She shook her head: “Never. Never even heard of them. I do my own taxes, I’ve always been an employee of somebody, so my financial life is routine. Never needed any kind of accountant.”
—
When Virgil lefther, he was convinced that she hadn’t had anything to do with the murder. But he was curious about Carlson’s unknown girlfriend. Fisk hadn’t mentioned a second woman, only Locklin. Would she have known about her? She said she’d met Carlson during the Grandfelt murder investigation, which would have been months after Carlson told Locklin about the unknown woman.
Might Carlson have concealed that other, more serious relationship, from his soon-to-be wife? Or was there even another woman? Might Carlson have simply been lying about that, to put off Locklin?
In the truck, Virgil called Lucas, who asked, “What did you find out?”
Virgil told him about the interviews with Baer and Locklin: “Bottom line, I didn’t get much, but I’d like to know who this other woman is.”
“So would I,” Lucas agreed.
“I’m gonna focus on finding her. And any possibilities the true-crimers turn up.”
“What do you think about Carlson?” Lucas asked. “Is he our DNA guy?”
“I’m cautiously optimistic, but I really don’t have to be anything in particular—we got hair out of the sink he used, so we’ll know for sure whenever the DNA analysis gets back.”
“Okay. Something else you don’t know,” Lucas said. “Henderson called a while ago. The DNA scrubs are being sent to a private lab in Chicago. We’ll have the results about the time I get home, early next week.”
“Good. See you then. Take it easy, big guy.”
“You too, Virgie. Probably see you Tuesday. Listen, call me if anything comes up. Anything.”
—
Virgil called Baer:“Tina Locklin told me that Timothy Carlson had a relationship with another woman, back when the problem came up with Tina,” Virgil said. “Would you have any idea of who that might have been?”
“None at all,” Baer said. “Tina left in October or November, somewhere after it got cold. I quit playing golf in early October, about the time for the first snow squall, so…I don’t have a lot of social chit-chat with Timothy in the off-season. Although…it’s kind of odd that I wouldn’t know.”
“Any chance that there was no other woman, that Carlson was trying to let Tina down easy?”
“That’s a thought,” Baer said. “That’s something that Timothy might do.”
“All right. If you have any new thoughts, let me know.”
Still sitting in the truck, Virgil got out his notebook and made a note about the timing of Carlson’s rejection of Tina in the autumn before Grandfelt’s death. He finished the note and started the truck, but hadn’t yet put it in gear, when Baer called back.
“I had a new thought,” Baer said.
“Tell me.”
“You said that Amanda told you that she met Timothy during the investigation of Doris Grandfelt’s murder…”
“Yes.”
“Huh. I’ll tell you something. Timothy was not impulsive. I’m digging around in my memory, now, but if you look it up, I think he married Amanda at the end of that summer. They were married at the golf club. It’s possible that it was the next year after Grandfelt was murdered, but I don’t think so. I think it was the same year.”
“So…”
“So that would be awful fast for Timothy. Awful fast, if they only knew each other from the time Grandfelt was murdered in the spring. I was wondering if it was possible that Amanda was the woman Timothy was talking about with Tina. That he and Amanda were actually dating the autumn before the murder?”
“That’s not what she told me.”
“I know. You told me that,” Baer said.
“You think she was lying?”
