She nodded.
“Could his name have been Mephisto?”
She looked surprised. “Yes, come to think of it, I believe it was. Why, do you know him?”
Louis closed his notebook. “No. But I know someone who did.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
On the elevator up to the Brenner offices, Louis tried to put the pieces together in his head. All he had were some suspicions, a connection between Duvall and Senator Brenner and a gut feeling that Brian Brenner had something to hide. Maybe he just wanted to see Brian’s face when he said Kitty’s name.
The elevator doors opened and Louis stepped into the reception area. The receptionist recognized him and told him Scott was due back soon. When Louis told her he wanted to see Brian, she waved him past with a smile.
Brian’s door was open. He knocked but didn’t wait for an invitation to come in.
“You got a minute?”
Brian looked up. He was sitting behind a mountain of files at his desk. He looked paler than normal, his big bland face blending in with the stacks of manila folders on the desk. There were dark circles under his eyes.
“Scott isn’t here,” Brian said.
“I can wait,” Louis said.
Louis came further into the office. He could feel Brian’s eyes on him as he moved to the window.
“Ah, maybe you’d be more comfortable out in the reception area,” Brian said.
Louis ignored him, pretending to look down on the street and river below.
“Nice view,” Louis said.
Brian didn’t answer.
“You know, I’m getting to like Fort Myers,” Louis said, perching on the edge of the sill. “It’s a nice town, big but not too big. A place where everybody knows everybody else.”
His eyes went up to the diploma on the wall behind Brian. He did the math and figured out that Brian had been sixteen or seventeen when Kitty was killed.
“You grew up here, right Brian? Went to high school here?”
Brian looked like a cornered cat.
“Oh, yeah,” Louis said. “That’s right. Your family has that big old crumbling house over on Shaddlelee Lane. Have you unloaded it yet?”
Brian reached for a tissue and wiped his nose. “No, we just got it appraised.”
Louis smiled slightly. “I like old houses.”
“You already told me that,” Brian said flatly.
“Yeah, but your family’s place, it has. . charm. Why did you decide to sell it now, after all these years, Brian?”
“It was time.”
Louis shook his head slowly. “Too bad you’ve got to let it go. How does your brother feel about selling it?”
“He thinks it’s worth saving,” Brian said tightly. “But Scott likes all lost causes.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Louis said.
Louis went toward Brian’s desk, Brian watching him closely. Louis pulled a chair close and sat down. Brian looked uncomfortable, like he wanted to tell Louis to leave but didn’t know how. He plucked another tissue from a walnut box on his desk and blew his nose.
“I’m not interrupting anything important, am I?” Louis asked.
Brian threw the tissue hard into the trash can near his feet. “What do you want?” he asked.
“I just came by to run a few things by Scott about Kitty Jagger.” Louis paused a beat. “You remember Kitty don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Maybe I could run them by you.”
“I’m not part of that case,” Brian said, moving papers. “That’s Scott’s project. I don’t know anything about it.”
“Do you think he did the right thing?” Louis asked.
Brian looked at him questioningly. “What do you mean?”
“Exhuming the body.”
“I don’t know,” Brian said flatly.
Louis leaned back in the chair, crossing his ankle over his knee. A part of him didn’t really want to talk about this, but he was getting angry, sitting across from Brian and thinking about what he might have done.
“I saw Kitty the other day,” Louis said.
Brian just stared at him.
“She looked good,” Louis said. “All dressed in pink. Had a rose in her hand. For a minute, I thought maybe I could just walk over to her, wake her up and ask her who murdered her.”
Louis paused. Brian looked like had stopped breathing.
“I wonder what she would say,” Louis added.
Brian reached across the desk, grabbing another Kleenex. Louis watched him snort into it, then toss it away. Louis stared at the tissue, sitting on top of crumpled paper.
“Something’s in bloom again, huh Brian?” he said.
“I don’t know. Look, I have work to do. I think you should go.”
Louis rose. He glanced at a closed door. “Can I use your john first?”
Brian started to protest, but finally just waved his hand.
Louis went into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door. He turned on the light and picked up the brass trash can. It was partially filled with used tissues. He glanced around. Paper cups. He picked out what looked like a thickly stained tissue, and slipped it in a cup. Folding the cup flat, he put it in his pants pocket. Then he flushed the toilet and went back out to Brian’s office.
Brian was standing by his office door. “You need to leave now.”
Louis threw up a hand. “Hey, I understand. You’re a busy man, Brian. I’ll catch Scott tomorrow.”
Louis walked out and Brian shut the door behind him.
When Louis reached the reception area, Scott Brenner was just coming in, carrying his briefcase. Scott smiled broadly when he saw Louis.
“Louis! Perfect timing. Come on in, I have some great news.”
Louis hesitated, but Scott had already gone into his own office, leaving the door open. Louis followed and stood at the door.
“God, what a day,” Scott said, tossing the briefcase on his desk. “Sandusky tried to get a prohibitory injunction to stop the sheriff’s office from reopening.” Scott yanked off his tie. “Of course, this dealt more specifically with who actually had control over the old evidence-”
Scott stopped, smiling. “Shit, you don’t want to know all that. Bottom line was, Sandusky didn’t want the old evidence reexamined.”
“You won the argument?” Louis asked.
“Yes!” Scott said, pumping his arm. “Sandusky looked like a man who had just had his tongue pulled out through his ass. It was magnificent. We need a drink. Brandy, right?”
Louis nodded, leaning against the doorjamb. He was watching Scott, but thinking about Brian in the next office. He had to be sure first; he couldn’t do to Scott what he had done to Ronnie. He couldn’t make an accusation until he had proof. But once he did, how was he going to tell Scott that his brother might be a murderer?
Scott pulled open the doors to a built-in bar and made two drinks. He brought Louis his glass, then held up his own in a toast.
“Let justice be done,” Scott said.
Louis hesitated, then clinked his glass against Scott’s.
“Though the heavens may fall,” Louis said softly.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Louis dropped two quarters into the vending machine and punched at the button. The can of Dr Pepper tumbled to the bottom and he pulled it out.
As he took a drink, he looked down the hallway to where Octavius was loading linens into a closet. Louis looked up at the clock, then in the window of the autopsy room. There was a body laid out, but it wasn’t Kitty. Vince must have put her in storage until the Sheriff’s department released her.
Louis walked the hall, slumped down in a plastic chair, then rose again, walking the other way. What the hell was taking Vince so long?
A door opened and he saw Vince coming toward him, carrying some papers. He was wearing jeans and a polo shirt instead of his usual green scrubs, but still had earphones looped around his neck. As he grew closer, Louis could hear the tinny whine of Marvin Gay singing “Ain’t That Peculiar.”
“First you bring me fossilized jism, and now you bring me a snotty Kleenex,” Vince said. “Louis, this has got to stop.”