“The father probably cleaned the kid up before you got there. He might have found the sight of his child covered with his wife’s blood somewhat disturbing. I think you’re seeing something because you want to see something.”
“I talked to the husband. He smells guilty.”
“Okay. He smells guilty. I’m going to need a little more than that. A jury will, too. The kid’s fingerprints are still all over the ashtray, right? The ashtray with half of Rachel Lee’s scalp stuck in the grooves.”
“‘Hey Junior, hold this ashtray for Daddy.’ The kid is retarded, don’t forget. It wouldn’t be terribly difficult to frame him.”
“Think about it, Leo. There’s no motive. No why. Why? That’s what I’m not seeing. If you could give me a why, I might be able to buy into some of this other stuff. He’s not even in line for the inheritance. The wife left it all to the son. The insurance on her wouldn’t even move the decimal point in this guy’s checkbook.”
Paula opened her top desk drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and an ashtray. Leo leaned across the desk, lighted her cigarette, then fired up his cigar.
“Like old times, huh, Paula?”
“Sure. I remember.”
“Working late, excited about a case, smoking like maniacs. We used to work good together.”
“You taught me a lot. I haven’t forgotten. You taught me to look out for myself. And that’s what I’ve been doing.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Look, I want to see something good happen for you. I do. But I don’t think this is the one. It all comes back to the why. You can’t convince a jury without the why. ‘He did it, oh yes, he definitely did it. Why? Well, I’m not sure why, but-?’”
“Okay, I get the point. All right, let’s say, what if-now I’m not saying anything, but what if she was having an affair?”
“The woman hadn’t set foot out of her house in three years.”
“The postman always rings twice.”
“He’d have to ring more than that before this psycho would answer the door.”
Paula pulled a thick folder from a drawer and tossed it across the desk to Leo.
“Have you read her file? Depression, anxiety, agoraphobia. Taking Valium and Prozac by the handful.”
Leo picked up the file. The significance of her giving it to him was not lost on him. She’s giving it to me, he thought. The case. This is my case. She’s not just letting me stick my nose in to get a little whiff of what it used to be like, she’s giving it to me.
“Take it home, read it over. You’ll see you’re just jumping at shadows. The woman makes Boo Radley look like an extrovert.”
Boo Radley. Who had they used to call Boo Radley? It was right there. It was… the Conners woman.
“Crazier than Carolyn Conners?”
“Carolyn Conners?”
“Like you forgot.”
Neither of them had mentioned the Guaraldi case in front of the other since Leo had been back with the DA’s office. But there it was. As he had hoped, Paula acted nonchalant, and he knew everything would be okay.
“Oh. Carolyn Conners. I’d have to say that this woman could have probably given Carolyn Conners a run for her money. Psychotically speaking, that is.”
“Not a very nice way to speak of the dead, but maybe you have something.”
“What?”
“Psycho. I’m not saying anything, but maybe she was so crazy, maybe he knew she’d never give him a divorce. Maybe he was afraid of her.”
“ I’d be scared of her. Tell me more.”
“Maybe he knew she’d never let him leave. Maybe there was only one way for him to get his life back.”
“Kill her.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
“This is good. This I can see. This is motive. But we can’t convict someone because they’re left-handed or because they smell guilty. We’ll need evidence. Hard evidence. A fingerprint. Bloodstains. Skin traces under the nails.”
“How about a witness?”
“A witness would be good. Have you got one?”
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but Paula cut him off.
“I know. You’re not saying anything.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Monty lifted his head from between Paula’s parted legs. He gauged the level of ecstasy in her glazed-over eyes, decided he could do better, and began to use his teeth. Her back began to arch, and she grabbed his head roughly with her hands, pushed his face deeper into her. She cried out, and Monty knew that he had succeeded.
Later, he lit a cigarette for each of them and put the ashtray on his chest for her to use.
“Adam asked me to talk to you about Leo.”
“Leo’s harmless. I’m just giving the dog a bone.”
“Adam seems nervous.”
“You want Leo gone? He’s gone. Believe me, I have him on a very short leash. I was just letting him play lawyer, for old times’ sake. You have no idea how embarrassing it is to see him groveling. Pathetic.”
“No, let him play. I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
“No. Adam’s not acting right. He’s changed somehow. Frankly, I’d like to know what he’s been up to. I mean, I don’t think he had anything to do with Rachel’s death, but I would be very interested to know what kind of trash Leo can dig up. I wouldn’t mind knowing for myself who he was with that weekend.”
“Your wish is my command.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
“You want to drag your brother into it, that’s fine by me. I’ll be just as happy to talk to him. But I gotta tell you, it’s just gonna make you look that much more suspicious.”
“Suspicious? I’ve done nothing wrong! You know that.”
“Look, we can play it any way you want to, Mr. Lee, I’m just trying to give you a break.”
“Harassing me at my office is your idea of giving me a break? This is turning into a nightmare and you are the bogeyman.”
“Look, I said from the beginning I was gonna have to talk to her. You assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. It was gonna just be between us. Well, it’s been two weeks since your wife died and still no Violet Perkins.”
“I don’t know why she hasn’t contacted you. She assured me she would.”
“Why don’t you give me her number? I’ll call her.”
“I told you, she calls me. She doesn’t have a phone.”
“Look, I think we both know Violet Perkins doesn’t exist. At least that’s the way it’s starting to look. I’ve located four Violet Perkinses in the metro area, and I’ve talked to all of them except one. Two of them were grade school students, another was living in a nursing home, and the last one has been dead for seven months. The Hendrix Institute denies any knowledge of her. In fact, only one person can claim to have seen her-you.”
Adam pushed back his chair, stood, and looked out his office window. After a minute, he turned back around to look at Leo. “She exists. Look, Leo, I admit I’ve been lying. I haven’t had contact with her since that weekend. We more or less ended the affair. That weekend was the coup de grace. Don’t you think I want to find her just as much as you do? It’s my name, my reputation on the line.”
Adam faced away from Leo, turned back to the window. Leo smiled. The mouse trembles, and the cat licks beads of blood from its whiskers.
When the desk nurse didn’t look up from her charting, Leo cleared his throat a little louder. She looked up, mildly annoyed at being interrupted.
“Hi, my name is Leo Hewitt. I’m with the district attorney’s office. I was wondering if you could help me. I’m looking for a Violet Perkins. I’ve already been to administration twice, but I thought I could check down here, too, just in case.”
“Oh, yeah. There was a guy in here the other day. Looking for the same girl. I remember ’cause of the name. Violet. I told him I been here for years, never heard of her.”
Leo sighed and turned away. “Well, thanks anyway.”
“Then I happened to think. Maybe I didn’t know her because she’s not on regular staff.”
“What do you mean?”
“We hire out to a temp agency when we’re short on staff, which is all the time. Payroll cuts a check directly to the company and they pay their employees from their end; the person’s name never goes on our payroll. And when I fill in the schedules, I just pencil in the word temp because I never know who they’ll be sending over.”