Immortal in Death (In Death #3)(16)

“Mavis, was Leonardo here?”

“Leonardo?” Dulled with shock, her eyes scanned the room. “No, I don’t think so. I called out, because I saw there was such a mess. Nobody answered. And there — there was blood. I saw blood. So much blood. I was afraid, Dallas, afraid that maybe he’d killed himself or something crazy, and so I ran back into… back. I saw her. I think… I went over. I think I did because I was kneeling beside her and I was trying to scream. I couldn’t scream. It was all in my head that I was screaming, and I couldn’t stop. And then I think something hit me. I think…” Vaguely she touched her fingers to the back of her head. “It hurts. But everything was the same when I woke up. She was still there, and the blood was still there. And I called you.”

“Okay. Did you touch her, Mavis? Did you touch anything?”

“I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”

“Who did that to your face?”

“Pandora.”

A quick spurt of fear. “Honey, you told me she was dead when you got here.”

“It was before. Earlier tonight. I went to her house.”

Eve took a careful breath to counteract the twisting in her stomach. “You went to her house tonight. When?”

“I don’t know exactly. About eleven maybe. I wanted to tell her I’d stay away from Leonardo, to make her promise not to ruin everything for him.”

“You fought with her?”

“She was jazzed up on something. There were some people there, like a small party. She was nasty, said things. I said things back. We got into it a little. She smacked me, scratched me.” Mavis tugged back her hair to reveal other wounds along her neck. “A couple of the people there broke it up, and I left.”

“Where did you go?”

“A couple of bars.” She smiled weakly. “A lot of bars, I think. Feeling sorry for myself. Just hanging. Then I got the idea to talk to Leonardo.”

“When did you get here? Do you know what time?”

“No, late, real late. Three, four o’clock.”

“Do you know where Leonardo is?”

“No. He wasn’t here. I wanted him to be here, but she… What’s going to happen?”

“I’m going to take care of it. I have to call this in, Mavis. If I don’t do it soon, it’s going to look bad. I’m going to have to put all of this on record, and I’m going to have to take you into Interview.”

“Into — into… You don’t think I — “

“Of course I don’t.” It was important to keep her voice brisk, to disguise her own fears. “But we’re going to clear it all up as quick as we can, as clean as we can. Let me do the worrying right now. Okay?”

“I can’t feel much of anything.”

“You just sit here while I start things rolling. I want you to try to remember details. Who you talked to tonight, where you were, what you saw. Everything you can remember. We’ll go over it all again in a little while.”

“Dallas.” With a little shudder, Mavis sat back. “Leonardo. He’d never do that to anyone.”

“Let me do the worrying,” Eve repeated. She glanced at Roarke, and understanding the signal, he moved over to sit with Mavis. Eve pulled out her communicator and turned away.

“Dallas. I have a homicide.”

Eve’s life had never been easy. In her career as a cop she had seen and done too many nightmarish things to count them all. But nothing had ever been more difficult for her than taking Mavis into Interview.

“Are you feeling okay? You don’t have to do this now.”

“No, the MTs gave me a local.” Mavis reached up, touched the lump on the back of her head. “Numbed it good. They fiddled around with some other stuff, kind of snapped me back into focus.”

Eve took a long study of Mavis’s eyes, her color. Everything looked normal, but it didn’t ease her dread. “Listen, it wouldn’t hurt for you to check in to health center for a day or two.”

“You’re just putting it off. I’d rather get it over with. Leonardo.” She swallowed hard. “Has anyone found Leonardo?”

“Not yet. Mavis, you can have an attorney or representative here.”

“I don’t have anything to hide. I didn’t kill her, Dallas.”

Eve flicked a glance at the recorder. It could wait just another minute. “Mavis, I have to do this by the ropes. Exactly. They can bump me off the case if I don’t. If I’m not primary, I can’t be as much help to you.”

Mavis licked her lips, her tongue quick and thirsty. “It’s going to be hard.”

“It could be really, really hard. You’re going to have to handle it.”

Mavis tried for a smile, nearly managed it. “Hey, nothing can be worse than walking in and finding Pandora. Nothing.”

Oh, yes, it could, Eve thought, but she nodded. She engaged the recorder, recited her name, ID, and officially gave Mavis her rights. Carefully, she took Mavis over the same ground she had covered on the scene, pinning down times as much as possible.

“When you went to the victim’s home to talk to her, other people were present.”

“A few. It looked like a small party. Justin Young was there. You know, the actor. Jerry Fitzgerald, the model. And another guy I didn’t recognize. Looked like a suit. You know, an exec.”