Immortal in Death

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

If recent behavior was any example of what it was like to have a husband, Eve told herself it couldn't be half bad. She'd been coddled into bed, which she was forced to admit had been for the best, and had been awakened five unremembered hours later by the scent of hot coffee and fresh waffles.

Roarke had already been up, dressed, and poring over some vital business transmission.

It did irk her from time to time that he seemed to get by on less sleep than a normal human, but she didn't mention it. That sort of comment would only gain her a smirk.

It was to his benefit that he didn't point out that he was taking care of her. Knowing it was weird enough without having him crow over it.

So she headed toward Cop Central, rested, well fed, and in her newly repaired vehicle, which in under five blocks decided to surprise her with a new foible. Her speed indicator shot straight into red, though she was sitting dead still in a traffic snarl.

WARNING, she was told pleasantly. ENGINE OVERLOAD IN FIVE MINUTES AT CURRENT SPEED. PLEASE REDUCE VELOCITY OR SWITCH TO AUTO OVERDRIVE.

"Bite me," she suggested, not so pleasantly, and drove the rest of the way with the constant cheerful advice to reduce velocity or blow up.

She wasn't going to let it affect her mood. The nasty blackhearted thunderclouds rolling in and sending air traffic scrambling didn't bother her. The fact that it was Saturday, a week before her wedding, and she was in for a long, hard, potentially brutal day at work didn't diminish her pleasure.

She strode into Cop Central, her smile fixed and grim.

"You look ready to gnaw raw meat," Feeney commented.

"The way I like it best. Any additional data?"

"Let's take the long way. I'll fill you in."

He detoured to a sky glide, nearly empty at midday. The mechanism stuttered a bit, but carried them upward. Manhattan receded to a pretty toy town of crisscrossing avenues and brightly colored vehicles.

Lightning cracked the sky with an accompanying boom of thunder that shook the glass enclosure. Rain poured through the crack in gleeful buckets.

"Just made it." Feeney peered down, watched pedestrians scramble like maddened ants. An airbus blatted its horn and skidded past the glass with inches to spare. "Jesus." Feeney slapped a hand to his jumping heart. "Where do those fuckers get their license?"

"Anybody with a pulse can drive those sky doggers. You couldn't get me in one with a laser blast."

"Public transportation in this city's a disgrace." He took out a bag of candied nuts to calm himself. "Anyway, your hunch on the calls from Maui panned out. Young called Fitzgerald's place twice before he hopped a shuttle back. He ordered the showing on screen, too. Full two hours."

"Got any security of his place on the night Cockroach bought it?"

"Young came in, with his flight bag, about six A. M. His shuttle got in at midnight. No data on how he spent the missing six hours."

"No alibi. He had plenty of time to get from the terminal to the murder scene. Can we place Fitzgerald?"

"She was at the ballroom until a little past twenty-two thirty. Rehearsals for last night's do. Didn't show up at her place until oh eight. She made plenty of calls: her stylist, her masseuse, her body sculptor. Spent four hours yesterday at Paradise, getting herself buffed and polished. Young, he spent the day talking with his agent, his business manager, and…" Feeney smiled a little. "A travel consultant. Our boy was interested in a trip for two to the Eden Colony."

"I love you, Feeney."

"I'm a lovable kind of guy. Picked up the sweeper's reports on my way in. Nothing we can use on Young's place or Fitzgerald's. The only trace of illegals was in the blue juice. If they've got more, they're keeping it elsewhere. No logs or records of any transactions, no sign of formulas. I've still got the hard drives to diddle with, see if they hid anything in them. But if you ask me, those two aren't high-tech geniuses."

"No, Redford would probably know more about that. We've got more than murder and trafficking here, Feeney. If we can get the stuff classified as poison and pin them with prior knowledge of its lethal qualities, we'll have full-scale racketeering and conspiracy to slaughter."

"Nobody's used conspiracy to slaughter since the Urban Wars, Dallas."

The glide ground to a halt. "I think it has a nice ring."

She found Peabody waiting outside the interview area. "Where's the rest of our party?"

"Suspects are in conference with their attorneys. Casto's getting coffee."

"Okay, contact the conference rooms. Their time's up. Any word from the commander?"

"He's on his way in. He wants to observe. The PA's office will participate via 'link."

