A Death In Beverly Hills by David Grace

emotionally I mean, we'd have a nice quiet divorce. We had a pre-nup so it wasn't going to be any problem, financially. Flat payment of a million bucks, $10,000 a month alimony for two years and child support. My divorce lawyer told me that child support would be another $5,000 a month until the alimony ran out then it would go up to $10K. I had no problem with those numbers. Anyway, right after the divorce I was going to ask Katey to marry me. Then everything went out of control. I don't blame her. How was she to know I was going to marry her? As far as she knew, I just flat out lied to her to get her into the sack. I don't blame her. Hell, I can't even blame the cops. They took advantage of her sweet nature but I guess they were just doing their jobs."
    Steve shook his head in amazement. "Tom, you do remember telling Kaitlen on one of the tapes that you and she could get married as soon as the publicity over Marian's disappearance died down? And she didn't believe you."
    "Well, given everything that happened, who would? I guess I'll never get her back now, will I?"
    Steve wanted to grab Travis's shoulders and just shake him. You're about to be convicted of first degree murder and maybe get sentenced to death and you're still thinking that the woman who betrayed you to the cops is going to take you back and you'll both live happily ever after? What fucking planet are you living on?
    "Okay, Tom," Steve said more calmly than he felt, "if Kaitlen wasn't involved, who else is there?"
    "My money's on her brother."
    "Why him?"
    "One," Travis raised his index finger, "he's a low life punk. He could put the hammer down on somebody, or find a guy who could. Two, he wanted a piece of me. I could see it in his eyes. He looked at me like some big lotto ticket that was about to pay off. If Katey and me got hitched, you can bet Bobby planned on being right there with his hand out. But as far as he knew, that wasn't going to happen, at least as long as Marian was in the picture. I figure he hired some scumbag ex-con friend to do it and they screwed it up and dumped her in the desert."
    "It was just coincidence they buried her within two miles of where you were driving your dune buggy?"
    "Okay, maybe they kept her body someplace and when everything hit the fan and Katey turned against me, they figured the marriage was never gonna happen and they put Marian there to implicate me and take the heat off themselves."
    Steve and Greg exchanged a brief look of disbelief.
    "Is there anybody else who might have wanted to hurt Marian or get her out of the way?"
    Travis shook his head and sighed. "Like I said, we weren't getting along so good but there's nobody who'd be angry enough with her to want her dead."
    Except you , Steve said to himself. "How about someone who might want to hurt you?"
    "You think somebody murdered Marian to make me look bad? Why not just kill me in the first place?"
    "Tom," Greg said very quietly, "if we can't convince the jury either that someone had a motive to kill Marian or that they killed her to get even with you, then they're going to go with Plan A and figure you did it. So, who might have wanted to cause you trouble?"
    Travis stared at the wall for a long three seconds, then, reluctantly, gave his head a little shake. "I've got nothing. What about all those leads that came into the Tip Line? Are you sure there's nothing there? What about those other pregnant women who went missing? Why are you so sure this wasn't a serial killer or a cult murder or something?"
    "We'll check them again," Steve said wearily.
    "And the brother. . . ."
    "He's my next stop. I'll have a long talk with him, check out his known associates, get his credit card receipts and phone calls for the day of the disappearance. Greg, you'll handle the subpoenas?"
    "I've already done it. I'm just waiting for the docs to come in from AT&T and VISA. It should only be a couple of more days."
    "Okay, then." Steve stood and offered Travis his hand. The gleam