Sean didn’t understand.
“They put him in the cell and those animals sexually assaulted him, six of them. And I don’t care what the Japs said, he didn’t hang himself. Those monsters strung him up like a dog.” The chief’s voice broke. “Because of you.”
“What cell? What are you—”
“Don’t you dare!” The chief eyes filled with tears and fury. “And you almost got away with it.” He swallowed and seemed to plant himself more firmly.
Sean’s thoughts were swirling. None of it fit with his narrative of events.
“All these years, I thought my Juan was a killer.” Martinez’s tone softened. “But then I learned the truth.”
Sean stared at Martinez. “I don’t—”
“Last year,” Martinez interrupted, “one of my oldest friends became the Supreme Court’s marshal and offered me the job as police chief. I didn’t want to move to D.C. Plus I was thinking about retiring, so I was gonna turn it down.” He stared off a moment into some middle distance. “But then Charles Baldwin got cancer and didn’t want to die with the guilt of what you all did.” The chief’s eyes turned back to Sean. “And he told me everything.”
Sean just stood there. Charles Baldwin? Kenny’s dad.
“That’s right, just like your father, Kenny’s old man got what was coming to him for what he did. What you all did.” The reference to Sean’s father took some of the air out of him. And what did Kenny’s father have to do with this? Sean tried, but couldn’t picture Charles Baldwin’s face. Nor did he recall ever meeting Juan’s dad back then. They were just grown-ups at a time when such people were invisible to Sean.
“The famous General couldn’t have his son go down for murder. No, not precious Sean Serrat. They needed someone to pin it on.”
Kenny once said that Sean’s dad had hindered the investigation of the storekeeper’s murder. But Martinez was suggesting something more sinister.
“That’s not what happened.” Sean heard the desperation in his own voice.
“Oh, it’s true. Your father and Baldwin cooked it up. Got you safely out of the country, then got Kenny to point the finger at my Juan. Your father didn’t think he could trust me because I was military police, so they blamed my son. Baldwin said your dad called it ‘collateral damage.’ Well, I showed Charles Baldwin what collateral damage was when I wrapped my hands around his throat. Cancer was too good for that man. I wanted my face to be the last thing he saw in this world. I only wish he got to see me blow his idiot son’s head off.”
Martinez swallowed hard, regaining control. “Those Japs took Juan away and put him in that cell.” He broke into a sob. “I couldn’t protect him. You all took my child.”
“What about my child?” Sean shouted back at him. “She had nothing to do with this. She was an innocent.”
The chief’s eyes turned cold. “How’s it feel, Serrat? How’s it feel to have something you love taken from you?”
Sean lunged toward the chief, but stopped short when he saw the gun. It had a long barrel, a silencer, maybe. The chief gestured with the weapon for Sean to walk toward the marble columns along the wall. He marched him back toward the mahogany bench.
Sean stopped at the steps that led up to the nine spaces where the justices presided.
“Is that what this was all about? Ruining me? Killing me?” Sean said. “You didn’t have to hurt Abby to do that.”
“I actually wasn’t planning on hurting her. Kenny was just supposed to tell her the truth about you. Let her see you for who you really are. But she was too smart for her own good. She found out who I was, put two and two together about Charles Baldwin’s murder, something his own son was too stupid to figure out. And she threatened to expose me if I revealed your little secret.”
Sean thought again about Abby’s visit to the police office the day she was murdered. She hadn’t been making a complaint against Malik, she was confronting Martinez. He’d killed Abby to cover his tracks. And so Sean would feel his pain. Martinez’s involvement explained so much now: how the killer knew Abby was in the court that night, how he got into the library undetected, how the surveillance tape was erased. And the court’s police chief undoubtedly had access to the home addresses and work schedules of the law clerks, so Martinez could easily have slipped over to Malik’s house and planted Abby’s phone. It explained why Abby’s apartment was ransacked and her computer and notebooks taken. Martinez was looking for whatever Abby had uncovered that connected him to Japan and Charles Baldwin’s murder.