from Latent Prints, nothing from Gitan. One caught his eye. He clicked on it.
The shot-in-the-dark inquiry he had made to Interpol the night before had been answered. He frowned as he read it and read it again.
Weiss came in, looking jazzed. “We have a ‘probable maybe’ match on the shoe print from the scene and from the car. Did you get the search warrant?”
“Yeah,” Landry said, without looking at him. “We have to put a unit on Walker’s house right now. Some asshole state’s attorney is going with us, and we’re waiting on a couple of videographers.”
“One big happy family,” Weiss said. “Who else is coming? Walker?”
“And his attorney.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“A courtesy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office,” Landry said.
“Will there be coffee and cookies afterward?”
Landry didn’t answer him.
“What are you looking at? Porn?”
“Get this,” Landry said, pointing at his computer screen. “Juan Barbaro was questioned in relation to a rape/murder outside London in 2001.”
“And?”
“Nothing. Questioned and released. Some other guy was tried for it in ‘03 and walked.”
Weiss raised his eyebrows. “What was his alibi for Saturday night?”
“He was with Walker,” Landry said. “And Walker was with him.”
“Cozy.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s the only one of the bunch who gave us his DNA sample,” Weiss said. “He had to know we wouldn’t match it to the girl. Course, that just means he didn’t have unprotected sex with her, it doesn’t mean he couldn’t have killed her.”
“But why would Walker deal with the girl’s body if he didn’t kill her?” Landry said. “The gate guard ID’d him in Irina’s car. Nobody’s that good a friend, especially not a guy like Walker. He’s all about himself. Fucking sociopath. He expects other people to lie for him. He’s not going to stick his neck out for anybody.”
“We need to get the boots,” Weiss said. “If we can put him in he car and put him at the canal dumping the body, he can stick his head between his legs and kiss his ass good-bye.”
Landry grabbed his cell phone as he rose from his chair. He had a message.
“It’s me. ”Elena.
“Bennett Walkers alibi just went away. Juan Barbaro is recanting is statement.”
“Every man for himself,” Landry muttered as he scribbled down Barbaro’s phone number. To Weiss he said, “The Alibi Club just lost a member. Barbaro is recanting his statement.”
Weiss chuckled maniacally. “I love it when they turn on each other.”
Landry grabbed his sport coat off the back of his chair and pocketed his phone. “Let’s go get the party started.”
Chapter 49
“You don’t believe me,” Barbaro said.
“I don’t trust you,” I corrected him. “It’s a conundrum. If you’ve just told me the truth, then you’ve admitted you’re a liar.”
“I don’t want to believe Bennett killed Irina,” he said. “Why would I tell you his alibi is a lie if it was not the truth?”
“I’ve known you three days, Juan,” I said. “As I keep reminding you, I met you only because a girl was murdered and you’re one of the involved parties. I don’t know anything about you, aside from the obvious. You could have your own agenda. For all I know, you leave a trail of victims everywhere you go. Bennett could be a convenient scapegoat.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Is it?
“But you believe Bennett killed Irina,” he pointed out.
“I want to believe he did it. I want him to go to prison and sit there for the rest of his life, knowing that he didn’t get away with anything in the end,” I said. “But if I want that so badly, I overlook a truth I don’t want to see, then Irina doesn’t get justice.”
He stared down at me in silence for a moment, as if he were trying to decipher a piece of modern art. Finally, he said, “I see that you are one of the most extraordinary women-people-I have ever met. You make me want to be a better man, Elena.”
“Wow,” I said. “I guess I should think more highly of myself.”
He reached out and touched the right side of my face, and it seemed each of his fingertips contained a slight electrical charge. I wondered if he had any idea how powerful his touch was, how strong that animal magnetism. Even not quite trusting him, I felt the warm rush of attraction.
“He hurt you very badly,” he whispered.
I didn’t tell him that Bennett Walker wasn’t the first man to hurt me, or the last, or that there was scarcely a man in my life who hadn’t-or that the ones who hadn’t yet had the opportunity would be headed off at the pass by me pushing them away. Or that he would be the next to join that club if he came too close.
“What goes around, comes around,” I said. “I’m a firm believer in revenge.”
His fingertips brushed the fine hair at the nape of my neck, and a chill went through me.
“I could make you forget him, Elena,” he said, his voice warm and soft, lowering his head until he was close enough to kiss me.
“I’m sure you could make me forget my own name,” I said, moving just out of his reach. “But not tonight.”
I could feel his eyes on my back as I walked away from him. I could feel his touch on my skin long after that.
Chapter 50
“So much for that last-minute phone call to notify Estes,” Weiss said, walking up to the front door of Bennett Walker’s little weekend house: six thousand square feet of stone and marble that looked like it had been uprooted from Europe and planted in South Florida, gardens and all.
Edward Estes’s black Town Car pulled around the circular drive, and the attorney got out of the back, his face taut and drawn, pissed off, Landry thought. Good.
“Hell,” Landry said, “I thought he would have been here an hour ago having the rugs shampooed.”
“This is an outrage,” Estes snapped, his anger directed at the assistant state’s attorney. “The governor will hear about this.”
“He already has, Mr. Estes,” Paulson said. “These are Detectives Landry and Weiss. They’ll be conducting the search.”
Estes ignored the cops and looked down his nose at the papers Paulson’s hand. “That warrant is invalid on its face. I have a call to Judge Beekman to-”
“Do you have a key to this place, or do we have to let ourselves in?” Landry asked, unimpressed with Edward Estes and his attitude.
“You’re going to proceed with this?” Estes said to Paulson. “When this warrant is thrown out, anything taken during this search is fruit of the poisonous tree.”
Landry raised his eyebrows and looked at Weiss. “Did you hear that? Mr. Estes seems to think we’re going to find something here to incriminate his client.”
