Page 128 of Passions in Death
“I’m telling you, she manipulated Erin. She dazzled her somehow. White dresses, a wedding? Maybe having kids down the road? That wasn’t Erin.”
“What did you do about it?” Eve asked her.
“I tried talking to her, but she wouldn’t listen. I tried warning the bitch off, but she ignored me. I even tried talking to Angie, since she and Erin are tight, but she told me Erin was happy, in love, and I’d end up having her cut me off if I kept it up.
“And Donna.” Lopez rolled her eyes. “She’s useless. Whatever Erin wants is just perfect. Erin wants Shauna, so Shauna’s perfect. They couldn’t see what I could. None of them could see what I saw.”
“Did you tell Erin you were in love with her, ChiChi?”
At Eve’s words, Lopez’s eyes filled. Tears fell in a flood. “She said she was sorry. Sorry! But she didn’t feel that way about me. She couldn’t feel that way. She loved Shauna. She was making a life with Shauna, and she was sorry.”
“When did you tell her?”
“The morning of the goddamn party. The morning before she died. Died because she thought she loved Shauna. And she’s spending the last morning of her life cleaning somebody’s apartment.”
“You went there.”
“Yes, I went there. I went there to tell her. I went there to stop her from making this stupid mistake.”
“Is that when she gave you the case, the case with the tickets to Hawaii?”
Like a child in a tantrum, she tossed the ice pack across the table.
“She didn’t give me the goddamn case. She didn’t tell me anything about Hawaii. I knew that was Shauna’s thing. I knew how much Erin wanted to make it happen, but she didn’t tell me. Because Shauna, always Shauna.”
Now she laid her head down on the interview table and wept. “She’d be alive if it wasn’t for Shauna. Why didn’t they kill her? Stupid, second-rate shoe clerk with her boring friends and let’s-stay-home lifestyle. Who’d miss the bitch? Erin was so much more. So much more.”
“And feeling this way, you still went to the party that night?”
“I’ve got my pride, don’t I? I’m not sitting at home alone. I’m not letting them all see how it hurts.”
Straightening, she swiped at her face. Took a long moment to compose herself. The anger hadn’t drained, Eve thought, not by a long shot. But when she spoke again, her voice was more controlled.
“I’d have made Erin happy. We could’ve had a real life together and not some pale, boring excuse for one. Now she’s dead, and that pasty-faced redhead’s standing up there talking about her like they had some love of a lifetime.
“She’s lucky I just slapped her.”
She took two deep breaths. “It wouldn’t have lasted. Erin would’ve gotten tired of it, she’d have wanted to bust loose again, and that bitch would’ve wanted a dick again. But now Erin’s dead, and it’s over.”
“Killing her, that’s payback for rejection.”
Eyes dry again, Lopez stared at Eve. “Look at me, for Christ’s sake. She’d have come back to me, to the life, to the passions. I could wait. Yeah, I was pissed, but I could wait. Now, because of Shauna, there’s nothing to wait for.”
“Blaming Erin for wanting someone, something else makes more sense.”
“You didn’t know her,” Lopez said again. “It wouldn’t have lasted. She’d have come back. I could wait. Now she can’t come back. And all because of Shauna’s goddamn party. I don’t give a fuck about the assault. Lock me up. Erin’s still dead, so the fuck what?”
“What did you think when you saw Shauna stripping down onstage at the D&D?” Eve wondered.
“I thought, Jesus, Erin’s giving up this”—Lopez skimmed her hands down her body—“for that? And I damn well knew she’d come back.”
Looking into Lopez’s eyes, Eve nodded.
“Yeah, I bet that’s just what you thought. Peabody, take Ms. Lopez down to Booking. You can sit and think some more before your bail hearing.”
Eve sat back. “I didn’t know Erin, but I know her now. Knowing her’s part of my job, and I’m damn good at my job. Only one person’s responsible for her death, and that’s the one who killed her. If it helps you sleep at night to blame the woman she loved and who loved her, that’s your damage. But I’ll do my job and see the person responsible’s held responsible.”
“Shauna’s why she’s dead. That’s all I need to know.”
