She went to her desk, picked up the phone, and dialed Anna Wakeling’s cell number. Anna sounded apprehensive when she answered. “What happened today? Please tell me that my brother didn’t do this.”
“It didn’t go very well,” Laurie said. “He didn’t confess, but he was very defensive.”
“Does he know what Peter and I told you?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, Anna, but it’s part of the process we use. Are you afraid of your brother?”
“No. At least, I don’t think so. I just wish I knew for certain. It’s been hard enough to live without closure, but I always told myself it was just a matter of time before the police could build a case against Ivan. Now I don’t know what to believe.”
Laurie knew any consolation she offered would sound hollow. “All I can say is that we’re doing everything we can to get at the truth. To that end, I was hoping to ask you one more question about your cousin, Tom.” She explained what she had learned about the very small inheritance Tom had received from Virginia. “When your father was alive, the plan was to leave Tom a quarter of a million dollars.”
“My father had a running feud with his brother, but he had a soft spot for Tom. I think he blamed his brother for Tom’s lack of focus in his younger years. My mother was less sympathetic. She saw Tom as always having his hand out when it came to our family. I can’t say I’m surprised that she changed what Daddy had planned. Granted, the fifty thousand dollars that Tom inherited was a great deal of money to him, given where he was three years ago, but Carter and I still felt guilty. That’s why we decided to give him a job at the company when he asked. We’ve all moved on.”
Where he was three years ago. Anna had previously mentioned Tom’s lack of regular employment and penchant for gambling. “I hate to ask you this, Anna, after the questions we’ve also raised about Carter, but do you think there’s any possibility that Tom did this?”
“No, but I said the same thing about Carter until yesterday. My recollection is that he and his date were sneaking around the portraits gallery. That woman was a bit eccentric, but I don’t see why she’d lie to the police for him. Did you talk to her?”
“I did,” Laurie said. “She confirmed that she was with Tom the whole time.”
“Well, at least I don’t need to suspect him,” Anna said sadly, still concerned about her brother. “Please promise me that if you learn something about Carter one way or the other that you’ll let me know.”
“I will,” Laurie promised.
58
Detective Johnny Hon hung up his phone and thought about what he had just learned from Leo Farley. Anna Wakeling and her husband, Peter, had never told the police about Carter’s insistence, just hours before the murder, on stopping their mother from changing her will. In fact, this was the first time anyone other than Ivan Gray had mentioned the possibility that Virginia had such plans.
If he had gotten this tip under any other circumstance, Hon would probably have arranged to reinterview all the relevant witnesses immediately. But Leo Farley had given Hon his professional opinion that he should allow his daughter, Laurie, to continue investigating on her own for now. Because she didn’t work for the government, she didn’t have to comply with rules like Miranda warnings and was able to persuade witnesses to disclose information they might not hand over to the police. Hon had to admit that Laurie had made a break in the case after only two weeks, after it had been sitting cold for nearly three years.
On the other hand, Hon was worried about Carter’s state of mind. A man who was volatile enough to take a swing at the host of a national television program might seek retaliation—or worse—against any witnesses who could implicate him.
He tapped his fingers against his fiberboard-topped desk, weighing his options. According to Leo, Carter was at the offices of Wakeling Development as of earlier this afternoon. He Googled the address of the building in Long Island City and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. He’d try to get a bead on Carter leaving the office and follow him from there, just in case.
59
Mommy, I’m so glad you and Daddy are home now.” Vanessa bounced onto the sofa next to Anna. This was the third time her daughter had mentioned missing her last night when she and Peter had stayed at the family estate in Connecticut. Meanwhile, her big brother, Robbie, was completely unfazed by their absence and had hopped straight to his video games when he got home from school.
“I missed you, too, sweetie,” Anna said, giving her daughter a quick hug. Then, in an instant, Vanessa was running off to the kitchen again to help Kara put away the groceries. She wished her mother and father had lived long enough to know how kind and happy their grandchildren were.
She looked at her watch. It was five o’clock. Her cousin, Tom, would surely still be at his desk. He was always one of the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Sure enough, he picked up his office phone after two rings. “Did you and Peter have fun on your ‘hooky’ day?” he asked.
When she had called in this morning to clear her calendar, she had asked Tom to cover a site inspection for her on a project they were launching in Astoria. She had told him that she and Peter needed a personal day, not mentioning that she was trying to avoid Carter. Now that she was back in the city, her concerns about her brother felt like a temporary case of insanity. Ivan Gray killed her mother. She was certain of it, and she wasn’t going to let some television program get into her head again.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it fun,” she said. “Those people from Under Suspicion were in the office today to interview Carter. After dealing with them yesterday, I was happy to avoid them.”
“Carter looked upset this afternoon,” Tom said. “I asked him what was wrong, but he huffed away to his office. I wonder if the show’s producers got under his skin as well.”
Anna was too drained to discuss the roller coaster of emotions she’d been experiencing since that first phone call from Laurie Moran. “He’s probably angry at me for deciding it would be better for the family reputation to cooperate with the program. It’s been much more intrusive than I ever imagined. They really do turn over every stone. Can you believe they were even asking me about that wacky woman you brought to the party that night?”
“Tiffany.”
“That’s the one. They were even asking about you.”
“Weird. That female producer spoke to me one time in the office and then I never heard from her again.”
“We should all be so lucky,” Anna said wryly. “Anyway, I was just calling to see if there were any problems at the site inspection today.”
“Absolutely not,” Tom asserted firmly.
“Thank you, Tom. Truly. Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do at work without you.” In truth, she thought Tom brought more to the table at Wakeling Development than her own brother, but she pushed away the thought. She was still ashamed for even entertaining the possibility of Carter being involved in their mother’s murder.
“Anytime, Anna. You have nothing to worry about.”
60