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She got right to the point of her visit.
“Sergeant, can you authorize the release of Mr. Fricke’s body? He was a congregant at St. Thomas Presbyterian and owns a family plot in their cemetery. As his emergency contact, I’m getting calls about his funeral.”
I said, “I’ll check with the ME. Hang on.”
I speed-dialed Claire and we had five seconds of personal greeting, followed by one question and an answer. I signed off with my BFF and told Ms. Borinstein that the funeral home could pick up Jamie’s body tomorrow morning, unexpected circumstances permitting.
“Thank you. My office phones are making us insane.”
I said, “Do you have five minutes to talk, Ms. Borinstein?”
“Call me Judy. Of course, I’ve got time for you. And no, Idon’t know who killed James Fricke. I don’t know who would have had the nerve.”
Nerve wasn’t the point. Motive was. But now that I had Judy Borinstein’s attention, I thought she might tell me a few things I hadn’t known before she’d walked through the door.
CHAPTER 46
JUDY BORINSTEIN LOOKED at her sports watch, then turned her blue-gray eyes on me.
I said, “I’ve been speaking with women who were in love with Jamie. What can you tell me? No judgment, Judy. I’m trying to understand him and the people he knew.”
“If you’re looking at me, Sergeant,” Judy Borinstein said, “I don’t go that way. Meaning, married men. Or clients.”
I said, “Patty Delaney told me that Jamie wanted to marry her. I suspect he might also have been involved with Marilyn Stein. Both women were torn up by his death. Arthur Bevaqua told me that there were others who were emotionally, sexually involved with Jamie and believed that Holly was old news. Then, someone shot her dead. Judy, do you think Mr. Fricke was planning to divorce Holly?”
Judy said, “In my opinion, absolutely not. And I don’t have any idea what bastard might have killed her. It was a sin. Okay. But, between us girls …”
“Yes?”
“I had a one-week ‘thing’ with James years ago. One week. In Bermuda. I was single and he was persuasive. The week was memorable, but it wasn’t life-changing. I didn’t think he was going to ditch Holly then or ever. While we were there, he proposed, which was ridiculous, and we parted as friends. Five years ago, Jamie called me and asked me if I would be his financial manager, handling his estate. Why, yes, I would. Then, after Holly was murdered, I’d say three weeks after, he wanted to update his will. Reallocate his bequests.
“Holly wasn’t my client, but always came with Jamie when we met to discuss his business. She was a terrific person. Why was she killed? Why? Why? Anyway, James and I were still cutting and pasting his will when he was shot down. He did sign the hand-edited will that was in progress. I witnessed it.”
I said, “Arthur gave me that last draft. I read the lines and between them and didn’t see anything about a future new Mrs. Fricke.”
Judy Borinstein looked at her watch again and sighed. She said, “When it came to spinning a fairy tale, no one could spin like James Fricke. It was his ego, Sergeant. He loved to sweep women off their footsies, make their sexual fantasies come true.”
“Great sex, you’re saying.”
“Wish fulfillment. Stories were if the girl dreamed of a knight charging through the gates to the village, he’d have a steed and full-dress armor. If she wanted to be treated like a whore or a virgin on successive nights, James was never too bored or too tired to experiment. In my experience, most men treat sex as a form of masturbation. But James liked having a knockout effect on women.”
What I was hearing was that Jamie was not just a womanizer; he specialized in creating the feeling of real-life love, but it was entirely contrived.
I said, “He was a narcissist.”
Judy laughed. “World champ.”
“And how did Holly handle her husband taking his love to town?”
“You know about Holly’s parents, Bill and Sassy Bergen?”
“Some.”
I’d read Cappy’s interview notes and some magazine articles. Bill and Sassy Bergen were party people who’d held major charity events, were world travelers. I’d seen a hundred wedding pictures of Holly and Jamie and read dozens of interviews. But I hadn’t met Holly in person and didn’t know the Bergens.
“What should I know?” I asked Judy Borinstein.
“Okay, here’s what I know or have heard. It was rumored that Bill and Sassy Bergen were hedonists. So, Holly had enough exposure to their lifestyle to be drawn to Jamie and not be affronted by his dalliances. And Jamie told me that Holly didn’t get crazy, and neither did he, if either spent a night out. Or a week. That may have been a pitch but I wasn’t catching.”