“Nothing here. She has relatives in Phoenix. We’ll contact them through local channels. He’s not yet up to anything like that. NYPD checked with her law firm in the city, but no one was that close. Or at least admitted to it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Only that some staffers thought she might have strayed off the ranch. But it might only have been office gossip. After all, they did live apart some of the time.”
“This is getting too complicated. What did Posner say?”
“Okay. Just let me smooth out my notes. We did have a stenographer there, so this is the quick-and-dirty version.”
“Go ahead.”
“To start with, Stern knocks and Posner lets him in.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes. That’s what he said. Told us he was expecting his wife, or even thought it might be you, since you’d called him earlier. Said Stern just walked in, went up the stairs, and began to threaten him. Accused Posner of having sex with Heidi, and then killing her. After Posner denies the whole thing, Stern pulls out this needle. Doesn’t tell Posner what’s in it, only that it could kill him. Posner tries to go down the hall to a closet where they keep a loaded gun. There’s a valid permit. It’s a relic from his wife’s brief career as a judge in Queens. Anyway, he doesn’t get there in time and they struggle. Stern drops the needle in the fight. That’s when Posner hits his head and winds up with the bloody scalp you saw.”
“So when did the wife get involved?”
“After Posner falls down and hits his head, Stern pulls another needle out of his pocket. Posner thinks he’s gonna come at him again when the wife walks in.”
“And?”
“And Stern decides to leave and runs down the steps. Posner sees all this from his spot on the floor near the top of the stairs. His wife has just come inside the front door when Stern tumbles into her with the needle. Then he’s gone. Runs by your friend Brigid in the driveway and a few minutes later you show up.”
“Could it have been an accident? I mean, sticking the wife.”
“Could have been, but we both know that if you show up with a lethal weapon and it causes a death, you’re still responsible. Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Posner revises this sometime later. He was pretty messed up when we spoke.”
There’s a pause. Wisdom has an uncanny feeling that both he and Bennett are having the same thoughts about distraught survivors. They both have a history of speaking to people who’ve overcome big-time trauma. It’s never easy. It’s never what he thought about before going on the job. Sometimes there’s very little to say. He remembers seeing Posner rockhis wife in his arms. He remembers how the poor son of a bitch struggled to keep the medics from taking her away. What could he have said to the man at that moment that would make a difference? But he did say something. He had to. Words of comfort that probably didn’t register but were still necessary. It’s important for people to know that they’re not alone, that someone else cares, however lame it might sound.
Wisdom breaks into the silence. “Did he see what kind of car Stern came in?”
“No.”
“Okay then. We’ll have to work with Brigid’s visual description of a white car. Did he say anything else?”
“One thing. I wrote it down to get it straight even without waiting for the transcript.”
Wisdom hears the rustle of paper over his cell phone.
“Posner said that, ‘Stern has the gun. He took it with him.’ They’re his exact words. ‘Stern has the gun.’”
“Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.”
CHAPTER 23
He shouldn’t be driving the Chevy. Someone might have seen it, but he isn’t worried. In just a short bit of time he expects to have Heidi’s shiny Audi to drive. She’s up ahead about a hundred yards farther down the road. The highway is flat and empty. A red Audi makes an easy target to follow despite the fading afternoon light that sends a shadow creeping halfway across the road.
When the highway splits, she takes the right-hand fork onto Old Montauk Highway. In a moment he’s riding amidst a network of short blind hills and curves. He needs to slow down, so he takes the risk and brakes, hoping he won’t lose her even though he’ll fall farther behind. He passes Gurney’s Inn to his right on the side that faces the ocean just as he picks up her rear bumper gliding around another turn. When he comes to the top of yet another hill, he sees a flash of red as she pulls a sharp right off the road into a crushed-stone driveway.
He eases off the gas and coasts past the house just as he sees the car disappear around the side. He assumes she parks in back or in a hidden garage. He drives farther along the hilly road for another fifty yards until he finds what seems to be a deserted driveway. He parks behind a clump of trees and begins to walk back up the road.
He’s no more than thirty feet from her driveway entrance when he sees a police car coming from the other direction. He slips behind a wall of privet and watches as the white cruiser boldly inscribed with POLICE in blue letters moves into her driveway. The police car stops in front. A tall muscular cop exits and moves to the main entrance. The man’s size is enough for Stern to unconsciously move a few feet farther back.
He sees Heidi open the door. She’s still dressed in pink and white, but from his position behind a hedge, she somehow looks different. He’s not sure why and moves closer, now more confident in his ability to remain unobserved. The cop speaks and she answers. The whole conversation takes no more than thirty seconds. It ends as she shakes her head sideways and closes the door. Stern monitors the policeman as the man reenters his car and drives off back in the direction ofAmagansett.
He waits another five minutes, and then goes back to the Chevy. He turns it around and follows the main road until it reaches Heidi’s driveway. He turns in and continues around to the back where he sees the red Audi and parallel parks a few feet away. When he’s sure he’s not visible from the road, he cuts the engine. He pulls the revolver from his pocket as he walks around to the front door.
“Guess who’s coming, Heidi?”
He speaks into the growing darkness, but a slight gust of wind rustles the pines and keeps any sound from the house. He becomes anxious. More than usual. Even more than at Posner’s house. From the space in front of her entrance door, he checks the road. There are no sounds; even the birds have given up their chatter for the day. One last spear of light glimmers through a far cluster of trees before it too moves on and plunges the house into night. So quick, he wonders. Almost too quick. He knocks twice, waits a few seconds, and then raps again. A voice calls out from inside, thought the words are indistinct.
“It’s the police again. Sorry, we forgot something. It’ll only take a minute.” He smiles to himself at the calmness of his voice. I must even sound like a cop, he muses, but there’s no time to dwell on his impersonation.
The door opens. She still wears the pink-and-white dress. From this close he sees that she looks very different. He levels the pistol at her, pushes the door open wide, and steps inside.
“Remember me?”
He stops speaking and studies her again. Now he’s less than two feet away. The hair looks pretty much the same and the body wrapped in the familiar dress is just as sexy as he remembered, but the overall effect he sees is that of a different person. This Heidi is slightly taller. The big difference though is in the face. It is definitely familiar, but it’s not Heidi’s. The eyes are just as black and the skin tone is just as olive, but the nose is too long and the bump in the middle is gone. He breathes deeply, and his eyes flutter closed for a moment before he rubs them with his free hand.
“No. You wouldn’t remember me. I’m the man who fucked Heidi for over a year, but I’ve never fucked you. At least not yet. So who the hell are you?”