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Alvarez said, “Jealousy as motive? Get Holly out of the way, and then here comes shock and fury when Jamie doesn’t make good on his promise.”
“How’d she do it?”
“Hired a bad man with a gun.”
I said, “Without money?”
“Guile. Promises.”
I could almost see it. Patty was fetching. And for some people she’d be a soft place to land. I said, “She is due to inherit a boatload.”
Alvarez said, “Huh. From Jamie? How much?”
“Three million.”
“Whoa. If she knew, that’s enough to pay a boatload of bad guys.”
I turned my attention to Conklin: smart, kind, a great cop with women. He was saying, “I feel bad, Patty, about how much pain you’re in. We’re doing this now to clear you and because you know everyone who lived in or visited the Fricke house for—what is it, ten years you’ve worked there?”
“Eleven.”
“Right. Eleven. So, we need your help.”
I watched Patty relax her shoulders, unclench her hands, sit up in the chair.
She said, “What happens to me if I tell you something, and it gets out?”
Conklin said, “Your name will never be mentioned.”
A long silence followed. Then Patty said, “I can’t prove anything. Not a thing. But if I were you I’d look at photos from Holly’s funeral. I wasn’t there, but Arthur was, and he took a lot of pictures.”
“You’re saying the killer was there?”
Patty said, “I would think so. Maybe a woman.”
“Tall? Thin? Young? Old?”
She stared at Conklin. Clearly she had finished speaking.
“Okay. Thank you, Patty.”
My partner stood up, walked behind the subject, and helped her out of her chair, saying, “I’ll get you that ride home.”
CHAPTER 57
ALVAREZ AND I moved to the observation room attached to Interview Two and watched the formidable Jackson Brady interrogate Arthur Bevaqua. He tried to pin the Frickes’ majordomo with an icy-blue stare from across the table, but the well-dressed house manager couldn’t meet Brady’s eyes.
Brady said, “Tell me again, Ah-thuh. From the beginning.”
Arthur had loosened his tie, and I could see the sweat on his brow from where I stood in the observation room.
“Well, he looks shaken,” I said to Alvarez. “Sorry I missed most of this.”
“We can watch the tape,” she said to me.
Now Bevaqua was saying to Brady, “I’ve told you the same thing over and over. I only have one story.”
“I’m not bored,” said Brady. “Run it again.”