'She's a goddamn girl.'
Gregaros shrugged. 'Manuel is still dead.'
'This just keeps getting worse,' Grant said. 'Tim Kerrigan was just here.'
'I saw him leave,' the detective said. 'He looked like shit. What happened?'
'He's a mess. I calmed him down for the moment, but I'm concerned.'
'You should be. We've got real problems. Remember I told you that that maintenance guy wrote down most of Kerrigan's license plate? Fucking McCarthy. The son of a bitch is too smart. He ran the partial license number through the Department of Motor Vehicles computer and spotted Kerrigan's name on the printout. Then he checked Kerrigan and Bennett's phone records. Bennett phoned Kerrigan's house a few days before he killed her. And they both called a motel near the airport. McCarthy got a positive ID on both of them from a clerk at the motel.'
'What is McCarthy planning to do?'
'I convinced him to move slow. I told him Kerrigan's career would be ruined if we went public without an airtight case. He's going to talk to Jack Stamm before he talks to Tim, and Stamm is out of town until tomorrow. We don't have much time to decide what to do.'
Grant closed his eyes. Events were getting out of hand.
'I hate to admit it but bringing Tim in was a mistake,' the judge said.
'What are we going to do about that?'
'I'll call the others. I'm going to suggest that we cut our losses.'
Chapter Fifty.
'Tim!'
Kerrigan turned and saw Maria Lopez hurrying after him, her shoulders hunched against the teeming downpour. She was carrying a briefcase in one hand and a thermos in the other, leaving no hand free for an umbrella. Her hair was sopping wet and disheveled from the rain. She was wearing a raincoat but she'd forgotten to button it, so her blouse was streaked with raindrops.
'What's going on?' Tim asked, shielding her with his umbrella.
'A woman called,' Maria said when she'd caught her breath. 'She says that she can prove Dupre murdered Senator Travis. She wants to meet us at Travis's cabin.'
'When?'
'Now. Travis taped his sex acts secretly, and the tape was running when Dupre killed him. The tape is at the cabin. We have to go now because she's leaving town tonight.'
'Hold on. Who is this woman?'
'She wouldn't give me her name. From what she said I'd guess she was one of Dupre's escorts, one of the women he beat up.'
'This doesn't sound right. We searched the cabin and didn't find any tapes.'
'Maybe she brought it with her.'
Tim thought for a moment. 'I'm going to call Sean McCarthy. I want him with us.'
'She said no cops. She'll run if she sees anyone else.'
Tim hesitated.
'We've got to go,' Lopez insisted. 'Our case against Dupre for the senator's murder isn't that strong. If this tape is what the woman claims, we'll nail him.'
'All right. Let's go. My car is in the lot.'
'No. She wanted to know what car we'd be driving. I described mine. If she sees another car she may bolt.'
'I hope this isn't a wild goose chase.'
'She sounded scared, Tim. I don't think she was faking.'
'What a miserable night,' Kerrigan said as Maria drove toward the cabin. The rain was coming down so hard that the wipers could barely deal with it.
'Everything okay with you, Tim?' Maria asked. 'You look like you've been through the wringer.'
'It's nothing. I'm just worn out.'
'Have some coffee,' Maria said. 'It'll warm you up.'
'Good idea.'
Tim unscrewed the top of Maria's thermos and filled it with steaming coffee.
'You want any?' he asked Maria.
'I'm fine.'
Kerrigan finished his coffee just as Maria turned off the main road onto the unpaved driveway that led to the cabin. No lights showed through the trees and Kerrigan began to wonder if they weren't on a fool's errand.
