“Like a real criminal, you mean? I’m at a pay phone, but even so, I think I should keep this simple. I’ve been out of circulation all day, catching up on my sleep, so I don’t know what DuPage or thefederales will have in store for me when I go home. Under this Patriot Act, if they think I have something they want-whether it’s a runaway kid or a library book-do I have a right to phone counsel before they hustle me away?”
“I’m not sure,” Freeman said, after a pause. “I’ll have to research that. But just in case, leave word with Lotty or your tiresome neighbor to call me if you don’t show up when you’re expected. And for once in your own tiresome, ornery life, Victoria, check in with someone once a day until this blows over. Otherwise, Contreras will be on the phone with me and I’ll be billing new hours to your outstanding balance. Which is not small as it is. Agreed?”
“Copy that, Houston.” Nothing would bring Mr. Contreras more pleasure than to baby-sit me. Few things would bring me less, but Freeman was right. There are days when it’s better to be pliant.
I tried Amy Blount next. When I got her voice mail, I phoned the client at the Drake. Harriet Whitby was in her room.
“When I saw the report on TV this morning, I wondered, well, were you out at Larchmont because of Marc or because of the terrorist?” she asked. Every time someone referred to Benjamin Sadawi as a terrorist, he changed from a scared kid hiding in an attic to a bearded monster in a Yasser Arafat scarf. But if I started saying, no, he’s not a terrorist, he’s just terrified, then I’d have to explain that I’d seen him, and I couldn’t do that. “Your brother’s affairs took me out to Larchmont; I was looking in the pond where he drowned to see if he might have dropped something. He did, in fact: his pocket organizer. I’ve sent it to a lab to dry it out and extract any documents.”
A woman was waiting to use the phone, looking ostentiously at the clock above the dryers. I held up my thumb and forefinger to say, only a little longer.
“While I was out at Larchmont, I found the kitchen door open, I went in to see whether anyone was inside, and the sheriff’s excitement kept me out there longer than I hoped. I think I know who your brother was visiting in New Solway, but it doesn’t bring me any closer to how he ended in that pond.”
“Dr. Vishnikov called this morning,” Harriet said. “Your funeral director delivered Marc’s body to his-his place. But he wanted to warn me before he started what it would cost, and that I might find out, I don’t know, things I wouldn’t want to know. He terrified me, but, then, what could be more terrible than Marc’s death?” Her voice was raggedy, the voice of someone who’d had to talk to too many people about too many difficult things lately.
“Dr. Vishnikov is just being cautious. I’ll call him, tell him if he feels like being responsible to the client, do it through me, not you. And to get started-we’ve already lost a week on this. I can think of a lot of things one wouldn’t want to know about a beloved family member, but, frankly, I can’t picture your brother doing any of them-you know, running a prostitution ring or dealing drugs, that kind of activity doesn’t fit with the man whose house I saw yesterday morning.”
Harriet gave a shaky laugh. “Thank you, I needed to hear someone say that. All day I’ve been thinking, my God, am I going to find out Marc was a drug addict?”
The woman waiting for the phone made a loud remark about how inconsiderate some people are. I smiled and nodded.
“Can you call Amy for me?” I said to Harriet. “I want to compare notes with her and I’ve got to surrender this phone. See if she can come to my office tomorrow morning.”
“She’s meeting me at the hotel tonight,” Harriet said. “Why don’t you join us?”
“If the police aren’t holding me.” I gave her Mr. Contreras’s number in
case she couldn’t reach me on my cell phone. “And just in case the law thinks I’m such a scintillating conversationalist that they want to listen in, keep your phone comments on the short and simple side.”
The waiting woman grabbed the phone from me when I’d hung up. She snapped, “Short and simple? That’s what you think is short and simple?” The woman dragged out her conversation as long as she could, but I waited, since I still needed to talk to Vishnikov and to my neighbor, and I didn’t want to scour the streets for another pay ph ?. When she finished, the woman gave a triumphant nod with the comment that now I knew what it felt like.
I blew her a kiss and dialed Vishnikov’s home number. “Jeesh, Bryant, good thing you only deal with the dead: your bedside manner gets the living totally weirded out. You really think Whitby looks like a user?”
“I just don’t want the family refusing to pay the bill if I find out what they don’t want to know.”
“Well, talk to me about it next time. I will guarantee the bill,” I said grandly.
“In that case, we’ll use the new spectrometer, Warshawski. Time on it’s five hundred bucks an hour, but you’ll be happy with the results.”