That was about it. We had no reason to charge Sigmund with anything at this stage and I know all three of us were hoping we wouldn’t have to. We let him go and with several deferential smiles and soft handshakes, he left.
Ed pushed back his chair. “I’ve got to get back to the station,” he said. “I’m going to leave this in your capable hands. Good luck.”
He left and I got up and helped myself to coffee. It was fresh and hot but starting to churn acid in my empty stomach. My neck felt like it was made of wood.
Katherine leaned her elbows on the table. “I’m not looking forward to passing this on to Leo. He’s…”
She didn’t have to finish her sentence because the man himself came into the room.
“He’s what? Don’t worry, I’m not going to have hysterics. Tell me what happened.”
Katherine hesitated but Leo mowed right on. “Sigmund is one of the last people we know was talking to her before she died. What did he have to say? Just forget he’s my son.”
Katherine sighed. “Leo, don’t be ridiculous. None of us here is a robot and that includes you. How can we ignore the reality that these are your children?”
“Try,” he snapped. “I agreed not to sit in on the interview but you owe me the courtesy of telling me what Sig had to say.”
Katherine studied her nails for a moment. “Very well. Chris, you take good notes. Why don’t you read them back?”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t! A summary will be fine.”
“He said he hadn’t really had any encounters with Deidre since she was a child but in the past few months, they had reconnected by way of emails, initiated by her. She mentioned she always went to the casino on Tuesday night so he thought he’d surprise her and drop in and say hello…”
“Hold on. He said this was their first meeting?”
I nodded.
“That’s bullshit,” Leo spat out. “You saw the tapes. Were they acting like two people who were meeting face to face for the first time in twenty years?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Why is he lying then?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re sure that’s what he said? He hadn’t seen her face to face before yesterday?”
Katherine interjected. “That’s what he claims, Leo.”
“I suggest we bring in Jessica Manolo, Deidre’s friend,” I said. “She reads lips. We could ask her to look at the tape.”
“Good idea,” said Katherine. “Let’s do that as soon as possible.”
There was no window to stare out of so Leo had to make do with an empty notice board with fire drill instructions on it.
Katherine continued. “Sigmund seemed upset about the prospect of our questioning his mother, which we may have to do if we’re going to verify his statement. Anything you can tell us about that?”
“Do you have a couple of days?” Leo said, his voice full of bitterness. There was a corridor of space between the table and the wall and he started to pace. Katherine stopped him.
“Please sit down, Leo. Walking up and down like a caged tiger might help you but frankly I find it unsettling.”
He gave her a curt nod and took a chair across from us. “Trudy and I met when we were young and stupid. Frankly I was thinking with my dick and not my head. She was a bosomy blonde.” He made the universal gesture for well-endowed. “I was a nineteen-year-old horny virgin, she was … well, I fitted some fantasy Trudy was carrying from her hundreds of hours watching TV shows. Up-and-coming medical student, who would eventually be laying healing hands on the attractively sick, accolades, not to mention money, raining down on said doctor and his lovely wife.” He stopped but didn’t look at either of us. “No bets on what happened,” he continued, his voice maintaining a rather flat dispassionate tone. The shrink being objective. “We had an affair, she got pregnant, we got married. One, two, three. Frankly I wanted to leave her a few months after we’d done the deed but I thought for the boy’s sake I should stick it out. In hindsight, I’m sure that didn’t help him at all. Trudy resented the long hours I put into my studies. She was, is, not what we’d call an intellectual or interested in a thought that hasn’t first been vetted by Oprah or whatever guru it was back then. We argued constantly regardless whether Sig heard us or not. She turned all her attention and need onto the boy. I … I just buried myself more and more in my courses. Early on I knew I wanted to be a psychiatrist but she hated that. It wasn’t sexy enough … I suppose I am allowed to get some coffee?”
The trip to the coffee urn gave him an excuse to move around and Katherine didn’t stop him this time.
“I hung on until I finished my internship then I left her. Sigmund was eight.” He turned around and looked at both Katherine and me. “You’ve heard stories like this before; I’ve heard them dozens of times. She started, or more accurately continued, drinking, a habit I’d ignored when I was in the throes of lust. When I left we loathed each other. She couldn’t bear to see Sig liking anybody else, especially me. Any visits I tried to make were blocked. I didn’t try that hard. I found him an unattractive, whiny kid, a mother’s boy if ever I saw one. We had nothing in common. Over the years I have met him only sporadically. The last time was about six months ago. I met him for dinner and neither or us could wait until it was time to leave… You’ve met him. He’s a phoney. He wants to come across as cool and with it but he just looks rather pathetic.”
I’d had a similar opinion of Sigmund, but coming from his own father, this judgement sounded harsh indeed. I didn’t envy any child of Leo’s. The standards seemed impossibly high.
He picked up on my thoughts as surely as if I’d said them out loud. “I am not proud of my accomplishments in the parental department. I was the classic absent father and I’m sure Sig has taken on the responsibility for that as most children do. It is no doubt part of the reason why he tries so hard to be liked.”
There was another awkward silence.
“Shall I go on?” Leo asked.
“Please do,” said Katherine, but her eyes flickered to the clock on the wall. Leo saw her do it and I saw him shrink back. He was misreading her: she wasn’t indifferent to what he was saying; she just wished she didn’t have to hear it. If there was a club for people who were at the far end of the touchy-feely spectrum as far as their private lives were concerned, Leo would be the president and Katherine vice-president.
“I remarried a few years after I wrested, and paid heavily for, a divorce from Trudy. It’s true what he said. I brought him and Deidre together once only when she was, hmm, about four, I think. He was very nasty and jealous with her and actually tripped her up when she was running across the yard so that she had a bad fall. I was actually afraid she might have broken her knee.” Leo made quotes in the air. “A ‘joke,’ according to Sig but it wasn’t. He wanted to hurt her.” He put down his coffee cup. “Whether Dee and he made any attempt to connect with each other over the years I have no idea.” His lips were tight. “In spite of what I have said, I do love my son. It grieves me that he has become such a prissy tight-ass and for that his mother and I must take equal blame. She keeps him on an extremely short leash and I didn’t try to stop her when I could have… I also loved Deidre and I will carry to my grave the regret that she died without knowing it.”
He struggled for control and we waited. Now it was my turn to fiddle with my coffee cup. Katherine took to studying her fingers. Quickly, Leo rubbed away traitorous tears from his cheeks with his finger.
“Leo, I will not insult you by denying that your son is what we in our inimitable police jargon call ‘a person of interest.’” Katherine’s voice was matching Leo’s for flatness. “We will of course pursue the matter of his seeming deception. Is there anything I can do to help you at the moment?”
He managed a wry smile. “You can snap your fingers and say, ‘Wake up now, Leo. It’s all been a bad dream.’ Can you do that for me, Katherine?”
She leaned across the table and briefly covered his hands with hers. “I only wish I could, Leo.”
I doubt I had taken in much oxygen for the last several minutes. Katherine picked up her notebook, brisk again, professional.
“Christine, I’ll leave it to you to contact the Manolo girl and arrange for her to view the tapes. There isn’t a lot we can do now until we start getting back reports from the beat officers. I suggest you and Leo go to your respective homes and get some rest. You look exhausted. We’ll meet tomorrow at say one o’clock?”
That was fine and we trekked out. Leo said he’d get a taxi, refused a lift, and we parted.
I was already driving out of the lot when I realized that once again I’d forgotten the report that Gill had faxed me. I promised myself I’d come in early and have a look at it tomorrow.