Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington 7)

“And colliding with a tree would certainly be enough pressure,” Stone said.

“This guy is very clever,” Lundquist said. “That was the sort of technical thing that would have gone completely unnoticed if you hadn’t given us a heads up to look for something.”

“This same guy once rigged an airplane engine to fail, killing all three aboard,” Stone said. “He’s not stupid, and he has some skills.”

“What?” Lundquist demanded. “He’s murdered three other people?”

“If he’s who I think he is,” Stone said. He explained Paul Manning’s background, not mentioning that he had been Liz’s husband.

“So we couldn’t charge him with those three killings, then?” Lundquist asked.

“No, he was tried and convicted. Then the authorities were bought off.”

“He might even have a pardon,” Liz said.

Stone looked at her. “Was his wife pardoned?”

“In a manner of speaking. She was given a piece of paper.”

“So, Lieutenant, do you have enough evidence to arrest him?”

“I can arrest him for obtaining a Minnesota driver’s license under a false name, and I can probably get him extradited, but I’m not sure we have enough evidence to convict him of murder. Still, I’d like to get him back to Minneapolis and question him thoroughly. Maybe he’ll even cop to it.”

“Not a chance,” Stone said. “He’d lawyer up in a heartbeat. I’d be willing to bet he’s got the number in his pocket right now, just in case. And it sounds like you’d have a hell of a time proving that he tampered with the seat belt. His attorney would paint it as damaged in the accident or defectively manufactured, and Bartlett as a grieving husband.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Lundquist said, “but I’m waiting for a call from my office, and when they come up with just a little more evidence, I’m going to bust him. At the very least I can expose his false identity and let the world know who he is.”

“He’s not going to tell you who he is,” Stone said, “and that’s the only way you’re going to find out. The feds certainly aren’t going to admit that he was in their program.”

“If he’s Paul, I can identify him in court,” Liz said.

“I thought you were refusing to face him,” Stone replied.

“I won’t while he’s free, but I’d be happy to testify as to his identity, if it would help put him away.”

“I don’t know that it would,” Stone said. “Given the evidence we’ve got, I’d much rather defend him than prosecute.”

“This is very convoluted,” Dino said. “Not only do we not know if he was in the witness protection program, we don’t even know what name he was using before he went in.”

“I don’t understand,” Liz said.

“Okay, he gets out of being hanged in St. Marks, and he returns to this country. He’s not going back to using Paul Manning for a name, he’s going to pick another one. Then he gets involved in whatever ends up getting him into the program, and he gives the feds that name, not Manning. They change it to another name, then he skips out of the program and changes it again. And there may be a couple of other name changes that we don’t even know about.”

“Holy cow,” Lundquist said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I came down here.”

“You probably wanted a little nice weather, like me,” Dino said. He waved an arm. “And look what we got.”

Lundquist gazed through the transparent curtains as lightning lit up Lake Worth. “I might as well have stayed in Minneapolis.”

“Well,” Chief Griggs said, “if it’s any consolation, I think we’ve got enough to run him out of Palm Beach.”

“You sound like an Old West sheriff,” Callie said.

“It’s a little different,” Griggs replied. “In the Old West, I’d have threatened to shoot him

if he showed his face in town again. Nowadays, I’d just make sure the local and Florida papers heard the whole story, and once everybody had heard about it and gossiped about it, he wouldn’t be able to show his face in town again. We had a guy down here a few years back that had kidnapped his young kids when a divorce didn’t go his way. Established himself here under another name and stayed for years until his wife caught up with him. Now he’s persona non grata among the people he knew best. That, I can do to Bartlett, or whatever his name is.”

“It isn’t enough,” Liz said. “He could still try to kill me.”