Chapter 39

Aaron was once again sitting in the hallway of the court building where he'd spent most of the past week, currently reading the files on the Monroe death investigation. The main thing that struck him as off about the whole situation was the fact the email had been typo free when the man had been sailing three sheets to the wind. The explanation was probably that Monroe had written and even scheduled the letter to be sent before he'd drunk all the whiskey. And the whiskey had been a way of lowering the barriers and dulling the pain of what he'd planned.

Monroe would have lost his job for sure if he confessed to perjury, but he wasn't that far from retirement. He might have been forced to do some prison time, but a guy like that—thirty-five years of service and not a single blot on his record? On a charge like that? His lawyer would have gotten him off with diminished responsibility and community service.

Why kill himself? Especially when the guy had been a devout Catholic.

It didn't sit right.

Aaron spotted Detective Lewis Janelli. Monroe's partner at the time of his death loitering in the hallway.

Aaron slid the file back into his pack and shouldered it. Then he headed for the detective.

"What can I do for you, Agent…?" The guy looked Aaron up and down with a slight sneer to his upper lip.

"Nash." Aaron introduced himself. "Detective Janelli, right?"

"That's right." The detective's eyes danced all over the place, not meeting his. "You're on Hope Harper's security team. Right?"

"That's right."

"They found any sign of that asshole Leech yet?"

"You think I'd be sitting here if they had?"

The guy laughed. "I guess not."

"Why're you here? Testifying?"

Janelli jerked his chin in a non-answer.

"I was reading the files about Paul Monroe's death."

Janelli's eyes widened at that. "Oh, yeah?"

Aaron watched the detective's expression tighten. "He didn't seem like the kind to kill himself."

Janelli clenched his jaw and then looked away. "I never figured he did that to himself."

"You found him?"

"What was left of him."

"Must have been rough."

"Yeah." Janelli stared down at the tiles and scraped his shoe over the worn surface. "He was late for his shift. I went over there because he'd been hitting the bottle pretty hard." He rolled his shoulder. "Never expected to be scraping him off the walls." He shot a look at Hope's courtroom.

Bitterness twisted his features. "It was all that bitch's fault."

"Harper?" Aaron frowned and settled in. "She was just doing her job, right?"

"Huh." Janelli threw back his head and sneered. "Sure, if you believe her bullshit."

Aaron had read the trial transcripts. And media reports. She'd done her job.

"She went after Pauly like he was the goddamned serial killer. Tripped him up. Made him doubt himself."

Aaron flashed his eyebrows. "He never wavered from his story on the stand."

"Because it wasn't a goddamned story. It was the truth!"

A sheriff's officer looked over at them and frowned. Aaron sent him an apologetic nod.

"You're saying Monroe didn't lie on the stand? He didn't plant that evidence?"

Janelli's cheeks flamed red. But he looked uncertain suddenly. "I don't know. Not anymore. I thought I did… What I do know is no way Pauly Monroe blew his own brains out, and no fucking way would he have copied that bitch on the email where he confessed all. He hated her." Those dark brown eyes glared at the door again. "I hate her."

"Easy, Detective."

"Ah, don't worry. I won't do anything to hurt her. Brendan would never forgive me. He's got a thing for his former sister-in-law, although he'd never admit it."

Aaron thought so too. Hope seemed oblivious. "You and Brendan Harper are partners now?"

"Yeah. He's a good guy, despite his family relations. A good detective. Knows how to get results." Janelli scuffed his shoe against the smooth floor again. A nervous tic? "He was with me the morning we found Pauly. He'd been on a stakeout all night, and I bumped into him when I was mouthing off that Pauly was late again. He's the one who said we should take a drive over. Sober Pauly up enough to ride a desk for the day or get him to call in sick. Keep the captain off his back. The trial had done a number on the guy."

"Do you think Monroe truly believed Julius Leech killed those six people?"

"Oh, he knew Leech was the right guy." Janelli's lips pinched into a bloodless line.

"You think Monroe decided the ends justified the means to get a conviction?"

"Maybe. He probably figured he could confess to Father Jamieson and say a few Hail Marys and all would be forgiven. Anything to get the guy off the street because we all knew he was guilty." Janelli glared as if sensing Aaron wasn't as sympathetic as he appeared. "I mean, what happened the minute Leech was cut loose? What happened the minute Leech escaped from prison?"

People died.

Aaron nodded. "I don't think anyone regrets Leech's release more than Hope Harper."

"Whose fault was that?" Janelli sneered again and patted the butt of his gun. "Maybe she'll get a little extra this time around too."

Aaron had Janelli up against the wall and was relieving him of his service weapon when the security guard raced up.

"The detective threatened ADA Harper, and I want him out of here. Unless he's taking the stand, I want him banned from the courthouse."

Janelli was shouting now, vibrating with rage. Aaron let the sheriff cuff him while he removed the magazine and the bullet in the chamber from the guy's gun and handed it back to Janelli. He didn't have the authority to confiscate the weapon or arrest the detective. Not without proof the guy had intent to act on those threats, but he could sure as hell draw attention to his attitude, and he wasn't about to pretend it was cool.

He gave the guard the bullets. And wished he could have hit the bastard but needed a little moral superiority. Plus, he couldn't afford to be thrown out alongside Janelli.

He watched Janelli get escorted down the corridor. The detective was yelling, his hatred of Hope palpable. Aaron had no doubt he'd have happily smeared blood all over Hope's family's headstone and reminded himself to checkup on where the evidence from that was.

He texted Cowboy, who was sitting inside the courtroom—and Aaron had definitely done that deliberately, so Ryan had less time to run his mouth to the rest of the team. Told him to watch out for the little prick. Then he got a call from Frazer to inform him they had the warrant in hand to search the Fairchild mansion and did Aaron want to join them.

He thought about it for exactly two seconds and told the guy to pick him up. He needed to move, and he wanted to see exactly what Eloisa Fairchild was hiding.