“How long was it before Becker got in touch, Mr. Tice? The next day? Two or three days later, once he knew the department was going to write up the death as an accident?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never met with Becker in the days following Brody’s death. It was a tragedy. The family was in mourning.”
“It’s been four years but phone records can be pulled, Mr. Tice.”
For the first time, Luke Tice blinked. “I don’t recall meeting Becker. He might have called for information about Brody. I am family.”
“And that’s the thing that makes this so bad. You ran your cousin off the road. I don’t know why. Neither does Becker. But I bet I will find out. Given time.”
Tice stood up. “You’re wasting my time and yours. Do your worst. I’ve got bigger problems than you right now.”
Law nodded. “Your father’s arrest. That should put a crimp in all this.” Law looked about the campaign office.
“Not at all. People will rally. Someone’s always after you when you live at my level, Trooper Battise. It will come to nothing.”
“Don’t bet on it. Becker’s been talking. To the task force people.”
“Are you threatening me? You’re going to spread lies about me, too? Becker can’t hurt me. He’s been arrested for drug trafficking. He’s a dirty cop. The public will say he’s doing this to make himself look better. And you.”
He came slowly around his desk, a man who’d faced down the worst. “You may be a war hero but I’ve been doing some checking up on you, too, Trooper Battise. You have been diagnosed with mental instability. PTSD. You see and hear things, isn’t that right? Your emotional state is unreliable.”
Law smiled back. “That’s why you should listen to me. I’m not reliable. I don’t care if no one else believes me at the moment. I don’t care if they don’t believe Becker. Because he has planted the seed. And I’m going to be its Farmer Brown. I will nurture it until I’ve grown a case that can’t be ignored.”
“You’re an officer of the law. You can’t begin a vendetta against a citizen. That’s illegal.”
Law ignored him. “I will make it my life’s work to dig up every bit of evidence that went unfound because Becker helped you escape. There are other people who were out that night. People you don’t know about who may have seen things they were never asked to report. Where were you that night? We know Brody went to see the woman who is now your wife. Were you there, too?”
Law straightened away from the cabinet, wishing like hell he wasn’t encumbered by crutches. “What happened to the car you were driving during that time? Did it have repairs done on the front fenders right after Brody conveniently went off the cliff? I’m sending pictures of the tire tracks I found in the original investigation file to the FBI for better forensics analysis. Will they discover they belong to two different vehicles? I’m going to crawl over every piece of evidence until I’ve built a case for the fact that you killed your cousin. And when I’m done, you’ll wish you’d made another choice today.”
“Why are you doing this? I never did anything to you.”
“No. But you killed a man. And in doing so you cost a young woman the first years of her adulthood, which were spent behind bars for a crime in which she had no part.”
“Wait just a minute. Is this about Jori? Drugs were found in her apartment.”
“Drugs you knew Brody was dealing and never told anyone about. Why was that? Who were you protecting?” Law saw Luke’s gaze flick to the picture on his desk. And then he knew.
“Your future wife. It’s on record that Brody went to see Erin the night he died. Did they do drugs together that night? Is that why you went after him? Did you walk in and find them high and maybe a little too friendly?” He saw the color rise in Luke’s face. He had the bastard.
“You were seeing her by then. And Brody was supposed to be getting married. Did you have a fight? Maybe when he left and you went after him. Caught up with him on an empty lane and saw your moment.”
Tice’s jaw had hardened, his eyes like pale granite. “What does any of this get you? You have to want something.”
“Justice. For Jori Garrison.”
“I didn’t kill him. Brody lost control and ran off the road.”
“Because you were chasing him. There are two sets of skid marks in those pictures. I’d bet my left leg on it, if I hadn’t already lost it. So I’ll go with my hunch. My hunch says you drove him off the road.”
Luke began chewing his lip. “I might have been behind Brody. He’d been to see Erin and upset her. I wanted to catch him to tell him to leave her out of whatever he was doing.” He glanced up at Law and then away. “I might have seen what happened. There was nothing I could do. He died instantly.”
“How do you know that?”
“The coroner said no one could have survived a drop like that.”