Vivian’s eyes welled with tears. Her teeth bit a side of her perfectly painted lips. Her head went up and down in a nod. She looked at Jeb.
“Will you stay with me?” Vivian asked.
“Stay with you,” Jeb said. “Stand by you while you clear this up. For the rest of our lives. Absolutely.”
Jeb gave Éowyn a stiff nod.
“Let’s get this over with,” Vivian said. She dared to look at Ava for the first time. “I knew this would happen. When you started back at the Crime Lab, I just knew that someday, some way, you would want to know about this.”
“Today is that day,” Éowyn said.
She set down her phone. The audio recorder was on.
“Let’s get started.”
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Thirteen
“Now really . . .” Vivian started. She looked from Éowyn to Ava and sighed. “At least sit down.”
Moving stiffly, Ava sat down on the front edge of an armchair. Éowyn scowled at her mother.
“You can’t scowl it out of me, Éowyn,” Vivian said. “I am immune after more than twenty years of being bullied by your father’s scowl!”
Éowyn groaned and sat down in the other armchair. Jeb sat down next to Vivian. He took her hand and looked at Éowyn.
“This might go better if you ask some questions,” Jeb said. He turned to look at Vivian. “The past is over. There ain’t nothing we can do about it. We may as well unburden ourselves.”
Vivian’s eyes flicked to look at him. She softened.
“It’s time,” Jeb said. “You cannot ask for kinder questioners. Let it go. We’ll deal with whatever happens next.”
Vivian gave a soft nod. Ava looked over at Éowyn and saw that her sister was realizing, for the first time, the broken state of their mother. Éowyn sucked in a quick breath. She glanced at Ava, and Ava smiled.
“What if I start?” Ava asked.
Vivian gave a slight nod. She opened her mouth to say something cruel but seemed to decide against it. She looked at Ava.
“Go ahead,” Vivian said. “I will do my best, but you should know that I have very little practice at being honest. Too many secrets.”
“Maybe it’s time to let it go,” Ava said. “He’s dead. It’s over.”
Vivian gave a slight nod of her head.
“I remember waking up when Aaron came home,” Ava said, using her father’s given name. “He was totally freaked out. He’d been out with his friends at some dinner. You were home. We went to bed early because Éowyn and Bella had chicken pox.”
“You were a carrier but never got sick,” Vivian said.
“You thought that I was a carrier,” Ava said. “I am not.”
Vivian gave Ava a disbelieving look.
“I was tested,” Ava said. “I cannot do this work and be a silent virus or bacteria carrier.”
Vivian raised her eyebrows and looked down.
“Do you remember the incident that Ava is referring to?” Éowyn asked.
Vivian’s eyes shot over to look at Éowyn. Her head went up and down in a slight nod. Her gaze returned to her lap.
“Ava has an incredible memory,” Vivian said. “Especially about anything that might be out of the ordinary.”
“You mean, our father’s crimes,” Éowyn said.
Vivien raised her eyebrows at Éowyn but looked down at her lap. Her voice came out soft but clear.
“The children were sick,” Vivian said. “I’d been reinfected by the girls and was coming down with shingles. We all went to bed early. Amelie liked to read those crime novels, so she didn’t mind going to bed early.”
Ava nodded.
“And Amelie is . . .?” Éowyn said. “For the tape.”
“Ava,” Vivian said. “My daughter, Ava O’Malley. She almost never got sick, so it wasn’t surprising that she wasn’t ill. All that exercise, I guess.”
Vivian sighed. She took a breath, and Ava thought she would unburden herself. She shook her head.
“Come on, Viv,” Jeb said, in a soft voice. “Let it go.”
Vivian nodded and started to speak.
“I was asleep when Aaron . . .” Vivian looked at Ava and nodded, “ . . . came home. He’d had one of those dinners with the muckety mucks of Colorado. The governor and the rest. They liked to drink and usually got women.”
Vivian looked up at Éowyn.
“Aaron didn’t ‘use’ the women,” Vivian said. “He used to say that he didn’t like the ‘commonness’ of prostitutes. He tolerated being around it because these were the powerful people of Denver. I used to think that he didn’t use the prostitutes because of his respect for me and our marriage.”
