“He didn’t try too hard,” Joe said. “That wasn’t his main objective. I’d say it was only important to him to get rid of Gelber in the quickest manner possible. Otherwise, he would have spent more time on Gelber before he killed him. You said he enjoyed torturing you.”
“Oh, yes, he did that,” Newell said grimly. “Every little stinging wound. You’re probably right. Drogan was going to leave any cleanup retrieval from his office for later.”
“Dead,” Beth repeated dazedly. She couldn’t seem to take it in. “Gelber’s dead? But we were going to see him.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Three people died yesterday. Now Gelber? Because of me?”
“No, because a son of a bitch is trying to cover his tracks,” Eve said bluntly. “And he doesn’t care whom he hurts to do it. Stop blaming yourself. All you’re doing is trying to survive.”
“I’m not blaming—” Beth lifted her shoulders as if to ease the tension. “Well, maybe I was, but it’s difficult—” She took a deep breath. “So we won’t be able to find out what Gelber knew about my accident and the therapy that—”
“I didn’t say that,” Joe said. “We managed to get into Gelber’s office, and Newell was able to access the records and make a disc. That should tell us a lot. But it seems you had over six months of in-depth sessions with him. Newell has to go through it and try to organize the information and eliminate repetitions. Evidently Gelber drummed several points over and over into your mind.” He paused. “One of them concerned Cara Sandler, Beth’s friend who was with her at the ski lodge.”
“Cara? Why?”
Newell raised his hand. “Don’t ask me anything yet. I just noticed the repetition of the name when I located the records. I didn’t have time to do anything but copy the record before we had to bolt out of there.”
“We haven’t had time to make any inquiries about Cara Sandler since you told us about her,” Eve said. “I believe we’d better get moving on it.” She turned to Joe. “I’ll do that if you want to concentrate on the disc.”
“Newell will be doing most of it, but I’d like to be available to help.” He glanced at his watch. “But we’d better get a little sleep before we go into high gear. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Eve said as she turned to Beth. “I think we all need to stop and get our breath, don’t you?”
She smiled crookedly. “If that’s possible. I feel like curling up in bed and pulling the covers over my head. I guess I shouldn’t admit that. You all seem to be so cool and calm.”
“You’re doing fine, Beth,” Newell said gently. “No one expects you to accept murder without flinching.”
“I can’t help what you expect of me.” She turned and moved heavily toward the glass doors leading to the house. “I’m just trying to work my way through this. I know Hans Gelber was probably a scumbag and that he might have done terrible things to me, but it’s too remote to me right now. It’s not real. All that’s clear is that he’s dead. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.”
Eve frowned as she watched her go into the house. “We’re throwing too much at her at once. I keep forgetting that she just woke up into a world that she can’t possibly understand. Hell, even if she hadn’t had that kind of experience, she might still be responding in the same way. Murder isn’t exactly common.”
“Understatement.” Newell’s gaze was on the glass doors. “But she’s making a good adjustment. I admire her resilience. You can see how torn and confused she is about believing that any of this is real.”
Eve nodded. “And we were just talking earlier about how you sometimes have to look beyond reality.” She grimaced. “She can’t quite understand ‘spooky’ stuff, but she’s trying to be open to it.”
Joe’s brows rose. “Now I wonder how that subject came up.”
“Not the way you’d assume. I didn’t mention Bonnie.” She picked up her empty cup to take into the kitchen. “I figured that would be too much of a test as to how open she could be.”
“Bonnie?” Newell asked.
“My daughter, who died when she was seven.” She left it at that as she moved toward the doors. “I’m going to hit the shower and go to bed. Do you suppose there’s anything on TV about Gelber’s murder