“It’s pretty common to have conversations on a ’link.”
“Conversations between Barrister and the blonde.”
“Okay.” Eve flicked a glance at Roarke, who stood silent, but she saw the ice in his eyes.
“We just started at the last convos. We’ll work our way back, but you want to hear this one. Callendar, give us the playback when she contacts the blonde the first time yesterday.”
And Magdelana’s voice filled the room.
“Joy, sweetheart, you know you shouldn’t contact me at this point.”
“I’m on the clone, and I’m alone. She knows something, that Dallas creature. She was at Barrister House again, and those idiot servants told her about you.”
“About me?”
“Enough about you—a young blonde he called Ms. Fancy—your visits to my father, so she’s having a police artist come, work with them. And I don’t like the way she looks at me. It’s falling apart!”
“Calm down.” Now Magdelana’s voice turned hard, hard and cold. “Everything’s going to be fine. It’s gone exactly as we planned, hasn’t it? You’re now in charge of your family business, aren’t you, and the thief’s on the hook for your brother’s tragic demise. She has no reason to look at you. Why is she looking for me, or a blond woman?”
“I don’t know! How could I know? She has this idea my father told someone about the vault. And he did! He told you. And one of them might have seen us together when you were here. She’s relentless, this policewoman. You need to call everything off and go away.”
“I’m not going to do that, Joy. We’ve come too far. You got what you wanted, and I intend to get what I want and what I’ve invested in. There’s a simple solution. I know someone in New York who can take care of this.”
“Who? How?”
“Timothy Kruger, a professional. I’ll give you his contact information. For a fee, he’ll eliminate her.”
“Elim—kill her?”
“She’s a thorn in your side, isn’t she? Pull out the thorn, Joy. With her out of the way, the entire thing bogs down. I’ll get what I want, and the rest won’t matter. No one will have any reason to look at you for your brother’s death. Delaney will go into the wind, or, if necessary, we’ll take care of her. It won’t matter if anyone saw you with me. I was simply visiting Henry, that’s all. And they’ll never find me once this is done.
“I’ll give you Tim Kruger’s contact information.”
“No. No, you set it up. You do that. I’m not speaking to a hired killer. You tell me his fee, where to wire the money, but I won’t speak to him or meet with him.”
Magdelana sighed. “Joy, you’re so delicate. All right. I’ll take care of it and get back to you. It shouldn’t take long.”
“That ties it all up nice and neat, doesn’t it?” Eve said when the call ended.
“They both had video blocked, so we don’t have that. But?” McNab lifted his fizzy like a champagne toast. “The voiceprints do the job.”
“The blonde got back to her. Deposit of seventeen-five on fifty K, gave her where to wire it.” Feeney pursed his lips. “No contact since.”
“Magdelana’s busy with auction prep. She did her part on it, and has other potatoes to fry.”
“Fish,” Roarke said, despite himself. “Fish to fry.”
“Make it fish and chips. She’s not listening for reports on some guygetting splatted by a cab. As for Barrister? She’s probably waiting to hear the job’s done.”
“You could pick her up now, on this.” McNab gestured again. “Hold on the murder.”
“No, still a risk. Plus, it would spoil Whitney’s fun. He plans to arrest her tonight, with Tibble.”
Feeney let out a snort. “He’ll get a charge out of that one. Okay, what we’ll do is get you a transcript of the convos.”
“Get me the audio, too. I want to hear it. Thanks.”
She walked to the glass doors, looked at Roarke. “Walk and talk a minute.”
