‘Harry was a con merchant, and anythin’ he could steal he did. He used everybody — that’s how he got his kicks, right?’
Lorraine remembered the videos — he had got his kicks in a lot of other ways as well.
‘The gallery was real expensive — I mean, it’s on Beverly Drive, right? Clients got a lot of money, and they paid through the nose. But I think he and Kendall were up to something crooked.’
Lorraine sat back. ‘Go on.’
‘Well, all those paintings at the house, they had to be insured. Lot of dough for the premiums, which is why we got such high security — all the stuff in there is the real thing, unlike what those other poor schmucks have got. Harry got the lot — that’s including pre-Columbian stuff, and there’s a Giaca—’ She hesitated. ‘A Giacaroni and stuff like that. You with me? ‘
‘Yes.’
‘Okay. Now, Kendall was paying Harry the money for the insurance premiums, which she says is because they had agreed that half the art was hers — like, in her dreams.’ Cindy licked up the wheatgerm still adhering to the rim of the juice glass with a practised flick of her tongue. ‘Still with me?’
‘Yes.’ Lorraine sighed — it wasn’t too taxing to keep up with Cindy’s thought process.
‘She asked me to find the insurance certificates. I didn’t know then it was for some scheme that she and her lawyer have cooked up to show she owns the stuff, so I got ’em out. But the only ones I could find were out of date, which means he hadn’t been paying the cover. So ask yourself why.’
‘Perhaps you’d tell me.’
‘Well, look at the security at the house. The place is jam-full of lasers — you move one of them things off the wall and it’s the full orchestra, you know what I mean?’ Lorraine nodded.
‘Well, I checked the dates when he stopped paying the insurance — it was when he got all the security in and started taping all the phone calls. I only checked because I knocked this vase off its stand. This is some Chinese rose vase supposed to be worth three quarters of a million dollars.’
Lorraine smiled encouragingly.
‘It fell off the plinth, an’ I got real worried. I thought the fucking alarms would start screaming, but nothing happened. It just broke.’
‘Yes, I saw it.’ Lorraine was wondering where all this was leading.
‘Broke into lots of pieces,’ Cindy said.
‘I noticed. Go on.’
Cindy held up her hand. ‘One: no alarms. Two: I find a sticker inside it, a modern sticker like a price thing — the vase had this long, thin neck so that normally you would never see inside. There was a name scrawled on it — Classic Reproductions. I dunno who they are, but what’s their name doing inside some piece of porcelain that’s supposed to be a billion years old?’
‘It’s a fake.’
‘Right. Which brings me to Kendall Nathan.’
Lorraine waited while Cindy licked her lips.
‘She thinks she owns half the so-called art stuff, and she thinks it’s all legit, but if it’s not it means Harry sold the real art on, took the money and didn’t tell her. Now if she found that out, it’s one hell of a motive to kill somebody, wouldn’t you say? It’s called being fucked over twice. He ditched her for me, then ripped off all her money. She was paying him to cover the insurance and he took that as well. You see what I mean, Lorraine?’
‘Do the police know this?’
‘Hell, no. I only just worked it out myself when the vase fell off its perch. I started to put it all together and then—’
‘Then?’
‘I lost my baby.’
Lorraine’s mind worked furiously. Having seen the videos, and learned that Cindy and Raymond Vallance had been having an affair under Nathan’s nose, the possibility that either Cindy or her lover had shot him seemed, as Decker had said, the obvious conclusion. She wondered if Cindy was dragging out all these ideas about art in an effort to throw her off the scent. She said, ‘Cindy, I won’t press you if you’re feeling low, but when you called me, you said somebody was at the house. I saw the rooms were wrecked.’
Cindy nodded. ‘I thought I saw someone, like a young black guy, going down the stairs to the gym. Then I went upstairs and saw the place had been trashed. It really freaked me out.’
Another convenient mystery burglar, Lorraine thought sceptically, but it wasn’t out of the question that the same person who had destroyed the tapes in her office could have broken into the Nathan house. ‘You didn’t mention that when you called me.’
Cindy plucked a tissue from the box at her bedside. ‘Didn’t I? I guess I wasn’t that together — I mean, it was just before...’ She gestured weakly at her belly. She blew her nose, then turned her gaze back to Lorraine. ‘I know things look bad, but I swear I think somebody’s framing me, because I’m sure now I didn’t kill Harry, I know I didn’t.’ Cindy lay back again, and put her hand over her eyes.
‘Cindy, there’s a couple of things I need to ask you about,’ Lorraine said quietly.
‘Sure,’ Cindy said, blinking back tears.
‘I found some videotapes, hidden in a wall in Harry’s office.’ There was a pause: Cindy wouldn’t look at her. ‘I’m sure you know the ones I’m talking about. I think your lawyers should see them, plus—’
‘No way,’ Cindy said, crumpling the tissue in her hand. ‘I won’t allow anyone to see them, especially not those fuckin’ lawyers. I hate ’em.’
‘But you were subjected to extreme violence and a lot of sexual abuse.’
‘Yeah, I sure as hell was.’ Lorraine watched the girl pluck at the tissue. ‘Me and God knows how many more.’
‘Like Kendall Nathan and Raymond Vallance, for example,’ Lorraine said casually. ‘Jose and Juana seem to think that you and Mr Vallance were... close. Is that true?’
Cindy said nothing for ten, twenty seconds, then, ‘Yeah, we had a thing. Lasted all of five minutes and then he pissed on me too. It’s like I have a sign round my neck, which only guys like him and Harry can see, that says, “Fuck Me and Dump Me” — oh, and “Beat Up on Me While You’re There.”’ She began to cry in earnest.
Lorraine was surprised that Cindy had admitted the affair so readily — it made things look even blacker against her. Vallance had a key to the house, and he could easily have been responsible for the damage, particularly since there was no sign of forced entry, but Cindy seemed determined to cast suspicion elsewhere, first by the sudden mention of an unknown black youth — and now she was back to Nathan’s ex-wife.
‘What’s gonna happen to me, Lorraine?’ she wept. ‘I know it looks like I had more reason than anyone to kill him, but I swear I didn’t do it. It’s Kendall Nathan who’s pulling all the strings here, I just know it. She has no alibi for the time Harry was shot, and if the art thing’s true, she’s got a motive as well.’
‘I’ll go to the gallery just as soon as I can and see if I can talk to her,’ Lorraine said soothingly, reaching out to give Cindy’s hand a squeeze. ‘Did the hospital have anyone photograph your bruises, by the way?’
Cindy nodded.
‘Well, when you next see your lawyers, at least mention it to them, and also that Nathan had been violent to you on many previous occasions. I take it you haven’t told the police any of this?’
‘No, nothin’. A cop, a real bastard, asked me a lot of questions, but I told him nothin’.’
‘You don’t recall his name, by any chance?’
‘Yeah, Sharkey.’
So he was still on the case. Lorraine walked to the door. ‘I’ll be in touch. You try to get some rest, and call me when you’re discharged. Do you know how long you’ll be here?’
‘Depends on the doctor — could be out later today.’