Festive in Death (In Death #39)(100)

“We’re not here about Trey Ziegler, not directly. I have difficult news.” The most difficult, and best done quickly. “I regret to inform you that Catiana Dubois was killed earlier this evening. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

“What? No.” Martella grabbed her husband’s hand. “That’s a terrible thing to say. Cate’s on a date, with Steven.”

“She was killed, and your sister injured tonight at the Vandam residence. John Jake Copley is in custody, charged with her murder and the attack on your sister.”

“Tash is hurt? No, no.” Color high, breath quick, Martella pushed to her feet. “You’ve got something horribly mixed up. I spoke with Tash this afternoon.”

“Tella.” Schubert rose, put an arm around her, but his eyes stayed on Eve’s. “What happened?”

“But she’s wrong.”

“Tella,” Schubert said again, gently, as he drew his wife back down to the sofa. “What happened? Please.”

“Ms. Dubois went to the Quigley-Copley residence. We believe subsequently a confrontation between her and Copley ensued. During which she fell, struck her head on the marble hearth, and was killed.”

“No. No. No.”

“Could I get you some water, Mrs. Schubert?”

Schubert looked at Roarke. “We’ve given the staff the evening off. If you wouldn’t mind—the kitchen . . .”

“I’ll find it. I am sorry,” he said to Martella.

“JJ wouldn’t hurt Cate,” Martella insisted, but tears streamed down her face. “Why would he do that? And Tash—she’s hurt? Where is she? I need to go to her.”

“She was taken to the hospital, is under medical care. I’ll give you the details, but, at the moment, she’s sedated.”

“Please, I have to go to her. She needs me.”

“When we’re done here, I’ll arrange your transportation. I’ve spoken to the medicals personally. She’s stable.”

“JJ wouldn’t hurt her. He’d never— Lance, tell her.”

“I don’t understand it. I played golf with JJ today. We got back around six. He had an exceptional round, wasn’t upset, wasn’t angry. Why do you think he did this? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Ms. Quigley called nine-one-one. On the record she can be heard shouting your brother-in-law’s name, pleading with him to stop, before the ’link was dropped and damaged. An officer arrived on scene within minutes. Copley was alone in the house.”

“Someone broke in—”

“There’s no sign of break-in,” Eve interrupted Schubert as Roarke came back with a tall, clear glass of water. “The security cam shows Ms. Dubois’s arrival. The time stamp of her entrance into the residence is approximately ten minutes before her time of death.”

“She can’t be dead. Oh, Lance, not Cate. Not our Cate.”

“It still doesn’t make sense. JJ and Cate rarely interacted. Why would anyone think he . . .” Schubert stiffened. “Ziegler. It all goes back to Ziegler.”

“I know this is hard, but there are questions I have to ask.”

“Is it my fault? Is this my fault because I let him come here? I had sex with him.”

“You didn’t have sex with him, Mrs. Schubert,” Eve corrected. “Ziegler drugged you and he raped you. That’s not sex. And the person who killed Catiana and attacked your sister is at fault. No one else. Did you know Catiana intended to go to your sister’s home this evening?”

“No. No. I thought she was going home to get ready for her date. I don’t know why she went there.”

“You said she and Copley rarely interacted. Was there friction?”

“Not friction.” Schubert rose to shrug out of his coat, laid it over his wife’s. “JJ can be a dick with women, especially those he views as subordinates, but that sort of thing rolls off of Catiana’s back. I apologized to her more than once, but she’d just laugh it off.”

“Apologized for what?”

“Oh, he’d tell her to get him a drink, as if she were waitstaff. It wasn’t so much what he said, but the tone. Master to servant. I’ve spoken to him about it a number of times, and he feigns ignorance. Since Cate could laugh it off, I let it go rather than stir up family conflict.”

“She didn’t like him. She never actually said so,” Martella said thickly. “She never would, but she didn’t. She’s family, too, Lance.”

“I know, Tella. I know.”

“You don’t like him, either,” Eve observed. “Either of you.”

“He’s family,” Schubert said simply as his wife wept quietly on his shoulder. “You don’t get to choose. Tella and Tash are close. He’s Tash’s husband. I might consider him a bit of a dick, as I said, but I can’t conceive of him doing any of this. You think he killed Ziegler, too.”

Rather than answer, Eve changed tacks. “You and Catiana must have talked about Ziegler. What he’d done, his murder. And now that it’s come out your sister and he had an intimate arrangement, you must have talked about that.”

“We were surprised, all of us,” Schubert confirmed. “But then . . . he’s her type.”