"Good. Feeney's going to oversee the recordings on all three subjects. I don't want any slipups when this business comes to trial. You take Fitzgerald for the first round, Casto's on Redford. I want Young."

She signaled when she spotted Casto coming toward them juggling a tray of coffee. "Feeney, fill them in on the additional data. Use it wisely," she added and copped a cup of coffee. "We'll switch teams in thirty minutes."

She slipped into her interview area. The first sip of miserable eatery coffee made her smile. It was going to be a good day.

"You can do better than that, Justin." Eve was revving up, had barely hit her stride. It was hour three of interview.

"You asked me what happened. The other cops asked me what happened." He took a drink of water. He was well off his stride, and faltering. "I told you."

"You're an actor," she pointed out, all friendly smiles. "A good one. All the reviews say so. I read one just the other day that said you can make a bad line sing. I don't hear music here, Justin."

"How many times do you want me to go over the same ground?" He looked toward his lawyer. "How long do I have to do this?"

"We can stop the interview process at any time," his lawyer reminded him. She was a sharp-looking blonde with killer eyes. "You're under no obligation to make any further statements."

"That's right," Eve chimed in. "We can stop. You can go back to holding. You're not going to make bail on the illegals charges, Justin." She leaned forward, made sure his eyes focused on hers. "Not while there are four counts of murder hanging over you."

"My client has not been charged with any crime other than suspicion of possession." The lawyer peered down her needle-straight nose. "You don't have a case here, Lieutenant. We all know it."

"Your client's dangling over the edge of a very steep cliff. We all know that. Want to take the fall alone, Justin? That doesn't seem very fair to me. Your friends are answering questions right now." She lifted her hands, spread her fingers. "What are you going to do if they roll over on you?"

"I didn't kill anyone." He flicked his gaze toward the door, toward the mirror. He knew he had an audience, and for once he didn't know how to play the crowd. "I never even heard of those other people."

"But you knew Pandora."

"Of course I knew Pandora. Obviously I knew her."

"You were there, at her house on the night she died."

"I've said so, haven't I? Look, Jerry and I went to her house, at her invitation. We had a few drinks, that other woman came around. Pandora got obnoxious, and we left."

"How often do you and Ms. Fitzgerald use the unsecured entrance at your building?"

"It's just a matter of privacy," he insisted. "If you had media hounding you every time you tried to take a piss, you'd understand."

Eve knew exactly what that was like and smiled toothily. "Funny, neither of you seemed to be particularly shy of media exposure. In fact, if I were a cynic, I'd have to say the two of you exploited it. How long has Jerry been on Immortality?"

"I don't know." His eyes shifted to the mirror again, as if he was hoping a director would say "cut" and end the scene. "I told you I didn't know what was in that drink."

"You had a bottle in your bedroom, but you didn't know the contents. Never took a taste of it?"

"I never touched it."

"That's funny, too, Justin. You know, it seems to me if something was in my friggie, I'd be tempted to sample it. Unless I knew it was poison, of course. You know Immortality's a slow poison, don't you?"

"It doesn't have to be." He stopped himself, breathed hard through his nose. "I don't know anything about it."

"An overload on the nervous system, slow acting, but lethal all the same. You poured Jerry a drink, handed it to her. That's murder."

"Lieutenant – "

"I'd never hurt Jerry," he exploded. "I'm in love with her. I'd never hurt her."

"Really? Several witnesses claim you did just that a few days ago. Did you or did you not strike Ms. Fitzgerald in the backstage area of the Waldorf's Royal Ballroom on July second?"

"No, I – We lost our tempers." The lines were tangling in his head. He couldn't remember his cue. "It was a misunderstanding."

"You hit her in the face."

"Yes – no. Yes, we were arguing."

"You were arguing, so you punched the woman you love, knocking her off her feet. Were you still violently angry with her when she came to your apartment last night? When you poured her a glass of slow-acting poison?"

"I tell you, it's not poison, not like you mean. I wouldn't hurt her. I was never angry with her. I couldn't be."

"You were never angry with her. You never hurt her. I believe you, Justin." Eve soothed her voice, leaned forward again, laid a kind hand over his trembling one. "You never hit her, either. You staged it all, didn't you? You're not the kind of man who strikes the woman he loves. You staged it, just like one of your performances."

