Memory in Death (In Death 22)

“Yeah. Thought about setting the house on fire, with her inside, but that wouldn’t‘ve been smart. They’d come after me harder if I’d done that.”

And the trickle went dry. “Arson, murder, yeah, they’d‘ve come after you hard.”

“Anyway, I was young. Plenty of time for payback. But they came after me anyway. You cops ever think about just letting somebody be?”

She shook her head, took another sip of coffee.

“You got away from her when you were thirteen. That’s half a lifetime ago for you, Marnie. Long time to hold a grudge.”

Mamie’s voice was as bitter as the coffee. “What good’s a grudge if you don’t hold it? She told me I was a whore. Born a whore, die a whore. That I was ugly, useless. That I was nothing. Every day I was with her, she told me. She wanted new living room furniture, so she busted it up, said I did it. The state wrote her a check and put me on restriction. She made my life hell for damn near a year.”

“You waited a long time to pay her back for it.”

“I had other things to do. Kept my eye on her, though, just in case opportunity knocked. Then it did.”

“The night of the bombing in Miami.”

“Sometimes fate just drops it in your lap, what can I say? I was sick that night, got somebody to cover for me. Nobody gave a shit, joint like that. Had to give her my ID and pass code so she could get in the back, into my locker for costumes. Then I hear about it on-screen. Place is blown up, nearly everybody’s dead, and in pieces. Well, Jesus, lucky break for me, wasn’t it? I’d gone in, I’d be in pieces. Shook me up, let me tell you. Really made me think.”

“And you thought, ‘Why not be someone else?’”

“Well, here’s the thing. I owed a little money here and there. Can’t pay if I’m dead. I took the dead friend’s ID, what money we had between us, and lit out. She had a nice stash.”

“You got a name on her?”

“Who? Oh, shit, what was her name? Rosie, yeah. Rosie O’Hara. Why?”

“She might have next of kin looking for her.”

“Doubt it. She was a street LC with a funk habit.” She dismissed the woman who’d died in her place as callously as she’d dismissed the coffee. “Her ID wasn’t going to hold me long, so I knew I needed to ditch it, get fresh. That’s when I came up with the idea for Zana. It’s not so hard to get fresh ID and data if you know where to go, whose palm to grease. Had some work done, face work. Off the books. Good investment, the way I looked at it. Especially when I checked out Bobby.”

“Nice-looking guy, single, ambitious.”

“All that, and still tight with Mama. I wasn’t figuring on killing her, let’s get that straight.” She lifted both hands, pointed the index fingers across at Eve. “Let’s get that real clear. None of this ‘lying in wait’ crap. I just figured on stealing her boy, then making her life a misery, like she’d done to me. Maybe getting a nice nest egg out of it.”

“Just a long con,” Eve supplied.

“That’s right. Bobby was easy. He’s not a bad guy all in all. Boring, but he’s okay. Plus he’s got some moves in the sheets. And Trudy?”

Marnie sat back, grinning ear-to-ear. “She was a pleasure. Figured she had a new slave, meek little Zana. Oh, Mama Tru, I’d be happy to do that for you. You got dirty work needs doing, I’m your girl. Then I get the big surprise. She’s got money tucked away. Pretty big money, too, so why shouldn’t I get some of it? I’ve got the run of her house, seeing as I’m her little helper. She’s got good stuff in there, stuff that costs. Now where’s this coming from? Just takes a little research, a little detecting. Blackmail. I can turn the tables on her with this. Just need a little time, need to figure it all out.”

Propping an elbow on the table, Marnie set her chin on her fist. “I was looking for the best way to siphon off some of the money, then expose her. They’d lock her up, like she’d locked me up.”

Enjoying this, Eve thought, enjoying every minute of this.

“Then she sees you on that media report, and gets all worked up about going to New York. I was going to wrap this up in shiny paper, drop it right in your lap. Then I’d stand back, big wide eyes, horrified that my husband’s mother turned out to be a blackmailer. I’d be laughing my ass off.”

“A good plan,” Eve acknowledged, “but opportunity jumped out at you again.”

“If you’d fallen in, it would’ve turned out differently. You want to think about that,” Marnie said, and gestured with her drink. “I figured you’d pay her off, or at least take a couple days to think it over. Then I’d come to you, all dewy-eyed and upset, tell you what I’d found out about my darling husband’s mama.”

Marnie nudged the coffee aside. “You and me, we’d both have gotten something out of that. Every kid she ever screwed with would’ve gotten something out of that. But you pissed her off good. Roarke? He shot her through the ozone. She was going to make you pay, and pay big. That’s all she could think about. Somebody screwed with her, she’d do anything to screw them back, and bigger. You saw what she did to herself.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“Not the first time, like you said. You ask me, that woman had some serious issues. She’d already bunged herself up good when she called me. Not Bobby—he wouldn’t put up with what she wanted to do. He’d have stopped her, or tried. But me? Her sweet, biddable daughter-in-law? She knew she could count on me, she knew she could bully me. It wasn’t much of a stretch to act stunned when I went into her room. Her face was a freaking mess. You know what she told me? You want to know?”

“I’m riveted,” Eve answered.