Eric Lustbader - Blood Trust

“All I know is that I had nothing to do with this monstrous … this atrocity.” She shook her head. “It’s beyond me how anyone could do this to another human being.” If Jack were here he’d know that for a lie. During her time with him and Annika in Russia and the Ukraine she had witnessed examples of the hatred and contempt for human life some people harbor deep in their hearts or just beneath their skin. And with the Russian agent Annika, at least, she had discovered depths of human betrayal she had not even been able to imagine, even growing up in the snake pit of American politics.

“Ms. Carson,” Willowicz said, “no one believes you don’t know what happened here.”

Alli felt her heart constrict. “How can you say that?”

“You and the victim were having an affair—illicitly, as it happens, on the grounds of the academy. But two days ago something happened. The two of you were seen in an argument—rather violent, from all reports—in a bar in town. Harsh words were exchanged. As a result, he stalked out.”

“So, what, you think I tortured him and strung him up like an attic ham in revenge?”

“The theory tracks,” O’Banion said. “It hits closest to home.”

Alli shook her head. She had fallen down the rabbit hole, and now was sinking deeper and deeper into Nightmareland.

“Maybe he had another girl on the side and you found out. Maybe he was fed up with you.” O’Banion shrugged, as if whichever motive it turned out to be made no difference to him.

Alli stared at him. “You’re an idiot.”

When he took a step toward her, Naomi intervened. O’Banion’s eyes were yellow and feral as he squinted over the agent’s shoulder. “You think because you’re the president’s daughter you can talk to us like that? Fuck you!”

“Now, hold on,” Naomi said.

“And, by the way,” he said to Alli, “your old man was a dickhead.”

McKinsey became a shield between the detective and Alli. “Calm down.”

“And fuck you, too, sonny! You better tell her to watch her mouth.”

“Back off, Bluto,” Naomi said.

“Screw you, nanny dearest.”

When the detective remained rooted as a tree, she lowered her voice. “I said back the fuck off, or I will take you in for disobeying an order from a federal agent.”

A pulse beat furiously in O’Banion’s temple, then he turned his head and spat onto the ground. “Remember what I said.” He pointed to Alli as he returned to his previous position.

Willowicz, who had observed the escalating emotions through skeptical eyes, now stepped up. “This is a homicide—a civilian homicide. As I see it, you and the woman are here to ensure the safety of the late president’s daughter. My partner and I appreciate your role in this matter, really we do. But the fact remains that this crime is in our jurisdiction and is under our purview. I control the crime scene, I control the interrogations.” He flipped open an old-fashioned notebook. “Now here’s how I see matters falling out. We have a murder of both premeditation and deep emotion, but we have no witnesses. Commander Fellows here has assured us that no outsider has breached the academy’s perimeter tonight.”

“Billy had no trouble—”

“We have filled that breach, Ms. Carson,” Fellows said icily. “I can assure you that there are no others.”

Willowicz looked from Alli to Fellows, as if they were combatants, before he continued. “So, no interlopers. But your roommate, Ms. Carson, was drugged … at about midnight, Fearington’s doctor estimates.”

“I was asleep,” Alli said.

“Well, the problem there is the only person who could corroborate your claim can’t.” Licking his fingertip, he turned a page in his notebook. “Which means that at any time after lights out you could’ve stolen out of your room and, if you were careful enough—well, pretty much gone anywhere on the grounds unobserved, am I correct?”

He was looking directly at Alli, but she said nothing, principally because an idea was dawning on her, and the horror of why these people were so insistent on pinning Billy’s murder on her literally took her breath away.

“So you had opportunity. Tell us a little about the victim.”

She took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to regain her composure. “Billy worked at Middle Bay Bancorp. He was a loan analyst.”

“Sounds like a snoozer.” O’Banion looked her up and down. “Still waters, yeah.”

Willowicz pursed his lips. “How’d you hook up with him?”

Alli tried to ignore the insinuation, but found herself rising to the bait anyway. “We met at a bar.”

“Uh-huh. Which one?”

“Twilight. In Georgetown.”

Willowicz made a notation. “Yeah, been there for twenty years.”

“The bar for vampires.” O’Banion guffawed.

Willowicz ignored him. “What did he do when you approached him?”

Alli’s cheeks flamed. “He came up to me. I was dancing and—”

“What?” O’Banion interjected. “Like pole dancing?”

Alli’s cheeks continued to flush. “He came up to me, like I said.”

“Was he drunk?”

“Maybe. A little. I don’t know.”

Willowicz nodded. “Then what?”

“We danced … together.”

“And things progressed from there.”

“Oh so very fast.” O’Banion leered.

“And this first meeting was how long ago?”

“About five months.”

“And you’ve been seeing the victim ever since.”

“Yes.”

“When did you see him last?”

A slight hesitation, for which she could have bitten her tongue. “This evening—well, yesterday, now.”

Willowicz’s head came up like a pointer scenting game. “When, exactly?”

“After dinner. About eight.”

“Did you have permission to leave Fearington?”

Alli shifted from one foot to another. “No.”

“So you sneaked out.”

Alli stared at him, unflinching. She had no wish to look at Commander Fellows. “Billy begged me. He said it was urgent.”

“Uh-huh.” Willowicz was scribbling some more. “And?”

“And that’s it. I never found out what he wanted to talk to me about.”

Willowicz’s eyebrow arched. “Why was that?”

“I was supposed to meet him at Twilight. Just as I came around the corner, I saw him walk off with someone.”

“Who?”

“I have no idea.”

“Man or woman?”

“The person’s back was to me.”

“Tall, short, thin, fat?”

“The figure was in shadow.”

“So it could have been a woman.”

Silence.

“Your contention is that you never spoke to the victim at any time yesterday?”

“No, as I said, he and I had a brief phone conversation.”

“You never spoke face-to-face.”

“No.”

In typical interrogator’s style, Willowicz now switched subjects without warning. “And so you had motive.”

“Motive,” Alli said, taken aback. “What motive?”

Again, Willowicz turned a page. “As it happens, the victim had met someone—a week ago. Her name is … let’s see, Kraja. Arjeta Kraja.”

“Fucking foreign names.” O’Banion snickered. No one else moved or said a word.

Willowicz looked up from his notes. “You know this Arjeta Kraja, Ms. Carson? Ever met her?”

“No,” Alli said. “No, I haven’t.”

“Interesting.” Willowicz held out his hand and O’Banion placed something in it.

When Alli saw that it was a photo, her heart sank. Reluctantly, she took it when Willowicz handed it over, a surveillance photo of three people talking casually outside a local bar.

“Man, she’s smokin’ hot,” O’Banion said.

“Ms. Carson,” Willowicz said, “would you be good enough to identify the young woman with you and William Warren.”