Chapter Twenty-Three
Eve walked in, started the record, read off the necessary.
She sat.
French started the ball rolling.
“My client and his partner, whom I’m also representing, contend that Joy Barrister requested they hold an exclusive auction for several pieces, including the Royal Suite. With the request she offered proof of purchase for all items.”
Eve let out a quick laugh. “Are you seriously trying that? Anyone in your client’s line of work is well aware the Royal Suite was stolen from the Tate in London a number of years ago, and has been missing since that time.”
“My client is a retired businessman who has lived in Sorrento, Italy, quietly, for a number of years.”
“Your client is a broker for thieves, fences, and those who covet what doesn’t belong to them, a business he inherited from his grandfather. Just save it. We have the evidence, and we have Joy Barrister’s statement, which coincides with said evidence.”
She looked directly at the broker. “You and Magdelana conspired with Joy Barrister to steal the Royal Suite from the vault where Henry Barrister had it locked away, after he paid to have it stolen.
This theft was used as cover for the murder of Nathan Barrister.
Not by the thief, but by Joy Barrister. She has confessed.
“She has further confessed to conspiring with you and Magdelana Percell in the hiring of a hit man to kill me.”
“Wait a bloody minute.” Shock covered Mulligan’s face. “I know nothing about such a thing. Nothing.”
He had plenty of Irish in his voice, but it didn’t make her feel sentimental.
“Playback, Peabody.”
Once again, Peabody played back the conversation between Magdelana and Joy.
“Jesus, fecking Jesus Christ. That’s madness.”
“My client is not on that playback, nor is his name mentioned.”
“He’s been sharing a villa and a bed with your other client, whose voice is.”
“Regardless—”
“No regardless.” Mulligan held up a hand. “I’m saying this clear. I knew nothing of this. She went around me, behind me. She’d know I wouldn’t go for it. You don’t go for cops. You don’t.”
“You want us to believe that.”
“I do, as it’s God’s truth. Killing isn’t what I do, or have ever done. You said Joy Barrister did her brother. I believed it was the thief in some sort of panic. I was prepared to give you the name of her in exchange for a deal.”
“We have her name. We have her statement. We have Joy Barrister’s confession.”
He lifted both hands to his face as his head drooped.
“And I’ve been played for a bloody fool.
No, I’ll speak,” he said when his lawyer tried to interrupt.
“I was retired, and content. I had a wife, I had a family, and then she came along. I lost it all for her. So bewitched was I, so entranced by her. And she played me for a bloody fool. Did murder or had it done.”
He turned to the lawyer. “I’m the one paying you. And you won’t be representing Magdelana. What money she has, I expect they’ve frozen up. I have the funds that have nothing to do with any of this, so I’m the one paying you. And not for her.”
“All right.”
“I know I’m on the hook here, but I’ll swear, take any test you have to prove the truth of it. I knew nothing of this paid hit, knew nothing of plans to kill anyone. I broker deals, or did.”
Reo nodded. “If what you tell us proves to be true, if you had no knowledge, did not conspire in the murder for hire of a police officer, if you had no prior knowledge of the plans to murder Nathan Barrister, we can take two life terms, consecutive, off the table.”
“In exchange for one? Bugger it.”
“In exchange for twenty to twenty-five, on-planet. If every single word you say on record proves true. One lie, it’s life.”
“Take the deal.” He put a hand on his lawyer’s arm. “I want the deal.”
“In writing,” French said.
“It will be. This is on record. I’ve offered a deal, you’ve accepted. Both on record.”
“Start talking,” Eve said.
“I first met Magdelana a year ago. Only a year ago, and everything’s changed.”
Nearly ninety minutes later, Eve stepped into her office. And again, Roarke waited.
“I came down when you were finishing with him. You’ll eat something now.”
“I had pizza.”
“Before dawn.” He programmed the AutoChef. “He had a lot to say in the few minutes I was observing with Mira.”
“He spilled enough guts for five people. I just came in for five to clear my head before we take her in.”
“You believe he didn’t know about the Barrister murder, about you?”
“Yeah, I do. Do you?”
“Aye.” He took out a bowl. “Here, sit now. It’s the tortilla soup you like. Fuel up for her.”
“Yeah, okay. How about you?”
“I tapped your AC for the group in the lab. I expected you to look tired.”
She ate. “Nope. Not tired. I haven’t had a fizzy, but I’m energized. You need to be okay with what’s coming.”
“I am. I find myself with some sympathy for Mulligan. He’ll spend two decades behind bars because he couldn’t or didn’t resist her. She’d have done the same to me. In fact tried that once.”
