We developed a plan. Matt would set up an appointment with Russell for Wednesday morning. He admitted he had nothing concrete enough to warrant immediate disclosure. Everything we had was circumstantial, all our theories hypothetical in the extreme. In the meantime, we’d go to Dana’s and continue to brainstorm.
“This evening’s news might even tell us the case is solved,” Elaine had said. The red rings around her eyes gave away her true state, but she’d attempted a lighthearted tone.
We’d all nodded. Why not?
It had been almost a whole day since the last time Elaine brought up wedding trivia. I’d gotten my wish, but at a great price.
Now, at Dana’s, we focused on helping her through whatever stage of grief she’d reached. She looked more relaxed than the first time I saw her, dressed in black pants and a sheer black blouse over a white tank top. Ready for a wake. The heat wave had broken, making it useful to open the Oakland house to the outside, and a breeze ruffled Dana’s long, fine hair as she sat next to a window.
“I had such a great massage last night,” Dana told us. She picked up a basket full of small bottles of different colors and sizes and held it out to us. “And they gave me all this cool stuff—samples of oils and lotions. It made going to that mandatory group counseling so much more palatable. Thanks again, Elaine.”
Elaine smiled, seeming happy to have something go right.
We’d decided Matt would take the lead in introducing a list of things we thought Dana could help clear up. After a suitable time for small talk, he started.
“Have you heard from your dad?”
Dana fiddled with the tiny bottles of toiletries. Her long fingers were unadorned, her nails short and unpolished. “No. I left a message for him yesterday It usually takes him a couple of days to get back to me.”
“I know what you mean,” Elaine said, surprising me.
Almost from the beginning of our relationship, Matt and I had seemed to know how much or how little distance we each needed. We had talked frequently during the day, before we lived together, and now it was still the norm for us to check in by phone every few hours. I couldn’t imagine going twenty-four hours without a call. Quite a turnaround for someone who’d spent most of her adult life living alone.
From what I knew of Elaine in her relationships, she was more likely to be a call-every-hour partner, and I wondered how that played out with Phil Chambers.
No one had seen Phil since he left me on Monday afternoon. Was I that hard on him? I wondered facetiously. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours, but I realized if I hadn’t heard from Matt in that long, I’d be frantic.
“Is Phil likely to work long hours and not call?” I asked, before thinking ahead to whether I should probe.
Elaine gave a resigned sigh. “He’s likely to fly to Hong Kong and not call until he gets there.”
Dana threw up her hands and nodded in agreement. “That’s Dad.”
I would have thought that between his imminent wedding and his daughter’s troubles, Phil would be checking in more frequently. But Phil Chambers’s women, it seemed, had acquiesced to his style.
“Elaine says you met Robin Kirsch through another EMT in your company, right?” Matt asked. He was moving on.
Like the rest of us, Matt looked significantly more cool and comfortable than he had over the weekend. He’d ironed a pale blue cotton shirt and wore it under a light sports coat. My mind drifted back to his regular workweek in Revere, where Tuesday was brown suit day. Except for his casual clothes, Matt’s week was turning out to be “regular” in some ways.
“Yeah, Tom Stewart introduced me to Robin at a party,” Dana said. “She was an EMT a couple of years ago and worked with Tom, who was born at Valley Med, as Tanisha used to say.” Dana paused for a heavy breath. “This was maybe three months ago, when Jen and I lived in a small apartment and were thinking of moving into a bigger place.” Dana frowned, as if remembering an unpleasant smell or taste. “Tom’s not my favorite partner, in case you haven’t guessed.”
“I thought Tanisha was your partner,” I said.
“We rotate. Not like cops.” She gave Matt a glance I’d have classified as just short of adoring. “We might have a different partner every shift. Some you get close to, some you don’t.”
“Okay, we know it’s likely that Robin doctored up your incident report yesterday.” Matt crossed one leg over the other. He kept his voice casual and wrote no notes. “But before that, did you have any reason to think Robin might be involved in something squirrelly, or have something to hide?”