“It must be nice to play with dolls all day.”
“I could say the same about you. You’re only a stickler for the rules when they work in your favor. I don’t turn on blood. That is the appalling part in all this. You do. I thought I raised you better than that.” Her mother gulped down her wine and poured herself another glass. “I have done absolutely nothing wrong. Get off your high horse, child. You’re in the real world now. We all have choices to make.”
“I can’t respect yours.”
“Then it’s good I don’t seek respect.”
“You just seek money.”
“Money is never the point. I seek security and stability for the family. The only way you get that is by cultivating money and power. I let you spend too much time with your father growing up. He brainwashed you, confused you in one of the most fundamental of ways.”
“Oh, I remember all your lectures. I even believed them for a time. But you know what? Out of everything I was taught as a child, my father’s morals are the only thing that I can respect.”
“Yes, he was very moral when he tried to bribe me for Oskar Kruger. Jewel is your sister. Show some loyalty.”
“I show no loyalty to criminals. Clearly, you misjudged me if you thought differently.”
“What does that make you? If you can’t show loyalty to blood, then at least show loyalty to the family. Right now you’re more loyal to Bullstow than to the Randolphs. It’s sickening.”
“Will you intervene if Senator Dubois asks me to charge her?”
“I won’t have to.”
“You have something on him?”
“I have something on everyone.”
“You’ll use it, too, won’t you? Maybe I should arrest her after all. I’d hate to see you take a turn on the senator. Our family has done enough to him.”
“That’s rich. You’ve cleaned up her behavior in the past. You didn’t seem to have a problem with it back then.”
“College indiscretions are hardly the same thing. She took a bunch of pills because she wanted to play the tortured artist that month. She drew a few pretty pictures afterwards and moved on to something else. It wasn’t that hard to bury the story.”
The chairwoman put down her wine. “Here’s what I know. Two government blackcoats entered this estate yesterday and were allowed to pass through the gates. You wanted them to come inside, or you would have never allowed such a thing. You had a conversation with them in the Red Lounge, and all recordings of that meeting are absent from my records. The word from their superior is that they’ve been slated for exile in a few weeks.”
Lila leaned back in her chair, vaguely annoyed that someone at Bullstow had let that slip, likely one of her cousins who thought the information was harmless enough. She would have questioned her mother further on that point, but she could not give her any indication that she was correct. From the way her mother studied her face, Lila believed that she was fishing.
“So what do I know? I know that you’ve finally cleaned up your mess. I don’t know how Senator La Roux fits into it all, but I don’t believe the reports of his car accident for a second. You picked him out of the crowd at the Closing Ball. You took him back here that night. Then you went out for a walk right before dinner yesterday, and he never came back. Instead, he conveniently got into a rather nasty accident on the way home. If the news hadn’t come from Bullstow, if I didn’t have the official report on my desk right now, if I didn’t know you better, then I’d worry you murdered him.”
“Really?”
“Blood squads are legal. You could have justified it to yourself by—”
“I didn’t kill the senator.”
“Your protest is comforting,” the chairwoman said, and sipped her wine. “But I’d like to point out that you don’t seem all that upset by his death. I haven’t seen you shed a tear.”
“I barely knew him.”
“Who’s the cold bitch now?”
Lila stilled her face.
“How much of one are you? I need to know, Elizabeth. If you harmed the senator—”
“I didn’t. I’m not like Jewel.”
Her mother licked her lips and nodded. “Good. Sutton told me you left this morning. Where did you go?”