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“When I visited her at the hospital today. She’s got no family left now.”
Newman said, “There’re still Muriel and Todd Babington.”
Helen looked angry and shook her head. “They never treated Jocelyn like a niece, not the way they treated Bobby, though heaven knows they didn’t treat him all that well. Did you know that they were supposed to take Bobby when Muriel’s sister, his mother, died, but they didn’t want him? Mr. Ray took him because Muriel was the only remaining sister and she didn’t want children. She’d have let the state have Bobby and him just a baby.”
“I didn’t think you’d worked for the Marchand family long enough to know the history, Helen,” Newman said.
“I remember when Bobby’s mother died. We all assumed that her sister would take the baby. I mean, Ray Marchand had divorced twice because he was married to his career. Everyone knew that. We couldn’t believe that he took the boy. Muriel Babington got asked a lot why she didn’t take Bobby, and she told anyone that asked that she never wanted children, her own or anyone else’s. We thought Bobby would end up raised by nannies or something, but Ray cut his hours and stopped most of the traveling and was the best father he knew how to be.” Helen started tearing up again. “And to think that all that kindness and love ended up with the boy he raised killing him.”
Edward patted her hand, and she grasped his hand. How did he do it? “How did Jocelyn know the pictures were on the phone?”
“She borrowed the phone to look something up and one of the photos was his background, if you can believe it. I mean, bold as brass, that.”
“Did she confront him about it?” Edward asked.
“She told him he had no right to those pictures, that she never gave him permission to take them.”
“How did you know the code to unlock the phone?” he asked, still holding her hand, or letting her hold his.
“Jocelyn gave it to me so that I could unlock the phone for the sheriff.”
“If Bobby was hiding pictures from her, seems like he wouldn’t want her to have the lock code to his phone.”
“Bobby told her that he loved her so much that he changed his code to her birth date.”
“Very romantic,” Edward said.
Helen pulled her hand out of his, her face offended. “Not if it’s your own brother, it isn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Helen. Of course you’re right on that.”
“Now you know that Jocelyn is telling the truth.”
“It looks bad for Bobby,” Newman said.
Helen’s face clouded up, some emotion I couldn’t read crossing over her face. Her moods were like clouds on a windy day, fast changing. “I hate the thought of him dying, but I’ll feel safer when the animal inside of him is dead.”
“The animal and the man are one and the same,” Olaf said, still leaning against the wall.
Helen glanced at him, then away quickly, as if she didn’t want to stare at him longer than necessary. Either she had good instincts, or she was just naturally intimidated by a man of his size. “I cannot believe that Bobby is the same thing that killed his uncle.”
“You cannot kill the beast without killing the man.”
“I know that,” she said, sounding defensive.
“Do you?” Olaf asked, and he gave her a long look out of his hooded dark eyes.
She didn’t try to hold the look but found the tabletop much more interesting.
Edward turned around with a smile. In a thick Ted accent, he said, “Why don’t the two of you go talk to Bobby about those awful pictures? We’ll join you in a few minutes.”
His eyes were not nearly as friendly as his tone. I think he thought Olaf was making Helen nervous, and he didn’t want the big guy talking to Bobby on his own, so . . . I got to stand in the hallway with him. Great, I was Olaf’s battle buddy. What could possibly go wrong?
58
OF COURSE, EDWARD wasn’t sending me out to stand alone with Olaf. There was still plenty of company in the outer office. Nicky was sitting at one of the empty desks with a chair angled so he could see us coming down the hallway from the interrogation room. He also had a view of the rest of the office, the front door, and the cells down their little hallway. It made me smile just to see him sitting there. He smiled back.
I wanted to go to him and kiss him so badly. It was just wrong to walk into a room and not touch someone you loved, but we were going to cool the PDA while we were working. Nicky and I would be sharing a room tonight, so we’d catch up on the displays of affection in private.
