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“Yeah.” It would have been impossible not to. “But you know the psychology of those patterns as well as I do. Trying to rehabilitate someone like Elizabeth into normal society would be like dropping a kid from the Hood into an investment banking job and expecting them to thrive.”
“Antoinette did,” he argues. “Thrive. I mean look at her.”
“That we know of,” I correct. “And I wouldn’t call escortingbreaking the pattern, per se.”
“True.” He looks at me for a moment. “Do we pull Gangs in?”
I consider GHU—the Gang Homicide Unit—and quickly shake my head. “We don’t have anything concrete yet. Let’s bring everything to the captain in the morning and go from there.”
“Sounds good.”
“Do you know what else I found interesting about today?” I ask Mani as he goes about packing up his desk. “Out of the four of them, only Catherine and Antoinette included themselves on the list of people who might want to harm Elizabeth.”
“Catherine included all four of them, except,maybeJuliette Dorn. But Antoinette only herself.” Mani pushes to a stand and tucks his chair in. “It would make for an interesting psychology case study.”
“People who know they’re capable of harming someone usually know for a particular reason. They’ve been in a position where they’ve had to think about it.” I walk myself through the train of thought. “We know what Antoinette is capable of.”
“Potato peeler.”
“Exactly. Which begs the question: What position was Catherine Beauchamp ever in that made her realize she was capable of murder? That she realizedeveryoneis capable of murder, given the right motive?”
“Hopefully, we’ll find out.”
“I truly do want to help you find whoever took her from Toni.”
“What?”
“Catherine. She didn’t say ‘I truly want to help you find whoever took her fromus’, she specifically said, ‘I truly do want to help you find whoever took her fromToni’.”
“Yeah.” Mani looks down at his watch again.
“You should get going,” I give him an out. “Say hi to Angie for me.”
“Will do.” He pushes to a stand and starts gathering his things.
I turn my chair back to the desk. A glance at my computer tells me that it’s close to seven-thirty p.m.Two hours.I give myself a curfew, knowing that if I don’t, I’ll start losing focus. Experience has taught me that fourteen hours on shift is about as much as I can manage without becoming sloppy.
And still, the urge to start digging into the Antoinette Rupetta Escort Agency and its employees is strong, almost compulsive. It’s not that I don’t trust Mani to do it himself or to do it satisfactorily, it’s just that I know that I can do it better. And in a case like this, details are everything.
If my impulse is to start by digging into Catherine Beauchamp’s past, I don’t overthink it. In fact, I try my hardest not to think about her at all.
Chapter 6
Catherine
“I’ve canceled all our clientsfor the next two weeks.”
I turn to stare at Toni, surprised by her announcement. In the four years that I’ve worked for her,livedwith her, I don’t think she’s ever willingly canceled a date. Sure, there were odd situations where she’d had no choice, like when Lizzie was a no-show, or someone came down sick. But all dates? And fortwo weeks? Never.
“I thought we could all take the time to relax. It’s…” She clears her throat as she battles tears. “It’s been a long day.” Her dark eyes are dry, but I can still see the grief settling in, black and heavy.
Before any of us can step forward to comfort her, Toni turns for the stairs, her posture rigid. She looks fragile for the first time I can remember, her tall frame brittle, breakable somehow.
I watch her until she disappears up the stairs, wait until I hear the quiet click of her door. “I’m really worried about her.”
“Me too.” Jules plops her purse on the dining room table and leans down to remove her ballet flats. There’s no kicking off her shoes and throwing them in a corner. Everything Juliette does, every move and word, is deliberate, careful, and impossibly graceful. She stands again, shoes in hand.
“She’ll be fine.” With a casual shrug, Lyla starts for the door.
