Parker took the call from Moxie Castin while waiting to board for Cincinnati. He regretted not taking an earlier flight from Logan, because this one was a zoo, but he’d been unable to reschedule a morning meeting regarding witnesses in an assault case due to go to trial in a couple of days.
“Bad news,” said Moxie. “They found Maela Lombardi’s body.”
Parker stepped out of line and walked over to an empty gate so he could speak without being overheard.
“Where?”
“The bottom of the Grundy Quarry. There’s no positive ID yet, but it looks like someone rolled Lombardi’s car into the water with her locked in the trunk.”
Parker watched the line grow shorter as the plane filled. Moxie was paying for a first-class ticket, so he wasn’t concerned about finding space for his hand baggage. The question was whether he should board the flight at all, but it didn’t take him long to come up with an answer. There was nothing he could offer the police that might help with the Lombardi investigation. What he could do was travel to Indiana as planned to find out what Leila Patton knew, or suspected, about the death of Errol Dobey and the disappearance of his girlfriend, Esther Bachmeier. Karis linked Dobey, Bachmeier, and Lombardi; and Leila Patton, who had worked for Dobey, was frightened. Parker wanted to ask her why that might be.
“No word from our caller?” he said.
“None.”
“When he does get in touch, use Lombardi. You need to frighten him into coming forward. That way, we can protect him, Karis’s son, and anyone else who knows the truth about what happened. Keep Louis close until I get back. Find him a chair in a quiet corner.”
The line for his flight was gone, and Parker heard his name being called.
“I have to go.”