I decided to move on because she truly didn’t seem to have a clue about the body. “So the insurance premium paid your fiancé, Kevin Smith, who then became Archie.”
“Yes.”
“Then what? How did you become Kimora?”
“Well, Archie had already figured that out ahead of time. Of course, I had to change my name since Geraldine was dead.” She grimaced. “He liked to search the obituaries for people we could become. I liked the name Kimora when I saw it, so I took that identity.”
“But then your Kimora persona died too.”
“Yeah. The money from the first time was running out.”
“I see.” I nodded. “But that time, Archie didn’t bother with a body?”
“No. He said it would be simpler that way.” She winced. “But the cops were super suspicious of him that time. Then the insurance company tried to stall paying because there was no body. Archie finally managed to get the money, but it spooked him.”
“Spooked him how?”
“He decided that the insurance scams were getting too tricky. He was terrified he’d get caught if we tried again. He was really scared of going to jail.”
“So where did that leave you? The money wasn’t going to last forever.”
“No,” she muttered. “Archie decided that scamming rich bitches out of their money was a safer bet than messing around with the insurance companies.”
“Yeah, I read about a few of his victims.” I studied her. “He broke their hearts.”
“Oh, well.”
I frowned. “No biggie?”
She lifted her chin. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Sheriff.”
“Right. So long as you’re not the dog getting eaten, it didn’t matter to you?”
“That’s right.” Her eyes flashed with resentment.
I hid my disgust as best I could. “Okay, so you swindled poor unsuspecting women out of their money, and eventually, Archie set his sights on Janelle?”
“Yes.” She perked up. “She was fucking loaded. I mean, the other women were small fry compared. With that kind of money, we could have done whatever we wanted.”
“But something went wrong.”
Her face flushed, and anger glittered in her eyes. “He actually fell for her. I… I couldn’t believe it.”
“And that changed everything?”
“Of course. He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to scam her. I told him he was crazy, but he… he said he’d decided to turn over a new leaf.” She looked incredulous. “A new fuckingleaf? What did that mean for me?”
“I’m sure that enraged you.”
“Oh, yeah. We had some horrendous fights over that bitch.” Tears welled in her dark eyes. “I gave that bastard over a decade of my life. I was loyal and obedient. Even when he cheated on me, and he cheated all the time, I was faithful to him.”
“He cheated on you?”
Her laugh was harsh. “Oh, hell yes. He was always sleeping with other women. I didn’t care though because he always came back to me.”
I frowned. “Do you think he cheated on Janelle too?”
“Yes. I’m positive he did at first.” She scowled. “But then about a month ago, he decided he was actually in love with her. From that point on, I don’t think he touched anyone else. No one was good enough for him anymore. Just precious Janelle.”
