'Those are the other two women?'
'Yes. Juanita is probably a generation or so removed from Colombia. Emmy is more recent.'
'What is your problem with them?' Susan said.
'Things don't mesh right,' I said. 'Juanita tells me that Emmy was sleeping with Valdez-which gives Felipe a motive for killing Valdez and castrating him, just like Rogers contended. But Juanita insists that Esteva didn't and wouldn't. That Rogers did it. Apparently out of meanness. She says that Esteva is sort of a Colombian Horatio Alger and has beaten us Yankees at our own capitalism game-she specified my capitalistic game.' Susan smiled.
'Further, she says that Emmy, Mrs. Alger, is his weakness. A slut, a tramp, a scarlet woman,' I said.
'Perhaps she has a passion for Esteva herself,' Susan said.
'More than perhaps, I would say.'
'We shrinks are reserved,' Susan said. 'Perhaps, and appropriate, are as ferocious as we ever get.'
'Yeah,' I said. 'But if she's lusty for Esteva, then why does she tell me about Emmy and Valdez, thus incriminating the object of her lust. How appropriate is that?'
'People are not always appropriate.'
'Boy, it's great working with a pro,' I said. 'I asked her if maybe she had been sleeping with Valdez herself and she got a kind of loopy expression on her face and got up and went into the ladies' room.'
'You thought she might be jealous of Emmy over Valdez,' Susan said.
'Yes, and maybe jealous of Emmy over Esteva too,' I said.
'It's great working with a pro,' Susan said.
'And she hates Rogers,' I said.
'Why,' Susan said. 'Was he hateful?'
'Seemed so to me. Maybe that's all there is to it. But Caroline seems like a pretty solid person and she loved him.'
Susan shrugged. 'That might be an overly romantic view of love.'
'Good people can love not-good people,' I said,
'Yes,' Susan said.
We were quiet for a moment. I held my cocoa in my left hand and massaged the back of her neck for a moment with my right hand. 'True,' I said.
'Perhaps she hated him because he was hateful, perhaps there's another reason. It should be interesting to find out,' Susan said. 'How do you think I can best help Caroline Rogers?'
'I don't know. Two tragedies like this in sequence have got to do her damage. I don't want to leave her to deal with the damage alone.'
'Perhaps she will want to deal with it alone.'
I shrugged. 'If you were around to consult on her and Emmy and Juanita . . .'
'And?' Susan said.
'And to help me cope with my sexual energy,' I said.
'Getting a little edgy staying out in Wheaton alone so long, are we?' Susan said.
'Maybe,' I said.
She drank the rest of her cocoa.
'Okay,' she said. 'Here's the deal, big guy. I'll try to reorganize my schedule, which will take me a day or two, and then I'll come out and join you.'
'Ah,' I said.
'On two conditions,' Susan said. 'One, that me never eat again in the motel diningroom . . .'
I nodded.
'And, two,' Susan said, 'you call Hawk tonorrow and ask him to join you.'
'And if he refuses?' I said.
'I'll call him.'
'Done,' I said. 'It is great working with a pro.'
Susan turned toward me and put her mouth lightly against mine and said, 'You ain't seen nothing yet.'
Chapter 25
I got back to the Reservoir Court Motel at about twenty of one the next day. There was a message to call Brian Lundquist. I did.
'Same gun,' he said, 'killed Rogers. Not the same gun killed Valdez.'
'You have anything on Brett Rogers?' I said.
