Jonathan Kellerman - The Murderer's Daughter

Chan sat on a bench that faced the Bay, head down, engrossed in a book. Grace made sure to approach in a way that wouldn’t startle her, pacing a wide conspicuous arc that would give Chan plenty of time to take Grace in.

Despite that, Chan didn’t glance up until Grace was ten yards away. Her face was unreadable.

Grace gave a friendly little wave and Chan waved back and put down her book. Hardcover novel called The Genius. Something Chan could relate to?

Chan slipped the volume into her purse and stood. Her tote was a macramé thing even larger than Grace’s. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if she was also packing?

“Hi, I’m Sarah. Thanks so much for meeting with me.”

“Amy.” The two of them shook hands. Chan’s grip was gentle and soft. Five six or so, she was slim and leggy, long hair drawn back in a ponytail. No makeup, no perfume. Patting the bench, she waited for Grace to settle then positioned herself to Grace’s right.

The spot she’d chosen offered both of them a glorious view of the Bay. It also made avoiding eye contact easy as both of them stared straight ahead.

Amy Chan said, “You’re in education, Sarah?”

“Used to teach, now I consult to private schools — anxious kids and highly anxious parents.”

“Know what you mean,” said Chan. Grace’s sidelong glance caught a split-second wince on Chan’s face. Hints of a childhood not devoid of pressure? Grace resisted the temptation to continue interpreting; Amy Chan’s issues were no concern of hers unless they involved Andrew Van Cortlandt.

Figuring a physical scientist wouldn’t appreciate dilly-dallying, Grace got right to it. “As I mentioned over the phone, I’m concerned about Andrew.”

Amy Chan didn’t respond. Her hands rested on her knees but her fingers curled upward, as if repelled by the touch of her own trousers. “You found my name on some of Andrew’s articles?”

“I did. In fact, I couldn’t find anyone else Andrew published with.”

“For you to seek me out, Andrew must be important to you.”

“I admire him.”

“Understandable,” said Amy Chan. She turned sharply. “Please be frank: Do you suspect he’s in danger? Or worse?”

“I don’t know,” Grace lied. “But there’s a good chance of it. As I said, he’s been looking extremely tense — I’d even say frightened and for the past few weeks I haven’t been able to reach him. I had to travel up here, anyway, so when your name came up...”

“Andrew and I haven’t been in touch for a while,” said Chan. “We were just friends. In grad school.” She blinked four times. One of her hands had balled into a fist. “Any hint what’s been on his mind?”

Grace exhaled. “I tried to find out but that seemed to bother him. He did drop one thing: It related to his family. Which I don’t know much about, until that point I’d thought he didn’t have much in the way of family, being adopted, no sibs.”

“His family,” said Chan. “That’s it?”

“He wouldn’t go into details, Dr. Chan. The truth is, though I like Andrew a lot, I realize now that I never knew much about him. He was kind of, I don’t know — secretive?”

“Reticent,” said Chan.

“Yes, exactly.”

“How long have you known him, Sarah?”

“A year or so. You go back longer so I thought you might know more.”

“Actually, I haven’t talked to Andrew in a couple of years,” said Chan. “Slightly longer — maybe two and a half years when he was in San Francisco on business and phoned me and we had dinner.”

Chan craned and looked straight at Grace. “Were you and Andrew an...” She smiled. “The only phrase that comes to mind is ‘an item.’ As stilted as that sounds. And if that’s being too nosy, forgive me.”

Grace smiled back. “No, we weren’t, Dr. Cha—”

“Amy’s fine.”

“We weren’t an item, Amy. Just friends, as well. Just like you.”

Chan said, “Interesting, no?”

“What is?” said Grace.

“Two women who admired him but no romance. Are we sensing a pattern here?”

Grace pretended to ponder. “I guess so.”

“Did you ever wonder about Andrew?”

“About what in particular?”

“His sexuality in particular, Sarah.”

“You thought he might be gay?” Think again, girl.

“At some point that’s exactly what I wondered,” said Amy Chan. “Because I’d never known him to have a romantic relationship with a woman... I’m not saying he never did, just that I never saw it.” A beat. “He certainly didn’t come on to me. Which, I must confess, was a bit of a self-esteem assault, initially. Not that I’d fixed on him as a mate, I’ve had boyfriends and currently I’m engaged.”

