“So, anyhow, a reporter on Turner’s payroll tipped him off that she heard someone had something on him—something big—but she didn’t know what. And Turner, he’d been in office forever, so he had no idea what it might be.” Flanagan chuckled. “I mean, he’s so dirty, it could’ve been anything. But he had a bad feeling that the jig was up, that he needed to cash out, so he started looking for everything he had of value. And he decided to try to sell some pardons, so he had me make the rounds. Anybody who’d filed a pardon application who might have access to cash. Pine was on the list.”

“You offered to get him a pardon for a payoff?”

Flanagan nodded.

“He’s in prison. Why would you think he’d have any money?”

“He had the support of a lot of wealthy people, book offers, so it was worth a shot.”

“What did he tell you?”

“He said the same thing you did: he ain’t got the money.”

Keller looked at him, waited for him to go on.

“I thought that was it, you know. We had other things in the fire, selling some legislative bills to lobbyists and whatnot, trying to get Turner his retirement fund.”

“But…”

“Then I get a call. My encrypted business line I only give out to select people. You had to be in the know to get it.” The guy sounded almost proud of all this.

Keller bit the inside of her cheek as he went on.

“So I get this call, and the guy—he won’t tell me who he is, but I think I know—says he wants to be connected to someone who does wet work.”

“A contract killer?” Keller asked.

“Yeah. I said I don’t do that stuff. I’m a businessman. But for a fee I might be able to liaise. Friend-of-a-friend kind of thing.”

The man was sleazy, but he made the job sound almost corporate. Keller was literally on the edge of her seat. She wanted to shake the guy to get to the point. But she had a sinking feeling she knew the trajectory of this story. That the person who called Flanagan hired a pro to kill Evan Pine. That Maggie had gotten a photo of the hitman, so he killed them all and staged the scene to look like an accidental gas leak. That he went after Matt to retrieve the photo.

“Let’s get this straight,” Keller said. “You get a call out of the blue asking you to connect someone with a contract killer and you just say, ‘Okay, no problem’?”

Flanagan gave a one-shouldered shrug. “The caller knew things about my business.”

“And you connected him with a contractor,” the prosecutor chimed in, as if trying to speed things along. “A hitter no one seems to be able to verify even exists.”