Chapter 44
I’m surprised when the front door of the luxury mansion opens. It’s not Lucy Kowalski or her husband. The gate at the end of the drive was open so I just made my way here. I’m not sure what to expect.
“May I help you?” a slightly built man in slacks and a pullover asks politely.
“My name is Sloane Gala. Cara Alexander is…was my sister. I’d like to speak to Ms. Kowalski.
I spoke to Ryan Chatelain and he told me she was home for the day.
” I called the office after Ethan came home to talk to Fiona, and Kowalski’s assistant hadn’t given me her whereabouts. Not that I’d expected her to.
But Ryan had when I called him.
Lucy Kowalski was on Garcia’s original suspect list, and now that she’s shown up on the list of people who were blackmailed, I was talking to her in person.
The man’s expression doesn’t change at all. “I’m sorry, she’s not taking visitors right now.”
I hand the guy a small manila envelope with her name on the front. “Give this to her and see if she’s still unavailable.”
He shuts the door in my face, and I’m not surprised when two minutes later he’s back, opening the door and welcoming me in.
He walks me to a huge living room overlooking the lake.
The sun set about an hour ago and the fire is crackling, providing a lot of warmth for the space.
I looked this place up online and found that it last sold for about fourteen million.
The man disappears without a word as I sit on the love seat catty-corner to the couch Lucy Kowalski is on.
Her expression is exhausted, drawn, the pictures facedown on the couch next to her. “How much do you want?” Her tone is tired as she stares into the fire.
“I don’t want any money.”
Now she looks at me, surprise in her expression. She’s a pretty woman with white-blonde hair, blue eyes, and from her online profile I know she has multiple degrees in aeronautics. “What do you want, then?”
“Answers.”
She snorts and looks away. “You want to know about a stupid mistake I made years ago?”
“I want to know if you had anything to do with my sister’s murder.” Sometimes the direct route is best.
Her gaze snaps to mine and she blinks. “Wait…what?”
“I know someone blackmailed you and I know you paid them off.”
“Yeah, and now so do the cops.” Her tone is bitter.
“It’s only a matter of time before this gets out.
It’ll ruin my career, my respectability.
And you know what, if a man had done it, everyone would just clap him on the back.
I have to work twice as hard—” She cuts herself off, takes a deep breath.
“What the hell does that have to do with…Cara?” Her voice softens the slightest bit when she says Cara’s name and it takes me off guard.
“You tell me.” I’ve got nothing when it comes to Lucy, other than Garcia’s suspicions and the fact that she’s on the blackmail list. And whew, it was serious blackmail. “You’re Cara’s neighbor, friendly, and you both work for Beacon Industries.”
“Yeah, on different projects. And I liked Cara. She was good at her job, got shit done when she said she would. And she keeps…kept Milo focused.” Lucy rolls her eyes as she turns more toward me, her rigid body language thawing a little.
“Cara mentioned that he was difficult to work for.” I choose my words carefully.
“You’re being generous. He’s a nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, he has moments of brilliance. But the older he gets, the more he drinks… He’s not focused like he used to be. And he doesn’t take responsibility for any of his mistakes. It’s the reason I’m transferring to another division altogether.”
“Can you tell me a little more about Cara’s work relationships?”
She looks at me for a long time, then down at the pictures even though they’re turned over. A picture really does say a thousand words, and in these three she’s having a foursome with three men, none of whom are her husband. “How’d you get these?” she asks.
I debate how honest I’ll be, because I certainly can’t tell her everything. But instinct tells me that the closer I am to the truth, the more honest she’ll be with me. “I stole them from your blackmailer.”
I see the surprise flicker in her eyes, then they go granite hard. “Who took these?”
“It doesn’t matter because I wiped their hard drive and they didn’t back anything up.” Technically Foxe did the wiping, but for the purpose of this conversation, it was me.
“And you really don’t want money from me?”
“Nope. I don’t care what you do in your free time.” And this was clearly consensual, so whatever.
She snorts, but then lets her head fall back against the couch.
“For the most part, Cara got along with everyone at work. But her recent project has been…I wouldn’t say a clusterfuck, but they’ve been dealing with a lot of testing issues.
Until recently. But before that, she and Ava were really going at it.
They were blaming each other for things that really boiled down to Milo and his inability to do his job. ” She shakes her head in disgust.
“Ava and Cara were fighting?”
“Arguing more than anything. It’s happened before, during big projects, but yeah.
Until about a week before…” She looks at the fireplace now.
“Things were basically back to normal about a week before Cara was killed. I did see her leaving…” She looks at me again and I can see questions in her eyes. “Why are you really here?”
“I told you.” Or I told her I was here to see if she had anything to do with Cara’s murder. Maybe I should be more explicit. “I’m trying to figure out who killed my sister and why.”
She keeps staring at me. “The cops are—”
“I don’t give a shit about the cops.”
She narrows her gaze at me. “Did you tell them about the blackmail? Because I got pulled in today for questioning. They didn’t have pictures, but now you show up asking questions and tossing around these…” She motions at the photographs, the flare of anger back in her icy eyes.
Well, the woman does have multiple degrees so I shouldn’t be surprised that she put this together so quickly.
“I might have nudged them in that direction.”
Her jaw tightens ever so slightly. “I didn’t kill your sister.
I had no reason to. And clearly I’m a coward who pays off blackmailers.
” There’s a hint of self-loathing in her voice.
“And…I wasn’t even here the day of her murder.
I mean, I was here, but I was talking to my therapist online.
For a solid hour right during the time of…
I already told the detective all this and they’re verifying. ”
Damn it. I nod and stand, but not before scooping up the pictures and tossing them into the fire.
“You don’t have to worry about these anymore.
When I nudged the cops in not just your direction but others, I didn’t give them pictures.
And no one else will see them.” I gave them some pictures, but not all of them.
Something akin to relief flickers in her eyes, but she just nods.
Then she says, “I saw Ava leaving Cara’s place about an hour before she was killed.
It was right before my therapy session started.
She was really upset. Enough that I could see it from across the street. I…have no idea if she went back.”
“Did you tell the cops this?”
“This morning I did. I can’t imagine Ava had anything to do with… But yeah, I told them.”
Feeling that tingle at the back of my neck again, I quickly make my exit.