“Congratulations.”

“Yes, I’m quite happy... anyway, Andrew was intelligent, considerate, attentive, and courteous. Just about the perfect man, no? We spent lots of time together in the lab as well as working on our publications. But there wasn’t an ounce of chemistry and not once did he try to take it further.”

“I understand totally,” said Grace. “I guess I’ve had the same experience with him.”

“Where’d you meet him, Sarah?”

Grace thought: Keep your lies close to the truth. Less stretch means having to remember less.

She said, “I hate to admit it, but in a bar. Not a dive, a nice place, the lounge of a hotel in L.A., both of us were traveling on business. I thought he was attractive right from the get-go and he was easy to talk to. We ended up having dinner but that’s where it ended, it was as if he needed to rush away. A couple of days later we ran into each other again and did some touring. He told me he grew up in L.A. It was nice having someone who knew the city show me around.”

Faint pink spots dotted Amy Chan’s delicate jawline. “And after that you met other times?”

“Just a few. When our travels coincided... I believe it was four times over the next year. I welcomed it as a nice friendship. Travel can be so lonely, port in a storm and all that.”

“That’s how I feel about conventions, Sarah. So he never took it to the next level.”

“Never.”

Amy Chan seemed pleased by that. Not as detached as she’d claimed?

Grace said, “I guess I’d gotten used to it, Andrew’s thing was friendship. I guess in a way I found it comforting — pleasant company, no pressure. Still, I found myself caring about him and when he started to act differently — the last couple of times I saw him — it troubled me. Then he stopped responding to emails and I found myself wondering.”

“Something related to his family.”

“He had told me he was adopted, so I wondered if it had something to do with that — one of those roots things, gone wrong, I’ve seen it in a couple of my students. I know he was close to his adoptive parents, he told me he was devastated by their deaths. Maybe with them gone, he’d decided to search.”

Grace shook her head. “This is probably silly, I’m getting involved where I shouldn’t.”

Chan sat silently. Then: “I wish I could tell you your concerns are unfounded. But the last time I saw Andrew, something did happen that I found curious.”

She turned back toward the stormy water. “We went to dinner. I chose the restaurant, a place called Café Lotus, it’s since closed down. I’m a vegetarian and though Andrew wasn’t, he was fine with that, of course. You know how agreeable he is.”

Grace nodded. “So easygoing.” If only you knew, Amy.

“But not lacking a backbone.” Chan blinked. “Anyway, we were having a perfectly nice time, catching up.” She smiled. “To be honest, mostly I talked and Andrew listened, he’s always been a good listener. Anyway... all of a sudden, another party was seated at a table near us — right across from us — and Andrew looked their way and his demeanor changed totally. As if a mood switch had been flicked. He seemed to have trouble concentrating and he stopped eating. He was also flushed, even though he hadn’t been drinking — the place was alcohol-free. I asked if anything was wrong — was he allergic to something? He said no, he was fine and tried to pretend he was okay. But he wasn’t, Sarah. He looked... stricken. Kept sneaking glances at the people across from us. So obviously I looked over at whoever it was who’d freaked him out and he pretended they hadn’t and we tried to continue as if everything was okay. They looked perfectly normal. A man and a woman. Then I saw that the man was sneaking looks at Andrew as well, and now Andrew was avoiding eye contact and getting even jumpier. Then all of a sudden, the man got up and came over and smiled at Andrew but he didn’t call him Andrew, he called him Thai, which I thought was weird, because obviously Andrew’s not Asian. Then I thought: Andrew works mostly in Asia, maybe he’d acquired some kind of nickname. In any event, Andrew didn’t correct him, he just said, ‘Excuse me,’ and got up himself and he and this guy moved to a corner near the exit door and had a brief but what looked to be a pretty intense conversation. Meanwhile, I’m staring and so is the woman with the other guy — she’s just as surprised. Then the other guy claps Andrew on the shoulder and gives him a business card and Andrew returns and makes out like nothing’s happened. But after that, he was really distracted. We’d planned to catch a movie on campus after dinner and all of a sudden he’s apologizing profusely, saying he’s wiped out, sorry for being a downer, he really needs to sleep because he’s leaving early in the morning.”