D.C. Dead

38

Stone and Dino were quiet on the drive back to the Hay-Adams. When they were back in the suite Stone called Holly.

“Hello?”

“We’ve just left the White House, where we conducted a very important interview. I don’t want to talk about it on the phone, so can you come over for a drink or dinner?”

“I can come over for a drink and dinner,” she replied. “Seven o’clock?”

“Good. See you then.”

Dino picked up the phone. “I think it will save time if I ask Shelley over, too.”

“We may as well have all the principals here,” Stone said.

Dino looked at Stone closely. “You seem a little down, pal. I would have thought you’d feel great about our interview.”

“You’re right, Dino, I should feel that way, but I’m sort of depressed about the direction this is taking.”

“What, too many suspects?”

“Right, and nobody knows who they are, except Brix, and he took the shortcut out of here.”

“Well, we know three of them,” Dino said, “but two of them are dead. All we’ve got is Charnlotte Kirby and the March Hare. That’s from Alice in Wonderland, isn’t it?”

Stone nodded. “The Tea Party. It’s where the expression ‘mad as a March hare’ comes from.”

“Well, Brix seemed to give a meaning to each of his nicknames: the Rabbit, the Doggie, et cetera. So maybe the March Hare is a nut job.”

Stone nodded. “She’d almost have to be,” he said. “I mean, jealousy is one thing, but to kill Brix’s wife, then two of his lovers, well . . .”

“Maybe,” Dino said, looking thoughtful, “the March Hare is Charlotte Kirby herself. Maybe Brix drove her crazy with all of his descriptions of his sex life. Maybe masturbation really does drive you around the bend.”

“That’s a perfectly valid theory,” Stone admitted, “but it goes against the grain.”

“What grain is that?” Dino asked.

“The grain of Charlotte Kirby. I bought her story-hook, line, and sinker.”

Dino nodded. “I know what you mean. I had the feeling that we had stripped all her pretense away and we were getting the unadulterated truth. That happens in a successful interrogation, you know? The perp finally has no place to go but the truth.”

“You’re right,” Stone said.

“Maybe she still knows something she hasn’t told us, though,” Dino said. “Maybe she’s holding back the final tidbit.”

“The name of the March Hare?”

“Yeah.”

Stone shook his head. “No, I think she would have told us, if she knew.”

“Maybe she suspects?”

“I think she would have told us her suspicion. I think she’s sick of all this, and she wants an end to it.”

“I can’t disagree with you,” Dino said. “And I still think the March Hare is a nut job.”

“Agreed,” Stone said.

Shelley and Holly arrived, and drinks were poured. “Why so glum, fellows?” Holly asked.

“Because,” Stone said, “we’ve had a breakthrough.”

The room became very still.

“How so?” Holly asked carefully, looking from Stone to Dino.

“It’s like this,” Dino said. “We broke through, then found ourselves staring at another stone wall.”

“Explain, please,” Holly said.

Stone recounted their interview with Charlotte Kirby.

“Nineteen!” Holly exclaimed. “And if Charlotte’s timeline is accurate, that’s over a two-year period.”

“That’s about right,” Dino said.

“Brix was a busy boy.”

“To paraphrase Frank Sinatra,” Dino said, “I don’t know why he isn’t in a jar at the Harvard Medical School.”

“Oh, come on, folks,” Shelley said, speaking for the first time, “that’s less than one a month.”

“Yeah,” Holly said, “but he was doing it multiple times with each one.”

“It’s hard to know how he had the energy for tennis,” Dino said, and everybody laughed. “And for all we know, he might have been doing that for years.”

They ordered dinner and took a break from the case for a while. Finally, when they were on coffee and brandy, Stone spoke up. “I don’t know where to go from here,” he said.

“Neither do I,” Dino replied.

The phone rang and Stone went to the desk to answer it. “Hello?”

“Mr. Barrington?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Charlotte Kirby.”

“Yes?”

“I thought of something else.”

“Yes?”

“Brix had another nickname for the March Hare. He used it only once.”

“Yes?”

“He called her ‘RoboCop.’ I’m afraid that’s all I have for you.”

“Thank you very much,” Stone said. He hung up and returned to the table.

“Who was that?” Dino asked.

“It was Joan,” he said.

“Your secretary Joan?” Holly asked.

“Right. Another brandy anyone?” Nobody wanted another. They repaired to their respective bedrooms.