Chapter Thirty-Five
Pocher is calling me when I reach my father’s office, and I assume he’s found out about the leak.
That man is deeply connected to everyone who is anyone.
No doubt, he’s freaking out over the leak and wanting to know how I’m going to handle it.
He can keep on waiting for a lifetime as far as I’m concerned.
I decline the call and walk into my father’s private office to find him standing at the window with his back to me.
The instant he senses I’m present he whirls around.
“Lilah, damn it.” He’s striding my direction and I shut the door, already anticipating his over-the-top reaction to everything.
He’s losing his freaking mind. At this point, I’m still at the door and he’s in front of me. “Is he trying to turn this on me?”
“What I discuss with him is none of your business.”
“If he is, I need to call the press right now—”
“You need to go sit down and chill a minute is what you need. And I’ll tell you what I told him, I hold the power here.
If I tell the press we’re talking to you or him, no matter how innocently, they’ll go nuts over it.
Go sit. You are not yourself and this is official FBI business. ” I point to his desk.
He inhales sharply and then does as I’ve directed, but this time he walks calmly and claims his seat. I sit in the visitor’s chair directly across from him. He leans forward. “I cannot have this get out to the press.”
“It already has. An anonymous tip about a dead body at the mansion. Nothing more. No one knows you were there. In fact, they will likely assume Mackey was there.”
“I thought Pocher handled this.” He lifts his phone from his desk. “He told me he handled this.”
“We think it was the killer, who may or may not be in the group we’re waiting to interview.”
“In other words, the crazy person is running the show.”
“If you mean me, I am. And I have this under control.” My phone buzzes with a text from Adams with Houston copied: We need to hold a press conference.
I reply with: No press conference. It gives the killer the chaos he seeks and he’ll keep digging for more. Issue a statement. Short. Simple. House vacant. Discovery made at the house and we’re investigating.
“Lilah,” my father bites out. “I need your attention.”
“If you prefer that I let the other investigators hold a press conference that screws you, I can ignore them.”
“Don’t let them do a press conference. No. That will be like shining a light on me and my governorship.”
And it’s all about him, not the man who lost his life. My cellphone rings with Houston on caller ID and I walk to the hallway and shut myself on the other side of the door, away from my father.
“Do not rush to the press,” I answer, skipping a greeting.
“This is going to be the lead story tomorrow.”
“So have about three dead bodies in Central Park in the last year,” I argue. “The news came and went. This is New York City. It’s just another day in the big apple.” Except for the hanging and missing hands, I think, but I don’t say that.
“This is the governor’s mansion.”
“And the victim may well be a groundskeeper for all we know.”
“How likely is that?”
“Zero, but they don’t know that. I need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I heard about the interviews.”
“I’m also having the mayor come to the morgue to try and identify the victim. I want to be there when it happens.”
“You think he’s involved?”
“At this point, we don’t even know who the victim is. Ask me again when I know more. And call Tic Tac. You have his number, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“He’s doing a search for me to find connected cases. You might be able to help.”
“Holy fuck, you think this is a serial killer?”
“I don’t know anything yet. I’m just being proactive. For all we know this was a revenge killing. As in singular. I need to go. Call Tic Tac.” I disconnect and walk back in the office.
My father pushes to his feet. “Well?”
“They’ll hold off.”
He motions me forward, a conspiratorial look on his face. I sigh and cross the room, to stand at the side of his desk. “I crossed him. You’re right about that.”
He means Pocher, but he’s being cautious in case he’s recorded. “What about it?”
“He told me to check myself or he’d check me, a vague threat that didn’t feel vague after last night. The more I think about his potential involvement, the more I think it’s likely.”
“The good news for you is that I’ve been thinking about that, too.
Him arranging last night I could buy into, but he’s invested too much into you to implode it all this soon.
I wouldn’t rule it out in the future, but not now.
You do know that when you aligned yourself with the likes of him that had far-reaching consequences.
You’re not paying them now, but you will.
If you want a way out, come see me, but you won’t like what you have to do to make that happen.
Keep your mouth shut. I’ll handle the press.
” I rotate and walk to the door, pausing to turn to face my father, “I am only your daughter. You’re a sperm donor and not my friend.
But I can be an ally should you choose to make me one. ”
With that, I exit the office, ready to get out of this suffocating house.
The only bright side of all of this is it seems to have castrated my father, but it might just be the death of him if he can’t live up to what the Society wants from him.
And it would serve him right. He didn’t want to break me the way Ghost tried to break him last night.
He wanted me dead. Instead, he broke me inside and out, and what survived was the version of me I am now, and I don’t think he really understands the magnitude of that shift.
I’ll use him to take down the Society, but he better not hold his breath in hopes that I will save him from his stupidity.
That’s between him and God, when he’s dead and gone.
As long as he walks this Earth, he’s evil incarnate, and I didn’t save him from Ghost because he’s my father.
I will kill him one day. Just not today.