“That was Rita. She was the one that wanted to divorce. She started seeing me without Hector. I guess she eventually decided she didn't need him anymore. She'd get a hotel room, and I'd come over and bone the shit out of her. That lady was an animal. I'd have to put my dick on ice afterward.” More pearlies.
“And you were doing all this while you were dating her daughter?”
Raj grinned even wider. “Yeah. I figured that tight little pussies probably ran in the family.” He leered at Maggie.
I slapped that look off his face. “Show some respect,” I ordered. “What did her parents think about you dating their daughter?”
“You think I'm stupid? I kept them in the dark.”
“And how did you manage that?”
“I told Adela that if she wanted to see me, she had to keep it secret. I told her that her father didn't like me, and he'd fire me if he found out we were seeing each other.”
This kid was fucking unbelievable. At nineteen, he was already a master manipulator. “Who killed Hector and Margarita?”
“Adela did.”
“Bullshit.”
“She did. She must've found out about me and her parents, and she went nuts.”
“You're full of shit, Raj. You expect me to believe that when Adela found out about your little menage a trois with her parents, she decided to kill them only after sneaking off to hump your sorry ass a couple times?”
“No. She must've found out that night when she went home. Detective Davies found that same vid my sister gave you loaded up in the home system. My guess is Adela walked in on Hector whacking off to the Raj and Rita show, and then she just lost it.”
“What's your relationship with Detective Davies?”
“I barely know him.”
“You know him well enough to call him and tell him about our visit last night.”
“I thought he might be able to get that vid back again.”
“What do you mean by again?”
“When Detective Davies told me about the vid he found in their home system, I begged him to keep it quiet. I didn't think it would be good for my career if my new boss found out that I was doing the old boss's wife. He gave it to me, but then my sister stole it and gave it to you. I asked him if he could get it back again, or maybe just destroy it.”
“Why did Detective Davies agree to help you the first time?”
“What would it hurt? He had his killer already. He knew I was going to be a reporter someday. He said that he'd ask me to return the favor one day.”
I looked over my shoulder at Maggie. “Are you believing this?”
She didn't respond, but I could see the uncertainty in her face. If Adela really had killed her parents it, then why would Ian be so sensitive about me talking to her? He broke my fingers, dammit. But there were other possibilities. Maybe he was just worried that I'd find out about his little arrangement with Raj. But that was hardly a big deal. All he did was save the kid some embarrassment by burying the vid. It was the kind of thing cops did every day. But this time, there was a promotion on the line. A black mark in his file, no matter how small, could make the brass favor Maggie over Ian. Or maybe he was just afraid of me digging into his other cases, like the barge murders. Was it possible that Adela did do it? She did confess. And she didn't just say the words and sign the papers. She was believable.
I had to be sure Raj was telling the truth. I balanced on one foot as I slid my left hand down to my ankle strap and pulled out my blade. “You think the camera loves you, do you?” I powered the blade up. The red blade sizzled into life.
Maggie was tugging on my shoulder. “That's enough, Juno.”
I raised the blade's tip to his face. “What will the camera think if I split that little nose of yours in half?”
Maggie was yelling at me, telling me to stop. The kid was squirming under my grip, but I had him firm. I waved the blade across his face, close enough that he could feel the steam of flash-fried drizzle.
“I don't believe you,” I hissed.
“It's true,” he screamed.
I aimed the tip of the blade at his eye. “Tell me the truth or you'll be doing the news with a glass eye.”
He was crying now. “I did tell the truth. Please don't… Please!”
Tears evaporated off his cheek as I moved the tip closer. “Tell me the truth.”
“I did tell the truth,” he sobbed.
Maggie was still tugging my shoulder. “That's enough. Stop it,” she said in my ear.
I dropped the kid, letting him tumble to his knees. I turned off the blade and slid it back into my pocket. Maggie and I walked away, leaving the kid blubbering. We didn't get more than a block before Maggie stopped me. “What the hell was that about?” she asked.
“I had to be sure he was telling the truth.”
“This is my investigation, Juno. We're doing this my way, and my way doesn't include burning a kid's eye out.”
“Relax, I wouldn't have done it,” I lied.
“We're not going to torture suspects! You hear me?”
I shook my head and started walking again.
She grabbed my wrist and yanked me to a stop. “Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you!”
I turned away. I didn't need a lecture.
She kept at me. “I'm sick of this bullshit, Juno. One minute you're sitting there behaving yourself and the next you're like some damn psycho. Don't you have any self control?”
The knot in my stomach clenched. Pent-up rage welled up from my gut. “Dammit, Maggie!” I yelled back almost incoherently. “Ian pinched my wife's air hose shut 'til she turned fucking blue! If I have to carve that pervert's eyes out to get to the truth, I'll do it, and I don't care what you say!”
Maggie didn't respond. The two of us just stood there fuming at each other, avoiding each other's eyes. We finally started walking again, covering the blocks in silence, the drizzling rain cooling my hot head. My stomach was knotted to the point of cramping. I forced myself to walk upright, stretching my stomach muscles until they stopped seizing. I wondered how long I could live like this. Something had to give, and soon.
“Did you believe him?” I asked when I finally felt calm enough to talk without raising my voice.
“Yes.”
“You think Adela killed her parents?”
“No. But I think Raj believes she did. Ian probably convinced him. How about you? What do you think?”
“The same.”
We stopped at a cafe, and I used the owner's phone to call Vlad. Still no sign of Ian. Then I called up to the Orbital and downloaded our now decrypted vid files. Maggie paid the cafe's owner to let us go upstairs and use their home vid system.
I settled on the sofa, a foam futon with a cheap faux-brass frame that was splotched with patches of faded metal. Maggie sat next to me after having tried the armchair, which was so mildewed it had made her sneeze. Once Maggie finished backing up the files to her home system, she started the first vid.
The room shifted. Gone were the crucifixes and the glittery Virgin Mary display. Gone were the family photos and the ratty furniture. Suddenly we were sitting in an overwhelmingly pink bedroom. It was so pink, it felt like one of Niki's corner-store romance novels had exploded in here. There were red scarves draped over the lamps and sweetheart pillows stacked high on pink satin sheets. Two white vases filled with red roses stood at the foot of the bed. The vases were so large that they were gaudy by definition. Noticing the small round windows, I realized it wasn't a bedroom at all, but a cabin on a boat, a nice boat.
Liz came in, stark naked. I remembered the label Yuri had put on the vid disc I'd copied, “Liz-Complete Works.” She stepped in front of the camera and smiled shyly. The vid froze on her smiling face, and the words Liz Lagarto popped in over her head.
Maggie shook her head. “Christ. I don't think I can take any more porn.”
