We hustled through the driving rain to the shelter of the canopy that went from the parking lot to the side staff entrance. A couple of people were outside shivering, having a cigarette. Janice was one of them. She was an addicted smoker, always trying to quit but never succeeding for more than six months at a time. When she saw me she looked guilty and waved her cigarette in the air.
“This is my last one. I’m going on the patch as of tomorrow.”
Leo stopped. “Janice, can I bum one off you?”
“Sure.” She looked surprised, but she shook out a cigarette, low tar, low nicotine, the smoker’s illusory sop to conscience. He took it, lit up, drew in a deep lungful of tobacco, coughed a little, and exhaled.
“I quit years ago,” he said to me, “but it suddenly looked appealing.” He took another drag, coughed again, then stubbed it out in the ash bucket by the door. “Thank God it isn’t. It tastes like sawdust shavings.”
Janice laughed. “Hey, that’s my best friend you’re insulting.” She stubbed out her own cigarette. “That’s it. I’ll come in with you. I’m perishing.” We headed for the door and Janice keyed the security pad. We went inside, leaving the other sufferer to his addiction.
“There has been a report on the news channel,” said Janice. “They did use Deidre’s name but there haven’t been any calls here, so at the moment nobody is connecting the two of you. However, a woman called Trudy phoned three times. She said she was your, er, wife and she had heard the news and wanted you to call her at once. Did you have your cellphone off?”
Leo winced. “Trudy still insists on identifying herself as my wife even though we’ve been divorced for twenty-five years. She’s Catholic and won’t recognize civil laws, only God’s or the Pope’s, which is the same thing in her mind.”
I suppose he wasn’t to know that Janice was a devout Roman Catholic and probably felt the same way. I noticed the glance she threw at him.
Leo took out his cellphone, snapped it open, and keyed in a number as we walked down to the elevator.
“Trudy? Leo … Well, what would you expect? … No, I’m not being rude, I’m under stress at the moment … No, there’s nothing you can do … No. Loretta? Yes, she should be here tonight … No, I don’t know how she’s taken it. Badly probably … Trudy please, I can’t go into that right now. Of course I intended to phone you, I just haven’t had time … No, I haven’t told Sig yet. I tried but I couldn’t reach him. Yes, I will as soon as I can … I realize that, Trudy. It’s you who aren’t being sensitive…” She must have hung up because he swore and closed the phone. His mouth twisted as if he were tasting something sour. “Where there’s a carcass there will Trudy be found.”
The three of us stepped into the elevator, thrown into uncomfortable intimacy. Janice smelled of cigarette smoke.
“By the way, Christine, a fax came for you from the Hebrides. I put it on your desk.”
Damn. I’d forgotten I’d promised Gill I’d take a look at his report on major crime in Lewis. I’d have to do it later.
Leo and I left Janice at her desk and went on to Katherine’s office. She was on the phone but beckoned us in at once.
“Yes … thanks, Ed. I’ll pass that along and get back to you. Bye.” She hung up. “Ed Chaffey says he can have the casino surveillance tape ready for us by tomorrow morning. They’d like us to go there to view it. Okay with you, Leo?”
I sat down in one of the chairs, but he walked over to the window and stood gazing out. The view from here wasn’t like the one from his condo. The office looked out on to Memorial Drive and cars coming and going. Definitely not interesting or beautiful. Without turning around, he said. “Tell Katherine about the DVD, Chris.”
I filled her in. “We should be able to get information on this Zach Taylor fellow from Gallaudet University, although from what I could gather off the tape, he’s a bit of a gypsy. He has his own camper van and he uses a post office box here in Orillia.”
“I’ll pass all that on to Ed and he can check it out right away.”
“Tell him it’s likely to be an older model, blue and white.”
Leo turned and looked at me quizzically.
“The colours of Scotland,” I explained.
He came away from the window and took the other chair. “We think this man is the father of Deidre’s child. Maybe even of the second conception.” He swallowed hard, hurt by his own words. “We need to talk to Nora again and see if he was at the house or if Deidre let on she was seeing him. I’m guessing the letter we found by the car was from him. Maybe Dee was planning to tell him she was pregnant. It’s not always welcome news. Perhaps they had an argument and he lost his temper.”
Typically, men who lost their tempers struck out with fists or knives if they had them. To strangle somebody to death required a colder frame of mind. However, at this stage I wasn’t going to argue. Leo needed something to fasten on to, and as a real flesh-and-blood person, the unknown Zach was a likely candidate. He was also choosing to ignore what both of Deidre’s friends had said about Zach being a harmless sort of guy. On the other hand, crime history is jam-packed with witness statements about what a nice man the accused was. “Quiet” is how they are most often described.
“Chaffey should start asking if anybody at the casino saw a camper or a sleeper type van in the vicinity of the parking lot. Maybe he went there to pick her up after all.”
Katherine made a note. “We’ve passed on her photograph to Ed and he’s checking the bus drivers and taxi drivers who were working that shift.”
Leo got to his feet. “I’m sorry, I just can’t concentrate. I shouldn’t be sitting here; I must talk to Nora before anything else. We’ve got to work out what to do with Joy.” He looked over at Katherine and held up his hand in a stop gesture. “I know you’d like to play it by the book and shut me down but this is private territory. I have a right to make sure my granddaughter is taken care of.”
His tone was belligerent and Katherine bit her lip. “Of course I understand that but to be blunt, Leo, you’re in no shape to be conducting an enquiry at the same time, which I know you will do when you get there.”
“Christine can come with me then. She’ll keep it legit.”
A good bedside manner had never been Leo’s strong suit and for a moment I bristled at his tone and the assumption that I was at his beck and call. He must have picked up on it because his eyes met mine and he softened his voice. “I would appreciate your company. You’re stopping me from going insane.”
Katherine took back the reins. “Well if it’s all right with you, Chris, why don’t you do that now? I’ll hold a briefing tomorrow.”
I gathered my things and followed Leo, who was already moving out of the office. Over his shoulder, he said, “I’m going to take the fire exit. I can’t face talking to anybody right now. I’ll meet you at the car.”
I was about to say, “copy that,” which was a running joke in the office. We were all going around doing the 24 “copy that” and the scary “trust me,” which Jack Bauer always said before disaster struck. Needless to say this was no time for levity and I kept my mouth shut. I was quite capable of walking down two flights of stairs but I thought he needed a time out so I took the elevator and headed for the car. He must have run down because he was already waiting. He hadn’t brought a hat or an umbrella and rain was dripping off his nose. His hair was soaked. The man was going to get pneumonia if he didn’t watch it. I felt my gut twinge in pity. Dr. Leo Forgach was in the grip of a massive dose of grief, heavily laced with guilt.
In the trunk I had what I called my emergency box. First aid supplies; extra clothes; boots; gloves; flashlight; flare; yes, even a packet of energy bars that I kept forgetting to replace, so they were probably stale by now. Orillia wasn’t exactly in wilderness country but in my job you never know when you’d get a call to go somewhere rough. If I didn’t need them, somebody else might. I fished in the box and took out a clean towel and handed it to him.
“You’re not going to be any good to anybody if you get ill. Dry off.”
He managed a grin. “Copy that.”
I started the car, turning the heater on full blast.
“How about if I drop off Mr. Torres’s jacket on the way?”
I’d grabbed it as I left the condo.
Leo glanced out the window. “I’ll wait in the car if you don’t mind. I’m not ready for him either. I suspect he’ll ask a lot of questions that I don’t have the answer to. Will you give him my thanks? Tell him I’ll be in touch in person at a later time.”
“Of course.”
He lapsed into silence and I concentrated on driving.