“Hang on a second,” Austin said.
He slipped the telephone into his shirt pocket and reached inside the door with his left arm, swiping at the wall for the light switch.
His fingers found it.
The office’s overhead fluorescent blubs flickered on—and, a split second after that, from deep within the office came a deafening explosion. It blasted through the walls and blew out windows, its white-hot fiery plume incinerating everything in its path.
—
Eight blocks away at City Hall, Willie Lane jerked the phone from his head when he heard the loud boom. He stared at the phone as the windows nearby rattled.
When he put the phone back to his ear, there was only silence.
[ THREE ]
Dignatio Worldwide
Third and Arch Streets
Old City
Philadelphia
Saturday, January 7, 1:10 P.M.
“You know, Matt, that Aimee is the chair of the board of directors of Camilla’s Kids,” Michael Grosse said, sitting at the head of the conference table. “But Camilla Rose also made Aimee the alternate executor, after me, of her estate. Aimee, of course, has long been made privy to all legal and financial matters concerning the charity. And now, as the process of getting Camilla Rose’s affairs in order begins, I’m sharing all I know with Aimee.”
Aimee Wolter sat to Grosse’s right, across from Matt Payne.
“Particularly, the financial irregularities,” she said.
Payne’s expression questioned this.
“It should go without saying that we’ve always had Camilla Rose’s best interests in mind,” Grosse said. “That cannot be said for others.”
“It’s not pretty, Matt,” Aimee said. “In fact, it’s criminal. And it’s why I’ve asked Michael to share with you everything he’s told me. I think it could help explain what happened with Camilla Rose.”
“I hope so,” Payne said, “because I have to tell you it’s not looking good. There’s that short gap in time that we simply can’t find out what happened. One of our big hopes was what we’d find on her phone. But The Krow—he’s one of my techs, supersharp—said that it was completely destroyed in the fall.”
Wolter thought about that, then said, “How do I know that if you find a killer, it won’t reflect badly on Camilla Rose?”
Payne locked eyes with her.
“I don’t know if it will or it won’t. That is out of my control. My job is to hunt down the miserable sonsofbitches who take others’ lives. There’s a Homicide saying that goes I speak for the dead. That may seem trite to some, but it’s absolutely true.
I give a voice to those who cannot defend themselves from the grave. Camilla Rose had her issues, but I don’t think suicide was one of them, and I’m doing my best to find out what happened.”
Wolter nodded.
“And I commend you,” she said. “I do. But you said it’s out of your control, if you find a killer, that it reflects badly on Camilla Rose . . .”
“Yes. Not that that’s what I want. I count myself among her big fans.”
“But, you see, it’s not out of my control. I get paid a lot of money by important people to control the message. That’s what I do, Matt, and I’m damn good at it. And right now it looks best for Camilla Rose, for her legacy, to have people believe the best. If there’s a killer, I’ll work around that, put her in the best light. But if you don’t find one, then the narrative is that it was simply a tragic accident. She slipped. She’s gone. And her kindness will continue to give to those in need. End of story.”
Payne nodded.
Aimee went on. “If there is some miserable son of a bitch, to borrow your words, indeed responsible for doing that to Camilla Rose, I want him to pay, to suffer the consequences—and more. I just don’t think, depending on what is learned, that there’s any good reason to drag her through the mud.”