Too Close to Home

I must have looked stupefied. I know that was pretty much how I felt. “So what, we’re supposed to forget all about this? Because why? Because we’re all such good friends? Because my wife works for you?” I looked at Conrad. “You put in a call to her, tell her not to identify the suspect, Illeana’s fucking brother goes free?”

“It’s not quite that simple,” Conrad said.

“Fuck this,” I said. “I’m telling Barry all about this. Everything.” I pointed a finger at Illeana. “You got that guy killed. Not that he’s any fucking loss. But it was you, when you decided to bring your brother into this, when you decided to stick your nose in, that’s when you got that guy killed.”

“Please, Jim,” Ellen said. “Let Conrad explain about-”

I waved Ellen off. I wasn’t done with Conrad and Illeana. “And I guess you’d have me believe that this has nothing to do with the Langleys.”

“It doesn’t,” Illeana said. “It has absolutely nothing to do with them, I swear.”

“Really? Then how do you explain the gun? The gun they found by your brother’s car, the one he dropped getting back in when he was being chased by Drew?”

Illeana, red-eyed, glanced at her husband and back at me. “I didn’t know anything about a gun.”

“It must have already been there,” Conrad said.

“No,” I said. “The property had been searched before.”

“That’s not possible,” Illeana said. “Lester, he couldn’t have had anything to do with that. Nothing. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe the person who killed the Langleys sold him that gun, or gave it to him.”

I stared at her. “And who might that have been, Illeana? Would that have been you? Did you know all about this other book, the one on Brett Stockwell’s computer, from earlier on? Was it you who wanted to get that computer out of the Langley house before it incriminated your husband?”

“No, that’s impossible,” Conrad said. “Albert had called me about it earlier that day. I picked it up. It wasn’t in their house that night, when they were killed.”

“This is all horseshit,” I said. “But I don’t need to sort it all out. Barry can do that.”

“Jim,” Conrad said, taking a step toward me, trying to sound reasonable, almost kindly, “I understand that you want to bring the police into this. If I were you, I’d want to call Barry, tell him everything, make sure that Illeana’s brother is brought to justice, punished for what he and his friend did to you and Ellen.”

I waited.

“Illeana,” he said, and glanced contemptuously at his wife, “has done a lot to try to distance herself from her past, from the kinds of people she grew up with, from her own family, many of whom are not what you might call upstanding cit-”

“Hey,” she started to object.

“Shut up!” he bellowed again, his face suddenly flushing. He took a moment and continued. “But sometimes she can’t stop herself, and she calls on those people when she gets in a jam, as she did this week.”

“I don’t know what this-”

Conrad cut me off. “Hear me out, Jim. I know you won’t believe this, but I’m telling this to you as a friend. Because I care about you and Ellen.”

I bit my tongue.

“The people behind Mortie and Lester, these are not good people. They’re not. . rational people. They’re not very happy about what happened to Mortie. They’re not very happy with your new friend Drew. And they weren’t very happy to think that Ellen here might have identified Illeana’s brother in that lineup tonight. But their unhappiness has been mitigated by Ellen’s failure to do so.”

Ellen said, “I would have told you this if you’d given me a chance.”

Conrad looked down at the floor briefly, as though shamed by what he was having to tell me. “It was made very clear to me and Illeana that we should pass on to you the message that if you didn’t let this drop, right now, they couldn’t guarantee your safety.”

“What?” I said, feeling the hackles rise. “They’re threatening us? Trying to intimidate us, to keep our mouths shut?”

Conrad nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, for fuck’s sake, if that’s what they think-”

“Jim,” Conrad said, keeping his voice very even, “I don’t like this any better than you do, but you don’t understand these people like I do. I need to lay this out for you. If you go ahead with this, you have to know the risks you’re taking. On behalf of yourself, and others. Drew, certainly. He killed one of their family. And Ellen. And Derek. Pursue this, you’re turning them all into targets.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said.

“Let it go, and they’ll call it even.”

I looked at Illeana. “Who are you?”

She didn’t say anything, but there was something in her eyes. While I’d seen moments where Conrad’s anger had frightened her, there was also this look that said, Don’t mess with me, don’t mess with my people.

Conrad said, “While Mortie did die, and they might normally want some retribution for that, they also appreciate the gravity of the situation you were in. They’re also mindful of the bad judgment Illeana exercised. They would be grateful to see this all end here.”

“Grateful,” I said.