"Even though people were going to be living on top of it. Kids were going to play in that park."
"Look, I know it sounds bad-"
"Sounds bad?"
"Okay, it is bad. I can see that now. I really can. I didn't before. I couldn't. I was so caught up in everything. In trying to keep this dream alive."
"But Martin told you he wouldn't go along with it."
"Yes."
"And you told Birk?"
"Yes."
"And Will Sterling? Did you tell Birk about him too?"
"Yes."
"You signed their death warrants."
"If he killed them. You have no proof."
"They were murdered within twenty-four hours of each other," Jenn said.
"Even if he had something to do with it, how was I supposed to know? And Maya died more than two weeks ago. I never said a word to Birk about her. Never told him she was upset about the site."
"She did," I said.
"What!" He pushed himself up off the couch and stood above me with his hands clenched so tight they started to turn white. "When? How do you-"
"We found his number listed in her cellphone's outgoing calls," Jenn said. "And we found this."
She handed him a copy of the email Maya had sent Will Sterling the day she died. He read it, holding the paper as if it were the only thing tethering him to earth, his blue eyes scanning quickly down and then back to the beginning.
Jenn put her hand on his arm and said, "There is no way she killed herself. You understand that now?"
His chin trembled and his hand went to his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Tears fell anyway. His chest heaved and his voice broke as he said, "Yes."
"And if she didn't kill herself, and you didn't do it, who else had an interest in shutting her up?"
He barely breathed out the name: "Birk."
"This is what you are going to do," I said, my voice a lot sharper than Jenn's. "You listening?"
"Yes."
"You're going to write it down," I said. "All of it. Everything you can remember from the time you first spoke to Simon Birk until now. Every transaction, every conversation, every email. When it is all written down you are going to give a copy to Jenn. Depending on what you come up with, she can share it with the police. I'll leave that to her discretion. Got that?"
"Yes."
"You have a chequebook?"
"Yes."
"On you?"
"Yes."
"Write me a cheque for two thousand dollars."
"What for?"
"Travel expenses."
"Travel?"
"Yes. I'm going to Chicago and I don't see why your wife should have to pay for it."
"Why would Nina-"
"Your ex-wife, goddammit."
"All right, all right. I'm sorry. Two thousand, you said. To go after Birk?"
"Somebody has to," I said.
He filled out a cheque and handed it over. It was for five thousand. "If he did what you say he did… if he had anything to do with my daughter's death… then do anything," Rob Cantor said. "Spend anything. But above all do anything to bring him down. All the way down. I don't know you, Geller, I don't know what boundaries you have-"
"I'm still figuring that out myself," I said.
"Go farther," he said. "If you have to. Do whatever it takes to bring him down."
CHAPTER 25
I made the easy phone calls first: flight, hotel and rental car.
Then I called my mother to let her know I'd be out of town-Jewish mothers must be kept apprised of such things-hoping to get her machine so I could keep it short and chipper, but I got her live instead and had to listen to an overlong lecture about upsetting my older brother.
"What happened?" she said. "You were going to call Daniel and thank him for sending business your way."
I said, "The case he referred to me, through his assistant, the simple family matter, turned out to be not so simple. And I had to push Marilyn's ex around a little and he complained to Daniel and Daniel butted in where he shouldn't have."
"I wish the two of you would just get along better…"
"This is not about us getting along, Ma. It's about me finding out what happened to Maya. I don't bill what Daniel bills, but my hours matter too. My days count."
"Doing what?" she said. "I don't know what you do anymore. At least when you were with an agency I had some idea."
"World repairs is what I do. Like it says on the door."
"Which means what here on earth?"
"Giving Marilyn her daughter back. Whether Daniel likes it or not." — I had to take a few moments to breathe and think my way through my story before I made the next call. Marilyn Cantor had come to World Repairs to find out why her daughter had killed herself. Now she was about to learn that Maya had been murdered. Never having been a cop, only a soldier, I had no experience at breaking this kind of news-only of living it. So I started by telling her that I was going to Chicago. "But don't worry about the expense," I said. "Your ex-husband is paying."
"What does Chicago have to do with my daughter?" she said. "And why is Rob paying for you to go? He didn't even want me giving you his number."
"Maybe you should come down to the office. It might be better if I explain it in person."
Such a smart guy: I couldn't have thought of this before I called?
"What is going on?" she demanded. "What have you found out?"
"This might not be easy."
"I didn't come to you for easy. Please. Spit it out."
I took a deep breath; deep enough for snorkelling. "Maya didn't kill herself, Marilyn. We believe-strongly believe-that she was murdered."
"Murdered… who would murder my daughter? She didn't have an enemy in the world."
"She made one," I said.
"A boyfriend?"
"No."
"Then who? And what the hell does it have to do with Rob?"
"I'm going to tell you what I know, but I need some assurance from you first."
"The hell you do."
"Please. I need to know that you'll wait until we find enough evidence to back up our theory before you do anything about it."
"Do you know what happened or not?"
"All right," I said. "Let me explain it as best I can. Everyone we spoke to had a hard time believing Maya had killed herself. No one thought she was the type to do it."
"I told you that myself."
"I know. And the more we looked into it, the more a different scenario began to emerge."
"Based on what?"
"Phone calls she had made and received before she died. An email found on her computer. A conversation I had with the coroner."
"He agrees she was murdered?"
"He acknowledged that it was possible."
"That doesn't sound very-"
"I'm getting there. We know Maya and a friend named Will Sterling had serious concerns about the Birkshire Harbourview development."
"Oh my God. Where are you going with this?"
"Hang on. They believed there were problems with the land itself-the level of PCBs in the soil."
"But Rob had all that cleaned."
"But a new problem cropped up that couldn't be cleaned. Not on time or within budget."
There was silence on the other end. Then she said in a tight voice, "Who are you working for now? Me or Rob?"
"You," I said. "And only you."
"Then why did Rob-"
"I'm getting to that. We talked to him today, Jenn and I. We got him to admit this problem. And that there have been casualties because of it."
"Casualties? What does that mean? Someone killed Maya over this?"
"Not just Maya. We think two other people were killed over it, to keep Birk's projects in Toronto and Chicago going."
"Not my husband, please," she said. "Don't tell me-"
"Simon Birk is the man we believe is responsible," I said. "That's why I'm going to Chicago. And that's why Rob is paying. He brought Birk into the mix. He bought into Birk's plan to pave over the problems. And he wants Birk held accountable."