Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (42 page)

I answered questions from
Gaston for several minutes while Cecilia composed herself. Finally, she
turned to Ron. “May I ask him a question?”

Ron
nodded. “Sure. He’s outside in a patrol car. Let
’s go.”

When we stepped out, I saw that now
there were three more patrol cars, flashing emergency lights bouncing
off the house and the cars. “He’s over there
,” Ron said. He led Cecilia over to the car while
the rest of the group hung back, wanting to give
Cecilia a little privacy. Oliver had been sitting with his
head down, but he turned when Ron opened the door
. For a long moment, he and Cecilia just looked at
each other.

Finally, Cecilia said, “Oliver? Is this true? Sophie
?”

Oliver just looked up at her. He had nothing to
say.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

Suddenly, a piercing
scream came from behind me.

“No!” I turned to my
right just as Nicki jumped forward. “Oliver, you killed Sophie
?” she screamed. “Your own niece? You murdered her?” I thought
she was just going to get hysterical—I was about
to move toward her to comfort her when she reached
into her purse. “How could you?” she cried. She lifted
her arms in front of her. Her stainless Sig Sauer
, which had seemed little and cute before, now seemed pretty
damn big and ugly. It was pointed right between Ron
and Cecilia, directly at Oliver.

No one around us moved
, but the uniformed officers who’d been standing at the
next car saw and immediately drew their weapons and pointed
them at Nicki. Ron saw them and held up a
hand. “Wait!” he commanded.

Nicki was about ten feet from
where I stood, her weapon held tightly in her outstretched
hands.

“How could you?” she screamed again.

I started inching
toward her. “Nicki?” I said slowly. “What are you doing
?” I tried to use the most soothing voice I could
manage.

“Stay out of this, Danny!” She surprised me and
let out a quick sob before she regained control. “He
killed Sophie. My own fucking uncle killed my sister!”

I
nodded. “And for that, he will pay.”

Tears ran down
her face. She kept the gun pointed more or less
in Oliver’s direction, but as she cried, her arms
started moving around, first just a little; then, a few
seconds later, more and more. I wasn’t sure she
’d have been able to hit Oliver now even if
she did fire. Then again, it was pretty tight quarters
, and she’d probably hit Cecilia or Ron if she
missed Oliver.

“Nicki,” I said, trying to sound calm, “it
’s all over. There’s no more threat. You can
’t shoot your uncle.”

“He needs to pay for what
he’s done.”

I nodded. “I told you he will
. But if you shoot him, Nicki? So will you. You
don’t want that. Put your gun down.”

She stepped
to her left and gave her head a shake, trying
to flip back the hair that had fallen into her
face. I stepped forward to her left, keeping far enough
away so that she wouldn’t think I was too
close, but still close enough so that she had to
look to the left to see me. This made it
so that she didn’t notice Toni silently creeping up
on her from behind, on her right.

“C’mon, Nicki
. You know this doesn’t make any sense.”

“None of
this makes any sense, Danny.”

Toni was almost right behind
Nicki now.

Ron still hadn’t moved, still stood with
his hand raised, commanding the officers not to do anything
. “Nicki,” Ron said. “I’ll make you a deal. I
understand you’re upset. If you stop this right now
, we’ll chalk it up to the emotions of the
moment. Is that okay? Think about it now ’cause if
it’s not okay, if you don’t drop that
gun right now, those officers over there are going to
shoot you. Think about that.”

Before Nicki had a chance
to answer, Toni stepped up close behind her, crouched down
and with a strong, explosive motion, swept her right arm
up straight beneath Nicki’s arms. When she made contact
with Nicki’s wrist, her momentum forced Nicki’s arms
straight up. Before she even knew what hit her, Nicki
’s Sig was pointed at the sky.

Good enough for
me. I jumped across the distance between us in a
split second and grabbed the weapon right out of Nicki
’s hand while Toni held her arm up. Toni released
her then. Nicki slumped to the driveway and started sobbing
again, but I wasn’t in the mood to indulge
her.

“Damn, Nicki,” I said, my heart pounding. “That was
a stupid thing to do.” The officers ran up to
us.

“Jesus Christ!” Ron said, looking at Nicki. He shook
his head and slammed the car door shut. “I’m
shakin’ over here. Never been so fuckin’ scared in my
whole life, way she was wavin’ that thing around.” He
looked at Nicki, then he turned to the first officer
to reach us. “Cuff her dumb ass, then take her
in the house and sit her down. Stay with her
until I get inside.”

C
hapter 28

“HELLUVA FOOTBALL PARTY,”
ONE OF THE
uniformed officers said, kicking at a pine
cone that had fallen onto the driveway. Toni had taken
Cecilia back in the house, and I was still standing
in the driveway, waiting for Ron to finish up with
the other officers. He was giving final instructions to two
task force detectives and two uniformed officers near Oliver’s
car. He handed over Linda’s files and my cell
phone, which he’d confiscated as evidence because of the
Brownell recording. That fit, I suppose. The Bellevue PD had
already confiscated my 1911 earlier. Now my phone was gone
too.

