The Deep Blue Alibi

'Uncle Grif, you have to tell me the truth.'

'I have, Princess.'

'Did you give Stubbs the forty thousand?'

'I didn't. I swear.'

She took a deep breath and plunged ahead. 'I've spent the last two days going through the county's real estate records. Do you know what I found?'

'They're still selling waterlogged property in the Glades?'

'Two months ago, Ben Stubbs bought a lot in Key Largo for three hundred thousand dollars. No mortgage. All cash.'

Silence. Griffin sat at the conference table, poker-faced.

'Where do you suppose Stubbs got the money?' she asked.

'Maybe he won big at jai alai.'

'The money was wired from a corporate account in a Cayman Islands bank to an escrow agent in Key Largo. Want to guess the name on the account?'

'Nah. I bite.'

'Queen Investments, Limited.' She paused to gauge his reaction. Nothing. 'Unusual name, don't you think?'

'The Caymans are British. Maybe they're honoring Queen Elizabeth.'

'Or Queen Irene.'

'Your mother?' He laughed, but his smile seemed artificial. 'What are you getting at, Princess?'

'Uncle Grif, I've got the corporate filings. You're the sole officer of Queen Investments. You wired that money to Ben Stubbs.'

He grunted, getting out of his chair, then walked to the window. Outside, the cruise ship eased up to the dock, hundreds of passengers lining the rails. 'Nice work, Princess.'

'Uncle Grif, why didn't you tell me you bribed Stubbs?'

He turned back and seemed to appraise her. Maybe trying to figure out just how much she knew. Usually, she got that look from an unfriendly witness, not her own client.

'A bribe?' Griffin said finally. 'At the time, it felt more like extortion. Stubbs demanded the money.'

'Whatever you call it, you lied to me.'

'If you knew I paid off a federal employee, would you put me on the stand to deny it?'

'Of course not. That would be unethical.'

'Which is why I couldn't tell you about the money. I needed to preserve my ability to deny.'

'It won't work. If I found this, the state will, too. Uncle Grif, the truth might be better than a lie. Bribing Stubbs is a lot better than killing him. In fact, it could help the case.'

'How?'

'Hypothetically, if you bribed him, you'd have no reason to kill him. You knew his environmental report was going to be positive. You just needed him to file it.'

'You're saying we admit I paid off Stubbs?'

'It'd be ballsy; but without motive, the state can't win.'

'Ballsy' bringing Steve to mind. It was just the kind of bungee-jumping tactic he loved.

'Hypothetically,' Griffin said, borrowing her ten-dollar word, 'let's say Stubbs wasn't happy with the lot in Key Largo, even though that's what he'd been yammering about. A place for his retirement. Let's say we're having dinner and the greedy prick says, 'Hal, you're gonna make millions off Oceania. Tens of millions. But you couldn't make a dime without me.' '

Victoria frowned, seeing where this boat was headed. 'When would this have happened? Hypothetically?'

'A week before we get on the Force Majeure to come see you and Solomon. And suppose we're eating red snapper and Stubbs says, 'From now on, I'm your partner, Hal. I want a million up front and five percent of the casino profits.' ' Griffin snorted a laugh. 'Like he was some connected guy in Vegas. The stupid shit watched too many movies. No concept what it takes to build something like this. Saying he's my partner. I could have bashed his head in right there.'

'Please tell me you didn't.'

Seeing her case sink to the bottom of the Gulf.

'I told him to fuck off. But I never touched him. Not then. Not on the boat. What you gotta understand, Princess, people see this kind of money, they all want a piece. A county commissioner threatened to hold up a port license unless I paid him under the table. I told the bandit I didn't need no stinking license. Leicester Robinson, the barge guy, said he'd do his work for nothing up front, but he wanted three points of the gross. Points! Where do they get this stuff?'

'It wouldn't have been a crime to make Robinson your partner. He's not a federal employee.'

'I told Robinson to fuck off, too. He backed down and was damn glad to get the barge work at cost plus thirty percent.'

'Ben Stubbs,' Victoria said, getting back on track. 'After he extorted you, after you wanted to bash his head in, what happened then?'

'I calmed down. Decided to toss him some chum. The day before I brought him down on the boat, I'd put a hundred thousand in cash in one of the lobster pots. So now, when I pull up the pot, I say to Stubbs, 'Here's the best-tasting lobster you'll ever eat.' Up comes the money and I tell him I'll give him a hundred grand every lobster season the rest of his life. Which, come to think of it, I guess I did.'

'What was Stubbs' reaction? He wanted a million and you only gave him a hundred thousand?'

'I gave him an annuity. He was good at math, so he took it.'

'You tell anyone you were paying Stubbs off?'

'No.'

'Not even Junior?' Thinking if Junior knew and hadn't told her, there were ramifications, both professional and personal.

Griffin shook his head. 'I didn't want to implicate my boy.'

'You think Stubbs told anyone about your deal?'

'Doubt it. No wife. Kind of a loner. And he didn't need an accomplice to pull this off.'

'Anything else about Stubbs I should know?'

Griffin seemed to think something over. Then he said: 'The last week or so, he was a little skitterish.'

'Skitterish?' Thinking he meant skittish. Or maybe jittery. Or maybe a combination of the two.

'Kind of nervous and paranoid. He started using disposable cell phones so there'd be no record of his calls. Every time I needed to talk to him, I'd have a helluva time because he was using a different phone. He was like a scared rabbit.'

'Maybe he wasn't as used to taking bribes as you were at giving them.'

Griffin belted out a laugh. 'Okay, Princess, you got me there. Maybe all those projects in the islands made me a little reckless. Jeez, in the Caribbean, you gotta put every politician's brother-in-law on the payroll before you even think about moving dirt.'

Like an astronaut tethered to a space capsule, Victoria suddenly felt as if she were floating in a vast, dark, dangerous place. She tried to assess the damage. Assuming the cops didn't find a to-do note in Stubbs' hotel room-eat breakfast; buy Bermuda shorts; shake down Hal Griffin-there was still a chance the state wouldn't learn what was going on. Or at least not be able to prove it.

Still, any chance of putting Griffin on the stand just sank into the deep, blue sea. She couldn't let him lie, and without knowing what the state had, she could never subject him to cross-examination.

'Anything else? Please, Uncle Grif. Don't hold back.'

'There is something that's been bothering me.'

Oh, boy. Here we go.

'That lot in Key Largo. The cash from the lobster pots. Those were from me. Bribes. Extortion. Whatever. But I didn't lie to you about that forty thou in Stubbs' hotel room. The money didn't come from me.'

'Then where'd Stubbs get it?'

'Damned if I know.'