“I hate Dominique Sharp. She’s a vindictive, manipulative woman who was going to destroy my family’s legacy. Not only was she kicking my father out, but she was planning to get rid of me too.”
“So much for not knowing her, huh.” She threw his earlier lie in his face.
“I said I didn’t know herpersonally.”
“Whatever. You certainly put on an exceptional performance showing me that Broadway playbill, swooning about how the sale of the firm would allow you to do what you wanted with your life.”
Sullivan had the nerve to smile at the compliment.
Amanda wished she had seen through him, but some peoplewere skilled liars. “I think there’s even more to this than you just being against the sale though,” she tiptoed, testing out her new theory.
“Oh, yeah? What do you think you know?” Sullivan asked her.
“Dominique had damaging intel against your father, involving you. She blackmailed him to sell to her at below-market value.”
Sullivan’s eyes hardened. “She wanted his firm or his license.”
“So you decided killing Dominique was the only way to stop all of that from happening.”
Sullivan shrugged.
“All right, but why rope Corey into this mess? Why not handle things yourself?”
“Corey loves me, Detective. He would do anything for me.”
It was sickening how Sullivan had exploited Corey and his knowledge about computers and ability to access the dark web. “Well, now he’s going to prison for life, just like you.” Amanda listed the formal charges against him and left the room. A sour feeling came from talking with Sullivan, but at least there was going to be justice for Christine Lane, Joel Blackburn, and Trent.
After notifying a uniformed officer to take Sullivan to the cells, she returned to her desk. A few minutes after sitting down, she got a call from the front desk informing her that Dominique Sharp had arrived.
Amanda collected her and said, “If you’d come with me…”
“What’s going on?”
“We just need to have a little chat.” Amanda phrased it as if the proposal was harmless. But Dominique had to know after providing the code to her safe, it was only a matter of time before her dark secret would come to light. Amanda stopped outside of an interview room and gestured for her to go inside.
“Fine, but I hope the room has been thoroughly cleaned.” Dominique swept ahead of Amanda into the room, pulled out a chair, and sat down. Her lips were curled in disgust, and one would think she’d never been in such a room to represent clients. Or it may have felt different being the one under suspicion.
Amanda closed the door behind them. She was armed with her discovery from the safe and ready to confront Dominique. “I’m just going to get right to the point. I think you knew who wanted you dead all along.” That revelation was the more bittersweet aspect about all of this. Lives could have been saved. Trent may not have been stabbed.
“As I’ve told you many times, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t have enemies.”
Amanda couldn’t understand why Dominique was playing dumb. It must have been some ploy. “Fine, play it how you like, but I found all I needed in your safe. Howard Gabay took on a case ten months ago. Hackett. He was an unscrupulous businessman. Howard was supposed to represent him, but the file showed he did a poor job of it, and Hackett was sent to prison for fraud. Around that time, Howard was working with the district attorney’s office to make DUI charges against Sullivan Gabay disappear. But along with some interesting reading, there was a recording on a USB stick. If you like, I can play it or read the transcript for you?”
Dominique narrowed her eyes.
“All right, I’ll summarize. I’m sure you’re very familiar with what was on there. A conversation between Howard and his son. Howard told him he had a deal worked out to sacrifice his client to the prosecution in return for his son’s pardon.”
Dominique shrugged. “What of it?”
Amanda was under no illusion that Dominique didn’t get the implication. “Let’s start with how you got this recording.”
“I choose to exercise my Fifth Amendment right.”
It was a constitutional law that allowed people to remain quiet if talking would incriminate them. “That says enough. You had no legal right to record this conversation, but you used it as leverage to get revenge on Howard Gabay.”
“That’s ludicrous. Why would I need to get revenge on Howard? I was buying his firm, for God’s sake.”
“We both know you wanted revenge, but we’ll get to that. Backing up a bit, after you came into possession of this conversation, Hackett was sent to prison. That happened six months ago. Around the same time you approached Howard with plans to blackmail him. You threatened to expose him to the bar and have his license stripped if he didn’t sell his firm to you for a bargain.”
