"They'll let it begin and end with Billy," I said. "Bishop's too wired politically."
"I don't want it to end with you in a box," Anderson said. He shook his head, let out a long breath. "You're sleeping at my place tonight, period."
"Your place it is. Better safe than sorry." I winced as I straightened up.
"You didn't get a look at whoever did this? Nothing?"
"Not that I can remember."
"I guess it could be a random attack," he said. "The ER at Mass General draws a tough crowd."
"Could be," I said.
"It doesn't feel that way, though," Anderson said. "I'd lay hundred-to-one odds that whoever did this was looking to do you."
"Maybe we're making somebody nervous," I said. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing." I didn't add that I had done more than enough to make someone jealous, namely, Darwin Bishop.
Anderson nodded to himself. "How's Tess?"
"Her heart stopped again. They got her back, and they're putting in a temporary pacemaker. I think she'll pull through."
"Julia hanging in there?" he asked.
"As well as anyone could," I said. "No question, she's depressed. She'll need help down the road."
"From a disinterested third party, I hope," he said.
I sidestepped that comment. "She says she'll take out a restraining order on Bishop if he tries to visit Tess in the hospital."
"We'd see the fireworks from that day in court all the way down here," he said. "I spoke with Lauren Dunlop, Bishop's first wife. She's remarried, three kids. Lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, now."
"What did she have to say?" I asked.
"She confirmed everything," he said. "Said she put up with physical and emotional abuse from Bishop for years, finally found the backbone to get the restraining order and file for divorce. It was a long haul. She was terrified of him."
"Did you ask her why she didn't end up with custody of Garret, under the circumstances?" I asked.
"According to her, it was out of the question," Anderson said. "Bishop would have fought the divorce tooth and nail, if it meant surrendering Garret. He was obsessed with the boy. Like some Prince and the Pauper thing. He wanted to take an abandoned baby and raise him to be a nuclear physicist or pro athlete or President of the United States. He even did what he could to interfere with Lauren's visitation rights. She doubts very much that he'll let Julia leave with the children. Not without a huge battle."
"I don't think Julia's going to back down," I said. "She doesn't plan to go home when Tess is discharged. She says she's leaving for her mother's-with the children."
"Good for her. Terry McCarthy filled me in on her statement, by the way. I think he's the best detective on the Boston force."
"And?"
"She came through with flying colors," Anderson said. "Everything was consistent with what she told you: Bishop took the nortriptyline from her just before Tess was poisoned." He paused. "Tommy found her convincing. He got no bad vibes, even when he bluffed and asked her if she'd sit for a polygraph."
I thought back to Caroline Halverson's comments and wondered how well Julia would have fared with a female detective. "What did she say?" I asked.
"She said, 'How about we do the polygraph right now?' "
"Good for her," I said, feeling relieved. I smirked. "I wonder whether Win would sit for one."
"I asked him to," Anderson said.
"You asked Bishop to take a polygraph?"
"Obviously it wouldn't be worth jack at trial, but I wanted to gauge his reaction."
"And…"
"He told me to talk with his lawyer," Anderson said.
"He may need one."
"He retained John McBride about an hour after I made the polygraph suggestion."
McBride, based in Boston, was one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the country and a master at excluding physical evidence against his clients. "Better be careful how you conduct the search of the Bishop estate."
"White glove, all the way." Anderson smiled. "I heard from McBride personally this morning. He wanted to put me on notice that his client won't be available for questioning until charges are filed against him."
"Is McBride representing anyone else in the family?"
"He didn't say he was."
"So what's the plan? We just drive onto the Bishop estate and ask for Claire and Garret?"
"Just like that, the way I figure it," Anderson said. "I still have an active search warrant for every inch of that property, and they're both on the grounds right now, according to the patrolmen I stationed on Wauwinet Road. Either one of them can refuse to talk. But I don't think they will."
"Why not?" I asked.
"The family is full of agendas," he said. "Garret's got one. Claire has her own. They're all using this tragedy to get things done-jockeying for more power, more freedom, whatever."
"So let's get over there while we can." I bent to pick up my overnight bag, sending the muscles of my back and side into spasms that nearly brought me to my knees.
Anderson grabbed me under the arms. "Easy," he said.
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, waiting for the pain to end. When it had died down, I stepped back and forced a smile. "Sudden movements are not what the doctor ordered," I said.
Anderson leaned and picked up my bag. "Let me do the heavy lifting for now," he said.
We met three cruisers on the drive up Wauwinet Road. Television vans lined the road, starting half a mile from the estate. Reporters leaned dangerously toward Anderson 's car, waving hands for us to stop for interviews. Photographers snapped photos as we drove by. I heard the sound of a helicopter, looked up through the windshield, and saw a State Police chopper and another from Channel 7 News crisscrossing the sky.
"Big change," I said.
"The press is loving this," Anderson said. "As soon as they find out Tess is at MGH, they'll send an army over there, too."
A couple Rovers were parked at Bishop's "watch house," and a couple more sat in the semicircle in front of the main house, but no one tried to stop us when we headed for the front door. I checked out the grounds and noticed that Win's security team was outnumbered by State Police SUVs and ATVs. "Are they here to search the grounds or defend them?" I asked Anderson.
"You got me," he said, shrugging. "It depends how cozy Bishop really is with Captain O'Donnell. You'll meet him, eventually. I'd love your take on him."
Claire Buckley answered the door, as usual. She seemed nervous. "No one let me know to expect you," she said, with a tight smile. "Win headed to Boston."
"We won't take much of your time," Anderson said. "Just a few questions."
"I guess that would be fine," she said. "Come in."
Anderson glanced at me and winked. His prediction that we wouldn't meet with much resistance from Claire seemed to be holding up.
As we followed her toward the living room, she glanced back at me struggling along. "You seem like you're in pain," she said.
"I had a little problem in Boston," I said. "Someone jumped me."
She stopped and looked at me with what seemed like real concern. "Are you all right?" she said.
"I will be." I smiled. "Pulled muscles." And a few slashed ones.
"Can I get you anything?"
"Thanks, no."
She invited Anderson and me to take seats on the couch. She took a floral wingback chair opposite us. "How can I help you?" she asked, twisting her diamond pinkie ring back and forth. She noticed me noticing her nervous hands and laid them unnaturally still on her thighs.
Anderson motioned for me to take the lead.
I didn't know exactly what I was after, so I started with a very general question. "Claire, when we last met," I said, "I didn't ask you directly whether you actually saw anything the night Brooke was murdered-anything that might shed light on the investigation. Now, with Tess in the hospital, I need to ask about both twins."
"What sort of thing do you mean?" she said.