“The Warings are hardly one of the thirteen richest families in the country,” Bennis said. “I mean, they’re members of the club, so to speak, but they’re not—”
“I’ll have to get up tomorrow morning and do a good job sorting through it all,” Gregor said. “The problem with this one is that I can’t make the thirty-year thing fit. With Chapin Waring, there were plenty of people who might want to kill her, including all the people who were involved in the robberies or affected by the robberies. But I’m positive that none of the pictures in the security tapes were of Kyle Westervan. He was much too tall. So if he wasn’t involved in the robberies, and everybody is telling me the truth when they say that Chapin Waring didn’t inform anybody but her accomplice of what was going on—”
“Well, that might just be self-protection,” Bennis said. “Nobody would want to admit to knowing. They could probably get arrested as an accessory.”
“The statute of limitations would have run out,” Gregor said. “But even if he knew about the robberies at the time they happened, it wouldn’t necessarily help. It has been thirty years. Why would anybody want to kill him over any of that now? And why him in particular? Other people who were part of all that are still in town.”
“Have you talked to them?”
“Most of them, by now,” Gregor said. “I haven’t always had proper interviews. I’ve run into them and just asked whatever came into my head. One of them drove me home from Virginia Westervan’s house a few hours ago.”
“Congresswoman Virginia Westervan?”
“She was part of the original group. And she was in the place the murder happened only a half hour or so before it did happen.”
“That would put an interesting spin on her Senate campaign.”
“She was worried about the same thing. With her, I did do a proper interview. With Hope Matlock, I just talked a little in the car. Hope Matlock is the one who drove me home. She’s very depressed, and very fat, and very squirrely. I don’t know if I found out anything at all. But maybe I’m just too tired to check. And I want to go over the security tapes again, because something is bugging me, but I’m just too out of it to do it now.”
“I should let you get to sleep.”
“You may not have to. I’m sinking into this bed like a rock in the ocean.”
“I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m not all right,” Gregor said. “I’m exhausted, and every time I figure out one thing, it makes everything else sound absurd. And then there’s the question of the money. I thought I knew where it was, but then I didn’t, and now I have no idea where it’s gone. And the reason that’s frustrating is that it should have been obvious, and now it isn’t. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The reason you steal two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is because you want money. And even if you steal it because you want the thrill of stealing it, there it is, in cash. You don’t just leave it lying around for thirty years. I can’t think of anyplace it would have been stashed that the FBI and the police haven’t searched a dozen times over. It’s just out there, somewhere, sitting around.”
“Gregor?”
“What is it?”
“You’re falling asleep.”
“I am, a little. I think I am. What’s happening to the cat?”
“The cat?”
“I’m not dreaming that, am I? You and Donna rescued a cat. A kitten. It looked like a mess and you took it to the vet.”
“You really are falling asleep,” Bennis said. “Yes, we rescued the cat. It’s staying with Hannah Krekorian on a trial basis. Hannah’s checking out how she feels about living with a pet. Donna and I are paying for all the vet stuff and we’ve promised to pay for spaying or neutering. We’ll see.”
“I’m glad you didn’t want to keep the cat,” Gregor said. “I like cats all right, but I just couldn’t imagine you as a cat person.”
“Go to sleep, Gregor.”
“I will. I’m going to dream about how when I get back from here, I’m going to have a real bedroom and a real master bath. If the kitchen isn’t done, we can just go to the Ararat.”
2
Gregor Demarkian was woken in the morning by another phone call, and the phone call came only seconds before his door was opened and Darlee Corn looked inside.
“Demarkian,” Gregor said into the phone.
Darlee Corn fluttered her fingers at him and said, “Oh, of course, you must be exhausted. Sorry for intruding. I’m going to bring you breakfast.”