“Because if Jonah were out of the way, Carl would have sole control of Spalter Realty and all its assets, which he could convert into cash to finance his political plans in a big way. Interestingly, Jonah would have the same motive to get rid of Carl—get control of Spalter Realty assets, which he could use to finance the expansion of his Cyberspace Cathedral.”

Esti raised an eyebrow. “Cyber …?”

“Long story. Bottom line, Jonah’s got a lot of ambition and could use a lot of money.”

“Okay, I’ll put his name down. Who else?”

“Alyssa.”

She blinked, seemed to have some unpleasant thoughts before making another note.

Hardwick’s lip curled. “His own daughter?”

Esti responded first. “I overheard enough of Klemper on the phone with Alyssa to get the impression that her relationship with her father … wasn’t what you’d call a normal father-daughter relationship. It sounded like Carl had forced her to have sex with him.”

“You told me that before,” said Hardwick. “I don’t like thinking about shit like that.”

The silence that followed was broken by Gurney. “Just look at it from a practical perspective. Alyssa was a longtime drug addict with no interest in recovery. Carl wanted to be governor of New York. He had a lot to lose—in the present and the future. If he did have an incestuous relationship with Alyssa, presumably going back into her childhood, that would create a major blackmail opportunity—a hard thing for a drug addict with an expensive habit to resist. Suppose that Alyssa’s demands became exorbitant. Suppose that Carl came to view her as an unbearable threat to everything he wanted. We’ve heard from a few people that he was an obsessively ambitious man and capable of anything.”

Hardwick had his acid-reflux expression. “You’re saying that Alyssa might have discovered that he was arranging for her removal, and that she hired someone to hit him first?”

“Something like that. At least that would be consistent with the Angelidis theory. A simpler version would be that it was entirely her initiative—that Carl never made a move against her—that she was after his money, pure and simple, and had him killed.”

“But according to his will, Kay was his sole beneficiary. Alyssa wasn’t going to get anything. So what good would—”

Gurney broke in. “Alyssa wouldn’t get anything unless Kay went down for the murder. Once Kay was convicted, New York law would block her inheritance and Carl’s whole estate would be passed down to Alyssa.”

Hardwick grinned with the dawning light of possibilities. “That could explain everything. That could explain why she was fucking Klemper, to get him to bend the case. She could even have been fucking her mother’s boyfriend, to get him to perjure himself at trial. She’s a stone-cold addict—she’d fuck a monkey for dope.”