Or was it the other way around?
Back in the car, she said to Barry, “What if Harper was the one who sought out Gary’s help? They went to school together, and Harper must have known Gary had volunteered for Travertine. It stands to reason he at least knew about his accident and Web site. Harper became suspicious about Adeline’s activities and went to the FBI. The FBI put him off because they didn’t want him trampling on their ongoing investigation. Harper then contacted Gary—maybe because of something he wrote?—and they put their resources together.”
“Zach and his people are going through each of Ackerman’s articles—if there’s something there, they’ll find it.”
“It might not be obvious.”
“They know how to do their job.”
Of course they did. Zach was exceptionally smart. His thought process was similar to Sean’s—they both saw not only the big picture, but how all the little pieces fit in. It’s why Zach made a good analyst, and Sean a good security expert.
“Where are we headed now?”
“James Everett.”
“Agent Dunbar isn’t going to like it.”
“I don’t care.”
This was a new side of Barry.
“Did something happen last night that I wasn’t involved with?”
“I don’t like bringing work home with me, Lucy, and yet I couldn’t get this case out of my head.” He sounded angry about it, too. “Everett and Adeline were partners. They split up when she ran for Congress, but remained friends. He’s feeding information to the FBI. Then two months ago he cuts all ties with Adeline and endorses her opponent. Why not last year when Dunbar first started this investigation? Or why not keep the fa?ade up, considering he could probably gather more information if he remained close to her? And Dunbar … his reaction was odd to me. I’ve been mulling it over and over in my head. Then I thought back to Elise Hansen.”
“The prostitute.”
“She claimed she was hired to take photos of Worthington, which she believed were to blackmail him. It has a ring of truth. Then why not Everett? He’s worth a small fortune. And the one thing that connects the two of them is Adeline.”
“So she has her husband killed and blackmails Everett … Why?”
“What if she knows about the FBI investigation?”
“Then Dunbar is at risk. We need to warn him.” That wouldn’t go over well.
“Maybe she doesn’t think it’s Dunbar. Maybe she doesn’t even think that it’s someone on staff—but that it was her husband. Or her former partner. So she has Worthington killed but sets it up to look like an accident or natural causes. It’s complex because in her head, she’d think that no one would look at her because she wouldn’t do something so outrageous that might embarrass her or jeopardize her campaign.” He paused, as if realizing how convoluted the reasoning was, but it still sounded plausible. “She then sends the hooker to Everett … to get pictures to blackmail him. Maybe he tipped her off that he was working with the feds when he cut ties with her. It made her suspicious. And maybe that’s what made Harper suspicious as well.”
It made sense, in a twisted way. “We need Elise’s statement. She said a man shot her—implied,” Lucy added. “If Adeline is behind this entire thing, she has someone working for her—someone we can cut a deal with.”
“This is where it gets tricky, Lucy. Elise is an unreliable witness. She’s already lied to us. Harper was dead before she left the motel room. She flirted with the taxi driver. She went to another client and had sex with him. She admitted to accepting a substantial amount of money to take dirty pictures of Worthington. And, even knowing that whoever hired her gave her a lethal drug and tried to kill her, she hasn’t given us a name. Plus, there’s nothing that connects Elise to Adeline.”
“Not yet, but we haven’t been looking for that connection. But if it’s there, we’ll find it.”
“I like your confidence, but not only do we need to find the connection, we need to make it stick. Circumstantial evidence isn’t going to give us a warrant, not against a member of Congress, let alone an indictment. This case needs to be rock solid, and that means that not only do we need Elise Hansen and James Everett to tell us the truth, we need to break Mona Hill. She already admitted to sending Elise to James Everett. Which makes me think she also sent Elise to Harper Worthington, even if Elise said otherwise. She’s the conduit and has absolutely no ties to Adeline—that we can find.” Barry glanced at Lucy. “Are you going to have your A game when we interview her again?” Barry asked her.
“Of course.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Barry—I let her get under my skin once. It won’t happen again.”