Bent hesitated. “Thanks, Vee. You make my job easy.”
“Yeah, well, it’s definitely a joint effort.” Her cell vibrated in her back pocket. She slipped it out and checked the screen. “It’s Luna.” Her heart stumbled. She hoped this wasn’t more bad news. “Hey, Lu, everything okay?”
“Jerome’s father is conscious, and he’s good, Vee. Really good. They may even release him tomorrow or the next day if his condition remains stable.”
“That’s wonderful news, Luna. Jerome’s father is awake and doing great,” she said to Bent. He’d hung back when she’d told him it was Luna calling.
“Vee, put me on speaker,” Luna urged. “Bent needs to hear this next part.”
“Let’s go to my office,” Bent suggested. “I’ll get Erwin when we’re done.”
“Hold on,” Vera told her sister. “We’re going to Bent’s office.” Vera couldn’t wait to hear the rest. Had to be related to Jackie’s death, since Luna wanted Bent to hear, too, and she sounded upbeat, excited even. Thank God.
Once they were settled in his office, Vera told her little sister to let loose.
“It was Geneva,” Luna explained. “Jackie called her and told her that she and I had argued and that we fell down the stairs. She just didn’t mention that she was the one who pushed me. Anyway, we know Geneva went over to my house while I was at the hardware store because, like you said, the phone records showed she did. After that she went to Jackie and Leonard’s house and told Leonard that Jackie was dead. She even said that now the two of them could be together. Can you believe that?”
Vera smiled. She could, actually. And Luna was right. “The phone records show that Geneva left your house and drove to Leonard’s house, arriving in that area around 11:20. If she told Leonard that Jackie wasdead, how did she know that? I hadn’t even arrived at your house at that point.”
“That’s the thing,” Luna cried, her voice quavering. “She could not have known unless she was the one who killed her!”
“Luna,” Bent said, “did Leonard say anything else about Geneva’s visit to him?”
“He kept saying he couldn’t believe Geneva just left him there after he started having chest pains. She used his phone to call 911 and thrust it at him, then took off like she didn’t want anyone to know she had been there.”
Vera shook her head. What a heartless bitch. “Maybe she thought if he survived, he wouldn’t remember her even being there.”
“Maybe so,” Luna agreed.
“Vee and I will finish this for you, Lu,” Bent promised. “You and Jerome focus on his father.”
As soon as the call ended, Bent invited Erwin into his office and went back to the business of arrest reports with Myra. Like Vera, he understood that Erwin would open up more to Vera without him in the room.
Vera settled behind Bent’s desk so she could face the woman.
“Is it over?” Erwin dropped into a chair. “I’ve been waiting forever to hear something.”
“Mostly,” Vera confirmed. “You were right about the aftershave. It was Brut, but our attacker wasn’t Larry Parson. It was Jose Martinez.” Conover had found a bottle in the bathroom at the house he and Hernandez rented from Carter.
“Are you serious?” Her face scrunched in concentration. “Maybe I had smelled that aftershave on him before, but I don’t remember.” She hugged herself as if the memory disturbed her. “I don’t usually get that close to him. He always scared me. I guess that’s why I don’t recall it.” She stared at Vera then. “Why would he do that?”
Vera decided that was her cue. “I can tell you everything I know if you tell me what you know.”
Erwin’s gaze narrowed. “That sounds like blackmail.”
“No.” Vera shook her head, reminding herself to be patient. The woman was exasperating. “It’s a negotiation.”
Erwin shrugged. “Okay. What is it you want to know?”
“Based on our encounter with Jamison in your apartment, you’re the one who told Thomas that his first wife was cheating on him. Is that correct?”
Erwin hesitated a moment. “I felt it was my obligation as his friend and his assistant.”
Vera supposed that was a reasonable assertion. “Did you have anything to do with her accident?”
Erwin’s guard went up then. “Of course not. Why would I do anything like that?”
That was the question. “But you said Jose Martinez was supposed to have fixed the problem with the saddle. How did you know that?”
