'That's right.' Kerrigan dropped his files on his desk and sat behind it.
'I wanted to tell you then, but I wasn't certain, so I found the article about her murder in the paper. There was a picture.' Rittenhouse hung his head. 'It was the same woman.'
'I'm not following you, Carl.'
'I'd seen the woman before, Lori Andrews. I took her to the cabin.'
'The Senator's cabin?' Kerrigan leaned forward. 'When was this? The night she was killed?'
'No, a few months before. We were back in town for a round of fund-raisers. Harold asked me to meet her and drive her out. That's all. I never saw her again.'
'Why are you telling me this?'
'What if the argument Dupre had with the senator at the Westmont was about Lori Andrews? What if the senator was involved in her death?'
Rittenhouse was sweating.
'Have you helped the senator with women before, Carl?'
'Once or twice. I'm not proud of it.'
'Did he ever do anything to any of them that would make you think he hurt Lori Andrews?'
The AA looked down. He wrung his hands.
'There was one time, this one girl. It was in D.C. There had been a party at an embassy. He called me at home, late, about three in the morning. I brought her home, to her apartment. She had a black eye and some bruises.'
'The senator beat her?'
'He said that she'd had an accident.'
'What did the woman say?'
'Nothing. She was really scared and I didn't ask. Harold told me to bring money, five hundred dollars. I gave it to her. The senator never mentioned it again.'
Kerrigan asked Rittenhouse a few more questions, told him that he would have Sean McCarthy take his statement at a convenient time, then thanked him for coming. As soon as Rittenhouse was gone, Kerrigan grabbed the police reports in Travis's case. On page seven of a report written by one of the investigators from the crime lab, there was mention of traces of blood found on the baseboard of a wall in the living room. This blood appeared to be old. Kerrigan called the lab and spoke to the person who had written the report. Before he hung up, the prosecutor asked the investigator to run a DNA test to see if the blood on the baseboard was Lori Andrews's.
Chapter Nineteen.
As soon as Amanda returned to her office after talking to Oscar Baron, she looked up Ally Bennett's address in the police reports. Forty minutes later, she and Kate Ross were at the door of a garden apartment in Beaverton.
Amanda was curious to see what a high-class call girl looked like, and she was a little disappointed. Ally's black hair was cut short, framing a face that was pretty, but not striking. With the proper makeup and clothing, she would probably look sexy, but today, without makeup, wearing sweat socks, jeans, and a T-shirt, she had the tired look of a co-ed who was cramming for exams.
'I'm Amanda Jaffe,' she said, holding out a business card, which Ally looked at but did not take.
'So?'
'I'm an attorney. This is my investigator, Kate Ross. I've been appointed by the court to represent Jon Dupre. We'd like to talk to you about him.'
Amanda hesitated for a moment, hoping for a response. When she didn't get one, she forged on.
'He's facing a possible death sentence, Miss Bennett. Kate and I want to save his life, but we need information to do that. Right now I don't know very much about him. That's why we're here.'
Ally opened the door and ushered Amanda and Kate into a small, spotless front room. The floor was partially covered by a throw rug. Framed Monet and Van Gogh prints decorated the walls. The furniture was inexpensive but in good taste. Ally dropped into a chair and folded her arms across her breasts; her body language told Amanda that Bennett didn't trust her.
'What do you want to talk about?' Ally asked.
'The DA has charged Jon with killing Wendell Hayes, a lawyer who was appointed to represent Jon before I was, and U.S. Senator Harold Travis. We're interested in anything you can tell us about Jon or these two men that will help us defend him.'
'I don't know anything about Hayes, but I can tell you about Travis,' Ally said angrily. 'The papers are making him sound like a choirboy but he was scum.'
'Why do you say that?'
Ally's eyes misted. 'He murdered Lori.'
All good trial lawyers develop an ability to keep their emotions hidden when the unexpected happens, so Amanda managed to conceal her surprise.
'Are you talking about Lori Andrews?' Kate asked. 'The woman who was found in Washington Park?'
Ally nodded.
