Ten Years Gone полностью

"I'm surprised you agreed to take care of Willie, it being so hard."

"Just because it's hard doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. I love children, especially babies. Besides, I was already at home with my own baby at the time, and the little money Esther paid me came in handy. I liked earning my own money. And Willie was a sweet child. Not fussy or noisy. Easy to care for."

"How often did you watch over him?"

"Every day when Esther was at work, and during some evenings when she went dancing. Esther loved to dance. Sometimes she would put on the radio in her or my apartment and we would dance together." A dreamy smile flickered across her mouth and some color seeped into her cheeks. "It was fun. How we would laugh."

"I understand Esther went dancing quite often."

Natalie nodded. "Twice a week. Sometimes three. At a club called The Sun, at the bottom of Hayarkon Street."

I nodded to myself. Rivlin had interviewed the manager of The Sun and some of the employees who'd worked there. They had all said Esther invariably arrived at the club alone, never left with anyone, and never danced with any particular man. I planned on paying the club a visit later that day.

"She ever leave the baby with you overnight?"

A resolute shake of the head. "Sometimes she would pick him up pretty late. Ten, or even eleven, but she never left him with me at night."

I killed what remained of my cigarette. "The night of the murders, you were alone in your apartment?"

"Danny was with me, of course, but my husband was on his boat."

No alibi, I thought. And she lived just one floor below the murder scene.

"And you heard nothing?"

She shook her head. "Not a thing."

"Can you think of anyone Esther may have angered or hurt? Even something that appears minor may be important."

"No. No one."

"What about Esther herself? How was she in her final days? Was she happy? Was anything bothering her?"

Natalie rubbed her chin. "Now that I think of it, Esther did say something about having problems at work. She didn't tell me what it was precisely, only that it was nothing she couldn't handle."

This was new. There had been no mention of any work-related problems in Rivlin's report. On the contrary, Esther's boss and colleagues had all been effusive in their praise of her.

"When was this?"

"A few days before she died. Two or three, no more than five. A week at the outside."

"Did she mention anyone specifically? Her boss? A colleague?"

"No." She looked at me with widened eyes. "Do you think that someone she worked with could have…?" Her voice trailed off, and it occurred to me that, if she were the killer, she might be making this up, feeding me false information in the hope that I would waste my time looking for something that wasn't there instead of at her.

"Why didn't you say anything about this to the police ten years ago?"

She lowered her chin, her posture a bit defensive. "I'm not sure that I didn't. I don't remember. Like I said, Esther told me it wasn't important."

Was she making this up on the fly? I couldn't be sure. I made a mental note to ask Esther's boss and colleagues about it.

"Was Esther seeing anyone?" I asked, changing the subject.

"No."

"No men came calling? No one hung around the building?"

She shook her head.

"Esther never mentioned anyone? Someone she'd met in the dance club, perhaps?"

"No one."

"Did you find this strange? I've seen pictures of Esther. She was a gorgeous woman."

"I asked her about it several times," she said. "Did she meet anyone at the club or at work? She said she wasn't looking for a man at the moment, that she was still in mourning for her dead husband. Of course I knew that wasn't true. I thought maybe she was still in love with Willie's father. Now I know that this wasn't the case either. But there were times when I'd catch her smiling to herself, as if at some romantic thought. And there were nights when she would come back from the dance club and there would be a glow to her skin that made me think that she had…well, you know—" She trailed off, and this time the red in her cheeks was prominent.

"That she had been with a man?" I completed, as the silence lengthened.

She nodded, looking grateful that I had spared her from having to finish her sentence.

This was not something I had expected. Either Natalie was playing an elaborate game, or she was completely blind to what her husband and best friend had been up to. I felt a sudden stab of shame in the pit of my stomach at what I was about to do. But there was no alternative. Best to do it quickly.

"Is your husband home at the moment?"

She blinked. "My husband? No. He's on his boat, working."

"When will he be back? I'd like to speak to him."

"He won't be back until tomorrow morning. But I doubt he can tell you much. He barely knew Esther."

I raised an eyebrow. "How can that be, you two were so close?"

"Alon—that's my husband—worked very hard during those days. He was away often. He and Esther never seemed to connect."