Diane went to the phone and called Colin Prehoda. He would know if Garnett had been released. She dialed his cell and he answered on the first ring.
‘‘Diane, I’m glad you called. There are some things I need to tell you.’’
After listening to Colin, Diane hung up the phone and sat back down on the couch beside Frank.
‘‘Well, the good news is they’ve dropped the charges against Garnett on the murder of Jefferies because the evidence was muddied by Bryce. The bad news is it was a bullet from Garnett’s gun that killed Edgar Peeks—and Garnett had his gun on him when Colin and I found him over the body.’’
Chapter 25
‘‘What are you saying?’’ said Frank. ‘‘Garnett shot Edgar Peeks?’’ He looked as disbelieving as Diane felt. ‘‘That’s what the police are saying,’’ she said. ‘‘That’s what ballistics shows, and it sounds very much like what Colin believes.’’
‘‘Who did the ballistics?’’ said David.
‘‘I’m sure they did it at Rosewood’s ballistic lab,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Unless they sent it to the GBI, but I doubt they did that. I didn’t ask.’’
Diane was still reeling from the news. She grabbed Frank’s hand. It was warm.
‘‘I don’t believe it,’’ she said. ‘‘I can’t believe Garnett’s a murderer. Something is wrong.’’
‘‘What does Prehoda want you to do?’’ asked Frank.
‘‘He wants me to continue to investigate, but he’s up against the wall on this one. He says if we can discover what the mayor and his friends were up to, then we can show that Garnett had reason to fear them, that he had reason to fear for Rosewood. I didn’t have a chance to tell him about Judge McNevin. He was in a hurry. But it will certainly reinforce his thinking.’’
David stood up. ‘‘I have to go downtown right now. They need to know I was there.’’
He looked at all the papers and photographs lying on the coffee table as if it was going to be impossible to pick them all up and get them back in order.
‘‘Wait on that,’’ said Frank as David bent down to pick up his briefcase. ‘‘It won’t change the ballistics evidence, and right now you’re under the radar. That gives you an investigative advantage.’’
Diane looked at Frank in surprise. She thought he would be the one to insist that David go to the police immediately and identify himself as the person in the video. David was surprised too. He looked blankly at Frank for a moment, still stooped over his briefcase, then slowly sat back down. He let out a deep breath. Diane understood his relief. The revelation could ruin David.
‘‘A few minutes ago,’’ said Frank, straightening the papers on his coffee table, putting them into or derly stacks again, ‘‘I said this is now the police’s business and they should be the ones to deal with it. But I’ve since rethought
looking at your network
wondering.’’
that position. I’ve been diagram and it’s got me
Frank put a stack of photographs down and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
‘‘In the beginning, it looked to you like the mayor was in charge of this conspiracy, cabal, or whatever you want to call it because he was the mayor, he was in the highest leadership position. But was he the leader? Maybe, maybe not.’’
Frank put the tips of his fingers on the page with the diagram. ‘‘You were able to network only the peo ple who were actually seen together. Any one of us could have made this diagram from what we knew about the official relationships among these people. Consider the possibility that this is all that’s meant to be seen. Are there others involved we are unaware of? How many people in the police department are in on whatever it is? For that matter, what about other areas of the government, or businesses in Rosewood? What about the people the mayor and his buddies put in the police department? What are they doing now? Taking up the banner? I hate to say it, but I think you have to continue doing what you are doing until you can answer those questions.’’
David didn’t say anything for a moment. He just rubbed his hand over his bald head. ‘‘Right now I’m at a loss for where to look,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s why I wanted to listen to what went on in the mayor’s house. I was hoping for a new lead. I mean, what the hell was his goal? It had to be more than what we see.’’
‘‘He lived in Atlanta before he moved to Rose wood,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Perhaps the answer lies there. Does he have any relatives still here?’’
‘‘No relatives. His grandparents are dead,’’ said David. ‘‘He had an advertising business in Atlanta, the same one he still owned when he was murdered. They do local Atlanta commercials. From what I could find out, they are squeaky clean.’’
‘‘Have you looked at companies in any of the other principals’ names?’’ said Frank.
‘‘Peeks worked in a recruitment firm in Atlanta. Bryce was in banking—he was a vice president of a bank in Connecticut,’’ said David. ‘‘I haven’t been able to find anything suspicious so far. None of the companies are under any kind of investigation. I’m still looking. The only really suspicious thing is they all made a lot more money in their former jobs than they do here. Except the mayor. He’s the only one who still had ties to his former business—as far as I know now. As I said, I’m still looking.’’
‘‘That should tell us something right there,’’ said Diane. ‘‘My impression of them is that they don’t seem to be the type of people who would take a sub stantial downgrade in pay.’’
‘‘None of them had any shadow companies that I can find,’’ continued David. He shook his head. He seemed at a loss.
‘‘How about the next tier down in your chart?’’ said Frank. ‘‘Rikki, what’s her name.’’
David gave Frank a blank stare for a moment. ‘‘Damn. I didn’t think of Lollipop. That would have required a paradigm shift. I’ll do that.’’
