Carlton the night of Liz’s murder,” Jack said. “Also, what you were doing at El Topo yesterday afternoon?”
Vandermullen studied his bourbon for a moment. “I followed Liz to the hotel because I was worried about her.” He looked embarrassed by the admission. “Liz always liked picking up strangers. She liked doing dangerous things like that. Going to bed with men she’d just met.”
He shook his head sadly. “I followed her Saturday night because I knew she had a new lover. I could always tell. Only this one seemed…different. I feared he truly might be…dangerous.”
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, Karen thought.
“I answered the ad for the same reason,” he continued. “I knew Liz had met men through the personals columns before, so I guess I’d gotten in the habit of watching them, wondering who my wife would pick this time. When I saw your ad,” the doctor said, looking over at Karen, “I hoped you might know who’d killed her. No matter what happened between us, I want to see Liz’s murderer brought to justice.”
Neither Jack nor Karen said anything as he drained his glass and went to refill it. They both declined another drink. Karen wondered if Jack was surprised as she was that Vandermullen knew she’d been the one to put the ad in the paper. The only way he could have found out was from Captain Baxter.
It had also been clear when Vandermullen opened the door that he knew them both. Jack had told her that she’d seen Vandermullen at the Hotel Carlton. And he’d seen her. But had he also seen her at the El Topo, when according to Jack she’d almost been run down?
When Vandermullen sat back down again, he said into the silence, “I loved Liz, but the truth was, I couldn’t keep her happy. Nor it seems could I protect her from herself.”
He was trying to portray himself as the wounded husband who put up with his wife’s infidelities because he loved her. Karen wished she could remember her meeting with Liz. Could Liz have been the woman her ex-husband was portraying her to be? Hadn’t Jack told her that Liz had mentioned a jealous ex she’d recently left?
“Then you didn’t see her at the Carlton Saturday night?” Jack asked. “Nor the man she met?”
Vandermullen shook his head. “The truth is, I realized it was over. I couldn’t keep trying to protect her. Liz was on her own. Just the way she wanted it.”
“Then you didn’t hear about the murder until the next morning?” Jack pressed.
“No, not until the police called,” he said, then seemed to mull over his thoughts for a moment. “I’m quite a bit older than Liz was. Maybe that was the problem.”
“Or maybe it was losing the baby,” Karen suggested, surprising them all, she noticed.
“Our daughter, Joanna?” Vandermullen exclaimed.
So he hadn’t known that Denny was the baby’s father? Or he did and wasn’t admitting it? But it answered one question. There had been a baby at least. And it could have been Denny’s.
“Why on earth would you want to know about the baby?” Vandermullen asked, sounding upset. “It’s been more than sixteen years.” He downed the rest of his drink and got up to pour himself another. “It was a tragic loss for us. Liz was devastated since she was unable to have other children.”
“It was a home birth?” Karen asked.
Again Vandermullen looked surprised. “Why are you asking about this now? I thought you were trying to solve her murder.”
Karen shrugged. “I’m sorry, I just know that the baby was on Liz’s mind. She’d mentioned the girl would be sixteen now. If she’d lived,” Karen said, making it up as she went from what Jack had told her and what she and Denny suspected.
“Why would Liz mention the baby to you?” Vandermullen asked, appearing shocked by that revelation.
“I assume because of the girl’s birthday this month and maybe because Joanna Kay is buried here in Missoula,” Karen said, noticing that she was making both Vandermullen—and Jack—uncomfortable.
“She told you a lot about…our daughter,” Vandermullen said as he sat down again and took a drink. “Yes, it was a home birth. It’s what Liz wanted. She was deathly afraid of hospitals.”
“The baby died?” Jack asked.
Vandermullen nodded. “She was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.”
“How horrible,” Karen said sympathetically. “How was it that the baby was born here and not in Columbia Falls?”
Vandermullen’s gaze locked on hers. “This was Liz’s hometown. She wanted her baby to be born here. Sentimental, I guess.”
“Probably