I took a deep breath and blew it out
slowly. “You got that right.”

“Yeah. And on top of
everything, the fuckin’ Bears lost. Again.”

“Danny Logan!”

Now what?
I turned and saw Eric Gaston calling me as he
walked purposefully my way. When things calmed down after the
confrontation with Nicki, I’d told Eric to go call
his mom and tell her everything was okay, then come
and find me. I wanted to talk to him for
a minute when he was done.

“Jesus, Logan, what a
night,” he said as he walked up. “You guys scared
the shit out of my mom. First she thought I
was dead, and then she thought I was calling her
from jail.”

“Say,” Ron said, “you guys excuse me, would
ya? I got to talk to someone inside.” I watched
as he turned and walked back inside, leaving me to
talk to Eric alone, to explain why I screwed up
and thought he was a murderer.

I turned to Eric. “
Eric, I’m afraid I owe you an apology.”

“Apology?
To me? Why?”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I
fucked up. I thought it was you, the one behind
all this. I never dreamed it was Oliver.”

He cocked
his head. “Well, who could have known that . . . really? Me?
Why me? I didn’t have anything to do with
it.”

“Yeah, now we know. Now that we have Linda’
s files. But all along, you were in a central
position. And you seem to have more money than we’
ve been able to explain.”

“You checked out my financials?”

I nodded. “First, the police did. Then we did. Got
started, actually. Didn’t get a chance to finish.”

He
thought for a second, then he chuckled. “Well, if you
would have finished with me, you’d have found that
I’m wealthy by inheritance. My grandfather was the biggest
leather goods manufacturer in New England in the fifties and
sixties. He left my dad a fortune, who, in turn,
left me an even bigger fortune when he died. How
do you think I can afford to work at the
Foundation for what they pay me?”

“The exact question we’
ve been asking ourselves.”

“So I was that close to
getting busted just because you guys didn’t understand how
I finance my lifestyle?”

I shook my head. “You weren’
t going to get busted—only questioned. You got to
understand we’re detectives. We’re suspicious by nature. It’
s in our DNA. We almost always suspect the worst.
But there was something else. You were being set up.”

“
Me? How?”

“Oliver had Brownell strangle both Sophie and Judie
Lawton with a piece of line that was the exact
same as the line you’re using on your halyards.”

He looked at me. “My halyards? What—you mean the
Marlow line?”

I nodded. “Exactly. Dyneema D12. He knew if
the girls were strangled with that, he’d be able
to come back and make you a suspect if he
needed to. He had Brownell actually leave a piece of
it on Judie Lawton’s body. Did you ever show
it to him or talk to him about it?”

“Son
of a bitch!” He shook his head, incredulously. “Yeah, I
did. We talked about it when I switched the halyards
over last year. He knew all about it.”

“There you
go,” I said. “When he decided to have Brownell kill
Sophie, he must have remembered. Then, for a little insurance,
he had him use it again on Judie Lawton. He
planned on having you as a sort of fall guy
all along. You were his backup plan.”

He shook his
head. “Unbelievable. Bad enough he kills his own niece, but
what a conniving motherfucker!”

“Indeed. Anyway,” I stuck out my
hand. “I bought into it. And for that, I apologize.”

He looked at me, then at my outstretched hand. Then
he reached down and shook it. “Accepted. You did what
you had to do. I’m glad you figured it
out before you arrested me, though.” He shook his head. “
I can’t believe about Oliver, though. I’m in
shock. Absolutely mind-blowing.” He paused, then added, “I tell
you, Cecilia can be a pain in the ass, but
I really feel for her now. I have no idea
what she’s going through.”

I nodded. “Yeah, really. That’
s going to take more than just a little explanation
between a couple of guys.”

Gaston went home, and I
went back in the house.

Ron and Nicki were outside
on the back patio. Ron was pretty worked up—it
looked like he was reading her the riot act.

Toni
and Cecilia sat side by side on the sofa. Cecilia
was crying as they spoke. “I’ve been married to
the man for seven years. I loved him unconditionally.” She
shook her head. “Have you ever been married?”

Toni smiled. “
Not yet.”

“It was my second—Oliver’s third.” She
paused and looked up at the ceiling. “Whatever shall I
do? And how will I ever explain this to my
brother?”

Her tissue was becoming waterlogged, so Toni handed her
the box. “Just tell him what happened, Cecilia. You didn’
t do anything wrong. Your brother can’t hold you
accountable.”

Cecilia looked up at Toni. “Oliver is my
husband
,
Toni. Believe me, there’ll need to be an accounting.”

