“Do you know what he and Leo were arguing about?”
“I told you that except for the phrase ‘a million dollars,’ I couldn’t make out the dialogue.”
“You know them both. What do you think they may have been arguing about?”
Bassett’s eyes widened. “I didn’t send for my lawyer because I want to help, and because I have nothing to hide. But if he were here, and you asked me to theorize what someone’s motive was for killing my brother, he’d pull the plug on this interview in a heartbeat. Now, are there any more questions?” He spun the word so that it was clear he meant “stupid questions.”
“Just one,” Kylie said. “How did Nevins get involved in your company?”
“He wasn’t involved. He showed up one night about six months ago with Sonia Chen. She’s the company’s publicist. Nevins was her boyfriend.”
“We’d like to talk to her. Do you have an address?” I asked. “Sonia is upstairs in my apartment. She’s drafting a statement.”
“What kind of a statement?” I said.
“Leo loved the limelight, and over the years, he managed to become a bit of a celebrity,” he said, making it sound more like an affliction than an achievement. “Frankly, I doubt if he’d even qualify for the D-list, but since I shy away from publicity, he became the face of the company, and he reveled in it. It’s now fallen on me to make a statement to the press and to Leo’s many fans that he’s gone. I know that a lot of people will be heartbroken to hear of his death.”
From the faint smile on Max Bassett’s face I was sure that he wouldn’t be one of them.
Chapter 56
Leo’s triplex ended on the third floor, and Max’s began on the fourth, but the trip up the single flight of stairs was like a journey across the great cultural divide. If Leo’s apartment looked like it was decorated by Marie Antoinette, Max’s looked like Ernest Hemingway’s man cave.
A young Asian woman was sitting on the floor, her back against a weathered leather armchair, a laptop propped on her knees. She stopped typing as soon as we walked in.
“Hi, I’m Sonia Chen,” she said, standing up.
We introduced ourselves, and she forced a polite smile, but it didn’t hide the fact that her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
“Max texted me and said you wanted to ask me some questions.”
“We’re sorry for your loss,” I said. “We know you had a close relationship with both of the victims.”
She nodded. “Leo’s been my boss for three years. I adored him.”
“And Jeremy Nevins?” Kylie said.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a relationship.”
“Max said he was your boyfriend.”
“‘Boyfriend,’” Chen said, putting the word in air quotes. “You’re a woman. You know what that means.”
“I’m a homicide detective,” Kylie said, “and we’re not supposed to fill in the blanks from our own life experience. So why don’t you tell us what your relationship was with Jeremy Nevins?”
“Consenting adults,” Chen said as comfortably as if it had been a box to check on a government form alongside “single,” “married,” and “divorced.”
“Could you elaborate?” Kylie said.
Chen smiled — a real smile this time, and I could only imagine that the question triggered memories of her time with the handsome young man lying dead one floor below. The smile turned to sobs, and she folded her arms across her chest to hold it all back.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sitting down in the leather armchair. Kylie and I sat across from her on a matching sofa.
“Jeremy and I didn’t have a relationship — certainly not in the classic sense. It was more of an arrangement. As a publicist I plan a lot of high-end events. Jeremy loved getting up close and personal with the rich and famous, so I’d bring him along as my plus one. In return, the two of us would get up close and personal together.”
“So it was essentially physical.”
“Yes, and I make no apologies for it, Detective. It’s the age-old story of the overworked career woman. He got access. I got laid.”
“Do you have any idea why he stabbed Leo Bassett?”
“Are you sure that’s what happened? I find it impossible to believe that Jeremy would kill Leo. They were so wonderful together, and Leo was over the moon about Jeremy. He’d do anything for him.”
“Wait a minute,” Kylie said. “Leo was gay. So you’re saying—”
“I’m saying what you think I’m saying. Jeremy Nevins was beyond incredible in bed. You spend one night with him, and you’d remember it for the rest of your life. It didn’t matter if you were a thirty-two-year-old woman or a sixty-year-old man. Jeremy had a gift, and if you were lucky enough to be on the receiving end, it didn’t matter what he wanted in return.”
“You gave him entrée to people he wouldn’t have met otherwise,” I said. “What did Leo give him?”
“I don’t know the details, but Leo loved the finer things in life, and Jeremy was happy to go along for the cash and prizes.”
“One of those prizes was an eight-million-dollar necklace,” I said.
“I heard. I don’t even know how that’s possible. Jeremy was with me when it was stolen.”
Her cell phone rang.
“Excuse me. This is urgent,” she said, taking the call. “Hi, Lavinia. I’m almost finished with the piece. I can email it to you in ten minutes. Talk soon.”
She hung up. “Sorry. Business. Max wants me to get out the news of Leo’s death.”
“It sounded like you were talking to Lavinia Begbie,” Kylie said.
“Yes. She’s agreed to write the story if we give her a twelve-hour exclusive before we send out a release to everyone else.”
“Shouldn’t the news of Leo Bassett’s death be on the front page instead of in the Style section?”
“Sweetie, in my world, the Style section is the front page, and Lavinia Begbie is the voice of the fashion industry. The fact that she agreed to devote an entire column to Max is living proof that every cloud has a silver lining.”
“You said Max. Don’t you mean she’s going to devote her entire column to Leo?”
Chen shook her head. “Detective, you really don’t understand our business, do you? Our company got a black eye when Elena was killed wearing our necklace. Of course Lavinia will talk about Leo, but having her write about Max Bassett’s heroic actions to attempt to save his brother’s life is exactly the kind of ink we need.”
“Is that your job, Ms. Chen?” Kylie said. “To use Leo’s murder as an opportunity to turn Max into a hero to help restore the company’s image?”
“That’s exactly my job,” Chen said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a deadline to meet.”
Chapter 57
“I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’m not sure Cheryl and I are still in a relationship,” I said as soon as Kylie and I were back in the car. “Can we call it a night?”
“I’m just as tired and hungry, and if you want to talk about relationships on life support, my junkie husband trumps your pissed-off girlfriend,” she said as we headed uptown on Sixth Avenue. “But no, we can’t call it a night. Sonia Chen is talking to the press, and unless we can get the First Amendment repealed in the next few hours, everything that went down at Casa Bassett tonight is going to be public.”