Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,122
suspension.” Gates made it a statement, not a question.
“Yeah. I was cleared yesterday, in DC. Thanks to TJ’s efforts to prove the data had been altered, to find out who changed it.”
Dav squeezed her shoulder. “I know this is tough, Ana-aki. You must be strong, for your friend. This is TJ, this is the one who is dead in White Plains, yes?”
She nodded mutely, afraid that if she spoke, she’d never be able to hold back the tears. When had she turned into such a watering pot? The night with Gates sprang instantly to mind, and she ducked her head so Dav wouldn’t see the blush.
“Pretzky’s with him,” she finally managed to say. “I need to read the rest of his e-mails, and call her back.”
“Ana.” Gates’s voice echoed in the car. “Pick up the phone, take it off speaker.”
When she did, he spoke to her, just to her. “Ana-love, this isn’t on you. Your friend proved it. We’re right there, nearly finished with this, and I’m with you, okay? Dav’s with you. We’re going to see this through together.”
“Okay,” Ana managed, clenching her teeth on the tears, on the scream of frustration and emotional pain.
“I’ve got to make some calls,” Gates said. “I need to check on a couple of things, but I’ll call you back, okay?”
She nodded, then remembered she was on the phone and added, “Okay. We’ll wait for your call.”
“I love you, Ana,” he said as his parting shot. “I’ll make this up to you.”
What the hell was she supposed to do with that? And why now, when she was already in complete turmoil?
She was silent for a minute, and he laughed. “I’m trying to get used to saying it. Just hang on to it for me. I need to call in a couple of favors.”
“Okay, I will,” she promised, and wondered what she’d just agreed to do, and what favors he needed.
She set the phone aside and read the rest of TJ’s e-mails. The search had led him to someone connected with the Gandolpho family. The Gandolphos hadn’t sanctioned anything, would never do damage to their “mother country,” according to TJ, which had stymied him for months. He’d run into the Burrows/D’Onofrio/Santini situation by accident.
“Coincidence,” she said, turning a tear-streaked face to Dav. “He figured out this business about the shipping company by accident, tried to use it to get Santini to roll on someone in Gandolpho’s organization, get them to admit they’d been part of the situation in Rome.”
Before Dav could answer, his phone rang. “Carrie,” he told her, and picked it up.
Ana knew she had to pull it together. She had put the call from Gates aside, not think about his words or his love. She had to focus on the job. If she couldn’t do the job, she was nothing, and she couldn’t free herself to love anyone, if she couldn’t do the job.
Knowing that, Ana drew in a deep breath, let her mind clear. Things were falling into place; the obscure pieces were coming together. Everything was converging on her, all the data sweeping into place; everything lining up. She could see the end of the story as a vague, foggy resolution, even though some of the chessmen were disguised by fake names and identities.
She yanked out the yellow pad, whipped it to a clean page.
Rome was the real red herring here. TJ’s information had saved her job, but it wasn’t what was going to solve this case. Somehow she had to separate the data, fit the puzzle pieces together, so she started writing.
Paintings.
Galleries—San Fran, Miami, Chicago, New York
She didn’t list the European ones; they’d gone through Pratch, not the New York shipper. That was peripheral, and another red herring so she left it out, drilling into the heart of the path.
Galleries to Shipper–Burrows/Bates/Santini/D’Or/D’Onofrio–East Coast–torture killings
Galleries to Shipper–Yountz/Drake–West Coast–executions
Shipper to Berlin/Pratch
She drew a line to one side.
Pratch dead
She drew a line to the other side.
Luke Gideon, dead
She stopped, pen poised over the page as her brain connected the dots. She scrambled through her pages of data, found the information on Jack. There it was.
She’d forgotten his middle name was Gideon. Ana hadn’t known, hadn’t thought to check, what connection D’Onofrio had to Carrie’s husband, but it was all there in black and white in TJ’s notes, the proof that Jack Gideon D’Onofrio, real name Jackson Gideon Burrows, was Luke Gideon’s cousin. Now she was as sure as Dav that Carrie was in the clear. She’d used D’Or because of the family