Page 5 of View from Above

“Payton.” He squared his shoulders and slid the badge dangling from the chain around his neck into view of the peephole. “If you’re going to try to work your therapy voodoo on me, you might as well know my name.”

The click of heels echoed through the black door. Hushing noises penetrated through the thin door from the other side. “Who is it?”

“Seattle PD. We’re looking for Kiera Hood,” he said.

The door swung inward. A thin woman peeked out from behind the slab of steel and wood, confusion deepening the lines between shaped eyebrows. “Seattle PD? What’s this about?”

“Are you Kiera?” Payton already knew the answer from his brief study of her records through the DMV. She hadn’t changed much since her last license had been renewed. Soft blonde hair skimmed thin shoulders exposed through what looked like an outfit resembling a dress and a coat in one. Thigh-high black heeled boots creased and folded in random patterns along her legs and gave her at least a couple inches of height. Not exactly the kind of getup most people answered the door in. “We’d like to talk to you about Roland Kotite.”

“Roland?” Apprehension shifted Kiera Hood’s gaze from Payton to Mallory then back. She hitched a small white dog higher on her hip, one of those that looked like a rat and a cat in one. “Roland died a month ago.”

He made a special effort to show his badge to set Kiera Hood’s nervousness at ease. “I’m aware, Ms. Hood. In fact, I was the responding detective assigned to the case, but today I’d like to ask you about the threats you sent to him up until the day he died, specifically the last one you sent.”

“The one where you threatened to have him thrown off the roof of his precious building,” Mallory said.

Color drained from Kiera’s face. The stunning angles carved along her cheekbones and chin sharpened. She shifted her weight between both feet and frantically pet her dog. The confusion she’d exhibited a moment ago vanished. “Are you… Are you suggesting I had something to do with Roland’s death? That was ruled a suicide. He was depressed. He wasn’t sleeping.”

Depressed? How would Kiera Wood have known about the man’s mental state?

“You did send the threat.” Payton produced his phone and a screen shot of the email he’d read from Mallory’s phone. “This is your email address, isn’t it? We traced the IP address in the metadata to this address.” A lie, but an effective one.

Voices echoed down the corridor, and a stiffness infused Kiera Wood’s neck and shoulders. She maneuvered away from the door and motioned them inside. “Please, I don’t want any trouble.”

He and Mallory crossed the threshold. His arm brushed against her jacket in the small entryway, and she quickly moved to add space between them. The dog instantly bared its tiny teeth in defiance of them entering into its personal space. High-end tile, hardwood floor, granite, and furniture worked together to create an open and light atmosphere while a wall of floor-to-ceilings windows with a view of the sound guaranteed a premium location and a premium price.

“Ms. Hood, from what we understand, you were suing your employer for wrongful termination and sexual harassment in the workplace up until Roland Kotite’s firm dropped you as a client.” Payton scanned the space. Mallory had been right. A place like this wouldn’t have come easy for a corporate public relations consultant. He catalogued as much as he could of the witness’s personal items. The same way victimology gave insight into the deceased, things like books in plain sight, photographs on the fireplace mantel, even the distance between the witness and their phone revealed a lot about a person. This place, however, lacked a personal touch. Almost too masculine. “The settlement could’ve been upwards of a million dollars, if I’m not mistaken.”

“I didn’t care about the money.” Kiera Hood hugged her pet closer, her ministrations coming in faster intervals. “Roland didn’t even have the balls to tell me he was firing me as a client himself. He had his assistant do it. Coward.”

“You must’ve been very angry with him.” Mallory kept her voice even, and in an instant, he could visualize her in the middle of a session, a blank canvas as the whole world raged around her. He’d gotten under her skin back in the interview room though. “Angry enough to threaten him several times over the course of the weeks leading up to his death, at least.”

“I was angry. I tried calling him, texting him. I left voicemails and went by his office. He wouldn’t even see me.” Kiera Wood’s voice climbed an octave higher. She collapsed onto an elegant leather sofa, hands splayed. “All I wanted was an explanation. Was that too much to ask?”

“If you didn’t care about the money, why send the threats?” Payton asked. “Why go through all that effort?”

Kiera didn’t answer. The bedazzled collar around the dog’s neck reflected sunlight penetrating through the windows.

“You weren’t just a client, were you?” Mallory’s words barely breached the space between them and the witness. “You two were involved. That’s how you knew he wasn’t sleeping. How long he’d been depressed.”

Tears glittered into those wide eyes as Kiera Hood shook her head. “I knew it wasn’t going to last. I knew there were others. I just… I didn’t expect him to end it so soon. And after he died…” The tears cut through patiently applied layers of makeup.

“You were having an affair with your lawyer Roland Kotite?” That hadn’t come up during the investigation into the man’s death. An explosion of doubt threatened to unbalance him. Shit. What else had Payton missed in the man’s life?

“Yes.” Kiera sniffled as she scratched her dog’s ears. “But I wasn’t the only one.”

Payton unpocketed his notepad and pen, handing it off to her. “In that case, I’m going to need to know exactly where you were at the time of Roland Kotite’s death and at approximately eight this morning.”

CHAPTER FOUR

She should’ve felt something.

Her father had been having an affair.

Not just one. Several from what Kiera Hood had told them. Their witness hadn’t been able to provide names for any of her father’s other mistresses, but Mallory had no doubt the number in her head was far lower than the truth. Roland Kotite hadn’t been a saint. She’d known that since she’d been eight years old and her beliefs about the man who’d raised her had shattered. But her mother… Her mother had held on up until his death. Did she know?

Mallory hit the call elevator button harder than she’d meant and stepped back. The red LED panel above shifted by floor, but no amount of intense concentration could break her awareness of the detective at her side.

“I’ll have Trooper Wells run down Kiera Hood’s alibi when we get back to the office, but it looks like you were right. She’s not the one paying for that condo. I saw the mortgage statement on the table by the sofa. Kotite Litigation is making the payments. Gives some credit to her story.” Payton notched his chin back to study the panel above the doors with equal amounts of attention as she did. “Do you want to talk about it?”

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