Legacy

CHAPTER 11

THERE'S NO REACTION FROM GLORIA.
David, however, explodes. "Are you nuts?" he yells. "Why would Gloria kill O'Sullivan?"
Yells. Not at Gloria.
At me.
I swallow a few times to mollify my own temper. I really want to bounce his head off the wall. Instead, I count to ten before saying reasonably, "Think about it, David. She didn't ask how or when or where Rory was shot. She didn't so much as look at the picture. What is she doing now? Nothing. No temper tantrum, no tirade. Is that the Gloria you know?"
I shift my gaze to Gloria. Then there's the trivial matter of O'Sullivan blackmailing you this afternoon for sex and suing you tonight for fraud. You can jump in anytime here, sweetie.
Gloria lowers her head, as if acknowledging my thoughts. Then she says in a subdued voice, "Anna is right."
David sucks in a breath, and Gloria raises a hand as if to ward off his protest. "It's true. I did know Rory was dead, but I swear, I didn't kill him."
She may as well have sucker punched him. He stares at her, uncertainty creeping like a shadow across his face. "How could you have known? When you called me, you said you'd just arrived in town. It didn't take me more than twenty minutes to get over here."
She looks at me, and there's an instant when I think she actually expects me to come up with an alibi for her. She's crazier than I thought. When the only response she gets is my staring back at her, she lifts her shoulders in a half shrug.
"I had a meeting with Rory early this evening. At his house. I know I shouldn't have gone. He sounded so angry on the phone. I thought if we met face-to-face I could-"
She stops suddenly, realizing that if she says any more, she might give away what Rory was demanding of her.
David asks the obvious. "Why would Rory be angry with you? Business is great. You're here whenever you're in town. What else did he want?"
"Yeah, Gloria," I chime in. "What else did he want?"
Gloria's eyes flash at me, but she focuses on David when she answers. "He didn't say on the phone. Only that it was important we meet. So I went over. The front door was open."
Gloria starts to pace, wringing her hands. "Unusual, the door open like that, but I rang the bell anyway. I expected the maid must be close by. When no one appeared after a minute or so, I went inside."
Gloria has graduated from hand-wringing to picking at the fabric of her dress. She's not looking at us, and her expression is tense, drawn. I have the fleeting thought that she might be making this up as she goes along. With Gloria, it's not easy to determine where truth stops and delusion begins. She's an actress. I wish I could crawl into that pea brain of hers and divine the truth, but she's not a vampire or a shape-shifter, so I can't. I push skepticism aside to catch the rest of the story.
"I called out to Rory. I thought I heard a noise from the den. When I went back there, I saw him. He was slumped over his desk. There was blood everywhere. I panicked and ran out. I came straight here." Those big eyes fasten with fierce intensity on David. "I called you. I didn't know what else to do."
Sounds fishy to me, but when I glance over at David, his expression never waivers from anxious concern. He believes every word out of Gloria's mouth. He looks ready to scoop her into his arms.
If David weren't here, I'd ask her why she agreed to meet Rory, alone yet, considering what was going on between them. Instead, I ask the second obvious question. "Why didn't you call the police? Like any rational, normal person would have done?"
"I was scared." The words come quickly. She's answering my question, but her eyes never leave David's. She couldn't be holding his attention more fiercely than if he'd been hog-tied to the desk.
I don't know whether she's telling the truth or not, but I've had enough of the drama. Time to send David on his way so I can get some direct answers from Gloria.
"David, go home. Detective Harris expects Gloria and her lawyer downtown in half an hour. I'll stay here until he comes. Gloria, get your lawyer on the phone."
David takes an instinctive step toward Gloria. "I'm not leaving. I'm going with her."
I take a step, too, between them. "Did you not hear what Harris said before he left? He'll have you arrested. I don't think he was kidding. You pissed him off."
David grabs my shoulders. "Then promise me that you'll go with her. Make sure she's not tricked into saying something incriminating."
"Her lawyer will be there. That's his job."
"I don't care. If you won't go, I will."
I remove his hands from my shoulders. "You can't help. If you'd stayed out of it when Harris was here, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Gloria will call her lawyer, and he'll protect her interests. That's what she pays him for, right, Gloria?"
We both turn toward the spot where until a minute ago, Gloria was pacing the carpet. Only now, there's no Gloria. The office door is open. I don't know how she did it, but like the alley cat she is, Gloria has managed to slink away.