Chapter Twelve #3
Leo glared again. “I know that. And I know that this has been a nightmare for my daughters. How the hell am I supposed to tell them that she brought this on herself? They’re going to hate me even more than they already do.”
“Why do they hate you?” Lennox asked quietly.
Leo whipped around to meet her gaze. “They say I work too much.”
Sam sighed loudly. “Lying again.”
“I figured that out for myself,” Lennox said dryly. “I think your daughters know that you cheated on your wife for years.”
Leo ground his teeth. “That doesn’t mean I killed her.”
“Never said it did,” Lennox said. “You’re the one who said they hated you. I thought maybe there were other reasons.”
“They all said I worked too much. Mary too. Like they’d have the lifestyle they were used to if I didn’t. Nobody appreciates the breadwinner. They just take, take, take and constantly complain.”
Leo had gotten himself worked up thanks to Lennox’s distraction, ranting about his ungrateful family and how hard he worked.
Lennox had distracted him on purpose, to derail his thinking.
Smart.
“How did Mary bring this on herself?” Sam asked.
Leo stopped mid-rant and stared at him. “What?”
“You said that your wife brought this on herself. How?”
“Those…men. The ones she was with. They’re mixed up in shady shit.”
Now they could be getting somewhere. If Leo was right, if Nicchi was mixed up in shady shit, that could explain why the man was so unwilling to come clean to the police.
Everyone wanted to assume Mary had Akiko’s best interests at heart because she’d been a blood relation, but what if she hadn’t? What if she hadn’t been the nice woman her daughters believed her to be? What if she’d been involved in something illegal?
“Which men?” Sam asked. “How many?”
Leo’s nostrils flared. “Three. Two Japanese, one Italian. One of the Japanese men was Edwin Ito. I knew him from my daughters’ dojo when they were growing up.”
Nicchi hadn’t mentioned a third man. What the fuck, Ricky? What are you hiding? “Was he the man you remembered talking to your wife all those years ago? Before you got married?”
Leo’s body sagged. “Yes.”
“So you lied about that, too,” Sam said. “You told Detective McKittrick that you didn’t know who the man was. But you did.”
“He was always around, but…sneaky. Like he didn’t want to be seen.
He’d come to the dojo to watch my daughters, even though he wasn’t their sensei.
He just owned the dojo. They were so small at the time.
It was disgusting. He’d watch Mary, too.
All the time.” He closed his eyes, his words bitter.
“I think he believed he was being discreet, but I saw. At least I know that Dahlia and Raisa are mine. I did a paternity test years ago.”
Sam said nothing for a long moment, waiting for Leo to open his eyes.
Leo finally did, only to narrow them in anger. “You think I imagined that Ito was interested in my wife? Well, fuck you, Dr. Reeves. You are a terrible psychologist.”
“I don’t think you imagined it,” Sam said, gentling his tone.
Leo sucked in a startled breath. “You don’t?”
“No. I think Ito did watch your wife and daughters, but not for the reason you think.” At least Sam hoped not. “Ito is Mary’s father.”
Leo’s face went slack in shock. “What?”
Sam heard Kit’s voice in his ear, quiet and calm. “He didn’t know, did he?”
Sam wasn’t certain, but he didn’t think that Leo had even suspected it. “You didn’t know,” Sam said softly, answering Kit.
Leo shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “I didn’t.”
“He’s a lot older than your wife,” Lennox observed, sounding skeptical. “Did it ever enter your mind that they weren’t having an affair, that it was something else?”
“No. She married me—I figured she just liked older men. Do my daughters know?”
Sam shook his head. “Not yet. Ito was attacked in his own home yesterday. He was beaten nearly to death. He’s in the ICU in LA.”
“Oh.” Leo seemed genuinely shocked. “I didn’t know.”
Kit murmured, “Ask him about the other man.”
Sam would, but in a minute. “You speak Japanese, at least a little bit. Did you ever overhear any other conversations between them?”
Leo shook his head numbly. “I never saw them speak, except for that one time on the street. He’d come into the dojo, watch Mary and my daughters, and then leave.
When I saw Mary with him in LA, when I followed her there, I thought it was proof.
I thought for years that they’d been having an affair. ”
“Why did you stay with her all these years if you thought she was cheating with Edwin Ito?” Lennox asked.
Leo looked down at his desk. “If I’d divorced her with no proof, she’d get a lot more of my money.
We had a prenup. But the PIs I hired over the years were never able to find anything incriminating.
She mostly worked and took care of the house and the children.
Went to an occasional garden club meeting. ”
Oh wow. Sam had to struggle to keep his true feelings hidden. It all had come down to money. Leo truly was an asshole. “Why did you follow her yourself this time? Why not have the PI do it?”
“I figured the PI was lazy. Just charging me for the time he sat on his ass and watched TV. After the first trip to LA—after she lied and told me she’d gone to a training class—I put a tracker on her car.
I knew after the second trip where she’d gone.
I followed her the third time and saw her with Ito. ”
Lennox pulled a small notebook from her pocket. “And the two other men? Can you describe them?”
“One was her age. Italian, like I said. I think he works at the dojo because he was always walking around in a gi.”
