by J. D. Robb
“Lieutenant, I require time to speak to my client off this record.”
Eve shrugged, rose. “Dallas and Peabody exiting Interview. Record off.”
Peabody blew out a breath. “He really thinks the lawyer can just wave a magic lawyer wand and make it all go away.”
“Because it happened that way before. He gets in a little jam, somebody takes care of it. A bigger jam, somebody fixes it. I expect we’ll uncover a lot of that.”
“The thing is, the lawyer looks shocked, but not really surprised.”
“Good eye, Detective. He is shocked, but as it comes out, bit by bit, he’s starting to think of things, remember comments or gestures or behavior. Maybe he remembers funneling money to a woman who cried rape or abuse, a woman he probably didn’t believe at the time. Or he believed her, but tidied it all up for his client.”
Eve stepped aside when Drummond came out.
“Ready?”
“I … I am no longer Mr. Knightly’s attorney of record.”
“Probably a smart move on your part.”
“His choice, not mine. Still, I’ve never handled a capital case. Kyle … he needs an attorney experienced in capital crimes. He needs a psychiatric evaluation. He—”
“You’re not his lawyer,” Eve reminded him. “He’s entitled to one, as experienced as he can get. He will be evaluated. Excuse me.” She stepped back to the door, glanced back at him. “How many women? How many did you pay off after he raped them?”
Drummond merely shook his head. He looked sick, Eve thought, physically ill. But he shook his head and walked away.
She went into Interview.
“Record on. Dallas and Peabody reentering Interview. Mr. Knightly, have you dismissed your attorney?”
“Dismissed? I fired his useless ass.”
“Do you wish to contact and engage other legal representation at this time?”
“Oh, I’ll get legal representation.” Contempt rolled through his voice, glittered in his sneer. “I’ll get the best lawyers out there, believe it.”
“Do you wish to contact a lawyer at this time?”
“I need to do some research, conduct interviews.”
“Very well. Peabody, arrange for Mr. Knightly to be taken back to his cell.”
“Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit! I want a hearing.” He jabbed a finger on the table. “I want a goddamn hearing, I want bail, and I want out. Now.”
“None of those things are going to happen. You can bring Mr. Drummond back in to represent you, contact another lawyer or representative, waive your right to legal representation at this time and talk to us, or go back to your cell. That’s the full menu.”
“I know my rights.”
“You should, we’ve read them to you twice. And I don’t believe we’re the first. Where in there does it say Kyle gets to go home because he wants to?”
“You think you’re smart.” He let out a crack of a laugh. “You think swaggering around with a weapon and an attitude makes you sexy? Durn played you sexy. It’s called acting.”
“Choose. Lawyer, another lawyer, waive the lawyer and continue the interview, or go back to your cell.”
“I’m not going back to any cell. Sit down. And you.” He pointed at Peabody. “Go find somebody who knows what they’re doing around here and get me a hearing.”
“No.”
His nostrils actually flared. “What did you say?”
“No. Anyhow, are you waiving your right to legal representation at this time? Because otherwise, you’re heading back, and I can go grab a snack. I missed lunch.”
“Ha ha. You’re the funny one, right? Nothing funny about you. And you need to lose ten pounds.”
“Ouch.” Peabody looked at Eve, made exaggerating sniffing noises.
“Waive legal counsel at this time,” Eve snapped. “Yes or no. Any word other than yes, I take as a no and you’re in a cell.”
“Yes.” A note of panic escaped before he sat back, shrugged. “Why the hell not? It’s not like you two worry me. Get me a drink,” he told Peabody.
“Gee, I’d be happy to. Would you like me to make you a martini?”
“Could you?” Knightly said with a fresh sneer. “Make it a ginger ale, on ice, twist of lime.”
With a snort, and a nod from Eve, Peabody left the room.
“Peabody exiting Interview. Where do you want to start, Kyle, at the beginning or at the end?”
“You’ve barely got tits and a teenage boy’s ass. Still … How many of the brass did you have to fuck to make it to lieutenant?”
