"WHO WAS IT?" Mischa repeated, grinding the Glock's barrel into Benito's ear. "Who killed them?"327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgAZoibl0N
It sounded like Benito was starting to cry. She suddenly realized that she'd been doing the same, that her face was wet with both perspiration and tears.
"No," said Benito, his head dropping. "I can't."
"I already know most of it," she said. "I know about Egor."
It took her way too long to figure it out. But once she starting suspecting their boyfriends, things started to tumble like dominos in her mind. Such as when they first showed up at the Hotel Metropole, and the receptionist looking up their reservation said, "Egor Tarabasov"----Egor, not Lindsay. Egor had made the reservation and put it under his name. She didn't know exactly how he did it. But at some time, in some way, somehow, Egor had gotten hold of the key to their suite.
And Egor, with a net worth approaching a billion dollars, would have been the one who got to the warden, Delannoy, too, bribing him to get Mischa to confess and make the case against her airtight. And for all that money, he also managed to get Lindsay a plum spot in cell block A----Egor's way of apologizing in some small way to his fiancé for framing her for murder.
"Egor bankrolled your movie, didn't he?" she asked. "This film that Hollywood wouldn't finance. Hush money for you. Right, Benito? That was the deal? You keep quiet about what you know and fuck us up at trial, and Hitler gets made?"327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxlUYNzw6c
Benito didn't answer. However Egor had arranged for the money, he'd managed to do it without leaving a trail. Stanley Pucci at The New York times couldn't find any record of it, and he'd looked pretty damn hard.327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzGFMC6gm07
"I'm through playing games with you." She stood up, putting her full weight behind the gun shoved into Benito's ear. Her rage was overtaking all else now. She wasn't here to kill Benito McLaughlin. She'd come here to get answers. It didn't do her any good to kill him. He was her evidence. He was her only chance. It didn't do any good to kill him. But he'd helped them, at the very least, and destroyed her at her trial, and if she wasn't going to make it out of this theater tonight, why should he?327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1Vb8qpVVf
Benito, practically lying in a fetal position, started shouting out. "It was the Russian one and the Argentinian!" he cried. "The Argen----God? Godfredo?----Godfredo wanted to kill me but the Russkie said no. Lindsay's fiancé. He said no, killing me would make this an international scandal because I was a movie star, just like you. Two guys dead in a car in Monte Carlo was one thing, but killing a world-famous A-list actor would bring a huge spotlight on things."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY3SYBvt0Xl
"Killing 'two guys'?" Mischa asked. "One of them was the pres....."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsde6BpMVRj
"They didn't know he was President Diderot, Mischa!" Benito insisted, speaking rapidly, as if his life depended on it. "Any more than you or I did. You think they would've done any of this if they'd known they were killing the president of France?"327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXNoavTG3j
She paused. She was woozy from the adrenaline spikes and sleep deprivation and pure, unadulterated bitterness. But it made sense. They had followed the actresses to Monte Carlo and found them sleeping with other men, but they didn't know who "Diego" was any more than she did.327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLutzUu4Nt
Right. They thought they were killing two ordinary people. They didn't realize they were creating an international incident.327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIShmbkVwcm
"The Russkie----the Russian one, he was so calm and cool----he snuck back on the yacht. When he came back, the murder weapon was gone..."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNyZKR53Aq
"He left it in my purse."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigbpqqV93j
"----and he had the camcorder. The one that recorded the sex video." Benito was panting as the information poured out in spurts. "The Russkie made me touch it. He made me hold it. He made me hold it so my---so my fingerprints were on it. He said to me, 'If we go down, you go down with us,' or something like that. That was their insurance. If I turned them in, I'd be turning myself in, too. It wouldn't matter if I was guilty or innocent. Even if I could keep myself out of prison, if I was associated with this in any way, my career would be finished. Kaput!327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwXkTtF0ogK
"And the next day," he went on, practically vomiting information now, once again pleading for his life, as he did on that dock, "after we all realized that the guy they killed was President Diderot, they got worried that I might change my mind. They were freaking out. So was I. The president of France? This thing had suddenly become so huge! So they offered me the money for the movie. They made me dependent on them. They made us partners. And yes, that part was Egor. It was Egor and Godfredo's money."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDC4hPVHF3f
"And what....." she said, her throat catching. "What about my boyfriend, Sebastian?"327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL47f8EDeta
Benito shook his head furiously. "Never met him or saw him. I don't know, Mischa. I swear. I have no idea."327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkf3V81NE5
It was all hurtling toward her at the speed of light. Much of this she'd already suspected, in the quiet, deliberative hours she'd spent with nothing to do in JRF. But now her pulse was racing so fiercely that she could hardly hold still. She was a twitch on the finger away from murdering the number one film star in the world right now.327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEaewtxHZR
And she was still light-years away from proving any of this.327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVN364K8lPc
Or was she?327Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMz1pzgvOas
