All Day and a Night (34 page)

“I want to talk to this guy,” Ellie whispered to Rogan.

She could tell he was thinking about arguing. “You mind if I crash?”

“No problem. Go.” As he made a beeline for the elevator, she called out to the legal assistant. “Thomas?” He stopped, as if he had no idea who was talking to him. “You work with Linda Moreland, right?”

He turned and straightened his hair, then shook her hand. “Yes, I recognize you. Detective Hatcher, right?”

“You have an excellent memory.” She eyed the brown paper bag. “Late dinner?”

“For Linda. She got here today. She showed up very upset. First she said she didn’t want anything. Then she sent me out, not that there’s a lot of options.”

If he had any clue as to what went down at the dive motel in Rome, he wasn’t letting on. Ellie wanted to keep him talking.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard,” she said, “but the hospital had good news to report. Carrie showed what they called ‘purposeful eye movement’ today. Things like ‘blink twice.’ They say it’s indicative of intact neurologic function, but it almost seems like she’s fighting consciousness, maybe from shock. She’s not communicative yet, but they hope for a full recovery.”

Thomas was looking at the greasy paper bag like it was a talking dog.

“Thomas, is everything okay?”

“Carrie’s in the hospital?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I assumed you’d know.” She shouldn’t have been surprised. The assault on Carrie had happened after she had quit her position with Linda’s firm, and hadn’t drawn any media attention. “Someone attacked Carrie in her apartment.”

“Oh my gosh. No, I had no idea.”

His voice was shaking. What had initially come across as wariness had transformed into outright nervousness. He hadn’t known Carrie was hurt, but he definitely knew something.

“A weird question, Thomas, but do you think it’s possible that Carrie may have been—I don’t know—perhaps
divided
in her loyalties?”

“What do you mean?”

“Conflicted. Maybe she started working for Linda with an eye toward compromising the defense?” If Ellie could prove that Carrie was the one who’d been leaking them information about Amaro, it would help prove that Amaro was Carrie’s attacker. That could help Ellie keep one foot in the Amaro investigation.

“Gee. I don’t think so.” If this kid was playing ignorant, he deserved an Emmy. “She talked to me about the case. Quite a bit, really.” He sounded proud. “And she seemed pretty happy, at least at first, about being able to nail that detective, Buck Majors. She said he planted confessions in a whole bunch of other cases, too. He was the common link that was going to let Linda tie a lot of different defendants together. All wrongful convictions.”

Ellie wondered if perhaps Carrie had put on a show to play the role of devoted defense attorney. “Did you know that Carrie was related to one of the victims? Donna Blank was her half sister.”

He was starting to eye the elevator doors at the other end of the lobby. She needed to hurry.

“Linda told me. And even if she hadn’t, I saw Carrie’s name in one of the reports. Sorry, I’m just an assistant, but the details of the cases—my God, they’re so interesting. Don’t you just love your job?”

“Oh, of course,” she confirmed. “How could I not? And when I found out that Carrie was related to one of the victims—wow, talk about crazy. I guess it would be natural for her to have mixed feelings. Do you think it’s possible that she would have done anything to—you know—sabotage Amaro?”

His face was blank, yet sheepish, like those kids Ellie remembered from her youth, lined up for confession at Blessed Sacrament, complaining they had nothing to report, but looking plenty guilty.
Plenty
guilty in Thomas’s case.
Too
guilty. But about what?

“Did
you
send us information about the case?” she asked.

“Why are you asking me that?”

Not exactly a denial.

“Sorry, Thomas. I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. It’s just—”
It’s just
seemed to put a certain type of person at ease. “We received some anonymous messages pertaining to Anthony Amaro. It would be the kind of information that his defense team would know.”

All this time, she had been sure that Carrie Blank was the leak, but Thomas was looking good right now.

“This is about the documents stolen from the hotel?”

His already fair skin became even paler. Ellie realized what she’d been missing. Thomas had been the one who left Carrie’s hotel door open, supposedly by accident. And he was conveniently lying down in the adjoining room with an upset stomach during the so-called break-in.

