The Marlowe Prep Murder

Chapter 29

Officer Deke White hasn't been assigned to the 12th Precinct very long. He was on a list, but a spot didn't open up until Officer Yang lost his wife to cancer and decided to move to California so that his kids could be near their grandparents. To bad for Yang but a break for White.

He's been eyes and ears for the family ever since he graduated from the academy. It's been a good deal. He's picked up on the N.Y.P.D. gossip, and the Cardanos paid off his school loans. The family was particularly grateful when he reported what he could about Vonda Covici. It wasn't much, just that Detective Beckett and that writer husband of hers brought Vonda in and are keeping her in a holding cell, but there were rewards.

Deke expected someone from the family to show up to get Vonda out, or at least talk to her, but no one did. Now though, they want to know everything, including exactly which cell Vonda's in and how she gets her meals. He has no idea what they have in mind. He's way too far down the chain to be let in on the Old Man's or now Nico's plans. But whatever it is, he's not going to be anywhere near whatever goes down. Going out to bust double parking drivers suits him just fine.

Vonda's eyes shoot daggers as Kate and Rick enter the interrogation room where she's shackled to the table. "Have a nice night?" Kate inquires mildly.

"In that rat hole that you call a cell and with that whore you put in there with me?" Vonda's face twists in a grimace. "God knows what diseases she left on the toilet. When I get out of here, I'm going to sue the department for endangering my health."

Rick snorts. "A multiple murderer looking down her nose at a working girl. At least she leaves her customers happy. You try to leave yours dead. Good luck with claiming to catch something off a toilet seat. My health teacher disabused our class of that little myth when I was 14, but he did say a public toilet is a heck of a place to take a girl."

"You're disgusting!" Vonda snarls.

"Says the woman who spits at cops," Castle retorts.

"I'm not saying anything else until I talk to my attorney," Vonda announces. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"No, you don't," Kate agrees, "but you might want to try to call your lawyer again. I don't see anyone showing up. Are you sure that you didn't get the wrong number last time?" Vonda sits silently, but Kate can see the hit woman's long nails carving crescents into her palms. "I'll leave you to think about it."

"Wait a sec," the desk sergeant bids the briefcase-carrying man in the upscale suit, as he picks up the phone. "Detective Beckett, there's a guy here, name of Manetti, says he's Violet Curtis' Lawyer."

Kate rolls her eyes as she responds. "You'd think he'd know her real name. Maybe the family is trying to keep up the charade. But she's got a right to see him. Send him up."

Kate meets the well-turned-out Manetti at the elevator and ushers him to the interrogation room where Vonda waits. "If you want to help your client, tell her to cooperate," Kate advises. "Otherwise, we've got her ass on a spit."

Manetti smiles noncommittally. "I'll take your suggestion under advisement, Detective."

Vonda looks up, suspiciously at her visitor. "I don't know you."

"I just came on board to help Nico," Deke explains. "We went to college together. I went on to law school, but we stayed friends. He wanted some new blood, so he gave me a call."

"So, Nico sent you. Are you going to get me out or not?" Vonda demands.

"I'll do what I can," Manetti promises, "not just for Nico, but for the Old Man." He opens the briefcase that successfully passed through the scanner at the entrance to the precinct. "He sent you something."

A grin cracks Vonda's face. "Bruttiboni, my favorite. He remembered."

"He said you'd enjoy them. So listen, you know not to tell the cops anything."

Vonda takes a healthy bite of an almond-flavored biscuit. "Mmm, of course. So when are you going to get me out of here?"

"I have to put the paperwork in motion, but someone should be driving you away tomorrow morning. Can you hold out until then?"

"You tell the Old Man that I'll manage. I always manage."

Manetti smiles and pats Vonda's crepey hand. "I'm sure you do."

"All finished?" Kate inquires as Manetti strides toward the elevator. "Is your client going to make a statement?"

Manetti winks. "Sorry to disappoint you, Detective, My client isn't going to tell anyone anything."

Rick transfers a sizzling steak from a hot grill pan to Kate's pre-warmed plate. "Sorry that you couldn't get anything out of Vonda, but you can sink your teeth into this."

"It's not food I want to tear into, but thanks, Babe."

"Anything I can do for the love of my life. I made sure Temptation Lane recorded today. You must have a week's worth on the D.V.R. You want to cuddle after dinner and catch up on the soapy angst? Might get your mind off Vonda."

"I doubt it. Watching her smirk, thinking she's got the upper hand, is driving me crazy," Kate confides. "But I could use the cuddling – and maybe some of that super-dark high cacao content chocolate."

"I have a stash stowed where even Alexis can't get it."

Kate's eyebrows rise as Rick punches numbers on the keypad of his safe. "You keep the chocolate in there?"

"I told you it's where even Alexis can't get it. You have the combination, and so does my lawyer. But she doesn't. He triumphantly pulls out a large bar wrapped in shiny blue foil. "Sweets for the sweet." Rick offers Kate his elbow. "Ready to abandon yourself to Temptation's trials and tribulations?"

She interlinks her arm with his. 'Lead the way, Babe."

Vonda awakens in the middle of the night. That's not unusual for her. She almost never sleeps through – one of the downsides of the passing years. Her bladder rarely allows her to rest until morning, but the heaviness she now feels in her abdomen is more than the need to relieve herself. That sonofabitch! That double-crossing, double-dealing f**king sonofabitch! The sweetness of the bruttiboni must have covered the bitter taste of the poison. She knows what's going to happen to her. There's no antidote, nothing anyone can do. She'll be dead by morning, probably sooner. But she'll be damned if she's going to go quietly. She shouts at the surveillance camera. "Somebody call Detective Beckett, now! I'm ready to talk."

Kate finds Vonda anxiously waiting for her in interrogation. The older woman looks pale, but her eyes are blazing. Kate takes a seat at the table with Rick beside her. "I'm going to turn on the microphone and the camera."

"You can turn on anything you want," Vonda retorts. "Just make sure you get everything, do you hear me? F**king everything."

Kate can ask why the change of heart later, but now she's not about to argue. "Go ahead."

"I've been working for the Cardanos for close to 50 years, and my first kill for Don Cardano was in 1964. Our families went on a hunting trip together, and he discovered that I have a talent for it. He wasn't called the Old Man then, but by 1967, I was the Old Man's right hand. Yes, I killed Timothy Scroggins. I poisoned his idiotic pureed carrots. I also killed the Morellis and many others. If I have the chance, I'll make you a list. And I tried to kill the two of you for him too. I still don't know how you escaped."

"You'll find out in court," Kate replies.

Vonda shakes her head. "I don't think so."