'Yes.'
'Why?'
'Appearances,' I said. 'Save the family from scandal.'
'So he knows her marriage is probably a sham. Other than covering up for the husband, does he do anything about it?'
'Not that I can see.'
'So as far as we can tell, her father and husband don't value her beyond whatever ornamental use they put her to.'
'I get it,' I said.
'I knew you would,' Susan said.
'There's another thing bothering me,' I said. 'The shooting of the horse over in Alton.'
'Why does that bother you?'
'Becker and I speculate that it might be to distract me,' I said. 'And that's a reasonable speculation.'
'But?'
'But if it's the work of some kind of serial psychopath, which is what it seems like, then distracting me would seem to be too rational an act.'
'Possibly,' Susan said.
'I mean, the compulsion isn't about me.'
'You may have been added to what it is about,' Susan said.
'Or maybe it's not a compulsion,' I said.
'Are you just casting about, or have you any other reason to think it's something else?'
'Well, what kind of compulsion is this? A compulsion to shoot horses, with no concern for the result?'
'No way to know,' Susan said. 'Compulsions are consistent only to their own logic.'
'Well, I remain skeptical.'
'As well you should.'
'Thank you, Doctor.'
'Will that be Visa or MasterCard?' Susan said.
'I'll recompense you in full,' I said, 'when I get home.'
'Soon?'
'I have no idea.'
'It's annoying, isn't it,' Susan said, 'to have our life scheduled by the pathology of someone we can't even identify.'
'You should know,' I said.
'Yes,' she said. 'Sometimes I think we're doing the same work.'
'Do you think that absence makes the heart grow fonder?'
'No. I'm already as fond as I'm capable of being,' Susan said. 'Makes me miss you, though.'
'Yes,' I said. 'I feel the same way.'
'Good,' Susan said. 'And stay away from the truck stops.'
EIGHTEEN
THE HORSE SHOOTER upped the ante on a rainy Sunday night by shooting Walter Clive dead in the exercise area of Three Fillies Stables. I was there at daylight, with Becker and a bunch of Columbia County crime scene deputies.
'Exercise rider found him this morning when she came into work,' Becker said. 'Right there where you see him.'
Where I saw him was facedown in the middle of the open paddock in front of the stables, under a tree, with the rain soaking the crime scene. Someone had rigged a polyethylene canopy over the body and the immediate crime scene, in hopes of preserving any evidence that was left.
'Where is she now?'
'In the stable office,' Becker said. 'I got one woman deputy, and she's in there with her.'
'Will I be able to talk to her?'
'Sure.'
I stepped to the body and squatted down beside it. Clive was in a white shirt and gray linen slacks. There were loafers on his feet, without socks. His silver hair was soaked and plastered to his skull. There was no sign of a wound.
