Couples
Chapter 58
Twisting a tissue in her hands, Loretta Halsey fidgets in her chair in the interrogation room. The tall uniformed cop who ushered her in politely told her that a detective would join her shortly and took up a post outside. So far, neither Kate Beckett nor any other detective has shown up. By the clock on the wall, Loretta's only been sitting waiting for ten minutes, but it seems like eons.
Kate studies Loretta through the one-way mirror in observation. The woman looks more nervous than impatient, confirming Kate's opinion that she held something back during her first interview. It's time to find out what it was. Kate enters the box with a noncommittal smile. "Ms. Halsey, sorry to keep you waiting. Things have been pretty crazy around here since the bombing. Can I get you some water or a coffee?"
Loretta's tongue attempts to wet dry lips. "I could use some water."
Kate opens a small refrigerator and hands Loretta a chilled bottle before taking her seat. "That's better than what's in the vending machine. Ms. Halsey, I wanted you to come in so we could go over your son's case. Until the Ledger explosion, I was actively investigating, conducting interviews with Stacy Monahan and staff at Stonecraft. An apparent suspect emerged, a business rival."
Kate watches hope blooming on Loretta's face. "Unfortunately," she continues, "that lead didn't prove out. That leaves me with no further avenues at this time, but I'm very hesitant to return your son's file to the inactive pile. So I was hoping that you could help me out."
"I wish I could, Detective Beckett, but I've already told you everything that I know," Loretta protests.
"Ms. Halsey, I've been conducting interviews for a lot of years, and one thing I've observed is that people don't always know what they know. Witnesses leave out little details they don't think are important," Kate explains. "But when they come up with them in a second interview, it breaks the case wide open. Do you understand how that could happen?"
"I suppose so," Loretta allows.
"I've also encountered an inability for some family members to admit, even to themselves, that someone they cared about was involved in a crime," Kate continues.
"Cliff never did anything criminal in his life!" Loretta declares.
"I never said he did," Kate replies gently. "I wasn't talking about Cliff; I was talking about his killer. You know of someone else who might have hated him, who resented those incredible cheekbones, don't you, Ms. Halsey?"
Loretta attempts to catch the tears leaking from her eyes with her tortured tissue. Kate pushes a box of fresh ones across the table toward her. "Who is it, Ms. Halsey? Who hated Cliff enough to slice open his face and plunge a knife in his heart?"
Laying his laptop across his thighs in his favorite chair while Lily puts herself through her paces in the nearby corral, Rick views his party planning file. When he started throwing organized – or semi-organized – fests in the loft, he kept track of his tasks in one of his favored composition books. But as his vendors moved to the internet, he needed to avail himself of hyperlinks speed and went digital. Now he pretty much has his process down to a science – except for staging the lightsaber matches. He's had enough nerdy acquaintances come over for a match or two through the years to develop a list of skilled opponents but has no scenario to pit them against each other.
If Lorne is going to be comfortable at the celebration of his engagement to Lanie, Rick will have to pull together battles worthy of a comic con. His first move is to leave an intriguing post on a lightsaber aficionados' forum. He's about to send out a spate of emails when he hears Lily's cry of distress. Damn! She pulled loose the semi-hypnotic spinning wheel from her activity center. It's not supposed to come off. Thank God the part is too big to be a choking hazard, but it should never have detached. Highly rated, not to mention high-priced, toddler toys are supposed to resist the destructive tendencies of cute little fingers.
Rick climbs into the corral to attempt to repair the toy, but the wheel's plastic clamping mechanism is shattered. He could glue the piece back in place, but it wouldn't spin. And he's not sure if the glue would be safe anyway. His little one still loves to mouth things.
Lily's lips are trembling, and tears glisten on her impossibly long dark lashes. Rick picks her up and clasps her against his chest. "We're going to write a consumer complaint that will rock Bisher-Fice in its socks," he proclaims as he rocks the grieving child.
"Oke!" she continues to wail.
"It is broken," Rick agrees, "and I'm afraid Daddy can't fix it. But you and I can go to the Baby Barn and find something better." Rick shifts the rapidly growing child in his arms. "My big girl can scoot something more interesting around now anyway, right? I just need to send some emails about Auntie Lanie and Uncle Lorne's party, and we'll go shopping."
Lily sniffs. "Oppee."
Rick presses a kiss to her forehead. "Close enough."
"There is someone," Loretta admits, dabbing at her face with a dry tissue. "I have a daughter, Olivia Valley. She's from my first marriage and older than Cliff."
"So Olivia is his half-sister," Kate clarifies.
"Yes. She and Cliff got along well when they were growing up. She wanted to be a model too. She even went to school for it. Little Cliff would trail after her like an apprentice. He learned his catwalk strut from Livvy. She started booking jobs when she was in high school. He was still just a little boy, but he was very proud of her.
"At first, Livvy's career went pretty well. She did a lot of work for catalogs and some in-store modeling. She even got a spread in Teen Fashion Passion magazine. Cliff put the photos on the wall of his bedroom. Livvy was also making pretty good money, but it wasn't enough for her. She wanted to get into commercials."
"So she went to Stacy Monahan?" Kate prompts.
Loretta shakes her head. "I don't think Livvy even met Stacy. Stacy's screener told her that her cheekbones weren't prominent enough and advised her to get implants. Health insurance won't cover that kind of procedure, so Livvy started saving up. She almost had enough when Stacy signed Cliff. She tried really hard to be happy for him, but she was jealous. Unfortunately, when she was almost ready to have her surgery, the type of implants she wanted were recalled, and her surgeon would have had to put in another kind.
"The replacements cost twice as much as the old ones would have. Livvy would have had to save for another long time to afford them, and I didn't have any extra money to give her. Cliff seemed to be doing really well, and she said she was going to ask him for a loan. That's all I know. She never told me what Cliff said. Then he was gone. I had a small memorial service for him with people he knew growing up, but Livvy didn't come."
"Have you spoken to her since Cliff's death?" Kate queries.
"A couple of times on the phone. But we were just talking about her father. He bought a ranch in Wyoming, and she was thinking of going out and visiting him. She said she wanted to get away from the city for a while. But if she left New York, she didn't tell me."
Kate nods. "I'll find out."