No Way Back(Jack McNeal #1)(34)

Daniels leaned in closer, staring at him across the booth. His voice was a whisper. “Listen to me. I have no idea what happened. But I know a lot about Sophie Meyer. What exactly do you know or what have you heard about her?”

“I googled her. She’s a socialite. Very well known.”

“You have no idea how well known she is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sophie Meyer was a player.”

“Party girl?”

“Oh yeah. She had a very, very colorful lifestyle.”

“How colorful?”

“For starters, and this is not just idle gossip, she was wildly promiscuous.”

“What else?”

“She was unbalanced, according to people who worked the case. It happened a few months after I moved here. But she was a piece of work, let me tell you.”

“The official version is she overdosed at her home.”

“Meyer knew a lot of interesting people. You saw the Vanity Fair party pictures, the photos from Hamptons summer events, polo matches, all that stuff?”

“Yeah, I saw that. And I thought . . . well, actually, I thought, hanging around with that crowd—fast-living, wealthy, money no object—I thought drugs.”

“Yeah, dead on the money with that. Meyer went through the best part of two hundred thousand dollars of blow a year. At least from what I’ve heard.”

“I saw the autopsy. The official autopsy. It mentioned drugs, cocaine, in her system.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Here’s the thing, Sam. My wife—I mean my late wife—her autopsy showed she had barbiturates, booze, etc. in her blood when she was fished out of the Potomac.”

“Caroline? Bullshit. Come on, are you kidding me?”

McNeal shook his head. “That’s what it says.”

“Caroline was no drug user. She was clean.”

“Super clean. Fit. Very together. She enjoyed a glass of wine. That was it.”

Daniels said, “Drugs don’t fit her profile. Not one bit.”

“You see why I have concerns about the death of my wife and how it ties to Meyer?”

Daniels nodded.

“Here’s another interesting little fact to chew over. I went to the FBI in Bridgeport and met with Ryan Bone. Then I get told he got transferred to the Hoover Building three days after meeting with me. Something is seriously up. He gave me his card. He clearly didn’t think he was headed anywhere anytime soon.”

“What are you saying?”

“I think he passed on what he had, and he got called in. Maybe I’m not reading this right, but it’s strange. Then when I called him, he tells me someone else is dealing with it.”

“That by itself doesn’t necessarily point to a conspiracy. But taken together with the other things you mentioned, it appears, like you say, troubling, to say the least.”

McNeal took a sip of his beer. “What are you thinking?”

Daniels was quiet for a few moments, contemplating.

“You know something, don’t you? Whatever it is, tell me. I’m asking as a friend.”

“We go way back, Jack. I’m devastated for you.”

“I’ve got the rest of my life to grieve. I want answers. I want to know more about Sophie Meyer. She’s the key to this, I know it. If you know something, something more than you’ve already said, you gotta tell me.”

“Want a piece of advice?”

“Sure.”

“You need to be very, very careful.”

“You want to explain why?”

“Jack, you know how it is. Listen to me closely. Meyer’s husband is known to DC police. He was a person of interest three years ago.”

“Henry Graff, right?”

“Be careful with him.”

“What do you know about him?”

“Henry Graff is connected. He works for himself. Runs a shadowy security consultancy out in Arlington. A lot of government contracts. Pentagon. Homeland Security.”

McNeal drank the rest of his beer. “You think Graff had his wife killed?”

“No one could prove a thing. But he’s a cold bastard. My advice? Steer clear of this guy.”

“I get it.”

“You don’t know the big picture. There’s a lot of things to consider. The case against Graff got dropped. He knows a lot of people. But so did Sophie.”

“What kind of people?”

“Sophie Meyer had powerful friends. Very powerful friends—friends in high places.”

“Who exactly?”

Daniels again leaned in close before he whispered. “She’s been around. A lot. She had many lovers. Powerful men.”

McNeal could see exactly what Daniels was getting at. Her powerful friends could also have had her killed. “You got any names?”

“In this town, Sophie Meyer was an open secret. She was a druggie basket case. She’d fuck anyone. The richer and more powerful, the better. She kept diaries of all those men. Oligarchs, tech billionaires, hedge fund cokeheads, diplomats, UN secretary general, Hollywood actors.”

“You think one of her lovers got her killed?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. No one ever will.”