“But we’re not here to talk about my sexual habits, Kyle. This is all about you. You’re the star of the show. This whole place is buzzing about you. I’ve never seen anything like it, not even during the Icove mess.”
She paused a moment, gave him a thoughtful study. “Jesus, Nadine’s going to be all over this, probably get another book, another vid out of it, especially with the whole Oscar deal right now. I mean, look at you.”
She sighed, shook her head, could actually see him preen at the attention. “Brains, looks, money, style, and power, too. Add in a whole bunch of sex and it’s pretty heady. I hear people around here saying how Neville’s looking like a pussy, a limp-dicked pussy. I can’t argue it.”
“Because he is.”
“You sure as hell proved that. Screwing his wife right in front of his face. That shows who has the balls in the family.”
“I see what you’re doing.” Still smirking, Kyle circled a finger in the air. “You’re trying to butter me up.”
“Just saying what is. Why do you think she brushed you back the night you met, the night at that party when the three of you met?”
“She didn’t.”
“Really?” Eve frowned, consulted a file. “But she said—”
“She’s a liar. She said she was with that asshole when I gave her a tap, but she wanted me. Clear as day.”
“But … didn’t she leave with the asshole?”
“Only because I decided not to waste my time. And what does she do, she comes back.”
“To you? Do you mean later or that same night?”
“The same damn night. She used Neville, gave him the eye to get me stirred up, then she leaves with the asshole.”
“But she married Neville, even after you gave her a few more taps along the way. Did she do that to get you stirred up?”
“What do you think? You said it yourself, he’s a pussy.”
“Peabody reentering Interview.” Peabody slapped a tube of ginger ale (she’d deliberately ordered diet) on the table. “Take it or leave it.”
Kyle picked it up, cracked the tube, sipped while sending her a look of cold loathing.
“Okay, so Rosa married Neville to get you stirred up—because you’re the one she really wanted, at least sexually. And maybe—just a guess—she married him because he’s a pussy.”
Kyle shot out a finger. “Bing-fucking-o. You’re smarter than you look.”
“Smart enough to know a lot of women say one thing and mean another. Some women, probably most women, they marry a pussy because they figure they can control him, get everything they want. But a real man, a man with real balls, he controls them, and they do what he wants. Like you. People do what you want. Actors, directors, lawyers. Women.”
“I built my own studio.”
“Well, you and Neville.”
“Hell, I could’ve done it without him. I took him along for the ride.”
“It sounds like you did him a favor.”
“He’s my cousin,” Kyle pointed out. “We go back, and he’s got good ideas. He needs me to jump-start them, implement. He puts in his share, the time, the money. But I’m the one with vision.”
“So you brought him along for the ride, Rosa married him because he’s a pussy. He sure sounds like a weak sister. Does he take after his mother or his father?”
“His father’s worse than Nev, trust me. No balls, no spine. Second-rate director.”
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“Interesting. Did your aunt stay married to him to stir you up, Kyle?”
Eve slid a photo of Astra Patrick out of the file.
22
Eve saw his reaction, the desire and delight flicking fast into rage.
“You know her problem?” he demanded.
“I don’t.”
“Playing it safe, locking herself into society’s rules. Look at her. I mean, just look at her. She’s got it all. The face, the body. Beauty and style and sexuality that doesn’t quit. She’s got it all,” he repeated, trailing his finger over the face in the picture. “Except for one thing.”
“Let me guess. I bet I know. Vision.”
Obviously pleased, he lifted the finger, shot it at Eve. “Right in one. No vision. She’s stuck in this rut with a loser, just coasting along.”
“And you could offer her so much more.”
“I did offer her more.”
“And she chose the rut.” Eve shook her head, studied the photo. “I bet she gave you the kiss-off, but in a way that left that door open, just enough to keep you dangling.”
“Neville makes her some bullshit necklace out of beads for her birthday, and she makes like it’s the crown jewels. I gave her a ring, something real, told her what I felt, how it should be. She wouldn’t even take it. She tells me I’m confused. How I’m sweet, and she’s flattered, and more bullshit about how I’m going to find the perfect girl one day.”
