“By who?”
Milo smiled.
“Okay, fine,” said Heck. “Yeah, that’s true but that was thethirdtime, okay? Signing off, making it official. Detective Matthias takes me and Bettina into this little side room—like the one you just put me in first. I sit there keeping my mouth shut, Bettina makes this lawyer speech to Matthias.”
“What’d she say?”
“This is the situation, stop bugging my client, that kind of thing. Tough talk, you know? And that was it. I signed some papers and left.”
“How did Detective Matthias react to tough talk?”
“She listened all stony-faced, like she wasn’t impressed, same way she’d treated me. Then she walked to the door, came back with papers, and I signed them. Not a word. Like we didn’t exist. Bettina and I are outside the building, she’s like, what was that? Is the bitch planning something else?”
“She called Detective Matthias the bitch.”
“Yeah, but that’s just the way Bettina—no, no, nah, I’ve got my issues with Bettina but she’d never hurt anyone. Not physically, anyway. She uses her mouth, that’s all.”
Another rightward eye-shift.
I said, “Not physically.”
“Never. Anyway, we never heard nothing from Martha or anyone else and then Darren got indicted and I never got subpoenaed, no one did, so we figured that was it. Which it was. Which Bettina took the credit for.”
“How so?”
“She’s walking around nak—We were together, it was afterward, at the Ojai Valley Inn. She’s prancing, she likes to prance. Proud of her body. Says crazy things like ‘Look at the Post-Modern Venus’ and does a bunch of dance moves naked.”
“How’d she take credit?”
“She said, I read that bitch the riot act and she melted. Or something along those lines. Which was b.s. but why argue? Then she said, now you’re going to take me to dinner tomorrow at Spago, white truffles are in season.ThatI remember clearly because that shitcosts,man. And that’s all I got to say.”
Milo looked atme.
I said, “We’re confused, Mike. Bettina said you could help us but so far you haven’t.”
Heck wiggled in his chair. Like a kid in the principal’s office. Weird surprising movement.
He said, “Well, I don’t know if it’ll actually help—and I have to be off the record, okay?”
Milo moved his chair closer, his knees an inch from Heck. Stared into Heck’s eyes and began talking in a low voice.
“Not okay, Mike. You’re in no position to make demands.”
“Listen—”
“No, you listen, Mike. This is a multiple murder investigation and you’re a person of interest. Of strong interest—hold on, let me finish. Maybe you didn’t strangle Sophie yourself but you could’ve hired someone to do it—”
“That’s crazy! What’s my motive?”
“Who knows, Mike, maybe the whole thing was a way to set up a huge civil lawsuit…”
“That’s fucking—”
“People have murdered for a lot less…let me finish, Mike. Here’s the deal: Until now we’ve lacked grounds to get hold of your phone and financial records but the scam you and Bettina tried to pull off gave us grounds. So before we do a deep dive into your life, if there’ssomething you want to tell us that will help you, now would be the time.”
Michael Heck stared at him. Small deer, large headlights. On bright.
His hands shook. His chin vibrated. He sank low and hung his head.
