“Playing with her the way a cat worries a mouse. And how better to keep tabs on her while she plans her revenge? How long have the Kiersteads owned the gallery building?”
He flipped pages. “Twenty months.”
“And Okash opened her place eight months ago. Someone able to sit with us the way Candace did has a suppressed nervous system. My bet is she enjoys the stalking as much as the kill. It’s possible meeting up with Okash was accidental but Candace saw it as confirmation. When Dugong ran into Okash at Art Basel she was chatting up potential clients. Maybe it was the Kiersteads. Maybe Okash doesn’t know who Candace is but Candace realizes what she’s been gifted with. She owns gallery space, Okash wants to have her own place, talk about karma.”
“Revenge eaten way cold,” he said. “Yeah, she’s an icy one, goddamn graham crackers, playing good citizen. But why wouldn’t Okash know who she was?”
“Sister Emeline said the Walls family had issues. It’s possible Connie never brought friends home. Candace, on the other hand, could’ve recognized Okash’s name from court documents or similar.”
“Connie gets cut, ends up sliding down hard, hangs herself in prison,” he said. “Yeah, that’s plenty to seethe about.”
“Let’s see if I can confirm the sisterly connection.”
I put my phone on speaker, punched buttons.
A melodious voice trilled, “Good morning, Saint Theresa’s!”
“Sister Emeline, this is Alex Delaware, the psychologist who came by a few days ago.”
“The police psychologist.” Wariness drained the music from her voice.
“I have a question about Contessa Walls’s family. Did she have siblings?”
“Connie, again? Yes, she had two older brothers and an older sister.”
“You met them.”
“No but she talked about them when her mood got low.”
“Not a happy family.”
“Distant, icy, rejecting. That’s why I never met them. They never visited the dorm, not even the parents, and Connie rarely went home during vacations. Sometimes she’d be alone, sometimes she’d tag along with us. She was physically beautiful but such a sad girl, Dr. Delaware.”
“Do you happen to know the siblings’ names?”
“I do know because when Connie griped, she’dusetheir names. Cormac orders me around like I’m a servant, Cormac used to hit me and pinch me, Charlie—no,Chucklaughs at me and makes me feel stupid. The big complaint about the sister was she shut Connie out, never included her…what washername…something else beginning with ‘C,’ I guess the parents had a thing for ‘C’ names…Candy, I think. Yes, definitely. I remember thinking,That girl doesn’t sound very sweet.”
“Thanks for the information, Sister.”
“If your thanks aresincere,donategenerouslyto our food drive. Every single can, jar, box, and bottle goes to those in serious need.”
“Will money do?”
She laughed. “Money always does.” The lilt, restored.
—
Milo said, “Sisterly revenge. Now I’m thinking Okash didn’t rabbit, she’s probably history. So what does that have to do with wiping out six other people?”
My head filled with white noise. I went to the kitchen, filled two coffee cups, took my time returning. Sorting, contextualizing. Imagining.
I handed him a cup. “Let’s start with the simplest motive: McGann and Vollmann were eliminated because they asked too many questions about Benny.”
“They asked Okash, not the Kiersteads.”
“Maybe not. The Kiersteads own the building and two dummy galleries. What if Okash wasn’t around when McGann and Vollmann came by but the Kiersteads were? They put on compassionate faces, invite McGann and Vollmann in.”
“And boom.” He rubbed his face. “Fine. What about the limo?”
