“That’s a thought, isn’t it?” She inclined her head, and shoved the pizza away before she made herself sick. “Going to take a closer look at Bobby’s pretty little wife.”
“Not Bobby?”
“I’ll go down a few layers. But the thing with matricide is it’s usually uglier. More rage.”
As was patricide, she thought. She’d all but swam in the blood when she’d killed her father.
As that was one memory she didn’t need or want, she focused on the now. “Then the motive’s murky there. If it’s the money, why not wait until she scooped it up? Then you arrange for an accident back home, and you inherit. Could’ve been impulse, just of the moment, but…”
“You’ve got a spot for him,” Roarke said. “A soft one.”
“It’s not that.” Or maybe part of that, she admitted. “If he was putting on a show outside that hotel room, he’s wasting his talents with real estate. And I was with him when Zana had her adventure, so that means he’d have to have a partner. Or he and Zana are in this together. None of that’s impossible, so we’ll go down those layers. But it’s not what rings for me.”
He studied her face. “And something does. I can see it.”
“Back to the vic. She likes to be in charge, keep people under her thumb. Like you pointed out, she didn’t just take kids in for the fees. She took them in so she had sway over them, so they’d do her bidding, fear her. According to her, she kept files on them. So why would I be the first she’s hit on?”
“Not a partner then. A minion.”
“That’s a good word, isn’t it?” Eve sat back in her chair, swiveled back and forth. “Minion. Right up her alley. From the look back I already took, she always fostered females. Which plays into her being in her nightgown. Why bother with a robe when it’s another woman? No need to be concerned or afraid when it’s someone you bossed around when she was a kid and who, for whatever reason, is still under your control.”
“Zana was abducted by a man, if we take her at her word.”
“And if we do, going by this theory, there are two. Or Trudy had herself a man. I’m going to take a closer look at who she fostered.”
“And I’ll play with my numbers.”
“Getting anywhere?”
“It’s a matter of time. Feeney got a start and a warrant. Which makes it possible for me to use my office equipment without dodging around CompuGuard.”
“Only half the fun for you.”
“Sometimes you settle.” He got to his feet. “I’ll get back to it.”
“Roarke. Before, what I said about bringing work home, and cops into the house. I should’ve added pulling you into this mix.”
“I put myself into the mix quite a few times, going around you to do so.” His lips curved, just a bit. “I’ve tried to learn to wait to be asked first.”
“I ask a lot. And I haven’t forgotten you were hurt, took a couple of pretty serious hits on my last two major cases because I asked you first.”
“As did you,” he reminded her.
“I signed up for it.”
He smiled fully now—it was enough to make a woman’s heart do a header—and walked around the desk to lift her hand, rub his finger over her wedding ring. “As did I. Go to work, Lieutenant.”
“Okay. Okay,” she repeated quietly as he walked to his own office. She turned to her computer. “Let’s start earning our pay.”
She brought up the list of the children Trudy had fostered, then began to pick at their lives.
One was doing her third stretch for aggravated assault. Good candidate, Eve thought, if she wasn’t currently in a cage in Mobile, Alabama. She put a call through to the warden, just in case, and confirmed.
One down.
Another had been blown to bits while dancing at an underground club in Miami when a couple of lunatics stormed it. Suicide bombers, Eve recalled, protesting—with their lives, and more than a hundred others—what they considered the exploitation of women.
The next had a residence listed as Des Moines, Iowa, one current marriage on record, with employment as an elementary educator. One offspring, male. The spouse was a data cruncher. Still, they pulled in a decent living between them, Eve mused. Trudy might have dipped into the well.
Eve contacted Iowa. The woman who came on-screen looked exhausted. Banging and crashing sounded in the background. “Happy holidays. God help me. Wayne, please, will you keep it down for five minutes? Sorry.”
“No problem. Carly Tween?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m Lieutenant Dallas, with New York City Police and Security.”
