Page 96 of Nobody's Hero
He nodded at Draper. She went to the back of the Gulfstream and grabbed the medical kit. It was a moulded plastic box, green with a white cross on the lid. Draper flipped the catches and opened it. She pulled out a pack of disposable gloves and ripped it open with her teeth. She snapped on a pair like a thirty-year robbery-homicide veteran.
Nash watched without concern.
‘But getting caught doesn’t concern you, does it?’ Koenig continued. ‘Because if youarein that one per cent of the one per cent, yada yada yada, you’ve already thought of this. You’veplannedfor this. Because in your mind, at least, a one-percenter like you should never have to face any consequences. Consequences are for the cattle. You’ll have someone in place to take the fall. A patsy. A witless fool in aTHE BUCK STOPS HERET-shirt. Stillwell Hobbs, in other words. All these years, and he still thought of himself as the master manipulator. He had it back-to-front, though. He wasn’t manipulating you; you were manipulatinghim. He was your insurance policy. Your circuit breaker. So, even if the FBI did find evidence, it would have been Hobbs who spent the rest of his life in a supermax. You’d have walked free. Another of his victims.’
‘Doesn’t matter what you know, dummy, it only matters what you can prove,’ Nash said.
‘Unfortunately, things have moved on.’
Draper reached into her pocket and removed an envelope. She opened it and tilted it so Nash could see the single-point self-defence ring inside, the ring with the blade that looked like a raptor’s beak. The one Nash had used to tear out the throats of her would-be rapists in New York. Draper had taken it from her index finger while Nash had been unconscious in the alley outside her apartment. Draper slipped the ring into a new envelope and sealed it. Wrote the date and time on the seal. Scrawled her signature across it.
‘There we are, all nice and legal,’ she said. ‘All the evidence the DA will need to convict you. Your DNA, their DNA, and an eyewitness who saw everything.’
Nash’s eyes narrowed. ‘What eyewitness?’
‘Me,’ Koenig said.
Nash looked mildly annoyed. Like she’d accidentally deleted her Netflix profile.
‘I’m a twenty-year-old girl, dummy. There’s no way a New York jury will find me guilty. The cameras will prove they dragged me into that alleyway. Even the stupidest public defender will be able to prove self-defence.’ She paused a beat. Added, ‘And I won’t have the stupidest public defender.’
‘What cameras?’ Koenig said. ‘We were there the best part of a week, and we didn’t see any. And the reason we couldn’t see any was because you and Hobbs had deliberately chosen to live somewherewithoutcameras.’
‘You have a choice to make,’ Draper said. ‘Tell us what you overheard Konstantin say in that Holiday Inn. You thought it was meaningless drivel, but Margaret killed Hobbs before he could tell us what it was. Tell us what you heard, and Koenig does you a favour.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘He tells the NYPD he saw those men drag you into the alley. That he ran to help and saw you act in self-defence.’
‘Which is mostly true,’ Koenig said.
‘And if Idon’ttell you what I overheard?’
‘Then Koenig saw you lure those poor men into the alley. He witnessed you murder them in cold blood. No DA’s office in the land will shy away from this. They have a ring that is essentially a weapon. That shows premeditation. They have a federal eyewitness – because, believe it or not, Koenig isstilla US Marshal – and they’ll have the attorney general herself leaning on them.’
‘She’s our friend,’ Koenig said.
Nash pouted. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘Call it paying it forwards. You might not be guilty of these murders, but as sure as fish on Friday, you’re guilty of a hundred others. I’ll lie to the NYPD, then I’ll sleep fine.’
‘It’s a binary choice,’ Draper said. ‘You help us, or you go to prison for thirty years.’
‘Our interests are aligned, Miss Nash,’ Koenig said. ‘I’m no astrologist, but it’s as if the stars themselves want you to help us.’
Chapter 102
‘A waterbed!’ Draper shouted. ‘The only thing she overheard Konstantin say was “waterbed”? That’s what Margaret killed Hobbs for? That’s the big secret?’
Koenig didn’t respond.
After a while Draper got control of herself. ‘Do we believe her?’ she asked.
Nash had told them that when she’d checked out Jakob Tas, the big Russian and an unnamed female, prior to them meeting with Hobbs, she’d overheard a snippet of conversation. Konstantin had said ‘waterbed’ and Tas had shushed him. And that was it. She hadn’t heard the start of his sentence, and Tas stopped it before it ended. She’d overheard the middle. A concrete noun. One word. Two if Konstantin meant the bottom of a pond rather than a sciatica-causing mattress. Nash had told Hobbs on the ride home and he hadn’t responded. She’d put it out of her mind. Hadn’t thought about it since.
That’s what she claimed.
And Koenigdidbelieve her. If it had been anyone else, Koenig’s default position would have been that they were lying. Hiding something. But Nash was driven entirely by self-interest. It was her only concern. She had no reason to lie, every reason to tell the truth.