“Were you listening at the door?”
“No, no. I was in my room, but my door was open. I was watching for the coast to be clear, if you understand what I mean. But she shouted once, and I could hear that. These rooms aren’t all that soundproof, you know.”
Gregor knew. “What did she shout?”
“The word I heard best was a name. Harvey. Then she went on with something that was probably ‘for God’s sake.’”
“Good. Now, the next thing that happened was—”
“Dan Chester went to see Stephen. Stephen let him in and then they locked up. Then Janet came out of her room and went downstairs. Then Dan came out of Stephen’s room and went downstairs, too. Then Stephen came out—”
“—and went downstairs, too,” Gregor finished up. “What about the other people on the hall? Bennis? Me?”
“You were pacing around in your room,” Patchen said seriously. “I know that because I stopped at your door and listened. I don’t think you can blame me for that. I didn’t want you to see me.”
“I guessed that.”
“I listened at Bennis Hannaford’s room, too, but she must have been asleep. Either that, or she went downstairs long before I woke up. I never heard her moving around and I never saw her, either.”
“All right,” Gregor said, “at this point, you went into Stephen Fox’s room. You were carrying a laundry bag full of underwear—”
“Bras and panties only,” Patchen said.
“No pantyhose.”
“No.”
“But you do wear pantyhose? You own them and you brought pairs with you?”
“I own lots. And I always pack lots, too. They run really easily.”
Gregor nodded. Something had just occurred to him that should have occurred to him before. “How tall are you?” he asked.
“Five ten,” Patchen answered promptly.
“Do you know how tall Janet Harte Fox is?”
“Oh, she’s five ten, too. Stephen liked tall women. Usually, anyway.”
Gregor thought the senator’s taste in women had been catholic. To say the least. “What about Victoria Harte,” he asked Patchen. “She’s taller than both you and Janet Harte Fox, isn’t she?”
“No, she’s not.” Patchen grinned. “She wears those terrible spike heels. Four inches at least and they’re probably giving her weak ankles. And all those shoulder pads, too, even on those caftan things. But she’s always been known for that, you know. For being tall. That was part of her trademark when she was really a movie star and not just a used-to-be. So she plays it up.”
“Shoulder pads.”
“But why do you care?” Patchen asked. “I should think the really important thing is—”
Gregor didn’t want to know what the really important thing was. He could just guess.
“Miss Rawls,” he said finally, interrupting while she took a breath. “Let’s get back to this morning and this afternoon. Now, you put this underwear all around Stephen Fox’s room—”
“It was all clean underwear.” I made sure of that. And I was careful about where I put it and how. I didn’t just throw it around. It was supposed to be an artistic statement,”
“Of your love for Senator Fox.”
“Of the bond between us. A bond between two people is always sexual. Even the bond between parent and child is sexual. I’m not so sure we’re smart in calling that sort of thing abuse. If a child is brought up naturally, to really understand and appreciate his own sexuality—”
“Miss Rawls,” Gregor said desperately.
“You really ought to do something about your mental rigidity,” Patchen told him. “It’s going to play havoc with your karma.”
“Right,” Gregor said, and heard the echo of Bennis’s voice in his head.
“Now,” he said. “You put these things around the senator’s room, and then you went back to your own.”
“And meditated,” Patchen told him. “I had to calm down.”
“But you went back to the senator’s room,” Gregor said.
“I stayed in my own room the whole morning until I went out to see what Clare was doing, and that was—well, quarter or ten to one.”
“All right. Let’s go to afternoon. You meditated in the morning, and then what did you do?”
“I read for a while. I have a wonderful book, by Whitley Strieber, about contact with aliens. I love Whitley Strieber, don’t you?”
Gregor didn’t know who Whitley Strieber was. “You must have read for several hours. What made you stop?”