Salovitz didn’t put them into interrogation; he was saving that for the first wrong answer. They sat in a row of chairs at the back of the case office. For people who’d just had their lives threatened then spent hours in the same lifeboat in the middle of an ocean, they certainly didn’t look like best buddies.
Delphine Farron had her arm around Alphonse’s shoulders. The boy was only ten, but he’d already perfected a teenager’s sulk. He scowled at Salovitz, pouting away like a runway model caught breaking her diet.
The Lorenzos were only slightly more civilized. Alik tried not to stare too hard at Rose. She was a real trophy wife; Shango’s splash told him she’d modeled for various brands a decade ago—couture and upmarket lingerie. Now she fitted into the perfect corporate spouse mold. Telomere treatments had preserved early-twenties looks, and surrogates had made sure her body wasn’t punished by pregnancy, allowing her to play the chic, sultry babe to perfection. Even disheveled from the ocean ordeal, she stayed classy. He guessed she was also a tiger mom; her kids were kept by her side as they sat, her arms around them. Kravis Lorenzo was the other half of the stereotype package deal family: Ivy League, preened almost as much as Rose, sitting stiff-backed and defiant, maintaining the kind of pose that said “my criminal law colleague is on fast-access call.”
“Quite a night,” Salovitz said. “Five people dead.”
Delphine Farron let out a short hiss of breath, but that was the only hint of emotion. Rose Lorenzo pulled her children in even tighter.
“So let’s be quite clear,” Salovitz continued. “Any smartass answers, any lies, and we take this way on down to the holding cells. City Social Division will claim the kids. And you know what they say. The difference between City Social and a rottweiler is that a rottweiler will eventually let go.”
“You can’t threaten us,” Kravis Lorenzo blustered. “My God, man, what we’ve been through!”
“It’s not just five, though, is it?” Alik said. “We can add Riek, whom they pulled out of the marina a couple of days ago. And Samantha—maybe not dead, but still in the hospital with a face cut up so bad a gorilla would puke at the sight of it.”
“Who are these people?” Kravis asked.
“Wrong answer,” Salovitz said. “Let’s get you down to holding. We’ll charge you and start the formal interviews.” He stood up, beckoned—
“Wait!” Kravis said. “What do you want?”
“For you to cut the bullshit,” Salovitz bounced back at him. “What in the fuck have you people gone and done? There’s a gang war broken out in my precinct, and you’re the heart of it. Why?”
“This is all wrong,” Rose said. “We didn’t want any of this to happen. That’s the truth.”
“What did Samantha warn you about?” Alik asked. “And before you claim memory loss, she’s the one that gave you a massage with added extras. I’ve already talked to her tonight—in her hospital bed.”
Rose gave Delphine an anxious glance. All the housekeeper did was stare at her toes.
“Waiting,” Alik said.
“She assaulted my wife,” Kravis said heatedly. “A sexual assault.”
“Gonna count to three,” Salovitz said. “And if I don’t get an answer—”
“She told me to back off Delphine,” Rose said wearily.
“I never asked her to do anything to you,” Delphine said quickly. “I don’t even know her.”
“Back off why?” Salovitz asked.
“All I said was to return Bailey’s game matrix, and I wouldn’t enter a formal complaint with the housekeeping agency,” Rose said.
“You’re saying my boy stole from you?” Delphine said in outrage. “Lying bitch! Alphonse is a good boy, aren’t you, honey?” She gave him a reassuring squeeze. The kid’s head was bowed.
“He was with you the day it went missing,” Rose countered. “Who else would take it? And you never asked permission to bring him into my home.”
“It was the goddamn Christmas vacation! What am I supposed to do with him?”
“Ask his father to look after him?” Rose sneered. And Alik suddenly understood why Kravis married her, not just for plenty of hot sex with the finest piece of ass on the block. She belonged in his uptown world just as much as he did.
“Fucking bitch!” Delphine spat.
“Cool it, both of you,” Salovitz said. “So”—he eyed Delphine—“Rose accuses your boy of stealing, and you go running to Rayner? That’s the story here?”
“I didn’t do that. What am I, stupid? It’s only a goddamn matrix, a couple of hundred bucks. And that brat has dozens of them anyway. He probably just put it in the wrong case.”
“You’re blaming Bailey?” Rose shrieked.
“You called Al a thief!”
“Je-zus wept,” Salovitz grunted.
“Alphonse,” Alik said softly. The boy still didn’t look up. “What did you tell your uncle Rayner?”
All that happened was the kid shook his head.
Delphine suddenly gave her son a suspicious look. “Hey! Did you go and see Rayner?”
“I don’t know,” Alphonse sobbed. “Maybe.”
“You dumb—”
For a moment Alik thought Delphine was going to smack him in the head there and then.
“Did you take that matrix?” she challenged. “You answer me! You tell me the truth