I telephoned Inspector Lichlyter as soon as I got home and, while I didn’t think she would help me, stranger things have happened. I got the information I wanted, but I can’t say the conversation was a complete success.
“I was wondering if you could put me in touch with Katrina Dermody’s office assistant. Her name is Janine something; I met her at Katrina’s memorial.”
“You want to contact her?”
“Yes. I … er … wanted to call her, or maybe send her a note. She seemed so upset at the memorial, and I thought of writing to her. A note. Of condolence.”
“I can’t release her address or phone number.” She sounded very firm. “But her last name is Ryan.” After another brief pause she added, “Her husband is Liam.”
“Is the investigation doing well?” I gave myself a mental bitch slap. “I mean, do you have any more suspects?”
“We don’t usually need more than one when the evidence is compelling. If that’s all, Ms.… Bogart, no doubt you’ll let me know if there are any other condolence notes you want to write.”
I thought Janine was probably the only person who knew about the day-to-day running of Katrina’s law practice. Her paralegal had recently resigned, and Gavin only went to the office occasionally. I was clutching at straws, but I hoped she could give me some new information, some new leads to follow. She might also be the only person to know if Katrina were the mother of Sergei’s son, Pavel, and if he’d ever visited her at her offices. With Haruto’s help, I found Janine and Liam Ryan in Montara that afternoon. I telephoned her and left a message. That evening I heard back from her husband.
“I’m just returning your call because you haven’t heard the news, and I wasn’t sure…” His voice faded.
“What news?”
He cleared his throat. “Janine is in the hospital; she was in an accident ten days ago.”
My heart sank. “I’m so very sorry. A car accident?”
“Yeah, she liked that she had to be in the office so early because she missed most of the early morning traffic. Janine”—his voice broke—“doesn’t remember, and so no one’s sure what happened. She might have taken a curve too fast. She went over the cliff on one of those bends along there. The police are still investigating.”
Suddenly feeling that Janine’s information was much more important than I realized, but unable to talk to her, I wasn’t sure where to take the conversation. I’d thought she and I could just chat casually in case she knew something helpful. Liam was waiting, and I said the first thing that occurred to me. “We met at Katrina Dermody’s memorial, and it was obvious that Katrina relied on her quite a bit.”
“She loved her job because she was given so much responsibility.” I thought cynically that Katrina probably loaded her up with too much work.
“So she was more than an assistant,” I said, still finding my way. “Janine told me about taking responsibility for a report or something, was that right?”
“Janine realized some report was overdue, so she pulled it together, cleared it with Ms. Dermody, and sent it off. Janine felt her contribution was valued, you know?”
“So she was in Katrina’s confidence; she probably knew a lot about St. Olga’s orphanage. That was a surprise to most of us,” I said.
“She did. The report she wrote was something to do with the orphanage. She thought of Ms. Dermody as a role model.” I swallowed a snort as he cut himself off. “Look, I have to go; I’m heading back to the hospital. I appreciate your call and I’ll let Janine know.”
“Please tell her I hope she’s back on her feet very soon.”
I finished the call, convinced someone had tried to silence the only person to shed a tear over Katrina’s death. But why?