A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(59)

There was no point in keeping it from him. The truth might even knock something loose.

“We’ve identified several of the bodies from the desert burial site. One of them was a former client of yours-Ted Hollis.”

“Hollis? He wasn’t murdered. He fled the country because he couldn’t handle the public scrutiny after his trial.”

“Oh no, he was definitely murdered,” said Levi. “Tortured, too. Our working theory is that the Seven of Spades forced him to liquidate his assets before they killed him. They’ve always been suspiciously well-funded.”

“Okay, so one of their early victims had been my client.” Sawyer spread his hands. “So what? I’ve worked on hundreds of cases over the years. I wasn’t even the lead attorney on Hollis’s.”

“True. But we ID’d four of those early victims, and every single one had contact with the criminal justice system in which Hatfield, Park, and McKenzie represented them. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a pattern.”

Frowning, Sawyer sat back. “What were the others’ names?”

There was no need for Levi to check his notes. “Dr. Seth Fowler. Kerry Milner. Rodrigo Cortez.”

Sawyer’s frown deepened as Levi spoke, and he remained silent. Then he blinked hard, just once, his jaw tightening and his face going pale under his spray-tan. Levi shifted to the edge of his seat, sensing an imminent breakthrough.

“I-” Sawyer cleared his throat and shook himself. “I have nothing more to say.”

“Really?” Levi asked, narrowing his eyes. “That’s not what it looks like.”

“I’ll see my attorney now, please.”

Levi didn’t move yet. He studied Sawyer, who wouldn’t meet his eyes-something he couldn’t remember Sawyer having ever done before.

Forget flustered. Now Sawyer was unnerved, his body tense and his expression shuttered. Those names had struck a chord, but Levi wasn’t sure what he was seeing. Guilt? Fear? Had Sawyer realized he’d left incriminating evidence on one of those corpses?

“All right.” Levi stood. “But you know we’ll keep digging.”

Sawyer didn’t respond; he didn’t even look up.

“What do you think?” Martine asked when Levi emerged from the interrogation room. She was standing with Leila, and between her fierce glare and Leila’s cool disdain, they were doing a good job of keeping any nosy cops at bay. “Is Sawyer the Seven of Spades?”

“I don’t know,” Levi said honestly. “There’s something going on there, but I’m too close to this. It’s too personal for me to be objective or trust my gut.”

“His lawyer will have him out of here in a couple of hours, maybe less,” said Leila.

Levi waved a hand. “That’s fine. We’ll put a police detail on him and keep him under a microscope while we firm up our case. Besides, since the news already broke, he won’t be able to go anywhere public without being mobbed by reporters and angry citizens.”

Martine began leading the way back to the bullpen. “I don’t know if it’s feasible to put a 24/7 detail on Sawyer in the middle of all this Utopia shit. Our resources are strained as it is.”

“I know, but we don’t have a choice.” Levi scanned the noisy, overcrowded bullpen, searching for Sergeant Wen. “Sawyer could take advantage of the chaos to bolt. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t make a break for it after we found the bodies in the desert.”

Leila snorted as she scrolled through her cell phone. “The Seven of Spades is too egotistical to think they’ll be caught. If the shoe fits . . .”

Wasn’t that the truth. Levi caught sight of Wen, gestured to get his attention, and headed over. Halfway across the room, however, someone called his name. He turned to see Dominic hurrying toward him, a visitor’s badge pinned to his shirt and worry etched all over his face.

They hadn’t planned to meet up again until tonight. Why—

God, Dominic must have heard about Sawyer. Of course he’d rush right over here.

Dominic reached Levi, touched his arm, and opened his mouth-but before he could speak, a uniformed officer near them shouted, “Guys!”

They only heard her because they were standing so close; for most of the people in the bullpen, her voice was lost in the roar of dozens of people talking over each other. Almost nobody noticed.

“Guys!” she tried again, to the same effect. Then she groaned, cast around, and snatched a megaphone off her coworker’s desk. “Hey, everybody!”

All over the bullpen, people jerked, flinched, and jumped. After a few initial exclamations of surprise, everyone fell silent and gave her their attention.

Blushing, she set the megaphone aside. “I just got a hit on the media alerts we set up. Another Utopia video went live a couple of minutes ago.”

Levi sucked in a breath as people sprang into action, scurrying back and forth. Would it be another warning? Maybe Utopia would indicate concrete potential targets. Or would it just be taunting news of an attack that would happen any moment, sent out to demoralize law enforcement with the realization that they could do nothing to stop it?

In short order, a large mobile monitor was queued up with the internet video, and everyone gathered around it in a rough semicircle. Levi easily pushed his way to the front of the crowd, Dominic close at his shoulder. Martine joined them a second later.