Alicia hesitated and glanced at her sisters, then with a deep sigh, turned back to Jude.
“As I told you, Jude, I was home Monday night. I had been at the boutique all day and I was tired. My sisters and I own the Second Chance Boutique
consignment store. We sell only original designer clothing that has been lightly worn.” She glanced over at Skylar, who was wearing what Jude now knew was her standard uniform: ill-fitting cargo pants and a t-shirt, also ill fitting. Sharing a dismissive raised eyebrow with Charlotte, she added, “We make it possible for any woman who has a smidgen of interest in looking decent to do so at half the cost of the upscale boutiques.”
Jude turned the conversation back to the investigation. “On Monday evening, you were alone in the Carriage House?”
“Yes, I live there.”
Jude nodded. “I understand you’ve been living there for what—a year?”
Alicia’s voice dripped with scorn. “Yes, when I decided to divorce that fucking asshole Charlie Berkley, I told him he could keep our shabby house for himself and his skaggy girlfriends.” She gave a dismissive shrug. “Why not? I had an iron-clad prenuptial agreement that ensured he wouldn’t get a thing unless I chose to give it to him. When I told him to keep the house, Mother and Father suggested I move back here until I found a place I wanted to buy.”
“What time did you go over to your parent’s house?”
“It was after 10:30, close to 11:00. I needed some documents for my divorce. I saw that the light was on in the library and knew that my mother and father were probably up. They never went to bed before 11:00 p.m., and Father usually stayed up until after midnight. I often went over there later at night to share a nightcap. My parents liked to finish the day with a glass of Scotch, and so do I.”
When she slammed her eyes closed and stopped speaking, Jude gently prodded. “I assume you have a key to your parent’s house?”
“Yes, and I know the code. But the door wasn’t locked and the alarm wasn’t on. That wasn’t unusual. Father usually locked up before he went to bed. My…my parents were social. They had a lot of friends.”
“Friends who visited them in the evening?”
Alicia nodded. “Yes, when I would stop over, they usually had company. Now that the nights are warm, they often sat in the garden. When I heard voices over the wall, I would occasionally join them.”
“But you didn’t hear voices on Monday night?”
“No, and…and unless I hadn’t needed those documents…I wouldn’t have gone there.”
She put her hands over her eyes and leaned against Charlotte’s shoulder.
Jude was surprised when Skylar spoke.
“Did your father help you with your divorce?”
Alicia looked up startled. Brushing at the tears on her cheeks, she said curtly. “Yes, both my mother and father were determined that my cheating husband would never get a cent of Parker money.”
Jude asked, “Any other questions, Skylar?”
When she shook her head, Jude thanked Alicia, and turned to Charlotte.
“Now, if you would please, Charlotte, tell us about your evening, where you were and with whom? And again, for the record, when you last saw either of your parents.”
Charlotte’s cheeks flushed angrily. “So we’re all on the hot seat, Jude? Isn’t that a mite crass, given the pain that we are in? Admit it. You don’t have a fucking clue who did this to our parents, so instead of looking for the criminals, you’re questioning us like
we’re
the criminals?” Before Jude could answer, Charlotte pointed an angry finger at Skylar. “And what about you? Are you just going to sit there staring at us through those ridiculous glasses as though we’re
freaks in a zoo?” She whirled back to Jude. “For God’s sake, Jude, your little assistant isn’t even taking notes. What kind of a secretary is she?”
Jude’s lip curved up slightly and a sliver of amusement colored his response.
“My
colleague
has an eidetic memory. Unlike the rest of us mere mortals, she doesn’t need so much as a pen and paper to capture her insights.” Pinning Charlotte with a hard stare, he continued, “Now, if you would please, Charlotte, tell us about your Monday evening.”
Charlotte glared at him, not hiding her hostility. “That’s easy, Jude. And we can make your work even simpler. Which is a good thing, given where you are in the investigation. Which from what I can tell, is nowhere!”