"I didn't – I – " He looked up helplessly into Eve's eyes, and she knew she had him.

"You've done a lot of action videos. You know how to pull a punch, how to fake one. That's what you did that day, isn't it, Justin? You and Jerry pretended to fight. You never laid a hand on her." Her voice was gentle, full of understanding. "You're not a violent kind of guy, are you, Justin?"

Torn, he pressed his lips together, looked at his lawyer. She held up a hand to hold off more questions and leaned close to Justin's ear.

Keeping her face bland, Eve waited. She knew the pickle they were in. Did he admit to the staging, making himself into a liar, or did he cop to punching his lover, showing his capabilities for violence? It wasn't a steady wire to cross.

The lawyer shifted back and folded her hands. "My client and Ms. Fitzgerald were playing a harmless game. Foolish, admittedly, but it isn't a crime to pretend to fight."

"No, it isn't a crime." Eve felt the first crackle, weakening the back of their alibi. "Neither is going off to Maui and pretending to play house with another woman. It was all make believe, wasn't it, Justin?"

"We just – I suppose we didn't take time to think it all through. We were worried, that's all. After you picked up Paul, we wondered if you'd shoot for us. We were all there that night, so it seemed logical."

"You know, that's just what I thought." She beamed a friendly smile. "It's a very logical step."

"We both had important projects going. We couldn't afford what's happening right now. We thought if we pretended to split up, it would add weight to our alibi."

"Because you knew the alibi was weak. You had to figure we'd fall to the fact that either of you, or both of you, could have left the apartment undetected on the night of Pandora's murder. You could have gone to Leonardo's, killed her, and slipped back home without any security breach."

"We didn't go anywhere. You can't prove we did." His shoulders straightened. "You can't prove anything."

"Don't be too sure. Your lover's an Immortality junkie. You had possession of the drug. How did you get it?"

"I – someone gave it to her. I don't know."

"Was it Redford? Did he hook her, Justin? You must hate him, if he did. The woman you love. She started dying, Justin, the first time she took a sip."

"It's not poison. It's not. She told me that was just Pandora's way of keeping it for herself. Pandora didn't want Jerry to benefit from the drink. The bitch knew what it could do for Jerry, but she wanted – " He broke off, heeding his lawyer's sharp warning a little too late.

"What did she want, Justin? Money? A lot of money? You? Did she taunt Jerry? Did she threaten you? Is that why you killed her?"

"No. I never touched her. I tell you I never touched her. We argued, all right? We had an ugly scene after Leonardo's woman left that night. Jerry was upset. She had a right to be, after everything Pandora said. That's why I took her out, had a few drinks, calmed her down. I told her not to worry, that there were other ways of getting a supply."

"What other ways?"

His breath heaved in and out. Frantically, he shook off his lawyer's restraining hand. "Shut up," he snapped at her. "Just shut up. What the hell good are you doing me? She'll have me in a cage for murder before she's finished. I want to cut a deal. Why aren't you cutting a deal here?" He scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth. "I want to deal."

"We'll have to talk about that," Eve said calmly. "What have you got to offer me?"

"Paul," he said and shuddered out a breath. "I'll give you Paul Redford. He killed her. The bastard probably killed them all."

Twenty minutes later, Eve paced the conference room. "I want Redford to stew for a while. Let him wonder how much they've told us."

"Not getting much out of the lady." Casually, Casto propped his feet on the table, crossed his ankles. "She's tough. Showing signs of withdrawal – dry mouth, trembling, occasional lack of focus – but she's sticking."

"She hasn't had a fix in what – over ten hours. How long do you figure she can last?"

"Don't know enough." Casto spread his hands. "She could ice it out, come out the other side, or she could be a sloppy puddle of tapioca in another ten minutes."

"Okay, so we don't count on her breaking."

"Redford was showing a few cracks," Peabody put in. "He's scared boneless. His lawyer's the hard-ass. If we had him alone for five minutes, he'd crack like a walnut."

"That's not an option." Whitney studied the hard copy of the most recent interviews. "You'll have Young's statement to pressure him with."

"It's weak," Eve muttered.

"You'll have to make it look stronger. He claims Redford first introduced Fitzgerald to Immortality about three months ago, suggested a partnership."

