Connections in Death (In Death, #48)- J. D. Robb Page 0,66

can likely slap Jones with tax evasion and so on. He also owns the residence—and makes a very nice rent from the other units, and from Eldena.”

“I had a feeling. Is her name on that one, too?”

“It is. Jones’s isn’t, so he’s kept that apart. It’s mortgaged, you see, like the others. Cohen needed her income to float the loans. The rent more than covers the expenses, and he banks the profits. The bloody bastard takes most of her income—which I imagine he tells her is to pay rent and so on. Banks that as well. I’ll give you hard numbers, but for the moment, we’ll say he’s very well set.”

As he often did for her, Eve broke a dinner roll in half, handed him a share.

“Okay, fraud and tax evasion, good start, and an excellent way to sweat anything else out of him. I’ll buy the connection with Jones through a client due to the sleaze factor. But he knows more than real estate holdings. He should’ve asked about the murders, should’ve at least tried to look shocked about a couple homicides.”

Because he felt they’d both earned it, Roarke topped off their wineglasses. “I have to say, after so easily unearthing his system and accounts, he’s not particularly smart. He sees himself as what my mates and I would’ve called a cute hoor. Someone who’s getting the leg up on the quiet. But he’s a bumbler. Canny or greedy enough to set this all up, not bright enough to do it very well. And tying himself to someone like Jones?”

Sincerely baffled by the ineptitude, Roarke shook his head over another sip of wine. “A violent gangster already known to the authorities. Jones runs afoul of those authorities, they begin to dig—as indeed happened—and Cohen’s in the drink. Bleeding eejit.”

Eve studied him as she ate. “You’re really pissed. Because it was too easy, not enough fun?”

“That’s a minor disappointment, but no. Eldena Vinn. He used her, stole from her all while patting her head and telling her he’d take care of things. It’s not the same, not nearly, as telling someone a loved one’s dead, but, Eve, her world fell apart right then and there. You could see it. It fell apart because he valued his bank accounts more than a woman who loved him.”

“Better she knows,” Eve said simply. “Now we’ll see what she does about it. I can’t see her taking him a cake and a smile on visiting day or gearing up for a conjugal. Meanwhile, he’s a non-cute hoor—which makes no sense in any language—a bleeding eejit, a sleazy, disbarred lawyer. But is he complicit in murder?”

“Are you asking yourself or me?”

“It can be both. Let’s start with you.”

As he ate, Roarke considered it. “He’s small time, basically a grifter running a long con on an easy mark—because she cares for him, trusts him, it’s easy. Some part of him believes the con—he’s taking care of things.”

He sat back, gestured with the wine. “He got lucky, as I see it, having a young, attractive woman fall for him, and again making contact with someone like Jones. He gives each of them what they want or need from him.”

“Which is?”

“For the woman, he’s attentive, charming, he buys her little thoughtful gifts, I’d wager, makes her feel special. Meanwhile he plays to her hopes for a future. If she can just support him now—emotionally, financially—just until he reestablishes, he’ll give her everything she wants. He hates to ask, of course, hates to put such a burden on her. He’s not worthy of her.”

“Which makes her feel special, again. Puts her in a position of proving he’s worthy.”

“It’s likely a Mira question on why she’d fall for it, but by all accounts, she did. With Jones, he’s the professional. The smart guy, the lawyer. Disbarred, but that’s just a technicality, and it gives him that leg up. He knows the ins and outs, the back doors, the underbelly. And if one of his gang has a little legal problem, he can step in, give advice on the side—those ins and outs. He gives Jones a way to own something, to look at these properties, and think: That’s mine. That’s powerful, take it from me.”

Bouncing things off Roarke never failed, Eve thought. Because he really did know the ins and the outs.

“It’s not just cutting Cohen in on a percentage of the action—that’s business,” she said. “It’s the trust again. He’s got a lawyer, one with connections, one who helps