“That’s certainly not me on that recording.”
“Jesus, dumbass, do you think we haven’t traced it back to the clone ’link in the luggage in the freaking bridal suite in the Cochran Estates?”
“I don’t have a clone ’link.”
“Not anymore you don’t. It was tucked away up there with your fancy underwear, and it has your prints. Voice and finger. We have the conversations on that ’link and Joy Barrister’s.”
Eve rose, strolled around the table, leaned down. “You’re going down for that one, bitch. No getting around it. You’re cooked there.”
“I want a deal.”
“Yeah? I want a nice big glass of wine. In a few hours I’ll actually get my want. You never will.”
“I have information, and plenty of it, on James Mulligan and on Joy Barrister. They used me, they colluded and used me. I was in love, and that made me foolish, vulnerable. I didn’t know what they planned, then I was in too deep. I want immunity, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Gee, what do you think, Peabody?”
Peabody made a buzzing sound. “Too late.”
“You know, that’s right. Barrister’s already confessed to everything,and given us just a big shiny treasure trove on you. And we made a deal with Mulligan already. He added to that shiny.”
“They’re lying!”
“So Joy Barrister didn’t kill Nathan Barrister and pay a hit man to kill me?”
“No. Yes, yes, she did all that, but they’re lying about the rest.”
“Selectively lying, all while confessing—in Joy’s case—to murder and more so she’ll spend the rest of her life in a cage. Man, she must have something against you.”
“She does! She hates me. She and James were lovers. She loves him, and wants to punish me for being with him, for taking him from her.”
“Here I thought you took him from his wife.”
“I was blinded by my feelings for him, and he… he twisted them. Used them. And she hated me for being with him, for my close friendship with her father.”
“How did she know you were friends with her father if you never met? You’re tripping over yourself here, Magdelana. I bet you’re a lot better at this if you have some time to think.”
She rounded the table again. “Listen, stupid! We have the ’link conversations. The lab verifies it’s your voice. And none of those conversations support what you’re making up here on the spot. You ran the show, start to fucking finish. You’re nobody’s dupe, and you’re not capable of love.”
Magdelana’s breath came too fast now, and her fingers twisted together. “You’ll be sorry,” she murmured.
Eve got down, pushed her face close. “No, I won’t, but you will be.”
She saw that fear again, and the belief with it.
“I can give you others, plenty of others.”
“Not interested.”
“Thieves, murderers, hired killers, weapons runners.”
“Don’t care, got you. But it does cause me to wonder what kind ofpool you swim in. Last December, Joy Barrister caught you in Henry’s office, vault open. And you drew her in, you offered her what she wanted most. Control, more, her brother out of the picture, and she traded that for what you wanted. The Royal Suite.”
“If any of that were true, why only that if there was so much more?”
“Biggest prize. Get your hands on that, your rep’s made. You’ll be rolling in it. You can be whoever you want wherever you want.”
“An innocent man and a cop have to die,” Peabody added. “You don’t care about that, as long as you get that big prize, that big rep, throw that big party.”
