“How would I know that, Krekor? I haven’t talked to you.”
“I’ve talked to Bennis,” Gregor said, “and you know how it is around here. Never mind. Did you watch the news last night?”
“Of course.”
“There was a pipe bomb that went off in a parking garage in West Philadelphia yesterday—”
“Oh, that one,” Tibor said, sounding suddenly animated. “It was really two pipe bombs, I think, Krekor. They made a big mess.”
“Yes, they did. And the woman who was supposed to have set them is missing, and she’s also supposed to have murdered her husband earlier in the day in this place called Fox Run Hill down in Bucks County.”
Tibor looked confused. “The murder took place in Bucks County? Why is John Jackman investigating it?”
“He’s investigating this end, with the pipe bombs.”
“And he wants you to come in on it.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Gregor said. “The local police are likely to be not pleased. If they really hate the idea, I’ll withdraw.”
Tibor looked skeptical. “You never withdraw,” he said. “You always have some excuse to keep going. So what is it with this case that you are supposed to do for John Jackman?”
“I don’t know yet,” Gregor admitted. “He just told me he wanted me to work on it, and then he made me promise to meet him at headquarters this morning at nine. Which I’m going to do. It’s just that, in the wake of that phone call, I’ve been reading and watching everything I can about the case.”
“And?”
“And,” Gregor said, “as I was saying before, it occurred to me that you can’t, with something like this, make the kind of assumptions you would have thirty or forty years ago. Patsy MacLaren Willis didn’t kill her husband just because she didn’t want to stay married to him anymore. There were easier ways to get that done.”
“You can be sure that this was not one of those spur-of-the-moment things you were talking about?”
“I can’t be sure about anything until I talk to John,” Gregor said, “but from what I’ve read in the newspaper and seen on television so far, I’d say it wasn’t likely. For one thing, there was the silencer.”
“Silencer?”
“According to the eleven o’clock news, a gun and a silencer were found in Stephen Willis’s bedroom along with Stephen Willis’s body. No fingerprints yet, of course, and no lab reports. It might not even be the murder weapon. But I don’t believe that.”
“I wouldn’t believe that either.”
“So, there’s the silencer. And there’s the fact that it’s not legal for a gun shop in this state to sell silencers. Which means the silencer must have been acquired especially. And what do you acquire a silencer for except to be able to shoot without being heard?”
“True,” Tibor said, “but it might not be this woman who bought the gun and the silencer. The gun and the silencer might have been bought by the husband. Maybe he was intending to kill her.”
“Maybe. That’s not bad for a psychological explanation. Because the next thing you have to account for is the pipe bombs.”
“Bombs do not take long to make,” Tibor said reprovingly. “I have made bombs in my life, Krekor.”
“Fine, but these bombs were on timers. The newspapers didn’t say that, but I have to assume it, because it’s the only thing that makes sense. Patsy MacLaren Willis parked her car, walked away, and hours later the bombs blew up. Timers.”
“All right.”
“The question is, did Patsy MacLaren Willis place the bombs and the timers, or did somebody else, and what for? And where is Patsy MacLaren Willis?”
“She could be out of the country by now,” Tibor pointed out.
“I suppose she could be. I suppose John is checking up on it. And the Bucks County people too.”
“But you don’t think she did these things,” Tibor said.
“No,” Gregor admitted, “I don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Well,” Gregor said, “think about those pipe bombs. Big pipe bombs that made lots of mess and lots of noise and lots of publicity. Why bother?”
“I don’t understand, Krekor.”
“Why bother?” Gregor insisted. “Why cause an explosion like that if you’ve just murdered your husband and you want to make a getaway. Why not just get away?”
“Murderers do strange things,” Tibor said.
“Murderers,” Gregor said firmly, “are always absolutely logical.”