CHAPTER 40 JERRY
JERRY
At two o’clock precisely, they pulled into the parking lot of the Justice Project in convoy.
Brax, Grey, Zach, and Nolan in the first car; Jez, Dawson, and Ari in the second.
Justin should have been with them, but he was currently sitting in an interview room, hopefully heeding his high-priced lawyer’s advice not to say anything incriminating.
The police had already released his mugshot, complete with half a left eyebrow.
Jez checked her phone. The Choir’s “Order of Service” app had a single thumbs-up from Spider in the ops channel, which meant she, Sin, and Dice were good to go.
Echo was assisting from her suite at Nyx, and the East Coast Cleaners were hovering in the background to help with transportation.
Jez climbed out of the car and kept her head down to avoid the cameras, not that they’d see much of her face beneath the ball cap and oversized sunglasses she’d chosen to wear.
The two MC members who usually loitered outside the front entrance had made themselves scarce.
Show time.
The Justice Project was no prestigious law firm.
You had to push the doors open yourself, a fact Grey only realised after he’d spent several seconds waiting for them to open automatically.
Douche. Jez glanced up and stifled a laugh as she caught sight of Serafina Hennessy’s horrified face pressed against the window.
She’d planned to ambush Grey, but it never occurred to her that the tables could be turned? Oops.
A young brunette in an ill-fitting pantsuit ran down the stairs, then skidded to a halt and did a double take.
“Uh, Congressman Meyer?”
He plastered on his stupid, fake politician smile. “That’s right. Great to meet you.”
“Who are all these—” She gave her head a shake. “Raelene and Sera are waiting for you in the conference room.”
Grey led the way up the stairs, and the staff gawked as they meandered between desks and filing cabinets on their way to the meeting.
A guy in a Pac-Man T-shirt surrounded by monitors looked on with suspicion, and Jez pegged him as the geek who’d been frustrating Echo for the past week.
She still hadn’t managed to access the Justice Project’s servers.
“They’re just in here,” Pantsuit Girl said and pushed the door open.
Raelene Holtz didn’t look like a lawyer; she looked like a soccer mom. Serafina seemed shell-shocked, and they hadn’t hit her with a single question yet.
Grey offered a hand. “Ms. Hennessy?”
“Uh-huh. I mean, yes.”
Holtz stepped forward, hand outstretched. “And I’m Raelene Holtz. You brought quite the entourage.”
“Indeed. I’m sure you’re familiar with most of them.” He nodded to each in turn. “Braxton Vale, Dawson Masters, Zach Torres, Nolan de Luca, and Jerry Knight. And Ari, our private investigator.”
Jez pulled out a chair at the end of the row with Ari to her left, then Dawson sat beside Ari.
Grey parked himself in the middle—it was his meeting, notionally at least—and the others took seats on the far side of him.
Serafina kept sneaking glances in Jez’s direction, and her poker face was appalling.
“So,” Grey began. “I was intrigued to receive your note. Why don’t you tell me more about why you invited me here today?”
“Uh, well, so… Obviously, you’re a congressman, and upholding the law is important to you.”
“Obviously.”
“And, uh… And it’s important to me too. Us, I mean. To us here at the Justice Project.”
For fuck’s sake. How was she ever going to try a case? A mediocre prosecutor would eat her for breakfast.
“You’re doing great, sweetie,” Jez said. “Keep going.”
“We review past convictions for possible miscarriages of justice,” Holtz told Grey. “Coincidentally, one of the cases that came across our desk is that of your former roommate Levi Sykes. But you already know that, which is why you brought these guests along.”
“It’s difficult not to get curious when somebody tries framing an old friend for murder.”
“For clarity, which old friend are you talking about here: Levi Sykes or Justin Norquist?”
“Justin, clearly.”
“No, it isn’t clear. Two young women are dead, and only Mr. Norquist had the opportunity to kill both of them.”
“Have you spent any time looking at the so-called evidence in the Carlson case? Even five minutes? Because it’s entirely circumstantial, a story woven out of assumptions and misinformation,” Grey said, playing his part.
Jez had told him to be polite but firm. Slightly confrontational. She wanted to rattle these women.
“And when you get down to it, that’s the basis of the Costello case as well. The media are reporting similarities in both deaths, so unless you’re going to suggest Mr. Sykes snuck out of a level four correctional facility to commit murder, there’s one obvious avenue of investigation.”
“Of course we’re not suggesting Levi snuck out of prison. We’re suggesting he hired someone to muddy the waters. It’s reasonable to assume he has those kinds of contacts now.”
