Calculated in Death

rights?”
    “What?”
    “What’s your version of your conversation with Marta Dickenson.”
    “Jesus, why didn’t you just
say
that? All I did was ask her to ease off—it’s
my
money, and it’s just stupid I have to go begging to those tight asses every time I want more. And I was
nice
to her. I sent her flowers, didn’t I? I said how I’d give her ten thousand under the table if she’d just clear it. Ten thousand’s a nice chunk for some bookkeeper bitch.”
    “You suggested Ms. Dickenson doctor the audit in your favor, and in return you’d give her ten thousand dollars?”
    “Yeah. I was
nice
. And she got pissy about it. So I said fine, fine. Make it twenty, and she’s all ‘I’ll have to report you if you keep this shit up,’ like that.”
    “Peabody, your cuffs or mine?”
    “Can we use mine?”
    “What’re you talking about? You stay away from me.” Candida cringed back on the sofa. “Aston!”
    “Ms. Mobsley, you’ve just confessed to offering a bribe to Marta Dickenson in the amount of twenty thousand dollars in exchange for her altering a court-appointed audit. That’s a felony.”
    “It is not!”
    “Look it up,” Eve suggested as Aston rushed in. “Step back, pal, unless you want to be restrained and charged.”
    “What’s the matter? What’s happening?”
    “They’re trying to say they can arrest me for being nice to that stupid dead accountant. I just said I’d give her money.”
    Obviously, a bit more evolved than his employer, Aston shut his eyes. “Oh, Candida.”
    “What’s the matter? What’s the problem? It’s
my
money. I was going to give her some.”
    “Lieutenant, please, Candida didn’t understand the implications. Can we just take a moment, just take a moment? I’ll contact her lawyer. He’ll come immediately.”
    “Let’s try this first. Come clean, absolutely clean. Answer questions without the bullshit, and we’ll see.”
    “Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, Candida, you need to answer the lieutenant’s questions. You need to tell her the truth.”
    “I did!”
    “You lied with your first answer. Try again.”
    “I didn’t recognize her name at first, that’s all.”
    “Peabody. Your cuffs.”
    “Okay, okay. Jesus! I was just playing it a little frosty. No big. I admitted I knew who she was, didn’t I?”
    “You threatened her.”
    “Maybe I said some things. I was upset. It’s the trustees that’re the real dicks. And my grandfather for being such a tight ass. And my parents, for God’s sake, because—”
    “I don’t care about the trustees, your grandfather or your parents, though I pity them all. I care about Marta Dickenson.”
    “I didn’t
do
anything. I just said how I’d give her money, like a favor. You do this, I pay you. I pay lots of people to do stuff.”
    “Lieutenant,” Aston began.
    “Quiet.” She glanced down at a familiar sensation to see the white panther cub rubbing and winding itself between her shins. Weird. “You contacted her numerous times, threatened her if she didn’t cooperate.”
    “I was upset! I was nice to her at first, and she was pissy to me. So I got pissy.”
    “You were going to make her sorry.”
    “Damn right. I know people who’d make sure she was sorry.”
    “Is that so?” Eve questioned when Aston moaned quietly.
    “I was working on it, too. The tight asses always want me to make wise investments, right? So I’ve been working on buying that stupid place where she works. Then I could fire her ass.”
    “Your plan was to buy the firm and fire her?”
    “Damn right! Tony said how they weren’t interested in selling, but people always fall in when you hand them enough money. And he said—Tony—that even if they did, the stupid courts would just get another firm for the stupid audit, but it was the
principle
. I’ve got principles just like anybody.”
    “And knowing people like you do, maybe you know people who’d know how to scare her. Rough her up a little.”
    “Huh? Like—” Candida mimed punching. “Come on!” Now she laughed. “If I wanted to smack her, I’d smack her myself. But if I smack anybody for another like eighty-one days, I have to take more anger management, and that’s so frigging boring I can’t stand it. Probably she pissed somebody else off. I figured that out when I heard somebody killed her. People who mess with other people’s money piss people off.”
    When the cub tried to climb up Eve’s leg, she gave it an absent scratch between