Chapter 12 - The Woman Who Cut the Tape
Daniel found the answer in Ruth Harper's old phone records.
One week after Ruiz's final visit, Ruth had called a number registered to Elaine Mercer, then deputy city attorney.
Maya knew the name.
Everybody in Chicago did.
Elaine Mercer was now the mayor.
Ben looked sick. "Ruth never told me."
They searched Ruth's papers and found a handwritten note tucked inside a cookbook:
ELAINE SAYS SHE CAN HELP. DON'T TELL BEN UNTIL MAYA IS SAFE.
Maya sat very still.
The mayor had spent decades presenting herself as a reformer. She had publicly fought Calder on zoning issues while privately attending his fundraisers.
"Maybe Ruth trusted the wrong person," Ben said.
"Or the right person made a terrible choice."
Maya requested a private meeting.
Mercer accepted within ten minutes.
At City Hall, the mayor dismissed her staff and locked the office door.
"You found the ledger," she said.
Maya didn't bother asking how she knew.
"Did you cut Ruiz's tape?"
Mercer looked older than she did on television.
"Yes."
Ben swore under his breath.
Mercer explained that twenty years earlier, she had been a young prosecutor building a case against Victor. Ruiz gave her the recording. Mercer cut out one name because she believed revealing it would get witnesses killed before federal protection could be arranged.
"Whose name?" Maya demanded.
The mayor opened a safe.
Inside was a sealed evidence envelope containing the missing section of tape.
She placed it on the desk.
"Before you hear it," Mercer said, "understand this: Victor did not build his empire alone."
Maya inserted the tape into a recorder.
Ruiz's voice continued where it had stopped.
"The real protection comes from Thomas Bell."
Maya couldn't move.
Daniel whispered, "No."
Thomas Bell was Maya's law partner.
Her mentor.
May you like
The man who had helped her build Carter & Bell from nothing.
And he was waiting for her back at the office.
