Elena Estes - Dark Horse Part 25

"They are arresting Jade?" Van Zandt said. He looked pasty and ill in the daylight. He was wearing a

blue and red ascot at the throat of his blue dress s.h.i.+rt. Perhaps it was cutting off the blood supply to his brain.

"No. Routine questioning," I said. "His employee was murdered. Don't you find that shocking?" I asked.

"I've never known anyone who was murdered."

Van Zandt shrugged. He didn't seem disturbed in the least. "The girl was a s.l.u.t, always talking about this

boy and that boy, dressing like a wh.o.r.e. It's no surprise she would come to a bad end."

"Are you saying she was asking for it?"

"I am saying if you lie down with the dogs, sometimes they bite."

"Well, there you go. A lesson to us all."

"This f.u.c.king sun," he complained, putting on his shades, changing the subject as if a girl's violent death

was of no more consequence than a bad round in the showring. Less.

"What's your story, Z.?" I asked. "You look like death, yourself. Were you out partying last night

without me?"

"Bad food. I don't get a hangover," he said stubbornly. "I never become drunk."

"Is that from lack of trying or are you superior to the rest of us?"

He mustered a thin smile. "The second, Elle Stevens."

"Really? And I thought the Germans were supposed to be the master race."

"It is only Germans who think that."

"You've got it all figured out, Z. Come on," I said, taking him by the arm. "I'll buy you a Bromo-Seltzer and you can tell me all about the New World Order."

You saw her at The Players last night. You had an argument." "It wasn't an argument," Jade said calmly. "She was dressed inappropriately-" "What's it to you? Was she there with you?" "No, but she's my employee. The way she conducts herself in public reflects on me." "You weren't there to meet her?" "No. She worked for me. I didn't socialize with the girl." Landry raised his brows. "Really? That's funny, because she told me yesterday you were sleeping with her." "What? That's a lie!" Finally, a human reaction. Landry had begun to suspect Jade didn't have a nerve in his body. They sat on opposite sides of a table in an interview room, Jade-until that moment-perfectly composed, every hair

in place, a crisp white s.h.i.+rt accentuating his tan, his monogram on the cuff of the sleeve.

Michael Berne was next door with Weiss. The blonde was cooling her heels in the reception area. Jill Morone was on a slab in the morgue with an a.s.sortment of contusions but no obvious fatal injuries.

Landry figured strangulation or suffocation. She appeared to have been s.e.xually a.s.saulted.

Landry nodded as he took a bite out of his tuna salad sandwich. "She told me she was with you

Thursday night when Michael Berne's horses were being turned loose."

Jade rubbed his hands over his face and muttered, "Oh, that stupid girl. She thought she was helping me."

"Helping you, as in giving you an alibi? Why would she think you needed one? She was right there when

you told me you were with someone that night. Did she know otherwise?"

"Of course not. Jill didn't know anything about anything. She was a dim, pathetic girl with a vivid fantasy life."

"She had a thing for you."

He let go a long sigh. "Yes, I suppose she did. That was why she was at the club last night. She was waiting for me, apparently with ideas to seduce me."

"But you didn't want to see her."

"I asked her to leave. She was embarra.s.sing herself."

"And you."

"Yes," Jade admitted. "My clients are wealthy, sophisticated people, Detective. They want to be represented in a certain way."

"And Jill didn't fit the bill."

"I wouldn't take Javier to The Players either, but I didn't kill him." "He hasn't claimed you were f.u.c.king him," Landry said, reaching again for his sandwich. "That I knowof."

Jade looked annoyed. "Do you need to be so crude?"

"No."

Landry sat back and chewed on his lunch, more to be irritating than out of hunger.

"So," he said, making a show of running the facts through his head as he formed a thought, "she got all

dolled up and went to The Players to meet you . . . just on the off chance maybe you'd be interested?" Jade made a gesture with his hand and s.h.i.+fted positions on his chair. He was bored. "Come on, Don. She was around, she was hot for it, it was free. You're telling me you never took advantage?"

