Hy had been here. I could see the relief and happiness in his eyes. Now maybe he wouldn’t do anything crazy.
I looked around. The lights were low, but my monitors flashed in a hypnotic rhythm.
I’d sustained a lot of damage, the doctor told me. I was going to have to work hard at therapy. Well, I could do that. Given what I’d already been through, I could do anything.
I knew I shouldn’t be worrying about a triviality at a time like this, but they had had to shave my head-twice. Would my hair grow back right?
Did it matter?
A nurse popped in, checked the monitors. Went away, leaving me alone.
HY RIPINSKY
The scene he walked into in Shar’s office at the pier was tense in the extreme. Mick sat in Shar’s desk chair, and Craig leaned against a file cabinet-positions of power. Diane D’Angelo was in one of the clients’ chairs; from the way she clutched its arms, and from her tightly crossed ankles, she looked as if an invisible rope bound her there.
Craig said, “Join us, Hy. We’ve been having a very interesting conversation with Diane. I mean Susan. Susan Angelo, an investigator formerly of New York City, and a good friend of Jim Yatz.”
“Susan was just telling us that Yatz hired her to infiltrate our offices,” Mick added. “Seems he was concerned about an investigation Shar conducted for Amanda Teller last year. And there were problems at city hall that he wanted to put a good spin on by coming up clean in an additional investigation by us.”
Hy looked at the woman he’d known as Diane D’Angelo. She kept her eyes down.
He said, “I’ve read that file. Background checks on the Pro Terra Party, its chairman, Lee Summers, and State Representative Paul Janssen. Nothing incriminating, as far as I could tell.”
“But Yatz didn’t know that until Diane-Susan-delivered it to him. She deleted it from the agency files, but kept a copy in her own blocked files.”
Hy said, “Diane, Susan, whatever-why did you stay on here after you turned over the information on the Teller investigation to Yatz?”
Silence. Then, “Jim told me there was a potential scandal brewing at city hall, and that he might need me here. Besides, the pay and benefits were better than what I was getting in New York.”
“How the hell did you get around the agency’s background checks?”
No reply.
Mick said, “Shar hired her provisionally, because Thelia was totally swamped at the time, and Jim Yatz had highly recommended her. She asked Derek for a check, but the request never got to him. Someone”-he glared at Susan Angelo-“intercepted it, and wrote Shar an excellent report.”
Hy thought about that; his wife pretty much accepted her operatives’ reports at face value because she knew and trusted them. Angelo must’ve accessed some of Derek’s other background checks and copied his style.
He raised an eyebrow at Craig. “This city hall investigation-you put her on it?”
“Right. And she turned up nothing. Couldn’t’ve, because Yatz set up a smoke screen involving disappearing files and memos. But in reality, there was only one memo that went away-from Amanda Teller to the mayor.”
“Saying what?”
“Sit down, Ripinsky, and I’ll tell you what the boys and girls at city hall have been up to.”
MICK SAVAGE
He and Craig and Hy debated what to do about Susan Angelo. She was being cooperative- obviously all her loyalty to her friend Yatz had evaporated upon her being found out-but her cooperation would only last so long. There wasn’t anything they could have her arrested for except presenting false credentials, and even a bad public defender could get her out on bail in hours on such a charge. Then, to save her ass, she’d either take off or, more likely, sell her story to the press. And all hell would break loose.
People involved in the scandal would start lawyering up. The mayor would take a heavy hit. And they still didn’t have all the answers.
Such as: Who shot Shar? Who killed Harvey Davis? Who killed Teller and Janssen?
“Shit, I don’t know,” Hy said. They were in the conference room, while Julia, who had returned from dropping something off at Richman Labs, was pretending to make nice to Angelo in Shar’s office. “We can’t keep her here against her will.”
Mick said, “I don’t trust her. She walks out of here, and she’ll go straight to the media. D’you know how much money a story like this would bring?”
“Yeah.” Craig was silent for a moment. “There may be a way to hold her.” He took out his phone, speed-dialed a number.
“Tyler, it’s Craig Morland. I need a favor. We’ve got an operative here who needs to be in protective custody… Witness against a number of high-level city officials… I know it’s not a federal case, but I can’t ask for help from the SFPD-some of them may be involved… Yes, our agency will pay you… A day or two, no more… Thanks, Tyler. I’ll look for you within the hour.”
He replaced the receiver. “Tyler’s with the local field office, but he moonlights. He’s also a good actor; he’ll make Susan feel like a celebrity witness.”
“Which she is, in a way,” Mick said.
JULIA RAFAEL
Diane D’Angelo-Susan Angelo-smiled at her and said, “I suppose they told you about my charade.”
“Yes, they did.”
“That’s all it was-an acting job to please my boyfriend.”
“That did harm to my boss and this agency.”
“How? What does it matter who’s fucking who at city hall?”
“It matters that Sharon McCone is in a locked-in state and may remain there forever. It matters that Amanda Teller and Paul Janssen are dead.”
D’Angelo-Angelo, whatever-sat on the edge of Shar’s desk, rolling a cut-glass paperweight between her hands.
“Teller and Janssen were corrupt; they deserved what they got. McCone-she was in the way.”
Julia tensed. Craig and Mick had urged her not to confront the woman, but…
Diane-Susan-frowned. “Jim isn’t going to like me getting caught out. Or admitting to the scam.” She looked down at the paperweight in her hands. “I need to tell him what happened, that they forced me to talk.”
Julia didn’t see what was coming until the woman rose from the desk and raised the crystal globe. She tried to shield her head-
She woke up slowly, her vision swimming, then focusing on carpet.
What carpet? Had she passed out? No way. She’d quit the drugs and booze years ago.
Footsteps coming toward her. “Jules? What happened?” Gentle hands on her shoulders. “Jesus, there’s a
