Hearts of Sand(72)

“Do you have any idea why somebody would want to kill Mr. Westervan?”

“No,” Tim said. “At least, not anybody in Alwych. I’ve got no idea what he was doing on Wall Street, but then, why would somebody from Wall Street come all the way out here to kill him?”

“They probably wouldn’t,” Gregor said.

“I know he seems to have been killed just the way Chapin was, but you can’t tell me he had anything to do with those robberies. The surveillance pictures were everywhere at the time, and the two people responsible were Chapin and Marty. Kyle and I were both much too tall, by half a foot at least. Even Virginia was too tall.”

“Yes,” Gregor said. “I agree with you.”

“Never mind what you agree with,” Jason Battlesea said. “The congresswoman was here. Do you know what a can of worms that’s going to be?”

Gregor turned and gave Jason Battlesea a long look. He was what he had always been, a reasonably competent man as long as his skills were not subjected to serious stress, and a man who thought politically before he thought forensically or morally. He was obviously scared to death.

“Do you think Congresswoman Westervan murdered her ex-husband?”

“Of course I don’t,” Jason Battlesea said. The words nearly exploded out of him.

“She wouldn’t have,” Tim Brand said. “They liked each other, Kyle and Virginia. They liked each other in high school and they liked each other in college and they got along ever since. He contributed to her campaigns. And the divorce was years ago. It’s not like there are unresolved issues. And she’d be very easily recognized. No matter how discreet she was being, she could never be sure that somebody wouldn’t spot her. I don’t think you stab somebody and then push a body over a wall under those conditions.”

“No,” Gregor said. “I agree with you.”

“It would be a lot better if it was this guy you were all talking about, this Ray Guy Pearce,” Jason Battlesea said. “It would clear the whole thing up, both murders, and we wouldn’t have to bother the congresswoman with questions or get ourselves in the paper being accused of deliberately ruining her campaign for the Senate. Particularly when it turns out she didn’t do it anyway.”

“I could probably get Mr. Demarkian in to see Virginia without too much of a fuss,” Tim Brand said, “as long as he didn’t come accompanied by two patrol cars and a lot of screaming sirens. There’s no reason to make everything a lot of drama if you don’t want to.”

“I’m not making anything a lot of drama,” Jason Battlesea said. “I’m just being realistic here. And realistically—”

“Realistically,” Gregor said, “we should talk to the two young women who found the body. They’re inside the clinic?”

“Yes,” Tim Brand said. “I sent them into the conference room. Marcie will be with them, and so will the policewoman who went with them.”

“Angela Harkin,” Gregor said.

“I just hope she’s empathetic,” Tim said. “Maartje is in her ninth month and stress could bring on labor any minute. I do not want a premature delivery.”

2

Tim Brand led the way back into the clinic and down the corridor to the conference room where he had asked Maartje, Juliette, and Marcie to stay. As soon as they came through the doors, Gregor could hear the hum and bustle of the clinic farther along toward the front. It was not the hum and bustle of work, but of panic and more than a little excitement. Tim Brand heard it, too, and turned to look back at Gregor and Jason Battlesea.

“It really is a light night,” he said. “We have about a third our usual appointments, and I didn’t see a huge line when I came in. They’ve got nothing to do but worry about this.”

“The line’s going to be longer as soon as this gets out,” Jason Battlesea said, “and my guess is that it already is out.”

“That’s my guess, too,” Tim Brand said, looking uneasily up the corridor. He stopped at a door and turned back to Gregor and Battlesea. “Listen,” he said. “Maartje is very pregnant. We’re not entirely, one hundred percent sure, because, like many people who come here, she’s got inadequate medical records, but I think she’s in her ninth month. And the child already has issues. Which means that if you get her too worked up—”

“She could go into labor,” Gregor said. “I’ll try to be careful. But I’d think finding a body would get her more worked up than answering questions.”

Tim shrugged. “You can never tell with pregnant women. I’m Catholic, not fundamentalist. I have no problem accepting the theory of evolution. But I’ve met a lot of pregnant women in my time, and if there’s an evolutionary advantage to the way they behave, I’ll eat dust.”