by J. D. Robb
The blend and enthusiasm of the instruments and voices told Eve this was hardly the first time for a post-dinner jam.
The one who’d let them in grabbed a sax and let it wail into the crescendo.
“Now, that’s what I’m saying!” Bolton let out a laugh and started to bend down to pick up the kid. And spotted Eve and Roarke.
“Oh yeah, company, Dad.”
Every head turned with expressions of curiosity—the friendly sort.
“Kincade, honestly.” The woman at the piano shook back her hair—curly like her two youngest children’s—with a combination of glossy brown and coppery streaks. She rose, walked toward them with her hand out.
“Roarke. You may not remember, but we met briefly several years ago at a benefit.”
“I do, and it’s lovely to see you again. I don’t believe you’ve met my wife.”
“I haven’t, but I’m a fan. Everyone, this is Roarke, and Lieutenant Dallas. Our youngest, Kincade, Layla on keyboards, Harmony on drums, our son-in-law, Justin, on bass guitar, and our dancer, Marvi. Bolt?”
“Sorry. Caught me off guard.” He set his guitar on a stand. “Roarke, it’s been awhile.” He offered his hand before turning to Eve. “You’ve had a long day, Lieutenant. Why don’t we take this in my office?”
“We know what happened. It’s all over the media, and we talked about it before dinner.” Layla took a step closer to her father, but studied Eve. “Did you find out who did it?”
“The investigation’s active and ongoing.”
“That’s what they always say, right, Justin? Justin’s a lawyer.”
“Almost.” The son-in-law scooped up his daughter.
“I’d say that session worked up some appetites. Let’s go have dessert. We’ll just give you the room, Bolt.” Lilith gave his arm a squeeze. “Come on, gang, that cherry pie à la mode won’t eat itself.”
The bell rang. “That’s got to be Clem.”
As Kincade dashed off, his mother called after him, “Bring him back to the kitchen. Sorry for the madness. Why don’t I send out some pie and coffee?”
“We’re fine,” Eve told her. “We’ll try not to interrupt any more of your evening than necessary.”
Lilith ran a hand down Bolton’s arm this time. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Eve caught the older daughter starting to object—but so did her mother. It only took a look, and Lilith herded the rest of the family out.
“You have a talented family, Bolton,” Roarke began.
“We have a lot of fun. Please, have a seat. You must have questions that couldn’t wait.”
“Questions and information,” Eve agreed. “Carmine Delgato.”
“Carmine? Longtime employee. Chief plumber on the Hudson Yards project, and others.”
“Were you aware of his gambling problem?”
Bolton sighed. “Yes, of course. I know he’s separated from his wife again, and it seems to be sticking this time. I’m sorry about it. The company has offered to give him time off for rehabilitation, but … It doesn’t affect his work, so we’ve kept out of his personal business.”
He lifted both hands. “Surely you don’t think Carmine killed that woman. I can tell you, without hesitation, he’d never hurt anyone.”
“That may be, but someone hurt him. He’d dead, Mr. Singer.”
“He’s … My God.”
The shock looked genuine. He lost color with it. “Carmine? Dead? Are you saying someone killed him?”
“Unless I’m mistaken, yes. The ME will determine, but I believe his death was staged as a suicide.”
“Suicide? Carmine?” Bolton had his hands in his hair like a man who didn’t know what to do with them. “That doesn’t seem possible.”
“Why?”
“He … he’s an optimist, Lieutenant. Often to his own detriment. He simply believes, absolutely, things will turn around, work out. His long-shot bet would pay off, his wife would take him back. A job that’s run into serious problems will be fine with just a little work.
“But why would someone kill Carmine?”
“It’s my job to find out. Mr. Singer, you knew Mr. Delgato for a number of years.”
“Yes, he worked for us at least twenty years. Twenty-five is closer, I think. I can check.”
“In your opinion, was he capable of stealing from the company? He may have thought of it as pilfering, or just skimming a bit here and there.”
“No, I don’t believe…” When he trailed off, Bolton stared over Eve’s shoulder.
“You’re rethinking the no.”
“I … He had an addiction, and addictions cause good people to do bad things in the need to feed it. I can say I never suspected him of doing so.”
“But you’ve had material, equipment, go missing from time to time.”
“It happens. I’m sure Roarke would tell you the same. We’re usually able to track that sort of thing down.”
“Have you had that issue on the Hudson Yards site?”
“None that’s come to my attention, no.”
“On other jobs where he was head plumber?”
“I honestly can’t tell you off the top of my head. I’d like to call Harmony in. She’s been on parental leave, but she’s our CFO. And if you don’t object, I’d like my wife here, too. She doesn’t work for the company, but she knew Angie, Carmine’s wife.”
“All right.”
“I’ll just be a minute.” He rose, rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m having some trouble taking this all in. Two people are dead.”
Eve watched him walk out. “If he’s faking this, he’s damn good at it.”
“His greatest sin might be using too light a hand with the company he runs. That may be because running it is duty, not passion or even true inclination.”
“You have things walk off a job.”
