Her Frozen Cry (Detective Amanda Steele)

SIXTEEN

Amanda and Trent grabbed something quick to eat before heading over to Seth Rossi’s house in Woodbridge. Time had flown as they’d looked at Alicia’s call history, and it was after one in the afternoon when they were seated across from Seth in his living room.

“She just decided one day we were through.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”

“That must have made you bitter,” Trent said.

“Ya think?” Seth shook his head.

“So you’re not terribly upset that she’s dead…?” Amanda raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t much cared for the man from the moment he answered the door. He had a chip on his shoulder and wore it for the world to see.

“I loved Alicia until she broke my heart. We were together for over a decade. I talked to her about marriage, and she was having nothing to do with it. I even took in Brad and treated him like my own son—he is my son, as far as I’m concerned. Then she marries that guy in what, a heartbeat? Pfft. Ridiculous!”

His feelings toward Alicia sounded more possessive than loving. “We’re aware that you and Alicia spoke on the phone on Monday. What was the conversation about?” No point stressing how the timing of the call fell in relation to Alicia’s death or it could get Seth’s back up more than it already was.

“She became a royal bitch. It’s one thing to leave me, but then she takes my son? She never had a problem with me spending time with Leo until she married that guy. Then suddenly I wasn’t good enough anymore? That wasn’t right or fair. I was trying to talk sense into her.”

“Life is rarely fair.” Harsh but true. And there couldn’t have been much “sense talking” on Monday as the call had lasted less than a minute. She was struck by how Seth kept referring to Tony as “that guy,” like he didn’t know or care to remember his name. It also sounded like the two men didn’t get along, but Tony hadn’t seemed to have a problem with Seth.

“Whatever,” Seth pushed out. “Now she’s dead, and I’ve been trying to get ahold of her husband. I want my son back in my full custody now that Alicia’s gone. I’m Leo’s biological father, and he belongs with me.”

“Suppose that’s for the courts to decide,” she said.

“I know you don’t care about any of this. Why would you?”

She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her temper. Just last fall, a man who turned out to be Zoe’s biological father had stepped forward. Thankfully things worked out in Amanda’s favor when he didn’t want to take on raising the girl. But if it had come down to it, Amanda would have fought for the girl.

Trent glanced at Amanda, then asked, “Were you in a custody battle with Alicia, then?”

“It would have hit the courts soon, I suspect. Not that I have the money or means to fight her with her millions of dollars and an army of lawyers. Not like contracting pays as much as the cosmetics industry.”

“Legal proceedings have started?” Amanda struggled to understand why Tony never mentioned any of this. And “amicable?” Not by any conceivable stretch of the imagination. Alicia’s relationship with her ex was strained at best.

“We were just about to that point. That’s what she told me Monday before she hung up. ‘You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.’” He shook his head. “I refuse to roll over. Leo is my son.”

“But you just said that you don’t have the means to contest her.” Amanda tossed his earlier words back to him.

“I would have found a way.”

Had he? Had Seth felt helpless in the face of a custody battle with Alicia and her money? It sure sounded like it, but enough to kill her? “When was the last time you saw Alicia?”

“She let me pick Leo up two weekends ago. Took begging to get it to happen.”

“So it was becoming more difficult for you to get time with your son?” Trent asked. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one seeing motive with this guy.

“Yep. Every single day. Heck, the nanny saw him more than Alicia ever did, so where the hell did she get off…?” He scowled and shook his head. “At least I’d have been around for him.”

“A nanny?” The question scraped from her throat, and she laid a hand on her stomach. Why hadn’t Tony mentioned one? They’d asked if anyone else had access to the house, and he’d said no. Presumably a nanny would have access to Alicia’s Sleep Tight.

“Yeah. Tina Nash. Nice enough woman, and Leo likes her.”

Amanda glanced at Trent.

“How did Tina and Alicia get along?” Trent asked.

“Fine, as far as I know. Tina did everything that Alicia should have been doing as Leo’s mom. But Alicia always threw how important she was in my face. How much stress and pressure she was under. How she ran a cosmetics empire that she had started from nothing. Yada yada. All her choice. And she was stressed, but I wasn’t?”

“Stress must have made it hard for her to sleep,” Trent said. “Did she have lots of sleepless nights, suffer from periodic bouts of insomnia?”

Amanda loved how cleverly Trent had cued things up to move the questioning forward.

“Yeah, I guess. What about it?”

Trent shrugged. “She probably took sleeping pills to help, then.”

“I don’t know about the last eighteen months, but she used to take a remedy called Sleep Tight. Every single night while we were together. Too tired for sex most of the time too.”

Given this guy’s attitude, Amanda couldn’t imagine hanging around long enough to procreate. But he’d just done them a favor. He’d confirmed knowing about the sleeping aid. Could they put the contaminated bottle in his hands? “Have you ever heard of pentobarbital?”

“Nope, never heard of it. Why?” Not just his eyes, but his entire facial expression was blank.

Was his response an act to shield himself? After all, Seth Rossi had motive. With Alicia dead, he could be awarded full custody of Leo—if he got away with murder. Amanda wasn’t letting that happen on her watch. As the saying goes, no stone unturned. “We looked up your background before we came here. An assault charge? Tell us about that.”

He clenched his jaw. “It’s in the past.”

“Eleven years ago,” she countered.

“Okay, so, the distant past.”

“How long were you and Alicia together?”