Celebrity in Death

her, didn’t mean for her to drown. You just wanted the video, wanted to protect yourselves, your privacy, the project. But then you didn’t get her out in time.”
    “No. No. No. She was in the pool, facedown, when we got up there. We didn’t even think of the video until … I tried. We both tried. Everything happened exactly the way we told you. We left out the blackmail, the threats. But it happened exactly the way we said. I swear to you.”
    “Including Marlo going up with you, with a recorder on her?”
    “Yeah. Like I said, we were going to—” The light seemed to dawn, like a switch flicked. “Jesus Christ, we’re idiots. We’ve been so … We’ve got a recording. Marlo turned it on when we started up. We tested it first. We have a recording.”

 
    EVE DECIDED TO RESERVE JUDGMENT ON WHETHER Marlo and Matthew qualified as idiots, innocents, or calculators. In the meantime, she kept Matthew cooling his heels in one interview room while Peabody contacted Marlo, requested she come into Central.
    “We’ll take Julian while we’re waiting for her to come in,” Eve told her partner. “When she does, we’ll see what we see—or don’t. And we’ll see if pretend Roarke has any little secrets pretend Peabody sussed out.”
    “I don’t like to think of her as pretend Peabody anymore. The more we find out, the meaner and crazier she gets. It’s like it’s bad enough fake Peabody got murdered, but now fake Peabody is a dead, blackmailing asshole on top of it. It’s depressing.”
    “Yeah, it’s all really too bad for you.”
    “Well, it kind of is. How am I supposed to enjoy the vid now, when I’ll be thinking how behind the scenes I was trying to blackmail McNabinto bed, and the whole time he’s in love with you? And that maybe there’s a vid of the two of you all naked and sexy and—”
    “Stop right there before I boot.”
    “Hey! Maybe there’s a vid of fake Peabody and fake Roarke all naked and sexy. That would definitely make up for it. Maybe I can get a copy.”
    “There’s going to be a vid of me tearing strips off your ass then using them to wallpaper my office. I’ll make copies for everybody. Get Marlo down here. I’ll start on Julian.”
    Eve headed to Interview. Inside Julian sat, head in hands. When he lifted his face, he was pale, hollow-eyed, unshaven.
    “I don’t feel well,” he began.
    “Don’t look well either. Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, in Interview with Cross, Julian.” She added the pertinent data, sat.
    “I’m fasting,” he told her.
    “Is that so? Is that a mourning for Harris deal?”
    “A—no. I drank too much. Then the Sober-Up, the blocker, and I took a sleeping pill when I got back to the hotel. It’s all too much for my system. I’m taking nothing but clear liquids today, to flush out the toxins.”
    “That’s one way.”
    “Do I need a lawyer this time?”
    “Do you want one?”
    “I want to go home, go to bed. I want to wake up yesterday before all of this happened. It’s like a dream, a really bad dream.”
    “You argued with K.T.”
    “At dinner.”
    “After dinner. Before the gag reel.”
    “I did?” His eyes, bloodshot and dull, stared into hers. “About what she said at dinner? I was upset, embarrassed. Did I tell you already?”
    “Some of it. How about when she came banging on your trailer door yesterday? What did she want then?”
    “I … don’t remember.”
    “Bullshit, Julian. You weren’t drunk then. I have a witness who saw her banging on your door. And she was angry, insistent.” The timing worked, Eve thought, and she was banking Peabody had heard Harris yelling outside Julian’s trailer.
    “She was always angry about something,” he said with a shrug.
    “She wanted you to claim you and Marlo were having an affair.”
    “That’s just studio hype. It’s—”
    “No, Julian. She wanted you to tell Matthew you and Marlo were screwing around behind his back. Matthew and Marlo are involved. Harris didn’t like it. She wanted you to help her break them up.”
    “I didn’t know Matthew and Marlo were a thing.”
    “Until?”
    “Yesterday. When K.T. started raging about it. They’re really good at keeping it low. I could see it last night, when I looked for it. Up until then, I just thought they were friends. Maybe they had sex—it happens—but I didn’t know they were a thing.”
    “Why would she expect you to do what she wanted, to tell Matthew Marlo cheated on him with