“Right now, she’s our prime suspect,” Lasswell said.

“I’m already working the case with Arnie,” Dietz told Stamm. “I’d like to prosecute.”

“I know you would,” Jack Stamm said. “That’s why I called you in here. I wanted you to hear this from me, not secondhand. I’m giving this case to Monte.”

“But-” Dietz started.

Stamm held up his hand. “You want to redeem yourself. That’s natural. But you’re too emotional about Woodruff.”

Dietz cast a quick glance at Arnie Lasswell. Had the detective complained about him to Stamm?

“I want someone with an open mind handling the case,” Stamm continued. “Monte is going to be lead counsel, and you’re not going to be involved. I know that’s harsh, but I’ve given this a lot of thought, and that’s how it’s going to be.”

Anger darkened Dietz’s complexion. “If that’s your decision…?”

“It is,” Stamm said.

“I was preparing for a trial,” Dietz said. “If you don’t need me anymore…”

“Sure, Max,” Stamm said. “And don’t think my decision affects my high opinion of your work as a whole. I just don’t think you’re the best person for this case.”

Dietz was too furious to speak, so he just stood up and left the room.

Stamm turned his attention to Pike. “Tread carefully, Monte. This blew up in our faces the first time through. I do not want to find myself on national television apologizing to Sarah Woodruff again.”

Max Dietz stomped back to his office with his shoulders hunched and his fists clenched. A pulse beat in his temple. When he’d shut the door and slumped onto his chair, he closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths to get his emotions under control. He knew he had to do something if he didn’t want his career to unravel completely, and he couldn’t think in his present state.

When he was relatively calm, Dietz took stock of his situation. He had been in Stamm’s doghouse ever since the debacle that was the first Woodruff case. Convicting Sarah Woodruff of murder would save his career, but he wasn’t going to get that chance. Max had once been the heir apparent to Stamm’s throne. Now Pike was Stamm’s new golden boy. What could he do about that?

A sudden thought jolted Dietz upright in his chair. He knew something Pike and Arnie Lasswell didn’t. He knew about the China Sea. He hadn’t told anyone about Tom Oswald’s information. If anyone had gotten the bright idea that it was Brady material, he would have been forced to tell Mary Garrett what he knew, and Garrett would have argued to the jurors that John Finley was killed by drug dealers or spies.

But what if Finley had been killed by drug dealers or spies? What if Monte Pike indicted Sarah Woodruff and took her to trial, and it turned out that drug dealers or government assassins had killed Finley? Monte Pike wouldn’t look like such a hotshot then, would he? The little prick would suffer the same humiliation Dietz had suffered, and Max would be the smart one again.

Dietz pulled out a legal pad and started to jot down ideas. He needed information, and the only people who could provide information in a situation like this were insiders. Dietz wrote the names of contacts in the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office, and… Dietz grinned.

Max had met Denise Blailock four years ago while they were working on a joint task force investigating Miguel Fuentes, the advance man for a Guatemalan cartel that was trying to make inroads into the local heroin trade. The DEA agent was pale and plain with washed-out brown hair, but she had a nice smile and a body that had attracted the DA’s attention the minute she’d entered the conference room.

Dietz’s second wife had walked out on him two months before he met Denise, and he hadn’t been laid since. When the task force meeting broke up, Blailock and Dietz had dined at a local steak house. During a dinner of T-bones and scotch, Dietz learned several important things about the federal agent. First, she was totally devoted to her career in the Drug Enforcement Administration. Second, as a result of a brief, savage, and regrettable teenage marriage, the only serious relationship she was interested in was the one she had with her job. Third, she was a strong proponent of recreational sex, in which the couple had engaged after dinner at a motel by the airport.

Dietz and Blailock had seen each other occasionally since their first tryst, the longest stretch being a week in Las Vegas the previous winter. Dietz dialed DEA headquarters and asked Blailock if she was doing anything after work. Over dinner, the DA filled in his friend on the downward path his career had taken since the Woodruff fiasco and his plan to restore his fortunes. Blailock told him that she’d never heard of the China Sea or the incident in Shelby, but she promised to poke around.

Chapter Thirty-four

Mary Garrett had been expecting a call from Sarah Woodruff ever since she’d read about John Finley’s murder. The first words Sarah spoke were tinged with panic.

“Mary, Arnie Lasswell is here-at my house-with another detective. They have a search warrant, and they want to question me.”

“Don’t say a thing, and put Arnie on the line.”

“Hey, Mary,” Lasswell said. The two knew each other because the detective had investigated a number of cases Mary had defended.

“What’s up, Arnie?” Mary asked.

“We have a warrant to search your client’s house and car in connection with John Finley’s murder. We’d also like to talk to her.”

“Can you tell me anything else, like why she’s a suspect?”

“Monte Pike is running the show. You’ll have to ask him.”

“What happened to Max?”

“I guess Jack wanted to try someone new this time around.”

“OK. Look, I’m coming over. I don’t want anyone talking to Sarah, understood?”

“Gotcha. I put her in the kitchen with a cup of coffee.”

“OK, and be gentle during the search, OK? Make sure nothing is broken or torn. You guys screwed up the first time. If Sarah is innocent this time, too, you won’t want to put the bureau and the DA’s office in an even worse light.”

“She’s a fellow officer, Mary, and I am sorry for what she went through. I’ll be gentle as a lamb.”

It took Mary twenty-five minutes to get to Sarah’s house. When the uniform at the front door let her in, she saw a team of police officers working their way through the living room and heard drawers and closet doors opening and closing on the floor above. Arnie Lasswell came down for a few minutes and laid out the ground rules, which included staying in the kitchen with her client and staying out of everybody’s way.

Mary made small talk with Sarah for a few minutes, then called Monte Pike on her cell phone. She’d had two cases with Pike, which ended in pleas, so she had not had a chance to see the young DA in action, but Mary’s impressions of the prosecutor were positive. Mary thought that Pike saw law as a game like chess and didn’t take his work personally. He was definitely smart and honest; he worked hard, but he had a good sense of humor.

“Monte, it’s Mary Garrett,” she said when they were connected.

“Yeah, Arnie said you were coming over to make sure his boys don’t steal the silverware.”

“With the mayor cutting down on overtime, I hear the rank and file are getting desperate.”

Monte laughed. “So, what can I do for you?”

“How about you tell me why you’re sifting through Ms. Woodruff’s lingerie.”

“Why did I think that would be your first question? God, I hate being right all the time.”

“And?”

“I’ll tell you some stuff but not everything. A grand jury hasn’t even been convened-and it may never be-so I’m going to keep some info close to the vest. I will tell you that Ann Paulus, the neighbor who called 911 in the first case, saw Finley go into your client’s house. She’s pretty certain it was the evening of the murder.”