Memory in Death (In Death #22)(14)

It was a dismissal, flat and pleasant. A busy man idly brushing a speck of lint off his jacket pocket.

He saw it register, saw that quick flick, like a snake's tongue, flash in her eyes.

And there she is, he thought. There's the viper under the conservative dress and sugary accent.

"Oh, oh, but I couldn't go back to Texas without seeing my little Eve, without making personal amends, and being sure she's all right."

"I can assure you, she's fine."

"And Bobby? Why my Bobby's fretting to see her. He was like a brother to her."

"Really? How odd then she's never mentioned him."

Her smile was indulgent now, and just a little sly. "I think she had just a tiny little crush on him. I expect she doesn't want you to be jealous."

His laugh was quick, rich and long. "Please. Now, if you'd like, you can certainly leave your name and address with my administrative assistant. If the lieutenant wants to contact you, she will. Otherwise..."

"Now this just won't do. This won't do at all." Trudy sat up straighter, and her tone took on a little lash. "I took care of that girl for over six months, took her into my home out of the goodness of my heart.

And believe me when I say she wasn't easy. I think I deserve more than this."

"Do you? And what do you think you deserve?"

"All right now." She shifted in her chair into what he assumed was her bargaining pose. "If you think that seeing me and my boy isn't the right thing, then—and I know I'm talking to a businessman here—I think I should be compensated. Not only for the time and the effort, and the trouble I went to for that girl all those years back when nobody wanted to take her in, but for all the inconvenience and expense it's taken for me to come here, just to see how she's doing."

"I see. And do you have a measure of this compensation in mind?"

"This has taken me by surprise, I have to admit." Her fingers fussed with her hair, red against red.

"I don't know how you can put a price on what I gave that child, or what it's costing me to turn away from her now."

"But you'll manage to do so, I'm sure."

It was temper he saw deepen the color in her cheeks, not embarrassment. He merely kept that mildly interested look on his face.

"I'd think a man in your position can afford to be generous with someone in mine. That girl would likely be in jail instead of putting people in one if it wasn't for me. And she wouldn't even speak to me when I went to see her yesterday."

She looked away, blinking at tears he noted she could call up at will.

"I think we're past that now." He allowed a sliver of impatience to come into his voice. "What's your price?"

"I think two million dollars wouldn't be unreasonable."

"And for two million dollars... that's U.S. dollars?"

"Of course it is." Faint irritation took the place of tears. "What would I want with foreign money?"

"For that, you and your Bobby will happily go back to where you came from and leave my wife alone."

"She doesn't want to see us?" She raised her hands as if in defeat. "We won't be seen."

"And if I find that measure of compensation a bit too dear?"

"For a man of your means, I can't imagine, but... I'd be forced to mention the possibility of my—being upset by all this—discussing the situation with someone. Maybe a reporter."

He swiveled lazily again. "And that would concern me, because..."

"Being a sentimental woman, I kept files on every one of the children I was in charge of. I have histories, details—and some of those might be difficult, even embarrassing for you and for Eve. Did you know, for instance, that she'd had sexual relations repeatedly, and all before she was nine years old?"

"And do you equate rape with sexual relations?" His tone was mild as milk, even as his blood boiled. "That's quite unenlightened of you, Ms. Lombard."

"Regardless of what you call it, I think some people might feel a woman with that kind of thing in her makeup isn't the sort who should be a lieutenant of the police department. I'm not sure of that myself," she added. "Maybe it's my civic duty to talk to the media, maybe her superiors at the police station."

"But two million—that's USD—would outweigh your civic duty."

"I just want what's coming to me. Did you know she had blood on her when she was found? She...

or someone else... washed most of it off, but they did tests."

Her eyes were brighter now, as bold and as sharp as her long red nails. "And not all the blood was hers.

"She used to have nightmares," Trudy continued. "And it seemed to me that she was stabbing somebody to death in those nightmares. I wonder what people would make of that, if I was upset and said something. I bet people'd pay good money for a story like that, considering who she is now. And who she's married to."

"They might," Roarke agreed. "People often enjoy wallowing in another's pain and misery."

"So I don't think the compensation I mentioned is too dear. I'll just I take it and go back to Texas. Eve won't have to think about me again, even after all I did for her."