gary figured he’d be an easy mark with no one to protect him.”
“You testified for the prosecution at Sally Pope’s trial.”
“I had to, didn’t I? Burdett was threatening me with hard time for fucking up that security guard. With my record, I couldn’t afford to go down again. Charlie was out of the country, so what I said couldn’t hurt him, and I didn’t owe the broad anything.” Rollins shrugged. “It was her or me and I chose me.”
“Mr. Rollins, the state will want you to testify again, and this time what you say could send Charlie to death row. So, let me ask you, if you testify at Charlie’s trial, what will you say?”
Rollins eyed Kate warily. “If I said something I didn’t say the first time I’d be looking at a perjury charge, so I guess I’ll have to say that I saw Charlie shoot Pope.”
“The statute of limitations has run out, Mr. Rollins. You can consult a lawyer on that if you don’t believe me, but I checked. No one can prosecute you if you lied under oath at Sally Pope’s trial.”
Rollins thought about that. “I might say something different,” he told Kate.
“Like what?”
Levy leaned forward, his eyes riveted on Rollins.
“That depends,” Rollins said. “As you may have noticed, I ain’t doing very well. In fact, I’ve got no fucking legs, which makes it hard to get a job.”
Rollins paused and the blatant bribe attempt hung in the air between the convict and the investigator like a Goodyear blimp hovering over a football stadium. Kate smiled and turned her head toward Levy.
“This is off the record, Dennis,” she said.
When Dennis didn’t object, Kate turned back toward Rollins. She had no illusions about the type of man with whom she was dealing. Rollins was a career criminal and a sociopath. Appealing to his better nature was hopeless, because men like Rollins didn’t have better natures. But they were human and they didn’t have to be evil twenty-four hours a day. Kate looked Rollins in the eye and held his gaze long enough for him to figure out she was not someone who scared easily.
“I don’t know what your experience has been with other attorneys,” Kate said in an even, nonjudgmental tone, “but my firm doesn’t pay witnesses for their testimony. We want the truth. If it’s what you testified to at Sally Pope’s trial we’ll have to deal with that. You, on the other hand, will have to live with Charlie’s death sentence if you help convict him and you’re lying.
“I don’t know if that would be easy for you to do, because I know very little about you, but I do know that you’ve suffered and, if you’re a normal human being, I can only hope that you would want to keep someone you know from suffering if you could help them without hurting yourself.”
“I’m not a charity, lady.”
Kate laughed. “I’ve read your rap sheet and a few police reports of your exploits, Mr. Rollins, so I know that’s for sure.”
Rollins hesitated for a moment. Then he smiled. “Yeah, I guess no one would ever confuse me with the Red Cross.”
“They did make for interesting reading,” Kate told him with a conspiratorial grin.
Rollins stopped smiling and his eyes lost focus. “I was something before this,” he said, pointing toward the place where his legs had been.
“Amen to that. And you’ll be something again when Charlie’s case goes to trial. Everyone will be listening to you because you will be a key witness in the case. My question is whether you’ll be the star witness for the state?”
Rollins took a thoughtful sip of beer, then stared at the table top. When he looked up his expression was serious.
“The DA ain’t going to like what I’m going to say. He’s gonna be pissed. But I owe him one because he forced me to lie about Charlie. The truth is I don’t know who shot the congressman. I saw him shot but I was looking at him and not at Charlie, the broad, Gary, or the nigger.”
“What about the gun? Did you see who had the gun?”
Rollins shook his head. “I heard it but I didn’t see it. The shot came from my right so that’s where I looked, but before I looked I heard the gun bounce off the ground and I never saw who tossed it.”
“So you have no idea who fired the shot? No one acted like they had?”
Rollins laughed. “You think I was playing Sherlock Holmes, looking at everyone with a magnifying glass and working out the clues? I know how cops think. They’d have taken one look at me and thrown away the key. Pope’s body hit the ground and Gary and I took off. So did everybody else.”
“Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Rollins,” Kate said.
“So, what happens next?” Rollins asked.
“Nothing from our end. You haven’t said anything that helps or hurts Charlie. Karl Burdett will probably be in touch soon because he’ll think you’re going to make his case. Tell him what you told me and he may threaten you but I don’t think he can do anything to you if you stick to your guns. Don’t take my word for that, though. I’m not a lawyer. I’d advise you to check with one before you talk to Burdett.”
Rollins nodded. “You paying for my beer or would that be some kind of bribe?”
Kate slapped fifty dollars on the table. “It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Rollins. Have some nachos on me.”
Kate blinked when she stepped into the sunshine. Dennis was right behind her. She was surprised that he had not tried to question Rollins for his magazine article. A key witness retracting his story was big news.
“How do you think that went?” Levy asked as they walked to the car.
“It couldn’t have gone better.”
Levy grinned. “My feeling exactly.”
Kate studied Levy closely. Something Rollins had said had gotten Levy excited but she had no idea what it was.
IT TOOK ALL of Dennis’s self-control to keep from bouncing in his seat from excitement during the ride to the airport, but he couldn’t keep his foot from tapping. Kate returned the rental car and they rode the shuttle to the terminal. Then they had to check in and go through security. By the time they got to their gate, Dennis was ready to explode.
“I’m going to hit the john,” he told Kate, forcing himself to sound calm. As he walked down the concourse toward the restrooms, he thought about what he was planning to do and he began to feel light-headed. As soon as he was certain Kate couldn’t see him, Dennis took a few deep breaths. Then he started to punch in Martha Brice’s number on his cell phone. Halfway through, he stopped. If he made the call, there was no turning back. Did he really want to do this? Sure he wanted to be rich and successful, but was this the way to get there?
Dennis’s courage failed him. He cut the connection. His heart was pounding in his chest. Thanks to Werner Rollins, he was certain he knew who had killed Congressman Pope, but how was he going to use that knowledge?
CHAPTER 40
Amanda had a tough time reconciling the colorful flower beds and emerald green lawns that encircled Sally Pope’s mansion and the clear blue sky above it with the bloodshed that had taken place inside. It seemed impossible that life could go on as if nothing had happened, when a tragedy of this proportion occurred, but violent death had been a large part of Amanda’s life long enough for her to know that it did. Even so, she was a little disoriented when her father parked in front of Sally’s home.
Moments after Frank rang the bell, the door was opened by a thick-chested man with unkempt red hair, who looked more like a lumberjack than a writer of literary fiction. He also looked exhausted and terribly sad.
“Thank you for coming,” Liam O’Connell said. “I would have gone to your office but I don’t want to leave Kevin alone. He’s very fragile and I need to be close by.”