Silent Treatment

Chapter29

The mood in Harry's apartment wasdecidedly upbeat. Walter Concepcion and Maura arrived within a few minutes ofeach other, both with good news.

Harry needed it. After the hearing, as hewas getting out of Mel Wetstone's Mercedes in front of his office, he hadexperienced another bout of chest pain — more sharp than dull or squeezing,moving from deep in his back through to the middle of his breastbone. The wholeepisode didn't last long — maybe three or four minutes, and it wasn't all thatsevere. But it was the worst pain he had had in a while. By the time he hadgiven Mary Tobin a quick kiss of gratitude and hurried to the medicationcabinet to try a nitroglycerine pill, the pain was subsiding. If it was angina,he told himself again, it certainly wasn't a text-book case.

Still, Maura was going to keep her part oftheir bargain by going to an AA meeting with Concepcion. The least he could dowas schedule a stress test. He went back to his desk, dialed the office numberof a cardiologist friend, and actually let the phone ring once before he hungup. He would keep the nitroglycerine in his pocket, he decided, and take it atthe first sign of chest pain. If it worked, if the pain subsided, there was a fairlystrong likelihood that the problem was his heart. Then he would call thecardiologist. Meanwhile, he told himself, the stress test could wait.

Harry gave Maura and Concepcion a vividaccount of the hearing at the hospital — especially the near catastrophicspeech by Caspar Sidonis, and the remarkable performances by Mel Wetstone andMary Tobin.

'This Sidonis,' Concepcion said when hehad finished, 'does he know about your wife — I mean, the research she wasdoing?'

'I don't think so. I haven't shared what Iknow about her other life with anyone except the police. Telling Sidonis seemedto serve no purpose. I doubt he would believe it anyway.'

'He sounds like he could be a dangerousenemy. I would recommend you to stay as far away from him as possible. Will hefollow through on his threat to quit?'

'I doubt it, but you never know. He makesit sound like he could just walk out of MMC and hang up his shingle at anotherhospital. But he has a huge research lab, and when you're in themillion-plus-a-year category, which I'm sure he is, things are seldom thatsimple. There's no hospital in the city without a chief of cardiac surgery. AndI doubt any of them would be too pleased to have ol' Caspar decide to horn inon their territory.'

Maura next told of how Lonnie Sims hadhelped her produce a series of photo-quality pictures of the man she had seen.There was the original, and three other front-and-side views — one with glassesand a beard, one with a mustache and blond hair, another with blue eyes andlong dark hair. Sims had reduced them all in size and placed them on a singlelegal-size sheet along with an empty box for the addition of other information.He then printed out ten copies for her.

'Should have done one as a woman,'Concepcion said studying the images.

'What?'

'Nothing. Just babbling. This guy seemslike he can almost walk through walls in hospitals, so I was wondering whathe'd look like as a nurse.'

'Actually, Lonnie tried out a number offeminine wigs and makeup of various kinds. That opened up dozens ofcombinations and possibilities. The pictures would have been awfully small ifwe had tried to print too many. Plus, we felt it might be too confusingfor anyone looking at a set of fifteen or twenty composites to focus in on oneof them.'

'Good point,' Concepcion said. 'We'll geta batch of color Xeroxes and put them up on every floor in the hospital. Maybein other hospitals, too.'

'We can't,' Harry said.

He reviewed his clash with Owen Erdman andhis agreement that Erdman alone would supervise distribution of the drawings,and then only privately to department heads.

'It won't work,' Concepcion said, moreagitated than Harry had ever seen him.

'What do you mean?'

'There's not much chance that someone'sjust going to look at these posters and say, "Ah ha! That's our man rightover there." It happens that way sometimes, but not often. What we'rereally trying to do is annoy The Doctor, upset him to the point where he doessomething careless — jab and run, jab and run until he doesn't care aboutanything except getting even with you.'

'You talk as if you know him,' Harry said.

The tic at the corner of Concepcion'smouth fired off several times.

'I don't know him specifically,Harry,' he said. 'But I know psychos. Our tripping up that man is not nearly aslikely as his stumbling over his own ego. But our best chance of having thathappen is to find a way to rile him up.

'I'm sorry, but I can't do it, Walter. Igave the hospital president my word. My position's shaky enough around thatplace without pushing my luck with him. He's famous for his temper. In a weekor so, we can try approaching him again. But not now.'

'Whatever you say, Doc.'

Concepcion studied one of the posters fora few seconds.

'Maura, this is really quite amazing,' hesaid, slipping it into a battered leather portfolio.

She looked at him curiously.

'How do you know?'

