TWENTY-NINE

I drove north and west again. Lena Jankowski said on the phone it was either face-to-face or no discussion at all. She said she wanted to watch my face when I lied.

‘One fib and the door gets slammed,’ she said, stepping out onto the concrete stoop.

‘Sometimes truth is the only recourse,’ I agreed, affably enough.

‘John Shea is dead,’ she said. ‘I Googled the name he was using, David Arlin, after you left the last time. John got blown up in a house explosion.’

‘I don’t know all the details. The Laguna Beach cops are playing things cagey.’

‘And Willard Piser has been passing himself off as a preacher, Dainsto Runney, in Oregon.’

I’d mentioned Runney’s name the last time. ‘You Googled him?’

‘It figures, Willard pretending to be a preacher. He liked to talk, and being a preacher means he can lock the doors and trap people into listening. I called that church of his. A woman said he’d left town.’

‘You then checked on Halvorson?’ The woman was thorough.

‘I thought I’d have better luck with him since he sends me Christmas cards, but the Internet shows nothing.’

‘Did Halvorson have relatives in Chicago?’

‘Willard and John were from out east, though they didn’t know each other before the campaign. But Red is a Chicago boy. He had a brother in the city somewhere, though he said they hardly ever spoke.’ She studied me for a moment, then said, ‘Zero for three, Elstrom. Three musketeers have disappeared or died. That’s why Marilyn hired you?’

There was no doubt; the woman was sharp. ‘I’m not sure what she was up to. She disguised herself to meet me.’

‘She was afraid of getting killed?’

‘She sat in a wheelchair, where she could be obscured by bright sun.’

‘Marilyn didn’t use a wheelchair.’

‘Theresa Wade does.’

‘You’re saying Marilyn disguised herself as Theresa Wade? That makes no sense.’

‘Maybe she was trying to point a finger as insurance in case something went wrong.’

‘At Theresa Wade? No chance. She and Tim are saints, philanthropists. They do good all the time and they’re rich enough to be destined for big things. Next month, Tim will become our senator-elect and then he’ll get tapped to run for president.’

‘How well do you know Theresa Wade?’

‘I don’t know her at all. Tim used to call her every night from the Bean headquarters, asking her to come down, to hang out, stuff envelopes, go out for beer and pizza afterward. He was trying to get her out of the house. He was afraid she’d become what … well, what she did become – a total recluse.’

‘To be sure, when you talked recently with Marilyn Paul she never expressed any concerns about Theresa or Timothy Wade?’

‘Never. What aren’t you telling me?’

‘Delman Bean blames Marilyn Paul for his loss,’ I said, changing the subject again. ‘He said she wasn’t prepared when John, Red and Willard quit suddenly. He said lots of sympathetic voters never got to the polls because there was no one to drive them.’

‘Those guys were fresh out of college and broke. John worked in an appliance store and Red stocked shelves somewhere. I think Willard worked part-time at a grocery store. Naturally, they jumped at a new opportunity. Nobody could see that coming.’

‘But it was sudden? They didn’t talk about it beforehand?’

‘They certainly didn’t say anything the night before. I’m sure of that because we were so shocked the next evening at campaign headquarters when Tim said they took off for great jobs out west.’

‘You were all out together, that last night?’

‘Not Marilyn, just the volunteers. We went out most nights for pizza and beer.’ She laughed, remembering. ‘Truth is we volunteered in that campaign more for companionship than out of any mission to improve the world. Well, most of us except Tim. He was always high-minded and purposeful. He really did want to change the world through politics.’

‘Did anything unusual happen that last night?’

‘Not that I recall. It would have been too much beer as always. Probably, we staggered—’ She stopped, frowning in concentration. ‘No, we didn’t stagger out like always. We got thrown out, I think. We must have gotten obnoxious.’ She laughed. ‘It happened sometimes. We were young.’

‘Where was your usual place?’

‘We had several usual places, all within a couple of blocks of Bean headquarters, depending on whether we wanted pizza, burgers or just cheap beer. Mostly it was about the beer.’

That would prove true enough.