Vendetta in Death (In Death 49)

“He was so attractive, you see. Women were drawn to him,” Geena claimed as she obeyed and dabbed her face with a tissue. “And with his weakness he sometimes … He faltered. It shamed him, and he struggled. But in the last year, he renewed his vows to me, and kept them. He swore it. And he never used drugs, he never touched illegals. He’d have no need to use them on a woman. He was magnetic.”

Eve let that slide for the moment. “Did you speak with anyone about this aspect of your marriage? The difficulties you had when your husband faltered?”

“No one. Francie,” she corrected, reaching for Francie’s hand, gripping it. “She’s family, and more of a mother to me than my own.”

“Anyone else? A friend, a therapist, a doctor?”

“It was no one’s business but ours. It is no one’s business but ours. If you try to say he did these things, used illegals on women, brought them into my home, I’ll sue you for slander. Do you hear me? I’ll go to your superior and have you fired.”

Eve let the fury, and the fear behind it, roll off her. Duty, she thought, couldn’t always be kind and patient.

Could rarely be either.

“Would you like to see one of the vids? He liked redheads, curvy ones. He kept date rape illegals locked in his office. Did he ever use them on you, with or without your consent?”

Shock came first, stripping even a hint of color out of Geena’s face. But her eyes went hard. “How dare you?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“He did not. My husband loved me. Why are you trying to destroy what I have left of him?”

“Someone knew his habits, his routines, and used that knowledge to lure him to his death. If you told no one, someone else did or one of the women he used sought and found her revenge. If you lie to me, or hide information that relates to the investigation, you’re obstructing that investigation. If you knew of and/or participated in his use of illegals for sexual compliance and deny same, you’re obstructing.”

“I say you’re a liar, a woman so blinded by ambition she would smear a good man, a family man, a father, to

further those ambitions.” Fury forced color back into her face as she surged to her feet. “I want you out of my home, and I’ll see to it you’re removed from this investigation if not removed from the NYPSD over this vicious vendetta you’re waging against my husband.”

“Geena,” Francie began, but Geena shook her head.

“Get them out. Get them out,” she repeated, and rushed to the stairs, all but sprinted up them.

“I’m very sorry.” Francie twisted her hands together. “She’s not herself. Understandably. I’ll talk to her, but I can assure you she knew none of this. He was so attentive, so loving to her and the girls.”

“But you knew.”

“Not about the illegals. I swear it. She’s like a daughter to me, and those girls are my grandchildren in all but blood. If I’d known, I’d have told her. I’d have found a way. I allowed myself to believe he’d turned a corner and was faithful, but there were signs I ignored because Geena and the girls were happy.”

Francie paused, pressed her fingers to her eyes, then dropped them. “I can tell you this, with no hesitation or doubt. She was telling you the truth as she knows it. She believed him, absolutely, and she would have told no one but me about the other women. She needed her illusions, Lieutenant, so she believed him.”

Francie rose. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll do what I can.”

“One more question. Did you speak to anyone else about Mr. McEnroy?”

“Whatever Geena shared with me stayed between her and me. He broke her trust time after time in the past. I wouldn’t, couldn’t. I never would.”

“Thanks for your time.”

“She’ll want to see him,” Francie added as she walked them to the door. “If not tomorrow, then soon. She’ll need to see him.”

“I’ll arrange it.”

Eve stepped out, started for the elevator. “Don’t tell me I was hard on her.”

“Well now, you were hard on her, but you had to know, didn’t you?”

She jabbed the call button. “Know what?”

“If she knew what he was about, if she had any part in it, overtly or by her silence. If knowing, she finally had enough and helped arrange his murder. Or simply cried on shoulders who might do it for her.”