"And according to our fair-haired boy, it was all going to be legal and aboveboard." Eve gave a derisive grunt. "Nobody's that fucking naive."

"I don't know," Peabody murmured. "He's cross-eyed over Fitzgerald. I'd say she could have convinced him it was a straight deal. Research and development, a new line of beauty and youth aids carrying Fitzgerald's name."

"And all they had to do was edge out Pandora." Casto smiled. "The money would roll in."

"It still comes down to profit. Pandora was in the way." Eve dropped into a seat. "The others were in the way. Maybe Young's just an innocent schmuck, maybe not. He's pointed at Redford, but what he hasn't figured out yet is that he could be fingering Fitzgerald at the same time. She told him enough for him to plan a trip to the Eden Colony, hoping the two of them could finesse a specimen of their own."

"You've got your illegals conspiracy," Whitney pointed out. "If Young shakes off the rest, he'll have his deal. You've still got a way to go for murder. At this point, his testimony isn't going to hold much weight. He believes Redford did Pandora. He gives us motive. We can establish opportunity. But there's no physical evidence, no witnesses."

He rose. "Get me a confession, Dallas. The PA's putting on the pressure. They're dropping charges on Freestone Monday. If they don't have something else to feed the media, we're all going to look like assholes."

Casto took out a penknife, began trimming his nails as Whitney left the room. "Christ knows we wouldn't want the PA to look like an asshole. Shit, they want it all laid out on a platter, don't they?" His eyes lifted to Eve's. "Redford's not going to cop to murder. Eve. He'll go down for the drug. Hell, it's almost fashionable, but he's not going to swing to four homicides. We've only got one hope to pin on."

"Which is?" Peabody wanted to know.

"That he didn't do it alone. We crack one of the others, we crack him. My money's on Fitzgerald."

"Then you take her." Eve blew out a breath. "I'll work Redford. Peabody, take Redford's picture. Go back to the club, go back to Boomer's place, to Cockroach's, to Moppett's. Show the damn thing to everybody. I need one lousy make."

She scowled as the 'link beeped, and she engaged it. "Dallas, don't bother me."

"It's always lovely to hear your voice," Roarke said implacably.

"I'm in conference."

"So am I. I'm leaving for FreeStar in thirty minutes."

"You're going off planet? But… well, have a good trip."

"It can't be avoided. I should be back within three days. You know how to contact me."

"Yeah, I know." She wanted to say things, foolish things, private things. "I'm going to be pretty tied up myself for a while," she said instead. "See you when you get back."

"You might check your office, Lieutenant. Mavis has been trying to reach you most of the day. It appears you've missed your last fitting. Leonardo is… distraught."

Eve did her best to ignore Casto's quick chuckle. "I've got other things on my mind."

"Don't we all? Find a minute to deal with him, darling. For my sake. Let's get all those people out of our house."

"I wanted to boot them out days ago. I thought you liked having all those people around."

"And I thought he was your brother," Roarke murmured.

"What?"

"Old joke. No, Eve, I don't like having all those people around. They are, in a word, maniacs. I found Galahad cowering under the bed just now. Someone has covered him with beads and tiny red bows. It's mortifying, for both of us."

She bit down on her tongue to hold back the snort of laughter. Roarke wasn't looking amused. "Now that I know they're driving you crazy, I feel better. We'll move them along."

"Do that. Oh, and I'm afraid there might be a few details for next Saturday you'll have to handle while I'm gone. Summerset has the memos. My transport's waiting." She watched him signal to someone off screen, then his eyes locked back on hers. "See you in a few days, Lieutenant."

"Yeah." The screen went blank as she muttered. "Bon fucking voyage."

"Well, hell, Eve. If you need to run off to your dressmaker, or take your cat to therapy, Peabody and I can handle this minor matter of murder."

Eve's lips stretched in a vicious smile. "Bite me, Casto."

Despite his many annoying qualities, Casto had solid instincts. Redford wasn't going to break any time soon. Eve worked him hard and had the mild satisfaction of pinning him on the illegals charges, but a confession to multiple murder just wasn't happening.

"Let's see if I've got this straight." She rose. She needed to stretch her legs. She poured coffee. "It was Pandora who told you about Immortality. And that was?"