“You need to tell me about those documents, Thomas. Filing a false police report is a crime.” That should do it.

“It was Linda.”

Ellie said nothing, because silence is what people like Thomas needed to keep talking.

“Linda made me do it. She told me to go through all the documents. To find anything that looked bad for the client and take it.”

“Because she didn’t trust Carrie with it?”

”No, she didn’t. I don’t know why. I was—I should have known something was wrong—I was happy to have some responsibility.”

“So what did you take?”

He was staring at the fast-food bag again.

“Thomas, whatever crap is in that sack has turned into solid cholesterol by now. Carrie Blank is in the hospital, and I know you want to do the right thing. What did you take from the records?”

He sighed. “There was a memo to file from his original trial attorney, Harry McConnell. He asked Amaro whether he had admitted his crimes to anyone.”

“And Amaro gave a name? Robert Harris?” Rogan’s supicions had been right. It was a defense lawyer who had known about Amaro’s conversation with Robert Harris. But instead of it being Carrie herself who gathered the information firsthand, she had seen the notation in the original lawyer’s file.

Thomas nodded. “That’s right. The cellmate when Amaro was first arrested.”

“What about the report on Amaro’s foster family?” she asked. “His foster mother used to threaten to break his foster sister’s limbs.”

“Ugh. Plus that whole fascination with the dolls?” His eyes widened dramatically. “I told Linda, this stuff not only makes him
look
guilty. It makes me think he
is
guilty. But then she told me that the weird thing about breaking the dolls’ arms and legs was precisely why Buck Majors framed our client.”

The only problem with Linda’s theory was that Majors hadn’t known the details of Amaro’s foster placement. The records were sealed. Only Amaro would have been in a position to give his lawyer access to them. “Do you know why the original defense attorney had those records? Like you said, they didn’t exactly help his case.”

“The report was part of Mr. McConnell’s—um—what’s it called? For the death penalty? To save his life?”

“Mitigation?” Ellie asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Thomas said. “McConnell had
mitigation
research. Background material to help save the client’s life in the event Amaro was convicted of aggravated murder at trial.”

“Did you find anything else?” she asked.

“That’s everything,” he said, “from the files, at least. The part I feel worst about is Carrie’s stuff.”

She was figuring out that Thomas had a tendency to drip information in small quantities. “Her journal?” she prompted.

Thomas nodded. “I couldn’t bring myself to read it, but when I called Linda and asked about it, she told me to take it.”

Ellie thought about all the ways she could plead for various search warrants pertaining to Linda Moreland. And then she remembered Linda’s driver, so eager to help serve up the woman who’d been barking directions in his ear for a couple of short hours.

Thomas—last name still unknown—seemed eager to be needed.

“Carrie was assaulted the morning after she left Utica,” she said. “I think it’s possible Linda did it.”

“Oh, I don’t think she’d—no, it can’t be.”

He was trying to tell himself that his boss couldn’t be guilty, but she could tell he had his doubts.

“Would you be willing to ask Linda a few questions, just to be sure?”

Three minutes later, Ellie knocked on Rogan’s door. He answered with an eye mask wrapped across his bald head like a hairband. It was the first time she had laughed all day.

“You can’t read, woman?” He flipped the
DO NOT DISTURB
sign on the knob in a circle.

“Trust me,” she said. “You want to hear this.”

I
t felt like the middle of the night to Ellie and Rogan by the time Thomas knocked on the door to Linda Moreland’s hotel room, but the defense attorney was hankering for her dinner. “Thank GOD,” she said. “I’m STARVING. What took so long?”

From a room across the hall, Ellie and Rogan were monitoring the audio from the mic they had borrowed from UPD, hidden inside a ballpoint pen in Thomas’s shirt pocket. The sound from the laptop on the little desk was clear. They were both standing, ready to intervene if necessary.

“Can you hear that, Max?” They had placed Rogan’s cell phone next to the laptop so Max could listen long distance.

“Got it.”

“Nothing’s open this late around here,” Thomas was explaining, “but I finally found something.” They heard the crinkling of a paper bag. Ellie had even gotten fresh takeout for Thomas to deliver so Linda wouldn’t second-guess the delay. “Linda, I need to ask you something. If you don’t mind, at least.”

