Strangers in Death (In Death #26)(79)

“You’re a healthy single man. She’s an attractive woman.”

“She’s my uncle’s wife. His widow. God, is this how you have to think? Do you make everything ugly and obscene?”

“Murder does, Mr. Forrest. Both you and Ava have tight, solid alibis. That’s interesting, that both of you should be so solidly alibied.”

“Interesting that she was away on a long-planned trip and that I got lucky? What’s wrong with you? If you want to take shots at me, fine. But I can’t have you taking them at her. Not with what she’s going through.”

“Does she know you’re here?”

“No. As if I’d tell her what you’re doing, add to her stress.”

“Good. Now, take a step back. Take one back and describe your relationship with Ava before your uncle was killed.” She lifted a hand before he could speak. “Don’t bullshit me, Ben. Every lie I have to unknot wastes time. You want your uncle’s killer caught and justice served?”

“Of course I do. Jesus, Jesus, I can hardly think of anything else. Of course I do.”

“Tell me how you and Ava got along before Tuesday morning.”

“All right, all right.” He pressed his hand to his temple, then dropped into her visitor’s chair. “We weren’t particularly close. Not at odds or anything, not exactly.”

“What, exactly?”

“We just…I guess we didn’t have anything in common. Except for Uncle Tommy, and maybe we didn’t always see eye-to-eye on how the programs were run or handled. But—”

“Don’t but, don’t qualify. Give me a picture.”

He blew out a breath. “Maybe it felt, in a weird way, as if we were in competition for him. That sounds so stupid. You could say I felt the longer they were married, the less she wanted me around. Maybe the less I wanted to be around her. We just…But she loved him, and that’s what matters. She loved Uncle Tommy. She was always buying him little gifts, or arranging for him to take a golf trip or a ski weekend, whatever.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, maybe it would gripe me, a little, that she wouldn’t always tell me until the last minute if she was planning something, then she’d blame it on Leo. Say she told Leo to tell me. That just didn’t wash. Leo forgets nothing. So we’d get together, Uncle Tommy and I, at the club or the course or the game. I didn’t go around the house that much. It didn’t feel like his house much in the last couple years anyway.”

“Why is that?”

“All that redecorating. God, you saw the place. Nowhere for a guy to put his feet up and watch some screen. He didn’t mind it,” Ben continued. “He said she put up with his foolishness, and he put up with hers.”

He sat silent a moment, brooded. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s different now.”

“Yeah, it is. Now tell me this. If your uncle had died of natural causes, or say in a skiing accident, would you feel this strongly, this protective of Ava?”

“How can I know something like that?”

“All she’s been through, you said. You weren’t just talking about his death, but about the circumstances of it. And the scandal, the embarrassment to her. So think a minute, factor that out.”

“I don’t know what difference it makes to—”

“Humor me,” Eve interrupted.

“Well, I guess, maybe I wouldn’t feel as if she needed me the way she does. What I mean to say is Ava’s not generally the kind of woman who needs care.” His handsome face set itself into stubborn lines. “But the circumstances are what the circumstances are.”

“The circumstances are that you’re sitting there feeling disloyal and crappy because you made a few minor complaints about her.” A nice guy, Roarke had termed him. Eve knew some couldn’t help being a nice guy, even after being kicked repeatedly in the teeth. “How’d she get along with her father-in-law?”

“With…fine. Great, in fact. My uncle used to joke that it was a good thing he saw her first, or she’d have hooked up with Granddad. I don’t see what that—”

“Just wondering. Didn’t I hear they had a little trouble shortly before his death?”

“I don’t remember…Oh, that. Yeah, there was something, probably my fault. As I said I don’t—and didn’t—always like how she handles the programs. I complained to Granddad about Ava hitting the program budget for what I felt were personal expenses. He got a little hot over it, but he and Ava worked it out. Lieutenant, I understand you’re doing your job, and I understand you’re good at your job. But it feels wrong, just wrong, for you to look at, to think about, Ava this way. I don’t want whoever killed Uncle Tommy to get away with it.”

“Neither do I. I have a lot of looking at and thinking about to do, about a lot of people. Right now I’m going to ask you to put your uncle first. Don’t say anything to anyone else about this conversation.” She pushed off her desk. Understanding the signal, Ben rose.

“All right. I’ll let you get back to work. Lieutenant, no one who knew him, really knew him, could have hurt him. It had to be a stranger. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

She didn’t disagree.