“Coffee, black. Thanks.”
“And, Detective?”
“Coffee regular.” At Sybil’s blank look, she explained. “Ah, cream—or milk—two sugars. Thanks.”
Obviously comfortable having a task, Sybil worked with Stuben to pour and serve. Eve gave them the time to settle.
“Mrs. Pearson, do you know of anyone who wanted to harm your husband, his business, or this merger?”
“No. No. Derrick’s a good man, a wonderful father and husband. He’s a caring man to his employees. Everyone loves him. Isn’t that right, Liana? Everyone loves your father.”
“Yes, of course.”
“He treated Paul like family!” Those glazed eyes cleared enough to show fury and terrible grief. “Paul and Cecily were always welcome in our home. Melody played with our grandchildren! And he murdered my Derrick.”
“Mom, Mom.” Liana tried to get arms around her mother, but Rozilyn pushed her aside.
“Don’t tell me Paul’s a victim! Don’t you tell me he was forced. That murderer made a choice. He made a choice and he killed your father. He killed my Derrick. My husband’s dead.”
Her voice pitched high as the words spewed out until they rang on hysteria. Tears spurted and gushed.
“She can’t do this,” Liana said, starting to rise.
“I’ll take her upstairs.” Stuben walked around the sofa, leaned down, gathered Rozilyn up. “Let’s go on upstairs now, Miz Roz. You need to go up with me.”
“What will we do, Bessie? What will we do?”
“You need some rest,” Stuben soothed as she guided the sobbing woman out.
“She can’t—” Liana broke off, looking away as she fought for composure. Sybil, silently weeping, sat beside her, gripping her hands.
“My parents—” Drew cleared his throat. “My parents,” he began again, were married for thirty-nine years. They knew each other since childhood. She’s just not able to do this now.”
“I understand. If you’d rather we came back to interview the rest of you—”
“No, please. God, let’s get this done, Drew.” Liana pressed her free hand to her face. “Let’s just get this done. I spoke with Cecily.”
“You—when?” her brother demanded.
“Earlier this morning. I needed to. It was hard, for both of us. We got to be friends—or very friendly,” she told Eve. “Her daughter’s older than Noah, but they often played together—and with Drew’s children when they were here, so we got to be friendly. It was hard, but she told me what happened to her, to Paul, to Melly. My mother can’t understand, can’t forgive, and I won’t ask her to. But I can. I can. I have a child. You have children,” she said to Drew and Sybil. “What wouldn’t you do to protect them?”
She took a breath. “I’m so angry, so angry. I can’t push that anger on Paul and Cecily and that little girl. I wanted to, but I can’t. What do I do with this anger? Who did this, to all of us?”
“We’re working to find that out. Did your father have enemies?”
“Competitors—your own husband is one. Competitors and rivals, but enemies? Someone who wanted to kill him? To kill all those people? No. Just no.”
“You work in the New York offices, so closely with your father. Were there any serious disagreements regarding the merger?”
“Some, of course. It was a major step, a big change, but in the end a very good deal for everyone. Paul himself wasn’t fully on board at the outset, but he got there.”
“Why weren’t you in New York for the presentation?”
“Dad wanted a family rep in Rome. Drew’s London, and Jean-Phillipe—our cousin—is in Paris, but Dad wanted me in Rome. Willimina had key people in important hubs as well.”
“To give the presentation a global impact,” Drew went on. “The big reveal,” he said with a ghost of a smile.
“Have any of you received any threats?”
“No.” Drew looked at his wife, his sister, got headshakes. “This came without warning.”
“Who have you talked to about the merger? Outside of the business?”
“The media,” Drew said. “At least in the last few weeks. Sybil handles most of that in Europe.”
“I’m media chief for Quantum Europe, based in London with Drew. I’d been on parental leave for more than a year, but I came back to take the lead on this.”
“You fed the media?”
“In small bites, strategic bites,” she added. “Until we got the approval to push stories, we kept it locked down. An occasional leak—timed to stir some interest—but closed on real details.”
Eve shifted gears. “How well do you know Jordan Banks?”
She saw the shock in Sybil’s eyes before the woman cast them down. And her hand reached up nervously to smooth at her hair.
