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Sadie couldn’t respond immediately. Pauley had worked for this lady? For Asher’s mother? Why were there no notes in his files? Why hadn’t Sadie known?
“The last time I heard from Mr.Winters,” Lana went on, “he left a message on my cell phone, saying we needed to talk. This was the same day he died. I believe my husband had something to do with his death.”
Sadie snapped out of the shock. She shook her head. “Pauley died of a heart attack.”
“You did know him.”
“Yeah ... he was ... yes.”
“Then you know he was the best.”
Sadie did know. She also knew that he’d died of a heart attack ... and that he hadn’t told her about or left any files related to a Lana Walsh case.
Focus, Sadie.She cleared her throat. “You have to understand, Mrs.Walsh, whatever your husband has been doing, I consider Naomi a friend. I can’t see her doing this.”
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Naomi might engage in an affair with her sister’s husband just to get even. But Sadie wasn’t ready to go there.
Lana pursed her lips and gave a single nod. “I understand.” She seemed to consider for a moment what she would say next. “I would ask that you do something—not for me, but for Asher.”
Still reeling with the bombshell that Pauley may have been working with this woman, Sadie managed an “All right.”
“Look into my theory. Objectively, if you can. If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. But I want justice for my son. If it means anything to you, Pauley—Mr.Winters—believed me. I also believe my son haddocumented whatever Lee was involved in beyond an affair with Naomi. I know Asher kept a file. I just have no idea where. But I am absolutely certain whatever it is, my son was killed because of it. I went to the trouble of hiring someone to search Naomi’s home in case it was there, but he failed to find anything.”
So she was the one who had hired Darius. “How did you find the man you hired to do the search?”
“Pauley introduced me to him once.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why I kept his number all this time. He certainly proved useless.”
Few people knew about Darius. Her father and Pauley were two who did. This knowledge lent some credibility to her story. Possibly. “All right, you have my word; I will look into your theory. Objectively and thoroughly.”
“Thank you.” Lana opened her purse and fished around. When she closed it again, she held out a card. “Call me when you find the truth. If you’re half as good as my son believed you were, you will find it.”
Sadie accepted the card with the woman’s name and number on it, then watched her walk away. When Lana Walsh’s car had disappeared in the distance, Sadie pulled out her cell and called Snipes. “Hey, you got anything on that thumb drive yet?”
“I’m working on it. This one is a little more complicated. Someone didn’t want anyone to get their hands on whatever is on this one.”
“Call me the minute you break in.”
“Will do.”
Sadie ended the call. When she’d worked up the nerve, she climbed the stairs and locked herself away in her loft. Even though she’d been through the place a dozen times and had rifled through Pauley’s files even more often, she intended to go through them again.
If Pauley believed the woman ... how could Sadie not?
She surveyed the loft. If she had to tear this place apart, she would find whatever notes Pauley had made.
There had to be something here.
45
5:30 p.m.
Birmingham Police Department
First Avenue North
Kerri glanced at Falco once more as they waited for the LT to begin. He had called them to his office as soon as the dust settled.
In truth, Kerri couldn’t be sure at this point if both she and Falco were about to be suspended. She’d already been on leave. She had been too busy to consider exactly what lines they might have crossed and exactly how much trouble they were in.