“How old were you?”
“I was fifteen, and already more of a man than that Brit pussy she married. She humiliated me.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of man who takes no for an answer so easy. You don’t take the pussy way.”
“I waited. Figured I needed some experience under my belt.” He smiled, patted himself. “Get me?”
“Oh, yeah. Some of that experience was with…” Eve pulled another photo out of the file.
Kyle studied it, shrugged. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“You were eighteen when she accused you of sexual assault, recanted after your father gave her a cool million. Does that ring the bell?”
“That one?” He leaned forward, jabbed a finger in the eye of the photo. “She wanted it, then got all whiny when I gave her what she wanted. She cost me three months in some fucking rehab center. I lost my whole goddamn summer break.”
“That’s tough. But you gave Astra another chance, didn’t you?”
“Right after my twenty-first birthday, I went to London on my own, booked the best suite in the best hotel. I asked her to come.”
“How’d you get her there? You had to be subtle about it, right?”
“Wanted to take her to dinner. The asshole’s off on location, and Neville’s still at university. I’m in town, let me take you to dinner. Drinks and dinner, fancy and elegant.”
“And she bought it.”
“She knew what I was saying. I was just giving her cover. I had champagne and flowers, her favorite foods, everything all set up. She wore a blue dress.” He closed her eyes, lips curved. And when he opened them, the rage came back. “And she pretended to be shocked when I kissed her. Shocked and angry. She slapped me. Slapped me and stormed away before I could…”
“She humiliated you again.”
“I should’ve shown her, that was my mistake. I should have shown her. I apologized. I shed tears.” He tapped his cheeks, grinning. “You have to think of the long view.”
Eve nodded. “You have to have vision.”
“Exactamundo. I could wait. Plenty of substitutes. She’d see how successful I was, how important I was. How I could have any woman I wanted, and she’d come to me.”
“But you couldn’t have any woman you wanted. You couldn’t have Rosa.”
“I saw her first!” His voice rang with sheer and sincere outrage. “You think I could let them get away with that, doing the same thing to me? You think I could let that bitch brush me off, give me the same line as Astra—I’m confused, she’s with Neville?”
“Playing the same game.” Eve expelled a long breath that signaled perfect agreement. “Teasing you, daring you. Holding out on you to stir you up. But you know how to wear the mask, right? The loving cousin, the solid business partner, the loyal friend.”
“There’s nothing I can’t do.”
“Because you learn, you don’t make the same mistakes. With Rosa, you didn’t make the same mistakes you’d made with Astra. You needed to show her, and you did.” Eve tipped back in the chair. “If she wanted to stay in that rut—with Neville—that was her loss, but she’d have a taste of a real man first. The Dracula bit, that was genius. Symbolic. The vampire—the king of vamps—he takes the woman he wants, takes her over, body, mind, soul, right?”
He smiled, shrugged, looked away.
“Come on, Kyle, take the credit. You earned it. The planning, down to the last detail. Using the robbery as cover—it worked. And beating the crap out of both of them. Especially Neville.”
“He deserved it. I saw her first.”
“But you thought of Astra when you raped Rosa.” Eve took Rosa’s photo out of a file, laid it beside Astra’s. “Look at them. Rosa could be Astra’s daughter.”
“You see that, too.”
“Sure. Just like I see she was meant to be yours. Both of them are. First Neville’s father’s in your way, and now Neville, after all you’ve done for him. I’m surprised you let him live.”
“Thought about killing him, but we’re family. And it was about making them live with it. About watching them try to live with it.”
“Oh, I get that. You were in a little bit of a hurry with Rosa and Neville. I get that, too. It had all built up, and you needed to have her, show her, make her admit she wanted it. You ripped her clothes. With the others, you had them strip. So much more seductive. And more humiliating for the man.”
