Dear Old Dead(88)

“The people we want to talk to will be there,” Gregor said, “because I called ahead. We’re going to see Dave Geraldino, the editor-in-chief, and Lisa Hasserdorf. Lisa Hasserdorf edits something called the Lifestyles page.”

“The Lifestyles page,” Hector muttered. “Gregor, what good is this going to do us? What difference does it make?”

“Listen,” Gregor said. They were at Hector’s unmarked car. Gregor opened the door to the passenger side and got in. Then he waved Hector around in a gesture that made it clear he wanted Hector to get in behind the wheel. Hector didn’t move. He stood leaning over Gregor, keeping Gregor’s door opened. Gregor sighed.

“Listen,” Gregor said again. “If you look at the death of Charles van Straadt—and that’s the one you have to look at; the death of Rosalie van Straadt and the poisoning of Robbie Yagger—”

“Assuming it was a poisoning.”

“It was a poisoning,” Gregor said confidently. “Those two cases are much more difficult. The times are too loose. Anything could have happened. But with Charles van Straadt, it’s different. The murder of Charles van Straadt—given when and where and how it was committed—was a very difficult thing to pull off. Hasn’t it occurred to you that it was very odd that Charles van Straadt was killed that night at all?”

“Odd? I wouldn’t call it odd.”

“I would. Look. What have we established up front? Charles van Straadt showed up unexpectedly at the Sojourner Truth Health Center that night. Nobody expected him to come. Therefore, the murderer, seeing Charles van Straadt at the center, decided to take that opportunity to do him in. Right?”

“Right.”

“Right as far as it goes,” Gregor said, “but it doesn’t go far enough. What else do we know about this case? We know that the murder was committed with strychnine. The only strychnine unaccounted for at the Sojourner Truth Health Center came from Michael Pride’s personal, locked medical cabinet in his private examining room. We also know that it is highly unlikely that strychnine or anything else could have been removed from that cabinet after Charles van Straadt was known to be in the center on the night in question except by Michael Pride himself or Sister Augustine. So here’s your first solution. Either Michael Pride or Sister Augustine killed Charles van Straadt.”

“I don’t believe it,” Hector said. “Neither do you. A couple of hours ago, you went through the times convincing me that that wasn’t the way it happened.”

“I know I did. I didn’t believe it either. But once you’ve eliminated those two people as suspects, you’ve got a serious problem. In the first place, you’ve got strychnine and you don’t know where it came from.”

“It could have been acquired earlier,” Hector pointed out. “Maybe even days earlier.”

“And then what?” Gregor demanded. “Carried around in a pocket, night and day, even when the murderer had no use for it? What for? What would happen if the murderer put his hand in his pocket and pulled it out again and there was a little package of poison—”

“It wouldn’t necessarily be recognized as poison.”

“No, it wouldn’t, but nobody could be a hundred percent sure that it wouldn’t. Of course, staff and volunteers have rooms at the center, but those rooms are all above the third floor in the east and west buildings and they’re mostly in the east building. The times still won’t add up. There was no time during that two-hour period when any member of the staff could have run up to the fourth or fifth or sixth floor of either of those buildings and got hold of the strychnine, without their absence being noticed. No, Hector, the strychnine from Michael Pride’s medical cabinet was not used to kill Charles van Straadt. It wasn’t even missing at the time Charles van Straadt was murdered. It wasn’t taken until much later.”

“Later?” Hector was indignant. “When later? We were all over that place later.”

“Hector, be reasonable. Not that much later. First Michael Pride finds Charles van Straadt dying. Then a half dozen people arrive at his office—I saw it happen when Rosalie van Straadt died. People came from everywhere. Well, when Charles van Straadt died, they probably came too. You can check it out, but it has to be true. And that left the emergency room, and especially Michael Pride’s examining room, unattended.”

“Relatively.”

“Relatively was all that was necessary.”

“What about the keys?”

“Michael Pride keeps his keys in his desk in his office on the third floor. The murderer started off in Michael Pride’s office on the third floor. All the murderer had to do was—”