“Christ, are you preparing for winter hibernation?” Korbin asked, but I ignored him, not in the mood for his sarcasm.
“I’m kind of busy. What is it?”
“Oh, I think you’ll like this.” Korbin flipped on the living-room light and reached into his back pocket, where he produced a cell phone. He set it on the work desk scattered with papers, grinning like an oaf.
“What happened?”
“I knew something was up, Captain,” Korbin said. I looked down at the glowing screen, wondering if there was something on the screen I was supposed to be seeing. He leaned forward to tap on the screen, and an audio recording began to play. For a moment, whatever was being said on the tape made no sense, a conversation I had no knowledge of, but as I listened closer, the hair on the back of my neck prickled straight.
“Is anyone onto us?” someone said. I wracked my brain, trying to put that voice to a face. It sounded so, so familiar.
“No one,” said a second male voice. “It’s her word against ours. But—I think this has been taken too far, sir.”
“Is that—?” He nodded. I looked up at Korbin, who stared at me grimly, his arms folded.
“Jake Finn.”
“But what is Jake …?” I let my question trail as the other man started to speak again.
“I’ll have her serve some time and then be released. I’m tired of this city’s fire department looking like some fucking whore house.”
“She’s the only female, sir,” Jake said. “And I don’t think—”
“Thank you for your help in this matter, Mr. Finn, but I’ve got it under control now.”
There was silence, and then, “Thank you, Mr. Mayor.”
Korbin reached over to pick up his phone from the desk, but I barely saw him. I felt dizzy suddenly, sick with realization. For a moment, I almost doubled over to vomit in the trash can next to the desk. When I caught my breath and looked up, Korbin was still staring at me.
“That was Mayor Jensen?” I confirmed, and Korbin nodded again. “How do we know?”
“We know because I planted it in the mayor’s office after Paisley’s arrest,” he said. “The day we went to see him. Under his desk. I stopped to grab it on my way over here. It was still under his desk where I’d left it.”
We stared at each other, and I searched his face for any trace of shame or guilt. There was none. He was going to help Paisley, and that’s all there was.
“Why?” I said. “What made you do that?”
“Because I knew she didn’t do it,” Korbin said. “And that little twerp Finn had been acting strange since the beginning.”
“This was a setup,” I said. “Paisley was framed for the fires.”
“Yeah. To get her kicked off the department. But it went too far, and she was arrested because the mayor didn’t want a female firefighter in the department. It dampened his reputation.”
“The thug that attacked Paisley—?”
“Works for the big man,” Korbin said. “When the fires weren’t working, they took it a step further.”
“Jesus.” I put my head in my hands and took a deep breath, a whirlwind of emotions slamming me in the gut. “She’s innocent.”
“Of course, she is,” Korbin said. “She always has been. This just confirms it.” He paused, then shook his head. “But I still don’t know about that witness. How is she involved? Is she also working for Mayor Jensen?”
“Actually,” I pulled over the notepad I’d been scribbling on earlier and showed it to him. On the paper, I’d written a name, and below the name was a bit more information. “The lawyer told Paisley the day he visited her that the witness’s name was Brenda Sharpe.”
“So?”
“So, I paid Jeremy a little visit last night.”
“Cap.”
