God. What had they come to, that they were armed in a secure house? ‘Poor Thorne,’ he murmured. ‘This has got to be wrecking him.’
‘We haven’t talked to him yet. Clay’s going to get him to come here. They’re all at the police station now, being grilled by Hyatt and Joseph Carter.’
Frederick whistled. ‘I’m sure that’s doing wonders for Thorne’s mood.’
‘Which is why we’re all going to be here when he arrives,’ Sam said. ‘We need to show him that we’ve got his back and that we’re going to fix this before it gets any worse.’
Baltimore, Maryland,
Monday 13 June, 2.45 P.M.
Thorne’s gut twisted painfully. Colin Tavilla was dead. How did I not know this? I should have been told. Ramirez should have told me. If there’d been radio silence from his man inside Tavilla’s camp, he’d have been worried. But he’d heard from Ramirez. Yesterday.
Gwyn’s small, trembling hand came into view, sliding the report of Colin’s death over so that she could read it. ‘Shit,’ she whispered, then passed it to Jamie and Phil. Both men had paled. All of them knew what this could mean.
Exhaling heavily, Thorne looked up to meet Joseph’s concerned gaze. ‘How did you know to look for this?’
‘I’ve been keeping my eye on Cesar Tavilla since last summer,’ Joseph said. ‘Ever since you gave us evidence that helped us bring in Gage Jarvis.’
‘What?’ Jamie demanded. ‘Thorne?’
Fuck. He hadn’t told them for a reason – the fear on their faces right now.
Joseph registered surprise. ‘You didn’t tell them?’
‘No,’ Jamie bit out. ‘He did not. Please correct that oversight right now, Agent Carter.’
Joseph shot Thorne a curious look, then shrugged. ‘Last summer, an attorney named Gage Jarvis killed his ex-wife and was looking for his daughter because she’d witnessed him leaving the scene. She was eleven.’
‘Was?’ Phil asked sharply.
‘I’m sorry,’ Joseph said immediately. ‘She is eleven. She’s healthy and in therapy. Lots of therapy.’
‘Oh, thank God.’ Phil shuddered out a breath. ‘I thought you meant that she was dead.’
‘No.’ Joseph’s mouth curved up in a small smile. ‘But we owe some of that to Thorne. JD turned to him for information because Gage was a defense attorney. JD hoped that Thorne might know who Gage had been friendly with so that they could find his hiding place. Thorne did us one better. He had a photo of Gage having dinner with Tavilla, taken a few days before, so we knew our suspect was in town and for whom he was working. Except Tavilla washed his hands of Gage when we turned up the heat. The long and short of it is that Tavilla isn’t stupid. He knew we had inside info. At the time, Thorne told us that he’d had reason to believe Tavilla had targeted him in the past, and that he had a man inside. I worried then about what Tavilla would do if he found out. So I’ve kept watch. He’s gone under, by the way. He’s only been sighted a handful of times, usually at the same restaurant where he met with Gage Jarvis. He knows we’re watching. He somehow manages to lose his tail every time. We’re investigating that too.’
‘I see.’ Jamie’s voice was low and controlled. ‘That’s certainly enlightening. Both the help Thorne gave you last year and the man he had inside.’
Thorne could feel Jamie’s fury, and had to resist the urge to drop his eyes like a scolded child. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to worry.’
Jamie swallowed hard. ‘Well, too bad. I worried anyway. You should have told me.’
‘Jamie,’ Phil murmured. ‘Not here.’
On the other side of Thorne, Gwyn was uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t know if he had the courage to look at her expression at the moment.
Instead he fixed his attention back on Joseph and Hyatt. ‘I would have thought news of Colin Tavilla’s death would have made headlines.’
Joseph’s brows rose. ‘Your informant didn’t mention it?’
‘No. And I’ve heard from him recently.’ And I’ll be reaching out to him again as soon as I leave this room. ‘How was this kept from the media?’
‘Good question,’ Hyatt said. ‘It seems that Colin was stabbed in a fight in the exercise yard. It was . . . unpleasant. The crowd around him dispersed, leaving him where he fell. The prison had him airlifted to the hospital. They spread the word among the inmates that Colin had made it through surgery and was recovering. In reality, he died in the exercise yard. We’re guessing the prison didn’t want any publicity about it because they’d have gang violence erupt inside. They must have figured that anyone who knew differently wasn’t going to speak up and incriminate themselves in the murder.’
‘Either that or Tavilla wanted it kept quiet,’ Thorne muttered.
‘Certainly a possibility,’ Joseph agreed. ‘I have to say I was surprised. I was supposed to be told if he died as well. But his death certificate was filed. When I couldn’t find out where he was “recovering”, I looked for the certificate. I’m thinking this changes things in your mind, Thorne, in terms of who could be responsible?’
Thorne nodded, his thoughts spiraling everywhere. ‘Yeah. I immediately thought Tavilla, but . . .’
‘But you’d heard from your man inside,’ Joseph supplied. ‘If you give us his name, we’ll check up on him to make sure he’s okay.’
Thorne almost smiled. ‘I don’t think so, Joseph.’
Joseph shrugged. ‘It was worth a try.’
Hyatt wasn’t as easily placated. ‘We need that name, Thorne. We need to know who we’re looking at for this. If it’s Tavilla, we want to take him down.’
Thorne simply shook his head. He wasn’t going to reveal Ramirez to the cops. They’d bring him in just to get at Tavilla. He owed Ramirez too much to do that to him.
Hyatt gave another frustrated sigh. ‘Can you at least explain why Cesar Tavilla hates you so much? Because I don’t buy the explanation I was given. That you refused to represent his kid in court is not a valid reason for his orchestrating this vendetta against you, if he’s even done so.’
Thorne rubbed his forehead. ‘Not entirely, no. I did refuse to take his son’s case. Twice. The first time was five years ago. Cesar was displeased, but another attorney was able to get him off. The second time was two years ago.’
‘Why did you refuse?’ Hyatt asked.
Thorne resisted the urge to roll his eyes. ‘Because I don’t want to be in the pocket of someone like Cesar Tavilla. Nor did I want to start a feud, but that’s what I did. Colin Tavilla went to prison for killing his partner in crime, one of the other young members of Cesar’s gang. The two had robbed a jewelry store. Made off with a few million dollars in diamonds. The store owner was distracted because he was receiving a delivery from another young man, Avery, who’d been hired by Colin. Avery is the son of a rival gang leader, which I didn’t know when I took the case. Avery didn’t know either, but—’
‘Wait,’ Hyatt interrupted. ‘This Avery kid didn’t know his father was a gang leader?’
‘He didn’t know his father even existed,’ Thorne said. ‘His mother raised him alone. His father knew about Avery and kept watch over him, but he’d never met him in person. Apparently someone else found out, because Colin Tavilla knew. He deliberately set the kid up to take the fall for the theft.’
‘To get to the rival gang leader,’ Hyatt said with a slow nod. ‘Okay, then what?’
‘Avery couldn’t prove he’d been tricked, and even when I found out who his father was, I stuck with him. He was being railroaded for a crime he didn’t commit because of who his father was.’
‘Why don’t I remember this?’ Hyatt asked suspiciously.
‘Because Avery’s case wasn’t a homicide, for one,’ Thorne answered. ‘But mostly because this happened in DC. It was handled by DCPD and tried in a DC court.’
Hyatt’s eyes narrowed. ‘Still not seeing why Tavilla hates you so much.’