Blake frowned and shook his head. “Charlotte, I know you are upset, but there’s no need to take it out on Jude or Ms. Hughes. You know that they are working on this full-time as is the rest of the DPD. It…it’s just so unbelievable, incomprehensible…” Blake put up his hands in defeat and closed his eyes, not bothering to swipe at the moisture on his cheeks.
At her brother’s plea for civility Charlotte appeared to reconsider. She made an obvious effort to speak less sharply. “As I said, Jude, and as you no doubt know, Marion and I were together. We’d stayed late at the Second Chance Boutique
.
We had dinner at Philippe’s,
then went back to the shop
.
We had received a shipment from New York, and Marion and I agreed to stay late. Alicia had been there all day so we convinced her to go home.”
Charlotte was quiet for a moment staring at her hands in her lap. Marion reached over and put a comforting hand on her sister’s knee. When Charlotte looked up at Jude, visible tears swam in her eyes. She swallowed hard and then said in a pained voice, “We were at the shop until you called, Jude, telling us what had happened and that you were sending a car for us.”
Jude let the silence stand and then turned to Blake. “Okay, Blake, that leaves you. Where were you Monday night?”
“Dammit, Jude, I…I was out drinking with my buddies. Christ Almighty, man, do you understand how hard it is for me to tell you that when my parents were being tortured to death, I was getting drunk at the Shipwreck?”
“Yes, Blake, I understood from my squad that they found you at the pub. And no, I cannot begin to imagine how hard this is for any of you. But for the record, can you be more specific about your timing and who you were with?”
Blake nodded and said, “I…I worked until late…in my office. No one was there, but that isn’t unusual. I have a busy law practice and usually work late. I was wired and decided to stop at the Shipwreck on my way home. I got to the pub around ten o’clock and stayed there until you called and…told me you were sending a car for me.”
Blake closed his eyes and rested his head back against the sofa. Alicia reached for his hand and held it tightly in hers.
As before, Jude let the silence stand allowing the Parker siblings to gain their composure. He was surprised and pleased when Skylar took over the questioning.
“Who among you is most familiar with the financial aspects of your family’s fortune?”
All of the Parkers seemed surprised at her question. They exchanged a questioning glance then Marion shrugged. “I am the only one of us who presently sits on the Parker Industries Board of Directors. But that is a rotating position. Each of us assumes the family representative position for one fiscal year and then it passes to the next sibling. While only one of us at a time is a voting member, we all attend the quarterly board meetings and are well-versed in the financial aspects of the corporation. Father thought it was important that all of us understand the family business.”
She frowned at Sky then said dismissively, “You are new here, so it is unlikely that you know, but our family is wealthy. To be more specific, even though we are a privately held corporation, if we were publically traded, we would be among the top five hundred corporations on the NASDAQ.”
Jude smothered a grin, knowing that Skylar knew to the penny the magnitude of the Parker family fortune and likely more than the Parkers or their raft of highly-paid lawyers and accountants knew. He watched in admiration as Sky asked one question after another, soliciting information in a non-threatening manner, never acknowledging their rude dismissal of her. After an hour of polite questions, even the Parker siblings seemed impressed by the studious woman questioning them. At least Jude hoped they were. He sure as hell was, and was looking forward to getting her alone so that he could pick her brain. Which he acknowledged would likely take a while.
Ready to bring the discussion to a close, Jude decided to up the ante, challenge them at their core. Gazing at the four siblings, he said quietly, “Blake asked the right question earlier. If you recall he asked who could have hated your parents so much that they would do the terrible things that they did. I want to underscore Blake’s question. Your parents were brutally tortured. The wounds they suffered were personal, specific. I have a task for each of you. A challenging task. We are convinced that the perpetrators knew your parents. Not only that but we believe they were acting out of rage, and frankly, revenge.”
He paused before making his request. “We need your help. I would like each one of you to come up with a short list of people who you know your parents wronged.”
At their startled murmurs and surprised glances, he added, “Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that your parents in any way deserved the hideous deaths they suffered. But someone—or some people—believed that they did. This is what I want you do to. Without consulting one another, I want you to give Ms. Hughes the names of three people who believed they were harmed by your parents, or someone close to them. People who were wronged personally and in such a way that a deranged mind could believe they deserved to be tortured to death in the most horrific way possible.”