Vivian looked at Ava and then at Éowyn.
“Of course, I didn’t know he was keeping Yvonne as his sex slave,” Vivian said. She shook her head. “He didn’t use prostitutes because he had her.”
Vivian shook her head.
“There’s no reason for me to keep his secrets anymore,” Vivian said. She looked up at Éowyn and then at Ava. “Tell me what you need to know, and I’ll do my best.”
“I remember Aaron coming home,” Ava said. “He was very upset, frightened. It scared me. I thought maybe Éowyn or Bella had gotten worse, so I listened in. He kept talking about Mrs. White. You remember Mrs. White?”
Ava looked at Éowyn. She shook her head.
“One of Dad’s paralegals?” Ava asked. “I went to interview our victim’s family today, and it turned out to be Mrs. White. It all came back to me.”
Vivian had been watching Ava’s face. Ava stopped talking. After a moment, Vivian nodded.
“I will tell you what he said,” Vivian said. “Now, you know how much he lied. Like a dummy, I believed what he told me. He was my husband, and I . . .”
Vivian sighed. She took a breath.
“I can tell you what he said,” Vivian said. “I have no idea if it is true or not.”
Ava leaned forward.
“He said that it was his turn to host dinner,” Vivian said. “They moved the dinner around and always had it at someone’s office. They’d order in food. The only people who were there were those ‘involved.’ That’s what he called it — ‘involved.’”
Vivian nodded to her memory and continued.
“After dinner, he went out,” Vivian said. “He didn’t say where he’d been. He just said that, after dinner, he’d left the men for an hour or so. The girls and I were sick. He may have said that he went to the pharmacy to get our medications. But who knows where he went or what he did or even why he did it? He was simply gone.”
Vivian looked up to see if Ava and Éowyn were listening. Seeing that she had their attention, she looked down again.
“While he was gone, L’Keisha White . . .” Vivian said.
“My victim,” Ava said.
Nodding, Vivian continued, “ . . . had come in. The men had expected a prostitute so . . .”
Vivian sighed.
“There was some amount of fighting. Arguing,” Vivian said. “He swore that the men did not sexually assault L’Keisha. He said that when he returned, she told him that she’d been on a date and that the man had raped her. She’d seen the light on in his office and come there.”
“L’Keisha had practically grown up in one or the other of Aaron’s offices,” Vivian said with a sigh. “She thought that she could get help, find family, at least use a phone to call her grandmother or the police. It was before everyone had a cell phone and . . .”
Vivian gave a heavy sigh.
“Anyway, you probably remember how your father used to call his staff his ‘work family,’” Vivian continued. “That’s what she wanted. L’Keisha, that is. Instead . . .”
Vivian looked down.
“She was killed by . . .” Vivian said a name, but Ava couldn’t hear her. Before she could ask, Vivian continued, “She got angry, and he tried to restrain her. She fell backwards off the second-floor railing and died
in the entryway.”
“She was alive after her fall,” Ava said.
“What?” Vivian asked with a gasp. She looked truly horrified.
“The fall did not kill her,” Ava said. “She was strangled.”
Vivian jerked back. She gawked at Ava. Her eyelids blinked in a fast rhythm.
“What did you say?” Vivian asked.
“She was strangled,” Ava said, evenly.
Vivian leaned forward so that she was just inches from Ava.
“You think your father strangled her?” Vivian asked.
“I have no idea,” Ava said. “I know that her injuries were not fatal. If they were at Aaron’s offices, they would have been near medical help. I’d have to check, but it’s likely that, if they’d called an ambulance, she’d have survived.”
Vivian shook her head.
“So that she could testify to needing help from the powerful men of the state and nearly being raped,” Vivian said.
“You’re sure she wasn’t raped?” Éowyn asked. “I mean, really, a bunch of drunken powerbrokers looking for their prostitute? Why wouldn’t they?”
Vivian looked at Éowyn for a long moment before she shook her head.