'Hey, I may be a little rough around theedges,' he responded cheerily, 'but I know good artwork when I see it.'

'Thanks,' she said, shrugging off hermomentary concern. 'We'll know just how amazing a likeness that is when we seethe guy looking out at us from behind a set of bars.'

If he lives that long. For a moment, Concepcion wasafraid he had said the words out loud.

It seemed to Maura as if a shadow hadpassed over Concepcion's face — as if he had quite suddenly drifted off to somefaraway place. He took a long drink of the lemonade Harry had made for them.When he set his glass down, the shadow was gone. His grin was broad andengaging.

'So, then, mis amigos,' he said,'it's my turn to tell you about Elegance, The Escort Service for DiscerningGentlemen. The woman who runs it is Page. She wouldn't tell me any more thanthat. I met her at this dark bar on the East Side that has no windows. Not one.It turns out that my suspicions were right. Desiree did a kind of freelancework for Elegance on and off for four or five months. Um. . I'm sorry to saythis, Harry, but apparently she was very much in demand.'

'Swell.'

'Hey, are you going to be okay with this?'

Harry shrugged. 'Go ahead.'

'Okay. Anyhow, this Page is very angrybecause some wealthy, powerful people pulled out of a contract with her whenthey found out Desiree was a reporter. What happened was Desiree triedinterviewing some of the other girls and one of them ratted on her. Pagethought that by firing Desiree she'd get rewarded. Instead, she and Elegancegot canceled. She ended up losing a hell of a lot of money. She seemed angryenough to talk about the men involved, but she also seemed really frightened ofthem. Apparently two of them paid her a visit and gave her the third degreeabout Desiree. I couldn't get her to tell me anything about them at first. So Ikept sweetening the pot until she did. . Harry, I'm … ah. . I'm afraidthe fifteen hundred's gone.'

'All of it?'

'It was kind of a do-or-die situation.She'd had a few drinks, and was just on the edge. I figured that if I didn'tnudge her over with a good offer, I might lose her for good.'

'Well, five hundred of that's yours,'Harry said.

'Harry!' Maura exclaimed.

'Sorry, sorry. Go on, Walter. I trust you.Really I do.'

'She didn't know any of the men's namesexcept someone named Lance. I guess that's his last name. He paid her in cashand let her know if a girl was unsatisfactory for whatever reason. The girls,seven of her very best, went to the Camelot Hotel twice a month and stayed thenight. She didn't know for certain what the men were doing there, but fromthings her girls told her from time to time, she thought some of them might havebeen in the insurance business.'

'Insurance?'

'That's all she said. It isn't that much,but it certainly got my attention. I was thinking I could approach some of thechambermaids at the Camelot. Chambermaids in hotels know everything, and inthis city half of them are Latino. Maybe I can learn who some of the guys are,and we can go from there.'

They meet every two weeks atthe Camelot Hotel. .

'I don't think that's going to benecessary,' Harry said, remembering one of the few lines of Desiree's writinghe had gotten the chance to read. 'I think Evie might have already named acouple of them for us.'

He had copied the two names he found inEvie's address book and kept the copy in his wallet. The original was wedgedinto the toe of an old pair of sneakers in the hall closet. Now, he smoothedthe names on the table, called information, and then dialed the New York PublicLibrary. He was looking for a reference-room librarian named Stephanie Barnes.Barnes had been one of his first medical assistants, and one of the few wholeft the office to go back to school rather than to have babies or to make moremoney than he could afford to pay. Harry had given her a nice bonus to helpwith her first year. Now, happily married, with a master's degree in library science,she had both the babies and more money than he could afford to pay.

Over the years of their continuingfriendship, she had taught Harry something that he had already long suspected — that a resourceful, imaginative reference-room librarian could find out almostanything.

'Stephanie, I have two names along withaddresses and even Social Security numbers,' he said, after accepting hercondolences about Evie and assuring her that he had nothing to do with herdeath. 'I think both men might be involved with the insurance business in someway. I want any information you can dig up on either of them, especially wherethey work and what they do. Tomorrow would be okay if you're too busy, but Iwas actually thinking more in the line of the next hour or so.'

Stephanie told him not to expect anything,but it was just thirty minutes later when she called back.

'Bingo!' Harry said after he took down theinformation. 'Walter, you've done it again. James Stallings, vice president ofInterstate Health Care. Kevin Loomis, first vice president of Crown Health andCasualty. They both seem to be stars on the rise, too. Loomis had two years ata community college in New Jersey, and was just a sales agent until a couple ofyears ago. Now he's big stuff. I'm not sure what he's doing living at Queenswith what he must be making. Stallings is private school all the way — St.Stephen's, Dartmouth, and Wharton business school. He's won a ton of awards forperformance in the company and the industry.'

