Makes sense.
Liam turned his attention to Knox. “You said your part in all of this was one of the reasons you needed to discuss this whole thing in person. What’s the other?”
“Like Mrs. Gall…er…Allison…there aren’t many people in this city I trust. The department knows I work off-duty here from time-to-time, so if someone happens to be watching me, then seeing me come and go from the shelter won’t raise any red flags.”
“Why would someone be watching you?”
“Like I said before.” The other man shifted in his seat. “I’ve been trying to nail Tommy Gallo for over two years.”
“And you don’t go after a man like that without raising a few flags of your own.”
“Exactly.” Knox nodded. “And as Allison pointed out, the man has a shit ton of money and connections out the ass. To put things into perspective, I sweep my apartment and electronics for bugs twice a week.”
Now it was all finally starting to make sense.
“When I looked into Gallo, I came across some interesting information. One that really caught my eye was a murder investigation naming you as the lead detective and Tommy Gallo as your number one suspect.”
Allison’s tiny hitch of a breath had him looking her way in time to see her blinking the brief look of surprise from her face. In an instant, it was replaced with an almost defiant expression. As if she were about to defend the very man she, herself, had claimed to be a monster.
“Y-You think Tommy killed someone?” Her throat worked a hard swallow. “Who?”
“One of his so-called business associates,” Knox shared. “A man by the name of Martin Torres.”
Allison’s audible gasp was impossible to miss.
“I take it you knew him?” Liam made the not-so-big leap.
Her nod was jerky, her lips rolling in on themselves. “Marty worked closely with Tommy.”
“Doing what?”
She gave a stilted shrug of one shoulder. “I never really knew.” She chuckled humorlessly. “Of course, all I ever knew about Tommy’s work was that he’d taken over his family’s construction business. So it made sense when he was always taking private phone calls, away for client meetings, or off putting out fires at some job site. It wasn’t until later I realized he was involved in a lot more than construction. I still never knew for sure what, but?—”
“You have an idea.”
It was Knox who’d spoken, but he’d parroted Liam’s thoughts. From the get-go, he’d felt as though there was something Allison wasn’t saying. A secret she was keeping close to the vest. Was this it? Did she know specifics about the kind of shitstorm Tommy was involved in?
“I have m suspicions.” Her gaze found his before skittering back to the detective’s. “I’m assuming you’re going to tell me my husband is involved in some level of organized crime.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it’s the only thing I can think of that could explain the influx of money in recent years despite his business taking a slight decline in profit. It would also explain the shady-looking people I saw Tommy interact with at times, and the odd, late-night hours he suddenly began to keep.”
Liam grinned. The woman wasn’t just smart. She was also very observant. But one thing he wasn’t clear on was how she knew so much about the money.
“You said Gallo controlled the bank accounts and the money,” he recalled.
“You want to know how I was able to see the company finances.” Allison’s lips curved into a ghost of a smile. “Tommy had just gotten home from one of his trips, and I was putting his things away and doing laundry while he showered. I picked up his briefcase to move it into his office but didn’t realize the clasps weren’t fully secured. It fell open, and the contents spilled out onto the floor. One of the stapled group of papers was the previous three years’ financial reports. The graph was right there on the first page, and I’m no accountant, but it was pretty clear to me that we were losing money.”
Giving them more, Knox went on to say, “That’s actually one of the things that tipped us off to him being dirty after Torres’s body was discovered. My team was looking into the murder when we came across evidence that Torres was in bed with the Russian mob. A local group that’s known in the area.” The other man met Liam’s stare. “Not the type of guys you want to mess with.”
Understood.
Allison cleared her throat. “What, um…what makes you think Tommy killed Marty?”
“Sorry.” A quick shake of his head. “I get that we’re all about sharing, here, but there are still some things I can’t divulge when it comes to an ongoing investigation.”
“Right. Of course.”
