Leverage in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death #47)(47)

“That’s it. The Banks family, Drew? Communications, entertainment. The wastrel son.”

“Oh.” He frowned a little. “I never met him, that I remember. I’ve met Morgan Banks. Is this his brother?”

“I think it is.” Liana seemed to settle, drank some of the coffee she’d ignored. “I actually never met him, either, but I’ve heard things. I think I did know Willimina was seeing him at some point. I got to know her, of course, through the course of the merger, but—wait, wait, I did meet him. At a dinner party. It had to be months ago, maybe last fall. Why?”

“He’s dead.”

Sybil froze; her color drained. Drew leaned forward.

“Is this connected? Was Jordan Banks somehow involved in the bombing?”

“We’re looking into it.”

“But Willimina was in the room!” Obviously incensed, Liana set her cup and saucer down with a snap. “She might have been killed. As it was, she was seriously injured. You can’t tell me he engineered this to get back at her for ending their relationship.”

“We don’t believe that was the motive, but he may have been involved, directly or indirectly.”

“He has a reputation as a womanizer, but this was evil. Just evil. Did he know Paul?”

“We haven’t found any connection between them.” Eve kept her tone brisk, her gaze on Liana. Her focus on Sybil.

“I’m not able to share any more with you on that line of inquiry,” she continued. “We don’t want to keep you much longer, but it would be helpful if we could speak to each of you for a few minutes, separately.”

“Separately?” Drew repeated.

“It would be helpful, then we can leave you alone.”

“I’d like to check on Brad and the kids anyway.” As she spoke, Liana got to her feet. “I could send Brad down, stay with Noah, if you want to talk to him.”

“That works. Mr. Pearson, if you’d give us the room. We’ll speak with your wife, then send her to get you. We’ll work our way through this, and get out of your way.”

“All right.” He stood, skimmed a hand over his wife’s hair, and went out with his sister.

Eve waited until she was certain they were out of earshot. “Tell me,” she demanded.

Sybil blinked. “Pardon?”

“You knew Banks. Denying it isn’t going to work.” She kept her voice low and hard. “Twelve people are dead. Thirteen including Banks. So you’ll tell us. I’m going to read you your rights.”

“Oh God, my God.”

She unlinked the hands she’d gripped in her lap, wrapped her arms around herself as Eve recited the Revised Miranda. “Did you have an affair with Jordan Banks?”

“No! No, no, it was nothing like that. I mean to say, it was only a . . . flirtation. I never—we never—I couldn’t, wouldn’t betray Drew. It’s just . . .”

“Did you meet him in London?” Peabody asked, more gently than Eve.

“Yes. Over a year ago. The baby was only three months old. Jacey was just three months old—and Trey, our boy—had just turned two. We wanted to have our babies close together, you see.”

She linked her hands again. “Drew and Liana are so close, so we wanted to have our babies near in age, so they’d have that kind of bond. And I just . . .”

“Two kids under three.” Peabody offered a sympathetic look. “Exhausting.”

“Yes. Of course, I had help. My mother, a nanny, but I—”

She broke off, pressed her fingers to her eyes. “I have no excuse. Drew was just starting the ground floor of the merger, the meetings, the plans, the trips back and forth to sit down with his father, the board. And I felt overwhelmed and tired and neglected and—and undesirable. Selfish, I was selfish. Two beautiful children, a man I love who loves me and our babies, and I felt neglected because he had important work.”

“You were on leave. You’d been used to having important work outside the home,” Eve put in. “To being part of it.”

“Maybe a little post-baby depression, I don’t know. It’s no excuse, but I bounced back so fast with Trey, and I just wasn’t with Jacey.”

“How did you meet him?” Eve asked.

“There was an art showing I wanted to attend. An opening, and Drew had promised to take me. A night out, just the two of us. An adult night—no feedings, nappies, bedtime stories. I was all dressed, ridiculously excited, and he rang me up, and told me how sorry he was, but he’d gotten caught up in something and needed to deal with it.”

“You were upset.” All sympathy, Peabody nodded. “Disappointed.”

“Crushed, beyond reason really. We’d already arranged for the nanny to stay the night. I’d bought a new frock. I just went. The hell with it. I wanted to go to this opening, I’d just go. So I did.”

“You met Banks,” Eve finished.

“Yes. He was there, and somehow we started talking about one of the paintings. He was so charming and attentive. I flirted, I did, partially because I was angry with Drew, but primarily because it felt so good to have someone pay attention.”

“You’d spent nearly two years of the last three pregnant.” Sticking with the theme, Peabody layered on more understanding. “You wanted to feel like a person, a woman. Not just a mother.”