Jane, or Lauren really wanted to get her life together. Every year after that she invested another fifty-thousand- dollar annual payment.”
Milo said. “A deal. Give up the life, get rich.” His hand landed on my shoulder, and his eyes took on that sad, sympathetic droop – the look that comes over him when he delivers bad news.
“I know,” I said. “Lauren continued to freelance. Cash income, most of which she never declared and used for spending money.”
What Andy Salander had called every little girl’s fantasy had become Lauren’s reality – only to twist and abort.
“Maybe it wasn’t blackmail,” I said. “Just Lauren claiming her birthright – stepping forward and upsetting the family applecart.”
“What, someone tied her up and shot her because she wanted emotional validation?” Milo’s hand got heavy, then it lifted. His eyes remained sad, and his voice got soft. “I know you want to believe something good about Lauren, but cold execution and all those other people dying says she tried to use her
“Maybe I am denying,” I said. “But think about it: Blackmail would only have worked if Tony Duke had something to hide, Milo. He sent money to Jane – and by extension to Lauren – for years. If he wanted to eliminate nuisances, why not do it right and have them killed right at the beginning?”
“Because he was dealing with Jane and Jane was reasonable. But once Lauren knew the truth, things got nasty – O impetuous youth. Jane knew what Lauren was capable of. That’s why she tried to hold her back from contacting Duke. That’s why when Lauren disappeared she suspected something was off. Not that it led her to tell me the truth.”
“Jane tells her who her daddy is, then holds her back,” I said. “It was manipulative.”
“Or just a screwup. People make mistakes. Salander’s right about cheap wine. Jane had been living with the secret for over twenty years. Her inhibitions finally dropped and she ran her mouth. Then she realized what she’d done, tried to get the Furies back in the box.”
“Still,” I said. “Dr. Maccaferri’s presence at the estate says Duke’s seriously ill. Why would he be worried now about acknowledging Lauren’s paternity? On the contrary, wouldn’t he want to connect? But there
He jammed his hands into his jacket pockets. “Dugger and his sister.”
“Lauren carried a gun but never used it. My theory was that she knew and trusted the killer. Half sibs would fit that bill. Especially a half sib like Ben Dugger – outwardly such a nice guy. Lauren thought she had him pegged, let down her guard. She thought she was the actress and he was the audience. That delusion cost her.”
A pizza delivery truck sped into the lot, stopped, checked the address, continued toward the front door, and screeched to a halt in a No Parking zone. A kid wearing a blue baseball cap got out toting two flat white boxes.
Milo said, “Yo!” and waved him over. The kid stood there, and we jogged to his side. Hispanic, maybe eighteen, with hair cropped to the skin, Aztec features, puzzled black eyes.
“Here you go, friend,” said Milo, peeling off two twenties. “Room two fifteen, just knock and leave it outside the door. And keep the change.”
“Thanks, man – sir.” The kid sprinted for the hotel, shoved at the door, vanished.
Milo said, “The Pizza Olympics. Offer enough positive reinforcement and we’d have ourselves a winning team in track and field.” He motioned toward the unmarked, and we started walking across the lot.
I said, “Lauren probably thought she was after the money, but she was searching for Daddy. Pathetic.”
“I wonder,” he said, “if Lyle ever suspected Lauren wasn’t his kid.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s just the thing Lauren might have told him out of spite. His finding out would explain how hostile he was when we notified him. Also why he’s eager to pump me about Lauren’s will. Not being her blood relative, he knows he’s got no legal right to anything she left behind. But with Jane gone, who’s gonna argue with him, and under the law his paternity’s presumed. The Duke family’s sure not gonna protest if he ends up with the money in Lauren’s investment account. And even if he does manage to connect Lauren to Duke, he’d keep his mouth shut about it, ’cause that would squash his claim to three hundred grand. To them, that’s chump change. To Lyle, it would be the windfall of his life.”
“Lauren did made a crack to Tish Teague about her daughters not being family, so I can see her taunting Lyle. But he told us he and Jane had tried to have other kids, but all they could squeeze out was Lauren. So it was obviously Jane’s problem. Still, if Lauren did take a dig at his manhood, it could’ve led to something else. Lyle’s an angry guy who likes to drink and surrounds himself with firearms. He could’ve just lost it. Gone after Lauren, then Jane. Revenge for the lies. And now he hopes to profit.”
“An alternative scenario,” he muttered. Five steps later: “Nah, I don’t like it. If Jane suspected Lyle had killed Lauren, that’s something she would’ve been happy to spill. And Lyle doesn’t connect to Michelle and Lance – he’d have no way to know them. No, the way Lauren was dispatched wasn’t a crime of passion. Lyle’s just a circling vulture who never gave a shit about Lauren – this girl had some life.”
“Short life,” I said, and my eyes began to hurt.
We reached the car.
“Lauren sitting at her computer,” he said. “Researching her family tree.”
“Discovering Ben Dugger. Learning about his experiment. She applied to be a paid subject – not for the money, for the connection. Got a confederate job instead, because she was beautiful and poised. Used her looks and her charms to wangle her way into Dugger’s confidence. He sweated, got irate, when you pushed him about having a personal relationship with Lauren. Maybe she turned him on sexually, took advantage of that because that was her specialty. But eventually she sprang the truth on him.”
“Guess what, I’m your sister.”
I nodded. “As family reunions went, it was a bust. The money, but maybe also something else. I’ve always thought Dugger had some kind of sexual hang-up – at the very least he’s sexually unconventional. If Lauren aroused him, discovering she was his sister could have ignited some serious incestuous panic. And rage. Toss in Lauren trying to horn in on his inheritance, and she was finished. She couldn’t have picked a worse time to surface.”
He opened the car door and got in. “Inheritance makes me wonder about something else, Alex. That story Cheryl Duke told you about the gas leak. What if that was no accident but an attempt to eliminate another couple of slices?”
My throat got tight, and my breath caught. “Baxter and Sage. The dead dog tipped Cheryl off – she and the kids got lucky. But they also ended up back at the Duke estate. Under the control of the Duke family. It puts a whole new flavor on Kent Irving’s remark about Cheryl being a neglectful mother: setting the stage so no one’s shocked when the kids fall in the pool or tumble over the cliff or have a grisly mishap on that funicular or drown in the ocean.”
“Cheryl fell asleep on the beach, so she’s giving them more to work with.”
“True,” I said. “She’s no genius. But why should she suspect? People without the capacity for evil can’t imagine the worst of intentions.”
“People who can’t imagine become sweet targets.”
“Those kids.” I pictured high walls, metal gates, closed-circuit TV. Riptides.
He shook his head.
“Oh, Jesus,” I said.
“Look, Alex, these people are bad, but they’re not stupid. Bumping off the kids is gonna be messy, period. Doing it so soon after Lauren’s death would be foolish – on the chance that anyone ever connects them to Lauren.”
