Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry(80)
“He didn’t tell anybody, but I found out. I went to put a message on his desk. My hand must have brushed the keyboard and it got his computer out of sleep mode.”
Gina smiled broadly at the image of Jane “accidentally” seeing a message meant for her boss.
“I guess he’s one of the people who’ve decided there’s not much of a future in magazines. He took a job at a REL News station in London. Got to go. Say hi to Nebraska for me.”
Gina slowly sat down on the bed, her mind reeling. Think things through, she ordered herself. Could Geoff’s going to REL be a coincidence? Not a chance. Somebody at REL got to him. In exchange for an offer of employment, Geoff pulled her off the REL investigation. But wouldn’t they have been better off leaving Geoff in place? When Gina found out he went to REL, they’d know she would suspect—She stopped in mid-thought. She wasn’t supposed to find out he went to REL. It was a fluke that Jane saw it on his computer and mentioned it to her.
How could they know about my investigation? she asked herself. Am I being watched? The answer dawned on her. It made sense. The victims who settled almost certainly agreed to contact REL if any reporters came nosing around. She remembered the REL lawyer, Brady, commenting that he was surprised Meg Williamson agreed to meet with her. Meg wasn’t acting on her own. She was told what to do.
An all-encompassing feeling of being alone gripped Gina. What should I do? She opened her phone to Contacts, selected Ted, and quickly typed a three-word text. She pushed SEND before she had the opportunity to convince herself it was the wrong thing to do.
Gina took several deep breaths to calm down. What would Ted say if he were here sitting next to me? Her eyes alighted on the lone box she had not gone through. He’d say, Get to work.
86
Gina glanced at her watch: 9:45. Check-out time was eleven o’clock, but most hotels, upon request, would give you a little extra time. But she didn’t want to cut it too close. When she finished here, she still had to drive the boxes back to Lucinda’s house, make her way to the airport, and turn in the rental car. If she missed her flight, it could mean a substantial change fee and paying for another night in a hotel room.
A half hour earlier she had come across the first pieces of the evidence she was looking for. Scattered inside several manila envelopes were articles about abused women who had received settlements from major corporations. Paula had printed out a story about a reporter at Fox News who had received a $10 million settlement. 5X what I got. Next time a lawyer!! was scrawled in the margin. The name of the attorney for the woman had been circled. Was it possible Paula had contacted her? Gina entered the name in her laptop.
Wanting to give her eyes a break, she used the machine in the room to make a cup of coffee. It was warm, weak, and predictably foul-tasting.
Paula settled for $2 million without using a lawyer, Gina thought. She ultimately lost most of the money on a boyfriend’s bad investment. If Meg Williamson received a similar amount, that would explain the mortgage-free house in Rye on a modest salary. Cathy Ryan came from a wealthy family. Maybe it was harder or impossible to tempt her with money.
Gina sat back down and resumed the task of going through Paula’s records. She flipped through documents related to the purchase of the residence. In the next folder was a wide array of late notices from credit card companies, utilities, an auto leasing firm, and the phone company. There was correspondence from a law firm representing the condominium association threatening to commence foreclosure procedures. Paula’s final days were anything but peaceful, Gina thought. She had ample motive to try to get more from REL.
A white 8.5-by-11-inch envelope was the last item in the box. Only one word was written on the outside. Judas. Gina undid the metal clasp and pulled out a three-page document. The letterhead was from Carter & Associates. Oddly, there was no business address, only a phone number. Trying to contain her excitement, Gina read the settlement agreement Paula had signed a year and a half earlier. There was no mention of counsel representing Paula. The only names on the signature page were hers and that of a Michael Carter and a notary.
Gina flipped over the document and recognized the familiar spidery handwriting. 6/24 left message. 6/27 11:00 at 123 Meridian Parkway. The dates immediately triggered a memory. She opened her laptop and called up the police report she had scanned into her computer. Paula’s body had been discovered on Monday, June 27. She knew the police would try to use whatever they could find in the apartment to determine the approximate time of death. According to the police investigation report, “a flier dated Friday, June 24, announcing a condominium association meeting that would be held on Wednesday, June 29, was found on the kitchen counter. According to the president of the condo association, the fliers were distributed to the door of each resident on the afternoon of Sunday, June 26.”
So if Paula took in the flier, she was alive at least until that Sunday afternoon, Gina thought. Whoever was scheduled to meet Paula on Meridian Parkway on Monday afternoon could have killed her Sunday evening or into Monday morning. Finding out where she lived would have been easy. She had purchased the condo in her own name. The information was in a public database.
Gina typed the Meridian Parkway address into her computer. The building offered temporary office space. She needed to find someone there who would share with her which companies/individuals were renting space on June 27.