“Bobby,” Conroy said. “What the hell are you doing?”
Kiley didn’t say anything. He went to the bed and sat beside his daughter. Conroy fumbled with his cuff links. He turned his gaze from Kiley and focused it on me.
“And what the hell are you doing here?” he said.
He was getting tougher by the minute. By the time his cuff links were in he’d be threatening me. I leaned against the door.
“Here’s what I’ve got,” I said. “I know you were looking into Nathan Smith’s sexual preferences.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Conroy said.
“And I know you had Jack DeRosa hire a couple of mulligans to beat up a real estate appraiser named Bisbee to make sure he didn’t tell anybody that you were asking him to inflate appraisals. And I know you got Jack DeRosa from Ann Kiley, and I know you got Ann to go down and straighten things out when the mulligans got arrested. And I know that you were in business with Soldiers Field Development, and I’m pretty sure I can prove that you were involved in some sort of land flip with them. You worked with Amy Peters. She’s dead. You worked with Jack DeRosa. He’s dead. You were snooping on Nathan Smith. He’s dead. Sooner or later I’ll tie you to Brinkman Tyler.”
I stopped. Conroy was silent. I didn’t blame him. There was a lot coming down. He didn’t say, “Who’s Brinkman Tyler,” and he probably should have. After a moment, he stood.
“I’m leaving,” he said firmly.
I shook my head. “No,” I said. “You’re not.”
“Are you saying you’ll prevent me?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me, trying for outrage. He fell a little short. He was thinking about whether he could force me to let him go, and deciding that he couldn’t. He was correct.
“You can’t-”
“Sure I can,” I said. “What we’re trying to decide here is how much we can keep her out of it.”
For the first time since he’d come out of the bathroom, Conroy looked at Ann.
“There’s no it to keep anybody out of,” Conroy said. “You haven’t got anything worth listening to.”
“What do you think?” I said to Ann.
Still staring emptily at nothing, she shook her head.
“You haven’t any right,” she said without looking up. “Neither of you has any right.”
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said. “Tell me what you know.”
“I know I love Marvin,” she said.
Seated beside her Kiley closed his eyes for a moment and stretched his neck a little.
“Anyone would,” I said. “But are you ready to go to jail with him?”
“If I have to.”
“How far out of this can we keep her,” Kiley said to me.
“Depends how far in she is,” I said. “Much of what I said about Conroy could be said about your daughter.”
It was a gamble. But Kiley was a smart guy, and very tough, and if he picked up on it maybe we’d have something.
“You’re saying if you can’t get him you’ll get her?” Kiley said.
He got it. I wanted to go over and sit in his lap.
“Would work either way,” I said.
“You said we could work something out.”
“We can, with one of them, but not both, and to tell you the truth, Bobby, I don’t especially care which one it is. Hell, it works for me if they both go.”
Kiley put an arm around his daughter’s shoulders. She seemed to contract in a bit on herself when he did it. Her head was still down.
“Honey,” Bobby Kiley said. “Tell us what you know.”
She shook her head. Kiley looked at Conroy.
“How about you?”
“I have nothing to say.”
“For God’s sake, man. I’ve been in criminal law all my life. They’ve got enough. This guy will get you. I know this guy. You don’t. He’ll bring you down, and if you don’t help her, my daughter will go with you.”
Conroy was silent. He looked at me leaning against the door.
“You tell me what I need,” I said, “and I can keep her out of it.”
“You and I both love her,” Kiley said. “We can’t let this happen to her.”
