AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The primary target might have been someone he was with.”
“Oh no, that’s horrible. Who?”
“A woman named Meagin March.”
“Meg?”
“You know her?”
“I know of her. Gio talked about her. Called her Meagin and Meg.”
“The two of you overlapped?”
“Not substantively,” said Lulu Mastrecht. “By that I mean I was transitioning away from Gio and she’d just entered the picture.”
“Did that create problems?”
“Not at all, Lieutenant. It wasn’t some rivalry thing. I called it transitioning because Gio and I didn’t have any sort of abrupt breakup. What happened was my husband—we’d been separated, having a rough patch—my husband and I decided to give it another go.”
She twisted the wedding band. “That process took a while but when it finally became clear that Ed was serious, I informed Gio it had been great knowing him but it was a phase in my life that had to end. He was totally understanding. Called meamate.Took my hand and kissed myknuckles.”
Her fingers clawed.The ring rotated the other way.“I know what you’re thinking. Cheesy. But you had to know Gio. He was sincere. Told me how happy he was for me, how wonderful it had been being with me. That’s what I mean. Thesweetestman.”
We nodded.
Her look said she hoped we were also sincere but had her doubts.
I said, “By that time Gio was seeing Meagin March.”
“He wasn’t sneaking around on me, what we had was open.”
“What did Gio tell you about her?”
She lowered her eyes. Beautifully mascaraed lashes fluttered. “Not much, just that she wasvulnerabile.I said if you know that, don’t be a jerk. And we laughed. It was like that with us. Expressing whatever was on our minds. We did a lot of talking, he was so good at talking.”
“Did Gio say how Meagin was vulnerable?”
“Just that she’d had a rough life. I didn’t ask, he didn’t say, we didn’t dwell on it.”
“Did he tell you she was married?”
“No, but who cares about that type of thing? Especially if she was in my situation. If you want to judge, can’t stop you. But from my limited experience Gio didn’t try to muscle in or take advantage.”
I said, “Where did the two of you generally meet?”
“Not generally, always,” she said. “Once more at the Four Seasons, once at the Waldorf, and then always at Gio’s place.” Rosy cheeks had deepened to coral.
“It was so lovely there,” she continued. “Quiet, peaceful, you could forget you were in the city. We loved to swim. And fuck. I’m being open with you because my therapist says I need to work on openness. And I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. Never sneaked around on Ed when we were together and before we got back together, I told him everything. And he did the same.”
Her eyes shifted to the right. Her jaw set. “Ed had a lot more to tell. Now, if there’s nothing more, I really do need to prep for my meeting.”
Milo said, “Thanks for talking to us. If there’s anything else that occurs to you, we’d appreciate hearing about it.”
“Before you showed up, I went over everything and no, there’s nothing. Will be nothing.”
She stood gracefully, waited until we’d done the same, and eyed the left-hand elevator bank. We walked with her. When bronze doors slid open, she held them in place. “Can you tell me where it happened? Was it a robbery on the street?”
Milo said, “It happened at Gio’s house.”
