'Two of Dupre's women and his attorney murdered so close together. What do you think?'
'Dupre is in jail. He couldn't have killed Baron or Bennett.'
'That's why I called you out. You know all about Dupre's operation. Did he have a partner, someone who'd get rid of witnesses for him?'
'No. He was a loner. I . . .'
'Sean!'
The detectives turned. Alex DeVore was crossing the meadow followed by a heavyset man wearing a green uniform.
'This is Dmitry Rubin. He's with park maintenance. Dmitry made the 911 call last night.'
'Glad to meet you, Mr. Rubin,' McCarthy said. 'I'm Sean McCarthy. This is Stan Gregaros.'
'I just finished taking Mr. Rubin's statement. Tell them what you told me.'
'I was driving back to the garage last night when I passed a car. What made me remember it was it was driving without headlights. It came out of nowhere. There could have been an accident.'
'Can you describe it?' Gregaros asked, trying to keep his voice even.
'Nah. I figured it was kids, you know, going up to the meadow to make out.'
'Go ahead, Mr. Rubin,' DeVore said.
'The explosion was a few minutes after. I pulled over when I heard it. Then I turned around and headed back. When I was halfway here, a car came barreling by.'
'The same one you saw before?' Gregaros asked.
'No, a different one. But the car that was driving without headlights came by a few seconds later.'
'Can you give us a make or model on either car?'
'Mr. Rubin did better than that,' DeVore said. 'He got most of the license number on the car he saw right after the explosion.'
'I didn't get it all,' Rubin said apologetically. 'It went by too fast.'
'What about the car that was driving without headlights?' Gregaros asked.
Rubin shook his head. 'I was writing down the license number. My head was down. By the time I looked, it was too late.'
'Don't worry about that,' McCarthy said. 'This is a great help to us.'
'Yeah, nice work,' Gregaros added, successfully hiding his relief that Rubin had missed his car. Still, if they traced the partial plate to Tim Kerrigan, there would be trouble.
An hour after Stan Gregaros left the meadow, Kate Ross walked into Amanda's office.
'Did you listen to the local news this morning?' Kate asked.
'Was there something about the shooting at Jon's house?'
'No, nothing. But Ally Bennett is dead.'
'What!'
'She was murdered. They found her body in Forest Park.'
Amanda looked stricken. 'She recorded the tapes at the Travis fund-raiser and she brought the tapes of the drug deals to Oscar Baron. The people who killed Oscar probably got to her.'
'I bet she was the woman who was staying at Dupre's safe house.'
'The men you shot last night may have killed her. Are they in custody?'
'I don't know.'
'Could they have left on their own steam?'
'Maybe. They were in a lot of pain but the big guy was tough. Have you made a decision on what to do with the evidence in the duffel bag?'
'Not yet. If the two men got away, maybe we don't have to do anything. Just hang tight and we'll talk later.'
Chapter Forty-Seven.
Manuel Castillo wished that he'd had some time to make up a plan for the best way to hit Amanda Jaffe, but he was under orders to do it fast. His first idea was to take her in the parking lot where he'd kidnapped her, but her father and a big Indian were with her. Castillo had the Indian, with his ripped muscles and ponytail, pegged as a rent-a-cop who'd wet his pants when the bullets started flying. But he couldn't risk Jaffe getting killed before she gave him the stuff from Dupre's safe.
Castillo had decided on a home invasion. People were all fogged up by sleep in the early morning hours. He'd storm in while the home alarm was scaring the shit out of the Jaffes and kill everyone except Amanda. Once he had the bag, he'd play with her a little before killing her. She'd looked tasty without her clothes, and she definitely needed to be taught a lesson for disobeying him. When the driver parked the van in front of Frank Jaffe's house at three a.m., Manuel was deep in a fantasy in which Amanda was naked, tied to the posts of his king-size bed and
