weakly. “I’d say anytime, but I’m really hoping that’s not the case. My date’s inside, probably wondering where I went. Will you let her know I’ll call her?”
“I’m betting I won’t have to. She’s a doctor, right? She’ll probably head to the hospital as soon as she knows. And I’ll see you there myself,” Simon said.
“Sounds good,” DeMarco breathed and then was whisked away.
Simon immediately sought out Nina, who was standing next to Stevens, talking to him and Archer, the man he’d suspected of murder.
And despite everything, despite Rita Taylor’s failure to identify Archer, despite what had just happened with McGrogen, Simon, in his gut, still believed it to be true.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS, Harold McGrogen was booked into jail, but he wasn’t the only one having to answer to the police. Even now, Gil Archer was at the SFPD with his attorney answering some very tough questions.
After checking in with Stevens, Simon joined Nina on her living room couch. “McGrogen was more than happy to bring Archer down with him in exchange for a deal from the DA. McGrogen’s worked for Archer for almost a year, and he claims that Archer paid him to send SFPD a message by killing a homeless man or two, and blaming it on a cop. That’s why Archer offered to provide McGrogen as a part-time security detail to Welcome Home at a discounted rate. Of course, he made it seem like all he cared about was helping those less fortunate than him. Hell, he even had McGrogen deliver bags of his used golf clothes to the shelter on his first day there.”
“So those green-and-white-checkered golf pants the second murder victim was wearing...those were his?”
“Yeah. There’s gotta be something humorous in there somewhere, but I’m just not seeing it at the moment.”
“So despite helping put on that big fundraising gala, he’s never really cared about helping out the homeless or mentally ill. He’s just seen them as weak. Potential victims. And when he needed a convenient victim, he knew exactly where to go.”
“Right. He told McGrogen he blamed the police for Lana’s death, and that included me in particular. That we’d failed to protect what was his. When city law enforcement started getting bad press for their recent encounters with the homeless, Archer told McGrogen to take advantage of it. Kill a homeless man. Blame it on the cops. And, just for Archer’s own personal satisfaction, leave a clue that the reason Archer was doing all this was because of his anger over Lana. His beloved daughter. God, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.”
“You focused on the more rational thing—Davenport’s threat to me and the fact the initials seemed to stand for Beth Davenport. You couldn’t have known how Archer’s convoluted mind was working. But why did McGrogen play along?”
“Pure greed, prodded along by resentment that I’d been the man who’d axed the SFPD’s retired annuitant program.”
“So this all started before we ever met. What made McGrogen or Archer focus on me?”
“After Archer learned about your role in helping me find Rebecca Hyatt, he railed at McGrogen for over an hour about how unfair it was that you were alive, looking so much like his daughter and doing the kind of work Lana would be doing if only she were alive. He ordered McGrogen to up the ante and the two of them kept close contact, with Archer periodically feeding McGrogen information about you, your involvement with Beth Davenport, and the trauma of your sister’s suicide.”
“Unreal,” Nina breathed. “But this is all assuming McGrogen is telling the truth about Archer. He doesn’t have any real proof, does he?” Nina asked.
“He says Archer is the one who actually broke into your house and planted the teddy bear in your bedroom. If that’s true, we should be able to get a match on those muddy footprints he left behind.”
Nina winced. “To think that something so small can be used to bring down someone so big.”
“Yeah, well, more often than not, that’s usually how it plays out in cases like this. But you just winced....Are you feeling sorry for Archer? Because, like Davenport, he was acting out of love for his daughter? Out of grief?” As he asked the question, Simon tried to keep his tone even so Nina wouldn’t think he was criticizing her professional beliefs again. Personally, he didn’t believe Archer’s grief mitigated his actions any more than McGrogen’s need or anger had, but the thought of Nina disagreeing with