“I think that’s fairly normal.”
“Do you? I don’t think it was normal at all. And it was worse because of the alibis, or the lack of them, or whatever. We were all wandering around the house. And now this.”
“Now this,” Gregor agreed. “Was this sister the one you were closest to?”
“Of the sisters, yes. Not of the family. Emma was too much younger than me for that.”
“She looked up to you,” Gregor said.
“Oh, definitely. She looked up to Mother, too. She was a hero-worshiping kind of person. I don’t think I ever took her seriously, except once, and now I’m beginning to wonder about the once.”
“What happened that once?”
They had reached the top of the stairs and come out on a great, sweeping landing that reminded Gregor of the balconies at opera houses. It was that large and that formal. A waist-high railing ran across one edge of it, on either side of the stairs, decked out with clusters of bells and balls, cherubs, and full-grown angels. To the left and right and center there were doors. The one on the left was closed. The one on the right was open, but blocked off by a sawhorse and guarded by another young patrolman.
Gregor would have had no trouble finding his way to Jackman without a guide. He saw Bennis notice him notice and decided not to call her on it. He had a feeling it had happened not because she was practiced at deception, but because she was no good at it whatsoever.
She stood back to let him pass and said, “Maybe, when you’re done with Mr. Jackman, you should let me take you out and buy you a drink. Someplace away from the house.”
“And away from the police?”
“I don’t really care about the police, at the moment. I’m more worried about being overheard by the Lollipop Brigade. There isn’t one of them that’s going to have sense enough to realize everything’s changed.”
“I’m going to have to tell John Jackman anything you tell me,” Gregor said. “You must realize that.”
“I do and I still don’t care. I’m not trying to hand you information I don’t want the police to have. It’s just what I said. I’d find it easier talking to you than talking to him. And I don’t think what I have to say is unimportant.”
“It’s about this one time you took your sister Emma seriously?”
Bennis grimaced. “It’s about why I thought Emma killed Daddy,” she said. “It’s about why I was convinced of it. When Anne Marie came down today and told me she’d committed suicide, I thought it made perfect sense.”
2
John Jackman was standing in the middle of Emma Hannaford’s bedroom, waving his arms and delivering a lecture about Why Fingerprints Weren’t Going to Be Important in This Case. He had come in a good wool three-piece suit, but two of the pieces—vest and jacket—were now hanging on one of the posters of the bed. His tie was undone. His shirt was open at the collar and rolled up at the sleeves. He looked like a politician in a campaign commercial about “excellence.”
Gregor made a few pleasantries with the man at the door and slipped inside. The room was huge, an immense cavern of a space with a fireplace at one end. One wall was taken up with oversize windows, each double-curtained in damask and net. The bed was dwarfed, even though it was queen-size and postered and made of thick mahogany. There were half a dozen people in the room, but they didn’t come close to filling it.
“Check with what’s-his-name,” Jackman was saying, “you know, the lawyer guy, Evers. And check with the security people, too. I don’t want some prosecutor on the phone, making this sound like something out of Mickey Spillane. And bag that cup, for Christ’s sake. I’ve told you three times. And—” He saw Gregor and stopped. “You. I thought you’d had an accident. Why didn’t I hear the siren?”
“Because there was no siren to hear,” Gregor said. “I made your patrolman turn it off.”
“I’ll have that kid’s head.”
“If you do, I’ll have yours.” Gregor gave the dark back corners of the room another look, but they were just as empty as they’d seemed when he was standing at the door. He sighed. “It’s a lot like being with the Bureau. By the time you get to the scene, it isn’t really a scene anymore.”
“It wouldn’t have been in any case, this time,” Jackman said. “It’s like I told you on the phone. She wasn’t dead when we got here. Close, but not done. The ambulance guys worked her over for nearly half an hour.”
“They didn’t take her to the hospital?”