“Jesus, Joy, you already said it was. Plus, it’s got your prints. Not just voiceprints.” Eve wiggled her fingers. “Fingerprints.”
“Her father takes some of the blame,” Peabody put in. “Always putting her in second place, her brother first. She just couldn’t settle forbeing stupid rich, for having everything handed to her. She wanted what he had, too, and killed him to get more of it.”
“What do you know about it?”
“I know a jealous, conniving, murderous bitch when I’m looking at one. You tried to have my lieutenant killed, because you’re afraid of her. Your money doesn’t mean shit here. You’re going down.”
“And hard,” Eve added. “He got the house, everything in it—that’s the vault, too. You couldn’t take that! Why the hell should you? You’re the firstborn, for God’s sake.
“He got the bulk of the business, why should you accept that? The old man wanted a son, and he got one. You? You’re an afterthought.”
“He had no right! No right to cut me out that way! I wanted what I deserved, what I’d earned!”
“So you took it. You killed your brother so you could take it.”
“He was always in the goddamn way! Placating me. ‘Oh, you know how he is, Joy. But it’s a family business, and yours as much as mine.’ Lies! And he finds that vault, and all he can think about is how to give it all back, how to do that without ruining that old bastard’s reputation and legacy?”
“So you got him out of the way, and opened a way for you to take control, to spin the vault so you’d look like the good guy. You moved the break-in from Saturday night to Friday because he wasn’t well.”
“Easier that way,” Peabody put in, then clutched her hands together. “‘Oh, Nathan, I think someone’s downstairs. Please go down and see.’”
“As if I couldn’t handle it myself.” Joy’s chin jutted. “Typical male, typical, typical.”
“You came up behind him. You took that amethyst club, and you struck him with it. You killed him with it.”
“Nathan was always fond of that piece. Then Aileen’s calling him, coming toward the office. I nearly had to kill her, too. Idiot. But shedidn’t see anything but Nathan, so I left her to it, left her to scream like a lunatic.”
She looked at Eve. “I paid good money to have you dealt with. I wouldn’t be here if it had been money well spent.”
“Tough luck. You know, you don’t strike me as a woman who wants to go down alone. You weren’t in this alone. You’re going to take some hard lumps, Joy. Don’t you want the others to take theirs? Come on, Joy, pay them back.”
Joy took a deep breath. Folded her hands on the table.
“It was all her idea. That blond bitch. All of it. She’s the one who should be in here. She lured me into it.”
“How?”
“I stopped by to see my father, doing my duty by him, as always. I saw the office door locked. I have a key. I thought, I actually worried he might be in there hurt or even dead, so I unlocked it and went in.
“She was in there, in the vault I didn’t even know existed. He’d told her. He hadn’t told his own daughter, but he’d told her. It all started there. It all started in that room. It all started with her.”
When it was done, Eve stepped out.
“I’ll take her down, Dallas, and write it up.”
“Write it up later. Get her down there and have them send the broker up. We’ll keep it moving.”
“I can’t take any more coffee, but I still need caffeine.” Reo pointed to Vending. “I’m getting a Coke. Do you want?”
“Pepsi.”
Mira stepped out of Observation. “She has no remorse. She regrets being caught, regrets what consequences she’ll face, but she doesn’t regret killing her brother, attempting to have you killed, embezzling. She doesn’t regret leaving her two nieces without a father, or her sister-in-law without her husband.”
“Because she’s the center of her own world.”
“That’s exactly right. You did good work in there, all of you, and she certainly gave you more than enough to see the other two share her fate.”
Eve cracked the tube Reo offered. “Broker next. I don’t know the extent of his feelings for Magdelana. If he has them, he might try to protect her. He can’t, and we’ll make that clear. I wouldn’t snarl at a deal on this one, as long as he does plenty of time.”
