“I know he asked you to keep it under wraps. Anyway, I’m told you have some news?”
He doesn’t answer right away, but I can hear him hesitate on the other side of the line. “This is a prepaid phone,” I explain. “I paid cash, and only two people know this number. And I’ll venture they can’t tap from your end, as it would be inadmissible in court.”
“Mr. Coleman told us you were very clever. Thank you for taking such precautions. We heard earlier this week that the prosecution had filed new evidence. It looks like they subpoenaed PTO logs from Avoss and Kelex, from back when Nammota was active.”
“And?”
“Mr. Coleman’s few vacation days seem to coincide with Nammota’s timeline. All of his paid time off occurred a couple of weeks prior to Nammota’s known hits.”
Shit… “That doesn’t look good for him, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t. We’ve also agreed on a trial date with the judge, which means they might have more, but haven’t filed the evidence yet.”
“There’s a date?”
“Yes, it’ll be made public next week. We’re going to trial on June twenty-eighth.”
That’s in four months. Almost to the day. I could have four months of Lex left. If he lets me have that much.
“Thank you, Mr. Goldberg,” I say, as if on autopilot.
“Of course. Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything else, Miss Walker.”
“Thank you. Have a good day.”
I hang up, eyes lost on the Mercedes-Benz logo on the steering wheel.
Four months is too long. Seeing Lex today showed me how close he is to breaking. Five weeks in there, and he’s already half gone. I don’t want to imagine what that much time will do to him. And I don’t want to imagine what’ll happen to him if he gets life in prison.
Nearly all the evidence they have against him is circumstantial. Coincidences, small things that match, a strong hunch… They don’t have a smoking gun yet. Nothing that can convince a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that mild-mannered Alexander Coleman is the infamous Nammota. But they might get it. They have four months to find it, which could be plenty enough.
I’m not letting that happen. No fucking way. I can’t sit there and do nothing for four months, crossing my fingers and praying that everything will be fine. I’ll go fucking mad if I have to, just like Lex.
I don’t know how long I stay in the car, trying to think through the growing panic within me. It takes the prepaid phone buzzing in my distracted hold to rip me out of it. When I check, I immediately recognize the number.
“Oli?” I say as I pick up.
“They found something. Several things.”
Jesus, more bad news…“What?”
“A text file. A list. The record says they found it on one of Lex’s old hard drives. It contains names of politicians, senators, governors, elected officials…”
“Why is it bad?”
“The metadata. Three months after he created that file, every single one of those names was on Nammota’s ‘Laundry List’ hit, plus a few more.”
Jesus Christ. I know exactly what Oli’s talking about. Lex dug deep into several high-ranking politicians and exposed their involvement with problematic entities. Bribes, payments disguised as donations, offshore accounts with hidden money… Lex had plastered it on a public website for all to see. I still remember how it took the feds months to take down the website. By then, most of those politicians had resigned or were removed from their positions, and half of them faced justice in the years that followed.
If the prosecution really has that list and it predates the hit, then it’s really,reallybad for Lex. They officially have their smoking gun.
“You said they foundseveralthings?” I say, scared to hear it.
“They haven’t logged the rest yet, but I found an email between Collins and their tech guy. He says there’s more.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. They might have several smoking guns, then. Enough to keep Lex in there forever.
I can’t let that happen. I won’t.
