Page 138 of Fifty-Fifty

‘She was very careful?’ I said.

‘That’s the second thing that bothers me. This was almost the perfect crime.

She’s been really careful. Killing witnesses, taking her time to plan this and yet she was sloppy enough to put three factual mistakes into the fake journal,’ said Bloch.

That door in my mind flung open. We both looked at each other. Proving the journal was fake had been all too easy. That thought locking our eyes and minds like a pair of cuffs.

Those simple words from Bloch were enough to tilt my world on its axis.

Sometimes you just can’t see something because you’re looking at it from completely the wrong angle.

‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ I said.

She didn’t answer, just flicked her eyes at me, then back to the floor.

‘We still don’t know why Harper was killed. I’ve watched those videos of the Franklin Street inspection over and over. I thought maybe she’d seen something

in the Franklin Street house that implicated one of the sisters, and taken a picture of it. Maybe she didn’t even see it at the time, but she had a picture. Maybe I’m wrong, and I don’t have her phone pictures to check, but it’s the only thing that could have made her a target for Frank’s killer. Harper was smarter than me.

Better than me. I owe it to her to find out.’

‘It’ll be dark soon. I want to look inside the house on Franklin Street again,’

she said. ‘You want to come along?’

I did. I wanted to look for myself, but before I did anything I had to be sure of the course of action. I needed confirmation. I had an idea about the Haloperidol, and I had to run it down.

‘Take Harry with you. If the cops find you it helps if you’ve got a former senior judge along for the ride. There’s not a cop in this city that wouldn’t know Harry Ford. Are you going to tell Kate about this?’

‘Not yet,’ said Bloch.

‘Don’t tell her anything until you leave Franklin Street. She’ll want to come with you. If she’s caught breaking and entering her legal career is over before it’s even started.’

Bloch nodded, asked, ‘Are you coming with us?’

‘I can’t come, I’ve got other things that are more important.’

‘Like what?’

‘I’ve got to make a call to an old friend. Then I need to buy a newspaper and go to the hospital.’

‘You feeling alright?’ asked Bloch.

‘No, I’m pretty far from alright.’

FIFTY-ONE

HARRY

The ride only took an hour from Bloch’s house in Edgewater to Franklin Street,

but Harry was already regretting his decision to drive. A twenty-year-old convertible with a soft roof is not the ideal car for a long drive on a cold night. A light snow began to fall and a steady drip of water started to flow onto Harry’s left thigh from a leak in the roof. At his age, Harry felt the cold more assuredly than most. His scarf and long overcoat were pulled tight around him, collar up, gloves on, and still he shivered.

The conversation wasn’t much warmer. Bloch had wanted Harry to drive. She had to concentrate, think things over. Harry didn’t object, but he wished he had now.

Harry had barely gotten a dozen words out of Bloch. Her address. ‘Wait here,’

when they arrived at her house, and then, ‘Let’s go,’ when she got back into the car. That’s it. They were now only a few minutes from Franklin Street.