“It’s coming. I sent one of the detectives to get it. Did you really get on the phone and call a judge? Did you really do that?”
“Of course I did,” Gregor said. “I had to do it, because you won’t.”
“If I think there’s a decent chance that I’m going to find evidence of a murder investigation, I’ll get a search warrant,” Howard said, “I’ll get a search warrant. Are you honestly standing there telling me that one of the Mortons—Charlene, I’d guess, from the way you’ve been going on—killed Chester Morton and then blew away two completely pathetic people with a gun for—what, exactly?”
“Chester Morton killed Chester Morton,” Gregor said. “I already told you that.”
“Yes, I know you did,” Howard said. “But that doesn’t make any sense, either. If Chester Morton committed suicide, then Althy Michaelman and what’s his name—”
“Mike Katowski. You ought to read your own reports.”
“I don’t give a damn what the man’s name was,” Howard said, “if Chester Morton committed suicide, then what did either of those people have to do with anything? What did they have to do with Charlene Morton? Do you really think somebody like Charlene Morton would have had anything to do with people like that?”
“Sure,” Gregor said.
The front door to the Morton house had opened, and Charlene Morton had come out, followed by the stooped tall man Gregor assumed was her husband. The stooped tall man seemed to be shrinking with every puff of wind. Charlene Morton seemed to be growing taller. She came down the walk to the driveway. She stepped off the driveway onto the grass and walked to where Howard and Gregor were standing.
“Well,” Howard said. “Charlene, we’re sorry to bother you, but Mr. Demarkian here—”
“Mr. Demarkian here thinks you ought to be arrested for the murders of Althy Michaelman and Mike Katowksi,” Gregor said.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Am I?” Gregor took off across the lawn. The greenhouse was almost all the way at the back. That was why it was hard to see from the road. Once you had seen it, though, you’d never miss it again. It was the size of the greenhouses nurseries used. It was a greenhouse for serious business.
“You can’t go in there,” Charlene Morton said, catching up to him. Gregor pulled open the greenhouse door and she put her hand on his wrist. “You can’t go in there without a search warrant.”
“We’ll get a warrant,” Gregor said. “But thank you for reminding me.” He turned back to Howard Androcoelho, who was just puffing up, out of breath and looking angry. “You’re going to have to call your detective. You’re going to need a warrant specifically for the greenhouse.”
“Why?” Howard said. “What are you doing here? What do you think you’re going to find in a greenhouse?”
“Evidence of human remains,” Gregor said, pointing through the open door to the large, flowering tree that seemed to be growing out of the middle of the floor. “Under that.”
“Under that,” Howard said. “You think you’re going to find a body under that.”
“No,” Gregor said. “The body is gone. The body is that infant’s skeleton we have. It was buried in there for twelve years.”
“You really can’t be serious,” Charlene said.
“I’m very serious,” Gregor said. “The first thing you have to know is that Chester Morton was never missing. Mrs. Morton here knew where he was from the beginning, because she sent him there. She gave him the money to leave. She told him where to go. She kept in touch with him all this time. Then she pretended to be looking for him.”
“Do you think those billboards are signs of pretense?” Charlene asked.
“Yes,” Gregor said, “I do. They were local billboards, which were fine because Chester was no longer in the locality. There are no other billboards anywhere else that I know. And in spite of all the talk you did about calling in the FBI, you didn’t actually do it. You made demands. You made a big fuss. You went on local television. You never did the kinds of things people actually do in your situation. You only pretended to.”
“It doesn’t look like pretending when you see me on television,” Charlene said. “It didn’t look like pretending to that little whore who turned Chester’s head around and made him a traitor to himself and his family.”
“The only person who made Chester a traitor to himself and his family was Chester,” Gregor said. “Maybe with your help. But Chester was acting out long before Darvelle Haymes came along. You tell everybody Chester wanted to move out of the house and you wanted to stop him, but that’s not true, either. Your son Kenny remembers the fights that went on in the weeks before Chester left your house, and I’d be willing to bet I could find other people who remember, too. Lots of fights. Lots of yelling. All about money.”