Dead In The Water (Rebecca Schwartz Mystery #4) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series)

them—if they found out there were other men in her life, and they almost certainly would if Ricky’s suspicions were correct, that wouldn’t look good for our team.
    But the point is that they had no reason to arrest him that night. We were out of there by ten, and I had miles to go before I slept. I had to get to my other client—the one who was still on the loose—and talk some sense into her.
    I heard the gentle buzz of the television as Julio opened the door, and then there he was, in black sweats. Black sweats with nothing underneath them. I felt small beads of moisture form on my forehead, and hoped he couldn’t see them.
    I said: “I thought Esperanza didn’t watch TV.”
    “Rebecca.”
    “I’m sorry to drop by so late.”
    “Come in. You left so suddenly.”
    Esperanza was lying on the floor in the living room, covered with a blanket, eyes at half-mast, but fixed doggedly on the TV.
    “She’s allowed two hours on Saturday night,” Julio said, “and she gets to watch cartoons on weekends.”
    I sat down on the floor and kissed her cheek. “Hi, client. We have to talk.”
    “Hi. Why’d you leave so quickly?”
    “Come in the bedroom and I’ll tell you.”
    Julio said, “Wait a minute—how about me?”
    “Sorry,” I said. “This is privileged.”
    Once we were in Esperanza’s room, I spoke with no preamble. “Honey, we have to tell your dad. Tonight. To stop something bad from happening.”
    “How bad?”
    I knew where that could lead—“pretty bad”; “Really, really bad?”—so I headed it off: “Now, don’t faint, okay? Can you handle this? Amber might be in trouble.”
    “I’m not going to faint.” She sounded slightly annoyed, as if I’d been talking down to her—as if she wasn’t the sort to faint at the mere mention of Amber, and didn’t see why I didn’t understand that. Her dip in the bay had changed her, I thought.
    “Somebody else got killed, honey.”
    Her lip quivered as she tried to get up the courage to speak.
    “I don’t think it’s anybody you know. A woman named Katy Montebello.”
    “Ricky’s—” Her eyes were huge with surprise, but she stopped herself in midblurt.
    “Ricky’s what?”
    She spoke with dignity: “Amber calls her Ricky’s Sugar Mama. Ricky didn’t kill her, did he?”
    “Of course not. He’s my client, too—none of my clients are guilty.” I waited for the expected smile. “But she was murdered. And the pearl could have had something to do with it. The police questioned Ricky about it tonight, and I did something I’m not supposed to do—I told him not to tell them he had the pearl. Do you know why I did that?”
    She nodded gravely. “Because he would have had to say Amber stole it. Because that’s what he thinks. Oh, Rebecca, she’s so brave! She must know I took it—I told Libby, and Libby can’t keep a secret. She must have told Amber. Anyway, anybody could figure it out. And Amber never told Ricky. I feel so awful.”
    “Sweetheart, we all get scared sometimes. You did what you had to.” Poor kid. With Sister Teresa’s hell-and-jail hanging over her, who could blame her?
    She took my hand. “Let’s go tell Daddy.”
    Frankly, I was astonished. This was a different child from the quivering lump of protoplasm Julio had had on his hands before the sail.
    “Daddy, I have something to tell you.”
    “I think it’s about time, don’t you?”
    “Promise you won’t get mad.”
    “I promise I won’t feed you to Cecil—is that good enough?”
    “Oh, Daddy, I’ve been so bad!”
    She ran to him, leaped into his lap, and cried for about twenty minutes before she could talk. So much for the new, adult Esperanza. I guess growing up is a matter of fits and starts.
    Julio listened to his daughter’s guilty plea with all the gravity of a three-judge panel, made appropriate fatherly noises (but forbore to feed the kid to the wolf eel), and, frankly, didn’t seem all that upset that his little darling was a thief. I guess after nearly losing her, it seemed rather a small matter.
    He did have some good questions, though—some I should have asked myself. “Who knew you gave Sadie the pearl,
Nena
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    “Libby.”
    “Who else?”
    “Nobody, I guess.”
    “Was there anyone near her office while you were talking with her?”
    She shook her head. “The door was closed.”
    “Let me ask you something else. Did you tell Sadie where you really got the pearl?”
    Her eyes widened at the idea of letting her