by J. D. Robb
“I looked at criminal on Christopher,” Peabody told her. “Traffic violations. He likes to drive fast. But that’s it.”
“Their finances diverge like the education,” Eve continued. “Chris pulls in about four times what his brother makes. But Devon stood as his brother’s best man, is godfather to one son. Interesting bit. Before Roarke bought the property, Devon was looking to secure a loan to buy it himself.”
“I can’t have it, I’ll kill everybody in it, in a really spectacular way. Then maybe I can get it cheap?” Peabody pursed her lips. “It could play.”
“Let’s go try it out. Look busy,” Eve added, “a little harried.”
“I already do.”
“Play it soft, sympathetic.”
Peabody sighed. “What else is new?”
Eve breezed into Interview where Devon sat at the table, hands clasped together. A long-sleeved black tee fit snug over his chest.
“Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, entering Interview with Lester, Devon, on the matter of Case Number H-3597-D. Mr. Lester, thanks for coming in.”
“I’m glad to do it, to do anything I can.”
“We’re recording this follow-up. As you can imagine, we’re taking statements and follow-ups from a lot of people.” She sat, rubbed the back of her neck as if it troubled her. “When we have people in like this, we routinely read them their rights. It’s for your protection, and it keeps everything clean.”
He paled a little under the explosion of red dreads, but nodded. “Sure. Okay.”
She read off the Revised Miranda. “So, do you understand your rights and obligations?”
“Yeah, sure. I keep thinking about my guys. D.B. and Evie, and all of them. Drew’s still in a coma. Is there any more you can tell me? Anything?”
“We’re shifting through a lot of evidence, Mr. Lester.”
“Devon, okay? I know you’re doing everything you can, but all those people … We went to see the rest of the crew, Quirk and me. He’s been a rock, but it was the worst thing I’ve ever done, and I couldn’t tell them why or how. I couldn’t really tell them anything.”
“It’s hard,” Peabody said gently, “to lose someone, then to be the one responsible for telling others they’ve lost someone, too.”
“I didn’t know how hard. Every time we told one of the guys, it was like it happened all over again.”
“Let’s try to sort it out,” Eve began. “You know the setup better than anyone.”
“Yeah, well, D.B. had it down. Really the whole crew.”
“Still, you’re the manager.”
“I don’t know how I can go back there. I don’t know how anyone can. I don’t know what Roarke’s going to do with the place now.” He closed his eyes. “I don’t know what anybody’s going to do.”
“Why don’t you take me through the routine? Who opens, who closes, who has access to what.”
“Okay.” He took a long breath. “Either D.B. or me are there. Either of us could open or close, or both depending.”
“No one else?”
“We were the only ones with the codes. Well, I mean Roarke would have them, and Bidot. But on the day-to-day, just me and D.B. One of us would be the first one in, last one out. You check the drawer. We don’t do much cash business, but you gotta keep some. You check the night’s receipts. The office isn’t locked, but nobody goes in but me or D.B. And the comp and drawer are locked, and passcoded. That’s SOP. You gotta check supplies,” he continued, moving through the opening procedure, then through the closing.
“Could D.B. have lent his codes to anyone?”
“No way. No way he’d do that.”
“And you?”
“Lieutenant. Ma’am. A manager’s got to be responsible. Trustworthy. You can’t play fast and loose and keep your job. I trust my crew, but nobody but me and D.B. could open or close, or access the receipts.”
“You didn’t share that information, not with your partner, your brother?”
“No. What would they want it for?” He leaned forward. “You think somebody got in, planted whatever it was? I don’t know how. It would’ve showed on security. It would’ve triggered the alarm.”
“Not if they had the codes. Easy to get by the alarm, then change the security disc out. You’re sure, Devon. No doubt?”
“No doubt.” He sat back again, chopping a hand through the air. “But hey, they could’ve jammed it, or cloned the codes, something. You see that stuff on screen. It could be that way. They could’ve put it on a timer or something, like a boomer. I think they did it to take a hit at Roarke.”
“Do you?”
“I’ve been thinking. Can’t think about anything else. It doesn’t make sense to kill all those people, people you couldn’t even know. Everybody knows Roarke, right? It’s his place. This happened in his place, and maybe he’s not going to open it up again. He takes the loss. And he feels it, too, because it was his place. Some people are just sick. Some people are just sick enough to kill all those people just to take a hit at Roarke.”
“Something to think about. Still, he hasn’t owned it long, and it’s one of his smaller businesses. You were thinking about buying it, weren’t you, Devon?”
He flushed a little, shifted a little. “I took a look. Out of my reach, what with the capital, and the taxes and all that. I thought how it would be something to have my own place. Now, I guess I’m glad I didn’t try it. Something like this? I don’t know how you come back from it.”
“It’s rough. Thinking about that, maybe somebody who wanted their own place, found it out of reach, might find a way to bring the price down to a bargain. It wouldn’t be hard for somebody who knew the place, how it works, how it’s set up. Somebody with access to everything, anytime. And somebody, say, whose brother’s a chemist. Like yours, Devon.”
8
He stared at her with his shadowed, bloodshot eyes. Said nothing at all.
