“I don’t usually think of my family as prey animals, but I see your point,” I said.
“Chief Burke seems to have focused more on poor young Charlie Shiffley,” Dad said. “Can’t say I understand that.”
“He's probably got some forensic evidence,” I suggested. “Unlike us. All we have is our imaginations, so we’re wasting our time making wild, inaccurate guesses.”
“I doubt if your guesses are particularly wild or inaccurate,” Blake said. “But then, I don’t expect you to share them with someone who's probably one of your suspects.”
“Oh, I’m sure Meg doesn’t suspect you!” Dad said with a nervous laugh.
“The hell she doesn’t,” Blake said. He sat back with an annoy-ingly enigmatic smile on his face. Was it the smile of a murderer who knows he's unlikely to be caught? Or the smile of a consummate egotist who has to be the center of every conversation, even at the cost of being a murder suspect?
“I suspect everyone, of course,” I said.
“But especially me,” Blake said, as if egging me on. “Go ahead; tell them why. You’ve checked up on me, I presume?”
“Yes,” I said. I thought of giving Ms. Ellie credit, but decided maybe I was in a better position to take care of myself if Blake resented the snooping. “You have no living family.”
Blake frowned, almost imperceptibly.
“Yes,” he said. “I lost my only child to cancer seventeen years ago, and then, a few years later, my only grandson to a car accident.”
“A car accident in which Patrick Lanahan was a passenger,” I said. “Did you hold a grudge against Lanahan? Maybe because you thought he was to blame for the accident?”
“And killed him in revenge?” Blake said. “No, Tony dug his own grave. Drinking. Not the first car he’d totaled.”
“You had nothing against Lanahan?” I said.
“I admit, I resented Patrick for years,” Blake said. “Not because of anything he’d done, but because he lived when Tony died. But that had faded, and by the time he contacted me, asking for help with his zoo, I was feeling guilty about having lost touch. I thought it was a good way to reconnect with a happier time in my life.”
Whatever discomfort Blake had felt when I’d brought up the subject of his grandson had vanished now. Or maybe I’d only imagined it.
“Why are you so interested in the Caerphilly Zoo?” I asked. “Because of your guilt about having neglected Lanahan?”
“I think it's important for young people to learn about the natural world,” Blake said. “There are people today who’ve never seen an animal larger than a cocker spaniel.”
“There's the National Zoo, in Washington,” I said. “And for that matter, Richmond and Norfolk have pretty decent zoos.”
“Yes, but they’re all at least a hundred miles away. It's so much better having the wild animals nearby—practically in your backyard.”
“On the contrary, I’d much rather have several hundred miles between me and the animals currently occupying our backyard,” I said. “Have you ever tried to sleep with a troop of bored hyenas laughing maniacally in your barn all night? Never mind, you probably have. So you feel strongly about the importance of small local zoos?”
“That's right,” Blake said. He was sitting back with his hands laced across his stomach, smiling enigmatically.
“I don’t recall seeing anything on your Web site about supporting worthy small zoos,” I said. “It's a new interest, then?”
“Not a new interest,” Blake said. “But one I’ve only recently made the time to pursue. When I turned ninety, it hit me that I should start thinking about posterity.”
“Supporting the Caerphilly Zoo's your way of thinking about posterity?”
“It's a start,” Blake said. “It's got potential.”
I nodded. I was tempted to point out that when older men started talking about posterity they usually turned to trophy wives and Viagra, not penguins and llamas, but I stifled the impulse.
“So when are you going to make some kind of decision about whether you’re going to help the zoo?” I asked aloud.
“I’ll probably have to wait until the police let me see the files,” Blake said. “I’ll need to study what I’m taking on.”
“What do you need to study, apart from the animals, most of which are out at our place, and the physical facility, which you’ve already inspected today?”
“There's the financial situation.”
“The bank's already seized the property,” I said. I was having trouble keeping my voice light—all his reasons sounded like so many lame excuses. “I bet they’d be ecstatic if you made an offer on it.”