"As I said, about a year and a half ago, perhaps a little more." He was iced down now, totally in control. The illegals charges could be dealt with, particularly from the angle he'd chosen. "She came to me with a business proposition. Or so she termed it. She claimed to have access to a formula, something that would revolutionize the beauty and health industry."

"A beauty aid. And she didn't mention the illegal or the dangerous qualities."

"Not at that time. She needed backing to start the line. One she intended to launch under her name."

"Did she show you the formula?"

"She did not. As I told you before, she strung me along, made promises. Admittedly, it was poor judgment on my part. I was sexually addicted to her, a weakness she exploited. At the same time, the business aspect seemed to have merit. She was using the product in tablet form. And the results were impressive. I could see that it made her look younger, more fit. It increased her energy and her sexual drive. Marketed correctly, a product such as that would generate enormous profit. I wanted the money for some commercially risky projects."

"You wanted the money, so you continued to pay her, little dribs and drabs, without being fully informed."

"For a time. I did grow impatient and made demands. She made more promises. I began to suspect that she intended to go out on her own or that she was working with someone else. Using me. So I took a sample for myself."

"Took a sample?"

He took his time answering, as if he was still Grafting the words. "I took her key while she was sleeping and unlocked the box where she kept the tablets. I, in the interest of protecting my investment, took a few to have them analyzed."

"And when did you steal the drug, in the interest of protecting your investment?"

"Theft is not established," the lawyer interrupted. "My client had paid, in good faith, for the product."

"Okay, we'll rephrase. When did you decide to take a more active interest in your business investment?"

"About six months ago. I took the samples to a contact I have in chemical analysis and paid him for a private report."

"And learned…"

Redford paused to study his fingers. "I learned that the product did indeed have the properties Pandora had promised. However, it was addictive, which pushed it automatically into the illegals category. It was also potentially lethal when taken regularly over a long period of time."

"And being a righteous man, you counted your losses and pulled out of the deal."

"Being righteous is not a legal requirement," Redford said mildly. "And I had an investment to protect. I decided to do some research to see if the unacceptable side effects could be diminished or eradicated. I believe we accomplished that, or nearly."

"So you used Jerry Fitzgerald as a guinea pig."

"That was a miscalculation. Perhaps I was overeager as Pandora continued to push for more money and made statements that indicated she was about to go public with the product. I wanted to beat her to it, and knew that Jerry would be the perfect spokeswoman. She agreed, for a fee, to try the product my people had refined. In a liquid form. Science makes mistakes, Lieutenant. The drug was still, as we learned too late, highly addictive."

"And fatal?"

"It seems. The process has been slowed, but yes, I'm afraid there is still the potential for physical harm in the long term. A possible side effect I warned Jerry of several weeks ago."

"Before or after Pandora discovered you were trying to ace her out?"

"I believe it was after, just after. Unfortunately, Jerry and Pandora ran into each other at a function. Pandora made some comments about her former relationship with Justin. From what I gather, and this is secondhand, Jerry tossed the business deal we had made in Pandora's face."

"And Pandora didn't take kindly to it."

"She was, naturally, furious. Our relationship was rocky at best by that time. I had already procured a specimen of the Immortal Blossom, determined to delete all side effects from the formula. I had no intention, Lieutenant, of releasing a dangerous drug to the public. My records will substantiate that."

"We'll let Illegals handle that one. Did Pandora threaten you?"

"Pandora lived for threats. One became accustomed to them. I felt I was in a good position to ignore them, even to counter them." He smiled now, more confident. "You see, if she had gone forward, knowing what properties were contained in the formula, I could have ruined her. I had no reason to harm her."

"Your relationship was rocky, yet you went to her home that night."

"In hopes that we could come to some compromise. That's why I insisted that Justin and Jerry be present."

"You had sex with her."

"She was a beautiful, desirable woman. Yes, I had sex with her."

"She had tablets of the drug in her possession."

"She did. As I told you, she kept them in a box in her vanity." His smile came back. "I told you about the box and the tablets because I assumed, correctly, that an autopsy would show traces of the drug. It seemed wise to be forthcoming. I did nothing but cooperate."

"Easy to cooperate if you knew I wouldn't find the tablets. After she was dead, you went back for the box. Protecting your investment. If there was no product but yours, no competitor, how much more profit there would be."

