Vendetta in Death (In Death #49) - J. D. Robb Page 0,60
find it helpful. We appreciate your time.”
As they rose, Peabody spoke up. “We could give you the names of some good grief counselors. It might help Marcella.”
“Yes. Rozelle, I want to go up to Marcella.”
“You go. I’ll get the names. She wouldn’t have had a clue,” Rozelle said quietly as her mother went out. “Marci, I mean. If she had, she’d have told me, or Claudia. Maybe not Mom, not right away, but she’d have told me or Claudia.”
“Why not your mother?” Eve asked.
“Because she knew our parents didn’t really approve, at least at first. Thaddeus won them over, for the most part. He really seemed completely devoted, made her so happy, indulged her. But he was older, divorced, and they’d hoped for something, someone different for her.”
Rozelle paused, pressed her fingers under her eyes.
“She’ll get over this,” she said. “She doesn’t think she will, but she will. Once it gets through he’d cheated on her, she’ll get over it, move on. She’s young. But for now, a grief counselor would help.”
After Peabody gave the names, Rozelle showed them out. Eve studied the town car as she walked to her own.
“It’s not going to fit. You’d have to figure, if the family—speaking of which, she mentioned a son, so let’s find him—but if the family’s covered, why use this car? People in the house, maybe going in and out, they’d notice if the car came and went. So it’s not going to fit.”
Eve got behind the wheel, took a moment. She shook her head, pulled out of the drive. “She’s a girl.”
“Well,” Peabody said. “Yeah.”
“No, not a woman, not a female. A girl. The youngest of the family, and they baby her. You can see it, the dynamics there. Maybe she loved Pettigrew, maybe at least she thought she did, but the older sister’s got it right. She’ll get over it, move on. She’s not going to torture, mutilate, and kill two men because the one she lived with hired LCs. That takes purpose. She doesn’t have one.”
“That came loud and clear,” Peabody agreed. “And I’m going to say she struck me as the type who’d squeal if she saw blood. I can’t see her slicing off a dick.”
“People take care of her. She doesn’t take care of people—for good or ill. They also didn’t talk about the big gorilla.”
“What big gorilla?”
“You know, the fact that she cheated with Pettigrew on his ex when she wasn’t his ex. He cheated with her, but everybody was real careful not to mention it. Like the big gorilla in the room everybody pretends not to notice.”
“Oh, oh, elephant. It’s the elephant in the room.”
“That’s stupid. You can’t ignore a freaking elephant who wouldn’t be able to fit in most rooms anyway. Plus, there’d be massive piles of elephant shit. Try not noticing that.”
“I think that’s actually the point of the saying.”
“Which just makes it stupid. You could pretend to ignore a gorilla because some people bear a freaky resemblance thereto.”
Considering that, Peabody pursed her lips. “I knew this guy at the Academy who sort of did.”
“There you go. In any case, they all avoided that area of discussion, and they’d all know. Just like they all know she’ll go through the hysterics, then settle down and move on. But let’s check on the brother anyway.”
Peabody worked it while Eve fought the traffic wars back over the bridge.
“He was at the poker party,” Peabody reported after a brief conversation on her ’link.
“Should’ve figured it.”
“He left about eleven because he had an early series of meetings today. And he’s at a conference in Connecticut right now. He left this morning about seven. I did a run while I talked to him, Dallas. He comes off pretty squeaky clean. One marriage—eight years in. Two kids. He doesn’t have a license to drive, doesn’t own a vehicle.”
As Eve avoided contact with a compact that swerved into her lane, she snarled. “A lot of people shouldn’t have one.”
“Grew up in New York, moved to Hoboken after the first kid from the timing on his data.”
“It’s not going to be him. They’re not going to be involved. Just not enough there for the level of violence. It’s a vendetta.”
She pulled into the garage, thrilled to be finished, for now, with the hordes of people who shouldn’t have a license to drive.
“I’m going to say it again. You don’t have to do this thing with Tibble.”
“I’m going to say it again,” Peabody countered as they got out of the car.