Intimate Betrayal (25 page)

“And I’ve explained to you how they came to be there, Detective Foster. No doubt you’ve confirmed what I told you with some
of the numerous other witnesses who were there at the time!”

“We’ve also heard a rumor that Giuseppe Brindesi was Francesca Carlyle’s lover,” he said. “That puts your boyfriend right
back in hot water again, Ms. Jefferson, doesn’t it?”

She stared at him, feeling sick. Was it true? Had they confirmed that?

“But, as I said, that’s not the angle I’m working today,” he went on. “There’s not going to be any rush to judgment in this
case—not if I have anything to say about it.”

“Well, if you believe that either Matt or Darcy Fuentes had anything to do with it, you’re on the wrong road this time, detective.”

“Or the kid, either—Vico. You think he’s innocent as well, don’t you? Seems to me, Ms. Jefferson, you’ve got a habit of declaring
everybody innocent, no matter how much evidence we have against them.”

“Everybody
is
innocent, detective. Everybody except one person. So do me a favor, please. Do the people of California a favor. Get the right
guy this time.”

“We’ll get him. Or her. Sooner or later I’ll get to my destination, no matter how many wrong roads I take along the way.”

After he left, Annie found herself pacing the apartment, her thoughts awhirl. Much as she hated hearing what Foster had said,
she knew she would have to check into it. Because it certainly seemed that something was wrong here—it didn’t take a cop’s
instincts to know that.

Annie was well aware that the San Francisco building codes were among the strictest in the nation, largely because of the
risk of major earthquakes. It was pretty difficult to imagine anyone making a mistake about the seismic design. However, if
a mistake was made, it would be caught long before the
plans were approved. Before any construction could begin, the structural design had to be certified by the city inspectors.

On the other hand, she’d been in this business long enough to know that everything wasn’t always done aboveboard. There were
contractors who took a hefty profit out of every project. All contractors figured to make at least 15 percent profit and adjusted
their estimates and their costs accordingly. That was the industry standard, and perfectly legal, of course.

But there were ways of increasing that profit margin, and it was something that both the primary contractors and the subcontractors
might indulge in, depending on how unscrupulous they were. She wondered again about Paul McEnerney. She suspected that he
wouldn’t be above pocketing a few extra dollars if he had the chance.

There were many ways to cheat. And if the architects—or just one person at the architectural firm—were in cahoots with one
of the contractors, cutting some sort of deal and splitting what they skimmed…

Mistakes? No way. But carefully planned and executed fraud? That was certainly possible.

But
Darcy?
The idea that she could be involved in something of that nature and then
killed
somebody to cover it up was ridiculous!

Even so, Annie couldn’t get out of her mind the thought that Darcy had been behaving very oddly lately. She’d been jumpy and
distracted, and people were beginning to notice. Annie had spoken with a client yesterday who had called to complain that
Darcy hadn’t returned his phone calls.

Clearly, there was something wrong with her. And whatever it was, Darcy didn’t feel comfortable talking about it with her
best friend in the world…

Christ, her head was aching! Ever since Giuseppe’s death she had been tossed by one violent emotion after another, most of
them engendered by her newly raised doubts about the people she cared most about.

She certainly didn’t want to give serious consideration to any theory that would pin the murder on Matthew. But neither did
she want to consider that Darcy could be capable of such a heinous crime.

But how well did she really know Matt? For that matter, how well did she know Darcy? If someone was a skillful actor and dissembler,
was there any way to see into his or her heart?

Annie had always liked to believe that she had good instincts about people. But she couldn’t be as good a judge of character
as she had thought, because someone who was probably known to her had, with malice aforethought, loosened the pins on the
scaffolding in front of the high altar, knowing that the next person who mounted it would fall eighty feet to his death on
the stone floor below.

“If I understand correctly,” said Sam, “it’s Detective Foster’s contention that Giuseppe had made some discovery about a catastrophic
engineering error, confronted Darcy—the primary architect—and she killed him.”

