Scattered Graves

Janice shook her head. ‘‘It wasn’t,’’ she said.

‘‘My client isn’t a murderer. She is a victim caught up in some terrible conspiracies by these men.’’

‘‘What about the money?’’ said Janice.

‘‘What about it?’’ said LaCroix. ‘‘You have the ac count numbers. She didn’t have time to do anything with them.’’

‘‘We can give her six months,’’ said Riddmann, ‘‘in the women’s facility.’’

Diane thought that they didn’t know what else she had done. Ask her. Diane wanted to knock on the window. She started was awfully light, considering to say something to the chief of police, but Janice spoke up.

‘‘There were her activities in the employ of the mayor and his friends, and we don’t know what her role was in the Peeks murder. She may have helped cover it up,’’ said Janice. ‘‘Or plan it.’’

‘‘I just worked for the crime lab,’’ said Rikki. ‘‘You can look at the logs to see the crime scenes I was on. And as for Peeks, I didn’t find out about his murder until after it was done. Sure the killer told me about it, but he threatened me. These are mean guys.’’

‘‘You weren’t too afraid to steal their money,’’ said Janice.

‘‘It was over a quarter of a billion dollars. I was overwhelmed by the thought of that much money. But I didn’t hurt anyone and I wasn’t one of the hackers who helped them get rich. They hired me to work in the crime lab because of my degree,’’ said Rikki.

Riddmann nodded. ‘‘Do you take the deal?’’

‘‘Six months and immunity,’’ said LaCroix.

Riddmann hesitated.

‘‘It’s a good story,’’ said Rikki. ‘‘They were really bad guys.’’

He nodded. ‘‘Tell us your good story, Miss Gil linick.’’

Chapter 45

Rikki straightened herself up in her chair. She looked confident and not at all unhappy for someone who just lost over a quarter of a billion dollars, as she put it.

Janice said they had found the papers with the ac count numbers, passwords, and banks that Rikki got from Diane’s office, but there were no electronic devices from which she could have transferred the money. Not even a cell? Diane had meant to ask, but things had been too hectic and the police were not inclined to stop and listen to her. They were wrapped up in solv ing the crime of the decade, and Diane could see they didn’t really want to share the glory, especially not with Frank, an Atlanta detective, despite the help he had provided.

But they were letting Diane and Frank watch. Patsy LaCroix sat beside Rikki, patting her hand. A court reporter was in the room transcribing the inter view. They also had a tape recorder. They weren’t taking any chances of missing anything.

‘‘I really didn’t get to know them all until after Jef feries was elected mayor. They hired me at a job fair at the university but told me the job wouldn’t be ready for a couple of months and I could just take the time off. Jefferies gave me a watch—it was a real expensive diamond watch. He told me I would be well paid, but he wanted loyalty, that I would be part of a team. I had the watch appraised by a jeweler. It cost over ten thousand dollars!’’

Her eyes grew wide just thinking about it.

‘‘I’d never seen that much money, and there I was wearing it on my wrist,’’ Rikki continued, caressing her bare wrist. ‘‘And he wasn’t asking me for anything but loyalty. Sounded like a good deal to me, and working in a crime lab was something I wanted to do. I like all those TV shows. Can I have something to drink? Water, maybe? Mineral?’’

Janice stepped out and asked someone to bring a bottle of water from the drink machine. Diane doubted it would be mineral.

‘‘Go on, Miss Gillinick,’’ said Riddmann. ‘‘They’ll bring you the water.’’

‘‘I knew there were other people on the team, but I didn’t know who they were. I found out they were making a lot of money for Jefferies and his friends. I wasn’t sure exactly how. I knew it involved computers. But my job was only to work in the crime lab and do what they told me to. That was important—that I do what I was told. Jefferies told me that when he got elected I would go to work. I asked him what if he didn’t get elected, and he just laughed.’’

The water came and Rikki took a long drink.

‘‘Well, he did get elected, and I went to work, and things were fine for a while. I liked the people I worked with. Neva and David were really nice to me, and Jin, when I saw him, was funny. We joked around a lot.

‘‘Then I started learning more about Jefferies and the others, and it was scary. I heard them talking about having killed a judge. Whatever that was about happened before I came to work, and I don’t know anything about it. It was just a stray comment I over heard Bryce tell Curtis. Curtis was Peeks’ cousin. He’s kind of creepy in a fun sort of way, and not very smart, if you know what I mean. I never let on that I overheard that.’’

‘‘Where were you when you heard these conversa tions?’’ said Janice.

‘‘Sometimes at the mayor’s house. I was, uh, sort of dating Curtis and we occasionally had dinner at the mayor’s house. They didn’t seem to care what I heard, I suppose, since they figured they had bought my loyalty.’’

She took another drink of water, this time a small sip, and she actually looked as if the memory scared her. Diane imagined it did, but not enough to over come the glamour of the situation and the money that came with it. Along with her salary she was probably paid bonuses under the table.

‘‘Continue, Miss Gillinick,’’ said Riddmann. ‘‘We are anxious to hear about the murders.’’

Riddmann was inclined to be impatient. Diane thought they ought to just let the story unfold, not encourage her to skip over parts of it.