“I hadn’t heard from him . . . I was just worried, I guess.” I tried to remember all the messages I left for Sam. The night I broke into his house, the day after, when I discovered who Geoffrey Gallagher was, the day Sam’s and Gallagher’s bodies were discovered. On every single message I left for him, I must have sounded like some shrieking banshee bellowing for him to return my calls.
“How about the message you left a few days ago? You said: ‘What the hell’s going on? The police have footage of you in the lobby of my job and what’s the deal with Geoffrey Gallagher?’ That’s the message you left for your brother.”
I sat still as a stone.
Detective Burke continued, “Early this morning, you left the following voice mail, ‘Sam, where are you? The police found the lawyer’s body.’ Let me ask you, Ms. Littlejohn, would that lawyer have been Geoffrey Gallagher?”
I felt faint, like the lights were dimming around me. I didn’t say a word.
Burke and Bradford exchanged glances again. Burke continued, “Let’s move on. Your brother had a gun tucked in the waistband of his pants. Mr. Gallagher was killed with that same gun.”
“So what are you saying?” As far as I was concerned, they weren’t the only ones who could ask questions about my brother.
“Do you know why your brother would want to kill Mr. Gallagher?”
“My God! How many times do I have to tell you—my brother didn’t kill anyone. Why are you hammering me with questions? Did you bring Jonathan in and grill him like this? What about some of the other people on Twenty? You were at Michael’s funeral. Wasn’t it strange to you that none of his colleagues attended, including Jonathan?”
“We did speak with Mr. Everett. He told us that the executive team was out of town for a business meeting the day of Mr. Sayles’s funeral.”
The party in Savannah. I was the only one who didn’t fly down the day before.
“Mr. Everett also told us that you told people at Houghton that you didn’t have any siblings. Is that true?” Burke asked.
I couldn’t speak. Every stupid lie I ever told was here, haunting me.
“He seems to think you’re trying to implicate him in this matter because of a workplace disagreement. He says that he was against your promotion, that the company needed someone with more experience in the executive suite. He thinks you’re trying to sully his reputation among your colleagues.”
“What?!” My pulse pumped. “And you just accepted that? That doesn’t make any sense! I told you, he lured my brother into this mess to frame him for a murder he didn’t commit. Probably to get back at me because—”
“Because what?”
“Attorney-client privilege prevents me from going into it.” As a lawyer for the company, I couldn’t discuss Houghton’s bank records or deals without clearing it through the CEO or the board of directors first. “But Jonathan is the person you should be pressing. He’s not what he appears to be.”
“Do you have any evidence that would point up a relationship between your brother and Mr. Everett?”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “I don’t. Isn’t that your job to find the evidence? All I know is that my brother said Jonathan hired him to trail Gallagher. Maybe Jonathan needed to know where Gallagher was so he could kill him after he killed Michael.”
“Okay. Did he ever do any work for Houghton?” Burke asked.
I folded my arms across my chest. “Who?”
Burke pushed his shirtsleeves up a bit and gave me an irritated look. “Mr. Gallagher.”
“To my knowledge, Houghton never engaged him or his firm.” Across the table, Burke and Bradford looked at each other yet again, this time with the kind of familiar glance that signaled they knew something I didn’t.
“Are you sure about that? Gallagher’s partner Christopher Knight tells us you called the firm and asked him to send over Houghton’s files. Why is that?” Bradford probed.
I didn’t respond. I simply stared at her. I was in here voluntarily. I wasn’t obligated to answer their questions.
Detective Bradford pulled a document from the folder in front of her and slid it across the table toward me. “Ms. Littlejohn, have you ever seen this before?”
I read the one-page document:
Law Offices of Gallagher, Grant & Knight
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL—ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF MEMORANDUM OF OPINION
December 28