“They all knew?”
“They all knew.” Her expression darkened. “But Frederick’s the one you really have to worry about.”
“Did he threaten you?” Nick asked. “After you filed the charges against Leland?”
She recoiled. “How do you know about that?”
“I have a friend who specializes in digital data retrieval,” he said. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a violation of your privacy. I’m just… worried.”
“About the woman? The one who had the accident?”
Frederick’s the one you really have to worry about.
“Yes.”
“You should be worried,” she said. “Frederick will do anything to protect the family’s reputation, to push Leland up the political ladder like he wished he’d been able to do with William.”
“Leland’s older brother,” Nick said. “The one who died.”
She nodded. “Frederick has the worst kinds of people on his payroll. Dangerous people.”
“Ex-military dangerous?” They were the kind of people MIS ran up against most often in the course of their work.
“I assume ex-military are rational. The men Frederick uses are street thugs, drug dealers and drug users, men who will do anything for money.”
“I take it you’re speaking from experience,” he said.
She didn’t answer at first and he wondered if she’d heard him. Then she started talking, her eyes on some distant point across the park. “The last time Leland hurt me, I ran out of my apartment in the middle of the night in my underwear to get away from him. I went straight to the police station and filed a report. They took pictures and everything.”
“Then what?”
“I went to a friend’s, planning to lay low while the cops took Leland into custody. I was worried about him coming after me, but it turns out he wasn’t the one I had to worry about.”
“Frederick Walker sent someone?” Nick asked.
“The very next day. I was on my way to work and noticed a man following me. He was still outside when I left at the end of the day.” She looked at him. “That didn’t surprise me actually. By then I’d seen Frederick’s men bully and pay Leland’s way out of trouble enough times to expect it. But things got weird when the cops started to suggest I should drop the charges.”
“On what grounds?” Nick asked.
She shrugged. “Powerful family, media attention, character assassination — mine of course. They made it seem like it was for me, but I knew they were trying to protect Leland.”
“Is that why you dropped the charges?”
“I’m not that much of a coward,” she said. “I dropped the charges when Frederick sent someone to break into my apartment.”
“What happened?”
“I wasn’t home,” she said. “Whoever he sent tore up the place, spray painted ugly words on the walls, broke my TV, my computer.”
“Did you report it?” Nick asked.
She nodded. “Took the cops an hour to get there, and when I called to follow-up a few days later, the same day my tires were slashed, they’d ‘misplaced’ the report.”
Nick ran his hands through his hair. “Jesus. I’m fucking sorry you went through that.”
She smiled. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I decided to cut my losses, but not without making good old Fred pay.”
Nick laughed. “You fleeced him?”