John Lescroart - The Motive

"Remodeling. Well, that explains it." Strout let out a brief chuckle. "Closest my wife and me ever came to splittin' up. We redid a couple of rooms in the house back maybe ten years ago. S'posed to take two months. Went on over a year. Finally, I just moved down here- slept in Chester's spot there 'til it was finally over. If I'd stayed around, I mighta killed her, too. After I killed the contractor, of course. Son of a bitch."

"So that's your take, John? Hanover killed her?"

"No, no, no. I got no take on that, Abe. All I can tell you is they both died of gunshot wounds to the head."

"Any indication of who shot who? If it was either one of them at all."

"I'd say the man."

"Why's that?"

"The entry wound on the woman was high occipital…" Catching himself, he continued in layman's English. "High up on the very back. She didn't shoot herself back up there."

"What about the man?"

"Just over the right ear. Good a spot as any."

Glitsky sat still for a moment, elbows on his knees. The mayor wasn't going to like this news. "Could it have been somebody else?"

"Sure. But no way for me to tell. They would have had to have got out in a hurry, but nothin' on the bodies rules that out."

Glitsky nodded. "And I'm assuming you're getting dentals on the woman, too."

"Well, we got the teeth. Problem is, we don't know who her dentist was."

"It's funny you should ask that."

Catherine Hanover said that he hadn't awakened her with the phone call, but he wasn't sure he believed her. When he'd identified himself and asked her permission to record the call as soon as she picked up, her voice sounded hoarse, slightly groggy. Now she cleared her throat again before continuing.

"We both had the same dentist, Dr. Yamashiru. His first name is Toshio." She spelled both names out. "On Webster, between Union and Green. She had some problems with her teeth and didn't know anyone locally, so she asked me who I went to."

"So you two were close?"

"No, not really. I was the body standing nearest to her when the question came up."

"So where did she come from before here?"

"That was always a little vague. She had a French accent, but she spoke English very well. But where she came from didn't matter. She had him wrapped… I'm sorry. What did you say your name was?"

"Glitsky. Deputy Chief Glitsky. I'm working this case with Dan Cuneo, whom I believe you met last night."

"Yes, I remember him."

Glitsky found the response slightly off-key. "Did you have a problem with Inspector Cuneo?"

"No, not really. I told him I thought it was Missy and Paul in there."

"And about the renovation?"

"Yes." The stress in the voice was clear now. Something about Cuneo's interview with her had been troubling. "That, too," she said.

"That they were having some troubles?"

"Yes."

"About the money she spent?"

Another small silence. Then, "I'm sorry, Inspector, but did you say you'd talked to Inspector Cuneo, too?"

"No, not yet. I've got a call in to him, but the arson inspector gave me your name and I had some questions I wanted to go over. Inspector Cuneo will be back on tonight if you'd be more comfortable talking with him."

"No!"

Glitsky imagined her jumping in alarm at the suggestion.

She covered her reaction with a brush of nervous laughter. "I mean, no. I don't care who I talk to. If I've got any information you might need, ask away."

"All right. You told Inspector Cuneo that Mr. Hanover and Missy had been fighting over the amount she'd spent on renovations to his house. Is that right?"

"Yes. It was obscene, really. Something like a million dollars. But that was Missy, although she fooled us at first. Well, tried to."

"Fooled you in what way?"

"In the way that attractive younger women fool older men."

"You're saying that she was after your father-in-law's money?"

"Not just after it. She got a lot of it, Inspector. You should have seen the engagement ring. The hundred-thousand-dollar trophy rock, we called it. I mean, it was just way over the top. And that didn't include the clothes and the car and…"

"But obviously Mr. Hanover gave her all this willingly."

"Oh yes. According to him, she was always wonderful to him. Sweet, loving, understanding. Although you should have seen her when Mary-my sister-in-law?- mentioned that maybe she was going a little overboard on the house." Catherine Hanover paused. "Oh, listen to me. You know, I really don't want to speak ill of the dead, but it was so obvious that she was a gold digger-very subtle and very patient-although Paul wouldn't even hear of that, of course. We couldn't even bring up that he might at least consider that possibility, get a prenup, something. But he wouldn't go there. He loved her. She was the love of his life, and he was just so blessed that he'd found her. Pardon me, but puke."

"So you didn't believe her?"

"None of us did."

"And who's that, all of you?"

"The family. Paul's daughters, Mary and Beth, my husband, Will. The kids."

Taking the opportunity to get some details on the extended family, Glitsky wrote down names, addresses and telephone numbers. "But none of them came to the fire last night?"

"None of them knew about it until today, or way late. When I got back, maybe one o'clock, I called Mary and Beth but got their machines. My husband has been on a fishing trip off the coast of Mexico for the past three days-I still haven't gotten to him, though he's due back in tomorrow. He's going to be devastated about his father, although maybe a bit relieved at the same time."

Glitsky, speaking on his office telephone, shifted his weight to get more comfortable. Catherine Hanover was turning out to be the often sought but rarely encountered mother lode of witnesses, effortlessly providing him with facts, people, rumor and innuendo, context. "Why would he be relieved?" he asked.

"Well, I don't mean really relieved. That might be too strong. But it's no secret that we were all of us a little concerned about what would happen after Missy and Paul actually got married. I mean, Will is an architect and we do all right, but none of us have had Paul's incredible financial success."

"You were counting on an inheritance?"

"That sounds so cold-blooded. I don't know if saying we were counting on it is really accurate-we all loved Paul and wanted him to live forever-but let's face it, he was worth a fortune. That money had been sitting there as a possibility for us for so long, let's just say that it was a bit of an adjustment after he started talking about marrying Missy, thinking it wouldn't be there anymore. And now, suddenly, here it is again. This sounds so terrible, doesn't it? I never even thought about the money until this morning, really, but then once I realized…" She stopped, sighed into the receiver. "It's terrible to talk like this," she said. "I'm sorry."

Glitsky said, "It's natural enough."

But Catherine couldn't drop the topic. "It's just that there really was such a dramatic change after he started seeing her. I mean, until Missy came along, Paul used to help with all the kids' tuitions. And we'd all go to Maui for Christmas every year. All of us, the whole extended family, for a week at Napili Kai. Stuff like that. To say nothing of college coming up for all eight of the grand-kids. I really shouldn't say it's a relief, but…" Again, she trailed off.

Glitsky wanted to keep her talking. "So Missy lived with your father-in-law full-time?"

"Mostly, I think, yes. For about the last two years."

"And do you know any of her friends from before she met him?"

"No. After she met Paul, there weren't any other friends. He was her full-time job."

Glitsky made a note that he'd need to follow up on the friends of Missy D'Amiens if the investigation widened. Although for the moment it appeared that, if anything, it had narrowed down to the obvious original theory. Certainly Catherine Hanover's breezy admission of what might under other circumstances be considered a reasonable motive for murder-a large inheritance-argued against her own involvement in any foul play. He would of course verify the whereabouts of her husband and his two sisters last night, but for the moment it looked like Kathy West would remain disappointed in her benefactor and political ally.