Malpractice Makes Perfect

Chapter 19

          Este had hastily moved us into the pool house for privacy. There was a typical living room set up, couches chairs even a tv—all whimsically nautical—but we opted to stand.

         I wasted no time getting down to business. "What does Destiny want from you?"

          I knew the answer of course, just like Alexis had hired me to find the necklace, Destiny's weapon of choice was Este. But sometimes it was better to let people talk rather than accuse them of things you already knew they were doing.

          She tried to halt the trembling in her hands by massaging them together. "There's this necklace. It belonged to their mother. She wants it."

          "Is it missing?"

          She nodded. "Yes, but it went missing shortly before her death."

          "And what does Destiny think you can do?"

          "She thinks her sister took it." She paced toward a dining set and braced her hands on the top of a hard-backed chair carved into the shape of an octopus. "She wants me to go through her things and listen in while she talks."

          "Why all this over some jewelry?"

          "That necklace alone is worth fifteen million dollars."

          Shiiiiiieeeeeet... For fifteen million dollars that shit better had been timeshared between Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha. I could think of much better things to buy with fifteen million dollars. A nice home, reliable vehicles, business investments, charitable donations, a harem of fine men from around the world, like, all the Game of Thrones memorabilia on the planet, oodles and oodles of shoes, a luxury bunker for the apocalypse, a seat on the first commercial space flight if the apocalypse bunker doesn't work out...

          Once I was done mentally colonizing Mars with a harem of the world's finest men to appease my latent sugar momma tendencies, I turned to her. "Last time we talked you said you saw Corrine hit Diana?"

          "Yes."

          "When was that?'

          "Months ago."

          "Have you ever seen Corrine abuse Diana in any other ways?"

          Her eyes rolled upward as she thought it over. "I saw her drug her."

          "With what?"

         "Don't know. It was late at night. Sometimes I can't sleep so I walk through the house." She released her iron grip on the back of the chair and paced the short distance between the wall mounted tv and the love seat. "When I walked by Ms. Diana's room Corrine was pushing some medicine into her line. It must have been two AM."

          "When was this?"

          "A few days before she died."

          So, it probably wasn't to kill her. "Has she ever done anything like that before?"

          She thought a moment. "Sometimes. When Ms. Diana was angry, she would fight. I don't think she remembered where she was most of the time."

          "...Any other time?"

          "Sometimes, they would ask me to help Corrine move her to and from the bath. There was no man in the house—well, there was Gabe, but he's useless. Anyway, when we'd move her back, Corrine would give her medicine in her I.V. But she wasn't in pain. She wasn't even awake."