Andi didn’t even have to look at George. He felt his partner next to him, all calm and confident despite being confronted with that mixture of arrogance, snobbism, and class that made Andi’s lips twitch with the urge to say something rude and very inappropriate. When the receptionist wore a tailored suit, you knew you had breached holy ground.
“Good day. We are Detectives George Donovan and Andrew Hayes.” Andi dutifully pulled his badge out when George did the same. The receptionist inspected them closely, made quick pictures with his cell before handing them back. “We’re here to talk to Mr. Gartner.”
The receptionist nodded. “Mr. Gartner is here, but I’m not sure if he’s free. Please give me a moment to talk to him.” The young man picked up an old-fashioned phone, dialed once, then waited. Neither Andi nor George tried to pressure him. Working where he did, he surely knew he didn’t have to do anything for them without a warrant. It was best to stay polite. They could always get the big guns out later.
“Yes, Mr. Gartner.” He put the receiver back onto the phone. “You’re lucky, Detectives, Mr. Gartner is available and willing to talk to you even though your visit was unannounced. Please follow me.”
The receptionist with the perfected passive-aggressive attitude stepped around the counter to lead them out of the reception room and along the hall to a door that also marked the end of the floor. After a short knock, the young man opened the door and motioned for them to enter. George went in first, taking the lead. Gideon Gartner’s office reflected perfectly his station in life, namely at the very top. The walls had a light wood paneling where they could be seen between ceiling-high bookshelves stacked with leather-bound tomes. The desk behind which Mr. Gartner resided took up a good quarter of the room, all heavy and dark and gleaming. There were two screens on it, as well as a quill and inkwell. The contradiction between old and new fascinated Andi. As did Gideon Gartner, who looked at them with the same soulful eyes Andi had seen in the newspaper picture. His hair had once been dark, and a few strands still stubbornly clung to their original color while the rest displayed a distinguished silver. The man had aged well, not too many lines marring his angular face. He motioned toward the two leather chairs standing in front of his desk.
“Please, gentlemen, take a seat. Can Gary bring you something to drink?”
George and Andi both declined with a shake of their heads, after which the receptionist, Gary, left, closing the door behind him. Before George could start with the usual introductions, Gartner started speaking again. He was clearly used to taking charge. Being a lawyer for international law, he had to be or else he wouldn’t be sitting at such a dignified desk, owner of his own law firm. Behind the thing, Andi saw only glimpses of Gartner’s wheelchair, but it looked very high-class.
“What can I do for you, Detectives? It’s not every day I get a visit from local law enforcement. I hope none of my clients were naughty.” He chuckled softly, as if he’d just made a very funny joke. Or one only he was privy to. Lawyers had a strange sense of humor.
“Well, it’s not every day three men are found dead in a lake, so I guess we get a pass?”
George sounded as jovial as Mr. Gartner. With a mother who was a judge, George probably knew all the lawyer jokes in the book.
“Three men dead in a lake? I’m impressed. That is a huge thing. May I ask where I come into play?” There was a furtive quality to Gartner’s expression now, one Andi wasn’t sure how to read. Was the man simply curious, already knowing it couldn’t be good, or was it that he knew why they were here and was trying to gauge how much they knew?
George didn’t let himself get derailed. “The victims were Harry Alexander McHill, David Hector Portius II, and Lawrence Miller.”
Andi kept his eyes glued to Gartner’s face, hoping for some tells. The man’s shoulders slumped, and he leaned back in his wheelchair. “Oh. To be frank, I’m surprised you found the connection to me. Back then their fathers did everything in their power to make the whole incident go away and hide all traces.”
George shrugged. “Small digitalized newspaper.”
“Ah, the joys of the technological age.” Gartner chuckled, albeit not in an amused way.
“You said incident. Wasn’t it more like grievous bodily harm?” Andi threw the question in, waiting to see if Gartner took the bait. He was definitely rattled.
“That’s what I would be going for today, after decades of experience in the courtroom. Back then, when I was a young man without any money or connections, it was an unfortunate incident where the execution of hallowed traditions ended in tragedy.” Gartner’s lips twitched in clear amusement. “The outcome would have been the same, though. Me with more than enough money to be settled for life and the subtle backing of three powerful men to help me with my endeavors.”
“You’re not angry about what they did?” George kept his tone light, as if they were making small talk about the weather.
