Milo said, “Martha Matthias.”
“Total bitch, okay?”
“What did she do to make you mad?”
“Just told you. Total bitch.”
“Could you be a little more specific.”
“A little more?” she said. “Total bitch with a hair up her ass.”
Sitting up taller and drawing the crossed arms tighter yet. Wrinkling her top. Orange. In the women’s jail that meant mentally ill. Mankell had pushed forit.
I said, “She did that to you.”
“Did what?”
I crossed my own arms. “You went to ask her to release somemoney during the investigation so that you could live. Not only did she turn you down, she stood there like this. So you cut off her arms.”
Tiana Crown gaped. Her arms tumbled to her sides. “What iswrongwith you?”
Milo said, “He’s wrong?”
“No no no no,” she said. “He’s fuckingrightand that’s fuckingwrong.Whatareyou, some sicko alien lizard invader mind reader?”
I said, “You don’t do things randomly.”
“Aw, gee. Thanks.” Another lash-batting ballet was followed by lip-licking. “Now I get why you’re the boss. And here I was thinking you were some rich guy’s spawn in a nice blazer. Gucci?”
I smiled and shook my head.
“What, then?”
“Not important.”
“Oh man,” she said. “If I had you alone.”
Milo said, “All these years and you suddenly decided to get revenge.”
“You know what they say. A dish best eaten cold.”
I said, “True but there had to be more.”
“More what, Too Cute?”
“You think things through and plan carefully. In Sophie Barlow’s case the trigger was Mike Heck treating you shabbily, which made you doubt he’d ever been honest when he denied ratting out the scam. So with regard to Martha, something else had to set you off.”
Tiana Crown licked her lips. “Oh my. Oh my my my my my.”
She moved to re-cross her arms. Dropped them abruptly. Fidgeted.
“Why do you need to know?”
Milo said, “We always want to know. And it’s in your best interest. Letting us see you as something other than a cold-blooded murderer.”
Tiana Crown burst into hoarse, too-long laughter. “But that’s what I am.”
I said, “You had grievances. You overreacted to them but if Mike had been honest and Martha hadn’t been so cold, they’d still be alive.”
