Page 112 of Murder on Charity Lane

Lily-Ann didn’t speak, waiting for the silence to become oppressive, to increase the pressure on CJ. She personally never minded an extended silence—in fact, she found them restful—but she knew that was a minority opinion.

However, Sophie spoke first. “So what do you know about the cash?”

“Nothing,” CJ said, looking at her hands. “Like I told the police, Frank might’ve wanted to surprise me. He was generous, and he liked to make the occasional grand gesture. He never did anything like that before though, and cash wasn’t really his style so … I don’t know.”

Nicholas asked, “Did he often keep that kind of cash around the house?”

“No. Never. Not that I saw.”

“And you would’ve seen?”

“Absolutely.” She tilted her chin up slightly. “I worked for him but we were partners. Well, he paid me, he was my employer, but my job wasn’t to assist him, not really. My job was to act as an extension of him. And to do that, I needed to know what he wanted. Not what he said he wanted, what he really wanted.”

“That’s a lot of trust,” Sophie said.

CJ gave a quick little smile. “I was very good at my job.”

“Did your job change as he got older?” Ocean asked, an echoing smile appearing for an instant on her face. “In my experience, caretakers sometimes think they know better than their elderly charges—and they’re absolutely right.”

“Ha!” Mrs. B said.

“It changed a little the past few years,” CJ admitted. “As Frank’s world shrank.”

“Karina thinks he was paying you to keep quiet about your affair,” Lily-Ann lied, to see how CJ responded.

“No, she doesn’t!” CJ scoffed. “Not even if she said she does. She knows that’s a lie.”

“Hm,” Lily-Ann said, and doodled fifty thousand in her notebook because she wanted CJ to worry about what she was writing.

“You didn’t know he was withdrawing money from an ATM?” Ocean asked.

“No, which is odd. That he didn’t tell me. Also, he never used cash. And if he did, he wouldn’t use an ATM, a concierge would’ve delivered it.”

“A bank concierge?” Hamilton asked.

“When you have Frank’s kind of money, the bank comes to you.”

“So you know nothing about the cash,” Lily-Ann said. “Not even where Karina found it?”

CJ shook her head. “The officer didn’t mention that.”

“How about the searches on your laptop, for ways to murder an old man? The easiest ways to kill a man in Frank’s position?”

“That’s not my laptop!” Red spots appeared on CJ’s cheeks. “It’s a household laptop.”

Nicholas spoke more gently. “Did anyone use it besides you and Frank?”

“Not that I ever saw. No. But anybody could have.”

“Was it password protected?” Hamilton asked.

“No. No.”

Lily-Ann tapped her pen against her notebook. “Did you search for ways to kill a man in his condition?”

“To kill Frank?” CJ asked.

“Is that a yes?”