Gideon Gartner sighed and rubbed his face with his left hand. “Dissecting everything I feel about the incident that robbed me of the use of my legs and the violent death of the three men who are to blame for it will take more than the short time we have together. It’s going to cost me another two years at counseling at least and will make my psychotherapist richer than she already is. The short version is, a part of me hates them for what they did and will never stop until I die. Another part of me, the pragmatic part, knows very well I probably wouldn’t be where I am now if it hadn’t happened. I was in Harvard on a scholarship that didn’t cover food, clothing, and housing, and the only reason I tried to get into the fraternity was because they offered cheap rooms to members. Still, the chances of me finishing law school were slim from the beginning, and even if I had made it, I didn’t have any of the connections necessary to get a real start. After I left the hospital—all bills paid, no questions asked—I had a private room with a part-time assistant lined up for me on campus. I still worked very hard to keep the scholarship, though it wasn’t necessary anymore. The trust in my name saw to that. It also saw to my parents getting the medical help they needed after years of hard labor, and it saw my two sisters through school. After graduation, I was invited by one of the most prestigious law firms on the East Coast to start working with them. That wouldn’t have happened if Harry Alexander McHill’s uncle hadn’t been one of their senior partners. From there, my only way was up.” Gartner steepled his fingers on the gleaming surface of his desk. “I’m not going to cry a single tear over their deaths, and I’m not going to send flowers to their funerals. I’m also not going to do a happy dance over their demise, and not just because of the obvious reasons. I guess I simply don’t care.”
“Fair enough.” George nodded. “Nevertheless, we need to know where you were last Friday. The entire day.”
“Of course. I’ll prepare a written statement Gary is going to send to your email with all the receipts and other proof I can find to corroborate my story. Would that suffice?”
“Most certainly. We hope we don’t have to inconvenience you again, but you know how these things sometimes go.” George got up, and Andi followed suit.
“I know all too well. You’re welcome anytime, Detectives. It’s my pleasure to aid the police. Have a good day.”
“Thank you for your time, Mr. Gartner.”
They left the building, neither of them commenting on Gideon Gartner’s overly friendly attitude. When they entered the street, the barely there hum Andi had started to feel inside after the initial shock of absolute silence had worn off turned into the usual roar of images. It hit him hard even though he had anticipated it, and he was glad George drove them back to the precinct.
8. Impossible to Unravel
AFTER Ashort stop at a deli to get some sandwiches, George and Andi were back at their desks in the precinct, George standing in front of the whiteboard with his black marker at the ready. He stared at the numerous lines and names crowding the space, none standing out yet, with a cluster of arrows pointing toward them. Andi was slumped in his chair, nibbling on his sandwich without much appetite, which could be because of the quality of the sandwich—though that rarely deterred Andi—or more likely, because he was back to having the full arthropod surround-sound. The change in his partner when they left the fumigated building had been subtle but telling. The stress lines around Andi’s mouth and eyes, which had evened out a bit during the half or so hour with Gartner, had returned with full force, and the air of constant tension was back surrounding him. Andi had once told him his usual circle of awareness was about half a mile, like a background noise he could never turn off. It was overlayed by his immediate surroundings, which always had the strongest impact. The building certainly wasn’t half a mile wide, but George assumed the absence of the battering of images in his direct vicinity had been the same as absolute silence. People were surprisingly good at ignoring sounds or images they got on a regular basis, like when living close to a railroad the rumbling of the trains didn’t register anymore, while new or different impressions or the absence of sounds they were used to were experienced as more impacting than they actually were. It didn’t help to alleviate his worry about Andi, who very pointedly ignored that he had admitted to having trouble and tried his best to do business as usual. George was experienced enough to give Andi some line before he tried to haul him in again. Hence his focus on the whiteboard.
“We have eight people close to the victims who had reason to off them, and only one showed any signs of true sorrow.” George drew a pink circle around Jeremy Fisher’s name. “He’s also the one suspect who had the easiest means to get his hands on the ketamine that aided in killing the victims.”
“I don’t think he did it.” Andi was playing with a ballpoint pen from his desk, slowly unscrewing it. By the end of their brainstorming, it would be in its individual parts, which Andi would then proceed to break. George made a mental note to buy a new bulk set. They were running low. “Yes, his profession means he is the ideal candidate, but his emotions were genuine, and he had no reason to kill the other two.”
George uncapped his black marker just to give his hands something to do. “He wouldn’t be the first killer to regret what he did, but I agree with you. Why the other two? Unfortunately, that goes for all the wives and the sons as well. The only one who had reason to go after the three of them was Gartner, and he’s in a freaking wheelchair. Even if he has the best model available, I doubt the thing would be versatile enough to herd three grown men into a lake.”
