“When they got her to the hospital and started to go through the things she had on her,” he said, “she didn’t have a wallet, she didn’t have money, she didn’t have identification, she didn’t have anything. But she did have fifteen of those.”
2
They wanted to get him out of the building without being seen by reporters, although Gregor didn’t see why that should be an issue. No one knew he was there, and no one knew the police commissioner and the senator cared one way or the other about the woman in the garbage bag.
“You’re something of a public figure,” John Jackman said by way of explanation.
It wasn’t much of an explanation, but Gregor let it ride and installed himself in the reception room to make some phone calls. He hadn’t asked about the elephant in the middle of the room, and for the moment he didn’t want to. At some point, though, he was going to have to know what was going on with the mayor. It was the mayor he would have expected to find at this meeting, whether Michael Washington was there or not. Instead, the mayor was nowhere to be seen, and anytime anyone mentioned him they made little coughing noises, as if they were strangling.
Gregor called Bennis first.
“I’m filling out forms,” she said, when she picked up. “There are a lot of forms.”
“Is Ed still there?”
“No, he left almost as soon as he got here. He showed me where the little Xs were that mean we’re supposed to sign, and where the little check marks were that mean we’re supposed to initial. I’m leaving all the signing and initialing until you get here. We both have to do those.”
“Where’s Javier?”
“Sitting here with Pickles and a coloring book and a plate of those Armenian almond cookies Lida makes that I like. Lida and Hannah were here. I told you they were coming. They dropped off boxes. I put the chocolate chip up in a cabinet where Javier can’t get to it.”
“Javier isn’t supposed to have chocolate chip cookies?”
“Javier can have them all he wants, but chocolate is a poison for dogs. And Javier feeds Pickles everything. I think Pickles got more breakfast than I did. She certainly got more bacon.”
“Ah,” Gregor said. “Listen, do you want me to bring something home? I don’t know what we’re doing about dinner, unless you mean to get the Ararat to send something in again. Or you want to go out. And I don’t know when I’m going to get back to you.”
“We’ll be fine. I’ll think of something. We do have food in this house.”
“I know. Don’t mind me.”
“Is it at least something interesting, what you’re doing?”
“It’s about that woman Tibor and Tommy found yesterday.”
“Really.”
“I’d better tell you about this when I get home,” Gregor said. “Let me get off and see if I can find out what’s going on. Or not.”
“I have cold cuts for lunch.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Gregor closed down. The building around him was very quiet. The rooms that comprised John’s offices were even quieter. He opened the contacts list on his phone and scrolled through it. When he found what he was looking for, he considered for one last time and then punched it in.
Drew Tackerby picked up himself. Gregor had called his private cell phone, not anything connected to Drew’s office.
“It’s Gregor Demarkian,” Gregor said.
“Gregor Demarkian on my private line,” Drew said. “Why do I think I’m going to regret this?”
Drew had a desk job now. It had taken him five years longer than it had Gregor to get out of the field, but Drew had not been as determined as Gregor to get out. Greg couldn’t remember what Drew’s title was these days.
“I’ll admit,” Gregor said. “I was a little afraid you’d retired.”
“End of the year. What is it you want me to do?”
“Get me some information. I don’t think it’s top secret, classified information.”
“Information about what?”
“I want to know if the Bureau is investigating my congressman.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know,” Gregor said. “As far as I can tell at the moment, nobody here seems to know. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In my day, the Bureau didn’t open investigations into United States congressmen willy-nilly.”
“In J. Edgar’s day,” Drew started.
“I know,” Gregor said. “But we’re past all that, and there’s something about this that just feels all wrong. Whatever it is that’s going on has to do with a local guy, a real estate developer, named Cary Alder.”
“Bingo,” Drew said. “You just said the magic words.”
“Cary Alder?”
“He’s not as local as you think,” Drew said. “He operates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida. Which means what he does crosses state lines, so the Bureau can investigate him.”
“So you’re investigating him. For what?”
“You want a list? Bank fraud, including international bank fraud. That’s a good one. Bribery. The guy’s absolutely bribing a couple of mayors. Unfortunately, he’s more intelligent at it than a lot of people are. We aren’t going to get lucky and find a freezer full of money in anybody’s basement.”
“So you’re going to arrest him?”
“Not right away,” Drew said. “Here’s the thing. Bank fraud and bribery? All these guys do it to one extent or another. We follow what they’re doing until we hit something we can really nail them for, which is harder than you’d think. In Cary Alder’s case, something else looks like it’s going on, but it’s not clear what. And the problem with that is that the whatever it is might not even be illegal. People hide parts of their lives for lots of different reasons, not all of them connected with the criminal justice system.”
“That’s what they’re saying up here,” Gregor said. “This is the part that sounds all wrong to me.”
“I can put you in touch with the guy who’s in charge of that investigation,” Drew said. “He won’t mind talking to you. Especially if you’re investigating Alder yourself for some reason. Are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You sound just as coherent as the rest of us,” Drew said. “But let me have Judson Tallirico call you. He might not be able to get back to you until this evening, but it’s like I said. He’ll be glad to talk to you. And I’ll run in to him around here sometime today.”
“I take it Virginia hasn’t had the ice storm to end all ice storms.”
“Nothing close.”
“All right,” Gregor said. “Have him call me at this number around nine o’clock tonight, if that’s possible. I ought to be completely free and clear by then.”
Gregor hung up. John’s offices were still quiet. The building around them was still quiet.
Everything was quiet, except that somebody had dumped a woman in a garbage bag on an iced-over city street.