“Did you confide in her? Open up? You got to be tight, right? With you doing these little jobs for her. With her trusting you to do them. And you hanging out with her some at these retreats she took you on. Did you tell her how you missed your husband, how hard it was sometimes to raise your boys on your own? What your hopes and dreams for them were?”
Bebe’s lips quivered before she clamped them tight. “Why shouldn’t I? Part of the reason for the retreats was to share, to network and support. Why shouldn’t I? There’s no shame in it.”
“And she was sympathetic, even intimate.” To close off some of Bebe’s space, Eve leaned in. “Did she open up to you, Bebe? Did she share, so you’d know even a woman in her position, with her resources had it tough?”
“It’s personal. It’s none of your damn business.”
“It’s my damn business when her husband’s dead!” The rapid change of Eve’s tone, from mild, even cajoling to hard and mean had Bebe jolting. “It’s all my business now, so don’t fuck with me. It was tit for tat, was that how she made it seem? I’ll do this for you, if you do me this little favor? I can play that.”
Leaning back, Eve took a casual sip from the bottle of water she’d brought in with her, and throttled down again. “You tell me what I need to know, and I’ll see to it that your husband’s case is reopened, reopened, Bebe, and assigned to the best available in the Bronx Homicide Division.”
“They don’t care about me, they don’t care about Luca.”
“I’ll make sure they do. Peabody, can and will I make sure the Bronx cares about Luca Petrelli, and bringing his killers to justice?”
“Yes, sir, you can and will if you choose to. Bebe,” Peabody added, “the lieutenant doesn’t bullshit about murder. You should’ve figured that out by now. And after your lunch visit, you should figure she’s got some pull in the Bronx.”
“I’m telling you, Bebe—look at me! I’ll make sure they reopen Luca’s case. I’ll make sure they care. I’m telling you that on record. Now. Do you want the case reopened?”
Tears shimmered and swam. Then spilled. “Yes.”
“Did Ava Anders ask you to kill Thomas Anders?”
“No. No. No. She didn’t. I swear on my boys, she didn’t. But…”
“But. That’s the sticker. The but’s why you didn’t attend the retreat six weeks ago. The but’s why you haven’t attended or served at any of the seminars or outreach programs for the last five months. Tell me about that.”
Bebe swiped at tears with fingers that trembled. “I couldn’t get off work. I couldn’t take the time. My boys…She was good to me, do you get that? She gave us a chance, and you want me to rat her out.”
“She used you, and in your gut you know it. Your father used you, your brothers used you, your dealers and your johns used you. You know when you’re being used. What did she ask you to do?”
“She didn’t ask. She…she
told me how he abused her sexually, how he was bringing women into the house, and wanted her to…to participate in…in the kind of sex that disgusted her.”
When Peabody offered her a cup of water, Bebe drank it down in one go.
“She shared that with you?” Peabody spoke gently. “Those intimate details of her marriage?”
“She said she knew I’d understand, and I did. I did understand. She said he was going to toss her out, stop the programs, cancel the scholarships, destroy everything she’d put in motion unless she gave in. It was making her sick.”
“You had to feel awfully sorry for her,” Peabody prompted. “And upset at the idea he’d take all that away from her. And your boys, too.”
“I did. God. I didn’t know what to think. I could hardly believe it. He seemed like such a nice man. But she broke down, just broke down, went to pieces. She said she’d found out he was abusing some of the kids, the girls, and she couldn’t do anything about it. No one would believe her, and how he had to be stopped.”
“When was this?” Eve demanded.
“Last summer. Like July. Kids were in camp, and I was doing a little work for her on a Sunday at her house.”
“Just the two of you, right? Nobody else there.”
“Yeah, yeah. And what set her off was she was talking to one of the women’s shelters about one of the mothers who had kids in the program, about getting her job training and stuff, and when she finished, she just fell to pieces.”
“Convenient.”
Bebe’s head snapped up at Eve’s comment. “It wasn’t like that. It’s just, she was so upset, and it all came pouring out. He was away, her husband. He went away a lot. There was so much on her, you know? And now he’s saying if she doesn’t fall in line, she’s out on her ass, and all those kids…my kids. I said something about there had to be a way to stop him, to protect herself, to protect the kids. She said, the only way to stop him, a man with his kind of power, his kind of sickness, was if he was dead. How it was horrible to say, but she wished he was dead, and sometimes after he went at her, she’d lie there and think of how it could be done. How he could have an accident, if she had someone she could trust and depend on to help her. How if he had an accident, the kids would all be safe. My kids would be safe.”
“What kind of accident did she suggest?”