“Maybe I’ll take you up on it after the Fourth.”
“Well,” she said. “I think I’d better get to my office. I couldn’t sleep last night, and now of course I’m a mess.”
“I used to pull all-nighters on the job,” Gregor said. “But it was a long time ago.”
“And now you’re busy,” Evaline said, “and I’ve kept you. Have a good day, Mr. Demarkian. We’ll probably see each other later.”
“I’m sure we will.”
They stood there, stock-still, looking at each other. Finally Gregor Demarkian nodded to her one last time and turned away, heading out of the station.
Evaline watched him go through the station doors. It was not just her tiredness talking. He really was a massive man.
2
Cordelia was the first one on the phone this morning. Caroline Waring Holder heard the sound of the Chopin funeral march before she saw the picture of Maleficent flash up on the caller ID.
Caroline considered just not picking up. She considered it just long enough to realize that Cordelia would just call back later, and not much later, complaining that Caroline was ignoring her.
“Yes,” Caroline said into the cell phone. She knew she sounded snappish. She didn’t care. “I’ve just dropped off the kids, Cordelia, and I’m in the car and this red light isn’t going to last forever. We can talk later.”
“We need to talk now,” Cordelia said. “I thought they’d bring in this Gregor Demarkian and it might calm things down some, but that’s not what’s happening. They had a whole segment on the thing out here just last night, and not just about the murder. They’re bringing it all up again.”
“Of course they’re bringing it all up again,” Caroline said.
“They said there was a break-in yesterday at the house.”
“It wasn’t exactly a break-in,” Caroline said. The light turned green. She inched forward in the traffic.
“They said it was a break-in on the news,” Cordelia said. “I would have called you last night, but then I remembered you go to bed practically before sundown and I wanted to be considerate.”
“It wasn’t a break-in,” Caroline said, thinking that Cordelia had never been considerate a day in her life. “The alarm went off. When everybody got out there, the front door was open. That was it. Nothing had been taken that I could see, and the house hadn’t been broken into—”
“What?”
“According to the police, the house hadn’t been broken into,” Caroline said. “Nobody forced a lock. Either somebody got in there with a key, or the police didn’t lock up the last time they were there.”
“But that’s terrible,” Cordelia said. “How many people can possibly have keys to that house? And isn’t that a creepy idea, the cleaning lady or whoever it was going to look around when you’re not there? When was the last time we changed those locks?”
“I changed them the day after Chapin’s body was found,” Caroline said, “and you should remember it. You were on the phone with me most of the day. And yes, they’re being changed again as we speak. I’m on my way to meet the locksmith right now.”
“Still, you have to wonder,” Cordelia said. “Why would anybody want to do something like that? Going into the house and—what? Just walking around? What could they possibly have expected to find?”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Caroline said.
Cordelia snorted. “There’s no money in that house, and you know it. I don’t even believe there ever was that much money. It was just a lot of hype they put out to make people take it more seriously. You know what it’s like when rich people are involved. It’s always our fault.”
“They didn’t have to hype anything to make people take it seriously,” Caroline said. “Two people died. And Chapin shot at least one of them. It’s on tape.”
“That’s what the real problem is with this country,” Cordelia said. “Half the population lives on jealousy and spite. And then, of course, when something like this comes along, they blow it all out of proportion.”
“Two people died,” Caroline said. “I don’t think anything is out of proportion.”
“It would be better if you went and lived in that house yourself,” Cordelia said. “God only knows it’s a better house than the one you’re living in, and the children would be right there on the beach. And then we wouldn’t have these problems with people breaking in.”
“I have a perfectly adequate house, and what we ought to have done, years ago, is sell the one on Beach Drive.”