Hour Game

"Where's Sean?" asked Williams.

"Out getting some questions answered."

Bailey looked at her suspiciously. "Where?"

"Don't really know."

"I didn't think Batman went anywhere without Robin," said the FBI agent sarcastically.

Before Michelle could fire back a response, Williams said, "Well, can't you call him? He'll want to know about this."

"His cell phone was broken during the chase with Roger Canney. He hasn't replaced it yet."

"I'm sure he'll hear about this soon enough," said Sylvia. "Bad news always travels faster than good."

"Where's the husband?"

Williams answered, "With the kids. He was on the road when it happened. He's a salesman with a high-tech outfit. He said he got a call from his wife's cell phone a little before one o'clock this morning. The voice said his wife was dead. He tried calling her cell phone back but there was no answer. Then he tried calling the house but the line wasn't working. We later found the wires had been cut. So he called 911."

"When did Robinson arrive here?"

"About an hour after my men. He was on his way to Washington for a sales conference."

"He likes to travel pretty late at night."

"He said he wanted to put his kids to bed and spend time with his wife before he left," answered Bailey.

"Any reason to suspect him?" asked Michelle.

"Other than that there was no forced entry, none that we can see," replied Williams.

"And no one saw anything?" she asked.

"There were only the three kids here. The infant of course can't help us. The oldest boy-"

A female deputy rushed into the room. "Chief, I just finished interviewing Tommy, the middle child. He said his father was in the house last night when he woke up. He doesn't know what time it was. He said his father told him he forgot something, to go back to bed."

At this instant another deputy burst in. "We found something in the plumb pipe in the basement."

They placed the Baggie taken from the plumb pipe on the dining room table and observed its contents through the clear material.

"St. Christopher's medal, belly ring, gold anklet, belt buckle and an amethyst ring," inventoried Williams.

"All the things taken from each of the first five victims," said Bailey.

Williams immediately turned to one of his deputies. "I want Harold Robinson taken into custody right now."

CHAPTER 83

KING'S FIRST STOP HAD BEEN A physician friend of his in Lynchburg who was also a well-respected pathologist. They'd gone over Battle 's autopsy results very carefully. A more detailed report had been prepared by Sylvia, which included the toxicology results and microscopic examination of Battle 's brain tissue.

"From the gross finding of the unusual wrinkling on the thoracic aorta and the microscopic lesions on the brain, I certainly can't discount it, Sean," said his learned friend. "Those certainly are telltale signs of the disease."

"One more question," said King. "Can it affect the fetus?"

"Do you mean can it cross the placenta? Absolutely."

King's next stop was UVA Hospital, where he met with a professor in the pharmacology department. This was really what had started it all going in his mind.

He quickly received confirmation of his suspicions.

The professor informed him that "a person who abuses strong narcotics builds up a tolerance to them. Over time the desired effect is diminished, and higher doses of the drugs are required to achieve the desired result."

King had thanked him and went back to his car. Well, I certainly know someone who's been taking strong narcotics: Dorothea.

His next target was an antique shop in Charlottesville 's downtown mall area that he'd been to several times. With the shop owner's help he found the object he was looking for.

"It's a cipher disk," explained the owner. He pointed to the round piece of metal that had an outer ring of letters and an inner one. "You can decode encrypted messages that way. You move the rings to line up the two sets of letters: a fore, s for w and so on."

"And if you're off by one letter or one tick, the whole meaning of the message changes? One tick off?"

"That's a good way to phrase it. One tick off and the whole thing changes."

"You just don't know how unbelievably satisfying that is." King purchased the cipher disk and left, the curious owner staring after him.

A little later he was speaking with Bobby Battle's private physician, a prominent doctor in the area and a man he knew well.

He discussed the results of the autopsy with the gentleman, who looked at the report very carefully and then took off his wire-rim glasses and said cautiously, "I've only been his doctor the last twenty years, you know."

"But you've noted changes?"

"In his personality, yes, I suppose. But he was getting on in years. Half my patients have personality changes when they get to that age."

"But in Bobby's case did you suspect that was the cause?"