Nodding to Skylar, he said, “I want you to give the names to Ms. Hughes. She is new in this community and doesn’t bring all of our shared biases and history. In addition, she is renowned for her analytical abilities. She will keep the names you give her in strictest confidence. Only when she has investigated them and thinks they warrant further examination will she turn the names over to me. Please know that this is not a finger pointing exercise. Someone and their partners hated your parents enough not just to kill them, but to torture them to death. You can help us discover who those people might be.”
As they were leaving, Jude and Skylar stopped to say good-bye to the Judge.
“How did it go, Jude?”
Jude snorted. “Well let’s just say that the Parker siblings, at least the sisters, were unimpressed with the interrogation team. They mistakenly pegged Skylar as my secretary and then made it clear that rather than me, Jake, as the Commander of the DPD, should be leading the investigation.”
“Hmm, they weren’t impressed with your two-year stint heading up the homicide division in the second-largest police department in the country?”
Jude laughed, “Apparently not. But we got some useful information.”
As they drove back to the precinct, neither one speaking, Jude broke their thoughtful silence. “You did a great job in there, Squirt. I hope those prima donna women didn’t get to you. That’s the problem with women who think they are superior to anyone who doesn’t have the inherited income that they have—which is ninety-nine point nine percent of the population of this country.”
Sky waved a dismissive hand and said flatly, “I got what I needed.” Her phone buzzed and Jude saw a slight smile light her face. Seeing his questioning frown, she explained. “While you were updating Sgt. Solberg, I asked the Judge if he would approach the Larson, McClellan accounting firm for me. That was a text from your grandfather indicating that the Parker Industries Inc. accounting firm will be pleased to meet with me at my convenience.”
“Jesus, Squirt, that’s sensational. I thought I’d have to throw my weight around, to get that supercilious money changer Lars Larson to let you in the door.”
She shrugged. “No, apparently the door is open and they are waiting for me now.”
They pulled into the parking lot and before Jude could tell her again how impressed he was with her, Sky was out of the car heading up the stairs to the precinct. Mac shouted at him from across the parking lot and by the time he’d listened to the eager rookie’s breathless report, Skylar had disappeared.
Chapter 9
Ten hours and five team briefings later, Jude shoved back in his chair with a weary sigh. Glancing at his phone, he saw that it was after nine o’clock. A shot or three of Maker’s Mark begged for his attention. A confab with his brothers along with the booze would be a welcome close to a devilishly challenging day. Unfortunately Jared wasn’t “available”, which meant that his brother was taking advantage of a very good thing—make that a very good woman. Likewise, Jake was involved in a command performance with the mayor, but said he would check in later.
Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to go home before midnight for a change, Jude walked down the silent hallway then stopped, surprised to see a light in Skylar’s office.
He knocked on the door, then poked his head around the corner and saw her sitting at her desk, staring out the window into the black night. “What the hell are you still doing here, Squirt?”
She startled then turned to him with a frown. “Working.”
Jude decided that he wouldn’t point out that there wasn’t a scrap of paper on her desk and her silent computer was on a table off to the side. He even managed not to razz her about her seemingly vacant stare out the window. “Hmm, knowing that you started the day about the same time I did, I think it’s time for you to call it a day, Squirt.”
When she shrugged dismissively and didn’t move, he pressed, “Tell me, Specs, have you had dinner, or for that matter, lunch?”
When she didn’t bother to answer, he decided he’d said enough about her eating habits and decided to approach her from her soft spot, her work ethic. “Look, Specs, I know it’s asking a lot, but we haven’t had a chance to debrief. How about we head over to the Shipwreck
and grab some food and exchange notes on our day?”
Skylar agreed, and was quiet on the drive to the pub. Jude took advantage of her focus on the road ahead to study her. She was, in a word, a puzzle. She’d been a calm, cogent interrogator, hell, make that fucking brilliant at getting important information out of the haughty Parker sisters. In contrast to the openly derisive Parker women, he’d noticed that Blake was studying her with interest, as if she intrigued him.