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48
“Let’s see.” Griffin pressed the recorder on his cell phone, hit play.
The first voice they heard was Melissa Kay’s, languid and soft. “It’s so much nicer inside. It’s too cold out there. What were you saying about someone jumping into the pool?”
Talix said, “I heard the splash before I got out there, looked down, and saw it was a girl. Looked to me like she splatted. I couldn’t believe she jumped in with all her clothes on.”
“She was probably drunk and having fun, like we are.” She giggled. “Are you ready? Again? Let’s get to the bed this time.”
There were moans and sounds of sex, Talix was panting. When he had his breath back, he said, “You just keep getting better and better, M.K. I miss you all the time, babe, but you know I can’t get away from Seattle except when I can come up with a good reason for a business trip.”
“I miss you, too. Seeing you only every couple of months is torture. Hey, I was thinking. What if I come out and kill your wife for you, make it look like an accident? I could, you know. We’d make sure you have an excellent alibi so even if the cops suspected you, they couldn’t touch you.”
He slowly shook his head. “It’s a good idea, but sorry, babe, I can’t allow it. There are my three kids. They’d miss their mother. I have to admit Tara takes good care of them. And you know divorce is out of the question. Tara’s father would have me buried deep before I made it home from my lawyer’s office.”
“How about I knock off both her and daddy? Make them both look like accidents, so no blowback on you? We could raise your kids, how hard is that? What do you say?”
“My kids are hellions, particularly my girl. I think she’d love you, you’re practically alike. She’s much more like you than her own mother.” He laughed, there were more sex sounds, then his husky whisper. “My naughty, naughty girl, when did you ever kill someone and make it look like an accident? You like the spotlight too much, you like to brag to Daddy and Ryman to just look at what you did, all out in the open and you were so good the stupid cops wouldn’t ever nail you.”
Melissa Kay said, regretfully, “I guess you have a point. It is fun knowing the cops won’t ever figure it out. It’s Ryman who prefers his hits to look like accidents. He keeps score, you know, it’s a point of pride.”
Talix said, “I thought so. It was Ryman who sent that accountant’s car over a cliff. That didn’t work out for him though.”
“Still, the cops can’t prove he did it. It makes me so angry. I still can’t believe my father might be going to jail for the rest of his life because of that bitch who’s been spying on us. I wanted to kill her myself but Ryman said it could be dangerous, what with what’s happening to Daddy, so I hired a young guy to take care of her, Winters was his name.”
“Was? Wait, was he the guy who got himself killed trying to kill some prosecutor? Tried to run her off a cliff?”
“Yeah, was, the incompetent fool. He couldn’t manage to take her out.” She shook her head. “And here I let him talk me into giving him a chance. He was certain he could handle it, swore it’d be a piece of cake for him. Ryman laughed, made me promise not to do anything to her, to let him handle it.”
“I bet that’s the last time you hire someone still learning the business.”
“You’re right, he was young, but how was I to know he wouldn’t just lie in wait and shoot her? I know, I know, he should have been able to knock her car off a cliff, but she was better. But, you know, I don’t want Ryman to off that wretched woman. I want to do it. And yes, I’ll make it look like an accident, however I decide to off her. Fact is, I’m better than Ryman. He knows how to kill someone, sure, but I’m a better thinker, something he’ll never admit. So I made a mistake with Winters, but I was the one who handled that nosy kid.”
“My money’s on you, Babe.”
It sounded like Melissa Kay was purring, nuzzling against him. Talix said, “I’m starved. You pulled me out of my chair in the dining room with only a taste of the clam appetizer.”
She laughed. “You liar! Come on, let’s look at the menu.”
Griffin pressed his recorder off. “That just happened. It’s all we’ve got so far.”
“It’s more than I hoped for, Griffin. She all but spit out Josh Atwood’s name when she said she’d killed a nosy kid.” Eliot Ness could send the tape to Jeter. No need to mention an FBI agent was also there. It meant Eliot Ness still had work to do. She said, “Do you think Melissa really would fly to Seattle and kill Talix’s wife and father?”
“She made a joke out of it, but I think she would in a New York minute if Talix gave her the go-ahead.”
Kirra turned on her back and stared up at the ceiling. She’d been lucky Melissa Kay hadn’t spit her name out when she talked about her father. But she would, of course she would, it was just a matter of time. She couldn’t wait any longer. She’d been ready to tell Griffin when Savich had texted him. No, she had to tell him now even though she wouldn’t be able to send the recording to Jeter. There was no way she could start a relationship with Griffin based on a lie, a huge honker lie. Griffin had to hear it from her, no choice. She swallowed, spit it out. “I’m Eliot Ness.”
Dead silence. His hand lightly squeezed her arm. “I know.”
Shock shot her straight up in bed. She felt as if he’d slapped her. She jerked the sheet up to cover herself and twisted around to stare down at him. She managed to keep her voice even at first, but anger bubbled up and her voice climbed. “What do you mean ‘you know’? I only met you last Tuesday. That’s only five breakfasts ago! How could you possibly know?”
Griffin faced her, he reached out to take her hand but she jerked it away. He backed away in his mind and said matter-of-factly in his professional voice, “Actually, Savich, Pepper, and Jeter all know. It was pretty obvious, Kirra, but none of us wanted to confront you since there were a few illegalities along the way. We were waiting to see how it would play out. Then everything changed on Friday when Melissa Kay hired Winters to kill you. You had to save yourself on Friday just as you did tonight.” He saw no bending on her set face and plowed on. “That’s when Savich assigned me to guard you from the Grissoms. To be honest it’s been hard not to bring it all out in the open with you. I know Jeter has had a very hard time playing around it, pretending, asking you for a list of suspects.”
Kirra looked beyond him toward the front door of the suite. She was utterly still. “I see.” She wanted to laugh at herself, at her hubris, at what she’d thought was her amazing acting. She’d been obvious after all. She said in an emotionless voice, “So you figured maybe if you slept with me I’d roll the truth right out? Please the little lady and she’ll spill her guts? It wasn’t even a contest. I’m really pathetic, aren’t I?”
Griffin said, “Kirra, I didn’t sleep with you to get you to confess you’re Eliot Ness to me. I wanted you desperately. You wanted me. Believe me, Eliot Ness had nothing to do with it. It was you, Kirra. Only you.”
Only her? He sounded so cool, so calm. Could she believe him? She covered her anger and hurt with a sneer. “Well, Agent Hammersmith, you have a confession now from the dangerous vigilante who’s sending Grissom senior to jail for life, something the cops didn’t manage for two decades!”
Griffin felt the earth sliding beneath his feet. Well, what could he expect? “That’s why I called you stupidly brave. You took incredible chances, Kirra, you even went back after your dropped cell phone. What you did took guts. All of us were equal parts proud of you and afraid for you, particularly after Friday.”
She looked away from him, toward one of the paintings on the far wall. “I still don’t see how Melissa Kay and Ryman found out.”
He shrugged. “I imagine they figured you wouldn’t drive the Audi again and probably traced your rental car. You rented the RAV under your own name, right?”
She hadn’t made that obvious leap. She felt like an idiot. She wanted to scream at herself, wanted to scream at him for pointing it out. She continued to stare at the painting, silent.
He said, “It’s a pity that young man who tried to run you off the road Friday was killed. He more than likely would have rolled on Melissa Kay.” He wanted to take her hand, to pull her against him, tell her he understood and it didn’t matter, but she turned back to stare him and it was like he was a stranger, a stranger she’d like to punch out. She slowly pulled away, jerking the sheet with her, and rose to stand beside the bed. “What are you going to do now I’ve confessed to being Eliot Ness?”
