"Who had laptop access?"
"Evan. On the laptop he used to travel with."
"Abby?"
Kelley nodded. "But I don't think she really knew how to use it. She didn't have much interest in it."
"Anyone else?"
Kelley hesitated, then nodded again, this time with one deep, long movement of his head back and forth. "Me."
"Your laptop could access the Harmon security system?"
"Yeah. Evan wanted it that way. I knew the house, I knew the system; if anything went wrong, he said he wanted me to be able to, you know, see what the problem was."
"So you could get into the system anytime you wanted?"
"Yeah."
"To change the settings or disable it-whatever you wanted."
"Yeah."
"Let me ask you something," Reggie said. "When you log on to the system, does the system register who the user is and what changes are made?"
"Yup. It logs it in the main computer and on the individual computer that's used."
"Should I ask?" Justin said. And when Kelley frowned glumly, Justin said, "Who was logged on when the system was disabled the night of the murder?"
"I was," Dave Kelley said.
"On the main system and on your laptop both?" Reggie asked.
"Yeah."
"Did anyone else know your password?"
"Evan and Abby," Kelley said.
"Where's your laptop now?"
"Evidence room," Silverbush said.
"And where was it the day of the murder?" Justin asked Kelley.
Kelley sighed and said, "In my truck, I guess. That's where the cops found it." As Justin and Abby stayed silent, Kelley added, "See what I mean? Seven ways from Sunday."
Silverbush's smile now spread across his entire face. And it was still there as he walked Justin and Reggie outside a few minutes later when the interview was over.
"I'm glad we could all share this experience," he said and extended his hand toward Reggie. "Good to meet you." He didn't bother to push his hand in Justin's direction. He just said, "I know you're trying to drag in all sorts of complications. But you're way off base. This guy did it. There's no question about it. And if we find out he did it with your girlfriend, they're both gonna get a needle in the arm."
"Always nice to see you," Justin said.
Silverbush had the same annoying smile on his face as he said, "You screwed it up when you were just a cop; you're screwing it up again working with the Feds. It's kind of reassuring to deal with someone who never learns."
"So what do you think?" Reggie asked. They were in the car heading into Manhattan, just a few minutes outside Riverhead, where they'd talked to David Kelley.
"What do you think?"
"I think I can see why Silverbush is going to prosecute. Kelley's right about being screwed. There's a lot of evidence against him. And there's a decent amount that links your-that links Abby."
"Maybe. If we were looking at Evan's murder in isolation, I'd say you're right. But what's the link to the other killings?"
"We have to check it out and see if those links exist."
"They won't."
"They might. And if they don't, it's still possible they're really separate cases. Maybe it's all just a crazy coincidence. Harmon could have been doing something illegal and still gotten killed for jealousy or money or whatever this guy would kill him for." She shook her head in frustration. "There are obviously complications, Jay, but after hearing all that, it's hard for me to think that this guy and Abby Harmon aren't involved. Silverbush might be right. The stuff in Providence might really be unconnected." When Justin frowned, she said, "You sure you're not letting your personal feelings interfere with your judgment?"
"I'm not saying anything definitively, Reggie. But as dumb as Kelley is, some things just don't add up."
"Such as?"
"Let's say you actually are capable of committing the kind of well-thought-out, sadistic kind of act that someone committed on Evan Harmon."
"Okay…"
"So would you have the presence of mind to ditch the murder weapon but keep the stun gun, which would probably implicate you more than anything else? Why get rid of one but keep the other?"
"What else?"
"Kelley's right-I don't see the motive. He's killing off his money source."
"Unless he thinks she's an even better source."
"Yeah, but he's right again. Even Dave Kelley has to realize that he's not going to wind up living happily ever after with Abby Harmon."
"So maybe she just promised him money and not true love."
"Granted, that might make sense from his end. But why would Abby want Evan dead? All she has to do is divorce him."
"You never know what people can do when they're in a relationship, Jay. Maybe he was abusive and she couldn't stand it anymore. Maybe she found out he was molesting little boys. You never know what sends someone over the edge." She looked at him when he didn't react. "But there's something else, isn't there?"
Justin nodded. "It's the phone tip that led Silverbush to Kelley."
"What about it?"
"It came early. I mean it came the day after the murder. And a lot of details hadn't been released to the press. In fact, the detail about the stun gun burns still hasn't been released to the press."
She began nodding. "But the tip wasn't just that Kelley was having an affair with Abby Harmon. It said he owned a stun gun."
"So somebody had to know how Evan was killed."
"Maybe somebody talked. One of your guys or one of Harmon's guys. Or even Leona. Hard to keep that kind of thing quiet. Word could have gotten around that someone knew that Kelley had that freaking thing."
"Maybe."
"But it does seem kind of strange, doesn't it? Kind of…"
"Orchestrated."
"Yes. Orchestrated."
"Kind of," Justin said.
25
Justin had never been in an office quite like Ascension's before.
He had been around money all his life; had been raised, more or less, in the banking and financial world his father inhabited. He'd dealt with Wall Street types and people who owned their own businesses and had their own planes. Money did not intimidate him or overly impress him. To Justin, it was something you had or you didn't have. It was something to be used well or poorly. Even the office of Rockworth and Williams-a company dealing with more money and brokering more real power than Ascension could ever dream of-was an environment he understood. Even as it made him shudder. Rockworth and Williams was corporate life with all its pressures and politics and game playing. To succeed there was a matter of survival, of protecting yourself at all costs.
This was different.
From the moment he and Reggie were ushered into the back offices of Ascension, Justin realized they were not in a world where survival or safety mattered. What mattered was domination. Power. Greed. What mattered here was size. What mattered here was more.
Risk was what this was all about.
This was a world where success could be equated only with ownership. And ownership mattered only when it was defined by the worth of whatever was owned.
There was no pleasure here. There was only winning. Or oblivion.
As they sat in Carl D. Matuszek's office, Reggie instinctively reached out for Justin's arm. It wasn't a gesture of affection. She needed something to hold on to. He let her hand clutch his left wrist. As they sat, waiting, he could feel her relax, and he made no acknowledgment of their contact when she finally let go.
Matuszek was sitting at his desk, on the phone, his back to them. He wore sand-colored linen pants, a light-blue button-down shirt, and a blue-and-white striped tie. No sport coat. He was peering out a sparklingly clean window at a magnificent view of midtown Manhattan as he spoke. He didn't bother talking into a receiver; he kept the whole conversation on speakerphone.