“Does she have friends here? Anyone who might know where I might be able to find her?”
She went mute. I knew she’d thought of someone instantly, but was debating whether to tell me. Finally she said, “There’s someone here I think she’s been seeing. You know, in a relationship.”
“Who?”
“Marshall Kemper. He’s one of our custodians.”
“I need to talk to him.”
She hesitated. “Follow me.”
She led me out of the lobby, down a hallway, then down a flight of stairs to the basement, and then through another hallway of pipes and ductwork and the industrial sounds of air conditioners and pumps. When she got to a door marked OPERATIONS MANAGER, she knocked, and a second later a short, stout black man answered.
“Yeah?”
“Manny,” Mrs. Delaney said, “we’re looking for Marshall. Where would he be this time of day?”
“Normally he’d be getting the trash pickup ready, but this turns out not to be a normal day. Marshall phoned in sick a while ago.”
Mrs. Delaney looked at me.
“I need an address,” I said.
THIRTY-NINE
“THERE’S a problem,” Bill Gaynor said, speaking into the kitchen phone while Matthew, in his high chair, stuffed dry Cheerios into his mouth.
“What kind of problem?” Dr. Jack Sturgess said.
“I got a call. Someone wanting money. Blackmail. The guy was a goddamn blackmailer.”
Gaynor turned his back to his son and kept his voice down. He didn’t want Matthew to hear foul language. He worried the kid would be spouting expletives before he could say “Daddy.” A word, Gaynor thought sadly, his son was likely to utter before “Mommy.”
“Who was it?”
“It’s not like he said, ‘Hi, I’m Joe Smith, your neighborhood extortionist.’ He didn’t identify himself. But he must be someone who knows Sarita.”
“Why?” Sturgess asked.
“I’ve been thinking about this. Rose had been funny these last few weeks. I think she knew the truth somehow. I think it was weighing on her. I can’t say for sure, but it was little things she said, the way she was acting. And I’ve been trying to figure out, if she did know, who might she have found out from? Who might have helped her put it together?”
“Sarita?” the doctor said.
“Yeah. I’m wondering if she could have been in a position to know something.”
Sturgess thought about that. “It’s possible.”
“It would explain a lot. The way things have gone down. This guy who called me, it sounds like maybe he’s got it figured out.”
“What’s he want?” Sturgess asked.
“Fifty thousand.”
“Jesus.”
“I haven’t got it,” Gaynor said. “After I came up with a hundred grand for you, I’ve got nothing left. I’m going to have to put Rose’s funeral on my line of credit.”
“Let me think,” Sturgess said.
“Give me half of what I paid you,” Gaynor said. “A loan. I’ll pay it back. There’ll be insurance money coming in.”
“Rosemary’s million-dollar policy,” the doctor said. “Clearly your blackmailer doesn’t know about that or he’d be asking for a lot more than fifty thousand.”
“So you know I’ll be able to reimburse you once my company makes good on the policy. So help me now with the fifty.”
“That’s . . . going to be difficult,” Sturgess said. “I don’t have it to give.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Gaynor said, whispering angrily, glancing back at Matthew to make sure he wasn’t choking on a Cheerio. “How could someone blow through a hundred thousand dollars that fast?”
“My financial needs are none of your business, Bill. Sounds to me like if anyone is to blame here, it’s at your end. You need to fix this, and you need to fix it fast.”
“I’m telling you I don’t have the money. Maybe I should just not pay him, let him say whatever the hell he wants to say, to whoever he wants to tell it to. The police’d be pretty goddamn interested.”
“Don’t joke, Bill.”
“Who said I’m joking? If this gets out, all I have to say is I knew nothing about it. Not at the time. That I thought everything was aboveboard. You know who they’ll come after? You, that’s who. Is it the gambling, Jack? Is that where the money went? Did even a dime of that money go to where you said it was going to go? You kept it all, didn’t you, to pay off your debts? How do you think that’ll look when it comes out? What you did for the money, and what you did with it when you got it?”
“Just shut up!” Sturgess said. “I’m trying to work this out.”
“You’d better work it out fast. The call is set for ten thirty. I’m supposed to be at the bank when it opens. And what if when I get there the accounts are frozen or something, because of Rose’s death? Then there won’t be a damn thing I can do about this.”
“Tell him you have the money,” the doctor said. “When he calls you, tell him you’ve got it.”
“But I won’t.”
“That’s okay. This guy, do you think he knows you to see you?”
“How would I know that?”