by J. D. Robb
Eve did her best to ignore Casto’s quick chuckle. ‘I’ve got other things on my mind.’
‘Don’t we all? Find a minute to deal with him, darling. For my sake. Let’s get all those people out of our house.’
‘I wanted to boot them out days ago. I thought you liked having all those people around.’
‘And I thought he was your brother,’ Roarke murmured.
‘What?’
‘Old joke. No, Eve, I don’t like having all those people around. They are, in a word, maniacs. I found Galahad cowering under the bed just now. Someone has covered him with beads and tiny red bows. It’s mortifying, for both of us.’
She bit down on her tongue to hold back the snort of laughter. Roarke wasn’t looking amused. ‘Now that I know they’re driving you crazy, I feel better. We’ll move them along.’
‘Do that. Oh, and I’m afraid there might be a few details for next Saturday you’ll have to handle while I’m gone. Summerset has the memos. My transport’s waiting.’ She watched him signal to someone off screen, then his eyes locked back on hers. ‘See you in a few days, Lieutenant.’
‘Yeah.’ The screen went blank as she muttered. ‘Bon fucking voyage.’
‘Well, hell, Eve. If you need to run off to your dressmaker, or take your cat to therapy, Peabody and I can handle this minor matter of murder.’
Eve’s lips stretched in a vicious smile. ‘Bite me, Casto.’
Despite his many annoying qualities, Casto had solid instincts. Redford wasn’t going to break any time soon. Eve worked him hard and had the mild satisfaction of pinning him on the illegals charges, but a confession to multiple murder just wasn’t happening.
‘Let’s see if I’ve got this straight.’ She rose. She needed to stretch her legs. She poured coffee. ‘It was Pandora who told you about Immortality. And that was?’
‘As I said, about a year and a half ago, perhaps a little more.’ He was iced down now, totally in control. The illegals charges could be dealt with, particularly from the angle he’d chosen. ‘She came to me with a business proposition. Or so she termed it. She claimed to have access to a formula, something that would revolutionize the beauty and health industry.’
‘A beauty aid. And she didn’t mention the illegal or the dangerous qualities.’
‘Not at that time. She needed backing to start the line. One she intended to launch under her name.’
‘Did she show you the formula?’
‘She did not. As I told you before, she strung me along, made promises. Admittedly, it was poor judgment on my part. I was sexually addicted to her, a weakness she exploited. At the same time, the business aspect seemed to have merit. She was using the product in tablet form. And the results were impressive. I could see that it made her look younger, more fit. It increased her energy and her sexual drive. Marketed correctly, a product such as that would generate enormous profit. I wanted the money for some commercially risky projects.’
‘You wanted the money, so you continued to pay her, little dribs and drabs, without being fully informed.’
‘For a time. I did grow impatient and made demands. She made more promises. I began to suspect that she intended to go out on her own or that she was working with someone else. Using me. So I took a sample for myself.’
‘Took a sample?’
He took his time answering, as if he was still crafting the words. ‘I took her key while she was sleeping and unlocked the box where she kept the tablets. I, in the interest of protecting my investment, took a few to have them analyzed.’
‘And when did you steal the drug, in the interest of protecting your investment?’
‘Theft is not established,’ the lawyer interrupted. ‘My client had paid, in good faith, for the product.’
‘Okay, we’ll rephrase. When did you decide to take a more active interest in your business investment?’
‘About six months ago. I took the samples to a contact I have in chemical analysis and paid him for a private report.’
‘And learned . . .’
Redford paused to study his fingers. ‘I learned that the product did indeed have the properties Pandora had promised. However, it was addictive, which pushed it automatically into the illegals category. It was also potentially lethal when taken regularly over a long period of time.’
‘And being a righteous man, you counted your losses and pulled out of the deal.’
‘Being righteous is not a legal requirement,’ Redford said mildly. ‘And I had an investment to protect. I decided to do some research to see if the unacceptable side effects could be diminished or eradicated. I believe we accomplished that, or nearly.’
‘So you used Jerry Fitzgerald as a guinea pig.’
