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“Then he took me out to lunch my first day, told me that he was the reason I’d gotten the job. Told me that he’d picked me specially and that he expected me not to rock the boat. I didn’t know what that meant for another week, not until Archie brought me the invoice to sign for the purchase of the new security system. I knew how much it should have cost and the invoice was twice the right price. I said something to Archie and the next thing I knew, Kent was in my office. Told me to sign the invoice or I’d end up like my predecessor. Who I knew was dead. I still didn’t want to sign it, but then he showed me an offshore account he’d opened—in my name. It already had twenty thousand dollars in it. He told me to sign the invoice for the overpriced security system or he’d go to the board and accuse me of theft. I…signed it.” She sighed. “After that, he had me. He and Archie were skimming everything from the operating fund to the supplies to payments to vendors.”
“When did the sex start?” Connor asked quietly.
“My second week. Kent knew that my mother needed continuing care and that I couldn’t afford it. So he added…stipulations to my continued employment. It was disgusting,” Evans said bitterly. “I’d scrub and scrub after we were done, but I haven’t felt clean since I started at Shady Oaks.” She lifted her chin and met Kit’s unflinching gaze. “I wanted to kill him so many times, Detective, but I never did. I had the opportunity several times—every time he rolled off me and took a nap—but I never did. I’m not a killer. I’m not really even a thief. Just…weak.”
“What about the coins?” Kit asked.
“I knew about them. Janice, the head nurse, had told me that Devon Jones had reported it, but I wasn’t about to tell Kent. He found out anyway. I asked how he’d found out, but he…Well, he wasn’t a nice man. When he hit, it hurt. He told me that he’d checked the browser history of my home computer when he…” She closed her eyes.
“You weren’t just meeting him at the hotel, were you?” Connor asked.
Evans shook her head. “No,” she whispered, then cleared her throat. “Kent came and went as he pleased. He owned me. Which he was pleased to tell me every chance he got. He taunted me with emails ‘reminding’ me of our standing appointment. Sometimes they were reminding me to bring my umbrella. That was code for condoms. But then he’d ask how my roses were doing. That’s my mother’s name. Rose. He knew I’d do whatever I had to do to keep her safe and healthy.
“Anyway, he found the article about Benny’s coins on my computer. He printed it out and shoved it in my face. I’d googled the coins when Janice told me about them. I don’t know how Kent zeroed in on that one article in my history, but he was good at ferreting out secrets. Security was his job. Kent told me to find out where Benny was keeping the coins. I told him that the Dreyfus family would never allow Benny to keep something so valuable in his apartment and he laughed. Said I was a terrible liar.”
She really is, Sam had to agree.
“Kent told me that I better find out how to get my hands on the coins or I’d be sorry. My mother would be sorry. So I made up a reason to visit Benny and found the safe inside the cabinet. But we needed the combination to the safe in addition to Benny’s fingerprint. The fingerprint was easy, especially since Benny took sleeping pills at night, but the combination would be harder. So Kent gave me a camera to put in Benny’s room. It was one of those that records directly to a memory card, no internet involved, because he didn’t want Archie to know about it. Kent had hidden it in a vase, like a nanny-cam.”
“We didn’t find a vase like that in his room,” Kit said, but Sam could tell she was interested.
“It was gone when he died. I was surprised, too, Detective. I figured that Kent had taken it and stolen the coins.” Evans narrowed her eyes. “You think he stole them, too.”
Kit shrugged. “Maybe. But he’s dead, so we can’t ask him. Convenient.”
Evans shook her head. “I did not kill him. I didn’t want to help him. That I did was on me, but I did not kill him, and nothing you say will get me to tell you otherwise.”
“When did Crawford give you the vase? Date and time, please?” Connor asked. “And when did you plant it in Mr. Dreyfus’s apartment?”
“He gave it to me on Wednesday. It was at the end of the workday, so sometime around five. I put the vase in Benny’s living room when he was at dinner. So around six o’clock.” She studied Kit, then glanced at Connor. “You’re searching my house right now?”
“Yes,” Connor said simply. “Your financials, too.”
“You won’t find the coins there. Or the camera vase. I guarantee it. But Kent had a storage unit. I saw a receipt for it once when I went through his briefcase.”
Connor lifted a brow. “When he was sleeping after sex?”
Evans flushed. “Yes. I was hoping to find something incriminating on him, but I’m not that lucky or devious. I don’t remember where it is, but maybe he hid the coins there.”
Kit flipped through the pages in the folder she’d been carrying, nodding. “All right. We’ll check it out. Did you ever meet Mr. Crawford anywhere else?”
“Other than my own house whenever he felt like barging in? No. He liked the Excelsior Hotel. I think he met all his lovers there. I don’t know that he was ever faithful to his wife. I don’t know why he stayed married to her.”
Kit was still studying the pages in the folder. “Did you meet at the hotel any other day besides Tuesday?”
“No. I got the impression he was meeting someone else there, though. One of the women behind the front desk said something like, ‘Welcome back, sir, I trust your and Mrs. Crawford’s stay last week was satisfactory?’ Kent told her that it was and we went on to our room.”
Kit closed the folder and gave Evans a notepad. “All right. I want you to write out your statement. Include anything that you think will help you steer clear of a murder charge. And ‘I could have done it at any time but didn’t’ isn’t a great defense, just so you know.”
She and Connor rose and left the room while Evans silently began to write.
Kit entered the observation room, her frustration palpable. “We are no closer to knowing who killed Crawford and Flynn,” she complained.
“Did you find charges for a storage unit in Crawford’s financials?” Connor asked as he closed the door behind them.
“Yes,” Navarro said, holding up his phone. “I just texted the other detectives I put on the case and one of them had noticed it. It’s a place not too far from Crawford’s house.”
“We can cut the lock off to search the unit,” Connor said, “since we didn’t find a key. Both Evans and Adler could have killed both Crawford and Flynn. We’ll keep digging, Kit. We’ll find something.”
