Bunting persisted. “I believe that you can understand me. And I need you to think very carefully how you want this all to turn out, okay? We have a window of opportunity. But that window can’t remain open forever.”
A face of stone looked back at him.
After a few more attempts Bunting sighed, rose, and left. As he and Avery walked down the hall Avery said, “Sir, what if he did kill those people?”
“I’ve got over three hundred million people to protect. And I need Edgar Roy to do it.”
CHAPTER
17
MICHELLE SAT ACROSS from Sean in his bedroom. They’d filled each other in on events.
“Megan’s probably scared to death,” said Michelle.
“She’s got guts. As they were leaving, she told Murdock that she knew her rights and that he couldn’t push her around.”
“Good for her.”
“But then she started to tear up and got the hiccups. I think Murdock might have sensed that as a sign of weakness.”
“Right,” said Michelle in a disappointed tone. “So what now?”
“We struck out with Roy. We can’t really investigate Ted’s murder because Murdock won’t let us near anything.”
“So we investigate something else pertinent to the matter? Like is Edgar Roy guilty or not?”
Sean nodded. “And also why does a guy like him garner so much attention from the Feds? Granted he might be a serial killer, but there, unfortunately, are lots of serial killers. They don’t warrant late-night chopper rides and this kind of full-court press.”
“I think we need to look at what he was actually doing at the government.”
“Ted told me he worked at the IRS.”
“So we head back to Virginia?”
“We need to take care of Megan first. And we need to find out who retained Ted Bergin.”
“Seems like an attorney would check in with the paying client when he’s about to talk to the defendant.”
“Dobkin told you he only talked to Megan and Cutter’s. What about e-mails?”
“Dobkin didn’t mention any. A guy Bergin’s age might not be into smartphone e-mailing anyway.”
“Maybe not. But you’re right. He must be in contact with the client in some way.”
“Do you remember from the media reports whether Roy had family? If so, they might be the ones who hired Bergin.”
He said, “I recall reading that his parents were dead. I don’t remember the mention of any siblings. We’ll have to run it down some other way.” He opened his notepad and began scribbling. “Okay, Bergin’s investigation is closed off for now. We track down Roy’s background, the client, and then we need to get to the obvious point.”
“Namely, did Roy kill those people?” replied Michelle. “That’s what it comes down to. Which means we have to poke our nose into that investigation, too.”
“We were always going to do that anyway,” he pointed out. “But under discovery laws the prosecution has to provide the defense with all the evidence.”
“Can we poke around at the crime scene, too?”
“I think it would be malpractice if we didn’t.”
“Do you think Roy is faking it? I’ve seen guys do that zombie routine before when I was a cop. Especially if they’re staring at the death penalty.”