“What about Connie Ash?”
“Who’s she?”
“He. Conrad Ash is the club owner.”
She shook her head. “Never even heard of her. Him. Whatever.”
“All right,” I said. “So you blackmailed Greg into paying you part of what they stole. And after he was killed, I guess you had enough on Bruce to keep soaking him.”
“Well, why not? Hey, I told you. Greg owed me. When he died, he still owed me. If he’d been any sort of man, he’d have married me, made his bastard son legit. Instead, he skulks back to Maryland and takes up with some slut.”
I peered at her. “Why do you keep calling Melanie a slut?”
“He was spending money on her that he should have given me. She was living in sin with him.”
I laughed. “And you had his illegitimate child, Snow White.”
“If he’d married me fifteen years ago, that wouldn’t be the case.”
I decided not to delve into the twisted logic that a religious fanatic might use to purify “dirty” premarital sex with a post factum marriage.
“Even if you don’t believe in abortion, you could have given the child up for adoption.”
“Damn straight, I don’t believe in abortion. And, yeah, I could have given the kid away, but I didn’t.” She stabbed a finger at her chest. “I did the right thing.”
Whatever, I thought. “Who do you think killed Gregory Knudsen?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“With Greg out of the picture, maybe you thought you could force Bruce to pay more.”
Barbara looked shocked. “You’re not saying I killed him, are you? He was the whole reason I was getting a cut to begin with.”
“But by that time, you knew about the scheme. Maybe you threatened to go to the cops, to put the screws on Bruce.”
“Why the hell would I kill Greg?”
“I don’t know. It’s a crime of passion. You hated Greg Knudsen. How many more reasons would you need?”
She made a sputtering noise between pursed lips. I took it to mean she disagreed with my theory.
“What about the files in Melanie’s apartment? Did you put them there?”
“Files?”
“Files of the various accounts they set up using the stolen identities.”
“Oh, those. Bruce had the files. I didn’t have nothing to do with them.”
“So he set her up?”
“He must’ve. He was nervous about Greg’s body being in his apartment. He moved the shit out before calling the cops, ’cause he figured they’d search the place.”
“So why’d he hold onto the files?”
“I wanted to know what they were raking in. Bruce was supposed to destroy them after that.”
/> “And everything was fine, until Greg was murdered?”