Chapter 37 - The Husband I Buried

Now

My phone buzzed. After searching for Elena Farrell online, and coming up empty-handed, I’d left it on silent to enjoy my Saturday afternoon walking Tess.

I hadn’t called Keith after last night. Not yet. I wanted to be sure.

Tess raced through the park, nose to the ground like she was tracking something only she could see.

I fumbled around her harness to answer the call. ‘Hey Carl,’ I said, adjusting the earbuds in my ears.

‘Mackenzie!’ He sounded rushed. ‘I’ve found something. A few somethings actually.’

‘On a Saturday? Shouldn’t you be spending time with Michael?’

The afternoon sun suddenly felt undeserved while Carl was still looking for answers.

‘Don’t get sentimental. He’s quite happy enjoying some sun on the deck. You know Saturday night is when I shine.’

I slowed my pace, tightening my grip on Tess’s leash, smiling to myself, glad of the levity. Carl was an endless stream of energy. ‘OK. Start talking.’

‘I looked into the Coterie Institute. They trade under Farrell Enterprises.’

I stopped walking.

Farrell.

Elena Farrell.

The woman Sofia had said was friends with Luis.

‘What kind of enterprise?’ I asked.

‘Consulting,’ he said. ‘Formed three years ago. Registered out of Delaware. No listed employees.’

‘A shell company,’ I said.

‘Textbook,’ Carl replied. ‘Here’s the interesting part. They don’t advertise. They don’t solicit. They don’t invoice in the traditional sense.’

‘How do they make money?’ I asked.

‘They don’t,’ he said. ‘They move it.’

A chill crept up my spine.

‘I pulled bank activity tied to the firm,’ he went on.

‘Our firm?’

‘Yeah. Routine stuff at first. Trust accounts. Escrow movements. But about six months ago, there’s a line item that doesn’t fit.’

I already knew what he was going to say.

‘A retainer,’ he said. ‘Paid into the firm’s operating account. Not huge. Just enough to look ordinary.’

‘From Farrell Enterprises,’ I said.

‘Yes.’

I closed my eyes briefly.

‘And before you ask,’ Carl added, ‘no client file attached. No billing narrative. No corresponding case number.’

‘That shouldn’t be possible,’ I said.

‘It is,’ he replied. ‘If the payment came through Elizabeth’s, or your, discretionary intake channel.’

Of course. ‘Well, it wasn’t through mine,’ I said.

‘I figured.’

Tess tugged at the leash, impatient. I followed her to a nearby bench and sat, the world rushing around me.

‘How many times?’ I asked.

Carl hesitated. ‘Four.’

I swallowed.

‘It gets better,’ he said. ‘Guess who paid for representation for your new client, Rebecca?’

‘Farrell Enterprises?’ I guessed, tongue-in-cheek.

‘Farrell fucking Enterprises.’

The pieces didn’t click so much as slide into place, quietly, like they’d always been waiting.

I quickly told Carl about Elena Farrell. ‘I’m starting to think “Elena” isn’t a person so much as a function. An alias tied to an account for a specific purpose,’ I said, wondering if the woman, Luis’s friend, was really called Elena.

‘That’s my read,’ Carl agreed. ‘A financial mask. Something you route things through when you don’t want names attached.’

‘But why use it now? I couldn’t find anything on Elena Farrell online. It’s like she doesn’t exist—’

‘—because maybe she doesn’t,’ finished Carl.

I looked down at Tess, blissfully gnawing on a stick. ‘Carl,’ I said, ‘how exposed am I?’

There was a pause on the line. ‘Legally?’ he said. ‘Not yet. You didn’t authorize the intake. You didn’t control the account.’

‘But?’

‘But you’ve defended at least two people whose fees trace back to the same source,’ he said. ‘That’s a pattern. And patterns get noticed.’

I exhaled slowly. ‘OK.’

‘I’m not done,’ Carl said. ‘There’s something else.’

My stomach tightened. ‘Go on.’

‘I got a call from a contact at the DA’s office,’ he said. ‘Off the record.’

I didn’t like the sound of that.

‘They’ve picked Rebecca up,’ he said. ‘An hour ago.’

‘What?’ I stood abruptly, Tess scrambling to keep up.

‘She’s been arrested,’ Carl confirmed. ‘Arson-related charges. They’re moving fast.’

‘That’s too fast,’ I said. ‘They didn’t have enough evidence.’

‘They do now,’ he replied. ‘Search warrant turned up something they’re calling “new corroboration”.’

‘Do you know what that something is?’ I asked.

‘No,’ Carl said. ‘But whatever it is, it pushed them over the line.’

I closed my eyes, my thoughts racing.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘We’re not supposed to know about it yet, so we sit on this until she calls. In the meantime, keep digging. Tomorrow we compare notes.’

‘And tonight?’ he asked.

I clipped Tess’s leash shorter and started toward home. ‘Tonight, we don’t do anything.’

We hung up.

And I went home to do exactly what I had told Carl not to do.