“Yes.” Annie had gone straight to Sam’s office the following morning to tell him about her talk with the detective. Sam had
admitted that Foster had talked to him too.

“Well, I’m telling you what I told the detective,” said Sam. “It’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve
ever
heard.”

“I agree with you. But if this idiot is serious, he could make all sorts of trouble for Darcy. He’s already made Matt Carlyle’s
life miserable again.”

Sam pressed his lips together and nodded. “They’ve been questioning me about Matt too. But setting that aside for a moment,
think about it—if Darcy made some sort of error, then Sidney must have known about it, right? And if he allowed the building
to go on without correcting it, then he
too would be responsible. Ultimately, in fact, the entire firm would be responsible. Hell, I’m the one who signed and stamped
the official blueprints. I’m the one who would be sued.”

“And when you went over it, did you notice any errors?”

“No, but I admit I gave the final version a fairly cursory look.”

“Sam, you don’t believe there’s any truth to what Foster said about Darcy’s being no good with the fine details, do you?”

Sam shrugged. “‘No good’ is a blatant exaggeration. I don’t think she likes the fine details, but she’s a professional. I’ve
certainly never seen any evidence that she cuts corners in any respect. You can’t do that in this business, Annie, you know
that. It’s like the old proverb, Tor want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost…’For want of the proper flexibility of a seismic
connection, the building fails its safety inspection. Or, worst case, collapses in an earthquake. There’s simply too much
money involved in these projects for anyone to risk their reputation on slipshod work.”

“Just for the sake of argument,” Annie said, “suppose a critical mistake was made in the design process, and no one caught
it. Suppose the work went forward, all the structural work had been finished, and one of the experienced craftsmen at the
site noticed that something didn’t look right. Maybe he’s wrong about it, actually. But he’s stubborn and he clings to his
theory, and he won’t hesitate to tell others about it. Maybe he’ll even go to the press. In other words, he could cause a
lot of trouble.”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think I buy it. There are safety inspections to be passed—”

“You and I both know that some of the inspectors are, frankly, incompetent, and others can probably be bribed.”

“Well—”

“And we’ve both been in the business too long to be naive. There
is
corruption. Money does pass quietly under the table sometimes. Brody Associates and McEneraey Construction have worked together
lots of times before; everything is very cozy, and with a project of this size, with so many millions of dollars involved,
there might be a pretty big temptation for somebody to skim off a little money—”

His normally genial look disappeared. “Come on, Annie, think what you’re saying here! Darcy couldn’t be behind something as
complex and dirty as that.” He paused, seeming to reconsider, then shook his head. “I just can’t believe it of her.”

“No. No, of course not.” Annie realized that she was getting nervous because Sam’s tone, for the first time, was a bit uncertain.
Hadn’t he said something about Darcy having done an internship with McEnerney Construction a few years ago?

“Annie, look at me.”

She raised her eyes. Sam shook his head gently, his eyes candid and serious. “Listen. I want you to stop worrying about this.
As far as I know, there are no errors in the specifications for the structure of the cathedral. But I’ll check into it. We’ll
run some tests, and if there have been any errors, they’ll be corrected. We’ll retrofit the entire place if necessary. Whatever
it takes.”

“Sam, listen, I—”

“What’s more, as far as I know, Giuseppe Brindesi did
not
go to Darcy with any claims of that sort. But even if he did,
it’s pretty hard for me to imagine that she would lose control—or whatever the cops imagine—and murder him.”

“It’s pretty hard for me to imagine,”
he’d said. Not
“It’s impossible for me to imagine.
“Dammit! She didn’t want Sam to believe it any more than she wanted to believe it herself.

“By the way, have you talked to Darcy about this?” he asked.

“No. Jesus, how could I?”

“Good. Seems to me she’s been a bit vulnerable lately. I would hate to see her hurt by idle and totally unjustified speculation.”
He paused. “How well do you two actually know each other, anyway?”

