Lullaby

'Not at all,' Hammond said.

He walked Carella into the entry foyer, took his overcoat from the closet there, and helped him on with it. Carella thanked him again for his time, called 'Good night' to Melissa, who was clearing the dining room table, and then went out into the hallway and took the elevator down to the street.

It was just beginning to snow.

* * * *

13

Chastity Kerr was the sort of big-boned person Melissa had said her sister was. Tall, sturdy but not fat, she gave the impression of a woman capable of handling any physical task a man could, only better. Blonde and suntanned - she explained that she and her husband had just come back from two weeks at Curtain Bluff on Antigua - she offered Carella a cup of coffee and then sat with him at a small table in the kitchen alcove overlooking Grover Park.

It was still snowing outside.

'Two days ago, I was lying under a palm tree sipping a frozen daiquiri,' she said. 'Look at this, willya?'

Carella looked at it.

It did not make him happy.

The plows wouldn't come out until the snow stopped, and it showed no sign of doing that.

'Mrs Kerr,' he said, 'the reason I'm here . . .'

'Chastity, please,' she said. 'If you have a name like Chastity, you either use it a lot, or else you ignore it or change it. My sisters and I use our names, I think to spite our father, who chose them. I should tell you that there are four girls in our family, and they're named, in order, Verity, Piety, Chastity - that's me - and guess what he named the fourth one?'

'Sneezy,' Carella said.

'No. Generosity. Can you believe he had the temerity?

Carella smiled. 'Anyway, Mrs Kerr,' he said, 'what I'm . . .'

'Chastity, please.'

'Well, what I'm trying to do, I'd like to pinpoint the time Peter Hodding called home on New Year's Eve. To talk to the murdered girl.'

'Oh, my, New Year's Eve,' Chastity said, and rolled her eyes.

'Yes, I know.'

'Not a night when one normally tracks comings and goings, is it?'

'Not normally.'

'What lime did he give you?'

'Well, I'd rather you told me'

'Big rush for the phone,' Chastity said. 'I know I tried to get through to my sister in Chicago shortly after midnight, but all circuits were busy. I don't think anyone was getting through to anywhere. At least, that's my recollection.'

'When do you think Mr Hodding placed his call?'

'I'm trying to remember.'

Carella waited.

Chastity was thinking furiously.

'He was in the guest bedroom,' she said, nodding, 'that's right.'

'Mr Hodding?'

'Yes, he was using the extension in there.'

'And this was when?'

'Well, that's what I'm trying to do, place the time. I know he told her he'd been trying to reach her, but the line was busy.'

'Told who?'

'The sitter. When he finally got through.'

'Told her the line had been busy? Or the circuits?'

'I'm sure he said the line.'

'That would've been her father calling.'

'Well, I don't know what you're talking about, so I can't really comment.'

'I'm thinking out loud,' Carella said. 'How'd you happen to hear this conversation?'

'I was in the room next door. Checking on my daughter. I have an eight-year-old daughter. The door between the rooms was open, and I ... well, there you are.'

'Where?' Carella said, and smiled.

'I'd just got through to my sister, and she'd given me a hassle about not calling sooner. Said it was a tradition to call at midnight, and that was half an hour ago. And I went in to check Jennifer right after that. So it must've been a little past twelve-thirty.'

'When you overheard Peter Hodding on the telephone.'

'Yes.'

'How much of the conversation did you hear?'

'Well, all of it, I suppose. From the beginning. From when he said, "Annie…"'

'Then this definitely was the call to the sitter.'

'Oh, yes. No question. "Annie, it's me," he said, and went on from there.'

'"Annie, it's me."'

'Yes.'

'Not, "Annie, it's Mr Hodding"?'

'No, "Annie, it's me." I guess she knew his voice.'

'Yes. Then what?'

'Then he said he'd been trying to get through but the line was busy . . .'

'Uh-huh.'

'And then he asked how the baby was, little Susan.'

'Yes.'

'God, every time I think of what happened,' Chastity said, and shook her head.

'Yes,' Carella said. 'Then what?'

'He told her they'd be home in a little while.'

'A little while,' Carella repeated.

'Yes.'

'But they didn't leave until sometime between two and two-thirty.'

'Yes. Well, I didn't look at the clock, but it was around that time.'

'So that would've been at least an hour and a half later.'

'Are you thinking out loud again?'

'Yes. If he called home around twelve-thirty, it would've been an hour and a half later when he and his wife left the party.'

'That's what it would've been,' Chastity said.

'But he told Annie he'd be home in a little while.'

'Well, I didn't hear him say exactly that.'

'What did you hear him say?'

'Just "In a little while."'

'Only those words?'

'Yes.'

'"In a little while."'

'Yes. She must have asked when they'd be home.'

'Yes, I would guess so.'

'Would you like more coffee?'

'Yes, please.'

She got up, moved to the coffee-making machine, picked up the pot, carried it back to the table, and freshened Carella's cup. The snow kept coming down outside.

'Thank you,' Carella said. 'Why do you suppose he told the sitter they'd be home in a little while when actually they didn't leave until . . . ?'

'Well, he'd had a little to drink, you know.'

'So I understand.'

'I thought he was going to be sick, as a matter of fact.'

'Uh-huh.'

'Gayle was mad as hell. Told him she didn't enjoy the company of a drunken pig. Those were her exact words.'

'This was when?'

'Actually, I think he was already drunk when he called home.'

'Why do you say that?'