Page 164 of Passions in Death
“If there’s something below imbecile,” Peabody said, “I’m out.”
“We’ll just say Greg Barney. You have the wire, you have a search for the fashioning of a garrote on your e’s. You detested her. She demeaned who you were, and she was leading Shauna into a deplorable—in your view—lifestyle.
“And.”
She pulled the last bag out of evidence. “You kept your old ’link, Greg. We didn’t need EDD to find your communications with Erin. She trusted you. She asked you for a favor, a favor she wanted so she could surprise Shauna. She didn’t tell you what the surprise was—that was her big secret.”
“And you agreed. It’s all on there,” Peabody told him. “When, you asked, where, and how. Such a good guy, such a good friend.”
“The when? The day of the party, because she didn’t want Donna feeling pressured to get back in time. The where? She’d bring it to you before you left for work—after Becca had already left. Then the how. She’d meet you when you took lunch, give you the swipe.”
“I bet she told you not to peek, that she wanted Shauna to be the first to know. But you did, and that sealed Erin’s fate.”
“Hell, it’s like she asked you to kill her. She handed you the perfect opportunity.”
“If you had a friend who was hanging off the side of a cliff, would you throw her a rope?” Barney demanded. “If you had a friend drowning because she’d swum out too far, would you do what you could to save her?”
“I would.”
“That’s all I did. And in time she’ll understand.”
“No, you did it for yourself, and you’re glad she suffered, your good friend Shauna. So you could hover, the loving friend. Offer to make her a sandwich, offer to help get stuff out of her apartment, offer her a shoulder to cry on.
“Then smirk,” Eve added. “Yeah, I caught that. Smirk when she gets her face slapped at her fiancée’s memorial. What a thrill for you. Her tears, her grief, a kind of payment for embarrassing you. For disrespecting the shine of Shaunbar.”
She shoved Erin’s crime scene still across the table. “There’s your work. I bet you’re proud of it.”
“I took a life to save a life. And I want a deal.”
“I bet you do. Let’s go over your movements of that day, that night, so we have all the details in place first.”
Epilogue
It took time, and to her amazement, he didn’t demand a lawyer until the end.
She’d given him too much credit for smarts.
He ended up with a public defender who huddled with him, who then huddled with Reo.
During the legal huddling, Eve dealt with the paperwork.
Then she closed her murder book and began to clear her murder board.
Then she huddled with Reo, and left satisfied, before she and Peabody went to deliver a different sort of notification.
Shauna deserved to know.
As a result, she drove through her home gates a little late. Not very, she decided, plus, she’d followed the Marriage Rules and tagged Roarke as requested.
She walked in, eyed Summerset, eyed the cat.
“Yeah, I’m late. And a stupid asshole of a murderer’s in a cage.”
“Then well done to you, Lieutenant.”
“As well done as the law allows,” she said, and headed upstairs with the cat.
When she walked into her office, Roarke was at her board, clearing it.
