Harry gave Maura and Concepcion a vividaccount of the hearing at the hospital — especially the near catastrophicspeech by Caspar Sidonis, and the remarkable performances by Mel Wetstone andMary Tobin.
'This Sidonis,' Concepcion said when hehad finished, 'does he know about your wife — I mean, the research she wasdoing?'
'I don't think so. I haven't shared what Iknow about her other life with anyone except the police. Telling Sidonis seemedto serve no purpose. I doubt he would believe it anyway.'
'He sounds like he could be a dangerousenemy. I would recommend you to stay as far away from him as possible. Will hefollow through on his threat to quit?'
'I doubt it, but you never know. He makesit sound like he could just walk out of MMC and hang up his shingle at anotherhospital. But he has a huge research lab, and when you're in themillion-plus-a-year category, which I'm sure he is, things are seldom thatsimple. There's no hospital in the city without a chief of cardiac surgery. AndI doubt any of them would be too pleased to have ol' Caspar decide to horn inon their territory.'
Maura next told of how Lonnie Sims hadhelped her produce a series of photo-quality pictures of the man she had seen.There was the original, and three other front-and-side views — one with glassesand a beard, one with a mustache and blond hair, another with blue eyes andlong dark hair. Sims had reduced them all in size and placed them on a singlelegal-size sheet along with an empty box for the addition of other information.He then printed out ten copies for her.
'Should have done one as a woman,'Concepcion said studying the images.
'What?'
'Nothing. Just babbling. This guy seemslike he can almost walk through walls in hospitals, so I was wondering whathe'd look like as a nurse.'
'Actually, Lonnie tried out a number offeminine wigs and makeup of various kinds. That opened up dozens ofcombinations and possibilities. The pictures would have been awfully small ifwe had tried to print too many. Plus, we felt it might be too confusingfor anyone looking at a set of fifteen or twenty composites to focus in on oneof them.'
'Good point,' Concepcion said. 'We'll geta batch of color Xeroxes and put them up on every floor in the hospital. Maybein other hospitals, too.'
'We can't,' Harry said.
He reviewed his clash with Owen Erdman andhis agreement that Erdman alone would supervise distribution of the drawings,and then only privately to department heads.
'It won't work,' Concepcion said, moreagitated than Harry had ever seen him.
'What do you mean?'
'There's not much chance that someone'sjust going to look at these posters and say, "Ah ha! That's our man rightover there." It happens that way sometimes, but not often. What we'rereally trying to do is annoy The Doctor, upset him to the point where he doessomething careless — jab and run, jab and run until he doesn't care aboutanything except getting even with you.'
'You talk as if you know him,' Harry said.
The tic at the corner of Concepcion'smouth fired off several times.
'I don't know him specifically,Harry,' he said. 'But I know psychos. Our tripping up that man is not nearly aslikely as his stumbling over his own ego. But our best chance of having thathappen is to find a way to rile him up.
'I'm sorry, but I can't do it, Walter. Igave the hospital president my word. My position's shaky enough around thatplace without pushing my luck with him. He's famous for his temper. In a weekor so, we can try approaching him again. But not now.'
'Whatever you say, Doc.'
Concepcion studied one of the posters fora few seconds.
'Maura, this is really quite amazing,' hesaid, slipping it into a battered leather portfolio.
She looked at him curiously.
'How do you know?'
'Hey, I may be a little rough around theedges,' he responded cheerily, 'but I know good artwork when I see it.'
'Thanks,' she said, shrugging off hermomentary concern. 'We'll know just how amazing a likeness that is when we seethe guy looking out at us from behind a set of bars.'
If he lives that long. For a moment, Concepcion wasafraid he had said the words out loud.
It seemed to Maura as if a shadow hadpassed over Concepcion's face — as if he had quite suddenly drifted off to somefaraway place. He took a long drink of the lemonade Harry had made for them.When he set his glass down, the shadow was gone. His grin was broad andengaging.
'So, then, mis amigos,' he said,'it's my turn to tell you about Elegance, The Escort Service for DiscerningGentlemen. The woman who runs it is Page. She wouldn't tell me any more thanthat. I met her at this dark bar on the East Side that has no windows. Not one.It turns out that my suspicions were right. Desiree did a kind of freelancework for Elegance on and off for four or five months. Um. . I'm sorry to saythis, Harry, but apparently she was very much in demand.'
'Swell.'
'Hey, are you going to be okay with this?'
Harry shrugged. 'Go ahead.'
'Okay. Anyhow, this Page is very angrybecause some wealthy, powerful people pulled out of a contract with her whenthey found out Desiree was a reporter. What happened was Desiree triedinterviewing some of the other girls and one of them ratted on her. Pagethought that by firing Desiree she'd get rewarded. Instead, she and Elegancegot canceled. She ended up losing a hell of a lot of money. She seemed angryenough to talk about the men involved, but she also seemed really frightened ofthem. Apparently two of them paid her a visit and gave her the third degreeabout Desiree. I couldn't get her to tell me anything about them at first. So Ikept sweetening the pot until she did. . Harry, I'm … ah. . I'm afraidthe fifteen hundred's gone.'
'All of it?'
'It was kind of a do-or-die situation.She'd had a few drinks, and was just on the edge. I figured that if I didn'tnudge her over with a good offer, I might lose her for good.'
'Well, five hundred of that's yours,'Harry said.
'Harry!' Maura exclaimed.
'Sorry, sorry. Go on, Walter. I trust you.Really I do.'
'She didn't know any of the men's namesexcept someone named Lance. I guess that's his last name. He paid her in cashand let her know if a girl was unsatisfactory for whatever reason. The girls,seven of her very best, went to the Camelot Hotel twice a month and stayed thenight. She didn't know for certain what the men were doing there, but fromthings her girls told her from time to time, she thought some of them might havebeen in the insurance business.'
'Insurance?'
'That's all she said. It isn't that much,but it certainly got my attention. I was thinking I could approach some of thechambermaids at the Camelot. Chambermaids in hotels know everything, and inthis city half of them are Latino. Maybe I can learn who some of the guys are,and we can go from there.'
They meet every two weeks atthe Camelot Hotel. .
'I don't think that's going to benecessary,' Harry said, remembering one of the few lines of Desiree's writinghe had gotten the chance to read. 'I think Evie might have already named acouple of them for us.'
He had copied the two names he found inEvie's address book and kept the copy in his wallet. The original was wedgedinto the toe of an old pair of sneakers in the hall closet. Now, he smoothedthe names on the table, called information, and then dialed the New York PublicLibrary. He was looking for a reference-room librarian named Stephanie Barnes.Barnes had been one of his first medical assistants, and one of the few wholeft the office to go back to school rather than to have babies or to make moremoney than he could afford to pay. Harry had given her a nice bonus to helpwith her first year. Now, happily married, with a master's degree in library science,she had both the babies and more money than he could afford to pay.