“Yes.”
“All night.”
“Yes.”
So Eugene hadn’t altogether disappeared after the divorce. Well. Perhaps if the Bannisters considered you a non-person, you did. Kate hesitated before asking her next question. “Had there been other women?”
Wanda didn’t flinch. “He said not.”
“So you were it.”
“Yes.”
“You had a brother named Ernie.”
Wanda’s eyes widened a little. “Yes. He died very young.”
“Eugene’s set-net permit was sold to an Ernie Gajewski.”
Wanda nodded. “Yes.”
“Your brother was dead by then.”
“Yes. Eugene needed to keep his set-net site so he could fish, but he couldn’t keep it in his name. So I used Ernie’s Social Security number to help Eugene make it look like he’d sold his permit.”
“Why couldn’t he keep it in his name?”
There was a short pause. “He had his reasons.”
Kate put down her coffee. “There’s something I have to tell you. I’m sorry as hell to have to tell you this, but Eugene Muravieff is dead.”
“I know,” Wanda said. “I had his body picked up from the morgue this morning.”
Kate stared at her. “Did your relationship continue?”
“Yes.”
“For the past thirty years?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you live together?”
Wanda hesitated. “He wanted a place his children felt free to come to. Charlotte and Oliver were very upset about their father and me, particularly Oliver. And Eugene couldn’t stomach the thought of living off my money. He was never going to make a lot of money, not when he couldn’t even own up to his own identity.”
It just wasn’t good enough, Kate thought. Two people were dead and a third in the hospital because Charlotte had hired her to get Charlotte’s mother out of jail. Someone was willing to commit murder to make her go away. Wanda had to know more. She had been too close to the Muravieffs for too long not to.
She opened her mouth and a new and a very unwelcome voice intruded upon their conversation. “Kate Shugak, I thought I recognized you.” She looked up and found Erland Bannister beaming down at her.
Without knowing how she got there, Kate found herself on her feet. She registered the fact that Mutt was standing, too, her shoulder pressed to Kate’s knee, not growling but hackles raised, and ready to launch on command. Mutt’s character analyses, with the possible exception of Jim Chopin, were nearly infallible, but in this case, they weren’t necessary. Kate knew they had both reacted instinctively to the appearance of a predator.
Erland looked at Wanda. “And you are?”
“Wanda Gajewski,” Wanda said through stiff lips.
“Wanda Gajewski, of course,” Erland said almost fondly. “Judge Berlin’s clerk, aren’t you? And how is rascally old Randy these days? Still keeping the streets safe for the rest of us?”
Wanda began to rise, and Erland took her hand and helped her to her feet. “I’ve got to get back to work,” Wanda told Kate.
It was past five o’clock. “I’ll walk you back,” Kate said.
“No, that’s all right.” Wanda attempted a smile. “Thanks for the coffee. Mr. Bannister,” she said without looking at him, and was off, giving the impression of running without quite breaking her stride.
Erland Bannister watched her move away with an appreciative eye-Max would have approved of Wanda’s walk-and then looked down at Kate. “And how do you know our Wanda?”
He was still smiling, but Kate could almost hear the big-cat snarl in it. “A business acquaintance,” she said, and moved to a trash container to toss the coffee cups.
He kept pace next to her. “Really? Something to do with the case you were working on for my niece?”
“That would come under the heading of confidential, Erland,” Kate said coolly.
“But why?” Erland said, spreading his hands, the very picture of sweet reason. “My niece is dead, Kate. You no longer have an employer. Therefore you no longer have a case, and there is no longer any need to go around asking questions, particularly of people who would much rather leave the past right where it is.”
“Don’t you want to know who killed your niece?” Kate said.
His smile faded and his eyes widened. “Didn’t you hear? The police have the driver in custody.”
Kate had been working on keeping her face impassive, but she couldn’t help reacting to this.
Erland was watching her like a hawk, and he said, “Oh yes, a short while ago.” He shook his head admiringly. “It’s amazing what these new police technologies can do, how swiftly miscreants can be brought to justice. We can only hope that the man who so wantonly and carelessly killed my niece will come before Judge Berlin. Randy knows what to do with people like him, although I still think it’s a pity that the constitutional convention chose to omit capital punishment.” He checked his watch. “Well, will you look at the time. Best I be getting on home.” He took Kate’s hand and she let it lie limp in his. “I probably won’t be seeing you again, Kate, but let me tell you just what a pleasure it’s been.” He let his eyes run appreciatively over her body and back up to her face. “I hope we see each other again sometime soon, under better circumstances.”
“Erland,” Kate said. She knew it wasn’t smart, knew it was provocative and dangerous and very probably productive of threat to life and limb, but she couldn’t leave things like this, and she certainly couldn’t let him have the last word.
He turned, the smile still on his face, his eyes alert, attentive, even caressing.
“Your niece, Charlotte?”
“Yes?” he said.
“She paid me in full in advance,” Kate said. She didn’t wait to see his expression change, she just turned and walked away.
She didn’t look back to see if he admired her walk. She only hoped the tremor in her knees didn’t show.
Or that it looked like she’d rather be running.
16
It was an anonymous tip,“ Brendan told her, hanging up the phone. ”A man called nine-one-one and told the dispatcher he’d heard the driver bragging in a bar about getting away with a hit-and-run. And will you please for sweet Christ’s sake sit down?“
Kate was pacing back and forth with a scowl on her face. Mutt had backed herself into a corner, tucking her paws as much beneath her as she could, but it was a very small office and at every half turn, Kate’s left stride would come perilously close to Mutt’s toes. Mutt and Brendan wore identical wary expressions. They’d both seen Kate in this mood before, and both were experienced in the fallout.
“Who’s the driver?” Kate said. “What do we know about him?” “Kate,” Brendan said heavily, “do you really think Erland Bannister hired some guy to kill his niece and then take the fall for it? Erland Bannister, scion of a family that has roots in Alaska going back to before the gold rush, a family who married into the Native community”-he held up a hand, palm out-“doesn’t matter how it ended or why, because those ties are there, and you better believe both families realize it. Erland Bannister, CEO and majority stockholder of a corporation whose GNP is bigger than the state of Alaska’s and whose payroll is second only to RPetCo’s, with a seat on the board of the Alaska Red Cross, the Humanities Forum, and the Alaska Council on the Arts-hell, I could go on, but you’re a bright girl. You’ve got the picture. Do you really believe that Erland Bannister hired someone to take out his niece? And for crissake, why? For hiring you to look into getting her mother, and, may I point out, his sister, out of the clink?”
“Why would he threaten me if there wasn’t something he didn’t want me to find out?”