The Sinner: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

headquarters.”
    “Naturally I called them! I’d just been told their employees burned down a village, with two of my volunteers.”
    “Who did you speak to at Octagon?”
    “A man. Some senior vice president.”
    “Do you remember this man’s name?”
    “No.”
    “It wasn’t Howard Redfield, was it?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “What did you tell him?”
    Victor glanced at the door. “What’s taking that water so long?”
    “What did you tell him, Dr. Banks?”
    Victor sighed. “I told him there were rumors about the Bara massacre. That employees from their factory may have been involved. He said he didn’t know anything about it, and promised to check into it.”
    “What happened then?”
    “About an hour later, I got a call back from Octagon’s CEO, wanting to know where I’d heard that rumor.”
    “Is that when he offered your charity a multimillion dollar bribe?”
    “It wasn’t put that way!”
    “I can’t blame you for cutting the deal with Octagon, Dr. Banks,” said Rizzoli. “After all, the damage was already done. There’s no bringing back the dead, so you might as well use a tragedy for the greater good.” Her voice dropped, and turned almost intimate. “Is that how you saw it? Rather than hundreds of millions of dollars going into the pockets of lawyers, why not put the money directly to good use? It only makes sense.”
    “You said it, Detective. I didn’t.”
    “And how did they buy Sister Ursula’s silence?”
    “You’d have to ask the Boston archdiocese that question. I’m sure a deal was made with them, as well.”
    Rizzoli paused, suddenly thinking of Graystones Abbey. The new roof, the renovations. How could an impoverished sisterhood of nuns hold onto, and restore, such a valuable piece of real estate? She remembered what Mary Clement had said: that a generous donor had come to the rescue.
    The door opened, and Crowe walked in with a fresh cup of water, which he placed on the table. Victor quickly took a nervous gulp. The man who had started off so calm, even insolent, now looked wrung out, his confidence destroyed.
    Now was the time to squeeze out the last drops of truth.
    Rizzoli leaned closer as she launched her final assault. “Why did you really come to Boston, Dr. Banks?”
    “I told you. I wanted to see Maura—”
    “Octagon asked you to come. Didn’t they?”
    He took another sip of water.
    “
Didn’t
they?”
    “They were concerned.”
    “About what?”
    “They’re the target of an SEC investigation. It has nothing to do with what happened in India. But because of the size of the grant One Earth received, Octagon was concerned it might come to the attention of the SEC. That questions might be raised. They wanted to make sure that we were all reading from the same script, in case we were questioned.”
    “They were asking you to lie for them?”
    “No. Just to stay silent. That’s all. Just not to . . . bring up India.”
    “And if you were asked to testify? If you were asked directly about it? Would you have told the truth, Dr. Banks? That you took money to help cover up a crime?”
    “We’re not talking about a crime. We’re talking about an industrial accident.”
    “Is that why you came to Boston? To convince Ursula to stay silent as well? To maintain a united front of lies.”
    “Not lies. Silence. There’s a difference.”
    “Then somehow, it all gets complicated. An Octagon senior vice president named Howard Redfield decides to turn whistle-blower, and talk to the Justice Department. Not only that, he produces a witness from India. A woman he’s brought back from India to testify.”
    Victor’s head came up and he stared at her with genuine bewilderment. “What witness?”
    “She was there, at Bara. One of the lepers who survived. Does that surprise you?”
    “I don’t know about any witness.”
    “She saw what happened in her village. She saw those men from the factory drag bodies into piles and light the fires. She saw them smash the skulls of her friends and family. What she saw, what she knew, could bring Octagon to its knees.”
    “I don’t know anything about this. No one told me there was a survivor.”
    “It was all about to come out. The accident, the cover-up. The payoffs. You might be willing to lie about it, but what about Sister Ursula? How do you induce a nun to lie under oath? That’s the trick, isn’t it? One honest nun could bring it all crashing down. She opens her mouth, and there goes