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Beau threw his hands in the air and let them fall to his lap, giving them a helpless look. “I don’t know! I don’t know what the hell this crazy monster is planning, what he’s thinking.”
“But we do,” Josie said. “We can make an educated guess. He thought you got the first question wrong, so he killed the person who had knowledge of Claudia’s bid for that position, the person who was directly involved in squashing Claudia’s dreams and keeping your secret. If he thinks that ‘having children’ is not the correct answer now, who will he kill?”
Beau shook his head. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Why were you at that basketball game?” asked Josie.
“I told you, I just stopped—”
Footsteps padded across the carpet. Josie and Noah turned to see Margot approach. She muscled her way past Josie and Noah, surprisingly strong, and stepped in front of Beau. “What are they talking about?”
He didn’t answer. Margot looked to Josie and then Noah. She held out a hand. “I want to see the picture.”
Josie produced it for her. Margot stared at it for a long moment. “You said this was a game played by small children?”
Noah said, “Seven- and eight-year-olds.”
Margot handed Josie back her phone and turned on Beau. “You son of a bitch. Seven or eight years old? That would have been—” She stopped, eyes lifting to the ceiling as if she were calculating something. “Right around prime childbearing age for Claudia. What did you do?”
Beau leapt to his feet, hands up in a defensive posture. “Margot, listen. It was a mistake, okay? I only saw her a few times. She wanted to keep the baby. It’s not like I had a choice in the matter.”
Before Josie or Noah could react, Margot flew at him, arms extended. She pushed him hard, and he fell back onto the couch. “You’re so disgusting,” she spat, standing over him. “I’m finished with this. I don’t need to get to know you. I don’t need this shitty job, and I’m not keeping any secrets for you anymore.”
She stomped over to one of the wingback chairs and snatched up her purse.
Her hand was on the doorknob when Beau cried out, “Margot, please. Don’t go. Without Claudia, I have no one. All those people—producers, agents, managers—they don’t care about me. They care about making money. I need you.”
Tears streamed down Margot’s face. She hesitated, turned back, and took a few steps toward him. Then she stopped and studied him. Josie had to admit that he looked pathetic and broken. Apparently, Margot didn’t buy it because she put her hands over her ears and screamed. Beau reared back, looking frightened, like he was in the room with a wild animal. Dropping her hands, she spat, “You don’t need me. You never even cared about me until I showed up on your doorstep. You’re so full of shit. I don’t know why I thought— You know what? You deserve to suffer.”
She spun on her heel and with a terse “I’m sorry” directed toward Josie and Noah, she left.
Beau watched her go, blinking back tears. Noah said, “You want to tell us what that was about? When we got here, you told us you weren’t sleeping with Margot Huff. But she seems pretty upset to hear you’ve had a child with another woman.”
Beau’s face crumpled. “I’m not sleeping with Margot! She’s my—she’s—oh my God.” He put his face between his knees, as if he might be sick. After taking in a few deep breaths, he sat upright again. “She’s my daughter.”
Even Josie had not seen that coming. Somehow, she managed to keep her surprise to herself.
Beau added, “It was before Claudia and I—well, I was young and in grad school. I wasn’t ready to have children. Her mother said it was fine, that she could handle it. It was up to me whether or not I wanted to be in Margot’s life. At first, I thought I’d pop in now and then but then I met Claudia and life got away from me. I never told her. She never knew. No one does. One day, Margot showed up at the studio. She said she was my daughter. All she wanted was to get to know me. I couldn’t very well do that without drawing the wrong kind of attention, could I? So I hired her as my assistant. No one batted an eye to see us spending so much time together.”
Josie wondered what else no one knew and how much of it had led to the horrific events of the last several days. For now, she had to focus on the immediate issue. She said, “You had an affair with a woman eight or nine years ago. Who was she?”
Beau’s gaze remained fixed on his lap. “I’d rather not say.”
“You do understand that the killer may target this woman—and your child.”
Beau put a hand to his chest. “My son? No. He wouldn’t.”
“We don’t know that,” said Noah. “But we need to take precautions. Give us the name of his mother.”
“You can’t—you can’t—I promised her I wouldn’t bother her or confuse him. If she thinks they’re in danger because of me or Claudia, she might…it wouldn’t be good. Please.”
Josie said, “I am sure that her concern for her son’s safety will outweigh whatever anger she might have toward you. Just give us her name. Please. We need to make sure that they are safe. The sooner the better.”
Noah added, “Last time, he killed Trudy almost immediately after the show. When is the last time you had contact with this woman?”
Beau’s eyes widened. “I don’t have contact with her at all. That’s the arrangement. I’m only allowed to see a photo of Sam every now and then. That’s all. If she even knew I was at that game, she would be furious. I pay for all of Sam’s needs and stay out of their lives and in return, she won’t tell anyone that I have a son. Not that she would want to. She hates me. Listen, there is no way this killer would know about her or Sam. I promise you. No one knows.”
Josie said, “You’ll excuse us if we don’t believe you, Mr. Collins. You haven’t exactly been forthcoming with us from the beginning. In fact, all you’ve really given us are lies on top of lies.”
