"And I was all ready to jump on you for being wrong."
"Sorry to spoil it for you."
"Never mind. But you're ignoring the more important question."
"Which is?"
"Why did the killer take Bradley out of the apartment in the first place? Think about it. Trian and Whitherson were both murdered in their apartments, right? The killer got them alone, did his thing, and left the mess. But not with Bradley. He went to the trouble of taking him out of the apartment. That meant the killer had to go to the trouble of stealing a car, one. Two, he had to risk being seen leaving the apartment as well as risk being seen getting rid of the body behind the Black Magic. Why? Why not just kill him like the others and get it over with? And why dump the body behind a gay bar?" Sara thought for a moment.
"I see what you mean. Look, Max, I know the heat is coming down on you, but I can't hold back much longer. I won't say anything about the mutilation of Trian, but I have to let the public know about the connection of the three victims to the AIDS clinic."
"Sara..."
"Someone is going to dig it up soon anyway, and now Bradley's father can't be hurt any more than he already has." She gripped her cane.
"More important, Harvey has decided to go public with the clinic's success. He needs to raise funds. There'll be an hour story on the success of his AIDS treatment on News Flash
Max whistled.
"Talk about a major scoop," he said.
"Could be Pulitzer here, Sara. I'd hate to see you miss that."
"Not fair, Max."
"I know. My bias against the press flaring up again. Sorry."
"Forget it." She watched him start to gnaw on his finger not the nail, the finger.
"Max, don't you think the connection to the clinic is important?"
"Crucial," he answered, removing his finger from his mouth and rubbing his face with the same hand.
"My people are checking out everyone involved with the place."
"That's the crux of the whole thing, isn't it?" she asked.
"I mean, everyone assumes that a psychopath is targeting gays, but he could really be after AIDS patients or, more specifically, patients at Harvey's clinic."
"Could be."
"What about Harvey's fear that someone is trying to sabotage the clinic?"
Bernstein stood up and began pacing in a small, tight circle.
"A possibility but a long shot. According to Harvey, nobody outside the clinic not the PDA, you, or anybody else knew how close they were to finding a cure. Sure, there were rumors, but people don't usually try to sabotage a rumor."
"I'm not sure I agree with you there," Sara said.
"We've both seen plenty of people act on a lot less than unsubstantiated rumors before."
"Granted, but look at it this way if someone wanted to destroy Harvey and Bruce's work, why go to the trouble of murdering all these people in such a grisly fashion? Why not just burn down the clinic? Or why not just kill...?" His voice trailed away.
"Just kill?"
Max swallowed.
"I was about to say, "Why not just kill the doctors?" There was a long silence.
"Max, what did the handwriting analyst say?"
"Bruce Grey wrote the note. No chance of it being a forgery."
"Does that mean he definitely committed suicide?" Bernstein paused, his hand still nervously massaging his chin.
"Not necessarily," he began.
"Because of the note in Grey's handwriting, the suicide was barely questioned. It was an open-and shut case."
"And now?"
"There's so many holes, Sara. I checked out Grey's history.
He seemed happy enough, normal enough, no signs of depression or mental illness."
"But if Bruce wrote the note "
"Ah, but haw did he write the note?"
"I don't understand."
"As you know, I took the liberty of having the handwriting analyst check the note again. But this time I had him look for other details."
"Such as?"
"For one thing, Swinster noted that the handwriting was unusually shaky. Words and letters ran into one another. It was definitely written by Grey the shape and design of the letters tell you that but it was not his normal handwriting. He was in a rush or under duress or something like that."
"Isn't that normal in the case of a suicide?"
"Not really. Usually, the handwriting is slow and even and fairly normal. Grey always wrote very neatly even when he scribbled down a prescription. The suicide note was uncharacteristically sloppy. It could have been I said could have been coerced."
Sara sat forward with her eyes opened wide. Her words came fast.