Hearts of Sand(91)

“Which gets us absolutely nowhere,” Jason Battlesea said. “It’s not like that didn’t occur to us before you got here, Mr. Demarkian.”

“Possibly,” Gregor said. “But Kyle Westervan and Tim Brand knew each other forever in a different way than, say, Kyle Westervan and Caroline Holder.”

“Why in the name of God would Caroline Holder want to kill Kyle Westervan?”

“I could think of a number of reasons,” Gregor said, “starting with the fact that those robberies ruined her life—”

“But as far as we know,” Jason Battlesea said, “Kyle Westervan wasn’t involved in those robberies.”

“As far as we know,” Gregor agreed. “But as far as we know doesn’t go all that far, does it? So maybe Kyle Westervan was involved. Or maybe Caroline Holder is looking for revenge, and she intends to get every member of her sister’s little clique—”

“Now you’re in psychopath territory,” Andy said.

“I know,” Gregor said.

“We don’t know anything,” Jason Battlesea said. “I could have killed them.”

“No,” Gregor said. “I don’t think you could have. The angle of the wound in Chapin Waring’s body is wrong. She was killed by somebody taller than she was, I think, but not so much taller as you.”

“I’m not that tall.”

“Chapin Waring was very short,” Gregor said.

“I think I’m where I need to be,” Andy said suddenly. “I think I can go back to New York and tell them it’s not likely that this has anything to do with us. I do need you to keep us informed, just in case—”

“We will,” Gregor said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be much longer now. I think we’ll probably have a definitive answer for you in the next day or two, if not sooner.”

Andy looked curious. “Do you mean you think you know who killed these people?”

“I do think so,” Gregor said. “At least, I’ve got an explanation that I think is the only one that’s likely to fit.”

“Are you always this fast?” Andy asked.

“I haven’t been all that fast,” Gregor said. “I’ve been here for days, and I’ve been looking at the case files for longer than that. It took me a while to get past the miasma thrown up by that robbery case, in spite of the fact that I knew that wasn’t where I should be focusing my attention. But I got there, eventually.”

“Got where?” Jason Battlesea demanded.

“I’m going to go,” Andy said. “Thank you both for all your help. I’ll have someone call in and give you our fax numbers and you can send the final autopsy report when it’s ready. Happy Fourth of July.”

“Damned idiot,” Jason Battlesea said.

Andy walked out the door as if he hadn’t heard.

3

The door had barely closed behind the retreating FBI agent when Jason Battlesea turned on Gregor Demarkian.

“You can’t do this,” he protested. “You can’t. You’re here as a consultant. The point is to consult. You’re supposed to let us know what’s going on.”

“I am letting you know what’s going on,” Gregor said. “I tried to explain it to you before you went rushing off to the parade.”

“You tried to show me pictures of the robberies.”

“I did,” Gregor said. “Security footage from two of the robberies. In both of which, Chapin Waring’s accomplice, who was almost certainly Martin Veer, was dressed up in stretchy clothes and then padded out in a way that made him move awkwardly and that entirely distorted his body type.”

“Yeah, he had a better disguise than she did,” Jason Battlesea said. “So what?”

“He wasn’t wearing a disguise,” Gregor said. “He was wearing a costume, and that’s the point. Chapin Waring wasn’t murdered because of the robberies. She was murdered over a crime that was committed thirty years ago, but not that crime. The key to this is the fact that the robberies weren’t the only crime, and Chapin Waring and Marty Veer weren’t the only criminals.”

Gregor packed up his attaché case and put it under his arm.

“Let’s go,” he said. “We’ve got people we need to talk to. And get Mike Held and Jack Mann. This is supposed to be their case.”





SIX

1

Evaline Veer felt awful, and the only thing that made her feel even a little bit better was that Virginia Brand Westervan looked even more awful still. It had been an awful morning for the both of them. Evaline was not so obtuse as not to realize that Virginia had never really stopped loving Kyle, even if she’d stopped being able to live with him. Kyle and Virginia were, after all, the only two of that group who had stayed together many long years after the Waring case, and they were the two Evaline had never suspected of lying to her. She had even suspected Tim of lying to her. When Tim was younger, he lied as naturally as other people breathed. When he got older and got religion, he lied to save other people from hurt feelings—some of the time. It was always hard for Evaline to tell when he was trying to be good to her and when he was letting her know what was on his mind.