“Very well,” Annie said. “She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

“Then you probably know that Darcy and I were lovers for a short while recently.”

What?

“No?” he said. “I thought she might have told you.”

“No, she didn’t.” Annie was thoroughly startled.
Darcy and Sam?
That was the kind of thing close women friends tended to tell each other.

“Jeez, I’m sorry,” Sam said, looking embarrassed. “Hey, it was no big deal—a mistake, really, on both our parts.” He smiled
wryly. “I probably made a lot less of an impression on her than she made on me.”

“I doubt that.”

He shrugged. “Actually, in all honesty, I think it may have been more difficult for her than she’s willing to admit. I’m afraid
that she may have been a little more involved, emotionally, than she let on.”

That could certainly explain Darcy’s strange moodiness
lately,
Annie thought. What it didn’t explain was why Darcy had never mentioned the affair.

“Anyhow,” Sam said, “knowing her as well as I do, I sincerely doubt that there’s any truth to what Canin had to say. Darcy’s
an excellent architect. And she’s certainly not a killer.” He shook his head. “At least, I don’t
think
she is.”

For the rest of the day, Annie turned the conversation with Sam over and over in her mind. She wished she could talk to Matt
about it, but he was still in Washington. And in a sense she was glad that he was out of town, and safe, briefly, from being
hassled by the police.

Little details kept haunting her: Darcy’s recent and unusual skittishness; her attempt to convince Annie that Matt Carlyle
must have been involved; the way she had seemed so totally distraught at Giuseppe’s funeral; the fact that she hadn’t been
home on the night of the murder.

And there was something else that Sam didn’t know, something that had happened on the day that Darcy and others from the firm
had visited the site with Annie to observe the progress: Darcy had climbed up the scaffolding with Giuseppe. What had he said
to her that day?
“You are the architect, are you not, madonna? Yes, please, come up, there are several things I would like to show you. “

Had he told her then that there was something wrong in the cathedral frame? Had she examined it, confirmed it, and decided
then and there to kill him?

No, dammit! Not Darcy.

What would be the motive? Money? Darcy came from a poor family, and Annie knew that she aspired to far greater
wealth than she had achieved so far. The men she dated tended to be affluent. Including, of course, Sam, whose high society
credentials were impeccable.

Why didn’t she ever tell me about that affair?

Annie thought, with some embarrassment, of the intimate details she had shared with Darcy about her relationship with Matt.
She had always believed Darcy to be a very open person, someone who simply would not be able to keep a juicy detail secret.
Now that she knew that Darcy had had an affair with Sam, Annie wondered what else she had been hiding.

And if, as Sam had hinted, he had ended the affair against Darcy’s wishes, might her disappointment have been the proverbial
last straw? Sam was exactly the sort of man whom Darcy would have hoped to marry. Rich, handsome, successful, charming, able
to introduce her to a social circle far above the one to which she had been born. Losing Sam must have been difficult indeed.

What did it all add up to?

If Darcy was involved in some kind of architectural fraud, she couldn’t do it without a partner. Someone from the general
contractor’s side. Someone with responsibility, someone in charge…

Jack Fletcher.

It had to be. Annie had sensed something wrong about him for months. He had control of the building schedule, kept track of
the hours worked by the various subcontractors, and ordered the construction materials. If anybody could skim money, Fletcher
would be the guy.

He was skimming, and Darcy was getting a substantial cut. In fact, maybe it was
Fletcher
who had tampered with the
scaffolding. Annie still refused io believe that her best friend was capable of murder.

“She’s certainly not a killer,”
Sam had said.
“At least, I don’t
think
she is.”

After work that evening, Annie drove to Sidney Canin’s house in Cow Hollow. Hearing his story secondhand from the police wasn’t
good enough. In order to understand what he suspected, she had to hear it from him.

Although Sam had told her to stop worrying about it, she couldn’t leave it alone. Sam was too easygoing. Sometimes she wondered
if he had any concept of the evil that existed in the world.