“Come on, Thomas, man up,” Rogan muttered.

“Can it wait until morning, Thomas? It’s been a long day.”

“Um, okay. I guess—” Dammit. He was blowing it. “I’m not sure what to tell the police if they come to me, though.”

Good Thomas.

“Why would the police come to you?”

“Well, they probably won’t. But that’s what I need to ask you about. It’s Carrie. Did you do something to make her mad at you?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because she called me. She’s been in the hospital. Did you know that?”

There was a long pause before Linda said, “No. Is she okay?”

Ellie looked at Rogan and smiled. “Did you notice that pause?” she asked Max.

“Shhh.”

There was no reason that Linda would know about the assault on Carrie. If she were innocent, she would have been more surprised to hear the news that her former associate was in the hospital. She would have said no immediately. She would have asked what happened.

“She was unconscious for two days. She’s all right now. Thank God,” he added. He was doing a good job. “But here’s the thing, Linda. She said someone tried to kill her. And she said there’s evidence tying the attack to you.”

Just as they’d rehearsed, Thomas was describing Carrie’s call in the vaguest of terms.

“Well, that’s just ridiculous. Are you sure it was even Carrie who called? Those police detectives were following me today. They’re not above playing mind games.”

“Of course it was her. Look.” Just in case Linda wanted verification, they had asked an NYPD officer to place a call to Thomas’s cell from Carrie’s, leaving the connection open for four minutes. Thomas was showing Linda his phone log.

“And she said I tried to kill her?”

“She just said that the police are planning to arrest you in the morning. She told me not to say anything. She was warning me to stay away from you. But I—I just don’t believe it.”

“Of course you shouldn’t believe it. She must be angrier at me than I thought. She’s obviously unstable. The way she just quit after three days. I should have known.”

“So if the police ask me about any of this—”

“Don’t talk to the police, Thomas.
Ever
. Haven’t you learned anything working for me?”

“But—the documents, Linda. I’m the one who told the police there was a break-in. That was a crime, wasn’t it? And you did tell me to take Carrie’s journal. And to hide those documents so she wouldn’t have them. Why did we do all of that?”

“Well,
we
didn’t do it. You did. And you did it because Carrie could not be trusted with the information. Hiring her was a mistake on my part, but I wasn’t about to let her compromise all of the important work we’re doing.”

“How was she compromising it?”

“Every time I turned around, the DA’s office had new information streaming in anonymously. I had my suspicions, and when you told me what you found in the files, they were confirmed. Carrie was disclosing evidence that hurt her own client. There’s no greater harm an attorney can do. She owed a duty of loyalty. And releasing that evidence didn’t just hurt Amaro. It hurt
everything
. Do you understand how many defendants Buck Majors set up with his fabricated confessions? Amaro is just the beginning. We’re about to open the floodgates, Thomas.”

“But what about the assault on Carrie? She says they have proof tying it to you.”

“I don’t have any idea why she would make up something so ridiculous.”

“But here’s the thing, Linda: she said the police have video.” Thomas was following the plan to a T. It was the same kind of slow drip of information to which he’d subjected Ellie.

“What?”

“There’s a surveillance camera across the street. That’s all she said.” It was the kind of lie that an attorney as smart as Linda Moreland would have never believed from an interrogating police officer. But from Thomas? “They’re going to arrest you in the morning. And search your place.”

There was another long silence, followed by the sound of Linda’s voice. Would she admit to attacking Carrie? Claim it was an accident? Explain that it was Amaro? They had to hope this would work.

“Whatever happened in that apartment had nothing to do with me.”

Ellie smiled at Rogan. Thomas hadn’t said anything to Linda about where Carrie had been assaulted.

“But maybe we should tell the police that she was leaking information, just in case it’s related.”

“And if you do that, Thomas, they’ll find out that you staged that break-in and filed a false police report. You don’t want that, do you?”

“We could explain. It would be worth it to find out the truth about whoever hurt Carrie. I mean, it’s better than them thinking you did it, right?”