“
Well,” Toni said, “if that’s the way of it,
then that’s your brother’s problem.”

“Would you like
us to talk to him?” I asked. “Break the news?”

Cecilia thought for a second, then shook her head. “No.
It’s my responsibility. I’ll call him myself.” She
turned and stared vacantly at the television for a minute. “
How could I have possibly missed this?”

I smiled. “Cecilia,
you didn’t do a single thing wrong. Tell your
brother that. And if he has a problem with that,
you send him right to me. I’ll straighten him
out.”

She smiled through her tears. “Oh, swell.”

I nodded. “
Damn straight. I’m on your side.”

Suddenly, Nicki burst
back into the room.

“Oh, Aunt Cecie! I’m so
sorry.” She ran over to Cecilia and they hugged for
a solid minute, before Nicki pushed herself back. “I want
you to know that I’m on your side in
this. I will never forgive Oliver for what he did,
but I’ll never stop loving you. We will get
through this. Together.”

Cecilia stared at Nicki for a moment,
then she reached for her and took her into her
arms.

The next morning, Doc was helping Kenny get released
from the hospital, so Toni and I decided to take
a little time off. We went to Gas Works Park
at the north end of Lake Union, where we found
a bench that looked south over the lake toward the
city. The day was gray and cool, as autumn days
in Seattle tend to be, but we were bundled up
and it hadn’t started raining yet. The park was
quiet except for the sounds of a group of small
schoolchildren on an outing and a flock of seagulls at
the water’s edge. A handful of workboats chugged slowly
across the lake while a lone kayaker skimmed across the
water not far off the beach. Mostly, we just sat
and watched, lost in thought.

After ten minutes or so,
Toni looked at me. “Cheer up, Danny. The case is
solved.”

I smiled. “I know. I’m glad.” I paused. “
But it’s a strange ending to a strange case.
The whole notion of good guys and bad guys gets
a little twisted.”

“Kind of makes you wish for a
good old-fashioned warehouse surveillance case, doesn’t it?”

I
chuckled. “It does.”

On the beach near us, a group
of seagulls got into a feud and started screaming at
each other before one of them jumped into the air
and flew off, closely pursued by the others.

She smiled. “
I talked to Doc on the phone. The hospital cleaned
Kenny up and wanted to release him last night, but
he insisted on staying overnight.”

I laughed. “He
wanted
to
stay? Let me guess: his girlfriend hadn’t made it
by to see him yet? He’s gonna milk this
for all it’s worth, isn’t he?”

“You bet,
the poor guy. Maybe we should get him some kind
of certificate or something for his office.”

I smiled. “Good
idea.”

We sat for another minute, then I said, “I
talked to Ron this morning. He’s happy.”

She nodded. “
Make’s sense. All the answers fell into place last
night. Solves four murders at the same time. He’ll
be a hero.”

“Good. He deserves it.”

She nodded. “He
does. He’s a good guy. And I feel bad
for Yoshi.”

“That’s true.”

We watched the birds for
a few more minutes. “What about us?” I asked.

“What
do you mean?”

“I mean, the case is over. Our
client turns out to be the bad guy, which is
more than a little bizarre. It’s just . . . I’m
struggling here. I can’t seem to find any kind
of closure—any kind of satisfaction from this.” I turned
to her. “Am I making any sense?”

She smiled. “Yeah,
you are. Here—let me show you something.” She reached
into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Look,” she
said after a second, holding the phone up. It was
the picture of Sophie—the close-up. “See that?”

I
nodded, staring at the photo, locking onto the eyes.

“We
did our job, Danny,” she said. “Life is what it
is. Sometimes, it’s not fair and sometimes in our
job, there aren’t any perfect answers. You can’t
find closure because you want to make things right. But
you can’t make this right. They didn’t hire
us to bring Sophie back to life, after all. She’
s gone, and nothing we could have done changes that.
But what they did hire us for? For our job?
For that, we definitely did right by her. We found
the answer, and we did our job. You should be
proud of that. It’s all we can do, ya
know?”

I nodded slowly and then took the phone from
her, studying the photo for a minute—the beautiful young
woman who’d died young before she had a chance
to fully live, died at the hands of a family
member who she should have been able to trust, died
before her promise even had a chance to play out.
Life’s not fair. I looked into the haunting eyes,
frozen forever in her youth, beautiful and unchanging. After a
minute, I handed the phone back to Toni and looked
out over the water.

There aren’t any perfect answers.

The kids behind us up on the hill continued their
excited jabbering. A new group of seagulls flew in to
claim the territory on the beach. The lone kayaker rounded
the point and headed toward U-Dub to the east.
Far to the south, a jetliner made its final approach
into Sea-Tac, silhouetted against a gray sky.