Chapter Twenty-Four #4
Sam was glad that Kenzo, Bob, and Joe were all dead, too. He still wished he hadn’t seen the killing up close and personal, though. Those images would stick with him for a long time.
“I have questions,” Lennox said into the silence. “Bob had Danny kill Mary. How did Bob know what Mary was doing?”
Navarro stepped away from the wall he was leaning against. “I can answer that one. Bob bugged Mary’s house. When he told Danny to kill Mary, he made sure to tell him where the bugs were so that he could pick them up.”
Everyone turned to Navarro. “How do you know that, sir?” Lennox asked.
“Because Special Agent Brewer called me after interviewing Danny, who’s cutting a deal with the ATF.
Danny’s been very forthcoming. He and Bob communicated using the Signal app and Bob had the messages set to disappear after ten seconds.
But that stressed Danny out because he was afraid he’d forget a detail, so he began to make screenshots of Bob’s messages.
On Saturday morning Bob messaged Danny that Mary was home and it was time to ‘do it.’ He didn’t say to kill her, just ‘do it,’ and afterward to get rid of all the ‘insects’ and search for the items they’d discussed.
Which Danny said was any kind of data storage—thumb drives, etcetera. Guess who planted the bugs?”
Both Kit and Lennox inhaled sharply.
“Laurette Curry?” they asked at the same time.
“That’s how she fits in,” Lennox added. “That’s been driving me crazy. I knew she’d been paid by someone and knew it had something to do with Bob and Danny, but I didn’t know what or why.”
But neither Ito nor Nicchi looked surprised.
“You knew about Laurette Curry?” Sam asked.
Ito nodded. “Mary came home from a garden club meeting unexpectedly early one Saturday in early January. Found Leo snoring in their bed and a naked woman in her bedroom, searching through her drawers. She snapped a few photos of the woman’s face before she was seen and left the house.
We were able to identify her as Laurette Curry.
She works at Leo Sherman’s hospital. That told us that Bob was on to us. ”
“Leo and Laurette had been sleeping together for nearly a year, according to the other nurses in Laurette’s unit,” Navarro said. “Long before you organized yourselves in October. We don’t think Leo was involved. It seems like Bob just took advantage of Laurette being in Leo’s house.”
“How did Joe know that Laurette was dead?” Kit asked. “He was at her house not even an hour after Danny left. He posted those photos for us to find. How did Joe know to enter her house at that moment?”
Nicchi hesitated, then lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.
“Joe called me yesterday. Told me that he’d dealt with Laurette, so I didn’t have to worry about her.
He wanted to find out who hired her. He was almost certain it was Bob, but she might have just been trying to steal from Mary.
He waited for her outside the hospital after her shift, posed as Hanshi, said his daughter was dead and that Laurette would make a prime suspect.
She wasn’t a hardened criminal. She broke immediately.
Told him that she’d been hired to search for portable hard drives.
She didn’t know by whom. They communicated via Signal, too.
Joe demanded she show him the messages. She showed him her phone, but of course the messages had been set to disappear.
Joe grabbed the phone and started to walk away, but he was really sending a message to her single saved contact saying ‘More money or else.’ When she started to scream for him to give her back her phone, he did.
Then he went to her neighborhood and waited for Danny to show up and kill her, after which he went inside and tacked up those photos. ”
Sam stared at Nicchi, horrified. “He set her up to be killed?”
Nicchi nodded but didn’t look nearly as horrified as Sam felt.
“She betrayed Mary by cheating with her husband. She was willing to betray her again by selling whatever she found in Mary’s house to a stranger.
Look, Bob would have had her killed anyway.
She was a loose end. Joe simply made it happen sooner.
You should be grateful. He posted those photos so you’d know to look at Bob. ”
Sam didn’t know what disturbed him more—Joe’s actions or Nicchi’s calm acceptance of them.
Wow. Just…wow. Then he thought about the photos. “How did Joe get the photos of Akiko that he taped to Laurette’s wall? He didn’t go on Akiko’s boat when she was captaining.”
Nicchi sighed. “Joe asked me for the photos. I didn’t know what he wanted them for. I got them off my brother’s phone. Paolo took those photos.”
“Thank you for asking that, Sam,” Lennox said. “It was on my list, too.”
“But,” Ito said, “we still don’t know how Bob knew that Mary was involved?”
“You weren’t that careful,” Lennox said. “Leo Sherman managed to take several photos of the four of you talking outside Ricky’s office.”
Ito sighed. “One time. There was just one time we all left together. We stood outside talking for no more than two minutes.”
“Long enough,” Navarro said. “Besides, Danny said that Bob suspected that Joe was up to something.”
“Did…” Nicchi cleared his throat. “Did Bob force Danny to do the murders? Or did Danny want to?”
Oh. Of course Nicchi would want to know if killing Paolo was Danny’s idea.
“Danny says he didn’t kill Paolo,” Navarro said. “He said he couldn’t. Nor did he hurt you, Mr. Ito, and the messages from Bob to Danny back this up. Bob was furious that Danny didn’t follow his instructions.”
“Of course Danny couldn’t,” Akiko said. “I was shocked when you told me that he’d beaten Hanshi and that he’d…
that he’d hurt Paolo so badly before killing him.
It would have been breaking basic dojo etiquette.
We are trained not to hurt a fellow student.
The thought of truly harming our teacher is incomprehensible. ”
Lennox and Kit looked at each other. “Danny is about the same size as Bob,” Kit said. “We should have thought of that.”