10
“I know that name,” Liana murmured. “How do I now that name? Drew?”
“It’s not ringing for me, sorry.”
Sybil said nothing, just gave a quick shake of her head without making eye contact.
“He was involved romantically with Willimina Karson up until a few weeks ago,” Eve said.
“That’s it. The Banks family, Drew? Communications, entertainment. The wastrel son.”
“Oh.” He frowned a little. “I never met him, that I remember. I’ve met Morgan Banks. Is this his brother?”
“I think it is.” Liana seemed to settle, drank some of the coffee she’d ignored. “I actually never met him, either, but I’ve heard things. I think I did know Willimina was seeing him at some point. I got to know her, of course, through the course of the merger, but—wait, wait, I did meet him. At a dinner party. It had to be months ago, maybe last fall. Why?”
“He’s dead.”
Sybil froze; her color drained. Drew leaned forward.
“Is this connected? Was Jordan Banks somehow involved in the bombing?”
“We’re looking into it.”
“But Willimina was in the room!” Obviously incensed, Liana set her cup and saucer down with a snap. “She might have been killed. As it was, she was seriously injured. You can’t tell me he engineered this to get back at her for ending their relationship.”
“We don’t believe that was the motive, but he may have been involved, directly or indirectly.”
“He has a reputation as a womanizer, but this was evil. Just evil. Did he know Paul?”
“We haven’t found any connection between them.” Eve kept her tone brisk, her gaze on Liana. Her focus on Sybil.
“I’m not able to share any more with you on that line of inquiry,” she continued. “We don’t want to keep you much longer, but it would be helpful if we could speak to each of you for a few minutes, separately.”
“Separately?” Drew repeated.
“It would be helpful, then we can leave you alone.”
“I’d like to check on Brad and the kids anyway.” As she spoke, Liana got to her feet. “I could send Brad down, stay with Noah, if you want to talk to him.”
“That works. Mr. Pearson, if you’d give us the room. We’ll speak with your wife, then send her to get you. We’ll work our way through this, and get out of your way.”
“All right.” He stood, skimmed a hand over his wife’s hair, and went out with his sister.
Eve waited until she was certain they were out of earshot. “Tell me,” she demanded.
Sybil blinked. “Pardon?”
“You knew Banks. Denying it isn’t going to work.” She kept her voice low and hard. “Twelve people are dead. Thirteen including Banks. So you’ll tell us. I’m going to read you your rights.”
“Oh God, my God.”
She unlinked the hands she’d gripped in her lap, wrapped her arms around herself as Eve recited the Revised Miranda. “Did you have an affair with Jordan Banks?”
“No! No, no, it was nothing like that. I mean to say, it was only a . . . flirtation. I never—we never—I couldn’t, wouldn’t betray Drew. It’s just . . .”
“Did you meet him in London?” Peabody asked, more gently than Eve.
“Yes. Over a year ago. The baby was only three months old. Jacey was just three months old—and Trey, our boy—had just turned two. We wanted to have our babies close together, you see.”
She linked her hands again. “Drew and Liana are so close, so we wanted to have our babies near in age, so they’d have that kind of bond. And I just . . .”
“Two kids under three.” Peabody offered a sympathetic look. “Exhausting.”
“Yes. Of course, I had help. My mother, a nanny, but I—”
She broke off, pressed her fingers to her eyes. “I have no excuse. Drew was just starting the ground floor of the merger, the meetings, the plans, the trips back and forth to sit down with his father, the board. And I felt overwhelmed and tired and neglected and—and undesirable. Selfish, I was selfish. Two beautiful children, a man I love who loves me and our babies, and I felt neglected because he had important work.”
“You were on leave. You’d been used to having important work outside the home,” Eve put in. “To being part of it.”
“Maybe a little post-baby depression, I don’t know. It’s no excuse, but I bounced back so fast with Trey, and I just wasn’t with Jacey.”
“How did you meet him?” Eve asked.
“There was an art showing I wanted to attend. An opening, and Drew had promised to take me. A night out, just the two of us. An adult night—no feedings, nappies, bedtime stories. I was all dressed, ridiculously excited, and he rang me up, and told me how sorry he was, but he’d gotten caught up in something and needed to deal with it.”