Festive in Death (In Death #39)(112)

“I want to speak to my client in private.”

“You’ve had plenty of time for that,” Eve said. “It sounds to me like JJ has things to say. Do you have things to say, JJ?”

“Damn right. And you shut up,” he told the lawyer, who just shook her head and sighed.

“It was love at first sight with Felicity. I wanted to give her what she needed, fulfill her dreams.”

“So you lied to her.”

“I didn’t lie. I just needed time. I intended to divorce Natasha, but without certain stipulations and agreements, the divorce would have left me unable to fulfill Felicity’s dreams.”

“You needed your wife’s money to fulfill the dreams of the woman you were ditching your wife for.”

“There’s no need to be crude. Love is its own reason. Natasha and I had grown apart, and—”

“Really, spare me all the old chestnuts. They’re roasting fresh ones out on the street.”

“You’re going to pay for your disrespect.”

“Name your price.” Eve pushed into his face again. “Because I’ve got no respect for you. You’ve got something to say, say it. Clear, on the record. You made a deal with Trey Ziegler. Explain.”

The look he sent her burned with hate, but he spat out the words. “Simply put, I was aware Ziegler had sex with clients. He bragged about it to me. Claimed he could get any woman he wanted.”

Still trying, McAllister chimed in, “My client wasn’t aware Ziegler used illegal substances on those clients.”

After an eye flicker that told Eve Copley had known—Copley continued, “Of course not. That’s deplorable. As far as I knew all the women were willing. I told him I’d pay him if he could seduce Natasha. She had a choice.” Copley jabbed a finger at the table for emphasis. “She chose to have sex with him, and more than once. It had to be more than once, there had to be a clear affair in order for me to preserve my . . . financial advantages.”

“Your prenup specified if your wife had a sexual affair, you got a divorce with a fat settlement?”

“It’s fair.”

“So you hired Ziegler to draw her into a sexual affair, one I assume you documented.”

“That’s right. It’s not illegal.”

On the contrary, Eve thought, but the pimping charges weren’t worth mentioning.

“I only needed them to do it a couple more times. By the first of the year, or right after, I could file.”

“But you suggested a trip with Natasha, to shore up your marriage, after the first of the year.”

“Okay, I did.” He shifted in his chair, leaned forward a bit as if explaining the perfectly reasonable. “It would never have happened, but it was important I came off as trying to fix things up. It’s marriage,” he said, obviously frustrated. “It’s personal business, not police business.”

“If you wanted it to stay that way, you shouldn’t have killed Ziegler.”

“I didn’t! I only needed him to screw her a couple more times. Now he’s dead.”

“He couldn’t finish the job because she broke it off, or was about to.”

“Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. But he’d have persuaded her.”

“One way or the other?” Eve said.

“He told me he’d persuade her.” Copley looked away. “I told him he didn’t get the money until he did. Just two more times, and I could take it to my divorce lawyer.”

“When did you tell him?”

“Just last week when I went . . .”

“To his apartment.”

“Look, fine. I went there. One time. Just that one time because he dropped it on me at our training session she’d made noises about working on the marriage, maybe stopping the sex with him the day before. And she was talking to me about fixing things, getting teary, getting flirty. I just needed a couple more times to seal the deal.”

“He couldn’t do it, but he still wanted money. If you didn’t pay it, he’d go to your wife, confess—and you’d lose. He’d tell her about Felicity. And you’d lose. The prick was hitting you from every angle. It was never going to stop. So you stopped it.”

“I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t there.”

“The same way you were upstairs when Catiana was killed, when your wife was attacked? What had Catiana figured out? What did she know? She’d tell Natasha, and you’d lose again. She had to be stopped. You stopped her. But your wife walks in, and that’s not just losing your ‘financial advantage,’ that’s losing everything. She had to be stopped.”

“He used me. They all used me. I’m the victim here. I’m the goddamn victim. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t there. I want to talk to Natasha. I want to talk to Felicity.”

“They’re done with you. What you’ve got now is me. So let’s start again.”

He fumbled and stumbled, raged a time or two. He pleaded, and he insulted. But he didn’t budge.

Eve decided spending Christmas in a cage might add the final incentive.

She sent him off, raging.

“He’s talked himself into it,” Peabody commented. “Didn’t Mira say something like that? How he could make himself believe the lie so it’s his truth.”