would forge notes pretending to be Tony?”
“That part I can’t figure out,” Adam said. “I admit there are holes in all of this, but I wanted to tell you anyway because there’re other things that seem… I don’t know, it’s just I hardly know this guy. My daughter’s only been dating him for about a week.”
“If I’d known this the other day I would’ve questioned him. He was the long- haired guy who was here when I was interviewing your daughter, right?”
Adam nodded and said, “If I’d even remotely thought about any of this, of course I would’ve told you about it then.”
“Did she start dating him before or after you received the first note?”
Adam thought about it for a few seconds, then said, “Before.”
“Well, this definitely sounds like something we should look into. It might go nowhere, but throughout my career dogs have sometimes given me my biggest leads. In fact, I used to work for the canine unit.”
“Really?” Actually, Adam couldn’t care less about Clements’s career, but he was glad to be on his good side for a change and not be treated as a suspect, at least for the moment.
“Yeah, for five years,” Clements said. “You really get attached to dogs, and they’re great to work with, a lot easier to work with than the human partners I’ve had, I’ll tell you that much. They’re even easier to get along with than a couple of my ex- wives.”
Adam forced a smile.
Clements went on, “The interesting thing is that Tony has continued to deny writing either of those notes so, yeah, everything’s worth looking into. Where’s Xan now?”
“With my daughter. They should be back at his place in Brooklyn by now.”
“Do you have a phone number or an address for Xan?”
“No, I’m sorry, I don’t. But Marissa said he lives in Red Hook.”
“That’s okay, we’ll get his info. Can you just spell his name for me?”
Adam spelled Xan’s full name for Clements and told him to also look under the first name Alexander. As Clements was writing that down, Adam said, “So if the same person wrote both of the notes and that person wasn’t Tony, it’s possible that the same person who wrote the notes broke into my house.”
“Anything’s possible,” Clements said.
“So maybe you should see if there’s a connection between Xan and Carlos Sanchez. I think that’s pretty remote, but-”
“Don’t worry, we’ll check out everything,” Clements said, getting up and putting the pad away. “By the way, Dr. Bloom, are you right- handed or lefthanded?”
“Right- handed.”
“Thanks very much, Doctor. I’ll be in touch with you again soon.”
Clements left, but his last question lingered. Adam figured it must’ve been forensics related; maybe they’d figured out, or were trying to figure out, whether the killer was a righty or a lefty. Well, so much for not feeling like a suspect. That had lasted for, what, a minute?
Adam’s mother had been eavesdropping on the conversation from the other room- why wasn’t Adam surprised?- and she said, “See, he doesn’t think checking out Xan is so crazy. I told you, I got a bad feeling about him.”
“What can I say?” Adam said. “Maybe you should become a cop.”
“Maybe I should,” she said seriously. “But what about Marissa?”
“What about her?”
“I don’t like that she’s alone with Xan.”
“I’m not crazy about that either, but as soon as the police find his address I’m sure they won’t dilly- dally. They’ll send somebody right over there.”
“I think you should at least call her and let her know what’s going on. Better yet, tell her to come home. Tell her we want her here.”
“How’m I supposed to do that?”
“Please, just do it. I really want her here with us right now.”
While Adam knew his mother was overreacting, he was concerned about her getting too upset, what with her heart condition. Besides, he’d rather have Marissa home with them right now, too.
From his BlackBerry, he called her cell.
“Hello,” Marissa said.
“Where are you?” Adam asked.
“At Xan’s, what’s up?”
“Is he there with you right now?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Can you go into another room for a second please?”
“Why? What’s going on?” There was panic in her voice.
“Nothing bad,” he assured her. “I just need to talk to you in private for a second.”
Marissa took a deep breath, then another. “What is it?”
“Are you in another room?”
“Yes.” She was annoyed.
“We want you to come home,” Adam said.
“Why?”
“Because Grandma and I want you here, that’s why.”
“What for?”
“We just do, okay?”
“Look, I told you, I need some space-”
“Please don’t argue with me about this, Marissa. I want you to come home- without Xan.”
“Why can’t I bring Xan?”
“Can he hear you?”
“No, but why did you-”
“Please try to keep your voice down. I just want you here, okay? I want the whole family to be together. Just the family.” He knew this explanation was flimsy, but it was the best he could come up with.
“I’m not coming home, and I can’t believe you. You scared me. I thought there was some emergency or something.”
Adam shook his head and looked at his mother, who stage- whispered, “Tell her.”
“Look, you can’t tell Xan about this, but there’s something going on with the police, okay?”
“Why can’t I tell Xan?”
“Keep your voice down.”
“Why’re you being so mysterious?”
“They want to talk to him, okay?”
“To Xan?”
“Yes.”
After a short silence, Marissa asked, “Why?”
“I’m sure it’ll all be routine, but we’d rather you were here, so please don’t argue with me.”
Adam’s mother said, “Come home, Marissa,” probably loud enough that Marissa could hear.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Marissa said. “What does Xan have to do with anything, and why’re you both freaking out?”
“We’re not freaking out,” Adam said. “There’re just some things I’ve been concerned about, and-”
“Wait, you did this?”
“I didn’t do anything-”
“What did you tell the police about Xan?”
“Can he hear you?”
“You’ll say anything, won’t you? Now what’re you trying to do, say that Xan killed Mom?”
“I said keep your goddamn voice down,” Adam said, raising his own voice.
“You’re pathetic, you know that? I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
