Celebrity in Death

to plan things out better. You didn’t wipe the bird off as thoroughly as you thought.”
    One lie, Eve thought, deserved another. Why not add a phantom print to Peabody’s phantom wit?
    “He attacked me. It was self-defense. I only protected myself when he came at me.”
    “Beating his brains out when he was on the ground? I don’t think so. Neither will the jury. You beat him to death,” Eve said, leaning in. “Then you took his files, his electronics, his ’link—and that contact you made to it will be there. It’s amazing what EDD can do. And you stole your friend’s boat, took it out, dumped it all. Your friend, Violet? She recanted, on the record, her alibi for you on the night of Caulfield’s death—and stated you asked her to do so.”
    “That’s ridiculous. Vi’s simply angry with me since she’s only been able to get home-screen roles. I can hardly prop up the career of every washed-up actress I’ve known.”
    “She didn’t sound angry, did she, Peabody?”
    “Just the opposite. She’s really fond of you, Mr. Steinburger. She was really grateful for the break you gave her way back, paying her so she could hire that mag consultant. She really thought it was sweet of you to want to surprise your wife with a big party. I mean to say she really believed that’s why you asked her to cover for you so she was glad to lie about you being with her and the consultant—on the night you killed Angelica Caulfield.”
    “Your alibis are tumbling down, Joel. Violet’s, Valerie’s. With the fifty thousand in bribe money also on record now. Electronics are coming up from the river. Oh, and also from the Coast. We’ve got Pearlman’s comps in our EDD now. Technology’s advanced since you framed him, staged his suicide. We’re tracking the skimmed funds back to that private account of yours.”
    “Angelica was a neurotic, unhappy woman with a taste for drugs and alcohol. Pearlman was weak and greedy.”
    “All that may be true, but neither of them self-terminated. You got rid of them, like you got rid of a nosy paparazzo, and a young assistant who got too clingy, an ex-wife who maybe pushed the wrong buttons. I’ve got nine on your scoreboard, Joel, and I’ll be looking for more. If they’re there, I’ll find them.”
    “You’ll find nothing.” He reached up, loosened his tie slightly. “There’s nothing to find.”
    “Maybe, maybe not. But you’re done. You’re over.”
    “I’ve been in this business longer than you’ve been alive! I have more power, more influence than you can dream of. I’ll crush you.”
    “You’re done,” she repeated, watching his color rise again. “You’re over. Unexpected wits, sloppy murder weapon wiping, a botched kill tonight, with Julian alive to spill everything.”
    Eve let out a half laugh, eased a hip on the table—disrespect and light contempt in every gesture.
    “And you just had to bitch to Nadine. She was wearing a wire, by the way, about the stench zoner added to Harris’s herbals. When that was one of those little details we kept back.
    “You got cocky. Getting away with murder for so long, you got overconfident. Trying for two in two days, then following it up with a third? Hey, nobody could expect some slick Hollywood type to pull that off.”
    “You’ll never prove it.”
    “I will. All of it.” She held up the bag of pass codes. “This? Stupid. We’re smarter than you, Joel. I didn’t know how much smarter until this.”
    He shoved up, started to lunge at her. She was on her feet in a finger snap.
    “Come on,” she invited. “Take a shot. We’ll add Assaulting an Officer to the mix. I don’t mind a bit.”
    “I would have made you.” He trembled—not from fear, Eve saw. From rage. “I would have made you with this production. You’d have been one of the most famous women on or off planet. The most admired police woman in their history.”
    “Thanks. But I’m just a cop, and that’s good enough. It felt good to kill Asner, didn’t it? You don’t get to go that physical nearly often enough, do you? The pounding, the blood, the
release
of it. The power of it.”
    “No one says no to me.” He swiped a hand through the air, balled it into a fist, rapped it on the table. “I told him to give me everything he’d gathered on Marlo and Matthew, on me. And he refused. A sudden conscience, going to take it all to the police?”
    The fist slammed again, again. “Who did he think he was dealing with? Did he