Memory in Death (In Death 22)

“Some, yeah. But I figured if you found them, you still didn’t have reason to look at me. The business the next day was a little insurance. I get the stuff, head out, dump everything in different recyclers while I walk around, find the right spot. I used to live in New York. I knew that bar.”

“I knew that.”

Marnie snorted. “Come on.”

“You slipped up with the dogs, made the wrong comment. I had a homer on both of you that day. A little insurance for me.”

Marnie’s face went blank, then there was a snap of irritation before she shrugged. “Bobby slipped.”

“You’re in it this far, Marnie, and you’re going to get points for cooperating. Don’t start bullshitting me now. Trudy’s dead, and she’s got all that money. Bobby’s sitting between you and it. Boring Bobby.”

“You think this was about money? Money’s a little icing, but it’s not the cake. It’s payback. She deserved it, you know damn well she deserved it. Bobby’s an idiot, but he’s okay. If I gave him a little nudge, it was impulse, that’s all. Just a little something to keep you looking for the invisible man. And I tried to pull him back. I got witnesses.”

She sulked over her coffee. “Tally it up, why don’t you? You’ve got one dead blackmailer. And she hit me first. I destroyed the discs of the recording she had me make. All of them: I destroyed the copies of your file—as a favor. If I was after money, I could’ve come after you with them. But I didn’t, ‘cause the way I saw it, she put us in the same boat back then. I could’ve waited, and screwed with Bobby when we were back in Texas. I’ve got nothing but time.”

“But you aren’t going back to Texas. Bali, isn’t it?”

A smile glimmered again. “I’m thinking about it. A lot of people she screwed with are going to be glad I took care of her. You ought to thank me. She messed with us, Dallas. Preyed on and played with us. You know it. You know she got what she deserved. We come from the same place, you and me. You’d have done the same thing.”

Eve thought of the way their eyes had met in the mirror. What she’d seen in Marnie’s. What she’d seen in her own. “That’s how you figure it.”

“That’s how it is. I’m not going down for this. Not when it comes out what she was, what she did. Assault, maybe. I do a couple years for that and the ID gambit. But murder? You can’t make that stick.”

“Watch me.” Eve pushed to her feet. “Marnie Ralston, you’re under arrest for the murder of Trudy Lombard. Further charges are attempted murder of Bobby Lombard. We’ll toss in the ID fraud, giving false statements to the police. You’ll do more than a couple years, Marnie. You’ve got my word on it.”

“Oh, cut the crap,” Marnie insisted. “Turn off the record, shove your partner out so it’s just you and me. Then tell me how you really feel.”

“I can tell you how I feel, Marnie, on or off record.”

“You’re glad she’s dead.”

“You’re wrong.” What had clutched inside of her loosened. Because Marnie was wrong. Completely. “If it was up to me, she’d be in a cage, the same as you’ll be. She’d be in a cage for what she did to me, to you, to every kid she ever abused, to every woman she ever exploited. That’s justice.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“No, that’s the job,” Eve corrected. “But you didn’t leave it up to me. You picked up that sap, and you cracked her skull open.”

“I didn’t plan it—”

“Maybe you didn’t,” Eve interrupted. “But you didn’t stop there. While she was lying there, bleeding, you stole from her. To get to that point, the point where you could exact your revenge, you used an innocent man. You left the bed where you’d made love with him, and killed his mother. Then you watched him grieve. You put him in the hospital, for kicks, for a little insurance. You did to him what she tried to do to us. You made him nothing. If I could, I’d send you over for that alone.”

She braced her hands on the table, leaned over so their faces were close. “I’m not like you, Marnie. You’re pathetic, taking and ruining lives for something that’s over.”

There were tears now, real ones, angry ones, glimmering in Mamie’s eyes. “It’s never over.”

“Well, you’ll have a long time to think about that. Twenty-five to life, I’d say. I’m nothing like you,” Eve repeated. “I’m the cop. And I’m going to give myself the pleasure of taking you down to booking personally.”

“You’re a hypocrite. You’re a liar and a hypocrite.”

“You can think that, but I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight. And I’m going to sleep really well.”

She took Marnie’s arm, pulled her to her feet. Pulling out her restraints, she snapped them on Marnie’s wrists. “Peabody, finish up here, will you?”

“I’ll be out in six months,” Marnie said when Eve escorted her into the hall.

“Keep dreaming.”

“And Bobby’ll pay for my lawyers. She deserved it. Say it! She deserved it. You hated her, just as much as I did.”