“I know only what he said and that’s not what he said,” Vivian said. “He asked me if I knew of a place they could ‘leave’ the body. Those were his words — not ‘bury’ or ‘dispose of,’ but leave. He’d told them that he would take care of the body. He told me that this was his chance to have something to hang over these powerbrokers. He just had to make sure that the murder was never officially traced back to him.”
Vivian nodded.
“I will tell you that he peddled that influence into the State Attorney’s office,” Vivian said with a nod.
“How did she get out to Kiowa County?” Ava asked.
“I knew someone who worked for the Sheriff there,” Vivian said. “I suggested we call him and see if he could help us.”
“You knew Pete Cabrón?” Ava asked.
“We went to high school with his younger brother, Pablo,” Jeb said. He looked at Vivian. “Is that who you called?”
Vivian nodded.
“He referred me to their dad, who was the Sheriff — Sheriff Pete Cabrón, Senior,” Vivian said. “Pablo’s brother, Pete, was a Deputy. Their Dad . . .”
“The Sheriff,” Ava said.
Vivian nodded and continued, “He wanted to gain some kind of influence in Denver.”
“The Sheriff was in on this?” Ava asked, her voice laced with incredulity.
Vivian nodded.
“This was a chance for them to get attention and money from the state,” Vivian said. “Pablo told me that his dad told him, ‘Bring the body here. We’ll take care of it.’ Next thing I know, O’Malley and Delgado are standing on our front steps, asking about L’Keisha’s death.”
Vivian shook her head.
“They didn’t get very far,” Ava said.
“Oh yeah?” Vivian asked. “O’Malley told me that he knew Aaron was involved — he just wasn’t sure how. I told him that there was no way — absolutely no way — that Aaron was involved. He knew I was lying, but he dropped it.”
“Do you still believe that our father wasn’t involved in her death?” Éowyn asked.
“I guess . . . well . . . He wouldn’t have moved up so fast and fluidly if he hadn’t been able to leverage those men.” Vivian nodded. Her lips became a thin line. “If he was involved in her death, he would not have had that kind of power. So, no. I don’t think that he was involved.”
“And the handbag?” Ava asked.
“I found it when we were moving. After Bella was killed. After the FBI left,” Vivian said. “I went out to the site and buried it myself.”
“How did you know where it was?” Ava asked.
“I went with your father. We gave L’Keisha’s body to the Sheriff,” Vivian said. “Aaron followed him to the field because he wanted to make sure that the Sheriff didn’t ‘screw him.’ When I saw the tiny clutch, I knew what it was. Instantly. I drove it out there.”
“But why, Viv?” Jeb asked. “Why not just turn it over?”
“I don’t know,” Vivian said. “I was just . . . Bella was dead, and I . . . He . . .”
She turned to look at her husband.
“He took everything from me — my daughter, my dignity, my sense of myself,” Vivian said. “He left me with . . . chaos and mess. I wanted it to be over. Bury my own culpability, I guess. I don’t know.”
Vivian looked at Éowyn and then at Ava.
“I’m sorry,” Vivian said to Ava. “I should have done something else. I just . . .”
Vivian shook her head. Tears began to stream down her face.
“It’s okay,” Jeb said. “We’ll deal with it now.”
Biting her lips, Vivian nodded.
“Tell me,” Jeb said in a kind voice to Vivian. “Do you think that this handbag was Aaron’s leverage?”
Vivian nodded.
“I never stopped thinking about her — L’Keisha, I mean,” Vivian said. “I prayed for her, lit candles for her soul, begged her soul for forgiveness. I . . . I could never look at her grandmother again. I’m sure she must have noticed.”
“I’ll ask O’Malley,” Ava said.
“He told me that he didn’t think that our father was involved in her murder,” Éowyn said.
“How is that possible?” Vivian asked.
“You have guilty eyes,” Jeb said. “Everything about this case, you see guilt. O’Malley is an excellent investigator. The best. If he thinks that Aaron wasn’t involved, then he probably wasn’t involved.”
“Except to get what he could get from it,” Ava said.
