could have been the intended target.’
Cliff nodded. ‘Maybe he witnessed something and someone needed to get rid of him. Maybe they felt that his wife’s death was warning enough to put him off, but something happened recently that made them think that he could still expose them?’
Ren shrugged. ‘Could it have been connected to someone who was part of the original investigation? Like…a crooked cop.’
‘Doing what?’ said Cliff.
‘I don’t know…maybe Hammond came across something recently that led him to believe a cover-up had happened?’
‘If in doubt, coffee,’ said Ren.
‘Yes, please,’ said Cliff.
Ren’s phone rang as she was carrying the mugs back in.
‘There you go, baby-daddy,’ she said, putting one in front of Cliff.
‘Thank you, octo-mommy.’
‘I have to do it that many times?’ said Ren.
‘Answer your phone,’ said Cliff.
‘Barefoot and pregnant, that’s all I am to you now.’ She looked at the number flashing on the screen. ‘It’s the lab.’ She picked up and listened. ‘Wow,’ she said. ‘OK.’
‘What?’ Cliff mouthed.
Ren put her hand over the receiver and spoke to Cliff. ‘Curiouser and curiouser. DNA on the nightgown. Semen. And not Judge Hammond’s.’
She took her hand away and spoke to the lab. ‘In that case, could I ask you pretty please to do a cross-match for me?’
42
Ren sat at her desk and rested her hands on her keyboard as if she intended to use it. ‘Ooh,’ she said, a few moments later. ‘Speaking of mothers in denial…’ She picked up the phone and called Kitty. ‘Mom, Cliff and I were talking about moms and kids and denial, etc. I just wanted to know…’ She got up and walked into the hallway. ‘Mom – when was the last time you spoke with Rita Parry?’
‘Rita, gosh…Well, that is the most upsetting part,’ she said. ‘It was several months ago, before all this cards business. Ricky called me, he said that his mom wanted to speak with me. So, I dropped everything and went over to her. I was with her for hours, Ren. I even fed her while I was there, I got her out of the bed, I helped bathe her, dress her…it was…I don’t think I’m any saint for doing this, by the way. It just seems such a jump to where we are now.’
‘Did she ask Ricky to get you to come look after her?’
‘No, no, it wasn’t like that. She asked him to get me to come talk to her. The rest was just…well, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to help.’
‘What did she want to talk to you about?’
‘Death. I mean, the two of us, we’re the Catholics on the block, so she thought she could confide in me.’
‘About what?’
‘She wanted to know my opinion about suicide and sin.’
‘The gall of her.’
‘No, Ren, it’s not what you think. It wasn’t about Beau. Well, not strictly speaking. It was more…she wanted to know if it was wrong in the eyes of the Church, her wanting to let go. She wanted to know if it was a form of suicide to let yourself slip away, to stop fighting for your life.’
‘Euthanasia, you mean?’
‘No, no. Just letting go. She knew she was failing and she wanted to give up the fight and let go. Because she wanted to meet Louis again. She told me she was ready to meet Louis again.’
‘She thinks Louis is dead.’
‘She said that she knows he is dead…I think it’s possible that she had known it all along. She wanted to know did I feel that way about Beau, did I want to follow him. That was why she asked me over. So, I told her—’
‘Mom, I don’t need to hear this.’
‘You do,’ said her mother. ‘I told her that I felt that way for quite some time after Beau died. I’m sorry, Ren, but I did. I’m sure that was obvious to all of you, anyway.’
‘We tried not to go there.’ Tears welled in her eyes.
‘Rita said that she had felt that way too. But I told her that many years had passed and that to some degree I had managed to come to terms with the loss and that I loved your father and all of my children so much that I could not bear the thought of being without you. And I told her that if I were in her position right now, I would fight. I would not give up.
‘Rita Parry wasn’t told she had days to live, Ren. She wasn’t given a finite time. I told her that maybe, if I had felt I was hours from slipping away, I would find comfort in knowing that Beau would be there at the other side to meet me, but it wouldn’t be a reason for me to
‘Wow.’
‘So I told her that, no, she wasn’t committing suicide by doing what she was doing, but that I believed she should fight. For Ricky. She could have many more years with Ricky.’
‘So, after all that, here we are,’ said Ren. ‘Mom…are you sure her motivation was pure?’
‘Pure? What do you mean?’
‘Are you sure she didn’t believe Beau had something to do with it and was maybe trying to get you to confess to a dying woman?’
‘For God’s sake, Ren. That didn’t enter my head.’
‘Did she ask you why you thought Beau killed himself?’
‘Quite the opposite. She said that she believed that Louis and Beau were our beautiful boys and that a darker force, stronger than either of them, had taken them from us. Different forces she said, but with the same tragic result.’
‘The end is not here yet,’ said Ren. ‘For either family. Hasn’t she even called you?’
‘No,…No. I heard that she’s very, very weak.’
Ren let out a breath. ‘My heart goes out to her. I just wish I knew what was going through her head.’
‘At this stage, I would say that her only thought is seeing Louis again.’
‘How depressing,’ said Ren. ‘But I guess her whole life has been depressing.’
‘Why are you asking about this?’
Ren let out a breath. ‘Why do I ever ask?’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘I have no idea, actually. I’m tired.’ Ren wandered back into the office. ‘I better get back to work.’
Ren pulled her notebook out of her desk and looked at her notes on the Hammonds. A lot of them had the numbers 345 doodled around them. One page had drawings of files. Another page had fishes in the margin. Ren tried to remember why.
She sat forward.
‘Glenn, it’s Ren. Can you do me a big favor?’
‘No.’
Silence.
‘I’m sorry, Ren. I can’t.’
‘OK, I understand. But – if I tell you what the favor is, could that make a difference?’
Glenn let out a breath. ‘Shoot.’
‘Do you have Douglas Hammond’s cell phone in evidence?’