She ate more, sat back. “Abernathy’s grateful for you seeing he didn’t get dead last night.”
“I’d hardly stand idle while anyone took a hit in the back.”
“He wants you to know your file’s closed. You won’t have any problem with him.”
Now he smiled a little. “I didn’t have a problem with him, but I appreciate the gesture. And I know it eases you, so for that, I’m more than grateful.”
“It does. And when I’m done with her, I’m done with her.”
“We are.”
“We are. I’m going to have her brought up now, finish this off.”
“I’ll be in Observation.” He leaned down, kissed her. “I’m in there with you. I stand with you.”
“I know it.”
When she went back into the bullpen, Jenkinson stood up. “You taking her now, boss?”
“Yeah. I told you to go home. Whitney’s got us covered for the rest of the shift.”
“You think any of us are going home before you finish? Not a chance. FYI, Trueheart’s not the only one with a shiner.”
And that added another dose of the energized.
“Peabody.”
“I’m with you. I’ll tag Reo. She wants to observe unless we need her in there.”
“Not this time.”
Once again, she opened the door to Interview A.
Magdelana did have a shiner, and a bruised cheekbone. Wanded, Eve assumed. Seeing her in the orange jumpsuit added one more bounce.
Before she could call for the record, Magdelana held up a hand.
“I want five minutes with Dallas, off record and without eyes and ears behind that glass.” She rattled her restraints. “I can hardly hurt you.”
“Yeah, that’s my concern. Take down Observation. Peabody, step out. It’s okay. Step out.”
When she had, Eve sat. Saw Magdelana’s eyes land, and hold a moment, on the Giant’s Tear.
And the quick flash of fury laced with envy.
Yeah, Roarke knew it would burn.
“Say what you want to say.”
“If you don’t find a way to get me out of this, I’ll make sure Roarke pays the price. I know he stole the Royal Suite from the Tate. I know details about every job we worked on together. He probably stole that rock you’re wearing around your neck.”
Eve lifted it by the chain. “This little thing?”
“You think you’re smart? You’re nothing, and nothing to him but a kind of shield.”
Eve yawned. “Sorry. Long night. Done yet?”
“I’ll spill it all. I’ll get a deal or he goes down. Now cut me loose.”
“No.”
“I thought you cared about him.”
“You’ll never understand what we have together. Stop trying. You can claim Roarke broke into the Tate as a teenager and took those emeralds. And not only won’t anyone believe it, but I’ll turn it so you were part of that heist. Part of the team.”
“There wasn’t a team.”
“Interpol and Scotland Yard think otherwise. Anything you accuse him of, I’ll hang on you.” She leaned in. “You should believe me, you should know I’m really good at this, and I’ll make sure decades are added to what you’ll already pay.”
She sat back. “You really never knew him. Do you think he left a single bread crumb? Anywhere, anytime?”
“You’d risk that?”
“It’s not a risk because I do know him.”
“I’ll dredge it all up anyway.”
“Go ahead, and I’ll make it my mission in life to see you’re the one who pays the price. I’ll make it hurt, Magdelana. Beyond even what you’re afraid of right now.”
Before Magdelana looked away, Eve saw what she needed to see. Fear and despair with it.
“I warned you.”
“Yeah, back at you. Observation up.” Eve rose, opened the door.
“Record on,” she said.
She waited until Peabody took her seat.
“You’ve been read your rights, on record, and are aware of the charges against you.”
“It’s all a mistake. I was duped, used.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard that one before, right, Peabody?”
“If I had a dollar for every time, I’d be rich.”
“You are presently without legal counsel. If you can’t afford counsel, counsel will be provided for you.”
“Access to my funds has been cut off, and I’m well aware how useless public defenders are. I’m an innocent woman, and have nothing to hide. I trusted the wrong man. I gave him my heart, and he used and betrayed me.”
“You’re speaking of James Mulligan?”
“That’s correct. He swept me off my feet.” A little tear slid out of her good eye. “He promised me everything. I thought we were happy. I thought he loved me.”
“You were so happy you came to New York last December and stayed several days at Barrister House with Henry Barrister and shopped your ass off on his accounts.”
“Henry was a dear friend. I knew he didn’t have long to live, so wanted to spend some time with him. He was always generous.”
“You went by the name Sabrina Fancy.”
“His nickname for me.”
“No, the name on the false identification you used to pass through Customs. You flew on Barrister’s private, but you still had to pass through Customs on your return, considering the shopping haul.
It was on that visit that Henry, suffering from cognitive decline, showed you the vault in his home office and the contents therein. ”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”