Page 154 of Obsession in Death

“She never saw me. Nobody did. Not in court, or her office, or shopping, or home. I made fake deliveries to her building three times before I was ready, and nobody paid any attention.”

“You practiced.”

“I didn’t want to make a mistake, and I didn’t. The same with Ledo, Hastings. Others.” She smiled a little. “There are so many. They never notice me. No one does. People notice you. I changed my hair.”

She fluffed at it.

“I see that.”

“I wore a wig at work the last few weeks, but at home, I could look at myself and see you in there. My eyes, too. I had to wear contacts over them, but I could see with your eyes. I saw Bastwick with your eyes. That’s how close we are, Eve. So we killed her. We killed Bastwick.”

“We?”

“You and me. You were inside me, you were my courage. You gave me courage, Eve. I was so grateful. I wrote you a note on the wall. Why don’t you see I’m your friend?”

“Why did you put Bastwick in bed?”

“It’s tidier. It’s respectful. Just because she was disrespectful doesn’t mean we have to sink to her level. It’s nice to talk to you like this. Just the two of us. It’s all I wanted.”

“Take me through it, Lottie. Take me through Bastwick.”

Once she had, Eve led her to Ledo, then to Hastings.

“I failed. I almost tagged Dawson, told him I was sick, but I wanted to see you that night—at the Hastings scene. I wanted to see if you were upset with me. And I heard you say things to Peabody that weren’t nice about me. You said things on screen, too. It hurt my feelings. Why don’t people see I have feelings?”

“Your mother, your sister.”

She looked away. “I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Fine. I just wondered. The kids who killed them got off pretty light.”

“Because there wasn’t justice. My father cried and cried, no justice, he’d say, and sob and sob. But they died together, he said that, too. They had each other at the end, and they’d always be together. The two of them. They didn’t want me with them. I was the smart one! But my sister was the pretty one, the clever one, the sweet one. So she got to go with our mother, and I had to stay.”

“You got to live,” Eve pointed out, and Lottie’s mouth twisted.

“I got the leftovers, like always. Got the responsibilities, like always. And my father didn’t even see me. Nobody saw me. Be good, Lottie, behave, Lottie. Study hard, Lottie. I did, I did, I did. And nobody paid attention. I could’ve been a cop, but he said, no, no, you’re too smart. Be a scientist. Be good. So I did, and so what? I did everything right, and what happened?”

“What happened, Lottie?”

“I did everything he wanted, and he got married again! And her daughter’s the pretty one and the clever one. And they didn’t see me.”

“It wasn’t respectful of him.”

“No! It wasn’t respectful. It wasn’t right. ‘Oh, Lottie, I’ve been alone for ten years—’” She whined it, disgust on her face. “He said that to me. I was right there, wasn’t I? How could he be alone when I was there? Then my grandmother got sick, and it was ‘Lottie, you can take care of her.’ So I did. Five years. She died anyway. Just died, after five years of my life taking care of her. But she left me a lot of money, so I could come to New York, and I could study and train. And I saw you, on screen. Talking about dead whores. Oh, you were respectful, but they were whores, and that’s disgusting. And even so, you worked to give them justice.

“Can I have a tube of Pepsi? Maybe you could have one, too.” She smiled again, eyes shining. “We can have a drink and talk.”

“Yeah, sure.” Eve rose. “Dallas, leaving interview.”

She stepped out. Just stood a moment to breathe before she started toward Vending.

Roarke beat her there. “I’ll get it.”

“Thanks. Machine would probably laugh at me, and I’m in the mood to beat the crap out of something. Jesus, Mira nailed it. She’s fucked up inside out. Sick, selfish bitch. Dead mother, dead sister, grieving father who was probably doing the best he could. Not enough for her. She’s got brains, skills, but she decides she’s not important enough to anybody instead of making herself important to herself.”

“That alone is why while she thinks she knows you, she never has, never will.” He handed her the soft drinks.

“This is going to take a while. I need to take her through all of it, get it all on record. Some bleeding heart may try to get her off. She needs to go away.”