‘That was a miscalculation. Perhaps I was overeager as Pandora continued to push for more money and made statements that indicated she was about to go public with the product. I wanted to beat her to it, and knew that Jerry would be the perfect spokeswoman. She agreed, for a fee, to try the product my people had refined. In a liquid form. Science makes mistakes, Lieutenant. The drug was still, as we learned too late, highly addictive.’
‘And fatal?’
‘It seems. The process has been slowed, but yes, I’m afraid there is still the potential for physical harm in the long term. A possible side effect I warned Jerry of several weeks ago.’
‘Before or after Pandora discovered you were trying to ace her out?’
‘I believe it was after, just after. Unfortunately, Jerry and Pandora ran into each other at a function. Pandora made some comments about her former relationship with Justin. From what I gather, and this is secondhand, Jerry tossed the business deal we had made in Pandora’s face.’
‘And Pandora didn’t take kindly to it.’
‘She was, naturally, furious. Our relationship was rocky at best by that time. I had already procured a specimen of the Immortal Blossom, determined to delete all side effects from the formula. I had no intention, Lieutenant, of releasing a dangerous drug to the public. My records will substantiate that.’
‘We’ll let Illegals handle that one. Did Pandora threaten you?’
‘Pandora lived for threats. One became accustomed to them. I felt I was in a good position to ignore them, even to counter them.’ He smiled now, more confident. ‘You see, if she had gone forward, knowing what properties were contained in the formula, I could have ruined her. I had no reason to harm her.’
‘Your relationship was rocky, yet you went to her home that night.’
‘In hopes that we could come to some compromise. That’s why I insisted that Justin and Jerry be present.’
‘You had sex with her.’
‘She was a beautiful, desirable woman. Yes, I had sex with her.’
‘She had tablets of the drug in her possession.’
‘She did. As I told you, she kept them in a box in her vanity.’ His smile came back. ‘I told you about the box and the tablets because I assumed, correctly, that an autopsy would show traces of the drug. It seemed wise to be forthcoming. I did nothing but cooperate.’
‘Easy to cooperate if you knew I wouldn’t find the tablets. After she was dead, you went back for the box. Protecting your investment. If there was no product but yours, no competitor, how much more profit there would be.’
‘I did not go back to her home after I left. I had no reason to. My product was superior.’
‘Neither of those products would have made the market, and you knew it. But on the street, hers would have hit big, bigger than your refined, watered down, and most likely more expensive version.’
‘With more research, more testing—’
‘More money? You’d already put over three hundred thousand in her hands. You’d gone to the considerable expense to procure a specimen, paid for the research and testing to date, paid Fitzgerald. I imagine you were becoming a little anxious to see some profit. How much did you charge Jerry for a fix?’
‘Jerry and I had a business arrangement.’
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‘Ten thousand a delivery,’ Eve interrupted, and watched the point strike home. ‘That’s the amount she transferred three times over a two-month period to your account on Starlight Station.’
‘An investment,’ he began.
‘You addicted her, then you hosed her. That makes you a dealer, Mr. Redford.’
The lawyer went into his spin routine, turning a drug deal into a profit-and-loss arrangement between investment partners.
‘You needed contacts. Street contacts. Boomer was always a sucker for a credit in the hand. But he got carried away, liked to test the product. How did he get the formula? That was sloppy of you.’
‘I don’t know anyone by that name.’
‘You saw him flapping his lips at the club. Making a big deal of himself. When he went into a privacy room with Hetta Moppett, you couldn’t be sure how much he’d told her. But when he saw you, and he ran, you had to act.’
‘You’re on the wrong beam, Lieutenant. I don’t know these people.’
‘Maybe you killed Hetta in panic. You didn’t really mean to, but when you saw she was dead, you had to cover it up. That’s where the overkill came in. Maybe she told you something before she died, maybe she didn’t, but you had to get to Boomer then. I’d say you were enjoying it now, the way you messed him up, tortured him before you finished him. But you got a little overconfident, and didn’t get to his flop to search it before I did.’
