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Forty-Eight
It was after eleven o’clock by the time she got into the station. She found Terry at his desk, slurping back on a vile brew from the bullpen.
“About time you got here,” he complained.
“I got here as fast as I could.” Partially truthful anyway. Or was it one hundred percent the truth? After all, there was no way she possessed the strength to leave Troy without making love to him before she came in.
“Uh-huh. You have that look about you.” He drew a finger around her face. “The one you get after—”
“Don’t say it,” she groaned.
“The after-sex glow.”
“Oh, Lord.” She rolled her eyes. “You said that Kimberly owns Blissful Enterprises. Why did it take so long to find that out?”
Terry put up his hands. “I’m just the messenger.”
“Why is Steven paying his daughter fifty thousand a month?”
“One of the many questions we’ll need answered.” He slurped some coffee, and she waited patiently, while tapping a foot beneath her desk. “Mark found out something else,” he continued. “Kimberly’s in the process of changing her name, and get this: she’s dropping Olson-Malone in exchange for…”
“Blissful?” Madison guessed.
“Bliss.”
“Okay, so what makes a Malone change her name?”
“Ah, see, I told you there would be more questions.”
“The name has clout in this town. She went to the trouble of keeping it after she got married.” Madison got up and paced a few steps. “What happened to make her do that?”
“Another good question. Now, Mark also found out the withdrawals have only been going to Blissful Enterprises for the last six months. Before that, the money was just going to a personal account under Kimberly’s name.”
“She doesn’t work for Malone’s, so why is her dad paying her all this money?” She knew she was circling back to her original question, but she was still stuck on it.
“Something else that Mark discovered might explain.”
Madison regarded him curiously. Why hadn’t he just said as much a moment ago? “Something to do with a USB drive?” she asked, recalling Terry’s text message that Mark had discovered something there.
“Yep, and it’s pretty nasty.”
“Spit it out.”
His face soured. “It was a video of Steven Malone assaulting a young girl. It appears that it was Kimberly when she was about eight to ten years old.”
“Oh no, don’t tell me…”
“I wish I had better news.”
Madison felt sick for the woman she’d spent most of the last few days disliking. But did the abuse somehow tie into the murders? Kimberly would have motive to kill her father, but if she did, the money would stop. Why kill her mother or Lynch?
“I can tell you’re running through everything I did. Does Kimberly have motive to kill her mother? The conclusion I came to was—”
“Lorene always defended Steven.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Terry sounded deflated.
“Even Kimberly told us there was a family secret she wouldn’t share and something that caused arguments between her and her mother.”
“Uh-huh, and Lorene didn’t want Rauch cleaning in the office. Probably didn’t want that USB drive to be found.”
Madison took a few steps, spun back around. “That was on Saturday. Before that, she let her clean in there.”
“So, Kimberly recently provided them with the video and used it to blackmail her parents?” Terry spitballed.
“Maybe that’s why she’s been so defensive? Threatening a lawyer? She knows if we found this out, we could be looking at her,” Madison concluded. “How did she get the video?”
“We’re going to have to talk with her about that, but I want to point out something else. You might have lost sight of this, because I know you were pretty confident that Michael Carter, Lorene’s brother, was behind the murders, but—”
“I know.” Madison frowned. “Kimberly could very well be a match to the epithelial pulled from under Lorene’s nails and the blood droplets in the Malones’ house.”
“I think we should consider that possibility.”
“Better than that, I say we collect a sample from her.”
“Not sure how Winston will take to that.”
“It’s too bad if he doesn’t like it, Terry. I’m sick of his bullying on this case. He’s worried about appearances. I’m worried about finding justice for two people, possibly four.” Madison scowled, hating that she might be pushed into a corner. “If I have to, I’ll go above his head to the chief.” She was tired of making the threat, too, and about ready to follow through.
Terry scanned her eyes and, after a few seconds, nodded. “I’ll stand behind you.”
“Appreciate it. Did you receive the signed subpoena yet for Michael Carter’s credit card company?”
“Not yet.”
“We’re going over to Kimberly’s now. I’m not running it by the sergeant. You’re sure you want to—”
“I’m in. Let’s get this case wrapped up.”
She hustled from the station, Terry trailing her. There might be hell to pay for this, but she was willing to pay that price if it meant justice would be served.