In Death 22 - Memory in Death

say, submissive nature.”
    “Or she’s slipped that persona on like a skin-suit.”
    “Yes, or, if you’re right, Eve, this is a very clever, very calculating woman. One who would be willing
    to subvert her own nature for a considerable length of time in order to reach her goal. She’s been
    married to this man for several months, which brings them into a very intimate relationship every day. She knew and worked for him before that, was courted by him. Maintaining a pose contrary to her
    nature would be a very impressive feat.”
    “I’m prepared to be impressed. I’m not pushing aside other possibilities, other suspects,” she added.
    “I’m just adding her in.”
    And keeping her at the top of my list, Eve thought.
    [“18”]18
    BOBBY WAS SITTING UP INBEDWHEN EVE stepped into his room. His eyes were closed, and
    the entertainment unit was set, she assumed, for a book on disc. In any case, there were voices spilling out of it in what seemed to be an intense and passionate argument.
    If he was sleeping, he didn’t need to hear it. If he wasn’t, she needed his attention. So she stepped
    closer to the unit. “Pause program,” she ordered.
    In the sudden silence Bobby stirred, opened his eyes.
    “Zana? Oh, Eve. I must’ve nodded off. Sort of listening to a book. Crappy book,” he added with an attempt at a smile. “The nurse told me Zana was coming in soon.”
    “I just left her a little while ago. I’m having a couple of uniforms drive her to and from. It’s nasty
    outside.”
    “Yeah.” He looked out the window, his expression brooding.
    “So. How’re you feeling?”
    “I don’t know. Clumsy, stupid, annoyed to be here. Sorry for myself.”
    “You’re entitled.”
    “Yeah, that’s what myself s telling me. The flowers, the tree. It’s nice.”
    He gestured toward the little fake pine decorated with miniature Santas. To Eve’s mind, it looked like
    the jolly old elf had been hanged, multiple times, in effigy.
    “Zana told me you helped pick them out.”
    “Not really. I was just there.”
    “She thinks of stuff like that. Little things like that. This is a really, really shitty Christmas for her.”
    “For you, too. It sucks out loud, Bobby, and I’m going to add to it by asking you if you’ve thought of anything else, remembered anything. About what happened to your mother, about what happened to you.”
    “Nothing. Sorry. And I’ve had a lot of time to think, lying here like an idiot who can’t cross the damn street.” He let out a sigh, lifted the hand of his good arm, then let it fall. “A lot of time to think, about what you said, about what you said my mother did. Wanted to do. She really asked for money?”
    Eve moved closer to the bed so she could stand at its side and watch his face. “How much shit can
    you take?”
    He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, she hoped what she saw in them was strength.
    “I might as well get it all dumped on me. I’ve got nothing better to do.”
    “Your mother had several numbered accounts, which were fed by funds she extorted from women
    she’d fostered as children.”
    “Oh, God. Oh, my God. There has to be a mistake, some kind of mix-up, misunderstanding.”
    “I have statements from two of these women that verify that your mother contacted them, threatened
    to expose their juvenile records unless they paid the amounts she demanded.”
    She watched the blows land on his already battered face, until he was staring at her, not with disbelief
    or shock, but with the focused concentration of a man fighting pain.
    “Statements,” he repeated. “Two of them.”
    “There’re going to be more, Bobby, when it’s done. She also informed my husband that she had copies
    of my files and would sell them to interested media sources unless he paid her. She’s been blackmailing former charges for a number of years.”
    “They were just kids,” he said under his breath. “We were all just kids.”
    “It’s possible she used one of her former fosters to aid her in her attempt to blackmail me, through Roarke, and was killed by this individual.”
    “I would never have let her do without. Whenever she wanted something I did what I could to get it for her. Why would she do this? I know what you’re thinking,” he said, and looked beyond her, toward the window again. “I understand what you’re thinking. You think she used and mistreated you when you were in her care, when you were a kid. So why not use and