“New York. I’ve got to sit down.” There was a huge sigh, and the screen tipped just enough for Eve to get a glimpse of an enormously pregnant belly. Another down, she decided, but followed through.
“What’s this about?”
“Trudy Lombard. Ring a bell?”
Her face changed, tightened. “Yes. She was my foster mother for several months when I was a child.”
“Could you tell me the last time you had contact with her?”
“Why? Wayne. I mean it. Why?” she repeated.
“Ms. Lombard was murdered. I’m investigating.”
“Murdered? Wait, just wait, I have to move to somewhere else. I can’t hear with all this noise.” There was a lot of huffing before the woman gained her feet, and the screen swayed as she waddled across what Eve saw was a family living area into a small office space. She shut the door.
“She was murdered? How?”
“Mrs. Tween, I’d like to know the last time you spoke with or had contact with Ms. Lombard.”
“Am I a suspect?”
“The fact that you’re not answering a routine question makes me wonder.”
“I was twelve,” Carly snapped. “I was under her care for eight months. My aunt was able to get custody and I went to live with her. Matter closed.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“Because a New York cop is calling my home and asking me questions about a murder. I have a family. I’m eight months pregnant, for God’s sake. I’m a teacher.”
“And you still haven’t answered my question.”
“I have nothing to say about this or her. Nothing. Not without a lawyer, so leave me alone.”
The screen went black. “That went well,” Eve commented.
While she didn’t see Carly Tween waddling her way to New York to bash Trudy’s brains in, she kept her on the list.
On the next call she was switched to voice mail—two faces, two voices, both of them glowing to the point Eve wished for sunshades.
Hi! This is Pru!
And this is Alex!
We can’t talk to you right now because we’re on our honeymoon in Aruba!
They turned to each other, giggling insanely. Catch you when we comeback. If we come back.
Apparently someone was taking advantage of those low rates to the islands, Eve thought. If Pru and Alex had tied the knot, they’d done so recently enough that the data hadn’t caught up.
She confirmed with vital records in Novi, Michigan. Pru and Alex had indeed applied for a marriage license, and had put it to use the previous Saturday.
She doubted they’d detoured to New York to commit murder on their way to sun, surf, and sex.
“All right, Maxie Grant, of New L.A., let’s see what you’re up to. A lawyer, huh? And with your own firm. Must be doing pretty well. I’d bet Trudy would’ve liked a piece of that.”
Factoring the time difference, she tried Maxie Grant’s office number first.
It was answered on the second beep, in brisk tones, by a woman with a great deal of curly red hair around a sharply defined face. Her mossy green eyes fixed on Eve’s. “Maxie Grant, what can I do for you?”
“Lieutenant Dallas, NYPSD.”
“New York? You keep late hours, Lieutenant.”
“You answer your own ‘link, Ms. Grant.”
“Entirely too often. What can I do f
or New York?”
“Trudy Lombard.”
The smile that curved across Maxie’s face was anything but friendly. “Tell me you’re Homicide, and the bitch is on a slab.”
“That’s just what I’m going to tell you.”
“No shit? Well, strike up the band and hand me a tuba. How’d she buy it?”
“I take it you weren’t a fan.”
“I hated her guts. I hated the atoms that made up her guts. If you’ve got who did her under wraps, I’d like to shake his hand.”
“Why don’t you tell me your whereabouts from this past Saturday through Monday.”
“Sure. I was right here. On the coast, I mean. Even I don’t spend every minute in this office.” She eased back in the chair, pursed her lips in consideration. “Okay, Saturday, eight to noon, I was volunteering at St. Agnes’s. I coach girls’ volleyball. Get you a list of names to verify if you want them. Did some Christmas shopping after, with a pal. Spent too much, but hell, it’s Christmas. Got the pal’s name, and my receipts. Party Saturday night. Didn’t get home ‘til after two, and didn’t come home alone. Sex and breakfast in bed Sunday morning. Went to the gym, hung around the house. Did some work from home Sunday night. How about some details. Did she suffer? Please tell me she suffered.”