“Your brother’s a big-shot chemist, right, Devon? Dr. Christopher Lester, with a bunch of letters after his name. A really smart guy,” she added, opening a file, nodding as she scanned it. “A scientist.”
“What?”
“Is your brother a chemist who specializes in the development and testing of medicines and drugs?”
“He—yeah. What’s that got to do with any of this?”
“Put it together. You couldn’t afford the place, so you have to work for somebody else. Somebody with more money, more connections. Somebody, like you said yourself, everybody knows. That’s a pisser, I bet.”
“No—it’s—”
“Your brother’s got access to all kinds of drugs, chemicals, and the knowledge to put them together.” Eyes on Devon, she slapped the file closed. “A substance is released in the bar you run, Devon, and when it’s your day off. Boy, that’s handy. People die, it’s a massacre. And a scandal. Property value plummets. Like you said, maybe Roarke’s not going to open again. Maybe he’ll sell it. Maybe, again like you said yourself, somebody did this to take a hit at Roarke, and to bring the cost of the property down.”
“You—you think I did this? To my own people? My own place?”
“Roarke’s place.”
Fury rose up until his face matched his dreads. “He owns it; I run it.” Devon slammed a fist on his chest. “I run it! I know every single one of the people who work there, and all the regulars, too. I know a lot of the people who died yesterday. They mattered to me. I come in here to try to help, because I want to find out what happened, who did this. And you accuse me?”
“No one’s accusing you, Devon. It’s a scenario.”
“It’s bullshit. You’re saying I could’ve made this happen. And worse, God, you’re trying to pull my brother into it? Chris is a hero. You get that? A hero. He works to save lives, to make lives better, to help people. You’ve got no right to say anything bad about my brother.”
“We have to ask questions.” Peabody put on the calm as Devon’s outrage spu
n through the room, sharp as whirling blades. “We have to consider different possibilities before we can eliminate them and move on in the investigation.”
“You want to look at me, you look. Inside, outside, back and forward. Give me a truth test, stick a fucking probe up my ass. I’ve got nothing to hide. But you lay off my brother, right? You lay off Chris.”
“Let me ask you this, Devon.” Eve leaned back a little. “If Roarke sells, and the price is in your reach, would you buy the place?”
“In a heartbeat.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Make something of it.”
“If you wanted the place, still want it, why didn’t you ask your brother for a loan, or to make an investment? He could afford it.”
“If I can’t make it myself, it’s not mine, is it? I don’t tap Chris when I want money. He’s my brother, not a frigging bank. I’ve got nothing more to say about it. Unless you’re charging me with something, I’m leaving.”
“We’re not charging you with anything. You’re certainly free to go.”
He shoved back, scraping the chair on the floor. At the door, he turned. “I’d hate to be somebody who’s always looking for the worst in people.”
When the door shut, Peabody lifted her shoulders in a hunch. “He kinda made me feel guilty.”
“You’re a cop. You’re paid to look for the worst in people.”
“I like to think of it more as hunting down the worst people.”
This time she rubbed the back of her neck because it did trouble her. “Do you want to count the number of times we’ve had somebody in that chair who looked like a nice guy who turned out to be a stone killer?”
“I don’t have enough fingers.”
“Exactly. Let’s talk to the brother.”
Christopher Lester shared his brother’s coloring and build. Rather than dreads, he wore his red hair short, straight, styled like a Roman centurion. He wore a well-tailored suit and perfectly knotted tie, both in deep, bronzy brown.
His wrist unit winked gold in the overhead light.
“Dr. Lester,” Eve began. “Thanks for coming in.”
“I’m happy to cooperate. I assume this has to do with the murders at On the Rocks yesterday. My brother’s devastated.”
“You’ve spoken to him.”
“Of course. I contacted him as soon as I heard there’d been trouble. If he’d been there …”
“I understand. We’d like to record this interview.” Eve ordered record on, read in the data. “I’m going to read you your rights. It’s routine.”
Chris lifted his eyebrows. “Is it?”
“It’s standard, and for your protection.” She recited the Revised Miranda. “Do you understand your rights and obligations, Dr. Lester?”
“Yes, I do.” His hands, big like his brother’s and perfectly manicured, folded on the table. “What I don’t understand is what you think I can tell you, or what possible help I can be.”
“You never know. Yesterday, the day of the incident, was your brother’s day off.”
“Thank God. That may be selfish, but he’s my brother.”
“You contacted him, you said.”
“A friend heard the bulletin, told me. She knew Devon managed On the Rocks as I’d taken her there for drinks. I contacted him.”
“Where were you?”
“I was still at the lab. Actually about to leave. I tried his ’link immediately. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when he answered.”
“You weren’t aware of his work schedule?”
“No. It changes often, as does my own. When I reached him, he was at the bar. Not inside as they—the police—wouldn’t let him go in. He said he was coming in here, to try to find out what happened. When we spoke later, he said he and his partner would visit the rest of his staff this morning to tell them.”
He looked away a moment. “My brother is a strong man, a good manager. To be a good manager he has to know how to handle problems—small and large—with equanimity. And he does. I’ve never heard or seen him so broken. I hope to never hear or see him broken like this again.”
