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“Anything?” Lucas asked.
“No. Just the obvious ones of Mack and Nick in that first club.”
“All right. Let’s go into my office.”
We settled in there. The ritual coffee was delivered, and then I told Lucas Reeves what I had learned in Martha’s Vineyard. He listened, his expression becoming increasingly grave. “So it now seems that Mack had a very good reason for disappearing. A woman he did not love was bearing his child. He did not want to marry her. He did not want to go to law school. So rather than risk the certain disappointment your parents, especially your father, would have felt, he ran away. The root cause of a vast majority of crimes is one of two factors, love or money. In Mack’s case, the primary motive for his disappearance would be his lack of love for Barbara.”
Reeves leaned back in his chair. “People have run away for less. If-and I repeat, if-Mack was involved in the death of that first young woman, that also might explain the theft of the tapes from his former teacher. When she was interviewed, she could give no explanation for his disappearance, except to say that he would have made an exceptionally fine actor. But perhaps he confided too much to her, and felt he had to retrieve his tapes somehow. I have studied the records. Her death was caused not so much by the blow to her head that rendered her unconscious, but by the fall itself onto the sidewalk. That was what caused the bleeding in the brain that took her life.”
He stood up and walked to the window. “Carolyn, there are questions here that we have not yet answered. Even if your brother is part of it, I don’t think he is all of it.” He paused, then added: “When I called Captain Ahearn, he did not divulge the full contents of the message Leesey left, but he did say she spoke about Mack.”
“Detective Barrott told me what she said.” My throat closed as I quoted Leesey’s agonizing words, and then I repeated what I had shouted at Barrott.
“And you are correct. She may have been forced to use his name.”
“I keep coming back to the fact that Bruce Galbraith hates Mack,” I said. “Think how much he must have hated him when Mack was involved with Barbara. Suppose Mack did just take off.” I started to speculate. “Suppose Bruce is still afraid he’ll show up someday, and Barbara will go ru
“I wonder how thoroughly Mr. Galbraith was investigated ten years ago,” Reeves said. “I’ll look into it.”
I got up. “I won’t keep you any longer, Lucas,” I said. “But I’m glad to have you in my corner.” I corrected myself, “In Mack’s corner, too.”
“Yes, I am.” He walked with me through the reception area to the door. “Carolyn, if I may be personal, you are living under a strain that would break the most hardy of men. Is there a place you could get away to, to be by yourself, or with a close friend?” He looked at me with concern.
“I’m thinking about it,” I said. “But first I’m going to visit my mother, whether she wants to see me or not. As you know, she’s in that private sanitarium in Co
“I do know.” At the door, Reeves took my hand again. “Carolyn, the entire detective squad from the District Attorney’s office will be in and out all afternoon. Maybe one of them will spot a face in that sea of faces that will open a door for us.”
I walked home. This time I did not try to sneak into the apartment building. The doors of media vans that had been keeping vigil sprang open, and reporters came rushing up to me as I approached our building.
“Carolyn…what do you think?”
“Ms. MacKenzie, would you broadcast an appeal to your brother to turn himself in?”
I turned to face the microphones. “I will broadcast an appeal to one and all to presume my brother i
I hurried inside, not giving them a chance to respond. I went up to the apartment and began to return the phone calls I had been ignoring. The first was to Nick. His relief at hearing my voice seemed so spontaneous that I tucked it away in a corner of my mind as something to think about later.
“Carolyn, don’t do this to me. I’ve been a wreck. I even called Captain Ahearn to see if they were holding you there. He said they hadn’t heard from you.”
“They hadn’t heard from me, but they knew where I was,” I said. “Evidently I was being followed.”
I told Nick that I had seen Barbara in Martha’s Vineyard, but it had been a useless trip. I selected carefully the information I would give him. “I agree with you. She probably married Bruce to get a ticket to medical school, but she seems to be keeping her share of the bargain.” I also couldn’t resist having a chance to slam her. “She let me know what a devoted and loving pediatric surgeon she is, that sometimes when she walks through the pediatric nursery, she goes over to a crying baby and picks it up to comfort it.”
“That would be Barbara,” Nick agreed. “Carolyn, how are you holding up?”
“Just barely.” I could hear the exhaustion in my voice.
“Me, too. The cops have been raking me and Be
“The one that makes you feel like Roy Rogers?” I smiled.
“Exactly. The agent tells me the buyer is pla
“Where will you go?”
“To the loft. I’m looking forward to it, if there’s anything I look forward to at this minute. We caught a nineteen-year-old with a phony driver’s license in the club last night. If we’d served her, we could have been shut down. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was planted by the cops to put more pressure on me.”
“Nothing would surprise me at this point,” I said, meaning it.
“Di
“No, I don’t think so. I’m going to drive up and try to visit Mom. I need to see for myself how she’s doing.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No, I have to go alone.”
“Carolyn, let me ask you something. Years ago, Mack told me that you had a crush on me and that I should be careful not to encourage it by playing up to you.” He paused, clearly trying to keep his tone playful. “Is there any way I could revive that crush, or now is it going to stay one-sided on my part?”
I know there was a smile in my voice. “It was mean of him to tell you.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Nick’s voice became serious again. “All right, Carolyn. I’ll let you go. But hang on to the thought that we’re going to make it through this mess.”
I started to cry. I didn’t want him to hear, and clicked off, but then immediately wondered if Nick hadn’t been starting to say, “together,” or did I only imagine hearing that word because I wanted so desperately for it to turn out that way?
Then it occurred to me for the first time that it was possible my cell phone and the telephone line in the apartment were being tapped. Of course they must be, I thought. Barrott has been sure I’m in touch with Mack. They wouldn’t take a chance on not knowing if he called.
Reflecting on my conversation with Nick, I wondered if their ears were burning at his suggestion that they might deliberately try to entrap him with an underaged drinker in the Woodshed.