Final Option

undulated between blue and gray as you watched. Her skin was perfect, her lips full, her teeth a study in white. But there was a bump in her nose and a hard set to her mouth that pushed her beyond Barbie good looks.
    She wore a pair of gray cashmere stirrup pants with a tunic sweater to match. Around her neck she wore a long gold chain of unusual design. Her earrings were simple diamond studs, that—if real—constituted someone’s serious investment in gemstones. On her left hand was an enormous, single diamond in a setting of modem simplicity.
    “The family sent you here to make me go away,” she said, making no attempt to disguise the steel in her voice.
    “I can’t make you go away,” I said honestly. “I wouldn’t even want to try. I came here to listen. Nothing more. Bart’s son would be here himself, but he has more on his plate now than he can handle. Why don’t you tell me when you began having a relationship with Bart?”
    “Almost as soon as I started working for him. I think I managed to play hard to get for about three weeks. I was living with Carl at the time, and it was awkward. But Carl’s a pig, and I knew that what we had together wouldn’t have lasted. Besides, when Bart wanted something he usually got it. I know that everyone thinks I was after his money, but I have always been attracted by powerful, successful men. Bart just swept me off my feet.
    “And right from the start I told him that I didn’t want to spend my life being a rich man’s mistress. I wanted more from my life than to sneak around while his wife thought he was out entertaining customers. That’s why I never quit my job. I wanted to start trading for myself. Bart was going to lease me one of his seats in June.”
    “And did he start giving you money right from the start?”
    “It wasn’t like that. When I broke up with Carl I didn’t have any place to live. Bart found this apartment for me. I said it was too nice, but he said he didn’t want us to spend time together in a dump. He was a very generous man. He loved to give presents. He loved me to have pretty things. I never asked for any of it. I would have loved him if he had been a bricklayer.“
    “What about his temper?” I asked.
    “My dad has a temper like that. I didn’t let it bother me.”
    “So why did you call Barton? What is it that you want from him?”
    “I want what his father promised me. He was buying me an apartment in the new complex that’s going up by the river. He put the earnest money down, and he was supposed to make the first payment on Monday. I want the money to keep paying my rent until the new apartment is finished. I want money for furniture and to lease a seat to start trading.”
    “What you’re asking for represents a great deal of money.”
    “It’s less than what I would have gotten if that bitch, Pamela, hadn’t killed him.”
    “You are assuming that your relationship with Bart was permanent. Who’s to say how much longer it would have lasted? In any event, all that changed when Bart was murdered.”
    “It would have lasted,” said Torey, locking me in the full beams of her violet eyes. “The last time I saw Bart, he came to the apartment after work on Friday and proposed to me. He said he had decided to leave Pamela. He gave me this.”
    In the tradition of brides-to-be the world over, Torey held out her left hand for me to admire her ring.
     
    When I got back to the office I found Ruskowski waiting for me.
    “Don’t you believe in using the phone. Detective?” I asked as I unlocked the door and let us both in.
    “I like to see who I’m talking to.”
    “Don’t you waste a lot of time driving around?“
    “There aren’t that many homicides in Lake Forest. Now that Hexter’s is closed, I’ve got time on my hands.”
    “So you feel satisfied that Pamela Hexter shot her husband?”
    “What do you take me for? If I wasn’t satisfied she’d have never been arrested, especially with the entire goddamn country looking over my shoulder. You’d better believe I’m sure.”
    “The reason I bring it up is that I was talking to Stephen Azorini. Since you know he sleeps with me I assume you also know that he’s president of Azor Pharmaceuticals. We were discussing Hexter’s medical history. Did you know that Hexter had suffered a near fatal heart attack?”
    “Sure. The medical examiner said so.”
    “Did you know that as a result he developed a heart condition called ventricular tachycardia?