Donna Batchelor pointed to the graduation portrait. “That sash she’s wearing, they call the color drab but that’s not an insult, it’s tradition. Signifies business and accounting. This gold braid, here, is because she earned honors.”
She re-hung the photos and sat back down. “Honors, dean’s list, the works. Getting a great job right out of the gate was a cinch. Deloitte. Know who that is?”
Milo said, “One of the big firms.”
“Mega-huge. She made terrific money, took the exam, passed the first time, and got a serious raise. She stayed at Deloitte until she wasthirty, then she moved to a smaller firm so she could have more creativity and broaden her opportunities.”
Milo said, “Is that where she was when she met Sterling?”
“Unfortunately. Not the job. Meeting him.”
“Name of the company, please.”
“Lewin, Wolf and Taback. They specialize in the rag trade, have offices in Century City and New York. She methimin New York even though he lived here. Was assigned to do internal audits at STL—his company. Which can get tricky, you uncover something and they do a blame-the-messenger thing. But she didn’t with STL, everything was kosher, the parent company’s Shigihara Limited from Japan, old-school, very big on integrity.Hewas one of their American reps. Whitney’s assignment meant spending a lot of time with him and that’s how it happened.”
“The pregnancy.”
“Therelationship.The pregnancy was…let me tell you, that was a shocker, I don’t know how it happened, Whitney had always had sound judgment. I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time anything came between Whitney and me. I told her to terminate, it could only bring her problems. She got furious and we didn’t talk. But we’d started again. After things went bad with him and she needed someone to support her. Emotionally, not financially, Whitney always did great financially.”
I said, “Why did things go bad between her and Sterling?”
“Because he was a flat-out bastard. Total commitma-phobe.” She reached for an Oreo, broke it in two, and nibbled at one half. “Sure you don’t want one?”
Milo smiled and took a cookie.
Donna Batchelor said, “There you go, nutrition, you can always go to the gym…what went bad? The whole kit and caboodle. Bastard’s living luxe and doesn’t want to pay serious child support? Then he started making noises about moving to New York to be with his otherkids ’cause they were in college there? Claimed his experience as a parent made him more suitable for full custody. I told Whitney to hire a shark lawyer who out-bastards him but it never got to that point.”
Her fingers crushed what remained of the Oreo. Dark dust fell on a white marble tabletop.
“Damn.” She sprang up, moistened some paper towels, and returned. Picked up every crumb, then buffed the marble.
I said, “Were Whitney and Sterling communicating through lawyers?”
“No, not yet, they were screaming at each other. That’s what Whitney said. Finally she had enough of his crap, took leave from her job and rentedthatplace.”
“To get away from Sterling.”
“To get away from civilization,” she said. “Have you been up there? It’s Boonesville, half the time you can’t even get internet.”
“You visited her there.”
“Once, that was enough. She wanted me to go out with her on a dinky little boat. Said it was calming for the soul. Maybe hers, not mine. The only water I want are Perrier and my pool.”
She glanced at a gold Lady Rolex. “So what’re you going to do about him?”
Milo said, “We’ll be looking at him seriously. What else can you tell us about him?”
“That’s it,” she said. “Never met the bastard, don’t want to unless it’s in court and he’s just been found guilty.”
“You’re certain he’s behind Whitney’s murder.”
“Who else? Everyone loved her. No one had anything against herexcepthim.”
“He’s living in New York now.”
“Last time I heard he was but that was when Whitney was still…right after she went rural. For all I know now, he’s in Singapore or somewhere.”
“With Jarrod.”
