with his father’s companies, it has nothing to do with me.’
‘What’s the relationship of the Alvarez insurance firm to the Bellinis?’
Here Eve threw them a bone to chew. ‘I know Tommy loaned money to the Alvarez family when their company was in bad shape, about to close. He was a silent partner. They sold a lot of life insurance. But they did their own accounting; I had nothing to do with them as a business.’ She paused. They always seemed like a nice family.’
‘But you lived in a house owned by the Bellini family.’ This from Vernetta.
‘That was provided to Frank Polo. He was an old family friend. So was I. That’s not illegal.’
Whit’s throat thickened as Vernetta said, ‘Mr Guchinski’s van was found at the Paul Bellini murder site.’
‘The Bellinis grabbed me when I stopped by Eve’s house to pick up her things,’ Gooch said. ‘She didn’t want to go back there, she thought Frank Polo would force her to stay. Paul and his guys beat me up, detained me.’
‘Paul Bellini wanted Mom to trade for Gooch. They knew about the shooting, they were afraid Gooch and I were involved with Public Service,’ Whit said.
‘They tried to get me to give them details on Public Service, but I didn’t know jack. They pumped me full of drugs, thinking if I were looped I’d talk,’ Gooch said.
Whit said: ‘Paul told me we could meet. We did. He had Gooch in the trunk of his car. He thought I was bringing my mother to him, but of course, I wasn’t. I drove Gooch’s van. Paul and I were talking and he was shot. He was clearly dead. I ran and took his car, because the shooter fired at me, twice, and I couldn’t abandon Gooch. We took off.’
‘And didn’t call the police,’ Vernetta said.
‘I asked Whit not to,’ Eve said, ‘because I was afraid, and because he’s a judge and I didn’t want him to lose his job.’
‘I take full responsibility for that decision,’ Whit said. They asked more detailed questions about Paul’s shooting, and Whit answered truthfully.
‘Of course, you could charge Judge Mosley with fleeing a scene of a crime,’ Charlie said. ‘Of course, in doing so, he saved his own life and that of Mr Guchinski.’
‘He didn’t report the crime,’ Gomez said.
‘At his mother’s request. They’d already been traumatized by one shooting, Detective. And Paul Bellini and his thugs were already beyond help. Charge them if you like, but then my clients will stop talking.’
Gomez made a noise in his throat.
‘The death at the Greystoke,’ Vernetta said. ‘Detective Tarrant here is in charge of that investigation.’
Tarrant was a thin woman, hair pulled back in a modest ponytail. ‘A man matching Judge Mosley’s description retrieved a van from the parking valets. Two rooms were abandoned there, belonging to an Emily Smith.’
‘We were at the Greystoke,’ Eve said. ‘But I don’t know any Emily Smith. I was going to meet Frank there; I wanted a public place because I was afraid of him. But we didn’t stay. Whit left because he wanted to see a friend of his, a police officer from his hometown. To explain to her what we’d been through. After Whit left, I thought I saw one of the gunmen from the diner, a man in dreadlocks. I left the hotel and called Whit on his cell phone. Whit rushed back and picked me up. I decided then to leave town. He took me home. Frank was there. I thought it best that Whit leave us to talk, and at my request, he did. Frank was calm as we talked, but he drank a bunch of wine and became violent. He beat me, knocked my teeth out. He drank more, passed out, and I went to San Antonio.’
‘Where’d you stay?’ Gomez asked.
‘In my car. After a couple of days I called Whit. He came and got me.’ Her Mercedes was back in its garage at the house, where it had been since Gooch was caught, and they had dumped Bucks’ Jag a mile from the burnt- out warehouse late last night.
‘After my mother left town,’ Whit said, ‘the Bellinis left us alone intentionally or were occupied with attacks on them by Public Service. We didn’t know what was happening.’
The detectives watched them in silence. Whit thought he saw a tug of resignation in Vernetta Westbrook’s eyes.
‘Your Honor,’ she said, ‘you told Claudia Salazar you thought Greg Buckman killed Harry Chyme and Richard Doyle. You never explained why.’
‘Frank Polo suggested it to me, I’m sure now in an effort to put attention off of him. This isn’t complicated.’
‘My clients were innocents caught up in the crossfire between the Bellinis and Public Service,’ Charlie said. ‘Ms Michaels has offered her full cooperation with the fraud examiners in the DA’s office, if they want her help in identifying possible points where illegal Bellini funds became legitimate revenue.’
‘But I get immunity, and so do Whit and Gooch,’ Eve said. ‘I can help you sift through every Bellini financial record if you want to go after them. Otherwise, you’re on your own and you’ll find it, I suspect, very difficult to make a case against Tommy and Mary Pat Bellini that gets you their assets.’
Gomez and Vernetta exchanged a glance.
Charlie said, ‘You can try and make a case against my clients, on rather circumstantial evidence, or you can get unparalleled access to the Bellini finances. And also build a case against Public Service, who are nothing more than self-proclaimed domestic terrorists. Choose your headlines, ladies and gentlemen.’
‘I wish you’d stuck to the stage, Charlie,’ Vernetta said.
48
‘Daddy? Did you hear what I said?’ Whit said. ‘I found Mom.’
Whit broke the news as gently as possible to Babe, sitting at their breakfast table. Irina stared at him as though he’d announced he had cancer himself.
‘What?’
‘I found her over a week ago. That’s why I’ve been in Houston. We came back this morning.’
Babe blinked, took a deep, fortifying breath. ‘Ellen?’
‘She wants to see you,’ Whit said. ‘Would you like to see her?’
‘Whit,’ Irina interrupted. She moved from her chair, a sickly smile of shock on her face, to stand behind Babe, put her hand on his shoulders. ‘Your father, this is too much for him.’
‘I’m okay.’ Babe patted her hand. ‘It’s okay.’ He closed his eyes, passed a hand over his face. ‘Do I want to see her?’ But not asking the question of anyone but himself.
‘When I asked, you said yes. You said you wanted to ask her why she did what she did,’ Whit said.
‘How the hell did you find her?’ Babe said.
‘Long, long story. For later, Daddy.’
Babe’s lip trembled. He put his hands over his face.
‘This was a bad idea,’ Whit said. ‘But if you wanted to make peace with her before…’
The hands came down. ‘Peace. Yes,’ Babe said with sudden, hard resolve. ‘I would like to see her. Bring her in.’ He gave a jagged little laugh. ‘Why not? Life’s too short.’
Whit went out to the car where Eve sat. She followed him into the house, touching the side of the door, glancing around as if cataloging every change the house had weathered in her absence. She walked into the kitchen behind Whit.
‘Hello, Babe,’ Eve said.
Babe stared at her for several long moments. ‘What’s with your hair?’ he finally said.
‘I went red,’ she said.
‘It don’t suit you,’ Babe said. He ran fingertips over his chemo-bald head. ‘But then I got a new look, too.’
‘Dad, maybe Mom would like a cup of coffee. Would that be okay?’ Whit said. ‘Can you be trusted around hot beverages?’ Trying to deflate the tension.
‘I’m not fixing breakfast for this woman,’ Irina, usually the voice of calm reason, announced. ‘Whit, your papa doesn’t need this upset, for God’s sakes…’ Then a torrent of Russian.
