Black Dog

Forty-Nine

The following morning, Joan came into Stone’s office. “Do you have a minute?” she asked.

“Sure. You’ve never asked before.” She looked nervous, he thought.

“I have a problem,” she said, “and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Tell me.”

“I think Eddie Jr. is somewhere in my house.”

Stone looked more closely at her. She was a wreck. “But the people from Strategic Services conducted a rigorous search,” he said.

“I know. And I know that I sound crazy.”

“So, do you have any evidence of his presence?”

“No.”

“Have you heard anybody moving around in the middle of the night?”

“No.”

“If we’re going to order Mike Freeman’s people to conduct another search, we’ll need to give him a reason.”

“I don’t have a reason. I just have a feeling that he’s there.”

“A ‘feeling’?”

“That’s it. Just a feeling. I want the house searched again, and this time, by different people.”

“Listen, you’re the boss here. If you want the house searched again, then it will be done. I’ll speak to Mike. And if you think of anything else, please let me know.”

“If my feeling changes, I will.”

Joan left, and Stone called Mike Freeman.

“Yes, Stone?”

“Your client, Joan Robertson, wants the house searched again. As she puts it, she has a ‘feeling’ that Eddie Jr. is still somewhere in the house, though she has nothing concrete to support her feeling.”

Mike was quiet for a moment. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“I am. And she wants a whole new team to conduct the search.”

“What is your view of her mental state?”

“She’s a very smart lady, and she’s got the bit between her teeth about this. Let me suggest that if you find evidence of Eddie’s presence in the house, you refund her money for the first search.”

“That’s fair,” Mike said. “I’ll have a new team put together, and they’ll be at work by, say, one o’clock, and they won’t leave until they’ve pronounced the house Eddie Jr. free.”

“Go to it.” Stone hung up and called Dino.

“Bacchetti.”

“It’s Stone. What do you think of Joan’s mental state?”

Dino was quiet for a moment. “Why do you ask?”

“You know her well, and I just want your opinion.”

“What has caused you to question her sanity?”

“I don’t question her sanity. I just want to know if you do.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I think we have to consider what she’s been through the past few days: two people have been shot dead in her residences. And she shot one of them herself. I think that experience would rattle anybody, even a usually sane person.”

“So you think she’s usually sane?”

“Certainly.”

“Could being ‘rattled,’ as you put it, cause her to believe things that are not true?”

“Listen, there are a lot of usually sane people who believe that what’s-his-name won the last election. Anything is possible. Now, what has caused you to question Joan’s sanity?”

“I don’t question her sanity. I just want to know whether you question her sanity.”

“I would never have questioned that, if you hadn’t brought it up.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“What’s your fault?”

“That I’m questioning her sanity.”

“Well, it’s not my fault and there are only two of us in this conversation, so it must be your fault.”

“Let me put it to you this way,” Stone said. “If Joan still believes that Eddie Jr. is somewhere in the house, after Strategic Services has searched her house again and found no trace of him, is she nuts?”

“Those people of Mike’s are very good,” Dino said. “My wife is one of them.”

“I concur. Nevertheless, after the first search, Joan ‘feels’ that Eddie is still somewhere in the house.”

“How firmly does she believe this?”

“Firmly enough to order Mike Freeman to conduct a second search, this time with a different team.”

“Well, it seems to me that one of two things is happening,” Dino said.

“What are they?”

“Either one, Eddie Jr. is hiding somewhere in Joan’s house, or two, Joan is batshit crazy.”

“You mean, not entirely sane.”

“Batshit crazy is worse than not entirely sane. It’s batshit crazy.”

“Thank you for your psychiatric diagnosis,” Stone said. “I think that, since a new search has been ordered and should be underway shortly, we should withhold final judgment on the matter of Joan’s sanity until such time as we know the results of the new search.”

“Tell them to check the washer and dryer,” Dino said.

“Why the washer and dryer?”

“Because if Eddie Jr. is living there, he has to have clean socks and underwear at some point.”

“I will add that to their instructions,” Stone said, then hung up. He texted Mike Dino’s order, and Mike responded that his crew was on the way to Joan’s house.