She closed the file and stood. “I can’t tell you what’s in it. You know how this works.”
“If it’s a consultation you can.”
“What good will that do? You can’t tell anyone what I tell you. It won’t help.”
“I’ve been looking for Diane all week. I already know other things. Every piece helps. If I can put it all together, I may be able to find her. I’m terrified that time is running out.”
“You won’t divulge what I tell you?”
I said, “No,” and I hoped that I wasn’t lying. Was I willing to be lying if it would help Diane?
Yes. Mary had to know that.
“I wouldn’t treat her the same way today. Probably wouldn’t even diagnose her the same,” Mary said remorsefully, while giving Rachel’s file a little shake. “We know so much more now, don’t we? Take me out for coffee, Alan. I’m dying to sit down with an adult for coffee.”
I made an apologetic face. “Grace will be coming with us.” Grace would be thrilled to go out for coffee; she thought a petite espresso cup full of steamed milk foam with shaved chocolate on top was as good as life got.
Mary deflated, took a step, and slumped down on a nearby chair. “I forgot. She’s a sweet kid, but she’s not an adult.”
“Not the last time I looked, no.”
A strong wind exploded out of Sunshine Canyon ten blocks to the west. Had the Chinooks arrived? The whoosh shook the house, the naked tree branches squinted together and bent to the east. Debris and dust filled the air.
I excused myself and stepped out into the waiting room to check on Grace. She seemed oblivious to the gales; in fact she was so busy coloring that she didn’t notice my arrival in the room. A second blast put the first to shame-the century-old glass began to hum in the window at the front of the house. After one more selfish moment observing my daughter’s concentration, I returned down the hallway to Mary’s office.
She’d moved to the couch, pulled her legs up under her, and tugged a pillow to her chest. She asked, “Did Bill Miller ever mention to you that he’d done something he wasn’t proud of? Something that was eating at him?”
“No, doesn’t ring a bell. Should it?”
“I’m thinking maybe it might be important. He never really explained it all to me, but it had something to do with a traffic accident he witnessed. A young woman died. He was torn up about it.”
I surprised myself by remembering. “She was an orthodontist,” I said.
The winds had quieted. Strange.
Mary said, “Yes.”
50
Mary had to get back to the demands of the triplets, and the clock said it was almost time to get Grace home for some lunch and a nap. But something Mary had said convinced me to risk squeezing one more errand into our outing. I didn’t even try to explain to Grace exactly what business was conducted at the office of the Boulder County coroner; all I told her was that Daddy had another short meeting.
Years before, during my brief stint as a coroner’s investigator, my supervisor was a good man named Scott Truscott. I’d always liked Scott and had felt that once I wasn’t working for him he’d grown fond of me, too. Grace and I tracked him down at his desk in the Justice Center on Canyon Boulevard. I introduced him to Grace and he and I spent a moment catching up before he asked, “So what’s up?”
“I’m hoping I can help you a little with the Hannah Grant thing.”
“Yeah?” He seemed interested, but just the slightest bit skeptical. “I’d love to get that one out of the ‘undetermined’ column.”
The words he used-genteelly chosen without overt reference to death or murder-told me that he was happy to edit his part of the conversation for Grace’s tender ears.
He added, “Why me and not the detectives handling the case?”
I could’ve finessed my answer, but with Scott it wasn’t necessary. “I have issues with Jaris Slocum.”
“Gotcha.” Scott wasn’t surprised, obviously.
“Will you answer some questions for me, too?” I asked.
“Depends what they are.”
That was fair. I said, “Hannah was a diabetic. Type 1. We both know that. How was her blood sugar when, you know?”
“Blood doesn’t actually tell us anything about sugar level during a post; natural autolysis renders the numbers meaningless. But because we knew she was insulin dependent, the coroner checked the vitreous fluid.”
“From her eye?” I asked, a shiver shooting up my spine. I didn’t know what autolysis was, natural or otherwise, but feared that asking would either tug Scott down a blind alley, or leave my daughter with nightmares.
“It’s the only way to get a reliable post mortem sugar. I don’t have it memorized, but she was within normal limits.” His hand reached for his computer mouse. “You want me to check for the exact number, I can pull the labs.”
“It’s okay. Did the detectives recover a syringe that night?”
“You mean with insulin in it? No. They found fresh supplies in the kitchen. Nothing already prepared for injection though, and nothing recently used.”
“Did you hear anything about an open roll of LifeSavers in her coat pocket?”
His shoulders dropped, and he frowned. “No, nobody mentioned LifeSavers to me. It wasn’t in any of the reports.”
“It was there; I saw it. The package was open, the wrapper was curly-cueing out of her pocket.”
Scott appeared perplexed. “She must have thought her sugar was low. Considering her normal levels, though, that’s odd.”
“It is odd. Did you collect her… that night?” I skipped a word intentionally. The omitted word could have been “body” or “remains.”
He filled in the blank and said that he had. One of the tasks of coroner’s investigators is to visit death scenes to begin collecting data, and to prepare bodies for transport to the morgue.
I said, “Her shirttail was tucked up under the front of her bra when I found her.”
“When I got there, too. Same.”
“Ever run across that before at a death scene?”
“Never,” he said.
“A good friend of hers just told me that Hannah did that when she was preparing to do an insulin injection in her abdomen. To get her shirt up out of the way.”
Scott crossed his arms and sat back. “I didn’t consider that, but I should have. Slocum was already thinking homicide when I arrived.” He made a sound with his tongue and the roof of his mouth. “You’ll make a statement about the LifeSavers?”
“Of course; I bet the crime-scene photos will show that wrapper.”
“I’ll take a look. Will her friend give a statement about the shirt tail?”
“Can’t see why not. Why would a diabetic be eating sugar one minute and preparing to take insulin the next?”
“It makes no sense to me. That’s one of the things I’m going to have to think about.”
We said good-bye. I bundled Grace back up. On the way out to the car she asked, “What are LifeSavers?”
We stopped at a convenience store on the way home and I bought her a roll. I guessed she was a Butter Rum kid.
It turned out that I guessed right.
When we finally weaved across the valley Viv was almost done cooking up a pot of macaroni and cheese. As the three of us were finishing lunch, Virginia Danna, the Realtor whom I’d tricked into showing me the interior of Doyle’s house, phoned me on my cell.
After reintroducing herself she proceeded without any further niceties, her tone full of conspiracy. “The rules have changed. They always seem to in situations like this, don’t they? With Mr. Chandler dead, buyers are going to come out of the hills looking for a fire sale. Act fast and you might be able to get that house for a…”
Song? What house?
I walked out of the kitchen. “Mr. Chandler is dead?” I said.
“Yes! Can you believe it? This world! Sometimes…” She sighed. “A detective called me today to find out when I’d last spoken with him. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he told me Mr. Chandler was dead, maybe even murdered. Who knows what happened to him? The poor man! Murdered? It gives me gooseflesh, right up my thighs. Now, I will admit that I’m not privy to the estate situation in this particular circumstance, but sometimes people-heirs-at times like this are truly eager to settle things after a… especially after a… So if I could persuade you to make…”