cover it up. He couldn’t clearly remember, you see.”
“What did you do then?”
“I took him downstairs. He was in no shape to talk to anyone. He all but passed out on the sofa.”
“You didn’t go for help.”
“It was my help that was needed, Detective. I wanted to protect Julian. He needed my protection. It was too late for K.T. It was an accident, Detective Peabody.”
“Let me get the details straight, so we can lay this out for Dallas. You followed Julian up to the roof, where he’d met K.T. In the pool area—under the dome, right?”
“Yes, yes.”
“The dome was closed.”
“Yes, of course. It’s October. The entire area reeked of K.T.’s herbals. It was sickening.”
“I guess you didn’t think to open the dome.”
“Connie prefers it closed in the fall and winter. She swims every morning.”
“See, that’s another discrepancy. The dome had been opened, then closed again. But the thing is, the mechanism’s faulty. It doesn’t close all the way. It wasn’t closed all the way after the body was discovered. And, there wasn’t any scent of smoke in the dome. It had been aired out.”
“Maybe I opened it. I was in shock myself, you understand.”
“Sure. So did you open the dome?”
“Now that I think about it, yes, I did. The smell was horrible. I needed fresh air.”
“When did you open it? Before you dragged K.T. Harris’s unconscious body into the lap pool, or after?”
“Oh, snap it.” Eve slapped a fist into her palm. “That’s my cue.”
Eve walked out of Observation, into Interview.
“Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, entering Interview. You should’ve choked down the smoke, Joel, and you should have lifted Harris up rather than dragging her. You shouldn’t have said Harris was already floating facedown when you got there.”
Eve set a box on the table, pinned Steinburger with a look. “One, it looks really bad you made no attempt to get her out, to revive her. Second, it throws your timing off. If you’d come out after Julian allegedly dragged her in, went to get the bar rag, came back, started washing up the blood as you stated, she wouldn’t have been floating. The body would have sunk first when the lungs filled up with water. They’re like sponges. And it takes some time for the gases to expel and all that nasty stuff before the body floats up again.
“Added,” she said and dropped a recording on the table. “You should have destroyed this rather than tucking it into your safe. You took that out of her bag after you killed her. I guess you wanted to keep it out of the media, yeah, but you wanted to watch it. Perv.”
She dropped K.T.’s ’link on the table. “And you took this, which you subsequently dumped, along with a variety of electronics from Asner’s place—which you took after you killed him. We know the boat you ‘borrowed,’ the time, the coordinates. The divers expect they’ll pull up more tomorrow. You’re keeping the water cops busy.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I see what you’re trying to do, believe me. You’re desperately throwing everything you can think of against the wall, hoping something, anything will stick.”
“Oh, it’s stuck, Joel. You also lifted Harris’s sleeping-aid prescription, using one of your handy pass keys. You kept the vehicle code you lifted off Asner’s dead body. We’ve got you, Joel. There’s no explaining all this.”
She dumped the entire bag of codes and swipe cards on the table.
“And last night you sent Julian out of the room, added the pills to the wine you’d so considerately brought him, corked it, put it away. So that tonight, he’d be a good boy and follow your orders. Have himself a couple glasses of wine in his whirlpool tub. The irony of him drowning would be good media, and add to your frame job. He killed himself out of guilt for killing her.”
Steinburger continued to stare at the pile of codes and cards. An angry flush worked up from his throat to his hairline. “You went through my home.”
“Yeah. Home, office, car—and the California cops are doing the same back there. You had access to the boat, to the trailers, to homes, to offices.”
“Of course I have access. I’m entitled to go where I need to go. Do you understand who I am?”
“Perfectly. You’re a murderer. Oh, but you didn’t add to the tote board tonight. Julian’s doing a lot better than Peabody indicated.”
“I did exaggerate his condition a little.”
“He told us everything. So did Valerie.”
“Julian would say anything to cover up what he did, and Valerie’s lying for him. She’s in love with him.”
“I don’t think so. No, Valerie lied for you, because she’s ambitious and a little greedy. Julian did what you told him to do because he trusts you like he’d trust a father. And you, Joel, murder’s just second nature to you. Julian would only have been the last in a long line that started with Bryson Kane, your college housemate.”
She walked behind him, leaned down close to his ear. “And we’re going to take you down for every one of them. Hand to God.”
“You have nothing.”
“Kane got tired of you buying your way through college. And because he’d had enough, wouldn’t cooperate anymore, he got a trip down the stairs and a broken neck.” She pulled out the crime scene photo of Kane’s body, tossed it on the table.
“Marlin Dressler, old, rich, and breathing, stands in the way of money and power you want—and maybe wasn’t as keen on having you marry his great-granddaughter as he should’ve been.”
She tossed Dressler’s photo in turn. “A push off a cliff takes care of that.
“Angelica Caulfield, pregnant, won’t let go, threatens to tell your wealthy, also pregnant wife.” Eve added Caulfield’s photo to the others. “She gets what we’ll call the Julian Cross treatment—only it worked with her.
“I can keep going, right down the line. The media’s going to crucify you. And I’m going to pass them the hammer and spikes while my partner and I lock you in a cage for every life you ended.”
“Who do you think they’ll believe? I’m the most powerful man in the industry. You’re just a cop who married money.”
“You’re right. I’m just a cop.”
“I tried to help you,” Peabody said, sorrow in her eyes now. “We have a witness who saw you entering Asner’s office on the night he was murdered.”
“You’re lying. No one saw me.”
Peabody nodded. “Sometimes people work late.”
“If you think anyone will take some cheap lawyer’s or sleazy bail bondsman’s word over mine, you’re mistaken.”
“How do you know who has the other offices on Asner’s floor?” Eve asked him. “Oops! You were there, Joel. On that floor because you contacted Asner and arranged to meet him at his office. He happened to be with someone when you contacted him. I have her statement, too. You contacted him, arranged for the meet, then you killed him.”
“That’s absurd. I … went to speak with him because K.T. told me she’d hired him. I only went to speak with him, to buy back any data he might have gathered.”
“Was he already dead, too?”
“No. Yes. Yes.”
“No? Yes? It’s hard to think under pressure, isn’t it? Hard to think when it’s all coming down on you. You usually have more time, more space. You get to plan things out better. You didn’t wipe the bird off as thoroughly as you thought.”
One lie, Eve thought, deserved another. Why not add a phantom print to Peabody’s phantom wit?
“He attacked me. It was self-defense. I only protected myself when he came at me.”
“Beating his brains out when he was on the ground? I don’t think so. Neither will the jury. You beat him to death,” Eve said, leaning in. “Then you took his files, his electronics, his ’link—and that contact you made to it will be there. It’s amazing what EDD can do. And you stole your friend’s boat, took it out, dumped it all. Your friend, Violet? She recanted, on the record, her alibi for you on the night of Caulfield’s death—and stated you asked her to do so.”
“That’s ridiculous. Vi’s simply angry with me since she’s only been able to get home-screen roles. I can hardly
