Roses Are Red

My very last interview turned out to be the most intriguing. It was with a woman named Hildie Rader. I was bored and distracted, but her opening line perked me right up.

"I think I met one of the kidnappers. He was here in downtown Hartford. I was as close to him as I am to you right now," she said.

Chapter Seventy-Five

I tried not to show too much surprise. "Why didn't you tell anybody before?" I asked her.

"I called into the hotline Metro Hartford set up. I talked to a couple of ding-a-lings. This is the first anyone got back to me!

"You have my full attention, Hildie," I told her.

She was a large woman with a pretty, homely smile. She was forty-two years old and had worked as an executive secretary. She was no longer with Metro Hartford which might have been why no one had interviewed her earlier. She had been fired twice by the insurance company. The first time she was let go was during one of the company's periodic and fairly regular belt-tightenings. Two years later Hildie was rehired, but she was then let go three months ago because of what she described as 'bad chemistry' with her boss, the CFO of Metro Hartford Louis Fincher. Fincher's wife had been one of the tour-bus hostages.

"Tell me about the man you met in Hartford, the one you believe might have been involved with the hostage-taking," I asked after I'd let her talk.

"Is there any money in this for me?" she asked, eyeballing me suspiciously," I'm presently unemployed, you know."

"The company is offering a reward for information that leads to a conviction."

She shook her head and laughed. "Hah! That sounds like a long, drawn-out affair. Besides, I should trust the word of Metro?"

I couldn't deny what she'd said. I waited for her to collect her thoughts. I sensed that she was thinking about just how much she wanted to tell me.

"I met him in Tom Qui

IRC;

liked him okay. He was a little too charming, though, which set off my warning alarms. The charming ones are usually trouble. Married man? Fruitcake?

"Anyway, we talked for a while, and he seemed to enjoy himself, but nothing came of it, if you know what I mean. He left Qui

"You weren't afraid of the man?" I asked.

"Not while I was in Tom Qui

I nodded as I finished making a few notes. "You never saw him again, never heard from him?"

Hildie Rader shook her head and her eyes narrowed. "I did hear about him, though. I have stayed good friends with Liz Becton. She's one of the assistants to Mr. Dooner, the chairman. He calls the shots at Metro Hartford

I had seen Dooner in action and I agreed with Hildie. He was the boss of bosses at Metro Hartford

"This is interesting," she said to me. "Liz had met a fella who looked just like my guy from Qui

Chapter Seventy-Si

During the course of a long day, I had learned that nearly seventy thousand people in the Hartford area were employed in the insurance industry. Besides Metro Hartford Aetna, Travelers, Mass Mutual Phoenix Home Life and United Health Care were all headquartered there. On account of this, we had more help than we needed, and more suspects. The Mastermind might have been associated with any one of the insurance companies at some time in the past.

After I finished for the day at the insurance company, I got together to share notes with the others at a nearby Marriott. The breakthrough for day one was Hildie Rader's story that one of the crew members had probably been in Hartford a week before the hostages were taken.

Tomorrow morning we interview both women, Rader and Becton. Get a composite drawing made from their description. As soon as we have that, we'll show it around corporate headquarters. Also, have the composites we made in DC sent up here. See if there's a match, "Betsey said. She smiled then. "Things are heating up. Maybe they aren't so smart, after all."

Around eight-thirty I left the suite to call Ja

"Everything is just fine here, Alex. Home fires are burning nicely without you. You missed a delicious pot roast supper. Soon as I knew you were going to be away, I made your favorite dish."

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe it. "Did you really make pot roast?" I asked Nana.

She cackled for a good half-minute. "Of course not. We had prime ribs of beef, though." Nana cackled even louder. Prime ribs were probably my second favorite dish and I was still hungry after the hotel deli food, pastrami and processed cheese on stale rye.

Nana laughed again. "We had turkey sandwiches. But we did finish up with hot, homemade pecan pie. A la mode. Ja

"Nana's wi

"Why shouldn't I be all right?" I asked her. I was feeling much better, actually. Nana had made me laugh," How are you doing?"

Ja

I was feeling pretty fried, but I trudged back to finish the work session with the FBI agents. Don't get hurt, I was thinking as I walked the long hotel corridor. Ja