AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dammit, tell me!”
He was wrestling with something, she saw it on his face, but a moment later he sighed and his shoulders sagged.
“Adam Scott kept souvenirs from all his victims. Usually a piece of jewelry. Denise, the woman who helped him, told me about it. She found the box in Scott’s suitcase when we were on the island, and threw it away. Scott found out and recovered it. Beat the living shit out of her. I went to Seattle to try to find it but couldn’t. I had been working with Dave Biggler for two years, and he knew Ralston, one of his dad’s informants. The first time I tried to get to Morton, it was to go to Seattle to retrieve the box. We paid Ralston to plant the idea that there was substantial cash, securities, and jewelry that Scott hid on the island in a metal box with intricate designs on it—I was certain Morton would know exactly where it was.”
“Why would Morton think that Ralston knew about it?” Kate asked. “Wasn’t Morton suspicious?”
“No. Ralston was a longtime cohort of Adam Scott—and we told Ralston to say that the information came from one of Scott’s former security people who had a financial backer to create another Internet sex site.”
“Wait,” Kate said. “None of that was for real? All those videos Morton was collecting was because of your scam?”
“I would never have let them go live.”
“You’re fucking insane,” Kate said. “You’re the one who gave Morton the idea to re-create Trask Enterprises!”
“No, he was already playing around; I just provided incentive for him to act faster.”
“But Morton didn’t go to Seattle, Ralston did,” Lucy said, trying to get Mallory back on track.
“I didn’t know he sent Ralston to retrieve the box. However, I did learn that Ralston was keeping the box for Morton.”
“So you killed Ralston because of it.”
“I killed Ralston because he was playing both sides. He thought he could get more money if he worked with Morton.”
“Why did Ralston help you in the first place?”
“Because Dave asked him to and we paid him well. I should have realized he was a double agent, so to speak. Morton didn’t show up with the box when he was supposed to on Thursday. So after the meet at the marina, I went to his motel. It wasn’t there. I realized that Ralston had to have known where it was—Morton was carrying one piece of jewelry on him from the box, so it had to be somewhere, and Ralston was the only one Morton had talked to since he arrived.”
“What sick reason could you want with Adam Scott’s souvenirs anyway?” Kate asked.
Lucy knew. “You wanted to give the jewelry back to the families.”
He nodded. “I have your ring, Lucy. I just didn’t know how to give it to you.”
She blinked back tears she refused to shed in front of Mallory. “You know, I almost understand. I don’t agree with anything you did, but I understand. Everything. Except Cody. Why’d you kill him?”
Mallory looked like he’d been slapped, but Lucy continued without pause.
“He was a good man,” said Lucy. “He never hurt me, he never hurt anyone! He believed in what we were doing, putting the parolees back in prison. He was loyal to Fran. And you killed him because he found out about your cowardly vigilante group!”
Mallory was shaking his head and leaned forward. “No. No fucking way did I kill Cody Lorenzo. I swear on my wife’s grave that I didn’t kill him.”
Lucy rubbed her eyes to stop her tears from leaking out. She didn’t want to believe Mallory, yet everything else he said had the ring of truth, so why not this? But she’d rather believe that Mallory killed Cody than Cody killing himself.
“You didn’t? Who’d you send to do it? Fran? David Biggler? Who did it?”
“It wasn’t any of us, I swear to you, Lucy. I would never hurt someone you cared about. All I’ve wanted these last six years is your forgiveness.”
Lucy rose from her seat and leaned forward. “I forgive you for what happened six years ago. But I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done since. I don’t want my ring back. I don’t want to see it or see you, until your trial.”
She walked out.
Sean found Lucy sitting in the small lobby of FBI headquarters. He sat next to her and took her hand. She looked up at him, and he kissed her. “Kate and Dillon are going to be awhile and Armstrong and Resnick are headed out to Mallory’s place to wrap up the search for evidence. They still can’t find any guns.”
“He probably got rid of them. It sounds like he would know exactly how to do that.”
Sean hated how defeated Lucy looked. He wanted her fire back, the same fire that led her to pursue this investigation in the first place, that gave her the courage to confront Mick Mallory. “Come home with me, okay?”