“That’s who he was,” Vivian said. “I’m not going to say that he did it for you, for us, to put a roof over our heads.”
“Because the roof was taken by the FBI?” Éowyn asked.
“Because the man did whatever he wanted to do,” Vivian said. “He used us as a smokescreen to justify his own illegal activities. I don’t think he ever cared about anyone. Maybe Yvonne but never me.”
Unsure of what else to say, Ava simply nodded.
“You could be charged with accessory to murder,” Éowyn said.
Vivian nodded.
“I could have just burned the purse,” Vivian said. “I had enough time.”
“Why didn’t you?” Ava asked.
“Because . . .” Vivian shook her head. “Because . . . I wanted her to have it.”
“What else is in this handbag?” Jeb asked. “There’s got to be something if it was his leverage over these men.”
“I’m not sure,” Ava said. “I just received a text that said that Mom’s DNA was on the bag.”
Jeb nodded. Vivian sagged in her seat. Éowyn shifted and looked at Ava. Ava nodded. They had gotten as much as they were going to get today.
“You might still have to go into a police station for an interview,” Éowyn said.
“Whatever is necessary,” Jeb said.
Ava stood up, and Éowyn followed. Jeb escorted them out of the home. They followed Fluffy out to the SUV. Once in the vehicle, they sat in silence for a while before Ava looked at Éowyn.
“What the fuck?” Ava asked.
“Exactly,” Éowyn said.
Éowyn started the vehicle and drove to her home. Ava got out of the SUV and went to the Denver Crime Lab sedan.
“You don’t have anything else to say?” Éowyn asked.
Shaking her head, Ava shrugged.
“I have to talk to O’Malley and the team,” Ava said.
“And for you?” Éowyn asked.
“I think that broken people do broken things,” Ava said.
Éowyn nodded. Ava got in the sedan and pulled out. Éowyn stood watching her for a long moment before turning to go inside.
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Fourteen
It was late when Ava pulled up in front of
the house. The porch light was on, but the rest of the house was dark. She grabbed her belongings and went up the walk. As quietly as she could, she opened the front door.
Maresol looked up from her reading. She was sitting on the bench they used when they changed into their winter shoes. She smiled at Ava.
“He had a bad day,” Maresol said.
Ava gave a fast, guilty nod.
“Before you decide that this was your fault,” Maresol said, giving Ava a knowing look, “you should know that he would not have been persuaded to stay home. He wanted to speak to the victim’s family. There’s nothing anyone could have done to stop that. It was simply too much for him.”
Maresol’s words didn’t help the sinking feeling Ava had in her stomach. She looked down.
“He asked that you wake him when you came in,” Maresol said.
Ava nodded. When Maresol didn’t say anything else, Ava looked at her. Maresol had known Seth since he was eleven or twelve years old. She’d worked in this house for most of her life.
“Do you think he chose this case . . .?” Ava started.
Maresol stood up quickly and hugged Ava. She grabbed onto Maresol like a drowning person grabbed onto a lifeline.
It was only when Maresol said, “Shh, shh. It’s okay. Everything is okay,” that Ava realized she was sobbing. Maresol held her until Ava stopped crying.
“Wake him,” Maresol said. “Ask him all of your questions. Don’t hold back — and don’t go to bed tonight with this on your mind.”
“But he’s so sick!” Ava said.
“Your love makes him well,” Maresol said. “This right here — your questions, your doubt, his frailty — this is love.”
Ava looked at Maresol for a moment.
“Are you hungry?” Maresol asked.
“I feel sick,” Ava said.
“I understand,” Maresol said. “If you get hungry, I put your dinner in the refrigerator. You remember how to warm it up in the microwave?”
“Thank you,” Ava said, nodding.
Maresol picked up the blanket she’d had over her lap and her book. She leaned over and kissed Ava’s cheek.
“Talk to him,” Maresol said.
Ava watched Maresol retreat to her rooms on the first floor; then Ava went up the open stairs. When she’d first met Seth, his room was at the front of the house. They slept there together now. She opened the door.
Little Girl Blue, a Seth and Ava Mystery Page 9
