Propping an elbow on the table, Marnie set her chin on her fist. “I was looking for the best way to siphon off some of the money, then expose her. They’d lock her up, like she’d locked me up.”
Enjoying this, Eve thought, enjoying every minute of this.
“Then she sees you on that media report, and gets all worked up about going to New York. I was going to wrap this up in shiny paper, drop it right in your lap. Then I’d stand back, big wide eyes, horrified that my husband’s mother turned out to be a blackmailer. I’d be laughing my ass off.”
“A good plan,” Eve acknowledged, “but opportunity jumped out at you again.”
“If you’d fallen in, it would’ve turned out differently. You want to think about that,” Marnie said, and gestured with her drink. “I figured you’d pay her off, or at least take a couple days to think it over. Then I’d come to you, all dewy-eyed and upset, tell you what I’d found out about my darling husband’s mama.”
Marnie nudged the coffee aside. “You and me, we’d both have gotten something out of that. Every kid she ever screwed with would’ve gotten something out of that. But you pissed her off good. Roarke? He shot her through the ozone. She was going to make you pay, and pay big. That’s all she could think about. Somebody screwed with her, she’d do anything to screw them back, and bigger. You saw what she did to herself.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
“Not the first time, like you said. You ask me, that woman had some serious issues. She’d already bunged herself up good when she called me. Not Bobby—he wouldn’t put up with what she wanted to do. He’d have stopped her, or tried. But me? Her sweet, biddable daughter-in-law? She knew she could count on me, she knew she could bully me. It wasn’t much of a stretch to act stunned when I went into her room. Her face was a freaking mess. You know what she told me? You want to know?”
“I’m riveted,” Eve answered.
“She said you’d done it.”
Eve sat back, as if stunned. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah, she put it on thick. Look what she did to me. After I took her in, gave her a home. And she’s a policewoman! So I played the part right back. Oh, my, oh, gosh. We have to get you to the hospital, tell Bobby, call the police! But she lays it out. No, no, no. A cop did this, and she’s married to a powerful man. She’s afraid for her life, see? So she gets me to make the recording. For protection, she says, and I see just how she’s wheeling it. It’s all there, subtle-like. If you don’t do the right thing, she’ll send a copy of the recording to the media, to the mayor, the chief of police. They’ll know everything. I’m supposed to make a copy—so she keeps the original—and hand-carry it to you at Cop Central. No telling Bobby. She makes me swear.”
Laughing, Marnie swiped a finger over her heart. “So I make her some soup, and I put a nice tranq in it, add some wine. And she’s out. Could’ve killed her then, you know. You want to think about that, too.”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“I searched the room, found the sap she’d made. Found a copy of the file she had on you, too. Interesting stuff. I took all of it. She called me later, but I said I couldn’t talk. Bobby was right there. I’d call her when we got back from dinner, after he was asleep. She didn’t care much for that, let me tell you. Well, you got the ‘link right there, so you’ve heard.”
“She pushed you,” Eve prompted. “Trudy didn’t like being told to wait.”
“Nope. But I’m like, Oh, let me tell Bobby. We won’t go out, we’ll come down and take care of you. I know she won’t go for that, so she takes another pill, and I go out on the town. Long night for me, but God! It was fun. Just bat my eyes, ask Bobby if we can have champagne, and he pulls out all the stops in his middle-class way. I’m so juiced, you know?”
She drew breath in her nose, letting her head fall back, closing her eyes as she relived it. “Lay him just right when we get back, give him a little something extra to make him sleep. Then I go on down the hall to have my talk with Trudy.”
“You took the weapon with you?”
“Sure. Not to use it,” she added quickly. “Get that straight. I’m putting that on record. What I figured was I’d show it to her, stay in character at least awhile. What have you done? You lied to me! I’m going to tell Bobby. I’m going to the police!”
Marnie laid her hands on her belly and laughed. “God! You should’ve seen her face. She never expected it. So, she slapped me. Told me I was hysterical, and slapped me. Said I was going to do just what she told me, and no back talk. If I wanted to keep my cozy nest, I’d shut my mouth and do what she said. Otherwise I’d be out on my ass, she’d see to it.”
Her face was grim now, and full of hate. “She said I was nothing, just like she did when I was a kid. ‘You’re nothing,’ she said, ‘and you’d better remember who’s in charge.’ Then she turned her back on me. I still had the sap in my hand. I didn’t think about it, didn’t even think. It just happened. I let her have it good. And she went down, right down to her knees, and I let her have it again. Nothing in my life ever felt better. Who was nothing now?”
She held up her coffee. “Hey, can I get another? It’s crap, but it gives you a buzz.”
“Sure.” Eve signaled to Peabody, then rose herself to get water from the jug kept in the room.
“I didn’t plan it,” Marnie continued. “But sometimes you can’t stick to the plan. You got anybody behind the mirror?”
Eve studied her own reflection. “Does it matter?”
“Just like knowing if I have an audience. I didn’t murder her. I just lost my head for a minute. She slapped me, right across the face.”
“Open palm,” Eve murmured, remembering. “Quick sting, not hard enough to leave a mark. She was good at it.”
“She liked pain. Liked to give it, liked to get it.” Marnie scooted around in the chair, facing Eve so their eyes met in the mirror in a gesture of intimacy.
Inside Eve, something twisted. She understood what it was to find a weapon in her hand, and to use it. Blindly, ferociously.
“She was one of those S and M types, without the kick of sex,” Marnie went on. “That’s what I think. She was one sick bitch. But I didn’t set out to kill her. I didn’t even get a chance to tell her who I was. Watch her face when I did. Too damn bad. I used to dream about doing that.”
“That must’ve been a disappointment.” Eve turned back as Peabody came in with fresh coffee, kept her face neutral. “You had to think fast after it was done.”
“Thought about just running. But I kept my head. Probably shouldn’t have taken the sweater and stuff.” Marnie glanced down at the sweater, smiled. “But I couldn’t resist. Should’ve waited, gotten them later. But it was spur of the moment.”
“You knew the room next door was empty.”
“Yeah. The maid mentioned it. Thought we might want to take that room so we could be next door to each other. No, thank you. The window wasn’t locked on it, otherwise I’d have had to clean up on the escape platform, change, and walk around, go in the front. Crappy hotel, crappy security. Didn’t figure anyone would look next door. I left a trail leading down the escape. Open window, dead woman, blood trail. I was careful.”
“Not half bad,” Eve agreed. “You shouldn’t have pushed it. You should’ve let Bobby find her.”
“It was more fun the way I did it. You’ve got to get in a few kicks. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when you and Roarke showed, though. Last people I expected to see come knocking on the old bitch’s door. Had to improvise.”
“You must’ve sweated some, having to leave the ‘link, the weapon, the bloody towels next door while we went over the scene.”
“Some, yeah. But I figured if you found them, you still didn’t have reason to look at me. The business the next day was a little insurance. I get the stuff, head out, dump everything in different recyclers while I walk around, find the right spot. I used to live in New York. I knew that bar.”