“I foundthe photo that I assume you’ve already seen of Park with her.”
“Yeah, Gavin showed me.”
“Zoe’s parents were invited guests to Mrs. Fleischman’s annual cookout in the Hamptons and brought her along. Although to call Mrs. Fleischman’s annual event a cookout is like calling Le Bernardin a place to get a quick bite to eat. Guests this year included George Clooney, Arianna Huffington, the senatorPark is running to replace, the mayor of New York City, the British prime minister, the German ambassador to the US, andthreeex-presidents.”
“I’m familiar with the party. Get on with it.”
Reed glanced at his screen, his face twisted into a half smile. “Ms. Haufman didn’t acquit herself well. A police report from the event indicates that late into the night, she got into a huge fightwith a cater waiter, he threw a punch, and she called the police crying assault. The waiter lost his job, although records indicate Zoe didn’t press charges.”
“Christ.”
“This all happened after Park left the party, which seems relevant to you. Your boy has a tendency to stay long enough to eat a meal and give a speech, but he doesn’t really party. He poses for the appropriate photos andthen gets out of there.”
“He’s an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type and always has been. Used to say he does his best work first thing in the morning.”
Reed’s eyes went wide. “That’s insane. Also one more reason not to vote for him. Next you’ll tell me he doesn’t drink coffee.”
“Oh, no, he does. By the bucket.” There had been many a morning when Jackson got the coffee maker going, leftto shower, and came back to find the pot already half empty.
“Okay. At least he’s human. Barely.” Reed cleared his throat. “Anyway, it seems pretty likely that, on the night of her death, Zoe made a nuisance of herself.”
“That night, she had a fancy dinner out and then the cops lost track of her.”
“You think she needed to meet Park about something?”
“No. By the time she left therestaurant where she was last seen, Park had already been at the fund-raiser for a couple of hours. Her going to his place doesn’t make any sense.”
“Unless someone else lured her there.”
“Yeah, but that’s...” Was that so outlandish an idea, though? “Okay, that’s pretty logical, even while it seems like a big leap.”
Reed put his phone down and pulled out a pad of paper. “The way I figureit, what very likely happened is that someone, probably someone who doesn’t know Park is gay, convinced Zoe Haufman to come to Park’s apartment as a way to set him up and create a scandal. Whether that someone killed her on purpose or not may remain a mystery, but I think either is plausible. If this guy set her up and she pissed him off?”
“That’s as good a theory of the crime as any.” Jacksonwas grateful to Reed for putting this together. He was so all over the place emotionally that he hadn’t been able to focus on solving the case. What a mess. “Except we don’t know who this mysterious person is. Who would want to set him up?” It seemed possible that any number of people—members of his own campaign staff, members of his opponent’s staff, disgruntled former employees—might want tocreate an embarrassing situation for Park.
“Who would have keys to his apartment?” Reed asked, voicing Jackson’s next question. Reed looked at his computer screen for a moment. “Park lives in a doorman building, doesn’t he? Surely the doorman kept track of comings and goings. Or there must be security cameras.”
“Gavin said the management company that owns the building is being cagey aboutthe video recordings.”
“Let’s schedule a meeting with Gavin to go over the footage.”
Jackson laughed mirthlessly, feeling tired and frustrated. “We can’t just do that. The prosecution still gets to sift through evidence and build a case without interference from defense attorneys. And Park still hasn’t been arrested, so Gavin doesn’t have to share jack with us.”
“Isn’t Gavin your friend?”
Jackson had intended to follow up and find out if the video surveillance revealed anything. Probably once they got it, they’d have their work cut out for them, since there were eighty units in Park’s building and a lot of people coming and going at all times. “I’ll call him tomorrow.” Then Jackson smiled. “Better give me your schedule so I can make sure we meet when you’re available, sinceI know you want to see him again.”
“I don’t have a man-crush on him, or whatever you’re thinking.”
“Uh-huh.”
“He’s an interesting fella. That’s all. I’m married, remember? To a woman?”
“Sure.”
“Fuck you, Jack. You’re all hung up on this slimy politician client of yours.”
Jackson knew he didn’t have much of a leg to stand on as far as this little argument went, but he enjoyedteasing Reed. “I’ll try to connect with Gavin tomorrow to present him with this theory. Maybe he’ll know by then who entered Park’s building without belonging there.”
“All right. Good. If you want me there, let me know, but I don’t really need to be there if you’d prefer to keep my involvement with the case quiet.”
“I don’t think it matters that much. Unless you don’t want to see yourfoxy police crush after all.”
Reed rolled his eyes and pushed away from the desk. “Shut up.”
Jackson sat back in the chair and rubbed his forehead. Frustration bubbled up in his chest, mostly with himself, because he should have had his head screwed on tight enough to come up with this theory himself. This was a sign he had no business on the case. He wasn’t willing to let it go entirely,because now that he’d committed he wanted to see the case through, but maybe it was time to let Reed take a bigger role.
Maybe it was time to talk to Park.
