Catherine glanced over at Elizabeth, at her brother, then looked away. "She took off her blouse." Elizabeth's moan had Catherine trembling again. "She told him he could have her, just like any client. But he'd pay more. A lot more. He was looking at her. I knew the way he was looking at her, his eyes glazed over, his mouth slack. He grabbed her breasts. She looked at me. Right at me. She'd known I was there, and she looked at me with such disgust. Maybe even with hate, because she knew I'd do nothing. I closed the door, closed it and ran. I was sick. Oh, Elizabeth."
"It's not your fault. She must have tried to tell me. I never saw, I never heard. I never thought. I was her mother, and I didn't protect her."
"I tried to talk to her." Catherine gripped her hands together. "When I went to New York for the fund-raiser. She said I'd chosen my way, and she'd chosen hers. And hers was better. I played politics, kept my head buried, and she played with power and kept her eyes opened.
"When I heard she was dead, I knew. At the funeral I watched him, and he watched me watching him. He came up to me, put his arms around me, held me close as if in comfort. And he whispered to me to pay attention. To remember, and to see what happened when families don't keep secrets. And he said what a fine boy Franklin was. What big plans he had for him. He said how proud I should be. And how careful." She closed her eyes. "What could I do? He's my child."
"No one's going to hurt your son." Eve closed a hand over Catherine's rigid ones. "I promise you."
"I'll never know if I could have saved her. Your child, Richard."
"You can know you're doing everything possible now." Hardly aware she'd taken Catherine's hand, Eve tightened her grip in reassurance. "It's going to be difficult for you, Ms. DeBlass, to go over all of this again, as you'll have to. To face the publicity. To testify, should it come to trial."
"He'll never let it go to trial," Catherine said wearily.
"I'm not going to give him a choice." Maybe not on murder, she thought. Not yet. But she had him cold on sexual abuse. "Ms. Barrister, I think your sister-in-law should rest now. Could you help her upstairs?"
"Yes, of course." Elizabeth rose, walked over to help Catherine to her feet. "Let's go lie down for a bit, darling."
"I'm sorry." Catherine leaned heavily against Elizabeth as she was led from the room. "God forgive me, I'm so sorry."
"There's a psychiatric counselor attached to the department, Mr. DeBlass. I think your sister should see her."
"Yes." He said it absently, staring at the closed door. "She'll need someone. Something."
You all will, Eve thought. "Are you up to a few questions?"
"I don't know. He's a tyrant, difficult. But this makes him a monster. How am I to accept that my own father is a monster?"
"He has an alibi for the night of your daughter's death," Eve pointed out. "I can't charge him without more."
"An alibi?"
"The record shows that Rockman was with your father, working with him in his East Washington office until nearly two on the night of your daughter's death."
"Rockman would say whatever my father told him to say."
"Including covering up murder?"
"It's simply a matter of the easiest way out. Why should anyone believe my father is connected?" He shuddered once, as if blasted with a sudden chill. "Rockman's statement merely detaches his employer from any suspicion."
"How would your father travel back and forth to New York from East Washington if he wanted no record of the trip?"
"I don't know. If his shuttle went out, there would be a log."
"Logs can be altered," Roarke said.
"Yes." Richard looked up as if remembering all at once that his friend was there. "You'd know more about that than I."
"A reference to my smuggling days," Roarke explained to Eve. "Long behind me. It can be done, but it would require some payoffs. The pilot, perhaps the mechanic, certainly the air engineer."
"So I know where to put the pressure on." And if Eve could prove his shuttle had taken the trip on that night, she'd have probable cause. Enough to break him. "How much do you know about your father's weapon collection?"
"More than I care to." Richard rose on unsteady legs. He went to a cabinet, splashed liquor into a glass. He drank it fast, like medicine. "He enjoys his guns, often shows them off. When I was younger, he tried to interest me in them. Roarke can tell you, it didn't work."
"Richard believes guns are a dangerous symbol of power abuse. And I can tell you that yes, DeBlass occasionally used the black market."
"Why didn't you mention that before?"
"You didn't ask."
She let it drop, for now. "Does your father have a knowledge of security – the technical aspects?"
"Certainly. He takes pride in knowing how to protect himself. It's one of the few things we can discuss without disagreeing."
"Would you consider him an expert?"
"No," Richard said slowly. "A talented amateur."
"His relationship with Chief Simpson? How would you describe it?"
"Self-serving. He considered Simpson a fool. My father enjoys utilizing fools." Abruptly, he sank into a chair. "I'm sorry. I can't do this. I need some time. I need my wife."
"All right. Mr. DeBlass, I'm going to order surveillance on your father. You won't be able to reach him without being monitored. Please don't try."
"You think I'll try to kill him?" Richard gave a mirthless laugh and stared down at his own hands. "I want to. For what he did to my daughter, to my sister, to my life. I wouldn't have the courage."
When they were outside again, Eve headed straight for the car without looking at Roarke. "You suspected this?" she asked.
"That DeBlass was involved? Yes, I did."
"But you didn't tell me."
"No." Roarke stopped her before she could wrench open the door. "It was a feeling, Eve. I had no idea about Catherine. Absolutely none. I suspected that Sharon and DeBlass were having an affair."
"That's too clean a word for it."
"I suspected it," he continued, "because of the way she spoke of him during our single dinner together. But again, it was a feeling, not a fact. That feeling would have done nothing to enhance your case. And," he added, turning her to face him, "once I got to know you, I kept that feeling to myself, because I didn't want to hurt you." She jerked her head away. He brought it patiently back with his fingertips. "You had no one to help you?"
"It isn't about me." But she let out a shuddering breath. "I can't think about it, Roarke. I can't. I'll mess up if I do, and if I mess up, he could get away with it. With rape and murder, with abusing the children he should have been protecting. I won't let him."
"Didn't you say to Catherine that the only way to fight back was to tell?"
"I have work to do."
He fought back frustration. "I assume you'll want to go to the Washington Airport where DeBlass keeps his shuttle."
"Yes." She climbed in the car when Roarke walked around to get in the driver's side. "You can drop me at the nearest transport station."
"I'm sticking, Eve."
"All right, fine. I need to check in."
As he drove down the winding lane, she put in a call to Feeney. "I've got something hot here," she said before he could speak. "I'm on my way to East Washington."
"You've got something hot?" Feeney's voice was almost a song. "Didn't have to look farther than her final entry, Dallas, logged the morning of her murder. God knows why she took it to the bank. Blind luck. She had a date at midnight. You'll never guess who."
"Her grandfather."