“Why don’t you tell me why you’d enjoy that?”
“She made my life hell for nine months. Unless you’re a total fuckup—and you don’t look like one—you’ve got my file right there. Went into the system when I was eight, after my old man finally beat my mother to death and got his sorry ass locked up. Nobody wanted me. I got shot to that sadistic bitch. She used to make me scrub floors with a toothbrush, locked me in my room every night. Cut the power to it sometimes, just so I’d be in the dark. Told me my mother probably deserved what she got, and I’d end up the same way.”
She took a deep breath, then reached for the bottle of water at her elbow, drank. “I started stealing, squirreling money away for my escape fund. Got caught. She showed the cops all these bruises on her arms, her legs. Told them I’d attacked her. I never touched the bitch. So I’m slapped in juvie. Got bad, lots of fights.
“You’ve seen this picture before.”
“Yeah, a few times.”
“I was dealing illegals by the time I was ten. Bad ass,” she said with a smile that said she was ashamed of it. “In and out of kid cages until I was fifteen and a deal went south. I got cut up. Best thing that ever happened to me. There was a priest… This sounds very Vid of the Week, but there you go. He stuck with me, wouldn’t quit. He turned me around.”
“And you went into law.”
“Just seemed to suit me. That sadistic bitch had me when I was eight, and I was scared. I’d watched my mother die. She used that, did her level best to ruin me. And she nearly did. I won’t be sending flowers to her wake, Lieutenant. I’ll be strapping on red shoes and drinking French champagne.”
“When’s the last time you saw her?”
“I haven’t seen her, face-to-face, in four years.”
“Face-to-face?”
She took another sip, slowly. “I’m a lawyer, good enough to know I should have representation. I shouldn’t be talking to you. But I’m so damn happy she’s dead, I’m going to walk on the wild side. Four years ago, I was working for a high-powered firm. Junior partner. I was engaged to a guy who had a solid shot at the Senate. I was pulling in a big salary, one I worked my ass off for. She shows up at my office. Where I worked, for God’s sake. She’s all smiles, and look at you, aren’t you something. Made me sick.”
Maxie took one more slug of water, then slapped the bottle down again. “I should’ve kicked her out, but she caught me off guard. Then she hits me with it: She’s got copies of my record, all of it. The illegals, the cage time, the assaults, the thefts. It wouldn’t do, would it, for that to come out? Not with me in this cushy job, in this important firm. Not with me planning my wedding to a man favored to head to East Washington.”
“She blackmailed you.”
“I let her. So stupid. I gave her fifty thousand. In three months, she was back for more. That’s the way it works. I’m not green, I knew better. But I paid her again. Even when my relationship went down the sewer. My fault, I was so stressed, so determined not to let him know, that I torched it.”
She broke off a moment, and her tone changed, softened. “I’m sorry for that. Still sorry for that. So, I paid her for two years. To the tune of a quarter mil. And I just couldn’t take it anymore. I quit my job. And the next time she contacted me, I told her to go ahead. Go ahead, you bitch, do your worst. I’ve got nothing to lose now. Already lost it,” she said quietly.
“How’d she take it?”
“She was steamed. At least I had that. She screamed and carried on like I was jabbing hot sticks in her eyes. Nice moment for me. I’d get disbarred, she said. And that’s bull, of course. No firm would ever hire me again. And there she might’ve had something. I didn’t give a cold shit. I stuck, and she went away. And now, thank the gods, she won’t be back.”
“You should’ve gone to the cops.”
“Maybe. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. I played my hand. I got my own firm now, such as it is. I’m happy. I didn’t kill her, but I’ll offer my services pro bono to whoever did. She made me bathe in cold water, every night. Said it was good for me. Cooled hot blood.”
Eve shuddered before she could stop herself. She remembered the cold baths.
“I’m going to want the names of the people who can verify your whereabouts, Maxie.”
