“Yes, fine. Did Henry Barrister ever suggest you do more than cook for him?”
“Meaning warm his bed now and then? No, he didn’t, but then I was too old for his tastes when I came to work here. I was fond of Mr. Henry. He liked my cooking, and never failed to tell me. Whenever he had one of his fancy dinner parties, he always saw I had good help.”
She got out a big pot, poured some sort of oil in it.
“I was fond of him, but most of my time’s spent in the kitchen, or at the market, at the island here planning menus. He wasn’t one to sit where you are and have a chat.”
She got out bacon, began dicing it. “Mr. Nathan was, and so is Ms. Aileen, the girls. Now, I took Mr. Henry coffee or a snack or what have you into his office more than plenty of times. But he never said: ‘Look here, Divine,’ and opened up that wall.”
Because they were right there, Eve reached for a cookie. Took a bite.
Her entire system rolled over and begged for more.
“Oh, man.”
Divine shot out a smile before putting the bacon in the pot, giving it a stir. “It’s my magic power. It’s why I took this job after I lost my husband. Our kids were grown, and I didn’t want to live where we’d lived and face the loss every day. I made my home here.”
She took out a slab of meat, began to cube it with a knife that looked deadly.
“Mr. Barrister senior had begun to slow down. Maybe wasn’t as sharp as he had been.”
“That’s true.” Divine took the tray of cookies from the oven, set them aside, gave the pot another stir, then returned to her cubing. As if they were all dance steps in a well-choreographed routine.
“He’d forget things, get annoyed with himself for it. He said to me once, not long before he passed, that old age was life’s biggest and coldest bitch. I think that’s why, at his age, he was still chasing women, and liked them young. He feared death, I believe, but feared losing his… abilities even more.”
She got out a slotted spoon, took the bacon out of the pot and onto a plate. Then, to Eve’s puzzlement, began to dry the cubed meat with a towel.
“He wasn’t a fool, Lieutenant, Mr. Roarke, not even at the end. He knew a woman your age, or younger yet, looked past his age to his money, and what he could give them. But he got what he wanted, and had plenty of money to spare.”
“It seems to me that what was in that vault would be even more incentive.”
Lips pursed, Divine paused, nodded at Eve. “That hadn’t crossed my mind. I must be tired. I can’t tell you if he did such a thing, but I can see how you’d wonder if he might have.”
“Do you know any of the women he entertained, let’s say, over the last year or two?”
“Young, beautiful.” Divine lifted her hands. “I’ll say the parade slowed a bit in the last year or so, but it still marched. I never paid much attention. He had to tell someone, didn’t he? I know he didn’t tell his children. But he had to tell someone or how would this murdering thief know? If I had to guess, I’d guess a woman. Women were his weakness.”
When Eve and Roarke walked out of the kitchen, Uma waited.
“Lieutenant, sir, they’ve just finished in the office. Can you tell me when I can clean it?”
“It’s been processed, and if all items in the vault have been removed, it’s clear. I can give you the names of some cleaning services that handle crime scenes.”
“Thank you, but I worked for Mr. Barrister. I work for his widow, for the family. This is my home, and tending to it my job. I’ll do the cleaning.”
“Would they want you to?” Roarke asked gently.
“Right now, his family can’t be worried about this. They’ve already had plenty, and there will be more to come. And they’ve had enough strangers in the house.”
Eve remembered seeing her friend Crack cleaning up blood after a murder. His place, his job.
“I’m going to ask you to look up the process, to protect yourself and the family.”
“I will.”
“You may want to prepare the family that Mr. Barrister’s death, and at least some of the circumstances, has leaked to the media. I’ll address some of that when I leave, so they need to be prepared.”
Uma closed her eyes briefly. “Yes, thank you. We’ve expected this.”