“From time to time. And if you let it slide, the ones doing the walking will not only do it again, they’ll inevitably up the stakes. So you not only track it down, you let it be known you are. Now and again, things walk right back on—ah, look here, we found the missing items. Just misplaced.”
He shrugged. “That’s not always the case, of course, but it can and does happen.”
Bolton came back with his older daughter. “Lilith will be right in. She’s bringing coffee. She can’t help herself.”
“It’s appreciated.” Eve looked toward Harmony. “You’re chief financial officer of your father’s company.”
“I am. And if you’re thinking nepotism, I have a master’s in accounting and degrees in finance and business management.”
“Harmony.”
“Just establishing my bona fides, Dad. A lot of people thought I was just the boss’s daughter, indulged by her daddy. A lot of people found out differently.”
“As that’s the case, you could answer some questions.”
“Happy to, once I know what this is all about. We all know about the woman who was killed, and we’re all sorry. But I don’t know what that has to do with the family, or the books. And if this gets too deeply into that, I’d like my husband to sit in as legal representation. He’s taking the bar next month, but he can give us legal advice.”
No pushover this one, Eve thought. Tough and pithy, with a no-bullshit air she admired.
“You’re free to do that if you feel the need.”
Eve glanced over as Lilith wheeled in a smart and efficient-looking stainless cart.
“If I recall from the Icove vid, you both take your coffee black.”
“It’s kind of you to trouble,” Roarke told her.
“No trouble at all. Clearly, Bolt’s upset, so I’m assuming you didn’t bring good news.”
“Lilith, Carmine Delgato’s dead.”
“What?” Her hands froze in the act of pouring coffee. “No, oh, Bolt, no. How, when? My God, I just spoke with Angie this morning.”
“About what?” Eve asked.
“Open Hearts—I work with my mother-i
n-law in her foundation—we put on a fashion show every fall, a benefit. Angie’s been cochair for the last five years. And she’s a friend, we’re friends. I need to call her. Should I go over to see her?”
“You should hold off on that,” Eve said. “Her children are with her.”
“She separated from Carmine—you must know. But she loved him. She couldn’t live with him anymore, but she loved him. This will crush her. Oh my God, did he have an accident on a job site?”
“No.”
“Sit, Mom. I’ll do that.”
Lilith sat, reached for and gripped her husband’s hand. “What happened to him?”
“He was found hanging in his apartment in what appeared to be self-termination.”
“No, no, no, that’s somehow worse. But it can’t be, it can’t be. He loved her, too. He had a sickness, but he loved her and his children. He wouldn’t do that to them. I don’t believe it.”
“There are certain factors that call the self-termination into question. The medical examiner will determine.”
“You’re very cool about it,” Harmony muttered as she passed Eve and Roarke their coffee.
Ignoring that, Eve studied her. “Did you know Mr. Delgato?”
“Of course. I’ve worked for Singer in a full-time capacity for six years, and worked summers since I was seventeen. I know her better, as I also help run the annual benefit. I’m the numbers nerd.”
“And as the numbers nerd for Singer, what sort of percentage goes into the lost or missing equipment and material column every quarter?”
“That would depend on the quarter, the nature of the jobs included in that quarter, but, in general, that figure ran about three percent when I came on. I had it down to one and three-quarters when I took my parental leave. When I come back, I intend to push it down to under one percent.”
She passed coffee to her parents, then poured her own.
“How long have you been on leave?”
“Nineteen months. Marvi’s eighteen months now, and Justin and I wanted to give her up to two years before we hired child care. I left in my last month of pregnancy, as I came under considerable pressure to do so.”
She sent her parents the side-eye.
“You were exhausting yourself,” her mother reminded her.
“Before that time, did any avenues lead toward Delgato?”
“I can’t say, as my boss, the CEO, felt it more important to try to lower the percentage than point fingers.”
“The cost of doing business,” Bolton began.
“Shouldn’t be allowing employees and subs to pick the company pockets,” his daughter finished. Then smiled brightly. “The CEO and the CFO disagree on this point. You think Carmine Delgato was picking company pockets?”
“I do. But I don’t have hard evidence as yet.”
“If these avenues and information provide that hard evidence, or vindicate Mr. Delgato, we should find the information. And if it helps find out what happened and why to Mr. Delgato, I know the CEO and CFO would fully agree to looking into it.”
“Yes. If he did, it was to feed his addiction.”
“While I’m interested in that data,” Eve said, “if you find it, I’d like to know if Mr. Delgato increased his habit—as I believe he’s been feeding his addiction in this manner for some time—since you went on leave. And most specifically as relates to the Hudson Yards project. Who’s acting CFO?”
“We have two acting CFOs,” Bolton told her. “It takes two to come close to managing what Harmony did.”
“I’ll need their names and contacts.”
“Before you put the fear of God into them?” Harmony held up a hand. “I’d like you to give me a couple of days—at most—to dig down into this myself. I can do some of that from home, once I set things up, but I’d want to do the bulk of it in the office. Visible.”