“No problem. Tell me how she bought it.”
“Fractured skull, blunt instrument.”
“Oh. I was hoping for something more exotic. Guess that’ll have to do.”
Cold, Eve thought later. Cold and brutally frank. She had to respect that.
Even better, she had her first step toward a pattern of blackmail.
She found two more. Though they didn’t confirm it, she saw it in their eyes. Alibis would be checked for them, and for the two others she couldn’t reach.
She got up for coffee, detoured into Roarke’s office. “Any progress?”
“Continues to dead-end on me.” He shoved back from the desk, obviously annoyed. “Are we sure she had the numbers right?”
“She was shook, so she may have screwed up. But she said them twice, in the sequence I gave you. No hesitation.”
“I’m getting nothing. I’m going to have the computer run them, in various sequences. See what pops up. What about you?”
“I’ve got one confirmed blackmail. Lawyer out in California. I don’t like her for the murder, but she claims she shelled out a quarter million over a couple of years before she cut Trudy off. That’s a lot from one source, and I’m banking there’s more. I’m also banking Trudy had herself a couple of quiet accounts, the sort she wouldn’t report for taxes.”
“Now that I can find easily enough.”
“I’ve got two account numbers from the lawyer where she transferred money to Trudy. But it’s been several years, and maybe Trudy shuffled funds around.”
“The best way to keep the IRS from sniffing. I’ll start with those, find the rest.”
“When you do, if they were e-transfers, we’d be able to track them to the source.”
“Child’s play, and it’ll give me a break from this frustration.”
“Want coffee?”
“How wifely. I would, yes. Thanks.”
“I was getting some for me anyway.”
She heard him laugh as she started out, then she stopped by the board again. If Trudy had income from blackmail, money tucked away, just how much would Bobby inherit now?
A nice boost to his business, she imagined.
She thought briefly of the boy who’d snuck a sandwich into her room when she’d been alone and hungry. How he’d done so without a word, with the faintest of smiles and a finger to his lips.
Then she got coffee, and prepared to find out if he’d killed h
is own mother.
* * *
Chapter 14
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SHE WAS STANDING IN A ROOM, BRILLIANTLY lit, drinking champagne with a group of women. She recognized their faces. The California lawyer was drinking right from the bottle and doing a hip-swinging dance in high red heels. Carly Tween was sitting on a stool with a tall back, sipping delicately while she rubbed her enormous belly with her free hand.
The others—the others who’d been like her—were all chattering the way women do at girl parties. She’d never been fluent in the language of fashion and food and men, so she drank the frothy wine and let the sounds roll over her.
Everyone was duded up. She herself was wearing the same outfit she’d donned for the holiday party. Even in the dream—even knowing it was a dream—her feet ached.
Part of the room was sectioned off, and there the children they’d been sat, watching the party. Hand-me-down clothes, hungry faces, hopeless eyes—all closed off from the lights, the music, the laughter by a sheer glass wall.
Inside it, Bobby served the children sandwiches, and they ate ravenously.
She didn’t belong here, not really. She wasn’t one of them, not quite. And the others sent her quick, sidelong glances, and whispered behind their hands.
Still, it was she who walked first to the body that lay on the floor in the middle of the celebration. Blood stained Trudy’s nightgown and congealed on the glossy floor.
“She’s really not dressed for it,” Maxie said, and smiled as she chugged down more champagne. “All the money she carved out of us, you’d think she could afford a nice outfit. It’s a fricking party, isn’t it?”
“She didn’t plan to be here.”
“You know what they say about plans.” She gave Eve an elbow nudge. “Loosen up. We’re all family here, after all.”
“My family’s not here.” She looked through that sheer glass, into the eyes of children. And wasn’t so sure. “I’ve got a job to do.”
“Suit yourself. Me, I’m going to get this party started.” Maxie turned the bottle over, gripped the neck in both hands, and with a wild laugh smashed it against Trudy’s already shattered head.