Page 55 of Dead Man's List

“If you can get us a search warrant for Fitzgerald’s office and home, that would be great,” Kit was saying. “The evidence is light, but it’s worth a try.”

“The three of you heard her say she’d searched for something that belonged to Munro,” Navarro said, “and that she and her caller had to get out. I think it’s at least enough for a search warrant for her suitcases if she tries to run. I’ll let you know when I have it. With all the focus on this case, I think I can push it through quickly if I get the right judge.”

“Thank you, sir. We’ll continue with our plan for the day. We’re a few minutes from the prison.”

“Tasker’s something of a loose cannon,” Navarro cautioned. “I’m not pinning great hopes on what he’ll give you.”

“We at least have to talk to him.” She ended the call and sighed. “He’s right, you know. Tasker isn’t going to tell us anything.”

“It’s not like we can even offer him anything,” Connor grumbled. “Guy’s serving life without parole.”

“There’s always something they want,” Sam said quietly. He hoped. “Can we talk about Veronica Fitzgerald before we see Tasker?”

Kit’s gaze twitched away, then slowly returned. Sam could almost feel the effort it took her to meet his eyes. The fear was gone, but the shame was still there and that could not stand.

“What about her?” she asked.

“You asked me to be a part of this for my opinion, but you never asked me what I thought about her.”

Connor glanced at him briefly before returning his eyes to the road. “What did you think?”

Kit drew a breath. “Yes. What did you think of Veronica Fitzgerald?”

“She’s a snake. I think you could have been rougher with her.”

Kit’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

He almost laughed but didn’t dare. Kit seemed too fragile at the moment. “You were rough on her, giving her the list of Munro’s injuries like you did, but I think you could have gone further. You never mentioned the damage done to his genitalia.”

As if on cue, Connor winced. “Fuck,” he muttered.

“Yeah, well, not my favorite topic, either,” Sam admitted, “but it’s a reality of this case. Seeing as how they were almost definitely involved—sexually if not also romantically—I think that could have enraged her into saying something. I mean, they were together for fifteen years.”

Kit’s mouth was working but no sound emerged.

Connor smirked, looking at his partner in the rearview mirror. “You broke her, Sammy.”

“I doubt that. It would take a lot more to break Kit McKittrick.” He sighed. “Did you think I couldn’t take seeing you play bad cop?”

“No,” she finally said. “I knew you could take it. We did it to you, after all.”

They had. When he’d been suspected of murder nine months before. He’d had the same reaction as Veronica Fitzgerald after his interview. He’d barely made it to the bathroom before he’d thrown up everything he’d eaten that day.

“True enough. I knew about Veronica before we walked into her office. She gave me the runaround when I was trying to make an appointment with him over the summer, when New Horizons’s funding was up for a vote.”

Kit’s eyes were suddenly sharp. “What did she say to you?”

Good.Kit was back. “Said he was a busy man, that he didn’thave time for such matters. Said that I might be able to get on his calendar…” He trailed off, the details of the conversation coming back in a rush. “Well, shit. She was shaking me down.”

Kit leaned forward as much as her seat belt would allow. “What do you mean?”

“She said I could get on his calendar several weeks from my call, but that would have been too late. I told her that, and she said that campaign donors could ‘sometimes be worked in.’ ” He used air quotes. “She was trying to shake me down for a campaign contribution. At the time I didn’t think anything of it other than she seemed sleazy, but I wonder how many people had to pay to see Munro.”

Kit frowned. “Why would she be able to ask for a donation to begin with? He’s not running again. He’s not allowed. Term limits.”

Connor held up a finger. “What if he had higher aspirations? State senate or even higher than that? Remember that list of campaign donors that Marshall and Ashton found in his files? A number of those donations were recent, like within the past few months.”

“Let’s check that out, then.” Kit typed it into her Notes app. “I almost wish you’d paid her, Sam, so we could know what she would have done with it. If it was a simple shakedown and not a contribution, there would have been no paper trail.”

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