upended it, but let things slide out gently, one at a time, onto the table. He set aside her cell phone, poked into the makeup bag, ignored the pack of tissues, sunglasses, and notebook, and glanced through the wallet. Then he picked up her key chain, holding it by the flat pen fob.
“Tell me what each of these keys does.”
She identified the key to her car. The rest went to various doors around the house.
“No safe key or safe deposit box?”
“Nothing like that. I’m sorry. I really don’t know what key he meant.”
They went back to going through the events of the night. They spent what seemed like hours dissecting every sentence, almost every word of what she told them.
Then they switched gears and asked her about what she planned to do now.
“I haven’t even thought about it. I want to go back to school. I need the degree to build a life. But…”
“But?”
“I’ll probably have to get a job. I have some savings, but I don’t know how far it will stretch.”
“Savings? Won’t you inherit something from Vince?”
Her tired, sluggish brain took a few moments to grasp the implications. “You think I killed him for an inheritance?” She started to laugh but felt it getting out of control and snapped her mouth shut. “His estate goes to his wife and sons. If he left me anything at all, it wouldn’t be more than a small bequest. Vince liked me well enough, but I wasn’t family. A mistress, maybe a friend, but not family.”
“You didn’t expect anything from him?” Christianson’s eyebrows rose.
“He’s already done a lot for me. He paid all the medical bills, and they were huge. He gave me a generous allowance, generous enough to let me build up some savings. I knew pretty much what was in his will. He told me. Everything goes to his sons except for a good-sized bequest to his ex. That seemed fair to me.”
Christianson didn’t say anything for a few moments.
So much for your theories that I killed him for the money.
Hennesy flipped a couple of pages of his pad. “Tell us about what he did earlier today. Anything unusual?”
She shook her head. “It all seemed very normal. I got back from class at four. He was in the office, working. I leaned in and waved like I always do. We had dinner at six. He went back to his office to make a few phone calls then went to the den to watch TV. I was studying in my room until about nine and then joined him. At eleven I went to bed, but he wasn’t tired. That’s it.”
“He didn’t seem worried or frightened?”
“No.”
“Concerned about anything?”
“I don’t think so. He didn’t mention anything.”
“Did he get any threats?”
“Not that I knew of.”
“What did you argue about?” Christianson threw the question at her when his partner paused to write a note.
“Argue?” She hesitated, not sure what to say. “We didn’t argue.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Christianson stared at her with those cold blue-gray eyes. “You never argued with him?”
“We had disagreements, yes. Nothing serious.”
“What did you disagree about?”
“Politics, mostly. We have different views on some things.”
“Money?”
“No. Or only once, when he wanted to buy me a car and tried to get me a Cadillac. I wanted something smaller and less…opulent.” A headache gathered behind her eyes, running into her temples.
“What about your boyfriends? Did Vince approve?”
“What boyfriends?”
Christianson’s eyes narrowed. “Come on, don’t tell me a girl as pretty as you doesn’t have a few male friends on the side. Or maybe just one special one?”
“No.”
“Why not?” The questions came fast and hard, like hammer blows, making her head throb even more painfully.
“I… There was Vince.”
“He owned you?”
“No, but I owed him some loyalty.”
“You never spoke to any of the guys in your classes?”
“Well, I did occasionally.”
“Flirted with them?”
“No.”
“None of them ever asked you out?”
“Some of them tried, but I never accepted. And then word got around and they stopped asking.”
“What word?”
He leaned toward her, his face only inches from hers. She couldn’t escape being aware of him…large, threatening, and damn it, handsome.
Her breath caught. Pain, grief, and exhaustion wore at her control. “Because everyone at school knew. Knew that I lived with Vince. That I was his…”
“His whore?”
“Jay!” Hennesy shot out of his chair, glaring at his partner.
At the same time Sarah shouted, “His lover!” Tears threatened again and she swallowed hard and blinked, struggling to hold them back.
Christianson backed up a step but kept his gaze on her. “And that kept all the guys from making passes?”
“The rumor got around that Vince had underworld connections.”
“Was it true?”
“I don’t know. Probably.”
Christianson took a longer pull from his coffee cup but his gaze never left her face. “You don’t know?”
“Vince never said much to me about his businesses. He said the less I knew the better.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.”
She clenched her fists and fought for control, over anger this time instead of pain.
Hennesy glared at his partner again. “Jay.”
Christianson drained the last of the coffee and crumpled the cup in his fist. Hennesy went back to making notes. “You know any of his business connections?” Christianson asked.
“A few.” She rattled off the names of people she’d met at some of the parties or gatherings she’d attended with Vince.
“What about friends?”
“I don’t know that he had a lot of close friends. The people I just mentioned are probably closest. And me.”
“You?”
“We were friends.”
“Let’s go over it again,” Christianson said.”You went to bed at eleven. Did you go right to sleep?”
They wanted her to tell the whole story yet again? She glanced at her watch. Five-ten. She wouldn’t be getting to class today, most likely. Especially not if they arrested her. She sighed and began talking.
This time Christianson didn’t stop her as often but when he did, he was a lot more aggressive and hostile.
“You really expect us to believe someone actually forced a gun into your hand and made you shoot?”
“It