“Oh, please,” Serafina blurted. “You’d believe Levi hired a hitman to kill a woman in a twisted plot to vacate his conviction rather than accept the obvious explanation that Justin Norquist is, in fact, a sociopath? Haven’t you heard of Occam’s razor?”
“Yes, which is why it’s so easy to dismiss the mental gymnastics I’d have to perform in order to believe Justin killed Amie.”
Jez spoke again, ticking off the points on her fingers.
“Firstly, Justin had a sixteen-minute window for the murder itself. Amie Carlson’s body was left forty-five minutes away.
A ninety-minute round trip. Placing it there would have meant hiding it at his home for almost two days, because Friday morning was the one time he was alone.
And the only ‘evidence’ the police have in that respect is a missing plant. ”
“A missing plant?”
Serafina didn’t know about the plant? Because she was a terrible liar, and it was clear she had no idea what Jez meant.
“Early on the Friday after Amie disappeared, Justin visited Ruby’s grave and left a plant. An orchid. According to the police, the orchid is no longer there; therefore, they’ve concluded that he must have driven in the opposite direction to dump a body instead. It’s thin, don’t you agree?”
“Okay, fine, I’ll give you the plant thing. But perhaps he had help moving the body? That’s not as far-fetched as suggesting Levi orchestrated a murder from prison.”
She’d give them the plant thing? No argument? Ari picked up on that too.
“Why will you ‘give us the plant thing’?” she asked.
Serafina went full deer-in-headlights and looked to Holtz for help, but the older woman only shrugged.
“Our goal is to ensure justice,” Holtz said.
They waited in silence. Let the lawyers experience a little discomfort.
“There was an orchid on Ruby’s grave on that Friday morning,” Serafina said finally. “A pink one.”
It took a lot to surprise Jez these days, but she felt her eyes widen involuntarily behind her shades. Serafina had seen the orchid at the cemetery? And she was just admitting to it? As Echo would say, what a dumbass.
“How do you know?” Ari asked.
“Levi asked me to leave flowers for her birthday. The orchid was already there, but I have no way of knowing whether Justin was responsible. Whoever left it didn’t include a card, and when I mentioned it to Levi, he guessed it came from Greyson’s PA.”
Everyone looked to Grey, and he held up both hands. “I asked Ava to make an appropriate tribute.”
“Grey…” Jez said. “What was your ‘tribute’? Be specific.”
He tapped away on his phone. “Give Ava a minute.”
Jez rolled her eyes because delegating compassion was just so fucking typical of him.
“What time was this?” Ari asked Serafina.
“Before work. Maybe eight thirty?”
“So,” Jez said. “You visited the cemetery after Justin, which means you had the perfect opportunity to remove the orchid.”
“Why on earth would I do that?”
“To break his alibi. To help Levi.”
Serafina bristled and copied Jez’s finger-ticking move from earlier.
“Firstly, I didn’t know Justin brought the plant.
Secondly, I had no idea Amie Carlson was missing at that point.
And thirdly, are you out of your freaking mind?
I’m a lawyer. I swore an oath to uphold the law, not to break it for a client. ”
“You’re not a lawyer in Virginia.” Jez settled back in her seat. Serafina was getting so delightfully riled. “And tell me, do all your clients call you from prison each day? Do you visit other convicted murderers on the weekends?”
“You’ve…you’ve been spying on me?”
Duh, of course.
“What, you expected us to turn a blind eye to your games with Levi? You’ve been spending time with him at the prison.
There are four members of the Diamondback Devils incarcerated in Redding’s Hill, and two more downstairs in your parking lot.
” They were trying to keep a low profile today, but Jez had spotted them lurking behind the trash cans.
“Did he give the brief for Amie, or did you? Because you fucked up. A pentagram has five points, not six.”
Jez anticipated venom from Serafina, but it was Holtz who jumped to her feet as Serafina gripped the arms of her chair.
“How dare you come in here and accuse my staff of a crime?”
“You invited us.”
“We didn’t invite you.”
Grey leaned forward. “No, because presumably you thought it would be easier to browbeat me if I came alone. My tribute was a mixed bouquet, by the way.”
“We thought we could have a civil discussion.”
What was wrong with Serafina? The AC was barely adequate, but she was still sweating far more than she should be, plus she’d gone quite pale.
“We are having a civil discussion,” Brax told Holtz. “Mostly.”
Zach cursed under his breath, and Nolan put his head in his hands. Nolan didn’t deal with pressure well, and he hadn’t wanted to come today, period.
“Why don’t we all calm down?” Dawson said, and it sounded like a plea.
Jez spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m perfectly fucking calm.”
On the outside, at least. Inside, she wanted to punch someone; she just wasn’t sure who yet.