She pushed away from the table, took a turn around the room. ‘Now you’ve got big problems. The cops have a sample, they have the formula, and Pandora’s getting out of hand. What choice do you have?’ She put her hands on the table, leaned in close. ‘What can a man do when he sees his investment and all those future profits going into the sewer?’
‘My business with Pandora was finished.’
‘Yeah, you finished it. Taking her to Leonardo’s was smart. You’re a smart man. She was already wired over Mavis. If you do her at his place, it’s going to look like he’d had enough. You’d have to do him, too, if he was there, but you had a taste for it now. He’s not there, so it’s easier. Easier still when Mavis walks in and you can set her up.’
Redford’s breathing was a bit forced, but he was holding. ‘The last time I saw Pandora, she was alive, vicious, and eager to punish someone. If Mavis Freestone didn’t kill her, my guess would be Jerry Fitzgerald.’
Intrigued, Eve angled back to her chair, leaned back. ‘Really? Why?’
‘They despised each other, were in direct competition, now more than ever. On top of everything else, Pandora was angling to lure Justin back. That was something Jerry wouldn’t tolerate. And . . .’ He smiled. ‘It was Jerry who put the idea of going to Leonardo’s for a showdown into Pandora’s head.’
This is a new one, Eve thought and cocked a brow. ‘Is that so?’
‘After Ms. Freestone left, Pandora was edgy, angry. Jerry seemed to enjoy that, and the fact that the young woman had gotten a few shots in. She egged Pandora on. Said something to the effect that if she was Pandora, she wouldn’t tolerate being humiliated that way, and why didn’t she go straight over to Leonardo’s and show him who was in charge. There was another little dig about Pandora not being able to hold onto a man, then Justin hustled Jerry out.’
His smile widened. ‘They despised Pandora, you see. Jerry for obvious reasons, and Justin because I’d told him that the drug was Pandora’s doing. Justin would do anything to protect Jerry. Absolutely anything. I, on the other hand, had no emotional attachment to any of the players. It was just sex with Pandora. Just sex, Lieutenant, and business.’
Eve rapped on the door where Casto was interviewing Jerry. When he poked his head out, she shifted her gaze, studied the woman at the table. ‘I need to talk to her.’
‘She’s running down, running out. Not going to get too much out of her today. Lawyer’s already making noises about a break.’
‘I need to talk to her,’ Eve repeated. ‘How have you been handling her this round?’
‘Tough line, hard-ass.’
‘Okay, I’ll downgrade.’ Eve slipped into the room.
She could still feel pity, she realized. Jerry’s eyes were jittery and shadowed. Her face was drawn, and her hands shook as they ran over it. Her beauty was fragile now, and haunted.
‘You want some food?’ Eve asked in a quiet voice.
‘No.’ Jerry’s gaze bounced around the room. ‘I want to go home. I want Justin.’
‘We’ll see if we can arrange a visit. It’ll have to be supervised. ’ She poured water. ‘Why don’t you drink a little of this, take a minute?’ She covered Jerry’s hands with her own on the glass, lifted it to the trembling lips. ‘This is rough on you. I’m sorry. We can’t give you anything to counteract the crash. We don’t know enough yet, and whatever we gave you might be worse.’
‘I’m all right. It’s nothing.’
‘It sucks.’ Eve slipped into a seat. ‘Redford got you into this. He verified that.’
‘It’s nothing,’ she said again. ‘I’m just tired. I need a little of my health drink.’ She looked hopefully, pitifully at Eve. ‘Can’t I have a little, just to gear back up?’
‘You know it’s dangerous, Jerry. You know what it’s doing to you. Counselor, Paul Redford has stated on record that he introduced Ms. Fitzgerald to the illegal, under the pretense of a business venture. It is our assumption that she was unaware of its addictive qualities. We have no intention, at this time, of charging her with use.’
As Eve had hoped, the lawyer relaxed visibly. ‘Well, then, Lieutenant, I’d like to arrange for my client’s release and her admission into rehab. Voluntary admission.’
‘Voluntary admission can be arranged. If your client can cooperate for a few more minutes, it would help me in closing the charges on Redford.’
