Gone Tomorrow

EIGHT

Theresa Lee came back twenty minutes later with the beginnings of an official file and another guy. She put the file on the table and introduced the other guy as her partner. She said his name was Docherty. She said he had come up with a bunch of questions that maybe should have been asked and answered at the outset.

‘What questions?’ I asked.

First she offered me coffee and the bathroom. I said yes to both. Docherty escorted me down the corridor and when we got back there were three foam cups on the table, next to the file. Two coffees, one tea. I took a coffee and tried it. It was OK. Lee took the tea. Docherty took the second coffee and said, ‘Run through it all again.’

So I did, concisely, bare bones, and Docherty fussed a bit about how the Israeli list had produced a false positive, the same way that Lee had. 1 answered him the same way I had answered her, that a false positive was better than a false negative, and that looking at it from the dead woman’s point of view, whether she was heading for a solo exit or planning to take a crowd with her might not alter the personal symptoms she would be displaying. For five minutes we had a collegiate atmosphere going, three reasonable people discussing an interesting phenomenon.

Then the tone changed.

Docherty asked, ‘How did you feel?’

I asked, ‘About what?’

‘While she was killing herself.’

‘Glad that she wasn’t killing me.’

Docherty said, ‘We’re homicide detectives. We have to look at all violent deaths. You understand that, right? Just in case.’

I said, ‘Just in case of what?’

‘Just in case there’s more than meets the eye.’

‘There isn’t. She shot herself.’

‘Says you.’

‘No one can say different. Because that’s what happened.’

Docherty said, ‘There are always alternative scenarios.’

‘You think?’

‘Maybe you shot her.’

Theresa Lee gave me a sympathetic look. I said, ‘I didn’t.’

Docherty said, ‘Maybe it was your gun.’

I said, ‘It wasn’t. It was a two-pound piece. I don’t have a bag.’

‘You’re a big guy. Big pants. Big pockets.’

Theresa Lee gave me another sympathetic look. Like she was saying, I’m sorry.

I said, ‘What is this? Good cop, dumb cop?’

Docherty said, ‘You think I’m dumb?’

‘You just proved it. If I shot her with a .357 Magnum, I’d have residue on me up to my elbow. But you just stood outside the men’s room while I washed my hands. You’re full of shit. You haven’t fingerprinted me and you haven’t Mirandized me. You’re blowing smoke.’

‘We’re obliged to make certain.’

‘What does the medical examiner say?’

‘We don’t know yet.’

‘There were witnesses.’

Lee shook her head. ‘No use. They didn’t see anything.’

‘They must have.’

‘Their view was blocked by your back. Plus they weren’t looking, plus they were half asleep, and plus they don’t speak much English. They had nothing to offer. Basically I think they wanted to get going before we started checking green cards.’

‘What about the other guy? He was in front of me. He was wide awake. And he looked like a citizen and an English speaker.’

‘What other guy?’

‘The fifth passenger. Chinos and a golf shirt.’

Lee opened the file. Shook her head. ‘There were only four passengers, plus the woman.’