Secrets in Death (In Death 45)

“I know there was more. Arguing, carefully arguing. I can’t remember it all. It’s like being in a play, and forgetting your lines. I said she’d have her blood money, but I’d never give her information, never put anyone else through what she was putting me through. She said I’d be surprised how that attitude evolves over time. For now I could meet her in two days, same time, same place, with cash. That’s when she got up, said she was going to freshen up before she left, and I could pay the check. She walked away.

“I didn’t kill her. I wanted to hurt her, but … what would it do to DeAnna? It would all come out, and I’d throw us both into a scandal. She needs to be happy, to be calm. The babies. We’re having triplets. My girls are inside my wife. I wouldn’t risk them, even for the satisfaction of hurting that bitch.”

“Where’s your brachial artery?” Eve tossed out.

His eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Do you know much about anatomy?”

“I know where everything is, more or less. I know a hell of a lot more about the female reproductive system than I’d like to, frankly. Artery? Like the heart?”

“Not exactly. I won’t speak to your wife, and I’ll do whatever I can do to keep this out of the media.”

Tears swam into his eyes. “Thank you. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“I need the name and contact number of your friend—the one who went to the club with you. I need any and all communications you’ve had with Mars. It’s likely I’ll need to speak to you again, and I’ll expect your cooperation.”

“You’ll have it.”

“If you’ve lied to me, I’ll find out.”

“I haven’t. I wouldn’t risk my wife, our daughters.”

“It happens I believe you on that.”

* * *

When they walked back outside, Roarke slipped an arm around Eve. “You felt for him, and so did I.”

“I believe he loves his wife, and I think Mars targeted him—rich, former womanizer with a lot to lose—managed to have someone slip something into his drink. Which means she’d stalked him, watched him, picked her time. Wife’s gone for a couple of days—the threesome looks even worse in the marriage bed.”

“You don’t believe he killed her.”

“My hard lean is he was blindsided. He still has some doubts about his worth, especially after waking up from a blackout, and she counted on all that. He didn’t walk into that bar with a plan to kill, and I lean—fairly heavily—that her killer did. I also believe if she’d continued to bleed Bellami—threaten his wife, his family, his life—he would have eventually done her harm.

“But he didn’t do her harm tonight.”

“But someone else she’s bled—as, obviously, this is her business plan—did harm her tonight.”

Eve nodded. “Think about it. You bleed me, I bleed you, bitch. It’s downright poetic. Why the hell don’t people come to the cops?”

“Oh, let me count the ways.” He tugged her back when she pulled away. “I see your side of it, Lieutenant, but it’s a difficult leap for someone to come to a cop and confess they’ve embezzled, cheated, covered up some crime or misadventure. Blackmailers, as you very well know, depend on just that behavior. You just pay me, and I keep your secret.”

“And they never stop. You never stop the bleeding.”

“You’re absolutely right, but those in the middle of it have the hope it will, somehow. Those who can afford to pay? It’s just money compared to what else they might lose.”

“Or information,” she added. “I’m betting she bled plenty of that. Lowers the cash flow for the weasel, makes it easier to keep weaseling. It’s just gossip.”

She dropped into the car, put her head back. “Or favors,” she considered. “Like slipping something into some guy’s drink at a club. No way she’d have risked doing that herself. Maybe she hired the LCs, but that’s easy. Unlikely Bellami’s friend,” she considered. “We’ll check the story, check him, but it’s tough seeing a friend ruin the lives of two people who helped him launch his career.”

“She might have had something on the friend as well.”

“Yeah, winding that around, but unless I find he’s a scumbag, I don’t see it. Triplets, for God’s sake.”

She shuddered once.

“I need to see her place. It’s on Park.”