Max was staring at her, frightened and confused; the baby was beginning to howl. And there she was, her veneer in patchy streaks with the old Davina thrusting through its weaknesses. Her temper snapped.
“Don’t just stand there!” she snarled at Max. “Go look in the refrigerator for Alexis’s formula. If there’s any there, put a bottle in a jug of hot water and bring it here. Move, Max!”
He stumbled away to do as commanded, came back in five minutes with the jug. Snatching at it, Davina found a towel, took the bottle out, dried it, tested it — still too cold.
“Uda was born wrong,” she said, Alexis whinging on her knee. “In a family as old as ours, it happens. It’s why we bred some Chinese and a lot of Negro blood into our veins — a different breeding stock. I take care of Uda, who repays me with hard work. I ask nothing else of her. Many years ago, when we first came to the United States, we agreed that in front of other people I would treat Uda like — well, dirt. It saved the kind of long explanations I am forced to give you now, yet they change nothing.”
“Vina, I’m your husband! Couldn’t you have confided in me?”
“To what purpose?” The bottle was warm enough; Davina shoved its teat into Alexis’s mouth and watched him suck with greedy pleasure. “Why do I have no milk?” she asked the air. “It hurts that he must get his food from a tub, and full of chemicals.”
“You should treat your sister better than a slave, Davina,” Max persisted. “Don’t you understand how cold-hearted you seem?”
“The whole business is a crock of shit, Max. Leave Uda to me, she’s perfectly happy with our arrangement. Uda and I are twins, we have a kind of love beyond ordinary sisters. Think of us as one person facing opposite ways. Vina light, Uda dark.” She laughed in genuine amusement. “Sometimes it’s Vina dark, and Uda light. You never can tell with twins.”
An awful realization had been growing steadily in Max’s mind; he stared at his wife in sudden horror. “You killed Em!”
“Damned right I did!” said Davina savagely.
“Where did you get the poison?” he asked, shivering.
“It came in the post with a letter. Two glass tubes with narrow necks, each with about a half teaspoon of liquid inside. In a small box, packed with cotton wool. It sat on the painting desk for days — there was no need to hide anything until after Em died. Then Uda put it in paint tubes, the silly bitch. I had told her to get rid of everything.” Davina smiled sweetly. “Em and Chez threatened our wellbeing, so she had to go.” Her lip lifted in contempt. “Pussycats and horses’ heads! Pathetic!”
Max had sunk into a chair — if he stayed on his feet, he would faint. “What had Emily done to you?”
“Tormented me the way she did Martita. Then she went to blackmail. Once, you see, I was the captive of her brother, who used me as bait. A monster, Chez Derzinsky. Not prostitution, oh, no! He locked my Uda up in a cell and tortured her to force me to work for him. I cheated poor old men out of their money. It was an infamy. But that was only half of Emily’s blackmail. She told me that she’d spread it far and wide that Jim Hunter is Alexis’s father. A lie! A lie! But people are like starving dogs, they will lap vomit off the sidewalk.”
“You’d let Uda be charged with your crime?”
“Uda will come to no harm if you do as you’re told.” The bottle was empty; Davina rubbed Alexis’s back. “There! Done.”
Downstairs again, she sat at the breakfast table and lit a blue Sobranie Cocktail, then pushed a steaming mug at Max.
“Fresh coffee, Max,” she said. “If Uda comes to trial for this murder, I want Anthony Bera for her defense, is that clear? Phone Bill Wilson right this moment and arrange it.”
The old Davina showed briefly as she smiled at him warmly. “My dear, this is a nightmare. Look at it as that. When it is over, you and I and Alexis and Uda will return to our lovely life. I will be the woman of your dreams again, and we will pray that you never again have to see the Davina Savovich who fought her way to haven in America. She is there, but buried, and Alexis will inherit that from her as well as all his other qualities. I am self-educated. You are self-educated. Alexis will be properly educated at the finest schools. You and I run a printery and design business, but our son will do something far more important. Uda has seen it in his stars.”
“Did she see her own arrest for murder?” Max asked.
Davina stared; then she laughed. “I have no idea! Very possibly she did see it, but she would never put that trouble on my shoulders.”