Page 162 of Passions in Death
“What!” He surged up. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Sit down!”
“I will not listen to this.”
“Sit down.” Eve rose slowly. “Or I’ll put you down. And believe me, I’ll enjoy it.”
“You have no right to treat me this way.” But he sat. “No cause to say such things to me. You’ve got Erin’s killer. You arrested her.”
“We arrested Lopez for assault, on Shauna. Not for Erin’s murder—that was your assumption. And boy, did that fit right in for you. The stripper with the garrote in the sex club.”
“Hey, like Clue! Love that game. But,” Peabody pointed out, “it turns out to be the overbearing ex-boyfriend with the garrote in the sex club.”
“Sure does. And when you add ex–high school boyfriend, it’s only more pathetic.”
“I take mementos for safekeeping, and suddenly I’m a killer?”
“That sure helped. You looked so damn guilty and twitchy when you walked into that hallway and saw me. I knew you’d taken something you shouldn’t have. You should’ve left that alone and I might not have started focusing on you the way I did. That was weak, that was stupid, like it was stupid to try to push the lowlife stranger killer in the sex club on me. I’m a fucking professional.”
“That only proves I care about my friend, not that I killed anyone. If you try to tell Shauna I did, I’ll sue your lying ass off.”
“Oh, she already knows. She knew when she couldn’t find the red box with the cheap, high school jewelry. She’s been over you for years, Greg. Now, she’s done with you. No more Shaunbar.”
“She’d never believe you. Never.”
“Why? Because you’re so good at playing the great guy, good friend? One who hovers, manipulates, and thinks he knows best? Who believes that, so deeply, he’ll kill for it? For her? You killed Erin for her. You had to protect Shauna, whatever it took. Had to save her from making a terrible mistake. Save her before she married another woman, a bohemian—good word—who would and had led her astray.”
“How could she love Erin,” Peabody added, “when she’d been half of Shaunbar? How could she disrespect you, and what you are, by loving a woman?”
“She didn’t love Erin, but that’s beside the point.”
“She was about to marry Erin,” Eve pointed out.
“She was caught up, but beside the point.”
“What is the point?”
“I didn’t kill anyone, you idiot! In fact, I more than tolerated Erin. For fuck’s sake, I have two of her substandard paintings in my apartment. It’s obvious now you haven’t been able to pin this on the stripper, so you’re looking for a scapegoat. I will not be your scapegoat.”
Eve tried on some insulting patience—and she believed she wore it better.
“Then you shouldn’t have been stupid, Greg, and you were. So damn stupid.” She rounded the table as his face splotched red with angry color, as she moved behind him. Leaned in, just a little.
“You shouldn’t have left the case, the tickets, the note. You should’ve gotten rid of those. Nobody knew what was in that case but Erin, and you killed her. But you couldn’t be sure, could you? Maybe Donna looked in it, because you sure as hell did.”
Now she leaned close to his ear, lowered her voice. “And it burned you, burned hard. Maui? You couldn’t take that insult. You were supposed to take Shauna there, on your honeymoon. That was the dream. How could you let this happen? Shauna had to suffer, too. She had to pay, too, for allowing it.
“But then”—she straightened, met his eyes in the mirror—“you always planned to kill Erin—remove that obstacle. I think you hoped to kill her right before the wedding, but the whole Maui thing opened another door.”
“I’m with Becca.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, you couldn’t be disrespected this way, couldn’t have what you had smeared and defiled like this.” She tapped the box as she walked around the table again. “You couldn’t let this lesbian, this bohemian, this street artist who had sex with strippers lure Shauna into that life. You couldn’t have Shaunbar defiled—would you take it to defiled? Yeah, you would. Defile what you were, what you are.”
“And Shauna wouldn’t listen.” Peabody spoke quietly, in direct contrast to Eve. “She wouldn’t be manipulated and maneuvered this time. No matter how you tried to influence her, she resisted. Because of Erin. Because she loved her.”
“She did not! Erin manipulated her, maneuvered her, influenced her. Shauna in some sex club, dancing on a stage half-naked? Kissing another woman, and in public!”
“The horror,” Peabody muttered.
