“So what happened?”

“We fought. She flew down to Texas, where her older brother had finally moved and had a home. And I was going crazy without her,” Leighton said, putting his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. “I guess it was like an addiction.”

“Did you bring her back to New York?”

“Yes, yes, I did. She didn’t want me around for the birth,” he said, as Mike looked at me, “because I had been so vehement in my denial. But once we did the DNA test and she gave me the results, I sort of embraced the whole thing.”

If his tic was anything like a lie detector, it was speeding off the charts when he spoke about embracing the news of the child’s paternity.

“You bought the apartment for her?”

“I did everything I could to set her up comfortably with the baby.”

I leaned in and looked at Leighton’s face. “This last year, year and a half, was Salma still seeing other men?”

“You’re asking me to think about things I don’t want to know, Ms. Cooper. I wasn’t going to leave Claire-never. I’m sure Salma had her ways of taking that out on me.”

“And Ana, did you see Ana often?”

He was shifting positions, trying to get comfortable. “Look, I wasn’t good about the baby, okay? No point lying. Sometimes she was asleep when I got there, sometimes Salma had her spend the night at a friend’s house. You find that child and I’ll make up for all of that. I swear it to you.”

“Money, Mr. Leighton,” Mike said. “How’d you pay Salma’s bills?”

“You’ll see when you get my banking records. I keep an office at my father’s business. Family money, nothing that Claire ever had any access to or reason to see. There’s a corporation I set up, within my father’s firm. The checks were all written on the Leighton Entertainment account. He assumed it was for things I needed for my political advancement.”

“How about cash?” I asked the congressman. “Did you give Salma large sums of cash?”

“Five hundred dollars when I saw her, sometimes a thousand if she wanted something special for the baby.”

He really didn’t seem to be aware of, nor try to explain away, the unusual amounts of cash we had found in Salma’s closet.

“Who knew about your affair with Salma?” I asked.

“My secretary,” Leighton said, taking time to think. “She wrote the checks. I never told anyone else.”

“No one at all? No friends, no colleagues?”

“My closest friends are guys like Donny Baynes, Ms. Cooper. I didn’t go there.”

“And no one at work?”

“Just Kendall. Kendall was around at the beginning. He picked up on it. He’s got a nose for trouble. I’m sure he figured it out.”

Mike was all over this. “Kendall Reid, the city councilman who was just indicted on the phantom funds scheme?”

“Yes. Kendall actually worked for me before he ran for the council job. He knows Salma.”

“Kendall knew about her, or actually met her?”

“They’ve met. He knew her, that’s what I meant.”

“How well?” Mike asked.

Ethan Leighton seemed surprised by the direction of the questions. “I guess, just through me. I guess.”

“And it was Reid you called after your accident?” I said. “He’s the guy who tried to take the weight for you.”

“Yeah, yeah, he did. Crazy, I know.”

“Have you talked to him since you found out Salma was murdered?” Mike asked.

At the same time that Leighton answered with a single word-“Yes”-Lem Howell spoke. “Ethan hasn’t talked to anyone about this except Claire, his father, and me.”

Leighton exhaled as Mike stepped between Lem and the congressman.

“When did you talk to Kendall Reid? Exactly when?”

“I’m sorry, Lem. I should have listened to you,” Leighton said to his lawyer, before answering Mike’s question. “I met him yesterday, just for a few minutes. Just to commiserate about my arrest and the news of his indictment.”

It took a lot to get under Lem Howell’s skin, but the long fuse had been lit.

“Where? Where did you and Reid meet?” Mike asked.

“At City Hall. I didn’t go in. I was dressed like this-with the hood up, nobody makes me,” Leighton said. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the distinctive twitch. “Kendall just came out, down the steps-we talked for a few minutes out in front. Sorry, Lem. Sorry I didn’t tell you.”

I knew the lecture Ethan Leighton would get from Lem the moment they were away from Mike and me. He wouldn’t tolerate any stray actions from his client. The congressman didn’t need to be lockstepped with another allegedly corrupt politician.

“You and Kendall Reid,” Mike asked, “what did you guys talk about?”

This encounter between the two scandal-ridden politicians opened a new vista of issues for us. Had they met to discuss the murder of Salma Zunega, the attempts at a cover-up of Leighton’s accident, the untimely indictment of the councilman, or the whereabouts of bundles of the city’s cash?

“Just commiserating. I needed to see a friend, and he felt the same way.”

“It appears I was premature in my anticipation that this could be a useful meeting, Alexandra,” Lem said, signaling Ethan Leighton to get up off his seat on the stone wall.

“Don’t gag him now,” Mike said. “It’s just beginning to get interesting.”

“We’ll talk during the week. I thank you both for extending yourselves in these unorthodox circumstances,” Lem said, as he started to climb the staircase, up from the stark winter garden toward the park walkway. “You know the nature of this work, Alexandra. Often the unexpected interrupts a perfectly lovely day. Keeps me on my toes. Constantly changing, challenging-”

“-and chilling, Mr. Howell. Literally and figuratively,” I said, “this case is chilling.”

THIRTY-THREE

“Oh, Alexandra,” Lem called to me from the top of the steps. “There is one more thing. I assume you know about the bad blood between Ethan’s father and the mayor?”

He had left his client at the top and was walking down to join up with Mike and me.

“That’s part of the buzz we’ve heard,” I said. “Going back to what?”

“Vin Statler has it in his head that a man with his business experience is what’s needed to run the country.”

“Vin tested the water at the beginning of the last presidential campaign, didn’t he?”

“Well, he was getting ready to, but when he saw what happened to Bloomberg’s effort, he gave up. I think he’s hoping he’ll still be viable when Obama’s eight are done.”

“He’ll be in his late sixties then,” Mike said.

“And Ethan Leighton won’t even be fifty.”

“Ethan’s dead in the water, Lem.”

“Mr. Chapman, I’m not giving you my point of view. Who do you think makes my hourly rate possible?”

“Moses Leighton.”

“And if that man believes he can resurrect his son’s image in the public eye, let me tell you, he’ll move heaven and earth to do that,” Lem said. “Mayor Statler would love to bury my client in the middle of this scandal. Don’t ever lose sight of that dynamic, okay?”

“You didn’t know anything about Ethan’s meeting with Kendall Reid yesterday?” I asked Lem.

“I don’t want my man anywhere near someone as toxic as Reid is right now.”

“Who’s representing him?”

“I’ll leave you a message. So far, I haven’t heard.”

Ethan Leighton came jogging down the staircase, calling Lem’s name. “I thought of something else Ms. Cooper and Mr. Chapman should know,” he said. “Did you tell them about the well?”

Lem tried to restrain Leighton but he was like an eager puppy. “That’s a story for another day.”

“Actually, I’d like to hear it,” I said.

“It simply can’t be a coincidence that Salma’s body wound up in this well,” Leighton said.

“And why is that?”

“Do you know the story of Levi Weeks?” he asked.

“Never heard of him.”

“It’s quite a famous case. We studied it in law school-at Columbia-because it was the first American murder trial that was ever transcribed.”