and more punching. Where do you want to go with Brinkerhoff? If your little theory about them hiding their lives away holds up, the granddaughter’s going to know about that, and she’s going to try to block you out.”
“Depends on what’s more important to them,” I said, shifting up my punches with different angles. “She and Brinkerhoff are going to have to decide what they want more, finding Adele’s murderer or protecting their secrets.”
“I don’t think either one of those exists without the other,” he suggested, pressing his shoulder up against the bag as I began to intensify my strikes. “Let’s assume Adele was ripping somebody off with those diamonds she had. So either they came from a stash they squirreled away somewhere, or she did a job recently and that was her haul.”
“O’Byrne said Stevens worked with teams, but it was probably more likely Adele either worked by herself or with her husband. They weren’t anyone the cops noticed, or at least they weren’t big enough to draw attention to themselves.” Stepping back from the bag, I shook out my arms, sweat drenching my T-shirt. I had another ten minutes with the bag. Then we could hit the showers, worn out from spending an hour in JoJo’s gritty, no-frills boxing gym. “Arthur’s too old now. If she was going to do a job and needed help, she’d have to tag somebody else.”
“Not like that woman was a spring chicken. There’s no way she was limber enough to pull off a burglary,” Bobby growled, tapping the bag to remind me I still had time on the clock to work through. “If they were hurting for money so bad she had to pull off a heist, why not sell that house? It’s worth a hell of a lot, and they could buy something smaller.”
“When I first ran into her a few years back, she was plenty enough limber and spry,” I replied, ducking back into a fighting crouch. “She kept up with me while holding a shotgun. And I think she was wearing heeled boots. Wasn’t like I was taking fashion notes. I was running for my life. She looked about the same when I found her. A little pillowy, but you and I both know that’s kind of deceptive. Women hide a lot of muscles in those curves of theirs.”
“True,” Bobby agreed. He gave out a little grunt when I punched the bag, leaving me with a small sense of satisfaction. Also, he wouldn’t be able to return the favor, because he’d already done his bout. Going second had its advantages because sometimes holding the bag left me as bruised as going a few rounds when Bobby needed to work off some of his adrenaline. “If the granddaughter is smart—”
“Marlena,” I corrected as gently as I could while plowing another punch into my target. “She’s an assistant district attorney. Let’s assume she’s got two brain cells to rub together.”
“Okay, Assistant DA Brinkerhoff has a lot more to hide than where her grandmother’s stash is. If she’s got any political aspirations, she doesn’t want any of that dirty laundry to be pulled out of the hamper.”
“She’s the one who told me about their criminal dealings,” I reminded him, dancing back a step to shake out my arms again. The workout helped limber me up, loosening tight joints and sometimes even helping me think. “Looking at everything, it makes me wonder if she’s playing a long chess game of sorts. By closing off access to Arthur, she’s going to be controlling the narrative and any information we get. It won’t matter if Arthur wants to find Adele’s murderer. It’s going to be Marlena who guides us through things if we let her.”
“So we just have to get you in to talk to Arthur without her being around.” He checked his watch, and I knew he was simply adding minutes to my end time for however long I stopped to gather my thoughts and talk to him. “Divide and conquer seems like the best thing to do. I’ll have to keep her busy while you sneak in and talk to the old man. You’ve got five minutes left, Princess. Then you could hit the showers.”
Having Bobby as a best friend meant going through a lot of physical activities, usually on days when running five miles in the rain was the last thing I wanted to do, but it helped me keep fit. Since I was married to a slightly younger man with a