'Do you want me to look up the companyphone numbers?' Maura asked.

Harry tapped his pages of notes.

'You obviously haven't had any experiencewith people like my friend Stephanie. Office and home phone numbers for both.'

'Which one are you going to try first?'

Harry looked over at Concepcion.

'Why, the award-winning executive, ofcourse,' Walter said. 'Is it worth talking through how you're going to approachhim?'

'I think I might be better improvising,'Harry said. He dialed the number for the Manhattan office of Interstate HealthCare and asked for James Stallings. In a few moments, Stallings's secretarycame on the line.

'Mr. Stallings's office.'

'Hi,' Harry said. 'I'm trying to reach JimStallings. My name's Collins, Harrison Collins. I was a classmate of Jim's atDartmouth. I'm with the selection committee for next year's graduation. Jim'sname has been submitted for a distinguished alumnus award, and I need to goover some details with him.'

Harry got two thumbs up from his smallaudience. There was an unnaturally long pause before his secretary responded.

'I'm sorry, Mr. Collins,' she said. 'Mr.Stallings isn't able to take your call.'

'Well, when should I call back?'

Again, there was an uncomfortable longpause.

'What was this about again?'

'An award. Dartmouth is giving Mr. Stallingsan award.'

'Mr. Collins, I'm afraid Mr. Stallings isill. Quite ill. He. . he's in the intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital.'

'Oh that's terrible. Will he, I mean, ishe going to be all right?'

'I can't tell you any more than thatwithout permission. I'm sorry.'

Harry reviewed the conversation for Mauraand Concepcion, and then used his title and knowledge of hospital procedure toget through to a nurse in the Memorial Hospital ICU. His conversation with thewoman lasted only a minute. He slowly set the receiver down.

'Stallings had a cardiac arrest on the subway this afternoon,' he said. 'He's on a ventilator, essentiallybrain-dead. She couldn't tell me any more than that.'

'How old was he?' Maura asked.

Harry glanced at his notes.

'Forty-two.'

'Not exactly cardiac arrest age,'Concepcion said.

'What do you think?'

'I don't like it. I don't like it at all.I think you should call that other one. What's his name?'

Harry was already dialing Crown Health andCasualty.

'Loomis,' he said. 'Kevin Loomis.'

Harry modified the tale he told toLoomis's secretary. Harrison Collins was with the Executive of the Yearcommittee of the American Insurance Association. Loomis was to be one ofthree nominees for this year's award. Harry knew the lie sounded good even ashe said it. In a few seconds, Loomis was on the line.

'What can I do for you, Mr. Collins?' hesaid.

'Are you the only one on this line?' Harryasked.

'What?'

'Can you talk safely?'

'Of course I can. What's this all about?'

'Mr. Loomis, my name isn't Collins, it'sCorbett. Dr. Harry Corbett. Do you know who I am?'

'I read the papers.'

'This is about my wife, Mr. Loomis. Mylate wife Evelyn.'

'Why are you calling me?'

'Mr. Loomis, in trying to clear myself ofcharges that I murdered my wife, I've been investigating her life. I've learnedthat she worked for the Elegance escort service. I know she saw you and JamesStallings as clients at the Camelot Hotel.'

'That's nonsense. I've never been to theCamelot Hotel, I don't know your wife, and I don't know anyone named Stallings.Now, I'm very busy and-'

'Your name, address, and Social Securitynumber were on the note in my wife's possession when she died. So wereStallings's. It seemed to me she must have got them from your driver's licenses.Now, you can talk to me or talk to the police.'

'Dr. Corbett, I don't like peoplethreatening me. I don't know you and I don't know your wife. I'm going to hangup now. Don't call me again.'

'Mr. Loomis, I just hung up from talkingwith a nurse in the Memorial Hospital ICU. James Stallings had some sort ofcardiac arrest today. He's unconscious and on a respirator, but he's nevergoing to wake up again. He's brain-dead. Irreversibly brain-dead.'

The prolonged silence was a positiveresponse.

'I don't know Stallings, and I havenothing more to say to you.'

'My number is 870-3400 in Manhattan. Callme anytime, but make it soon. I have a feeling we need to talk.'

Kevin Loomis hung up without responding.

'He's going to check on what I told himabout Stallings,' Harry told the others. 'After that I think I'll be hearingfrom him.'

'One way or the other,' Maura respondedwarily. 'For all we know, he may have been the one who hired Evie's killer.'