Forgotten in Death(118)

“Indina. Twenty years!”

After a study of Reo’s face, Cross turned to Singer. “I’m advising you to take this deal. On-planet, J.B. You’ll have a chance to serve this time and get out, and live.”

“But my God, my God.” He held out his hands to Eve. “You have to understand, have some pity. I was coerced, I was in shock. I was afraid.”

“Are you, on advice of counsel, taking the deal currently on the table?” Eve asked him.

“Yes, yes, I’ll take it, if you promise you’ll consider what I tell you, and my state of mind. If you promise to consider all of that and have some pity, perhaps renegotiate.”

“We’ll consider everything. Tell us about the murder of Johara Murr.”

“It all goes back, you see. We were all worried about Bolt. He had this delusion he could make a living with his music. His mother went against us on this and indulged him. An obvious mistake, as he had a legacy, a duty here, and to the company his great-grandfather had started.”

Duty, Eve thought. Legacy. Elinor Singer’s words, no question.

“You kept tabs on him.”

“My mother, thinking of his best interest, hired an agency to watch out for him.”

“So she knew, you knew, when he became involved with Johara Murr.”

“Yes, of course. Mother was upset, as you can imagine. She wasn’t even an American, but I convinced Mother to let it go. Boys will be boys, after all. Even when it seemed to be more serious, we felt we should let it run its course. He was so stubborn, you see. If we forbade him from seeing her, living with her, it would only cement the connection. But then they were careless. She got pregnant.”

“That must’ve been a blow,” Peabody commented.

“It was impossible, of course. He was far too young and foolish. She was completely inappropriate. I expected her to terminate the pregnancy, then began to see, as Mother had, that she used it to trap him. That’s why Mother went to London to speak to her parents.”

Of course she had, Eve thought. “Elinor went to Johara’s parents?”

“They were very unhappy to hear of the relationship and the pregnancy and, on Mother’s advice, put on a bit of pressure to convince the girl to come home, to visit.”

“Without telling her why.”

“She was, as I understand, a very obedient young woman. When she went to them, they convinced her, as they should have, the relationship had to end, that she was far too young to raise a child, that she had disgraced the family. She agreed to go to her aunt, and to put the child up for adoption. A good home, of course. A stable home.”

“But she changed her mind.”

“We believe the aunt eventually told her about my mother’s visit to her parents, and irresponsibly supported her change of mind, and her coming to New York. She was upset we’d interfered, and tried to convince my mother—whom she rightfully saw as the head of the family—that she and Bolton loved each other and the child.”

He cleared his throat. “You have to understand, I had no idea what Mother planned when she insisted the girl meet us at the site. I believed it was to show her the scope of what the family stood for, what Bolton was part of. How misguided it was to push him off this path.

“And then we were there. It was a beautiful night, I remember, a beautiful night, the girl said how passionate Bolt was about his music. How he needed a chance to reach his potential. If we loved him, as she did, we’d support him. She—she said she was going to him, going to beg him to forgive her for leaving, and she would tell him everything we’d done.

“And Mother shot her.”

He paused, covered his face with his hands. “I didn’t know. I didn’t. I was so shocked! She fell, and Mother said, ‘Push her in. Push the tramp and her bastard in.’”

“And did you?” Eve asked.

“Yes. God forgive me. Yes. I didn’t know what else to do. One of her shoes, and her purse, they didn’t go in like she did. Mother picked them up. She said to go down and build the brick wall. She would mix the mortar.”

“So you built the wall together.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” J.B. stretched his hands out, looked at Eve with a face full of fear and sorrow. “It was already done. It was too late, and we had to protect the family. She shouldn’t have come back, she shouldn’t have threatened us. Mother even offered her a hundred thousand dollars to go back, but she refused.

“I was sick, the whole time, just sick. Mother said for me to go to Marvinia and convince her to repair our marriage, and to agree to give Bolton another year or so. He’d come back, she’d see to it. So I did, and he did, and everything was fine again.

“Everything was fine again.”

“Was it?” Eve shot back again. “Was everything fine for Johara and her child? For your son?”

“He has a very good life, the right kind of life. He would never have had a good life with this girl. She used him, she threatened us.”

“Is that it?” Eve demanded.

“Yes, it’s the truth. None of this would have happened if Bolt hadn’t decided, without consulting us, to sell that property to Roarke. No one would have remembered her. Surely you must see I was given no choice. I didn’t kill that unfortunate girl.”