“I’m listening.”
“Not now. I’ll hold up the phone so you can say goodbye. And I hope you don’t mind, but I’m gonna sing her to the next life. When she’s gone, then you and I will talk.”
Part Five
End Game
37
Madison called Brooke Lee the next morning from the parking lot of a Bickford’s across the street from the Best Western where they were lying low. The sky was gray and spitting rain, the temperature rapidly falling. She stood under an overhang, warm in the enormous puffer coat, watching her breath go up in clouds.
“What is this phone number you’re calling from?” Brooke said. “The tech guy can’t ping it.”
“I don’t know. It belongs to Judge Conroy. She took my phone and destroyed it because she thought it was bugged.”
“We warned you she’d suspect you were cooperating.”
“You were right.”
“Are you safe?”
“For now. Olivia was smart not to send me in wired. The judge searched my backpack, my clothes, everything. I swore up and down I wasn’t cooperating, and when she didn’t find anything, that backed me up. I think she’s still suspicious. But she trusted me enough to send me out for breakfast. She’s holed up in the motel room, expecting me back. So let’s make it quick.”
“The geolocation on the phone is disabled. You need to tell me exactly where you are.
“In Massachusetts, from the license plates. Beyond that, I’m not sure.”
“Do you see any landmarks?”
“A Dunkin’ Donuts.”
“God, there’s a million of those. A street name?”
“Not that I can see.”
“Can you get the plate number for the car she’s driving? Her Nissan is parked in the alley behind her house, so it must be something else. If you get a plate number, we can pull the toll cameras.”
“Brooke, I need to hang up. I think I see her.”
“No! We need a location, so we can arrest her. Oh, and rescue you,” she added as an afterthought.
“If I can get her location, will that be enough to satisfy the cooperation deal, so Danny’s charges get dropped?”
“That and a confession. On tape.”
“How do you expect me to achieve that when Olivia didn’t send me in wired?”
“Well, aren’t you glad she didn’t? Conroy would’ve found the wire for sure. You’d be dead by now.”
“Olivia was protecting the investigation. Not me.”
“She was protecting both. We care about you, Madison. I just lost one witness; I don’t need to lose another.”
Yeah, because it would look bad, she thought. But no point in bickering with the prosecutor. She had a goal in mind, and not much time to accomplish it.
“Okay, then hurry up and tell me how to record Judge Conroy without the wire, so I can get off the phone.”
“I have a way to do it, but if she figures it out, you could be in danger. Is she armed?”
Madison hesitated. She could tell them about the gun. What was one more crime, on top of all the charges Judge Conroy already faced? On the other hand, the FBI had its ways of locating even the cagiest suspects. If they believed the judge was armed and managed to track her down, they’d storm the motel room. Break down the door, use a percussive device, start shooting. The judge might be killed. Madison could be caught in the crossfire. No, she had to defuse this.
“I didn’t see a gun.”
“Wait a minute, I don’t understand. If she didn’t take you at gunpoint, why did you go with her?”
“Are you seriously victim-blaming me? You’re holding my brother prisoner in exchange for information. I went because you put me up to it.”
“Oh,” Brooke said, sounding almost surprised. “Okay, I’ll tell you how to record her, but I’m warning you: it’s risky.”
“I’ll take any risk for Danny.”
“Well, I don’t want to be held responsible if things go wrong.”
“You’ve made that perfectly clear.”
“Okay, you need to download an app called Spyware Pro to the phone you’re using right now. Then give the phone back to her. The spyware hides in the OS, so she shouldn’t be able to see it. Unless the phone is set up to detect intrusion, which it may well be.”
“Understood.”
“You’re assuming that risk.”
“I get it.”
“The app will prompt you to enter a phone number. Put in mine. Any calls Conroy makes from that phone will be automatically shared with me. I’ll take care of recording them.”