She smiled as she sipped her coffee. “Some who considered me daddy’s girl have learned to fear me.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“You have a rep,” Harmony said to Roarke.
“Do I?”
“You know you do. Fair, creative, involved, tireless. If you don’t happen to be the smartest person in the room—though you usually are—you make sure the smartest person in the room is with you. And if someone tries to fuck with you—sorry, Mom, but sometimes it’s the best word—you’ll slice them to bits before they see the knife. So while you’re admired and respected, fear has a role. If my family didn’t have a business, I’d be working for you.”
“You can’t have her.” Bolton managed his first genuine smile since they’d come in.
“A pity. The Singer organization is fortunate to have you.”
“Damn right. I’ll get that data if the data are there to get.”
“She will,” Bolton agreed. “And while I can’t claim to be the smartest person in the room very often, and certainly not in this one, I think I’ve started to connect the dots. I can tell you, with absolute certainty, Carmine didn’t kill that woman, but I see now, if what you believe is true, he could have been up there, working with someone else. Someone capable of taking a life. And then taking Carmine’s.”
He brought his wife’s hand to his cheek. “For money, Lilith. It all has to be for money, for profit.”
“You have partners on the Hudson Yards project.”
“Yes, Bardov Construction. My grandmother and my father both made connections there before I came on board. They go back. This is a very ambitious project. We’re not Roarke Industries, and our resources aren’t as deep. Do you think someone from that company is responsible?”
“I have no evidence of that, at this time.” She considered bringing up Tovinski, but decided against it. Bolton Singer didn’t possess any hint of a poker face. “I have to look at all angles, take all avenues. Did Delgato work or to your knowledge socialize with anyone from Bardov Construction?”
“He certainly would have known some of the employees, as we’ve done projects with that company before. I couldn’t say on a social level.”
“His gambling problems weren’t a secret.”
“No, not at all. And I understand what you’re saying. Someone could have exploited him, pressured him, paid off a debt for him. Or threatened him. And even with all that, I don’t believe he’d have killed because of it.”
“We’ve kept you long enough.” Eve got to her feet. “I want to thank you all for your time and your cooperation.”
“Is it all right if I contact Angie? I won’t discuss any of this,” Lilith said quickly. “She doesn’t need to hear any of this. She may need another woman to lean on.”
“Of course.”
“Even under the circumstances,” Roarke began, “it was good to see you both again, and to meet you, Harmony. I have a recording company, you know.”
Bolton laughed as he rose to shake Roarke’s hand. “Where were you forty years ago? I’ll walk you out.”
“I’ll do that.” Harmony popped up. “Go eat your pie—if there’s any left. This way.”
Harmony wove around her father, led the way back. She waited until they were well out of earshot. “I’d like to speak with you, Lieutenant.”
“All right.”
“I’m hoping my mother’s schedule is clear in the morning so I can go into the office. Surprise!” She smiled a feral smile. “Anybody’s been fucking with our company’s going to know my wrath. But I can already verify there were shortages—before my parental leave—on some of the projects where Mr. Delgato worked as lead plumber.”
“I could use the documentation on that.”
“I’ll send it to you. Dad didn’t want me to look too deep, but I did. When I’d narrowed it down, I had a talk with Delgato—again on my own. He never admitted it, and that was as far as I could take it. My father feels sorry for him, my mother’s friends with his wife, and I’m not in charge. Anyway, it eased off some after that talk.”
“You never told your father your suspicions?”
“Who else?”
Harmony glanced back over her shoulder. “You should take a closer look at the Bardov organization. I can’t, or not too close, but I can say a lot of those shortfalls happened on jobs where they were connected.”
“Your father continues the business relationship.”
Annoyance flickered over Harmony’s face. “The entanglement began before my father. Different times, different hands on the wheel.”
“I appreciate the information.”
Eve stepped out as Harmony opened the door. And Roarke turned back.
“Someone has killed twice. Be careful, won’t you?”
“Believe me, I will. And I have to say it. I loved the Icove book, I loved the vid. I’m already halfway through Furst’s Red Horse Legacy, and I think it may top it. It’s got me by the throat. I’m not the risk taker either of you are. Have a good rest of your evening.”
“It’s never going to end,” Eve muttered as they walked to the car. “The books, the vids. You know Nadine’s going to write one about the Natural Order crap.”
“I do, yes, and expect she’ll do a fine job of it.”
“That’s the damn problem.” Eve glanced back at the house. “She knows something or thinks she does. Bardov, her family history.”
“They’re a lovely, tight-knit family. And when her time comes ’round, she’ll run that company with a great deal more passion, more vision than her father.”
“And fear will play a role?”
“As it should,” Roarke said as he got into the car. “I wonder if we have pie at home. Pie would be a nice complement to some fine dining and a good bottle of red.” He took out his PPC. “I’ll just push a bit more on Alva Quirk while you get us there.”
“If it’s not Tovinski who caved her head in and put that noose around Delgato’s neck, it’s someone like him.” While he pushed on his PPC, she pushed through traffic.
She thought of murder and corruption and double-dealing.
