Chapter 10 — What Whitmore Knew

Calloway, in custody, was the most efficient cooperating witness Nora had encountered in her career. This was, she supposed, the professional quality applied in a new direction: he'd spent his adult life being precise about work, and being precise about cooperation was now the work.He confirmed in a formal statement, taken by Sadie Park in a federal building interview room while Nora watched through the glass: he had been contracted for the Briar murder through Meridian, paying party ultimately traceable to Diane Reiss. He had been contracted separately, four weeks ago, for Marcus Hale — this time with the paying party being a different shell structure, but one he had seen used previously in association with Whitmore.He had not been contracted to enter Marcus's office. He had not been contracted to search it. That was someone else.Which meant Whitmore had his own operation going, separate from Calloway.Nora sat in the observation room and thought about the separate operation and what it looked like. Whitmore, realizing Marcus was building a case. Whitmore, sending someone to search Marcus's office. Whitmore, looking for what Marcus had.Not finding it — the folder had been in the drawer.But finding something else? She thought about the photograph, displaced by fractions. A photo of Marcus and Elena. Who was in that photograph who would tell Whitmore something?She thought about Elena Hale, who had sounded flat and destroyed when she'd called to tell Nora her husband was gone.She thought about Elena Hale, who had known Marcus was working on something he'd called sensitive.She thought about who else Elena might have told.She made a call she didn't want to make.— ◆ —Elena Hale answered on the second ring."Nora." Her voice had moved from the destroyed flatness of the first call toward something more navigable, the way grief moved in the first days — not less, just different."Elena, I need to ask you something and I need you to be completely honest with me."A pause. "Okay.""Did Marcus tell you he was working on the Briar case? That he'd found new evidence?""Yes. He told me he'd been looking into it for months. He said he thought Gerald Morrow was innocent." A pause. "He was very — he was upset about it. He said he and you had made a mistake.""Did you tell anyone else?"A longer pause. "I mentioned it to David Whitmore. He called me about two months ago to ask how Marcus was doing in retirement, which I thought was thoughtful, and we were talking and I mentioned Marcus had been working on some cold case research—""Elena." Nora kept her voice very even. "Did you tell Whitmore specifically that it was the Briar case?"The pause that followed was its own answer before she spoke."He asked what Marcus was researching," Elena said. Her voice had changed. "He asked specifically. He said he was curious what Marcus had been working on, if it was related to any open cases that the department should know about. I said it was the Briar case. Nora, I didn't—" A sharp intake of breath. "I didn't know. He was Marcus's supervisor for nine years. I thought he was just being—""It's not your fault," Nora said. She meant it completely."He killed him," Elena said. It was not a question."I'm working on proving it. Which I will." She paused. "I need you to make a statement. Can you do that?""Yes," Elena said immediately. And then: "Nora. Whoever those recordings were — whatever he built — he did it because he trusted you to use them. Make sure they count."She hung up.She sat for a moment.Then she went to find Sadie and tell her that they now had a chain from Whitmore to Calloway to Marcus's death.