“If it’s the latter, you’re going to need to wait until I leave the room,” Brad said, with an amused smile.
“It wasn’t hard to get information on any of the four names you gave me Tennyson.” Ash opened a folder sitting beside him and picked out several sheets of paper. “Let’s start with Duncan MacBain. He’s been a member of the SPD since 1990 and retired in 2020. He’s got a clean record, but has a gambling problem. Spends four nights a week at that new casino in Boston. Duncan started having financial problems in 2018. He’s into a couple of heavy hitters for a lot of money. He owes one shark a little over ten thousand dollars and the other a touch over twenty-five thousand.”
“Which makes him vulnerable to blackmail,” Fitz said.
“Or could force him to do some shady work off the books,” Jude added.
“As for Robert ‘Bobbo’ Oliveri, he’s as clean as the day is long. He’s been retired from the SPD for almost a decade. He’s a member of his local Lions chapter, volunteers and raises money for the Boston Marathon. He works part-time at a local animal shelter, running background checks on potential pet parents. His finances are stable with no red flags.”
“What do you mean red flags?” Ten asked.
“His credit rating is high and he’s never had a late payment, there’s also no history of large cash deposits, which can sometimes be a marker of nefarious business dealings. As far as I’m concerned, you can cross Bobbo off your list of suspects.”
“Bobbo?” Jude asked. “What the hell kind of nickname is that?”
“Kind of like Dano in Hawaii Five-0?” Ronan suggested. “What have you got on Fallon Kirkpatrick?”
“This is where things get interesting.” Ash grinned at the detectives.
“I like interesting,” Fitzgibbon said, his demeanor perking up.
“Fallon has been an attorney with the public defender’s office for nearly twenty years. He’d graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School.”
“Wait a second,” Ronan began. “Why the hell is this guy a public defender if he went to Harvard? Is he wealthy and represents poor clients out of the goodness of his heart?”
Ash shook his head. “I told you this was where things got interesting. According to Fallon’s boss, he’s a miserable SOB. He hates his clients, his co-workers, his life. When I spoke to Harvard classmates, they all told me Fallon was a creep. There was something about him that was off-putting. He didn’t come from money or connections and seemed desperate to somehow break into that world. Whatever he did, didn’t work. He was the only member of his graduating class not to have secured a job at a law firm prior to graduation. He’s the only one from his class not to have passed the bar on the first try. He’s also been before the board of reviewtwicefor disbarment hearings.”
“This sounds promising,” Fitzgibbon said, rubbing his hands together.
“But wait, there’s more!” Ash laughed. “Fallon has a long history of bad credit. He had evictions, repossessions and defaults on his credit report up until 2007, when he got himself out of debt completely. There’s no record of him winning the lottery, being the beneficiary of someone’s will, or anything like that.”
“Is there more?” Fitz asked.
“How did you guess? Fallon started having credit problems again in 2018. It seems that whatever scheme he was involved with had gone bust.”
“Motherfucker,” Ronan whispered under his breath.
“What is it, Ronan?” Jude asked.
“Oliveri retired in 2018. Fallon’s potentially criminal enterprise ended in 2018. MacBain started having financial trouble in 2018.”
“Christ, if we’re right, that the murders stopped in late 2017 to coincide with Oliveri’s retirement, that opens an entirely different can of worms here. We might not have one killer, but two.”
“I don’t understand,” Ten said. “What do MacBain and Fallon’s money trouble have to do with Oliveri retiring from the police force and you thinking there are two killers?”
“Whatever cash cow they were milking ran dry in 2018. MacBain and Fallon were making a lot of money that I can’t trace. What if they were involved in murder for hire schemes with Cisco pulling the strings?” Brad asked.
“No, there’s no way,” Jude was quick to say.
“I’m with Jude,” Ronan said. “If you’re involved in a money making scheme why end it because someone in the food chain retired?”
“It wasn’t just that Oliveri retired in 2018, Cisco was made interim chief of police after Chief Alcott died.”
“How did Alcott die?” Fitzgibbon asked, in a worried tone.
“I don’t know. None of us were with the department back then.” Ronan reached for his phone and started tapping. “Jesus, Fitz, you don’t think that-?”
“One step at a time, Ronan.” Fitz sounded like he did think it was possible Alcott’s death wasn’t a natural one.
