“Oh?”
“Tanya Lee Hampton. You know. The one who cut off her husband’s penis,” Fuller said flatly.
“Yes? Is something wrong?” Kieran asked worriedly. Had she made a poor assessment? Had the woman knifed someone in the cafeteria?
“She wants to see you and only you.”
“She does?”
“Her attorney called me. She’s very upset, and she won’t tell anyone why. Only you.”
“All right. What do I do?”
“Nothing. I’m sending a car for you. The driver—William Buell, he drives for us all the time—will call when he gets there. Mrs. Hampton’s attorney will be waiting for you when you arrive.”
Reprieve! She could go out and no one could fault her for it. She was being picked up at her door and going to a place where dozens of officers would be keeping watch.
“I’ll be ready,” she said.
In twenty minutes she received the call from William Buell. She’d seen him before, though he’d never actually driven her.
Along with working with the police, her bosses often worked alongside defense attorneys representing the very rich, enabling them to be very rich themselves. Buell, she was pretty sure, was Dr. Fuller’s private driver.
He was on the sidewalk waiting for her when she came down. “Miss Finnegan, good afternoon. Lovely day for a drive. Too bad we’re going to Rikers.”
“Not to mention we’re both working on a Sunday.”
He laughed and let her into the car.
He was a talkative man and entertained her with stories about his son’s Little League games as they drove.
As Dr. Fuller had said, she was met by Tanya Lee Hampton’s public defender, Joan Terry, a dark-haired young woman with a harried expression and frizzy hair who reminded Kieran of a schnauzer. But she turned out to be highly professional and dedicated to her often thankless job.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” she told Kieran, as they jumped through the metaphorical hoops involved in entering the facility. “She was insistent that we reach you. I kept telling her that I’m the one who’ll be defending her in court, so she has to tell me anything that can affect her case, but she begged me to get hold of you. I’ve read your report, and you will help us, won’t you?”
“Yes, of course,” Kieran said.
She was led to a small room similar to the one she had been in twice before, just in a different section of the jail. There was a door with a window, a table and two chairs.
“A guard and I will be right outside,” the attorney told her.
“I’ll be fine,” Kieran said.
Tanya Lee Hampton was waiting for her. She didn’t say a word until the guard and her lawyer were outside the door.
“Thank goodness you’re all right. And thank goodness you’re here,” Tanya said then.
“Forget about me. How are you doing?”
Tanya shrugged. “My sister is trying to come up with bail. This isn’t a great place, you know.” She leaned in closer. “Dr. Finnegan, I think you’re in danger.”
Kieran was stunned by her words, but said by rote, “I’m not a doctor. Please, just call me Kieran.”
“Kieran, you were great to me. You were the first person who actually listened to my side of the story. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Thank you. I don’t want anything to happen to me, either. Now tell me what you’re talking about.”
“It’s something I overheard, and I can’t let anyone in here know about it or know that I might pass something on if I overheard it. You won’t say anything, right?”
“I’ll keep this in confidence, yes, though I’ll have to give some explanation to your attorney,” Kieran said.
“I’m afraid of dying here, if anyone finds out I said something,” Tanya said.
“We won’t let that happen,” Kieran said.
Was that the truth?
She prayed she wasn’t lying and nodded encouragingly at Tanya.
“Okay, I was at dinner, and I heard these other women talking, only I couldn’t see them because there was a big concrete column between us. I heard them talking about the chick in the subway, laughing because the girl who went down on the tracks is probably going to get famous and all. And then they started talking about you.”
“By name?” Kieran asked.
“Actually, they called you ‘the Irish broad.’”
Kieran shrugged at that. “Okay, go on.”
Tanya took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “The one’s boyfriend was the one who did it! She was whining because he was supposed to get good money for it, too. But he didn’t get paid ’cause he pushed the wrong person. He was aiming for you and blew it.”
Kieran nodded slowly, feeling chilled but not shocked. She’d sensed that the man in the hoodie had been after her.
Thankfully, whoever wanted her dead had hired an inept assassin.
Whoever wanted her dead...
Yes, someone wanted her dead.
She tried not to shrink into herself with fear.