Chapter 10 - MRS. ALVAREZ
They escaped through a maintenance hatch Mrs. Alvarez seemed to know far too well.
Ten minutes later, six people were packed inside her old Buick.
Nobody spoke until they were three miles outside town.
Then Maeve exploded.
“You carry a gun?”
Mrs. Alvarez kept driving.
“Yes.”
“You shoot people?”
“When necessary.”
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough.”
Rocco leaned forward.
“Start talking.”
Mrs. Alvarez looked at him in the mirror.
“You don’t give orders in my car.”
“Fine. Please start talking.”
“That’s better.”
Maeve almost laughed despite herself.
Mrs. Alvarez turned onto a dirt road.
“Your father found Dominic’s operation by accident.”
“What operation?” Maeve asked.
“Property laundering. Insurance fraud. Payoffs. Illegal foreclosures.”
Cole added, “Vale buys struggling properties through shell companies. Forces owners into default. Sometimes accidents happen.”
“Fires,” Rocco said.
Mrs. Alvarez nodded.
“Fires.”
Maeve felt sick.
“The bakery fire.”
“Probably.”
Nora covered her mouth.
Maeve looked at Mrs. Alvarez.
“What did Dad do?”
“He copied financial records from a car he was repairing.”
Maeve frowned.
“A car?”
“One of Dominic’s accountants kept documents in the trunk. Your father found them after removing a rear panel.”
“That sounds exactly like Dad.”
Mrs. Alvarez smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
Then the smile disappeared.
“He brought the information to me.”
“Why you?”
“Because I used to be a federal investigator.”
Maeve stared.
Mrs. Alvarez sighed.
“Retired. Mostly.”
Rocco said, “You couldn’t put Vale away?”
“We tried.”
“We?”
“Patrick. Me. One prosecutor in Albany.”
Cole leaned forward.
“What prosecutor?”
“Evan Hart.”
Cole swore.
Rocco looked at him.
“What?”
Cole rubbed his face.
“Hart disappeared seven years ago.”
Nora whispered, “Disappeared?”
“Car found at an airport,” Cole said. “Never seen again.”
Maeve looked out the window.
The town lights had vanished behind them.
Mrs. Alvarez continued.
“Patrick was supposed to testify.”
Nora turned on her.
“My husband was going to testify and nobody told me?”
“He begged us not to.”
Nora’s voice rose.
“He was murdered!”
Mrs. Alvarez’s hands tightened around the wheel.
“I know.”
The car went silent.
Maeve whispered, “Who killed him?”
Mrs. Alvarez didn’t answer.
Rocco did.
“Dominic.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at Mrs. Alvarez.
She shook her head.
“Dominic ordered pressure. Maybe surveillance. Maybe intimidation.”
Maeve frowned.
“But not murder?”
“I don’t believe so.”
Rocco laughed.
“You’re defending Vale?”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Then who killed Patrick?”
Mrs. Alvarez looked toward Officer Cole.
Cole’s face went pale.
“Don’t look at me.”
“I’m not.”
She turned the wheel and stopped outside an abandoned farmhouse.
Then she faced them.
“Patrick’s truck was forced off the road by a police cruiser.”
Nobody moved.
Cole whispered, “What?”
Mrs. Alvarez continued.
“And according to the partial VIN number Patrick recorded earlier that night, the cruiser belonged to Bellmere Police.”
Cole stared at her.
“Who was driving?”
Mrs. Alvarez reached into her coat and removed an old photograph.
She handed it to Maeve.
Two police officers stood beside a patrol car.
A younger Daniel Cole.
And beside him, smiling at the camera, was Bellmere’s current chief of police.
Chief Raymond Hale.
Maeve looked at Cole.
Cole whispered, “Hale trained me.”
May you like
Mrs. Alvarez nodded.
“And eight years ago, he was the last person seen following your father’s truck.”
