Twisted Prey (Lucas Davenport #28)(24)

She said, “Oh boy . . .” then stopped and put two fingers to her lips.

Lucas: “What?”

“Oh my God. Did Parrish try to kill Porter Smalls?”

Lucas, astonished, smiled. “I see why you’re a partner.”

“Well, did he? I mean, Smalls’s accident . . .” She stopped again, gazing past him at the street, thinking. They were still standing in the doorway, and she suddenly said, “Come in. Come in. This is interesting.”



* * *



—

INGRAM’S HOME was simply but expensively furnished. One living room wall held a single painting, but it looked a lot like a painting that Lucas had seen at the Minneapolis Institute of Art when Weather made him go to a reception there. He bent to look at the signature: RD.

Ingram, standing behind him, said, “Richard Diebenkorn. Do you know him?”

“I think I saw something by him at the Minneapolis museum,” Lucas said. “Looks nice.”

“Well, yeah!” Her tone suggested that of course it looked nice because it was a fuckin’ masterpiece. “Part of the Ocean Park series.”

“Cool.” Lucas had never heard of the guy, but what else was he going to say? He turned and gazed at her for a few seconds, and asked, “What’s your opinion of Parrish?”

“He’s a bad man,” Ingram said. “You must have gotten my name through the Malone case.”

“I don’t know the Malone case,” Lucas said.

“Then how’d you get my name?”

“I can’t tell you. I got it from a confidential source who’s involved with the government. If you say there’s a Malone case, that could be where she got it.”

“Hmph. She, huh? I’ll think about that. Anyway, the Malone case involved one of my clients, Malone Materials. Malone lost a military procurement bid to another company and didn’t understand why since the other company had no expertise in the required area, which involved retrofitting certain military vehicles with lightweight side-panel armor as protection against improvised explosive devices. We sued. There was never any absolute proof, but it became quite clear to me and others who were handling the case that Parrish had been involved in discussions between the Army procurement people and a number of members of both the House and the Senate. Their discussions ended with the other company, Inter-Core Ballistics, getting higher procurement grades despite its lack of experience and markedly higher prices for the panels. I believe money changed hands in a variety of ways, and some of it stuck to Parrish’s hands and probably the hands of some members of the procurement team. A good bit probably wound up in reelection funds.”

“Bribes,” Lucas said.

“Not only bribes—but bribes that channeled money to a company with no experience in a mission critical manufacturing operation and so risked the lives of American troops,” Ingram said.

“That’s . . . ugly,” Lucas said. “Parrish seems to be doing quite well in his continuing military career. In the Army Reserve.”

“I didn’t know that, but, now that I do, I’ll ask around. Do you really think that he tried to kill Smalls?”

“That’s a conclusion you jumped to.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Davenport, it won’t work. I saw your face when I mentioned the Smalls accident.” She turned away, thinking, snapped her fingers, turned back, and said, “Got it: Smalls and Taryn Grant. Parrish now works for Grant. That is very, very, interesting. Very.”

“Don’t jump to more conclusions . . . And don’t try to use that,” Lucas said.

“I don’t think I’m jumping to anything,” she said. “You’ve got something about the accident, don’t you? What is it? I’d love to get something good on Parrish and/or Grant.”

Lucas said, “Miz Ingram, let me suggest you forget about all these . . . speculations. I’m afraid if you go somewhere with them, somebody might come to your nice brick house and hurt you.”

“Really.” Skepticism, not a question.

“Really,” Lucas said. “Listen, we’re looking at a . . . at a bare possibility. The most likely thing that happened in the Smalls accident is that he and the driver both had a little to drink, she lost it and went off the road. We need to check, and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve gotten the impression from . . . other people . . . that Parrish is a dangerous guy. If you try to stick it to him, or he thinks you will, you could have a problem.”

“I will take that under advisement,” she said.

“Sit tight for a couple of weeks—that’s all you have to do,” Lucas said. “By that time, I’ll have figured out whether Parrish was involved in the accident. If he was, I’ll handle it. If he wasn’t, I’ll let you know. No point in taking risks that you don’t have to.”

“I will take that under advisement as well,” she said. “Boy—Taryn Grant and Jack Parrish. That’s a mix ’n’ match, huh?”

“They actually—” Lucas cut himself off.

“Are well suited to each other, that’s what you were about to say,” Ingram said. “I don’t know much about Grant, but I do know about the controversy when she was elected. Were you involved in that investigation?”