Conspiracy Theory(142)

“He understands the problem. I called him. He’ll be there.”

“Where?”

“At Kathi Mittendorf’s house.”

“Why should he come to Kathi Mittendorf’s house?”

“Because I asked him to,” Gregor said, “and because it gets him where he wants to go.”

“Even though Kathi Mittendorf didn’t kill Tony or Charlotte Ross? Or Steve Bridge, either, I take it.”

“She didn’t kill anybody,” Gregor said. “But I disagree with Henry on one very specific point. I think she saw who did.”

“She was a witness to the killings,” Jackman said.

“No,” Gregor said. “She’s seen Michael Harridan. Face to face. I know what Henry’s getting at, but I don’t think Harridan could have done what he’s done if he hadn’t let at least one person see him in the flesh. My guess is, she’s seen him more than once too, although of course not any more than he could help it.”

“Of course. You think you’re making sense.”

“I am making sense,” Gregor said. “Look, let’s say you wanted to steal a lot of money. I mean really a lot of money, not just a lot of money the way most people think of it. Let’s say you wanted to steal thirty million dollars.”

“Are you joking?”

“Of course I’m not joking,” Gregor said. “What have we been hearing in the newspapers every day? What have we been hearing on the television news? When they aren’t talking about the murders, what are they talking about?”

“I don’t know. The Middle East? George Bush?”

Gregor wanted to hit something. “Price Heaven. We’ve been hearing about Price Heaven. Yet another icon company meltdown. First Enron. Then Kmart. Now Price Heaven. And what do we hear about Price Heaven? We hear that there’s thirty million dollars missing from their operation—except we don’t hear that it’s missing. We hear that it was hidden. Do you notice that?”

“Maybe it was hidden,” Jackman said. “I don’t trust those guys and you shouldn’t either. I mean, look at Enron. They were hiding everything known to humans and siphoning money out of the business like it was lemonade.”

“Yes, they were, but if you’d paid much attention to that story, you’d have realized that it took them several years to do it. Look, I don’t know this for certain, because I’m not a forensic accountant and I don’t know how to do that kind of paperwork, but with any luck the Lower Merion police will have access to one, or the city of Philadelphia will loan them one, because what I think happened was this. Price Heaven came to Tony Ross’s bank almost two years ago. David Alden did the legwork on the loan they wanted, and made the recommendation to the board to take that loan—”

“How do you know?”

“He told me,” Gregor said. “For goodness sake, you could find out the same thing by paying attention to CNN. David Alden did the legwork, and eventually he took over the management of the account. That’s been on CNN too. My guess is, Price Heaven had a problem going in, bad accounting practices, leaking money, that kind of thing, but not a bad problem. And that, you see, gave David Alden his shot.”

“So that’s it? David Alden is our murderer? Are you nuts? When would he find the time? He’s one of those idiots who commutes from here to Manhattan. Of all the self-satisfied, stupid pieces of snobbery—”

“Listen,” Gregor said. “He’s the only one who could have done it. Who could have killed Tony Ross, I mean. Because he’s the only one of all the people who were there that night, besides the family, who had the run of the house. He could go upstairs to the second floor on his own and without permission and nobody would think anything of it. And that’s the trick. The problem isn’t who could have fired off a gun at Tony Ross in the middle of all that security. The security wasn’t that good. People kept telling us that, but we all—you and me and Margiotti and Tackner as well—we all kept seeing a neon sign in our heads that said ‘first lady.’ The first lady was coming, so security had to be tight. But it wasn’t tight. It would have gotten tighter once the first lady arrived, but it was still early. The only people who were actually there yet were the people who were setting up and a few of the kind who have to get there first and stay until it’s over, like Ryall Wyndham. But David Alden was there. He was there right after the shots were fired. He’s on the list of the first set of interviews. And nobody thought anything of it.”