Lullaby

'Did you know she was pregnant?'

'No.'

'Never even suspected she might be?'

'Never.'

'How often did you see her?'

'Oh, on and off,' Melissa said.

'Every few months or so,' Hammond said.

'Even though you lived here in the same city, huh?' Carella said.

'Well, we didn't move here till last January,' Hammond said.

'And, anyway, we were never very close,' Melissa said.

'When would you say you'd seen her last?'

'Well, in Seattle. All the while we were in Seattle. I saw her the night she was killed, in fact. We were at the hospital together.'

'I meant before then.'

'Well, we flew out together. When it looked as if my father might . . .'

'What I'm trying to ask . . . your sister gave birth in July. When did you see her before that?'

'Oh.'

'Well, let's see, when was it?' Hammond said.

'We moved here last January . . .'

'So it must've been . . .'

'My birthday, wasn't it?' Melissa said.

'I think so, yes. The party here.'

'Yes.'

'And when was that?' Carella asked.

'February twelfth.'

'March, April, May, June, July,' Carella said, counting on his fingers. 'That would've made her four months pregnant.'

'You'd never have known, I can tell you that,' Hammond said.

'Well, lots of women carry small,' Melissa said.

'And she was a big woman, don't forget. Five-ten . . .'

'Big-boned . . .'

'And she always wore this Annie Hall sort of clothing.'

'Layered,' Melissa said. 'So it's entirely possible we'd have missed it.'

'Her being pregnant,' Hammond said.

'She never confided it to you, huh?' Carella asked.

'No.'

'Didn't come to see you when she found out . . . ?'

'No. I wish she would have.'

'Melissa always wished they were closer.'

'Well, there's the age difference, you know,' Melissa said. 'I'm thirty-four, my sister was only nineteen. That's a fifteen-year difference. I was already a teenager when she was born.'

'It's a shame because . . . well . . . now there's no changing it. Joyce is dead.'

'Yes,' Carella said, and nodded. 'Tell me, did she ever mention anyone named Michel Fournier? Mike Fournier?'

'No,' Melissa said. 'At least not to me. Dick? Did she ever . . .'

'No, not to me, either,' Hammond said. 'Is he the father?'

'Yes,' Carella said.

'I figured.'

'But she never mentioned him, huh?'

'No. Well, if we didn't know she was pregnant . . .'

'I thought maybe in passing. Without mentioning that she was pregnant, do you know what I mean? Just discussing him as someone she'd met, or knew, or . . .'

'No,' Melissa said, shaking her head. 'Dick?'

'No,' he said. 'I'm sorry.'

'Did she have any boyfriends back in Seattle?' Carella asked.

'Well, no one recent,' Melissa said. 'She moved here right after high school, you know . . .'

'Graduated early . . .'

'She was only seventeen . . .'

'She was very smart . . .'

'Wanted to be a writer ..."

'You should see some of her poetry.'

'She was studying here with a very important man.'

'So she came east . . . when?' Carella asked. 'June? July?'

'It would've been two years come July.'

'And we came here in January,' Melissa said. 'Dick had a good job offer . . .'

'I'd been practicing out there, but this was too good to refuse,' Hammond said.

'So when you got here in January . . .'

'Yes, toward the end of . . .'

'. . . your sister was already pregnant,' Carella said.

'Was she?' Melissa said.

'Yes. She would've been three months pregnant,' Carella said. 'Did you look her up when you got here?'

'Yes, of course.'

'But you didn't notice she was pregnant.'

'No. Well, I wasn't looking for anything like that. And, anyway, what'd you say it was? Three months?'

'Three, yes.'

'Yes,' Melissa said. 'So she wouldn't have been showing, would she? At least, not so I could notice.'

'All the Chapman women carry small,' Hammond said. 'Melissa's eight months pregnant now, but you'd never guess it.'

Carella had the good grace not to look at her belly.

'Who was Joyce's most recent boyfriend?' he asked. 'Out there in Seattle?'

'I guess it would have been Eddie,' Melissa said.

'She was seeing a lot of him in high school.'

'Eddie Gillette'

'Pretty serious' Carella asked.

'Well, high school stuff,' Hammond said. 'You know.'

'Have the Seattle police talked to him?'

'I really couldn't say.'

'Didn't mention his name as a possible suspect or anything, did they?'

'Didn't mention anyone's name.'

'They're pretty much scratching their heads out there,' Melissa said.

'A thing like this . . . it's not too common out there,' Hammond said.

'Well, people get killed,' Melissa said.

'Yes, but not like here,' Hammond said. 'Is what I meant.'

'Big bad city, huh?' Carella said, and smiled.

'Well, it is, you know,' Hammond said, and returned the smile.

'What sort of law do you practice?' Carella asked.

'Not criminal,' Hammond said. 'The firm I'm with now specializes in corporate law.'

'And out there in Seattle?'

'General law. I had my own practice.'

'He was his own boss out there,' Melissa said, and smiled somewhat ruefully.

'Yes, but the opportunities were limited,' Hammond said. 'You make certain trade-offs in life. We may go back one day, Lissie, who knows?'

'Time we go back, there'll be no family there anymore,' she said.

'Her father's very ill, you know,' Hammond said.

'Yes,' Carella said.

'Never rains but it pours,' Melissa said, and sighed heavily.

Carella looked at his watch.

'I don't want to keep you any longer,' he said. 'Thanks very much for your time, I appreciate it.'