Dog Tags

CHAPTER 64

KATHY BRYANT HAD HOPED NEVER TO SEE ME AGAIN. This doesn’t exactly distinguish her from many other women I’ve known in my life, but her reason is better than most. Talking to me rips the scab off the open wound that is her husband’s death.

This time she’s allowed me into her Teaneck home, probably having determined that even though I’m an irritant, I don’t present a physical danger. She even offers me coffee, a gracious gesture that I appreciate and accept.

“How is your trial going?” she asks. “I’m afraid I don’t follow the news much anymore.”

“It’s difficult,” I understate. “But now we get to put on our case.”

“Good luck,” she says. “ If your client is innocent, that is.”

“Thank you.”

“What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” she asks, with unconcealed wariness in her voice. If she weren’t so polite, she would be cringing openly.

“Something you mentioned to me last time we talked,” I say. “You said that Alex was stressed about work, especially in the last couple of months. You said he wasn’t sleeping well, and that the quality of your lives depended on things like the price of oil and gold.”

She nods, the memory all too fresh. “Yes.”

“I know it can’t be pleasant to think back on this, but I’d appreciate it if you’d try. Can you recall any specific things that upset him, or anything he mentioned to you about it?”

“No, it was always general; he didn’t like to talk about work. He said he didn’t want to bring it home with him, but of course it was with him all the time.”

“Might there have been any conversations you overheard? Anything that related to why he was stressed?”

“I need to ask you a question,” she says.

“Of course.”

“Why do you want to know all this? Alex was a bystander that day; he wasn’t the target. How could it possibly benefit your case to know why he was stressed?”

Moment-of-truth time. I should gloss over this, not tell her what I’m getting at. It’s a shot in the dark, and there’s no reason she has to enter the tunnel with me.

On the other hand, if I were her I would want to know and judge it for myself. “He may not have been a bystander,” I say. “I’m not saying that for sure; I’m not even saying it’s probable. But there’s a chance.”

She nods, but doesn’t say anything for at least one full minute. Finally, “There is one thing that might help you.”

“What is that?”

“We were watching the news one night; it must have been the ten o’clock news, because we were in bed. I think I was reading, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the television.”

“Okay…”

“Something Alex saw upset him; I could feel him tense up. He immediately grabbed the phone and made a call.”

“Do you know who he called?”

She nods. “I heard him say Stanley, so it must have been Stanley Freeman. Alex walked out of the room as he was making the call, but I heard him say, ‘Stanley, did you hear what happened?’”

“And you didn’t hear any more of the conversation?”

“No. But he was on the phone for a long time… maybe fifteen minutes. For him to call Mr. Freeman at that hour, I knew it was something very important. But when Alex came back, he tried to shrug it off, as if it were nothing.”

“Do you know what Alex saw on television that upset him?”

“No. But…”

She gets up and goes to the desk, opening the drawer and looking through some envelopes and papers. She seems to find what she’s looking for, and takes a few moments to read it.

“I can tell you it was on Friday, March fourteenth.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, because the next day was my niece’s second birthday, and we were supposed to go to her party. But Alex told me in the morning that he couldn’t go, that he had something he had to take care of at work. I knew it had to concern whatever he spoke to Mr. Freeman about, but I didn’t ask him.”

“Do you know what channel you were watching?” I ask.

“Definitely Channel Five. That’s the only local news we watch.”

I stand. “Thank you, this could turn out to be very helpful. If you think of anything else, please call me at any time.”

“I will. And Mr. Carpenter, if you learn anything about Alex’s… about Alex’s death… that is different from what I’ve been told, I want to know about it immediately. Please.”

“You have my word.”

I call Hike on the way home, and relate my conversation with Kathy Bryant to him. I ask him to immediately get on to the task of getting a copy of that night’s news broadcast. “If they give you any problem, ask the court to subpoena it. Judge Catchings will approve it in a second.”

“I’m on it,” he says. “And I’ll get the other stations as well; if she was reading, she could be wrong about the station.”

“Good idea. Thanks.”

Hike just volunteered to do extra work. Can Edna be far behind?