"I did not go back to her home after I left. I had no reason to. My product was superior."

"Neither of those products would have made the market, and you knew it. But on the street, hers would have hit big, bigger than your refined, watered down, and most likely more expensive version."

"With more research, more testing – "

"More money? You'd already put over three hundred thousand in her hands. You'd gone to the considerable expense to procure a specimen, paid for the research and testing to date, paid Fitzgerald. I imagine you were becoming a little anxious to see some profit. How much did you charge Jerry for a fix?"

"Jerry and I had a business arrangement."

"Ten thousand a delivery," Eve interrupted, and watched the point strike home. "That's the amount she transferred three times over a two-month period to your account on Starlight Station."

"An investment," he began.

"You addicted her, then you hosed her. That makes you a dealer, Mr. Redford."

The lawyer went into his spin routine, turning a drug deal into a profit-and-loss arrangement between investment partners.

"You needed contacts. Street contacts. Boomer was always a sucker for a credit in the hand. But he got carried away, liked to test the product. How did he get the formula? That was sloppy of you."

"I don't know anyone by that name."

"You saw him flapping his lips at the club. Making a big deal of himself. When he went into a privacy room with Hetta Moppett, you couldn't be sure how much he'd told her. But when he saw you, and he ran, you had to act."

"You're on the wrong beam, Lieutenant. I don't know these people."

"Maybe you killed Hetta in panic. You didn't really mean to, but when you saw she was dead, you had to cover it up. That's where the overkill came in. Maybe she told you something before she died, maybe she didn't, but you had to get to Boomer then. I'd say you were enjoying it now, the way you messed him up, tortured him before you finished him. But you got a little overconfident, and didn't get to his flop to search it before I did."

She pushed away from the table, took a turn around the room. "Now you've got big problems. The cops have a sample, they have the formula, and Pandora's getting out of hand. What choice do you have?" She put her hands on the table, leaned in close. "What can a man do when he sees his investment and all those future profits going into the sewer?"

"My business with Pandora was finished."

"Yeah, you finished it. Taking her to Leonardo's was smart. You're a smart man. She was already wired over Mavis. If you do her at his place, it's going to look like he'd had enough. You'd have to do him, too, if he was there, but you had a taste for it now. He's not there, so it's easier. Easier still when Mavis walks in and you can set her up."

Redford's breathing was a bit forced, but he was holding. "The last time I saw Pandora, she was alive, vicious, and eager to punish someone. If Mavis Freestone didn't kill her, my guess would be Jerry Fitzgerald."

Intrigued, Eve angled back to her chair, leaned back. "Really? Why?"

"They despised each other, were in direct competition, now more than ever. On top of everything else. Pandora was angling to lure Justin back. That was something Jerry wouldn't tolerate. And…" He smiled. "It was Jerry who put the idea of going to Leonardo's for a showdown into Pandora's head."

This is a new one. Eve thought and cocked a brow. "Is that so?"

"After Ms. Freestone left, Pandora was edgy, angry. Jerry seemed to enjoy that, and the fact that the young woman had gotten a few shots in. She egged Pandora on. Said something to the effect that if she was Pandora, she wouldn't tolerate being humiliated that way, and why didn't she go straight over to Leonardo's and show him who was in charge. There was another little dig about Pandora not being able to hold onto a man, then Justin hustled Jerry out."

His smile widened. "They despised Pandora, you see. Jerry for obvious reasons, and Justin because I'd told him that the drug was Pandora's doing. Justin would do anything to protect Jerry. Absolutely anything. I, on the other hand, had no emotional attachment to any of the players. It was just sex with Pandora. Just sex, Lieutenant, and business."

Eve rapped on the door where Casto was interviewing Jerry. When he poked his head out, she shifted her gaze, studied the woman at the table. "I need to talk to her."

"She's running down, running out. Not going to get too much out of her today. Lawyer's already making noises about a break."

"I need to talk to her," Eve repeated. "How have you been handling her this round?"

"Tough line, hard-ass."

"Okay, I'll downgrade." Eve slipped into the room.

She could still feel pity, she realized. Jerry's eyes were jittery and shadowed. Her face was drawn, and her hands shook as they ran over it. Her beauty was fragile now, and haunted.

