“I’m sure she is, but I just wanted your take—your honest take on the case.”
“You should talk to Patti,” Pacini said. When Sean gave him a hard glare, Pacini added, “We’re both scheduled as witnesses to fend off Montgomery’s motion to suppress, so we shouldn’t be talking about the case. We could be forced to disclose anything we talk about on the witness stand.”
Pacini was right. Plus he was career FBI—he wasn’t going to budge.
“I spoke to Blake Hellstrom,” Sean said.
At this Pacini’s eyes widened.
Sean said, “Hellstrom swears his client is innocent.”
Pacini scoffed. “That’s his job. Tell me you’re not having doubts about the prosecution because of something Hellstrom said?”
Sean shrugged.
“They’ve got the right man, Sean. Given all the heat they’re taking on the race stuff, they wouldn’t have moved on Malik Montgomery if they weren’t confident he’s guilty. And trust me,” he looked Sean in the eyes now, “there’s more evidence than you know about.”
“Like?”
“Like, ask Patti.”
Sean sighed. “I found an e-mail,” he said finally. “An account I think Abby opened. In a draft e-mail file there was a note asking someone to meet at the Supreme Court library the night she was murdered. She was with Malik that night at dinner, so she had no reason to send it to him.” For obvious reasons, this was all he would tell Pacini. What else would he say? My son and I beat up a drug dealer who bothered Abby. And, by the way, my co-conspirator from a childhood murder left me a bottle of whiskey. The e-mail, though, was something to grab onto. Something real.
But Pacini wouldn’t bite. “You should tell Patti about it.”
“You know that using draft e-mails is how people who don’t want an electronic trail often communicate? The sender writes a draft and then the other person logs on to the e-mail account and reads the draft and deletes it so there’s no transmission over the Internet.” Sean heard the desperation in his own voice. “The Supreme Court discussed the technique in U.S. v. Ahmed, the case about the government’s surveillance program. Malik said she was seeing someone, so maybe…”
Pacini just looked at him. It was a pitying look. Sean thought about how this all must sound. The grieving father clinging to complicated scenarios and supposedly unanswered questions in order to avoid letting go of his murdered daughter.
Pacini was probably right.
CHAPTER 34
“Sean, I appreciate the information, I do,” Patti Fallon said, her voice coming from the SUV’s overhead speakers. Sean was driving Ryan to school, and he merged onto the chaotic traffic circle on Connecticut Avenue. “But my priority right now is winning the suppression hearing. If Blake Hellstrom gets the evidence thrown out, nothing else will matter. It’ll all be over.”
Sean glanced at Ryan, who fiddled with his iPod Touch. His earbuds were in, and it was hard to tell if he was listening to the call.
“I hear you, Patti, but what Hellstrom says makes sense. Malik is too smart to have left the phone and video evidence behind. It’s too convenient. And this e-mail I found suggests that Abby was meeting someone else that night.”
There was a long silence. Then: “I promise you, Sean,” Fallon’s voice had the hint of an edge to it now, “we understand those issues. Hellstrom has made the same points to me and my team. I’ve got my best people working this case, career prosecutors. The best agents investigating. We’re considering all the evidence, not just the defense’s points.”
“Is there evidence I don’t know about? Something you haven’t told me?”
“Let’s talk about it when you come in for the meeting on the hearing. I’ll give you an update on everything. Right now, I need my people to focus on the suppression hearing. They’re working around the clock, and now we’re going to have to determine if we need to give Hellstrom the e-mail you found.”
“I’m not trying to make things difficult for you, Patti.”
“Of course not. And I understand that this isn’t easy for you. I just hope you understand that there are agents investigating the facts, that we know how to win cases.”
“I understand all of that. And I’m not trying to be a meddler. But you need to understand that this is my daughter. And I’m not interested in winning. I’m only interested in the truth.”
Sean disconnected the line. He didn’t appreciate being handled, treated like he was a nuisance. At the same time, he probably shouldn’t have been so curt with Fallon. She was a pro and just making her case.
“The prosecutor didn’t seem too interested in the e-mail, huh, Dad?” Ryan said. He was listening after all.
“I think she’s just tired. There’s a big hearing coming up. And she probably has to tell Malik’s defense lawyer about the draft e-mail, and I suspect she doesn’t want to.”