means you can dream up to find out.”
Daniel tapped a pen on the desk, thinking. “Was there anything in the bookkeeper’s effects that might have been from his period of time working here? Any other file boxes in storage, a ledger, anything in a safe-deposit box?”
“He kept every receipt in his life, the same as he did for Henry, but so far nothing is popping up as being something more than his own personal papers,” Luke replied, having checked with the officer sorting through the files.
“Then if Henry knew he had a son, the evidence will be somewhere in this house and in his personal records.”
“Is it possible Henry had a son he didn’t know existed?”
“Sure. If an affair led to a pregnancy and the lady wasn’t inclined to come get more money out of Henry than he offered when they split up. But you’d think either the mom or at least the son would have made contact over the years. We’re assuming if this son exists he’s younger than Tracey and Marie, not older?”
“A guess, but probably in his late twenties.”
“If he’s not a minor and his mother kept anything at all around the house of the letters Henry liked to write or spoke at all of who his father was, the trail back to Henry wouldn’t be difficult for someone to push against and follow. There should have been contact with Henry at some point.”
“Assume there was a payoff to the mother fifteen to twenty-five years ago. Would it have gone through the Benton Group accounts?”
“No. Henry kept a bright line between private and public business. It would have been a cash payment taken from a private account. One his personal bookkeeper would have probably handled and his chauffeur went along to deliver.” Daniel grimaced just saying it.
Luke nodded. “It’s a working theory we need to either prove or knock down so we quit chasing it. For what it’s worth, Sam doesn’t think a son exists. Henry would have wanted to know about him and would have kept track of him.”
“I’d agree with Sam.” Daniel pulled out a ring of keys. “Come on; I’ll show you what there is to work with.”
He led the way through the house and opened the file-storage room. The boxes were neat, orderly, and shelved floor to ceiling. “I’ve eliminated the boxes on the left, and when everything has sorted itself out the plan is to have them shredded. These thirty boxes-I’m finding everything in them from receipts to phone-message notes. Henry apparently asked his personal bookkeeper to take care of all the paper, and so it was just filed away as it got created. The personal bank accounts-most Henry closed years ago and rolled into the Benton Group-but the canceled checks are still here filed in among all the other papers. I’m guessing we are not going to find one actually made out to the lady involved. It will be for something else and converted to the cash Henry needed. It wouldn’t have been uncommon for his wife to be going through the receipts or the mail as it came in. The last payment to Marie and Tracey’s aunt that I found had
“A lot of flowers.”
“Yes.” Daniel shut off the light. “I’ll have my assistant come help with the search; if the evidence is here, we should be able to find it.”
“Henry never mentioned anything that might cause you to think back and wonder if he was talking about a son?”
“There’s nothing I can recall that even glimmers at more children than Marie and Tracey.”
Luke picked up his coat, and Daniel walked outside with him.
“Take reasonable precautions the next few weeks, Daniel, no jogging alone, buzzing people into the apartment, leaving car doors unlocked-”
Daniel smiled. “Don’t worry about me. There’s security all over this place, the office, and they’ve been rolling by the apartment building regularly. I’m covered.”
“Let’s keep it that way.” Luke started his car. “I’ll be in touch.” “You’ll be my first call if I find anything,” Daniel promised.
Chapter Twenty
CAROLINE LIFTED A HAND TO MARSH, sliding into a seat in the restaurant that put her near the window and traffic flowing in and out and far enough away from the table with Marie and Tracey and the two cops not to interrupt their lunch. She ordered just the day’s special, a bowl of soup, knowing it would be served quickly, and then settled back to observe.
Marie looked better.
Amy had sent her with the precise request to report back a firsthand impression of how Marie was doing four days after she had a knife at her throat. Given the state Amy was in over the incident, Caroline thought the request reasonable. She’d left Amy with one of Jonathan’s guys and come to town to get her an answer.
Watching Marie, Caroline put her at a little nervous, not enough sleep, but doing a good job of staying with the conversation around her at the table. Connor, sitting beside Marie, didn’t look like he’d slept much better. Beyond a glance over and a smile, he’d otherwise shown no sign he had seen her come in.
The waitress brought her soup.
Ah, there was Bryce. She’d missed him in the first scan of the room, but he was here eating lunch and watching the crowd too.
Caroline didn’t know if anything in the envelope she carried would help, but it was full of photos Amy had marked and annotated with memories from New York. At least it was another set of faces to watch for in an otherwise wait-and-see game for who might be around. Amy, more than anyone else, needed to know if the two murders and the knife attack represented new trouble appearing or a wave of old business relating to herself now reaching out toward her sisters.
Connor had been smart to get Marie back out in public, if not relaxing, then at least getting settled and okay with being in a crowd. Sykes had plastered Marie’s photo on the front page again, and Marie’s instinct would be to hide in the gallery flat and not venture out. Going shopping together, then stopping at a restaurant for lunch had been good first choices for Connor to make.
Sykes had sources. Caroline didn’t particularly like what he wrote, but the facts were solid. The story of its being a robbery had shifted toward its being more a mugging. Not perfect with all the facts, but close enough someone had talked to Sykes before he wrote that piece. Someone inside. They were seeing crime-scene details and photos in the newspaper before the reports were being finished, now this breach-the chief was going to fire someone just as soon as he figured out the leak and probably do it in a spectacular fashion.
Caroline ate her lunch and thought about her own Christmas shopping. She knew Amy had started hers on that last trip with Luke, and from the looks of the sacks around Marie and Tracey they had also begun theirs this morning. Maybe Amy could get talked into going a town over and spending a day at the mall-the excursion would do them both good. They couldn’t help solve these two murders, and sitting around and waiting for a face to appear in the crowd was not a good option.
The group at the table rose, Marsh holding the chair for Tracey, Connor helping Marie with her packages. Making the quick decision that it was best to be ahead of them on this walk, Caroline tucked money for her lunch on the bill, left with her drink refill, and slipped on her coat. The group would be a minute or two just getting their things gathered together. The sisters would want to ask about Amy, and Caroline wasn’t comfortable doing that here. She caught Marsh’s eye and nodded to the door, then headed out ahead of them.
Marsh paid at the counter to put all the meals on his charge card, and he smiled at the image Caroline made as she moved past the crowd at the exit: bold red hat, long black coat, gloves, a pretty little thing in the way guys appreciated such things. She disappeared into the crowd of pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk, heading north toward the gallery and where they had parked the squad car. She needed someone special in her life, and he wasn’t above