‘If she cooperates, Lieutenant, all illegals charges will be dropped?’
‘You know I can’t promise that, Counselor. I will, however, recommend leniency on the charges of possession and intent to distribute.’
‘And Justin? You’ll let him go?’
Eve looked back at Jerry. Love, she thought, was an odd burden. ‘Was he involved in the business transaction?’
‘No. He wanted me to pull out. When he found out that I was . . . dependent, he pushed me to go into rehab, to stop taking the drink. But I needed it. I was going to stop, but I needed it.’
‘The night Pandora died, there was an argument.’
‘There was always an argument with Pandora. She was hateful. She thought she could get Justin back. The bitch didn’t care about him. She just wanted to hurt me. To hurt him.’
‘He wouldn’t have gone back to her, would he, Jerry?’
‘He hated her as much as I did.’ She lifted her beautifully manicured nails to her mouth, started to gnaw. ‘We’re glad she’s dead.’
‘Jerry—’
‘I don’t care,’ she exploded with a wild look to her cautioning lawyer. ‘She deserved to die. She wanted everything, never cared how she got it. Justin was mine. I would have been headliner at Leonardo’s show if she hadn’t found out I was interested. She went out of her way to seduce him, to have me cut out so that she could take the job. It would have been my job, it should have been my job all along. Just like Justin was mine. Like the drug was mine. It makes you beautiful and strong and sexy. And every time anyone takes it, they’ll think of me. Not of her, of me.’
‘Did Justin go with you to Leonardo’s that night?’
‘Lieutenant, what is this?’
‘It’s a question, Counselor. Did he, Jerry?’
‘No, of course not. We - we didn’t go there. We went out for drinks. We went home.’
‘You taunted her, didn’t you? You knew how to play her. You had to be sure she’d go hunt down Leonardo. Did Redford contact you, tell you when she’d left?’
‘No, I don’t know. You’re confusing me. Can’t I have something? I need my drink.’
‘You were using it t
hat night. It made you strong. Strong enough to kill her. You wanted her dead. She was always in your way. And her tablets were stronger, more effective than your liquid. Did you want them, Jerry?’
‘Yes, I wanted them. She was getting younger in front of my eyes. Thinner. I have to watch every fucking bite I take, but she . . . Paul said he might be able to get them from her. Justin told him to back off, to stay away from me. But Justin doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand how it makes you feel. Immortal,’ she said with a horrible smile. ‘It makes you feel immortal. For God’s sake, just one drink.’
‘You slipped out of the back that night, went to Leonardo’s. What happened then?’
‘I can’t. I’m confused. I need something.’
‘Did you pick up the cane and hit her? Did you keep hitting her?’
‘I wanted her dead.’ On a sob, Jerry laid her head on the table. ‘I wanted her dead. For God’s sake help me. I’ll tell you anything you want to hear if you just help me.’
‘Lieutenant, anything my client says under physical and mental duress is inadmissible.’
Eve studied the weeping woman and reached for the ’link. ‘Get the MT’s in here,’ she ordered. ‘And arrange for hospital transport for Ms. Fitzgerald. Under guard.’
Chapter Nineteen
‘What do you mean you’re not charging her?’ His eyes went dark with shock and temper as Casto erupted, ‘You got a fucking confession.’
‘It wasn’t a confession,’ Eve corrected. She was tired, dead tired and sick of herself. ‘She’d have said anything.’
‘Jesus Christ, Eve. Jesus Christ.’ In an attempt to walk off fury, Casto paced up and down the antiseptic tiled corridor of the health center. ‘You aced her.’
‘The hell I did.’ Wearily, Eve rubbed at a headache in her left temple. ‘Listen to me, Casto, the shape she was in, she’d have told me she personally drove nails into the palms of Christ if I’d promised her a fix. I charge her on the basis of that, her lawyers will tear it apart in pretrial.’
‘You’re not worried about pretrial.’ He passed the tight-lipped Peabody on his stride back to Eve. ‘You went for the jugular, just like a cop’s supposed to in a murder case. Now you’ve gone soft. You’re fucking sorry for her.’