He looked back, straight into Eve’s eyes. “So I came in to speak with you, as requested. And I’ll answer these questions fully understanding you suspect him. I’ll answer them, Lieutenant, so you’ll understand Devon is a strong man, with equally strong senses of loyalty and compassion. He not only loves his work, he cared, very much, for every single person who worked under him. He could tell you their names, the names of family members, pets, boyfriends, girlfriends. They are—were—family to him.”
“He wanted to buy the bar.”
“I’m aware. His partner, Quirk, told me Devon had looked into buying it some months back, but didn’t have the funds.”
“You have them.”
“Yes. I would’ve lent him the money, and offered knowing full well he’d refuse. We’re stiff-necked, you could say. Pride is a Lester family trait—or flaw, depending. I can also tell you Devon was pleased when Roarke purchased the property as it gave him confidence it would be well-funded, and marketed.”
“Price should be going down after this.”
He shot Eve a look of pained amusement. “Lieutenant, do you seriously think a man like Devon would bring about the horror of what happened at On the Rocks so he’d lower the market value of the property into line with his own finances? He’d never deliberately cause anyone harm, and in addition, simply lacks the means. He wouldn’t know how to … Ah.”
Now Chris sat back, nodding slowly. “I would have the know-how. The reports haven’t been very specific, but it was a biological or chemical agent, something that infected the people inside the bar. So Devon and I plotted this out, and I gave him the agent.”
“He wanted the bar, you have the means. It’s a theory.”
“My brother isn’t a wealthy man, not monetarily. Did you know he’s planning a memorial, for everyone who was killed? Using his own funds. People mean more to Devon than money, and always have. You don’t have to take my word. Talk to anyone who knows him.”
“You work with hallucinogenics, with psychedelic drugs?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Recently? Currently?”
“If you clear it with the board, I’d have no objections to discussing my projects—past, present, and pending. But I can’t give you information on them without that clearance, not even to eliminate myself, even my brother, from a suspect list.”
“All right. Thank you again for coming in. Interview end.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, for now.”
He rose. “Even if he weren’t my brother, I’d tell you Devon is the best man I know. It’s as simple as that. I hope you find who’s responsible, Lieutenant. I don’t believe Devon will begin to heal until you do.”
Start working on getting a warrant for Dr. Lester’s records,” Eve told Peabody when they were alone.
“Okay.”
“Problem?”
“It’s just … The way each of them took up for the other, the way each one of them talked about the other. I’m not being soft,” Peabody insisted. “But it’s hard to reconcile that kind of love, affection, and respect with two people who’d plot a mass murder.”
“Do you have enough fingers to count the number of partners who had affection and respect, possibly love for each other who murdered, raped, stole, tortured, and committed other assorted crimes?”
“I guess not.”
“We follow through, Peabody, every detail, every angle—even when the odds are they’re not going to lead us anywhere.”
“You don’t think the two of them are involved?”
“No, but I can’t prove it. If I thought they were involved, I couldn’t prove it. Let’s get data.”
Eve glanced at the time. “Aw, gee, I missed the media conference. That’s a shame.”
“That statement hits the red zone on the lie-o-meter.”
“But it feels good. I want thirty minutes in my offi
ce to check incomings and status, then we’re going back to the crime scene.”
“Do you think they’re not involved—the Lester brothers—for the same reasons as me?”
“Probably not.” Eve headed out, moving fast so Peabody had to hustle to keep pace. “Devon’s not stupid. Roarke doesn’t have stupid people managing any of his interests. But when I push him on buying the place—would he if he could—he’s all pissed off, damn straight. Smarter to say it’s tainted, his friends died there. Smarter, too, to go straight to pissed or shocked when I led him to our looking at him and his brother. Instead he’s just confused at first. He didn’t have an answer for everything. He didn’t have the right answers for everything. If he had, I wouldn’t bump him down the list.
“The brother’s smart, real smart, and a lot more cynical. He caught on fast. I want to look at his research, his experiments, I want a feel for what he does and how he does it. But it would be stupid for him to kill a whole bunch of people in his brother’s bar. If he were going to do it, he’d have done it somewhere else, not so readily connected.”
“Part of your reasoning’s like mine. It’s the kind of people they are—the stand-up-for-your-brother people.”
“Half a point.”
“Three-quarters.”
“Three-quarters because I’m too busy to argue.”
“Yay!” Peabody said as Eve swung off and into her office.
She’d barely started on the first report when Baxter came to her door.
“Need a minute.”
“Take it,” she told him.
“Adam Stewart. We just finished up with him. He’s alibied for the time line, and I’ve got nothing that puts him in that bar yesterday, or at fucking all.”
“But?”
“He’s a bad bastard, Dallas, and he’s cagey. Bad and cagey fits whoever did this.”
She saw his eyes flick toward her AutoChef. Under the circumstances, she thought, what the hell. “Go ahead, but don’t spread it around you got coffee in here.”
“To the grave.” He moved quickly before she could change her mind, programmed a mug for each of them. Knowing its miseries, he sat on the edge of her visitor’s chair.