Celebrity in Death (In Death #34)(48)

“Bitch. Still … I’d kind of like to see it. Private showing? You and me?”

Marlo laughed again, and the angle changed so Eve saw Matthew’s torso, then up to his grinning face. “I’ll bring the popcorn. But we need to get it first. And if this works, she’ll trade it. She won’t risk her career over this. Will she?”

“It’s going to be okay, babe. It’ll all work out. She’s going to find out she can’t mess around with Zank and Durn. Inverted alpha order.”

“I really love you.” The screen shifted as they walked into the lounge. “When this is finished, when we’re all done, let’s go somewhere for a while. Find an island, a mountaintop. Somewhere we can keep us between us, just a little while longer.”

“Anything you want. Anywhere you want.” The screen blurred.

Obviously, Eve thought, however Marlo had rigged up the opening in her bag, it was now pressed to some part of Matthew as they embraced.

“Doesn’t sound like murder being planned,” Peabody commented.

“Not yet.”

“Okay.” Marlo moved back, let out a deep breath. “Action.”

“Exterior scene, night,” Matthew murmured as they walked out on the roof terrace. “God, it’s gorgeous out. I liked it better when we came up before, just sat out.”

“We’ll do it again. When this thing’s settled.”

“It’s a date. Okay. K.T.!” he called out. “You wanted to have this out. Let’s do it.”

“I don’t see her. Maybe she didn’t come up yet.”

“She wasn’t in the theater. Damn it, K.T., stop screwing around.”

They continued to walk. Lights played off the surface of the corner of the pool as they entered the dome.

“Maybe she’s—”

“Oh God!”

“Marlo, what—oh Jesus!”

The image tilted, tipped, showed Matthew racing toward the pool, jumping in fully dressed, turning over the floating body to reveal K.T.’s face.

Marlo let out a choked scream, and the view slid and blurred as the purse fell to the pool skirt. Eve saw her legs and feet, running, watched her drop to her knees, reach out to help Matthew pull the body to the side. Their voices, their words, mixed and jumbled.

What happened?

Help me get her out.

Is she dead? Oh God, is she dead?

Give me room, give me room. She’s not breathing.

She watched Matthew perform CPR, try mouth-to-mouth while Marlo rubbed K.T.’s hand between hers as if to try to warm it.

Come back, come back! Come on!

She’s cold. She’s so cold. Should I find a blanket?

She’s gone, Marlo. She’s gone.

He sat back on his heels, pale, dripping. His breathing sounded raw, labored, while Marlo knelt, shuddering.

“We should call for an ambulance. My ’link.”

But Matthew took her hand. “She’s dead. She’s dead, Marlo.”

“But, she can’t—how? There must be something.”

“I can’t get her back. She’s dead. She’s … she’s cold.”

“Oh, Matthew.” With the body between them, they leaned toward each other, all but fell on each other. “What do we do? What should we do? Dallas and Peabody. We have to go down, tell them.”

“Yeah. Jesus, I’m shaking. Some hero. I need a minute. I just need a minute.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” She held him, then jerked back. “The recording. We have to get it.” She scrambled to her feet.

“Marlo, don’t touch anything.”

“I’m just going to take the recording. It must be in her purse. It’s right here. If the police find it, they could think—Matthew, they could think we killed her, or fought with her, or … It’s not here. There’s nothing here. Does she have a pocket? Is it on her somewhere?”

“Marlo, stop. Stop. She doesn’t have anything. She must’ve lied. Just lied, and now she’s dead.” His words came out as if they’d been scraped against a rasp. “She’s dead, and we’re not doing anything.”

“You did everything you could.” Marlo dropped down beside him, stroked his dripping hair. “She must’ve hit her head and fallen in. She was drunk, and she fell and drowned. Look, there’s her glass, some wine spilled and a broken glass. It was an awful accident. God, Connie’s going to be sick about it. We should go down now. Come on, baby, let’s go down, get help.”

“Yeah. Yeah. What do we tell them, Marlo?”

“The truth. We came up, and we found her. You pulled her out, and you couldn’t save her. We don’t have to tell anybody the rest. It doesn’t matter to anybody but us.”

“You’re right. I wanted to hurt her, Marlo. I wanted to see her squirm. I don’t know how to feel about that now.” He took a breath, took another, got to his feet. “How did you feel when I told you she was dead?”

“What? Horrible. Horrified. Scared. Sick.”

“Okay, that’s what you feel when we go down. We haven’t had time to calm down any, or think about it. We found her, pulled her out, tried CPR, then went down for help. None of the rest changes what happened, right?”