The Edge

“I take it you don’t believe that Earl took his own life?”

“No, I don’t,” he said bluntly.

“Because he couldn’t have managed the chair and all?”

“You’ve been talking to Harper.”

“Actually, Wendy Fuss filled me in on your theory.”

“Harper agrees with me now. But you still think he killed himself?”

“I admit I did not take into account his physical ‘challenges’ in making my conclusion. I was looking strictly at the forensic evidence.”

“But not all the forensic evidence, because you didn’t run blood or tox screens. You just chalked it up to ‘adrenaline.’”

“I explained that to you. When suicide appears to be obvious there is no need. If he’d been fifty years younger and wasn’t found hanging, then, yes, I would have done a full postmortem.”

“So we’ll never know if he was rendered unconscious so they could string him up.”

“I’m sorry. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t,” she said firmly.

“So... insights?” prompted Devine, who had a feeling now that this evening was going to be a waste of time.

She set her wineglass down and seemed to steel herself. “Putnam, like many small towns, has secrets.”

“The big one is who raped Alex Silkwell.”

“I’m not talking about that, though it does involve the Silkwell family.”

An intrigued Devine took a swig of beer. “I’m listening.”

“Curtis Silkwell.”

“What about him?”

“What would you say if I told you that many here believe he is Annie Palmer’s father?”

“I’d say tell me more.”

“Curt and Valerie Palmer were attracted to each other; everyone here knew it. He was twenty years older than she at least. But she was beautiful — Annie took after her — and she caught Curt’s eye. He was quite the philanderer. But I’m sure you knew that.”

“No, I didn’t. Is there proof?”

“DNA? No. No one ever talked about doing that. But I can tell you that Curt paid for Annie’s college education out of state before she came back here. And I understand that Dak helped with the financing of her café. But when Annie was born, Curt was a congressman with plans to one day run for the Senate, which he eventually did and won.”

“So it was all hushed up?”

“Of course it was,” she said. “Those sorts of affairs always are.”

“And did Clare know?”

“She would have been blind not to. And Clare was never blind.”

“And you’re telling me this why?” asked Devine.

“I know you’re interested in Steve and Valerie Palmer’s deaths around the time that Alex was attacked.”

“And they were the ones who discovered Alex after she was raped.”

Guillaume held up four fingers. “Steve and Valerie Palmer, and Earl and Bertie Palmer. All dead. Fire, a hit-and-run, and lastly a hanging.”

“You did the autopsies on Steve and Valerie.”

“I did. And they died of smoke inhalation. That was as far as the postmortem went.”

“Meaning what?”

“Like with Earl, I did not do blood and tox screens.”

“Because it was believed to be an accident?” said Devine.

She rose and stood in front of the fire. Her tall, trim figure seemed right now to hold all sharp angles, Devine noted.

“Because I was encouraged to do the test for smoke inhalation and that was all.”

Devine rose and stood next to her, letting the heat from the fire warm his chilled bones. And he wanted to be right next to the woman when he asked his next, obvious question.

“Who encouraged you to stop at the smoke inhalation test?”

“Do I really need to spell it out for you?”

“Senator Silkwell? Why? Why would he care?”

She didn’t respond so Devine filled in the answer. “Because you’re saying he killed the Palmers? What would be his motive?”

She gave him a patronizing look. “Like I just said, Agent Devine, fifteen years ago he was running for the Senate for the first time. Any hint of scandal would have derailed his campaign. Such things as adultery still counted with voters back then.”

“So someone threatened to expose his secret? Who? I suppose the Palmers, if you think he had them killed and then encouraged you to do short shrift with the postmortem. But that would have been a scandal for the Palmers too. I can’t believe Steve Palmer would have wanted his wife’s adultery known to the world. So where’s the motive for the Palmers to spill the truth to such an extent that Silkwell would feel he needed to kill them?”

“Money. Steve Palmer was a lousy businessman and a gambler to boot. He’d lose more money than he had at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut.”

“So he was blackmailing Silkwell? But by then the family didn’t have any money.”

“Oh, they had some. How else could they keep paying the taxes on Jocelyn Point and keep it running? It’s not cheap. And Curt Silkwell had invested what money he did have well. Indeed, he invested in some of the industries he oversaw as a member of certain congressional committees. As luck would have it his timing was amazing in getting into investments and then out of them in the nick of time before the bottom fell out.”

“So he was trading on insider information?”

“Apparently many of them do, to this day.”

“And how did you come to know all of this?”