Deadly Beloved(90)

“The important thing is that we get back up there as quickly as possible,” Gregor said. “There were a couple of things—”

“The firemen are adamant that we don’t do any such thing,” Jackman said. “There’s been structural damage to the building. The whole thing could collapse under our feet.”

“No, it couldn’t. It was a pipe bomb.”

“It blew out the elevator.”

“You said yourself that was an accident. One of the bombs rolled out Liza Verity’s door—”

“It might not have been an accident, Gregor. It might have been on purpose. Have you considered that?”

“Yes.”

“Have you considered that whoever did this might be wandering around here still?”

“I’ve considered it the same way you have and I’ve rejected it for the same reason you have. There would be no point to it. Why should she hang around?”

John Jackman went back to the door and peered out. There was a judas window there, which is what the doorman had been using when Gregor was trying to get in. Gregor had tried to use it himself, but it distorted everything. The woman from ABC looked like she had a head the size of a watermelon.

“Do you still think it was a ‘she’ who did this, Gregor?” John Jackman asked. “Do you still think it was Patsy MacLaren Willis?”

“Oh, yes.”

“I’ve been thinking lately that maybe Julianne Corbett was right. Maybe the woman is dead. Maybe she never even existed. If I hadn’t seen the body out at Fox Run Hill with my own eyes, I’d begin to wonder if I was making all this up.”

“There’s a body upstairs right this minute, John. There’s Karla Parrish in the hospital. There’s that poor woman with her antifur buttons—”

“I know, I know. But it would make more sense if we were dealing with terrorists or something.”

“We’re dealing with a fairly clever woman with a fair amount of acquaintance with amateur revolutionary publications, that’s all. It’s not so surprising if you think about it. She went to college in the sixties.”

“Bennis went to college in the sixties. I’ll bet she doesn’t know how to make a pipe bomb.”

“I’ll bet she does. And a few things more serious too. Let’s go back upstairs, John.”

John looked around. There were people going back and forth across the lobby, but the body hadn’t come down yet. One of the firemen propped the front door open. The delivery doors at the back were already open and being used for personnel going back and forth with axes and hoses and bits of debris. There were at least two mobile crime units at work. The place still looked deserted. It was as if it swallowed people whole.

“Do you have any idea why Liza Verity would end up dead?” John Jackman asked.

“Of course,” Gregor told him. “So do you. If you think about it.”

“I have thought about it.”

“It didn’t have anything to do with me, if that’s what you were trying to make fit,” Gregor said. “I doubt if Mrs. Willis even knew that Ms. Verity had called me. Though I suspect she suspected that Ms. Verity would do something of the sort sooner or later.”

“You mean Liza Verity died because Patricia MacLaren Willis was afraid she would talk?”

“Yes.”

“Things don’t happen like that, Gregor. You’re the one who taught me that. Maybe in mobs and gangs things happen like that, but ordinary people don’t go around offing their neighbors for fear that their neighbors are going to talk to the police. Ordinary people trust their defense attorneys. And they’re right too.”

“This is a special case,” Gregor said. “Liza Verity knew Patsy MacLaren.”

“A lot of people knew Patsy MacLaren. Julianne Corbett knew Patsy MacLaren. She’s not dead.”

“I could say she might have been dead,” Gregor pointed out, “because of that bomb at that reception she threw, but I won’t, because it would be deliberately misleading. The point is that Liza Verity had seen Patsy MacLaren very recently.”

“So had all those biddies out in Fox Run Hill.”

“I know. But they’d never seen her before that.”

“Christ,” John Jackman said. “You’re impossible. Do you actually know what’s going on here?”

“I think I do, yes.”

“Then tell me, for God’s sake.”

Gregor smiled weakly. “Let’s just say that a very cautious person was hedging her bets,” he said, “and then let’s go upstairs and look around. The nature of this thing is such that we can’t just go charging in like the cavalry, making accusations. We have to be reasonably sure.”