leak any such admission to the media as soon as Leo made it. Gunther would have what he wanted, and they would still be missing Johnny.
In short, they were at a stalemate.
Laurie realized, though, that they still had one advantage over Gunther and the Carvers. Summer had no idea that Laurie knew she was living with her half brother, Toby, in Upstate New York.
“You know what, Summer? We really should meet in person. Just me, you, and my dad. Off the record. We can clear the air. My father can tell you directly what happened in that interrogation room with Darren. I always find that people are more open when they can speak freely.” She could almost picture Summer getting reeled in like a fish on a line. “I think we’ll be able to give you what you need if we’re face-to-face. Wouldn’t you like to hear it straight from Leo Farley’s mouth?”
Laurie suggested meeting the next day at 10 A.M. Knowing the perfect spot, she suggested a quiet coffee shop in Greenwich Village. With traffic, downtown Manhattan was nearly a two-hour drive from Toby’s house in Brewster.
When Laurie hung up, Alex was looking at her expectantly. She broke out into a smile, hopeful that her plan would work. “Now I just have to deal with Toby.”
Wednesday, July 22
Day Eight
Chapter 42
The next morning, Laurie and Leo passed a flower delivery van as they walked into a coffee shop called Mocha Mike’s at precisely 10:00. Summer Carver was already waiting for them at the tiny table in the back corner, past the barista’s pickup station, making a face after taking a sip from a lidded paper coffee cup.
Laurie had chosen this place for a reason, and it wasn’t the quality of its beverages. She had popped in here once with Jerry and Grace after a witness interview. The coffee was so bad, and the seating so inhospitable, that Jerry quipped that it must be a cover for a criminal enterprise. More like Money-Laundering Mike’s, he had joked.
But the dive had suited Laurie’s needs this morning to a T because Summer’s table was the sole table in the joint. The only other seating options were the barstools lining the countertop along the front window.
In person, Summer appeared younger and more attractive than in the photographs Laurie had seen online, with clear, pale skin, long, black hair, and large blue eyes peering out beneath thick, natural lashes. The result was almost doll-like.
Summer shook Laurie’s hand during introductions, but declined Leo’s offer of his. “Understood,” Leo said, pulling out a chair for Laurie to sit across from Summer, and then taking the seat next to Laurie’s.
“I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Laurie said.
“I was a little early because my ride needed to be somewhere at ten, too,” she said. “Do you guys want to order your coffee or something? I got the mocha, given the name, but I wouldn’t suggest it.”
“We can wait a bit,” Laurie said.
Laurie already knew that Summer’s ride was her half brother, Toby, who was currently meeting his stepmother at a different coffee shop not far from here, around the corner from the headquarters of God’s Love We Deliver. Julie Carver had texted Laurie moments earlier, confirming Toby’s arrival at the meeting she had hastily scheduled with him the previous night. Convinced that her daughter was in over her head with Darren Gunther, she had agreed to help Laurie in exchange for Laurie’s promise that she would do what she could to help both Summer and Toby if they ended up doing the right thing.
Julie had told her stepson that she had recently learned that her husband had left behind one additional annuity that had not yet been dispersed. It was a modest amount, but Toby was the sole beneficiary. She needed him to sign the paperwork for the funds to be released and suggested that he meet her in the city this morning. While a police officer in an unmarked car watched the Carver siblings as they made their way down to the city, a different officer had installed a tiny recorder beneath the only table at Mocha Mike’s. The receiver was inside a decoy flower-delivery van parked at the curb around the corner, and was streamed from there to a feed being monitored in real time by Detective Jennifer Langland, who was stationed outside Toby Carver’s house in Brewster.
This needed to work.
“So,” Leo said, “my daughter tells me you believe in karma.”
Chapter 43
Johnny Buckley sat alone in his