“Name?” Lennox asked, as if she didn’t know it already. She did, because Kit had told her, but there might be another Italian guy walking around LA in a gi.
“Riccardo Nicchi. He owns the dojo now. Ito sold it to him.”
She wrote it down. “And the other man?”
“I don’t know who he was, but he looked…sinister.”
Sinister. That was the word Dahlia Sherman had used to describe her stalker. “What did he look like?” Sam asked, furious that Nicchi had withheld this information. It was difficult not to let his anger show.
Sonofabitch.
“Older. Taller than Ito, but shorter than Nicchi. Looked about Ito’s age, but I only saw him from a distance.”
Not the man who’d stalked Dahlia and murdered Mary. He was much younger than Ito.
“Ask for the photos he took of these men,” Kit instructed through the earpiece. “Because I know he did. He would have wanted proof so that his divorce attorney could invalidate the prenup.”
Good point. “I’d like to see the photos you took while you were in LA,” Sam said.
Leo opened his mouth, most likely to lie, but Lennox shut him down.
“Don’t even try it, Dr. Sherman,” she said. “We know you took them. You would have needed proof to invalidate your prenup.”
Leo scowled. “Fine. Give me your phone numbers and I’ll send everything I took.”
They did and a moment later, Sam was staring at the third man Mary had met with in LA. He forwarded it to Kit, then zoomed in on the man’s face. It was shrouded in shadow, turned just enough that the only usable details were his buzz cut and heavy, dark-rimmed glasses.
Nicchi had a lot more questions to answer.
“What seemed sinister about him?” Sam asked.
“It was the way the others treated him. The big guy, Nicchi, kind of…Well, he didn’t cower. But he stood back and kept himself…ready? Like if the guy tried anything he’d attack.”
“Interesting,” said Lennox. “How did Ito act toward him?”
“He wasn’t afraid of him, I don’t think. I only saw them together once. They were standing in front of the dojo, talking. They’d been inside and had all come out together.”
“And Mary?” Sam asked. “How did she seem?”
“Worried. She kept looking over her shoulder. I thought she’d seen me, but she looked right past me. She was watching for something or someone else.”
“And the men being into some ‘shady shit’?” Sam asked. “What made you think that?”
“Look at the second photo.”
Ah. The second photo showed the other Japanese guy pulling an envelope from his coat pocket. The third photo showed Nicchi sliding the envelope up the sleeve of his gi. Seemed to be the right size envelope for cash.
That did look shady, Sam had to admit. “Did they all leave together? In the same car?”
“No. Mary and Ito got into her car, Nicchi went back into the dojo, and the other guy walked down the block. He might have caught a cab. I don’t know. I followed Mary and Ito back to his condo.” He exhaled heavily. “Ito was her father? For real?”
“He says so,” Lennox said. “We’ll double-check with DNA, of course.”
“Why wouldn’t she tell me? Why keep it a secret?”
“Good questions,” Sam said. “We’re going to find out.”
Lennox nodded. “We are. Dr. Sherman, we’d like to put you into protective custody. Whoever attacked Edwin Ito tried very hard to kill him. Your daughter has been stalked and your wife murdered. Will you go to a safe house?”
“No.” Leo shook his head hard. “Absolutely not. I’ll be fine. I have too much work to do to be cooped up in a safe house.”
Lennox rose. “If you think of anything else, let me know.”
Sam gave Leo one of his cards. “Call if you remember anything else. Or if you get shot at. Or stalked.”
Leo took the card, an angry sneer twisting his mouth. “Sure.”
“Lovely man,” Lennox muttered when they’d cleared Leo’s receptionist and were standing by the elevator.
“Hard to feel sorry for—” Sam paused when his phone buzzed in his hand. Then he groaned quietly when he saw the caller ID.
He’d lost track of time. He’d lost track of days.
He checked his phone for the date. Of course it was Tuesday.
“I have to take this, Kit,” he said so that she knew what was happening. Then he hit accept and put the phone to his ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Sam? We’re here, but you’re not answering your door, and Siggy’s not barking. Where are you, son?”
Sam sighed. “It’s kind of a long story. I’ll be there soon.”
“We,” his mother corrected. “You promised to bring Kit so that we can meet her.”
“Oh my God,” Kit whispered into his earpiece. “Oh my God.”
Sam sighed again. “I’ll be there soon,” he said again. “We’ll come to your condo.”
Because his parents rented a condo in his building for when they visited him from Scottsdale.
He’d been afraid they’d move in permanently, but they were amazing about giving him space.
Plus, his father’s recent stroke hadn’t allowed them to travel the way they used to.
This was their first trip since December.
“All right. We’ll be waiting.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Lennox lifted her brows, because she could hear Kit’s frantic whispers, too.
“My parents are visiting,” he explained. “They want to meet Kit.”
Lennox bit her lip to keep from smiling. “You’ll be fine, Kit. I’m sure they’ll love you.”
“Oh my God,” Kit groaned, her terror crystal clear.
Sam hit the button for the elevator. “It’s not like they’re serial killers, Kit.”
She groaned again. “I wish they were.”