"That suggestion is repugnant."

"Why? You've f.u.c.ked your help before."

The zinger hit its mark. Jade twitched as if at a small electrical shock. "I once had an affair with a groom.

She was not Jill Morone. Nevertheless, I learned my lesson, and have made it a policy ever since, not tobecome involved with the help." "Not even Erin Seabright? She's no Jill Morone either, if you get my drift." "Erin? What's she got to do with this?" "Why isn't she with you anymore, Don?" He didn't like the familiarity. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly every time Landry used his name.

"She quit. She told me she took another job elsewhere."

"So far as I've been able to find out, you're the only person she actually told about this big change in her life," Landry said. "Taking a new job, moving to a new town. She never even told her family. I find that strange. She only told you. And no one has seen or heard from her since."

Jade stared at him for a moment, speechless, or knowing the wisdom of holding his tongue. Finally, he stood up. "I don't like the direction this conversation is taking. Are you charging me with something, Detective Landry?"

Landry stayed in his seat. He leaned back in the chair and rested his elbows on the arms. "No."

"Then I'd like to leave now."

"Oh. Well . . . I just have a few more questions."

"Then I'd prefer to have my attorney present. It's becoming clear to me you have an agenda that isn't in

my best interest." "I'm just trying to get a clear picture of the things going on in your business, Don. That's part of my job:to map out the victim's world, put all the pieces in place. You don't want me to get to the truth behind JillMorone's death?"

"Of course I do."

"Do you feel you need an attorney present to do that? You're not under arrest. You've told me you don't have anything to hide." "I don't." Landry spread his hands. "So . . . what's the problem?" Jade looked away, thinking, considering his options. Landry figured he was maybe good for another five minutes, tops. A sergeant supervisor sat in a room down the hall watching the interview via closed-circuit TV, watching the readout of a computer voice-stress a.n.a.lysis machine, looking for lies.

"Feel free to call your attorney if you like," Landry said generously. "We can wait for him . . ."

"I don't have time for this," Jade muttered, coming back to the table. "What else?" "Mr. Berne said he heard Jill tell you she knew something about Stellar-this horse that died. What didshe know?"

"I have no idea what she was talking about. The horse died accidentally in the middle of the night. Therewas nothing for her to know." "There was plenty to know if it wasn't an accident." "But it was an accident." "Were you there when it happened?"

"No."

"Then you don't really know what happened. If it was an accident, why did the horse have a sedative in its system?"

Jade stared at him. "How do you know that?" Landry looked back at him like he was an idiot. "I'm a detective." "There was nothing criminal in Stellar's death." "But the owner stands to pick up a big check from the insurance, right?" "If the insurance company decides to pay, which is unlikely now." "Would you have gotten a cut of that money?" Jade stood again. "I'm leaving now." "What time did you leave Players last night?"

"Around eleven." "Where did you go?" "Home. To bed." "You didn't swing by the show grounds, check on your horses?" "No." "Not even after what went on the night before? You weren't worried?" "Paris had night check last night." "And she didn't notice anything wrong? She didn't see the vandalism?" "Obviously, she was there before it happened." "So, you went home to bed. Alone?" "No." "Same friend as Thursday night?" Jade sighed again and looked at the wall. "Look, Don," Landry confided, rising from his chair. "You need to tell me. This is serious business. This isn't just some nags running around in the middle of the night. A girl is dead. I realize in your world, she might not have counted for much, but in my world, murder is a big deal. Everyone who knew her and had a problem with her is going to have to account for their whereabouts. If you have a corroborating witness, you'd better say so or I'm going to end up wasting a lot more of your valuable time."

He thought Jade might let his arrogance get the best of him and just walk out. But he wasn't a stupid man. Landry imagined the guy's mind sorting information like a computer. Finally he said, "Susannah Atwood. She's a client. I would appreciate if you didn't mention this to any of my other clients."

"Everybody wants to be the trainer's pet?" Landry said. "That's quite a gig you've got going, Don. Ride the horses, ride the owners too."

Jade went for the door.