The Maid's Diary(91)
“Jon,” his counsel snaps. Heat flashes in her eyes.
His gaze darts to his lawyer. “I’m not having this pinned on me.”
Ling leans forward and says very quietly near his ear, “I told you. You don’t need to talk. We just need to hear what the police have got. They’re fishing.”
Mal says quickly, “So you do admit you returned to the house?”
“Look, Sergeant,” Ling says, “unless you’re prepared to bring my client in front of a judge and charge him so we can discuss bail terms, we have nothing further to contribute at this moment.”
“When those DNA and fingerprint results come back, we—”
“If you have something to say at that point, you know where to find my client. Come, Jon. We’re leaving.”
Jon pushes himself to his feet.
Mal says, “When did you learn that your maid is the same person who once accused you of sexual assault?”
His body stiffens. His gaze bites into Mal’s. His lawyer moves quickly toward the door, opens it wide. “Jon?”
He starts toward his lawyer and the open door.
“Who is Mia, Jon?”
His eyes flicker. His features tighten and his mouth flattens. His lawyer reaches quickly for his arm, refocusing her client on herself, and they step out into the corridor.
Mal leans back in her chair. As she watches them go, her mobile rings. It’s Benoit.
She connects the call.
“They’ve got her, Mal. The divers have found her and the rug. She’s deep down, trapped under rusted metal debris at the bottom. Lots of silt. She must have been pushed there by the current. They’re strategizing how to safely bring her up now.”
AFTERSHOCKS
Mal feels flattened and tired. The divers were not able to free the body before nightfall due to tidal-current windows and visibility issues, but they did bring up the rug and a white sneaker with an orange stripe that matches the one found next to the king-size bed at the Glass House. Mal is now home for the night. She sits beside Peter on the sofa in their crowded little living room, surrounded by bookshelves, but her imagination is filled with mental images of Kit Darling’s body trapped deep underwater, covered with silt, her soft blonde hair flowing about her face in the darkness. Peter stares at the TV. They have the news on. A cat curls in his lap. He also looks tired, Mal thinks. Her husband seems more vacant than usual tonight. She feels a bolt of loneliness and moves closer to him. She places her hand on his thigh. “You doing okay?”
He glances at her. For a moment he looks confused.
She smiles. “Had enough supper?”
He frowns, then nods. “I think so. How was your day?”
Peter already asked this when she arrived home, and she told him about the body finally being found. She explained how the divers would go down and try again first thing tomorrow. But now she just says, “It was fine. I’m looking forward to the early retirement, though.” It’s a lie. But also a necessity. Peter clearly needs someone at home. She could hire a caregiver—Mal thinks suddenly of Beulah stuck alone upstairs in her home with her carers. Peter and Mal long ago promised they would be there for each other when times got rough. In sickness and in health. And times are going to get rougher much sooner than Mal ever anticipated. Her mind dwells on Beulah. She decides she’ll pay the old woman a visit once this case is wrapped up, and thank her for making that 911 call.
The newscast flashes onto a scene near the ADMAC construction site.
“Oh, here it is.” She reaches for the remote and quickly bumps up the sound.
A female reporter stands under klieg lights in the darkness near the cordoned-off entrance to the site. She holds a mike.
“The search for missing maid Kit Darling appears to have come to a sad conclusion earlier this evening. A source close to the investigation says divers located a woman’s body underwater near the area where Darling’s yellow Subaru was pulled out of the Burrard Inlet. The body is trapped in debris at considerable depth. The team is currently devising a strategy to safely bring the remains up, hopefully tomorrow.”
The camera switches to the anchor in the newsroom. “Pamela, are the police saying anything more about other aspects of the investigation?”
“At the moment, all we know is that ex-Olympic skier Jon Rittenberg and his wife have been brought in for questioning. They have since been released. Forensic evidence from the crime scene at the so-called Glass House is still being processed. I imagine results could take a while. But once the body has been retrieved, an autopsy will be performed, which should yield additional clues about what happened on that violent and fateful night at a luxury mansion on West Vancouver’s waterfront.”
Beulah watches reporter Pamela Dorfmann on her small television set in her room.
She feels profoundly sad to hear they’ve found Kit’s body. As images of skier Jon Rittenberg and his wife, Daisy, flash onto the television screen, Beulah knows without a doubt that this is the same couple she saw getting out of the Audi.
Beulah is pleased she dialed 911. She didn’t really think Horton could have hurt anyone, but she’s relieved to hear other people are being questioned and not her son. She’s seen Horton behind the hedge on a few occasions, watching the maid working next door. She also saw Horton spying on the ladies having lunch by the pool. She’s been worried about Horton for quite a while.