would you like me to make a call to verify which account they were drawn from? Perhaps you'd rather have me access your phone records during that month, to see if you and Phillip were in contact?'
Margaret wasn't going to confirm this charge, but neither did she try to deny it. Though, in fact, it didn't matter. We needed neither her confirmation nor her disavowal, and suggesting suicide to her husband-no matter how exquisitely timed-is not even a misdemeanor, much less a crime.
She continued to stare at Jennie, and in some weird way I thought Margaret Barnes was glad that we knew the whole truth. Her husband had crippled her, destroyed her life, alienated and corrupted her child, and in the end she had turned out not to be the numbingly passive lamb she appeared.
I looked at my watch. It was after two. I said, 'Mrs. Barnes, when was the last time you heard from your son?'
'Not in years.'
'Do you know where he is?'
'No, I do not.'
'Can you give us the names of any of Calhoun's close friends, anybody who might know?'
'I don't know his close friends.'
'If you hear from him, will you call?'
'Certainly' She was lying, of course,
I looked at Jennie. 'Any more questions?'
'No.'
We both stood. I asked Mrs. Barnes, 'Do you need assistance getting to your bedroom?'
'No, I… I believe I will just sit here awhile.'
We bid her good night, and left her cradling her sherry in the room where her former husband stored his greatest feats, and where she stored her greatest memory.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ted awaited us outside, and Ted could keep waiting. Jennie and I both walked halfway down the block, out of Ted's earshot and, in my case, far away from this house of fossilized horrors. We whipped out our cell phones, she called George and I called Phyllis.
Two hours learning about the Barnes family had put me in a foul mood. According to my watch the hour was quarter past two, and I actually looked forward to rousting Phyllis. But she was already awake and apparently she had caller ID, because on the first ring she answered, a little too jovially, 'I'm glad to see you've learned your lesson about checking in, Drummond. Have you learned anything interesting?'
'I think it's interesting. Jason's our man.'
'You're sure?'
'As close as we can get beyond beating a confession out of him.'
'Tell me about it.'
So I did. And three feet away Jennie told George about it, and, interestingly, we must have been synchronized because we finished and signed off at nearly the same instant.
Jennie looked at me and said, 'George agrees we now have enough to take to a federal judge for an arrest warrant.'
'Right.'
'Jason's picture will be distributed to the Secret Service, the Bureau, local cops, and every major network and newspaper. Within an hour, the manhunt will be on.'
'Good call.'
'Thoughts… observations?'
I said, 'For starters, turning off the recorder was a big mistake.'
'Really?'
'No doubt about it. If Jason's caught, that part of the conversation-from his own mother's lips-any competent prosecutor would have put it to devastating use.'
She regarded my face for a moment. 'You think?'
'Well… I don't mean to nitpick.'
She reached into her purse and withdrew the recorder. Then she reached into the side pocket of her jacket and took out a second recorder. She smiled. 'Every veteran agent brings along a backup.'
I stared at the second recorder. 'Remind me never to cross you.'
'I will. Frequently.'
'Now, a question.' I asked, 'Why did she stay with him?'
'The usual reasons. Convention and practicality.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning, hers was a social class and a generation defined by a successful marriage and a successful husband. Calhoun was regarded as a prime marriageable specimen, and until the very end, he was… successful.'
'He broke her back. 'Till death do you part' does not mean you part each other. Shouldn't it have occurred to her that theirs was a marriage with a few irreconcilable flaws?'
'I wouldn't expect a male to understand.'
'Oh please.'
'It's true. Biology dictates to women. It defines our life cycle, and it forms our choices. A divorced woman, bitter, crippled, and infertile, had no hope of attracting another mate. She had become completely dependent on Calhoun, financially and physically. Literally, she felt forced to sleep in the bed she made.'
In my view, a life alone was better than the life she had. Yet Jennie was right-I probably couldn't understand. The choices of women from Margaret's generation made little sense to a male, and even less to a modern male, though maybe they made sense then. I said, 'He must've been a real bastard.'
'Would you like to hear the psychiatric explanation?'
'I… is there a Cliff's Notes version?'
She punched me in the stomach. 'To start, these things run in families. Incest and spousal and child abuse are like inheritances. Behaviorally, they pass through the generations. Living in that house was to be inundated in the family tradition. Maybe you noticed that the heirlooms and paintings were all from his family?'
'I noticed that before Calhoun, all the Barnes men married dogs. Did you see the one with the crossed eyes and the wart on her nose?'
She rolled her eyes. 'Why do I bother explaining these things to you?'
'You were saying?'
'From the sound of it, Calhoun's specific maladies were a narcissistic disorder, extreme grandiosity, and a manic compulsion for control and order.'
'Are we talking about a theory or a person?'
She concluded, correctly, that simpleminded Sean needed a less complicated explanation and brought it down a peg. 'If you're interested, Adolf Hitler exhibited similar neuroses and dysfunctions. Think of the things Hitler did to shape what he considered the ideal society, the ideal race. Calhoun exuded the same fury and ferocity, but on a single target, his son.' After a moment, she added, 'I would also bet Calhoun's father exhibited similar disorders. Sons learn behavior from their fathers, regardless of their flaws.'
'And Jason?'
'You're right. It's intriguing. The chain appears to be broken.'
'But he's not married. He has no children. As a result, you can't be sure, can you?'
'Oh, I am sure.'
'How? Why?'
'Because we've seen how he lives. Jason's an obsessive-compulsive personality. By definition, he should never have become submissive to his father. He would… well, he would vie and tilt with him. See the point?'
'Nope.'