"You want some food?" Eve asked in a quiet voice.

"No." Jerry's gaze bounced around the room. "I want to go home. I want Justin."

"We'll see if we can arrange a visit. It'll have to be supervised." She poured water. "Why don't you drink a little of this, take a minute?" She covered Jerry's hands with her own on the glass, lifted it to the trembling lips. "This is rough on you. I'm sorry. We can't give you anything to counteract the crash. We don't know enough yet, and whatever we gave you might be worse."

"I'm all right. It's nothing."

"It sucks." Eve slipped into a seat. "Redford got you into this. He verified that."

"It's nothing," she said again. "I'm just tired. I need a little of my health drink." She looked hopefully, pitifully at Eve. "Can't I have a little, just to gear back up?"

"You know it's dangerous, Jerry. You know what it's doing to you. Counselor, Paul Redford has stated on record that he introduced Ms. Fitzgerald to the illegal, under the pretense of a business venture. It is our assumption that she was unaware of its addictive qualities. We have no intention, at this time, of charging her with use."

As Eve had hoped, the lawyer relaxed visibly. "Well, then, Lieutenant, I'd like to arrange for my client's release and her admission into rehab. Voluntary admission."

"Voluntary admission can be arranged. If your client can cooperate for a few more minutes, it would help me in closing the charges on Redford."

"If she cooperates, Lieutenant, all illegals charges will be dropped?"

"You know I can't promise that, Counselor. I will, however, recommend leniency on the charges of possession and intent to distribute."

"And Justin? You'll let him go?"

Eve looked back at Jerry. Love, she thought, was an odd burden. "Was he involved in the business transaction?"

"No. He wanted me to pull out. When he found out that I was… dependent, he pushed me to go into rehab, to stop taking the drink. But I needed it. I was going to stop, but I needed it."

"The night Pandora died, there was an argument."

"There was always an argument with Pandora. She was hateful. She thought she could get Justin back. The bitch didn't care about him. She just wanted to hurt me. To hurt him."

"He wouldn't have gone back to her, would he, Jerry?"

"He hated her as much as I did." She lifted her beautifully manicured nails to her mouth, started to gnaw. "We're glad she's dead."

"Jerry – "

"I don't care," she exploded with a wild look to her cautioning lawyer. "She deserved to die. She wanted everything, never cared how she got it. Justin was mine. I would have been headliner at Leonardo's show if she hadn't found out I was interested. She went out of her way to seduce him, to have me cut out so that she could take the job. It would have been my job, it should have been my job all along. Just like Justin was mine. Like the drug was mine. It makes you beautiful and strong and sexy. And every time anyone takes it, they'll think of me. Not of her, of me."

"Did Justin go with you to Leonardo's that night?"

"Lieutenant, what is this?"

"It's a question, Counselor. Did he, Jerry?"

"No, of course not. We – we didn't go there. We went out for drinks. We went home."

"You taunted her, didn't you? You knew how to play her. You had to be sure she'd go hunt down Leonardo. Did Redford contact you, tell you when she'd left?"

"No, I don't know. You're confusing me. Can't I have something? I need my drink."

"You were using it that night. It made you strong. Strong enough to kill her. You wanted her dead. She was always in your way. And her tablets were stronger, more effective than your liquid. Did you want them, Jerry?"

"Yes, I wanted them. She was getting younger in front of my eyes. Thinner. I have to watch every fucking bite I take, but she… Paul said he might be able to get them from her. Justin told him to back off, to stay away from me. But Justin doesn't understand. He doesn't understand how it makes you feel. Immortal," she said with a horrible smile. "It makes you feel immortal. For God's sake, just one drink."

"You slipped out of the back that night, went to Leonardo's. What happened then?"

"I can't. I'm confused. I need something."

"Did you pick up the cane and hit her? Did you keep hitting her?"

"I wanted her dead." On a sob, Jerry laid her head on the table. "I wanted her dead. For God's sake help me. I'll tell you anything you want to hear if you just help me."

"Lieutenant, anything my client says under physical and mental duress is inadmissible."

Eve studied the weeping woman and reached for the 'link. "Get the MT's in here," she ordered. "And arrange for hospital transport for Ms. Fitzgerald. Under guard."