development.”
Cruz leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Who the hell is Logan Investors?”
“They’re based out of Houston, but they have developments all over the country—condominiums, apartment complexes, and commercial space. The Logans are stinking rich. Billionaires. The owner and head of the company is Randall Logan and he has all kinds of political connections. He’s like a god in Houston. Dennis was working on something huge regarding him. The only problem is, I think they must have found out and picked him up.”
“Who picked him up?” Cruz asked. His eyebrows had formed a deep vee as he listened.
“The police. They grabbed him at home, at the apartment he was renting. They accused him of using cocaine. And yes, he had a drug problem in the past, but he’d been clean for a long time and wouldn’t have started using again.”
“You don’t know that. People slip up and go back to rehab.”
“We were close—best friends. I knew him, and I would have known if he was using again. He was fine. Better than fine. He was even optimistic that things would work out between him and his wife, and they were talking about getting back together.”
“She mentioned that,” Cruz said slowly.
“See? He wouldn’t screw that up, because he looked forward to having his family back. Plus he was busy with this investigation and mentioned more than once that this could be his shot at a Pulitzer. This exposé was his big break, a way to prove that he was worthy of being with the niece of Senator Sandoval. He called me from jail and told me not to come down there because he didn’t want me to get involved. He said the cops planted the drugs in his apartment, claiming they’d received a tip.”
“So you’re saying that Randall Logan had the police in his back pocket and got them to arrest Dennis?”
Shanice nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Dennis was scared, and before he went to jail he told me about his concerns. He told me not to trust anyone with the information he’d given me.”
“So he gave you the names?”
“Yes, he did. But before I left Texas, someone broke into my apartment. Dennis was old school and used notebooks all the time. He had a separate one with that list of names and asked me to hide it for him, as insurance in case something happened to him. But when they broke into my apartment, they found the notebook in the hiding place and took it.”
“If they took the notebook, then why were they after you tonight?”
“Maybe because I called the FBI earlier today, after you and I talked.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them that I had the list. But I got scared at the last minute and hung up when one of the agents came on the phone.”
Cruz straightened in the chair. “What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Why would you tell them you had the list when you just told me the notebook was stolen from your apartment?”
Shanice fisted her hands in her lap and stared at her clenched fingers. This was it. The moment of truth. “Because I made a copy.” She looked up at him.
“Where is it?”
She tapped her right temple. “Here.”
13
Cruz looked understandably confused. “What do you mean…?”
“The information is all in my head. The names and the dollar amounts next to them.”
“What were the dollar amounts for?”
Shanice shrugged. “Bribes, maybe? Dennis wrote down each name and a dollar amount next to it. He didn’t tell me what the numbers meant, but I assumed they were bribes.”
“And you memorized all of that? How?”
“Like I told you, my father was a cognitive psychologist,” Shanice replied with another shrug. “He studied the capabilities of the human brain and our capacity to retain information. He believed we could increase that capacity through brain exercises. One of the studies he conducted was how to reduce the risk of dementia. He taught me the same memorization techniques he used with his patients, and the more I did them, the better I became. I trained my brain, the way a runner trains for a marathon or an athlete for a triathlon.”
“That’s incredible. You never forget anything?”
“No, nothing quite so amazing,” Shanice said with a short laugh. “But if I study to remember, I can remember. Lists are really easy to memorize, and the information in the notebook was one long list.”
“We have to get that information to the authorities.”
“To who? Dennis told me not to trust anyone,