Cross the Line (Alex Cross #24)(76)

Bree and Muller followed, seeing him go to a pretty sandy-blond woman in the crowd. She patted him on the arm and smiled. They turned and walked away, heading toward the exit.

Bree and Muller waited until the couple had gotten to where the food and merchandise vendors were set up.

When they were in range, Bree called out, “Mrs. McGrath? I thought that was you.”





CHAPTER


94


TOMMY MCGRATH’S WIDOW looked startled. “Detective Stone? Kurt? What are you doing here?”

“It’s Chief Stone now, Vivian,” Muller said.

Vivian smiled at Bree. “I heard you’d gotten Tommy’s job. He would have been proud.”

“Thank you for saying so,” Bree said.

“Are you both competing?” Vivian said.

“Just here supporting some friends on the force,” Bree said. “You?”

“I was here to watch Mr. Gordon. My attorney.”

“You’re a hell of a shot,” Bree said to Gordon. “Where’s that come from?”

He gave her an aw-shucks shrug and said, “My dad taught pistol at Ranger School, Fort Benning. I guess you could say I was a range rat.”

“That explains it,” Bree said before turning to Vivian. “Tommy’s insurance company notified us that you were claiming his life insurance policy.”

Vivian sighed, said, “I didn’t even know Tommy had that policy, Chief Stone, honestly. Not until Mr. Gordon called to say I was named as beneficiary.”

“Four million dollars,” Bree said.

“I had no intention of claiming the money at first,” she said, her chin raised. “Then Mr. Gordon had the idea I could use it to start a charitable foundation, something in Tommy’s honor.”

“Is there a foundation at the moment?” Muller asked.

Gordon said, “I have associates working on it as we speak.”

“Well, then,” Bree said, and she smiled. “That helps. But just to tie up another loose end, how much are you worth these days, Mrs. McGrath?”

Gordon said, “You don’t have to answer that, Vivian. That’s really none of their business.”

“It is if the answer is germane to a murder investigation,” Bree said.

“You’re asking if I need four million dollars?” Vivian said. “The answer is unequivocally no.”

“Perfect—asked and answered,” Muller said. “I’m sorry we had to ask.”

Bree said, “Mr. Gordon, you walked by me the day of our initial interview with Mrs. McGrath. You were just leaving as we were coming in.”

“Yes, I remember that.”

“I caught this strangely familiar scent trailing after you.” Gordon looked confused and said, “What?”

“I couldn’t name the smell until yesterday,” Bree said. “It was Hoppe’s Number Nine. Gun-cleaning solvent. It has a peculiar smell.”

“ Okay?”

“The smell made me realize that you handle guns. But then a little research revealed you’re an incredible marksman. Right from the start, given the way Tommy and Edita Kravic were gunned down, we were thinking trained shooter, someone with mad skills. Someone, well, like you, Mr. Gordon.”

Gordon glanced at Vivian incredulously and then back at Bree. “What possible reason would—”

“You and Viv are secret lovers,” Bree said. “That’s the real reason for the lack of passion in her marriage and her decision to ask Tommy to leave the house while she considered divorce.”

“That is not true,” McGrath’s widow said. “None of it!”

“You hide it fairly well,” Bree said. “No public displays of affection. A lot of late-night calls and fervent secret trysts.”

“We don’t have to listen to this nonsense,” Gordon said. “We’re leaving.”

Bree stepped up and stood in the way, said, “Tell me, Mr. Gordon, what bullets do you shoot in that fancy gun of yours?”

The attorney frowned. “I don’t know. Whatever my sponsors send me.”

“Bear Creek moly-coated two-hundred-grain RNHBs?”

“No,” Gordon said, but his lower lip twitched.

Muller turned to Vivian, said, “And you’re lying about your financial situation. We got a court order and looked into your investments. You’ve lost more than nineteen million dollars since the Chinese economy tanked, which was right before you asked Tommy to leave.”

Bree said, “We figure you found out about the life insurance policy and decided that since Tommy was leaving anyway, you’d profit by making sure he checked out permanently. You’d hide that, of course, behind a foundation you could loot to build back your fortune. Sound right?”

The widow McGrath tried to maintain her poise, but her eyes got glassy. She moved her lips but made no sound before fainting dead away.

Vivian hit the ground hard, cracking her head on the cement walkway. Bree went to her knees next to her.

Gordon put his competition pistol to the back of Bree’s head and said, “We’re leaving real quiet, now, you and me, Chief Stone.”





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