In Death 30 - Fantasy in Death

today. Friendships, long-term, short-term, what clicks and why. Friendships can enhance, right, complete in a way. But they can also erode and scrape, and simmer under the surface. Add money or sex or ego to the mix, and it can boil right over.”
    “I’m hardly one to look at things through rose-colored glasses, or for that matter to doubt your instincts.” Their footsteps echoed as they crossed the garage. “Still, I’ve watched the four of them together, listened to them, and listened to Bart speak of them.”
    “You know, I bet when the pizza lady first hooked up with the husband she wanted dead, she had really nice things to say about him, too.”
    He had to shake his head, half in amusement, half in resignation. “Back to that, are we?”
    “I’m saying relationships change, people change, or sometimes an event, an action, or a series of them just pisses somebody off.” She slid into the passenger’s seat when they reached her vehicle, waited until he’d taken the wheel. “Play the game. Let’s call it Deduction. If you had to choose which murdered or arranged to have murdered the friend and partner, which? And why?”
    “All right.” If nothing else, he thought, it might help him reach some level of objectivity. “First, if one of them did the murder, Cill doesn’t have the muscle for it.”
    “Well, you might be wrong there. She, like the others, practices martial arts, combat fighting, street defense, weaponry, and so on regularly. In fact, she has a black belt in karate, and she’s working on one in tae kwon do.”
    “Ah, well. It doesn’t pay to underestimate small packages.”
    “She’d be agile, quick, stronger than she looks. And the weapon itself may have given her more heft. Being a female with a small build doesn’t rule her out.”
    “The blow came from above, but I suppose it’s possible she stood on something, or used a leap or jump to give her height and momentum.”
    “Now you’re thinking.”
    He shot her a mild look. “I can’t see it, but will agree for now she can’t be ruled out. Var. The same stipulations apply on the physicality. He’d be as capable of it physically as the others—I assume.”
    “Correct.”
    “Otherwise, from my outside observer’s view, Var and Bart were like two parts of the same whole.”
    “Some people get tired of being a part, and want the whole.”
    “Such a cop,” he murmured. “They both enjoyed digging down into the business side of things, digging into the nuts and bolts of sales, distribution, marketing as much as the creative side. They enjoyed having each other for the checks and balances, fine-tuning each other’s concepts when it came to promotion, expansion, that sort of thing. Bart told me once when they met Var, it was like the last piece clicked on. I know what that’s like.”
    Eve stretched out her legs, comfortable with the way he wound through irritable traffic. “And if they disagreed?”
    “I can’t tell you how they worked things out as I wasn’t involved. But I never heard Bart express any sort of frustration on that score.”
    “We’ll agree the victim was loyal and content with the status quo. That doesn’t mean Var, or any of the others were. Are.”
    “There are considerably less messy ways of dissolving a partnership or changing the status quo.”
    Her smile edged toward smirk. “Easier ways to get rid of a husband than cracking him open with a pipe wrench.”
    “I believe I’m going to see that any tools we might have around the house are locked away. On to Benny. He’d be, to my mind, the most intellectual of the four. He enjoys spending his hours in research, sifting through details, theorizing about the underlying meaning of a game, and the reasons they’re played. He’ll research myths, real crimes, historical figures, wars and battles and strategies to add other layers to a game.”
    “Good with details, strategy, and the art of combat.”
    “You don’t seriously believe—”
    “Just pointing out the facts.” She pulled out her PPC, added something to her notes. “When it comes down to it, they all had the means and the motive, and all could easily have arranged the opportunity. In fact, they all, or any two of them, might have planned it out together.”
    “To what end, really?” Roarke asked. “U-Play will likely get a quick boost in sales from curiosity and the public’s thirst for scandal. But without Bart, they’re going to be set back on their heels, at least