In Death 22 - Memory in Death

was going
    to wrap this up in shiny paper, drop it right in your lap. Then I’d stand back, big wide eyes, horrified that my husband’s mother turned out to be a blackmailer. I’d be laughing my ass off.”
    “A good plan,” Eve acknowledged, “but opportunity jumped out at you again.”
    “If you’d fallen in, it would’ve turned out differently. You want to think about that,” Marnie said, and gestured with her drink. “I figured you’d pay her off, or at least take a couple days to think it over. Then I’d come to you, all dewy-eyed and upset, tell you what I’d found out about my darling husband’s mama.”
    Marnie nudged the coffee aside. “You and me, we’d both have gotten something out of that. Every kid she ever screwed with would’ve gotten something out of that. But you pissed her off good. Roarke? He shot her through the ozone. She was going to make you pay, and pay big. That’s all she could think about. Somebody screwed with her, she’d do anything to screw them back, and bigger. You saw what
    she did to herself.”
    “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
    “Not the first time, like you said. You ask me, that woman had some serious issues. She’d already
    bunged herself up good when she called me. Not Bobbyhe wouldn’t put up with what she wanted to do. He’d have stopped her, or tried. But me? Her sweet, biddable daughter-in-law? She knew she could count on me, she knew she could bully me. It wasn’t much of a stretch to act stunned when I went into her room. Her face was a freaking mess. You know what she told me? You want to know?”
    “I’m riveted,” Eve answered.
    “She said you’d done it.”
    Eve sat back, as if stunned. “Really?”
    “Oh, yeah, she put it on thick. Look what she did to me. After I took her in, gave her a home. And she’s a policewoman! So I played the part right back. Oh, my, oh, gosh. We have to get you to the hospital,
    tell Bobby, call the police! But she lays it out. No, no, no. A cop did this, and she’s married to a powerful man. She’s afraid for her life, see? So she gets me to make the recording. For protection, she says, and I see just how she’s wheeling it. It’s all there, subtle-like. If you don’t do the right thing, she’ll send a copy of the recording to the media, to the mayor, the chief of police. They’ll know everything. I’m supposed
    to make a copyso she keeps the originaland hand-carry it to you at Cop Central. No telling Bobby. She makes me swear.”
    Laughing, Marnie swiped a finger over her heart. “So I make her some soup, and I put a nice tranq in it, add some wine. And she’s out. Could’ve killed her then, you know. You want to think about that, too.”
    “I’m thinking about it.”
    “I searched the room, found the sap she’d made. Found a copy of the file she had on you, too. Interesting stuff. I took all of it. She called me later, but I said I couldn’t talk. Bobby was right there. I’d call her when we got back from dinner, after he was asleep. She didn’t care much for that, let me tell you. Well, you got the ‘link right there, so you’ve heard.”
    “She pushed you,” Eve prompted. “Trudy didn’t like being told to wait.”
    “Nope. But I’m like, Oh, let me tell Bobby. We won’t go out, we’ll come down and take care of you. I know she won’t go for that, so she takes another pill, and I go out on the town. Long night for me, but God! It was fun. Just bat my eyes, ask Bobby if we can have champagne, and he pulls out all the stops
    in his middle-class way. I’m so juiced, you know?”
    She drew breath in her nose, letting her head fall back, closing her eyes as she relived it. “Lay him just right when we get back, give him a little something extra to make him sleep. Then I go on down the hall to have my talk with Trudy.”
    “You took the weapon with you?”
    “Sure. Not to use it,” she added quickly. “Get that straight. I’m putting that on record. What I figured
    was I’d show it to her, stay in character at least awhile. What have you done? You lied to me! I’m going to tell Bobby. I’m going to the police!”
    Marnie laid her hands on her belly and laughed. “God! You should’ve seen her face. She never expected it. So, she slapped me. Told me I was hysterical, and slapped me. Said I was going to do just what she told me, and no back talk. If I wanted to keep my cozy nest, I’d shut my mouth and do what she said. Otherwise I’d be out on my ass, she’d see to