“What about Laurette?” Lennox asked. “Did Danny admit to her murder?”
“Yes,” Navarro said. “He admitted to killing Mary, Laurette, and Jorge Montoya. He said that Bob told him that Mary was trying to steal the company away from him to give to Akiko, that it was Danny’s birthright.
So Mary had to be stopped. Still, Danny was hesitant.
That’s why he was following Dahlia on campus.
He wanted to know if Mary was really trying to steal from him, but he could never find the courage to ask Dahlia.
Bob showed him a photo of Joe and Mary together, told him that Mary was working with Joe and that they were close to success.
So Danny killed her, thinking it would be just one murder.
But after he’d done the one murder, Bob threatened to turn him in if he didn’t do the others.
That’s when Danny realized he was being used, that Bob didn’t care about him like he’d always claimed. ”
“Which is why he gave Bob up when Brewer came to arrest him,” Kit said.
“Exactly. Danny definitely killed three people, but he wants Bob to be punished, too. He doesn’t know yet that Bob is dead. Brewer’s hoping to squeeze the kid dry before he finds out.”
“Why did Bob beat Paolo?” Nicchi asked. “I mean, I suppose I can understand the motivation for killing him. He knew about the guns, which could have come back on Bob in a big way, especially if he’d managed a corporate takeover. But why…” His voice broke. “Why beat him like that?”
“Paolo needed money.” Navarro’s tone had become gentle. “Danny said he was doing drugs.”
Akiko gasped. “No. I would have known.”
“The toxicology reports showed heavy usage of both heroin and ecstasy,” Navarro said. “I’m sorry, but Paolo had addiction issues.”
“Yeah,” Nicchi said heavily. “I know.”
“You knew?” Akiko asked, her eyes widening. “Why didn’t you help him?”
“Don’t you think I tried?” Nicchi snapped. “He didn’t want my help. He didn’t want anyone’s help. Except Bob’s, apparently.”
Navarro’s expression was sympathetic. “Bob asked Danny if anyone in Akiko’s circle had a vulnerability. Danny is an addict, and he recognized it in Paolo.”
“So that’s why Paolo agreed to work for Bob,” Nicchi said, “but why did he beat him?”
“Paolo was supposed to be carrying contraband on Akiko’s boat, but only when Akiko was onboard,” Navarro explained.
“Time and time again, Paolo would schedule his drop-offs when Akiko was off or sick. Bob was getting more and more impatient with Paolo because he was impeding Bob’s plan to frame Akiko.
But Paolo just couldn’t do it. If Paolo had done what he’d been told to do when Bob first told him, Bob’s plan would have already been accomplished.
That’s why Bob beat him. Bob was also responsible for beating you, Mr. Ito. ”
“I figured,” Ito said. “But Danny was involved. I heard a noise on Monday afternoon. I got up to investigate and was hit upside the head with a club. I’m old but I’m still able to defend myself.
I was able to quickly restrain my attacker, but there was a second man.
He hit my head again, then injected me with a sedative of some kind. When I woke up, I was tied with rope.”
“Same with me,” Akiko said. “Bob hit me with something, then I felt the needle. It was fast acting.”
“Fentanyl,” Ito said. “That’s what the doctor told me I’d been given.
But Danny was there, even if he didn’t throw a punch.
Bob knew how to deflect my strikes long enough for the sedative to kick in.
They were looking for the files that we’d faked.
There were a number of documents that we’d created but hadn’t yet utilized that would have been damaging to the company when Bob took over.
But I didn’t have any of those documents in my condo.
Joe had a master copy on a portable hard drive. ”
“The work was done on a laptop in my office,” Nicchi added. “I’ll give it to you. My network and office are secure. It was the safest place for us to work.” He rose with a grimace. “I need to go. The ME released Paolo’s body this morning. I need to arrange for his burial.”
“Ricky, wait.” Kit tried to stand, but Sam gently pushed her back into the chair.
Nicchi turned. “Yes?”
“Why did you leave your shoes in Mary’s house? If her husband thought she was cheating, why would you leave something Leo could use against her?”
Nicchi shook his head. “I didn’t know she had my shoes until you mentioned it that first time in my office.
She must have taken them with her when she left LA that last time.
Seeing Laurette naked in her bedroom really hurt Mary.
Maybe she wanted Leo to believe she’d found someone else. Now, I really have to go.”
The room was quiet after Nicchi made his exit. Navarro finally broke the silence.
“Detective McKittrick, can I see you out in the hall?”
“Yes, sir.”
Sam pushed the wheelchair out into the hall, then started to back away to give her and Navarro privacy, but she grabbed his arm. “Stay. Please.”
“Of course.”
She drew a breath and looked up at Navarro. “Am I still suspended?”
“No. I dropped the suspension yesterday after we talked in the LAPD observation room. When you went into that warehouse last night to save your sister, you were an active detective. Off-duty because you’re on med leave, but not suspended.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Trust me next time, okay?”
She studied her hands for a moment before looking back up. “Don’t play suspension games with me next time. You used me to get at Detective West. Lennox knew, but you didn’t tell me.”
Sam had nearly forgotten about Detective West.
Navarro nodded. “That’s fair. I apologize.”
“Thank you. And thank you for investigating this personally, sir.”
He looked like he wanted to say something more but only nodded again. “When will you head back to San Diego?”
“I don’t know. It depends on when Pop is ready to go home.”
Sam wanted her to leave today so that she could get some much-needed rest, but he knew better than to push. Her family had some healing to do, physically and emotionally. He’d just be whatever she needed when she needed it.