Blow Out

The three men stood there, of no use at all, uncomfortable but stoic, until she was ready.

Callie and Officer Kreider half-carried her mother to the four-door white Crown Victoria, the last car in line. Detective Raven helped them into the backseat after sweeping away a box of Kleenex, an empty pizza box, and a stuffed dog with a dangling left ear.

He got in next to her, crowding her over, and closed the door. “Bobby, we’re ready.”

“Was that close or what?” Detective Bobby LeBeau said. “Here are the vultures now. Nancy’s going to follow in her car, and Ray will bring yours in, Ben.”

Bobby pulled out onto the snow-covered road as the first of the media vans was searching the street for the right house.

Ben smacked him on the shoulder. “Go, Bobby.”

Callie said quietly to Detective Raven, “How did the killer manage to get into the building, much less up to the third-floor library?”

He frowned at her and grabbed the chicken stick above the passenger window when the car started sliding on the slick road. “Before we get to that, do you know, personally, what Justice Califano was doing at the library last night, Ms. Markham?” To her surprise, he pulled his PDA from his pocket and waited, the small stylus poised.

“I have no idea. I told you he liked to spend time there, to be alone, I suppose, study briefs, review opinions, whatever. If he went for a specific reason last night, I don’t know what it was. May I ask why it didn’t occur to any of you to call me?”

“Your mother didn’t know your hotel in New York. We didn’t try your place because your mother didn’t think you were there.”

“All right. I answered your question, now answer mine. How did the killer manage to get to my stepfather?”

She felt her mother flinch. She was listening. Callie hoped that Detective Raven—what kind of name was that?—had something to tell them. He didn’t answer her immediately because he was looking out the back window to see if any of the media were following. He turned back and said, “All we know so far is that we have one guard, Henry Biggs, who’s in the hospital unconscious because someone whacked him on the head when he went out for a smoke, took his clothes and waltzed right into the building. When Officer Biggs regains consciousness, and the doctors aren’t saying yet if he’ll make it, then we’ll find out all the details. The guards didn’t pay much attention, probably because the killer looked enough like Henry Biggs in size. So that means the uniform fit him well enough.

“The FBI forensic teams are superb. You can bet they will come up with some evidence. It’s rare that a murderer leaves a pristine crime scene.”

“The man who killed my stepfather must have followed him around,” Callie said, “learned his routine, hung around the Supreme Court Building, learned the guards’ routines. Someone had to have seen him, noticed him. Wait, there’s closed-circuit TV in the building. The cameras would show him, wouldn’t they?”

“Yeah, we’re already checking the security tapes to see if the killer shows us any features we can use to identify him. The guy had to have visited the building several times, probably in one of the tours. Maybe we’ll see him.”

Callie was stroking her mother’s gloved hands, staring through the windshield at the soft snow. “So that leaves us right now with no obvious motive, and a guard in the hospital with a cracked skull, still unconscious so we can’t talk to him. What does he look like?”

“The Supreme Court marshal told us that Biggs is tall, beefy through the chest, a white guy, around fifty. So our guy can’t be that far off in appearance. I assume you got home before midnight last night, Ms. Markham?”

“Why yes I did. And isn’t this just lovely. I’m a suspect.”

“It’s my job, ma’am. I’m just doing my job.”

Again, Callie wanted to smile, but didn’t. “Do you know,” she said slowly, turning to look out the car window, “I can accept that he’s dead, intellectually.” But there was nothing intellectual about how devastated her mother was. She supposed that it would hit her soon, but for now, she had to protect her mother. It gave her mind focus.

Margaret said, not looking up from Callie’s shoulder, “Callie wasn’t supposed to be home until tomorrow, Detective. We were having a surprise birthday party for her.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Califano. How old are you tomorrow, Ms. Markham?”

“Twenty-eight, Detective Raven. How old are you on your next birthday?”