“We got Rouche, so he won’t be at your beck. Added to it, now that the warden’s aware of your activities, you’ll be cut off. No more chatting with friends and family on-planet, Max.”
His face tightened. “There’s always someone willing to deal. Always someone. One day, they’ll add another life sentence on for your murder. I’m giving that a lot of thought. A great deal of thought.”
“Sandy won’t be able to help you with that. He’s dead.”
She watched anger ripple over his face before it went tight and cold
. “A pity. But there’s always another Sandy.”
“Your son’s on to you. Lost your whipping boy there, Max.”
“My son’s useless. Couldn’t even keep the woman in line, could he? Had a cop in his bed but wouldn’t put her in his pocket.” A smile, thin and sly, slid onto his lips. “He was happy to help kill when I suggested it, when I arranged it.”
“Please. Alex is nothing but a disappointment to you because he wouldn’t do things just your way. He didn’t kill Coltraine. I’ve got your girl, Max.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned away now, shifting his body like a sulking child. “I’ve had enough of you.”
“Cleo’s in custody. Two murder counts. She didn’t check in with you before she killed Sandy. Bad girl. She screwed it up, Max, and now you have to pay. It’s her fault this didn’t work out for you.”
All sympathy and reason, she leaned back against the wall when he shifted toward her again. “You really batted zero in the progeny department. But maybe, seeing as you’re already completely fucked, you want to help her out. Take the full rap, give her something for her defense. You forced her, you blackmailed her, you brainwashed her, threatened her. You might be able to convince me to go for a lesser charge. Hell, she’s a cop. I’ll deal. I could maybe get her twenty instead of life. She’s your blood, after all.”
“She’s nothing. Never was, never will be. Less than nothing. Cleo’s gotten all she’ll get from me, and that’s more than she deserved. Coltraine’s on her. I’m an old man, in prison,” he added with a sneer. “I have no control over what some bitch does on-planet. You won’t prove otherwise.”
“The bitch is your daughter, Max.”
“She’s nothing, and she’ll get nothing from me. She hated Alex—hated him because he was my son, my heir. Obviously she killed the cop whore to get back at him, and that’s nothing to me.”
“A minute ago you tried to tell me Alex did the murder.”
“Alex doesn’t have the balls. At least Cleo knows how to go after what she wants, whatever it takes. But she doesn’t have Alex’s brains. Between them, they barely make up one useful person.”
“Do you have knowledge that Cleo Grady murdered Detective Coltraine.”
He smiled again. “She wanted to do it two years ago when the cop lived with Alex in Atlanta. I advised against, so this is nothing to me. She’s nothing to me. Lock her away. Stupid bitch. Stupid bitch.” He pounded his fist on the bunk. “Stupid bitch,” he repeated again and again.
“End holo,” Eve ordered, and heard the bitter refrain echo in her ears as she stared at Cleo. “Daddy’s in a very bad mood,” Eve commented.
There were tears, Eve noted, just the faintest glimmer of them behind the fury in Cleo’s eyes. “He’s a liar.”
“Oh yeah, but not about this. We’ve got him, Cleo. We’ve got you. And unless you’re a complete fool you know he won’t lift a finger to help you out.”
“I want a deal.”
“You won’t get one.” Eve sat again, made sure Cleo could read the solid truth of it on her face. “Murder in the First for Coltraine. We’ve got you wrapped on it. Your connection to Ricker will help put it over.”
“I want a fucking deal.”
“You’re not going to fucking get one! Not for Coltraine. Not as long as I’m breathing. You wanted to please your father and hurt your brother so you murdered an innocent woman. A fellow officer, a squadmate. You’re going to pay with the rest of your life for that. And for Sandy. He doesn’t mean the same to me, that’s a fact, but that’s the job. You’re going to pay for him, too.”
“Then we’ve got nothing to say.”
“Up to you. Let’s book her, Peabody, two counts of Murder in the First.”
“Give me something, goddamn it.”
“You want something, Detective? You want some sort of consideration from me? The fact that you’re conscious and not bleeding’s all the consideration you’re going to get.”
“I know Max’s contacts, the ones you missed. I know where he has accounts, accounts that hold enough to keep paying those contacts.”