coffeepot was fresh and quite excellent. It was Nicola who served them. Dane saw that she was very comfortable in these surroundings, pouring the damned coffee from that exquisite silver coffeepot. He’d be willing to bet Paul Revere had made the thing. He didn’t know if he ever wanted to see Nick in the senator’s penthouse, damn that man’s sincere and honest eyes.
Dane sat forward, clasping his hands between his legs. “Nick has told us that your mother died in a car accident some three months after she confessed infidelity to your father. You were sixteen at the time. Is this correct?”
Rothman said slowly, “Why are you asking about my mother? It is absolutely none of your business. It’s no one’s business. It has nothing to do with anything.”
“Senator, we’re here as friends of Nick,” Sherlock said. “Of course, our superiors also know that we’re here. We rather hoped we could clear everything up today, informally.” She gave him her patented smile, which no human being alive could resist. He found himself smiling back at her, taking in her brilliant curly red hair. He said, “I appreciate that, Agent. But of course I haven’t killed anyone. I don’t know what’s going on, any more than you do. Nicola, I told you that my mother was dead, that she died in a car accident. But what does that have to do with anything? Why the questions about my mother?”
“It was in Cleo’s letter,” Nick said. “The one you tore out of my hand and hurled into the fireplace.”
Senator Rothman looked utterly bewildered.
“You do remember shredding the letter and throwing it into the fireplace, John?”
“Yes, of course. I was very upset that night. A letter from Cleo-I simply couldn’t accept that. Throwing the letter into the fire, it was an impulse, and one that I now regret.”
Dane hated it, but he believed Senator Rothman. He’d really hoped, in a deep, black spot in his heart, that the senator was so guilty he’d stink of it, but he didn’t.
Dane said, “Senator Rothman, perhaps we can end this very simply. Could you please show us your journal?”
Senator Rothman looked blank.
“You do have a journal, don’t you, sir?” Sherlock said.
“Yes, of course, but it’s more like a recording of events over the years, nothing personal, if you know what I mean. Actually, I haven’t written in it in a very long time.”
“May we please see it, sir,” Dane said.
Senator Rothman rose, walked to his exquisite bird’s-eye maple desk, opened the second drawer, and pulled it out. He handed the journal-sized notebook to Dane.
Sherlock said, “You don’t keep it at home in the safe in your study?”
“Oh no, I’ve always kept it here. I’m hardly home enough to leave it there. As I said, I haven’t written in it in a very long time, since before Cleo left-no, before someone murdered Cleo.” He winced.
Nick said, “Cleo wrote that you confessed to murdering Melissa.”
“Murdered Melissa? That is absurd. I wish I hadn’t destroyed that damned letter. Listen, Nick, whoever wrote you that letter, it wasn’t Cleo.”
“We know that now,” Savich said. “Cleo’s been dead since she supposedly left you.”
No one said anything. Dane opened the journal, a rich dark brown leather with a clasp that wasn’t locked. He skimmed through it.
Rothman said, “As you can see, Agent Carver, it’s more a recording of events and appointments, nothing at all sinister.” He paused, said, “No, Cleo didn’t write you that letter, Nicola. God, she was dead, dead all along, and no one knew.” He put his face in his hands, his shoulders heaving, struggling to keep control.
No one said a word until he got himself together again, drank some of his coffee. “I apologize.”
He said finally, “What the hell is going on here?”
“Haven’t you wondered who wrote me that letter since Cleo has been dead for three years?” Nick asked.
He splayed his hands in front of him, didn’t say anything.
“You kept insisting that last night, John, that Cleo hadn’t written the letter, that it was impossible. It occurred to me that you must have known she was dead, that it was impossible for her to have written to me, that it had to be someone else.”
“No, I had no idea Cleo was dead. What I simply couldn’t believe was that Cleo would slander me like that, that she would make up that story about a journal and what I’d written. There was no way she could have believed that I killed Melissa, would have killed
“That all three of us slept with Elliott Benson, beginning with Melissa back in college.”
He shook his head. “That’s absurd. Elliott is a friend, not an enemy. He’s a man I trust, a man I’ve always trusted.”
Nick looked away from the man she’d planned to marry just one month before. Now he and Elliott Benson were the best of friends? She didn’t know, just didn’t know.
She rose and walked to the huge window that gave onto Lake Michigan. The water was whipped up by a strong wind. She could tell it was cold and blustery from there, on the twenty-second floor of the Grayson Building. She said over her shoulder, not looking back, “I never heard any rumor about me and Elliott, did you, John?”
To her surprise, he slowly nodded, saw she still wasn’t looking at him, and said aloud, “Yes, I did hear some rumors. I actually spoke to Elliott about them, and he denied them, of course. I remember I was about to leave when I turned and saw that he was smirking behind his hand. Then it was gone, and I believed I must have imagined it. Elliott would never hurt me.” He rubbed his knuckles then, and Savich knew that the restrained aristocratic senator had been thinking about hitting Elliott Benson. Because he believed he was the enemy? Did he believe that Nick would do such a thing?
“Why do you think he would slander Dr. Campion?” Sherlock asked. “If, of course, he actually did.”
“I don’t know. He’s occupied a unique position in my life, sometimes a friend, sometimes an enemy. It’s been that way since we were in high school. I do know he wanted to sleep with Cleo, I know that for a fact. But she didn’t want him. She told me about it.” He paused, looked down at his hands, at his fingers rubbing against his palms. “But of course there was Tod Gambol.”
“Who still hasn’t been located,” Dane said.
The senator said, “Maybe Tod’s the one who killed her. Or maybe it was Elliott and he’s the one who started the rumor about Nicola because he wanted her to leave me. Maybe I’ve been wrong about him all these years. But would he go that far? Jesus, I don’t know. Do you know why he would say such a thing, Nicola?”
“No, I have no idea. Did you believe him when he denied the rumor about me, John?”
“Good God, yes, naturally.”
“Are you quite sure?”
“Of course.” But he dropped his eyes. He said, “Those references to my journal, to what I’d supposedly written, listen to me. I didn’t write any of that, so that means she lied, but now we know it wasn’t Cleo who lied, it was someone else.”
“Yes,” Savich said. “Yes, we think that just might be the case, Senator.”
Senator Rothman looked pathetically eager. “Really? And just what exactly do you think, Agent?”
“We need to speak to you and your sister, Albia Rothman, sir,” Sherlock said. “Could you perhaps arrange a meeting?”
“I’m sure Albia would want very much to see you again, Nick. Why don’t all of you come to dinner tonight at my home?”
“That would be fine,” Nick said. “Thank you, John.”
“What’s this about Albia? You think she’s got something to do with this? You think she wrote the letter to Nicola, made up that journal?” His face was flushed. “That’s nonsense, absolute rubbish.”
“What time, John?” Nick asked.
They were all seated at the magnificent dining room table, which was set for six. Senator Rothman sat at the head of the table and Albia at the other end.
Dane thought she was a beautiful woman, as charming as her brother, though perhaps a touch more calculated. It was obvious to him that her brother hadn’t mentioned the letter or the journal to her.
