Nevada Barr - Naked Came The Phoenix

"What are you doing here?" Caroline demanded.

He raised his perfectly shaped eyebrows. "Hoping for a word with you, my dear Caroline." She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand to silence her. "I wanted to discuss the return of something that belongs to you."

She glared at him, suddenly putting two and two together. "It was you who left those photographs lying on the table for Detective Toscana to find, wasn't it? And then you came back for them later, didn't you?"

Raoul smiled. "Clever Caroline."

"But why?"

"I thought it might muddy the waters with the cops. You see, Claudia had a very profitable little sideline going. Some friends of hers needed a little political clout on their side, and your charming husband was in a position to meet their needs. Of course, he took a little persuading."

"Claudia was blackmailing Doug?" Caroline crossed to the sofa and sank into it. She knew her husband was a double-dealing, two-timing bastard when it came to love, but she didn't think his politics were as corrupt as his sex drive.

"Such a coarse word, blackmail. I prefer to think of it as oiling the wheels of commerce. And with your mother taking over my living, I figure I'm going to need all the commercial support I can find. I didn't want the cops stumbling over the real dirt that Claudia had on Doug, so I decided to serve them up a delicious little red herring."

Caroline frowned. "I don't understand. You mean she wasn't blackmailing him over his infidelities?"

Raoul laughed. "You're so naive. You really think in this day and age that your husband's constituents would vote him out of office because he can't keep his fly zipped? Oh, it might lose him a few votes here and there with the fundamentalists, but it would pull in a lot more from all the guys who would love to be doing exactly what he's doing. But thankfully, our local detectives are just as credulous as you are. They won't doubt for a moment that keeping those photographs away from you would be enough of a reason for darling Doug to do what Claudia asked."

"You're saying there's more?"

Raoul crossed his legs. He looked as pleased as a cat that had just incapacitated a mouse. "Here's the way I see it. While it won't harm Doug's career in the long run if the world finds out what a sleaze he really is, it would be better all around if things just continued as they are. I don't think there's any need for you to get a divorce, Caroline. Don't rock the boat. Keep things on an even keel. Make it easy for Doug to earn the money he's going to need to keep me satisfied."

Caroline shook her head in disbelief. "You're crazy. I wouldn't stay married to Doug to save my life."

"Oh, I think you would. And that's just what you're going to have to do. Because what I know about Doug won't just destroy him. It'll destroy you, too. You'll be a social outcast. There's not an orchestra in the land that would give you a job. No, let me rephrase that. There's not an orchestra in the whole world that would have you. You'll be a leper for the rest of your life."

He was enjoying himself, she could see that. And she hated him for it. But there was something concrete underpinning his flesh-crawling confidence. "I don't believe you," she said defiantly. "Whatever Doug has done, it's his responsibility. It can't reflect on me."

"Oh, but it does, Caroline. Because you were a willing partner in this… enterprise."

"You're not making any sense at all."

Raoul uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, elbows on knees. "I assume you know about your mother's little indiscretion?"

Caroline's head came up, her eyes widening in astonishment. Claudia must have confided in her husband, she thought wildly. But what did this have to do with her and Doug? "You're still not making sense," she said, less certain of herself now.

"The child your mother gave up for adoption all those years ago went to a Mr. and Mrs. Blessing," Raoul said, grinning like a Halloween pumpkin.

Panic started to clench in Caroline's chest. She could feel her heart thudding, the cold sweat of fear breaking out on her neck. "No," she gasped, her pupils dilating as the adrenaline pumped into her system and her breath began to quicken.

"Oh, yes," Raoul said. "In keeping with that fine Southern tradition, you've been sleeping with your brother."

"You're lying. Where's your proof?"

Raoul got to his feet and crossed to her. Caroline shrank back against the soft cushions. He reached out and grabbed her left hand. "There's your proof. That angled little finger. You and Doug share the same genetic defect."

Caroline gazed at him in a long moment of stunned silence. Then her face crumpled and her shoulders started shaking. But she wasn't crying. It was laughter that shook her slender frame. "That… that's your proof?" she managed to squeeze out.

Raoul frowned. This wasn't how it was supposed to play. "You think incest is some kind of joke?"

Caroline struggled to take command of herself. With a final gulping hiccup, she managed to control her hysterical laughter. "My finger… It's not a genetic defect. I broke it badly when I was six years old. It happened at our cabin up in the mountains. By the time we got to a hospital, it was too late for them to straighten it out without surgery. So they just let it heal crooked." The stunned look on Raoul's face almost made her lose control again. "That's one of the reasons I took up the cello. My physical therapist said it would help to strengthen my hand."

Raoul took a step back, his scowling face a mask of suspicion. "You're making this up. Claudia had paperwork."

Caroline shook her head. She'd sobered up now and anger was beginning to assert itself. "Paperwork can be forged. Doug isn't my brother. Believe me, I'd know. And I'm warning you now. If a single word of your lies ever leaks out, I'll hit you with my hospital records and as many X rays of my hand as you care to see. Not to mention the DNA tests that would prove absolutely that you're a liar. It won't be me facing ruin, Raoul. It'll be you."

He was pale now, all his self-assurance gone. He was pathetic,

Caroline thought. No wonder Claudia had made sure he'd had no financial stake in her business. She stood up, contempt in her eyes. "Now get out of here before I call Detective Toscana."

Raoul turned on his heel and fled, leaving Caroline with the first unmixed moment of triumph she'd felt since she'd raided the fridge what seemed like a lifetime ago. What a piece of work Raoul was. But at least she knew one thing for certain. He'd never have the guts for murder.

The technicians had finally completed their work on the crime scene that had been a state-of-the-art nail studio and had moved on to Karen McElroy's last resting place in the foot spa. They'd lifted the heavy shelving away from Ondine, and now Vince was left alone with the medical examiner. Dr. Richmond pulled a face as the tacky nail polish attached itself to her overalls everywhere she touched it. "God, Vince, this is terrible," she complained as her latex-gloved hands began their initial probing of Ondine's body.

"Isn't it always, Sarah?"

"Bodies, I don't mind. But I've always thought cosmetics were more trouble than they were worth." There was a horrible slurping sound as Dr. Richmond turned the body over. Vince tried not to think about it.

Sarah Richmond's expert fingers moved over Ondine's shattered body. "The skull's pretty well crushed. Blunt-force trauma everywhere." She glanced up. "Those shelves must be damn heavy." She ran her hands expertly down the supermodel's torso. "Broken ribs, sternum feels like it might have gone, too." She was talking to herself, requiring no response from Vince.

"Sounds like she'd have taken less damage if she'd been hit by a truck." Vince knew what he was talking about. He'd seen the crushed results of vehicular homicide more times than he cared to remember. "Has she taken a beating, or was it the shelves falling that killed her?"