Peter Decker 3-Book Thriller Collection: False Prophet, Grievous Sin, Sanctuary

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Faye Kellerman

Год написания книги

2019

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“You’re an awfully devoted employee. Anything in it for you if the boss kicks suddenly?”

Ness’s eyes darkened. “Not a fucking thing.”

“No need for profanity, Mike. I was just asking you a question.”

“Look, you and your lady partner don’t like me, it’s your problem. But I didn’t have anything to do with Lilah’s misfortune—not with the rape, not with this—whatever it was. I love Lilah and not in the way you’re thinking—”

“What am I thinking?”

“That I’m only interested in fucking her.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah, I am, but I don’t.”

“Just like Ms. Betham—”

“Oh, man …” Ness threw his arms in the air and dropped them by his sides. “I don’t fuck the clientele. That’s not what I do, okay?”

“Who does?”

“Who says anyone does? Last I heard, Lilah runs a spa, not a stud rental.”

“That’s not what I hear about your good buddy, Mike. The tennis instructor …” Decker smiled. “Eubie Jeffers, is it?”

Ness shrugged. “What about him?”

“I hear he has a hard time keeping his pants zipped.”

“Never a shortage of rumors, huh?”

“I also hear he was with a woman the night Lilah was raped.”

“You’ll have to ask him.”

“We did. You know what else he told us, Mike?”

“That I was with him. That what you want to hear?”

Decker stopped to reappraise his questioning. The kid was very good. He took out his notebook and pencil. “How long were you with him?”

“’Bout an hour.”

“He told my partner he was with you all night.”

It was Ness’s turn to stop and analyze. Decker could see him thinking: Is he trying to trick me or what? The boys obviously didn’t get their story straight—or someone had changed it.

Ness said, “Eubie has trouble remembering things.”

“He didn’t sleep over your place?” Decker asked.

“No.”

“Then how long was he there?”

“I already answered that. About an hour … maybe it was two hours …”

Good old Mike giving Eubie some slack. Decker said, “What time did he arrive?”

“Late.”

“How late?”

“I don’t know. Probably after midnight.”

“And stayed until about two?”

“Sounds about right.”

“Okay.” Decker’s eyes were on his notebook. “Were you two fucking?”

Silence. Decker looked up. Ness had turned crimson. Guilt or anger?

Nostrils flaring, Ness whispered, “You expect me to answer that?”

“You have a problem answering that?”

“I wasn’t fucking him. I don’t fuck guys.”

Decker said, “So what were you two doing?”

“Talking.”

“About what?”

“Why don’t you ask Eubie since we talked about his problems.”

Decker tapped his pencil on his notebook. “Because I’m asking you.”

Ness crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Look, is this an interrogation? Do I need a lawyer?”

“Do you?”

“Oh, man, you are really messing with my head. You know, I came over here out of concern for Lilah. I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw Carl. He was as white as a sheet. Somehow, I gathered that something bad happened to Lilah, but she wasn’t hurt. That’s as far as I got. You ever try to get information out of Carl? The guy isn’t exactly articulate. When I tried the ranch house to talk to the boss, there was a cop at the door. I figured I’d check out the scene myself.”

Ness’s eyes drifted to the bloody rocks, to the dead horse now collecting fistfuls of black flies.

“God, what a mess! Is Lilah really okay?”