Hearts of Sand(89)

Gregor thought that there wasn’t much Andy was going to get in the way of answers even if he waited for midnight. But he wasn’t going to tell him that.

2

It took so long for Jason Battlesea to get back to the police station, Gregor Demarkian began to worry that he’d gone off to eat at one of the picnics. Andy was not in good shape waiting, and Gregor had no idea how to contact the state medical examiner, or even if the state medical examiner would be willing to talk to him. Andy paced. Gregor got out the big picture book on the Waring case that he’d bought in Greenwich Village and leafed through it.

It was one o’clock by the time Jason Battlesea came sailing through the door, and he was alone.

“We’ve deployed everybody we’ve got to keep watch on the crowds,” he said. He unbuttoned his uniform jacket and took it off, leaving all the medals and ribbons in place. He took off his tie. “If you’ll give me a minute, I’m going to go into my office and change.”

“This is Andy—”

“The FBI guy,” Battlesea said. “I can smell it on him. Give me a second.”

Battlesea disappeared into his office, and Gregor and Andy gave each other the kind of look that said “This idiot is practically an amateur.” When he came out, he was wearing khakis and a bright orange T-shirt.

Jason Battlesea tried to look authoritative. It was difficult for him to do under any circumstances. It was impossible dressed in all that orange.

“Well,” Battlesea said. “What is it? What’s so important on the Fourth of July?”

“Solving a murder might be nice,” Gregor said. “Solving two might be even better.”

“Right now, we just need to be reassured that the murder of Kyle Westervan had nothing to do with one of our cases,” Andy hurried in.

“Do you have identification?” Battlesea demanded.

Andy reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his badge. He handed it over and waited.

Jason Battlesea took the badge in its folder and looked at it. He turned it upside down. He turned it right side up again. Gregor was sure he had no idea what he was looking at. Battlesea closed the folder and handed it back.

“Okay,” he said. “What is it exactly you think we can tell you?”

“I suggested that the two medical examiners’ reports might show a resemblance between the two murders,” Gregor said, “and a resemblance would prove to me the two murders were most likely connected, and most likely committed by the same person. And since Andy’s case has nothing to do with the Waring robberies—”

“Yeah?” Jason Battlesea said. “How do I know it has nothing to do with the Waring robberies?”

“I don’t work for that division,” Andy said quickly. “I work with the task force on Financial Fraud.”

“Which doesn’t mean you couldn’t be interested in the Waring robberies,” Jason Battlesea said. “Those were financial.”

“Those were bank robberies,” Andy said, looking pained. “Robbery isn’t the same thing as fraud.”

“And how am I supposed to know that Chapin Waring wasn’t involved in financial fraud in this other life she had for the last thirty years? Mr. Demarkian here says she was in New York all that time. New York is where the Financial District is.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Gregor said.

“I’m not being stupid,” Jason Battlesea said. “I’ve got two murders. They look to be connected. Then, the next thing I know, I’ve got the FBI on my tail, wanting to know everything there is to know, and nobody is telling me why.”

“I can’t tell you why,” Andy said. “I can only tell you that Mr. Westervan was connected with an ongoing operation—”

“To hell with that,” Jason Battlesea said.

Gregor closed his eyes for a moment. This was Bennis’s idea, her best way to calm down when you wanted to strangle someone. It didn’t really work, but it gave him a minute or two to breathe before he had to deal with the craziness again.

“If we could just have a copy of the ME’s report on the Chapin Waring murder,” Gregor said as calmly as he could, “just the summary. And if we could just rouse the ME or his assistant or whoever is working on the Westervan case—”

“Rouse him? On the Fourth of July?” Jason Battlesea snorted. “You’ve got to be out of your mind. Why isn’t the preliminary report enough?”

“You have a preliminary report from the ME’s office on the death of Kyle Westervan?” Gregor asked.

“Of course I do. It came in overnight. I’ve got it on the computer and in a fax,” Jason Battlesea said. “I can find it in a minute if you let me.”