“So it’s a working hypothesis,” I said.
“I got another one,” Hawk said.
“Which is?”
“They killed these people on your time,” Hawk said.
“You could think of it that way.”
“You could and you do,” Hawk said. “I know you a long time.”
“I’ve tried to be a good role model,” I said.
“So you want the one gets them be you,” Hawk said. “Not Epstein.”
“At least I want fi rst position,” I said.
Hawk smiled widely.
“’Course you do,” he said.
23.
Epstein stopped by my office in the late morning and gave me a big brown envelope.
“Copy of Alderson’s fi le,” he said.
“What makes you think I’m interested,” I said.
“I know about you,” he said.
“Anything classifi ed?” I said.
“I work for a very large government bureaucracy,” he said.
“My fucking dick is probably classifi ed.”
“And should be,” I said. “You got anything new on Doherty or his wife?”
“Water in his lungs. He was alive when he went in.”
“And conscious?” I said.
“No way to know,” Epstein said. “No bullets in him, no discernible wounds on the body. But it’s been banged around on the rocks and chewed on by sea creatures. Nothing is certain.”
“Time of death?”
“Approximate with his wife, give or take twelve hours,”
Epstein said.
“Tidal analysis?” I said.
Epstein smiled.
“Body could have gone in most places north of the Cape,” he said.
“It was saltwater in his lungs,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Wearing his gun?” I said.
“Nope.”
“Holster?”
Epstein smiled again.
“Nope,” he said. “Nobody appears to have disarmed him. Gun and holster were in the top drawer of a bureau in his bedroom.”
“Did it appear to be her bedroom, too?” I said.
“Yes.”
“How was he dressed?” I said.
“Shirt, pants, shoes,” Epstein said. “Wallet in his hip pocket. He wasn’t wearing his suit coat or tie.”
“Sounds like they took him at home.”
“Which,” Epstein said, “leads me to wonder where she was.”
I nodded.
“You got any idea?”
“No,” I said.
“I was married once, twice actually, and I remember some of it, and one of our female agents went through the house too, and we agreed that there wasn’t enough makeup in the bathroom. Like she packed some and left.”
“After he heard the tape,” I said. “It would fi gure.”
