Celebrity in Death (In Death 34)

“When a cop wants to talk to you in a room like this, you’re going to be nervous. That’s part of it, right? The interviewee is already a strike down at the plate.”

He took a swallow of his cooler. “Do you think I can get a look at EDD while I’m here? I was setting that up with McNab before … before.”

“I’ll check with Captain Feeney.” Casual dress and attitude, Eve thought. She’d play on that. “How are you doing, Matthew?”

“Okay. No, not really. She was dead when I pulled her out of the water. I know it’s probably stupid, but it hit me later. She was dead when I pulled her out, when I gave her CPR, mouth-to-mouth. She was dead the whole time. My head keeps going back to that. Not that I tried, but that she was dead the whole time.”

“And the two of you had once been intimate.”

“Yeah. I knew the shape of her body, the feel of her skin, her mouth. And last night, I touched her, put my mouth on her. And she was dead. But she … felt the same. I can’t get past it.”

“You said last night you hadn’t been involved sexually for several months.”

“That’s right.”

“But she wanted to be.”

“I think she just wanted what she couldn’t have. Some people are wired that way. Maybe.”

“It had to put you on the spot, especially since you were playing lovers.”

“I wouldn’t say she made it easy, but she had a lot of ambition. She wouldn’t screw up the work to screw with me.”

“You said she wrecked your trailer.”

“Yeah.” He took another swallow. “Had to be. She didn’t even want me or care about me that way—not really. She just …” He shrugged. “I should’ve let her break it off. Looking back, I wish I’d held out until she dumped me. Then she wouldn’t have stayed so pissed.”

“The way you talked last night made it sound as if she was obsessed. In fact, I believe you used that term.”

“I don’t know.” His gaze, green as his shirt, flicked to the two-way glass again. “I guess, sort of. I think she just didn’t like not being the one calling it off. When I think about it,” he continued, “she had more grease than I do, career-wise. She could’ve pushed to have someone else cast as McNab. Maybe she figured we’d hook up during the shooting, then she could dump me. I don’t know. I don’t even know why I’m thinking about it. She’s dead.”

“It couldn’t have gone over well with her when you and Marlo started sleeping together.”

His face went blank, utterly, as he set down his drink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t know you’re sleeping with Marlo Durn, or you don’t understand the term?”

“Listen, I don’t know where you got that information, but—”

“Are you denying it?” Eve flattened her voice. “Because lying to a police officer in Interview doesn’t go over well. It just makes us all suspicious and pushy.”

He hesitated, shifted. “My relationship with Marlo doesn’t have anything to do with K.T.—or anybody. It’s personal.”

“You and Marlo romping on the sheets doesn’t have anything to do with a woman who, by your own statement, was obsessed with you? Stalked you? Vandalized your trailer? Does that fly for you, Peabody?”

“It doesn’t even get off the ground.” Peabody’s tone, her expression radiated soft sympathy. “I’m sorry, Matthew. It’s awkward and uncomfortable when you have to talk about private business, but if you try to avoid and evade, it just looks bad. The way I see it, you and Marlo are both adults, both free to, you know, enjoy each other.”

“You’d think,” he muttered. “It doesn’t have anything to do with K.T.,” he insisted. “We were done, over—finished before Marlo and I even met.”

“But K.T. didn’t want it to be done, over, finished,” Eve prompted.

His tone, his face hardened. “That was her problem.”

“She made it yours.”

“She was a pain in the ass, okay? A serious pain in the ass even before she found out Marlo and I were together. It just got uglier once she found out we were.”

“When was that?”