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“Of course you wouldn’t,” said Jack. “I have no further questions.”
Jack returned to his seat at the defense table, having pressed his pointas far as he could, at least for the moment. But there were additional ways to discredit the testimony of a lying witness.
He leaned close to Imani and whispered, “I may need your old passport from twelve years ago.”
“I don’t know if I still have it,” she whispered back.
“Find it,” said Jack. “But only if you werenoton that boat in the Caribbean.”
Chapter 42
Andie was right across the street from Jack, but she couldn’t tell him. She and Arnie Greenberg, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami office, had a meeting with the state attorney.
The official name for the main facility of the Office of the State Attorney for Miami-Dade County was the Graham Building, but every prosecutor Andie had ever met called it the Boomerang. The building had two wings, and the footprint was angled like a boomerang, but the appellation had more to do with the fact that prosecutors started their day there, spent the next eight hours whirling through one court appearance after another, and at the end of the day landed exactly where they’d started, preparing for the next trip to the courthouse. The boomerang.
“We’re here to see Abe Beckham,” Andie told the receptionist.
Before Beckham’s election as state attorney, Andie had known him only by reputation as senior trial counsel and the go-to prosecutor in the office for homicide cases. He’d never lost a capital case, including two against Jack, both before Andie and Jack were married. She’d never heard Jack say an unkind word about him, and she hoped he would be equally gracious to her. Andie’s understanding of the office hierarchy made Beckham the boss of Mr. Owens’s boss, which hopefully distanced him enough from the trial of Imani Nichols to not take any of the courtroom jousting personally.
The door to Beckham’s office was open, and the receptionist led the FBI agents inside. It was bigger than Andie had expected, bigger even than the ASAC’s office in Miami, with top-floor views of the Miami River and the criminal courthouse. Beckham stepped out from behind his desk and greeted the agents cordially. They moved to the morecomfortable end of the office, away from the cluttered desk, and seated themselves in the armchairs around a cocktail table, though the state attorney and the ASAC seemed to jockey for position to see who got the only “power seat” available, the one closest to the American flag.
“How can I help you?” asked Beckham.
“We’re here to talk about Operation Gibbet,” said Greenberg, using the official name of the multijurisdictional task force.
Beckham glanced in Andie’s direction. “Isn’t that awkward? My office is currently in the middle of the Nichols trial, and so is Agent Henning’s husband.”
“Jack and I don’t speak about the trial,” said Andie.
He smiled with skepticism. “Well...”
The innuendo surprised her, given Beckham’s reputation as a stand-up guy.“Excuse me?”she said, but Greenberg interjected before she could bat back the insult.
“Let me be plain,” said the ASAC. “We have every reason to believe that whoever killed Shannon Dwyer and put her body on display in Boston Harbor will strike again. The parallels to the Tyler McCormick murder are undeniable. Agent Henning has more knowledge about those two cases than anyone in my office. I’m not going to put the public at risk and pull her off Operation Gibbet over aperceivedconflict of interest that doesn’t exist. Anyone who has a different view and wants to force my hand on this issue can answer to the family of the nextvictim and explain why we fell one step behind the killer.”
Andie couldn’t have said it better.
Beckham nodded slowly. “Fair enough,” he said. “As long as we’re not talking directly about trial strategy, I’m comfortable.”
“We’re not here to discuss trial strategy,” said Andie. “We’re here to give you a heads-up.”
“About what?”
“Technically, we don’t have a serial killer yet. We have two homicides that may or may not be related. We’ll have a serial killer when one of two things happens. When we determine that Shannon Dwyer’s killer is not a copycat. Or, as we fear, Shannon Dwyer’s killer strikes again, copycat or not.”
“I follow you,” said Beckham.
“If either one of those things happen,” said Andie, “we will have an obligation to notify the public that we have an active serial killer on the loose.”
Beckham was clearly getting the message, his expression showing concern. “Go on.”
“If Shannon Dwyer’s killer is a copycat emulating the Tyler McCormick gibbeting, there’s no impact on the Nichols trial. But if our investigation determines that Shannon’s killer isnota copycat...”
Andie’s voice trailed off, allowing the state attorney to draw his own conclusions.
“I see,” said Beckham. “Someone other than Imani and Shaky Nichols killed Tyler McCormick.”
“That would appear to be the case,” said Andie.
