Immortal in Death (In Death #3)(91)

“And fatal?”

“It seems. The process has been slowed, but yes, I’m afraid there is still the potential for physical harm in the long term. A possible side effect I warned Jerry of several weeks ago.”

“Before or after Pandora discovered you were trying to ace her out?”

“I believe it was after, just after. Unfortunately, Jerry and Pandora ran into each other at a function. Pandora made some comments about her former relationship with Justin. From what I gather, and this is secondhand, Jerry tossed the business deal we had made in Pandora’s face.”

“And Pandora didn’t take kindly to it.”

“She was, naturally, furious. Our relationship was rocky at best by that time. I had already procured a specimen of the Immortal Blossom, determined to delete all side effects from the formula. I had no intention, Lieutenant, of releasing a dangerous drug to the public. My records will substantiate that.”

“We’ll let Illegals handle that one. Did Pandora threaten you?”

“Pandora lived for threats. One became accustomed to them. I felt I was in a good position to ignore them, even to counter them.” He smiled now, more confident. “You see, if she had gone forward, knowing what properties were contained in the formula, I could have ruined her. I had no reason to harm her.”

“Your relationship was rocky, yet you went to her home that night.”

“In hopes that we could come to some compromise. That’s why I insisted that Justin and Jerry be present.”

“You had sex with her.”

“She was a beautiful, desirable woman. Yes, I had sex with her.”

“She had tablets of the drug in her possession.”

“She did. As I told you, she kept them in a box in her vanity.” His smile came back. “I told you about the box and the tablets because I assumed, correctly, that an autopsy would show traces of the drug. It seemed wise to be forthcoming. I did nothing but cooperate.”

“Easy to cooperate if you knew I wouldn’t find the tablets. After she was dead, you went back for the box. Protecting your investment. If there was no product but yours, no competitor, how much more profit there would be.”

“I did not go back to her home after I left. I had no reason to. My product was superior.”

“Neither of those products would have made the market, and you knew it. But on the street, hers would have hit big, bigger than your refined, watered down, and most likely more expensive version.”

“With more research, more testing — “

“More money? You’d already put over three hundred thousand in her hands. You’d gone to the considerable expense to procure a specimen, paid for the research and testing to date, paid Fitzgerald. I imagine you were becoming a little anxious to see some profit. How much did you charge Jerry for a fix?”

“Jerry and I had a business arrangement.”

“Ten thousand a delivery,” Eve interrupted, and watched the point strike home. “That’s the amount she transferred three times over a two-month period to your account on Starlight Station.”

“An investment,” he began.

“You addicted her, then you hosed her. That makes you a dealer, Mr. Redford.”

The lawyer went into his spin routine, turning a drug deal into a profit-and-loss arrangement between investment partners.

“You needed contacts. Street contacts. Boomer was always a sucker for a credit in the hand. But he got carried away, liked to test the product. How did he get the formula? That was sloppy of you.”

“I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“You saw him flapping his lips at the club. Making a big deal of himself. When he went into a privacy room with Hetta Moppett, you couldn’t be sure how much he’d told her. But when he saw you, and he ran, you had to act.”

“You’re on the wrong beam, Lieutenant. I don’t know these people.”

“Maybe you killed Hetta in panic. You didn’t really mean to, but when you saw she was dead, you had to cover it up. That’s where the overkill came in. Maybe she told you something before she died, maybe she didn’t, but you had to get to Boomer then. I’d say you were enjoying it now, the way you messed him up, tortured him before you finished him. But you got a little overconfident, and didn’t get to his flop to search it before I did.”

She pushed away from the table, took a turn around the room. “Now you’ve got big problems. The cops have a sample, they have the formula, and Pandora’s getting out of hand. What choice do you have?” She put her hands on the table, leaned in close. “What can a man do when he sees his investment and all those future profits going into the sewer?”

“My business with Pandora was finished.”

“Yeah, you finished it. Taking her to Leonardo’s was smart. You’re a smart man. She was already wired over Mavis. If you do her at his place, it’s going to look like he’d had enough. You’d have to do him, too, if he was there, but you had a taste for it now. He’s not there, so it’s easier. Easier still when Mavis walks in and you can set her up.”

Redford’s breathing was a bit forced, but he was holding. “The last time I saw Pandora, she was alive, vicious, and eager to punish someone. If Mavis Freestone didn’t kill her, my guess would be Jerry Fitzgerald.”