“He wasn’t driving a clunker,” Carmine said. “That’s why he couldn’t sneak back earlier to kill her. He had to borrow a car from someone who owned a good-looking vehicle, and he couldn’t do that until the person came into work. Say, eight a.m., eager to start this new project Dr. Hunter was giving him.”
“Then when we find out who loaned Hunter the car, we’ve got him!” Liam said triumphantly.
“I don’t think Hunter asked permission. He must know where his staff keep their car keys. He just borrowed the ones he wanted, and returned them later. If he was caught, he had a story ready — but he wasn’t,” Carmine said.
“And we won’t find any fingerprints or his favorite sweet wrappers in the car,” said Delia. She looked at Carmine very directly and severely. “You’re sure it’s Jim Hunter, Chief?”
“Yes. I’ve never gotten away from him. No one else fits the bill, folks. The Savovich women? Not enough know-how. I believe Hunter persuaded John Hall to show him the back of his neck before they went onto the study. Oh, Jeez, there’s something nasty crawling up your neck, John! John’s head goes right down, which means he can’t see anything Hunter is doing. Out comes the syringe, Hunter lifts the skin with the tip of the needle, and slides the tip sideways, not down. Just a couple of drops under the skin. The poison takes longer to reach the vertebral artery — twenty-five minutes, say, rather than ten.”
“You’re right, Carmine,” Abe said. “Once you take the study out of the equation, it becomes anyone’s poison. Hunter could have drawn John aside for a private talk, taken him into another room, or just let it happen right there in the open. He seems to have the luck of the devil, or however you want to put it, because no one ever sees him! People remember Hunter having an animated conversation with Davina that occupied that space of time, but people’s memories are notorious. It’s equally possible that he had more than enough time and privacy for an injection.”
“What it boils down to is Hunter’s word. Millie was with the women in the drawing room — and so, Davina insists, was she.” Carmine huffed in exasperation. “The animated conversation with Jim must have happened, but when? We don’t even have a reliable time line for tetrodotoxin, largely represented in the literature by one paper from a couple of guys at Duke who isolated it in 1964. Tetrodotoxin is more of a novelty than a significant substance that’s going to break down biochemical barriers.”
“And we haven’t a damned thing to connect Hunter to the B-12 ampoules,” Buzz said gloomily.
“So what do you intend to do, Carmine?” Delia asked.
“For the moment, nothing. We close the case down and wait. I’ve already asked the slow-grinding wheels of justice if they could see their way clear to trying Uda Savovich fairly quickly — it would be good to get that out of the way.”
“I made a terrible mistake, charging her,” Abe said.
“I fail to see how or where, Abe,” Carmine said gently.
“I should have charged both the Savovich Sisters with conspiracy to murder.”
“Horrie Pinnerton’s not the D.A. for that alternative.”
“I guess so.”
“Do you intend to let Hunter think he’s gotten away with it, or are you going to tell him what we suspect?” Abe asked.
“I’m going to inform Hunter that we know the truth, for one very good reason — I want no more murders.”
“May we listen?” Tony asked.
“On the other side of the glass, yes.”
“When?” Tony asked.
“Two p.m. today.”
The group dispersed; no one had wanted to discuss Millie.
Jim Hunter appeared at County Services promptly. Divested of his winter gear, he was revealed in chinos, a white silk shirt open at the neck, and a new grey buttoned sweater. He was looking as he always did — supremely confident, extremely competent, and the eyes held no fear whatsoever. Arresting in any face, Delia thought as she and Abe assumed their positions one to either side of the tape recorder. By now Hunter knew all of them, could greet them by name; he took his interviewee’s chair, a comfortable one, as if attending a professional seminar at which he would chair the panels.
“This is going on the record, Dr. Hunter,” Carmine said after the formalities were announced for the tape’s sake, “but I want you to know that my chief reason for arranging this meeting is to prevent more murders. You may speak at any time, of course, but you are not required to speak, and I must warn you that if the interview yields criminal fruit, it may be used against you in a court of law. Therefore you are entitled to have a lawyer present. Do you want a lawyer?”