When he said nothing, she shook her head. “We’ve got the evidence, Kyle. You’re not stupid, you know what we found in your loft. So we’ve got what we need. I’m just … well, I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty fascinated by how you played all this.”
“His lawyer’s going to fix it,” Peabody added. “He can afford a damn platoon of high-priced lawyers.”
Now Eve shrugged. “That’s not our problem. We did our job. I just like hearing how anybody could plan all this out, time after time. The precision, the planning, the smallest details. Well, it’s exquisite actually. Did you really decide on the woman at that gala? The ah, yeah, here it is. The Celebrate Art Gala? What pulled that trigger?”
“They couldn’t stop talking about wedding plans. Rosa and Neville going on and on and fucking on about them. Everybody we know who comes by the table starts up on the wedding. Can’t wait, how perfect they are together, what a beautiful bride she’s going to be. Made me sick to my stomach. Made me want to puke.”
“So you looked around, milled around, and began to see all the women you could have. All the married women. Women you’d show, men you’d punish. Did you already have the cameras in Neville’s place?”
“I did him a favor. He’s got the nerve to ask me if I can hang out at his place, wait for a delivery while they’re moving in together? The asshole doesn’t even notice.”
“You watched them whenever you wanted. Watched them in bed together.”
“So what? All it did was prove to me how much better I was at it.”
“Your timing was—bears repeating—exquisite. Right after their honeymoon. Just as they’re really starting the whole married gig together.”
“Now she’ll know, for the rest of her life, she settled. He’ll know she had the best sex of her life with another man.”
“And Lori, Lori Brinkman.” She pulled out the photo. “How did you pick her?”
“Ah, Lori. That face, that body, the laugh. It was her laugh that got me. The laugh said sex. Pulled one of her scripts out of the vault—not bad.”
“Astra’s a screenwriter, too, isn’t she?”
�
��It’s more a hobby, just like with Lori. And they wouldn’t need a hobby, would they, if they weren’t married to losers. If a man keeps a woman satisfied, she doesn’t need anything but him.”
“You could see Lori wasn’t satisfied, sexually.”
“Stuck with that boring fuck? Give me a break. Lori was really the one who inspired it all. Why stop at Rosa, that’s what I thought. I thought, right here, in this room there are a dozen women like that. Stuck in that rut, trapped in the rules. I picked them out, and saw how it could be. And after Rosa, I knew how it could feel.”
“You planted the cameras.”
“You’re a cop, right? I don’t have to tell you people think they’re secure in their own homes, and they’re not. You just have to be observant, take the time, be smart. I could’ve made a living with e-work. Everyone said so.”
He shook back his hair, obviously comfortable now, completely in the groove of his own arrogance.
“But, Jesus, how many electronics experts get covered by the media, have stars coming to them? Do on-screen interviews? E’s just a hobby. And watching all those lives, those small lives on screen? Hell, I almost ran out of popcorn.”
He laughed, finished off the tube of ginger ale.
“Watching, you got to know their routines, and their secrets.” Eve’s hand flowed over Lori’s photo. “It made it easy for you to time when to break into Lori’s house, set everything up, wait for them to get home from vacation. Hell of a welcome back, right?”
“She was excited. You were right, I wasn’t in such a hurry this time, so I had her strip. She was so ready for it, trying to pretend, pulling out the tears when I went for that loser she married, but so ready. I gave her a break, told her to beg for more. And I gave her more. That asshole she married—what’s his name?”
“Ira.”
“Right, old Ira won’t be able to satisfy her now.”
“Why did you wait so long between Rosa and Lori, then for Daphne?”
“I believe in rehearsals. If you want a performance to shine, and I do, you rehearse.”
“You had the droid for that?”
“The droid, LCs. And Daphne? She was going to be special.”
“Why is that?”
“She likes it rough. That rich doctor she hooked knocked her around plenty, and she’d come back for more. He’d tie her up, blindfold her, and bang the shit out of her. Choked her, too, just enough. Then he’d get out his med bag, fix her up. She’d cry and cry, but she did what the hell she was told. He knew how to run that house. I had to respect that.”