“You’d accuse me, after I came to you, after I’ve tried to help, because you have one too many bodies to fit your case? For God’s sake. I want you to leave my house. I want you—”
When she started to rise, Roarke simply reached out, shoved her back into place. “You want to sit quietly, Celina.” And his voice was deathly calm. “We’ve both had a miserable few hours and may be less courteous than you’re accustomed to. So I’d sit still if I were you.”
“Now you’re threatening me. I’m calling my lawyer.”
“Haven’t read you your rights yet, so you don’t get any. I’ll read them to you, Celina, and you can call your lawyer, but right now, we’re just having a conversation.”
“I don’t like the tone of this conversation.”
“You know what I don’t like? I don’t like being used. I don’t like being hosed by some selfish bitch with a sixth sense so she can kill her boyfriend’s new woman.”
“Listen to yourself! I was at home, all night, when she was killed. I took a tranq. I never left the house.”
“Not at all true,” Roarke commented. “Oh, you’ve got the security discs that’ll prove you didn’t go out the front, use the elevator. But interestingly enough, you’ve no tenants down below and haven’t for the last few months.”
Summerset’s little contribution, Eve thought. “You didn’t renew their lease.”
“It’s certainly my choice—”
“And that made it very simple,” Roarke went on. “You went out the door there—where you shut down the security cams—down the stairs, into 1-A, and out the emergency evac. I checked it myself, and you didn’t think to seal up first. We’ve your prints on the door, on the window, on the evac mechanism.”
“It’s my property.” But her hands were moving restlessly now, from her lap, to her throat, to her hair. “My fingerprints might be anywhere.”
“Annalisa didn’t fit. She was close,” Eve considered. “In the ballpark, but she didn’t quite fit Blue’s vision. Hair’s too dark, too short. Then there’s the kitten. He didn’t use props with the others. But you needed that moment of distraction. You’re not a two-hundred-eighty-pound man. You needed to distract her, to get her down so she didn’t have time to fight.”
“For heaven’s sakes. He raped her. In whatever fantasy you’ve dreamed up, for whatever reason, you can hardly accuse me of raping another woman.”
“Couldn’t have been pleasant for you. What appliance did you use? They make all kinds. Some of them are so realistic, you can hardly tell them from the real McCoy.”
“Please.”
Eve patted Roarke’s knee. “Sorry.”
“You’ll never prove this.”
“Oh, Celina, I will.” Eve leaned forward so Celina could look directly into her eyes. “You know I will. Just like you knew I’d get John Blue, with or without you. You wanted me to, just not before Annalisa. You have the right to remain silent,” she began.
“This is insane,” Celina said when Eve finished the Revised Miranda. “Why would I come to you, to help?”
“Always better to be in the inner circle, closer to data, if you can. That was clever of you.”
“I’m going to call a lawyer.”
“Go ahead.” Eve gestured toward the ’link. “Once you do, I’ll make it my mission in life to take you down harder. I’m tired. I want to close this down. Because I’m tired, I’m inclined to work with you on this, see what we can manage.”
She saw speculation, just an instant of it, flicker over Celina’s face. “Blue’s got no reason to lie, Celina. He knows how many women he killed, and what he did to and with every one of them. The number is fifteen. He wasn’t in Greenpeace Park the night Annalisa was killed. He’s alibied.”
“Then it was—”
“Someone else?” Eve suggested. “Yes, it was. Someone who knew the details, details not released to the media. Someone who could use them, copy them. But that someone wasn’t a man. Because there was no man that night. Only you. He left you. Lucas left you, and ended up with her.”
“We left each other, and he wasn’t seeing her when we were together.”
“No, he wasn’t. Decent guy, honest guy. He didn’t two-time you. But he’d met her before you split. He confirms that, by the
way. He’d met her, and he’d felt something click. I bet you knew he was interested, maybe before he really knew it himself. I bet you read him every chance you got.”
“I told you I don’t intrude.”