to hear that you’re leaving. I hope you’re doing okay. But the reason—I think Louise called yesterday and told you the FBI is investigating Lew? I think it’s about the Chicago bombing, but they never actually said that. Has to be, right? How crazy is that? Anyway, one of the people at the FBI is coming to the clinic today at three o’clock. She’s going to show us a photo array. They’re looking for some guy they call Sergeant Petty. They must think he’s a…I don’t know, a coconspirator or something. We’re right in the middle of some crime story! So, can you make it at three o’clock today? I hope so. Or if not—well, I hope you’re doing okay, kiddo.”
She puts down the phone. Checks the time again: 2:37 p.m.
She grabs her keys and heads for the door.
123
I DRIVE my car to A New Day. The parking lot is nearly empty now, just after three o’clock on a Friday afternoon. No one is at the reception desk, and the door to the main hallway has been propped open. I walk in and call out, “Hello?”
“Oh, hi.” Tom Miller comes out of an office. “Sorry, the physical-therapy clinic at this facility is basically closed now. Nobody schedules late-afternoon appointments on Fridays.”
“I hope I didn’t keep you here,” I say.
“No, you’re good. Being part of an FBI investigation is more exciting than anything else I had on my social calendar. Actually, I don’t even have a social calendar.”
“I know the feeling,” I say. “So…should we get to the video footage?”
“Sure.” He looks past me. “I called Michelle. I was hoping she might be here.”
“You still haven’t heard from her?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. I don’t know her cell number. The clinic only has her landline. I left a voice mail there, hoping she’d pick it up.”
“I suppose we could wait a bit,” I say. It’s only a few minutes past three.
We sit in the reception area. Tom’s dressed pretty much as he was yesterday, which is how I suppose you’d expect a physical therapist to dress, in a T-shirt and sweats.
“So you like Michelle,” I say.
“Michelle? Sure. She’s a nice person. I didn’t get to know her all that well.”
“But you strike me as someone who gets to know people well.”
He blushes. “Well, I try to get along. I knew Michelle only a couple of weeks. Some people open up more than others, I guess.”
“Michelle didn’t open up?”
“Oh…” He tilts his head. “She didn’t seem very interested in talking about her past. Y’know, she’d change the subject or whatever. So I just minded my own business.”
“Give me examples,” I say. “I mean, we’re just killing some time here.”
He takes a breath. “Well, I asked her where she was from, and she said she was from the Midwest. I said, ‘Yeah? Whereabouts?’ And she didn’t—she changed the subject.”
“She didn’t tell you where she was from?”
“No. Or, like, I remember asking her what brought her to Virginia? Y’know, I thought she’d say something like family or a boyfriend or school or something.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she needed a change of scenery. And then she kinda started talking about something else. So I didn’t push it.” He raises a hand. “She’s a great therapist, though, and, really, she’s a very sweet lady.”
I understand. I also understand that she’s apparently not accepting Tom’s invitation to join us. I look at the clock. It’s now twenty past three. I want to get back soon. This wasn’t supposed to take more than a few minutes. I show the video, people either recognize him or not, and we move on.
I’m anxious to hear from Books, but it will take him some time to reach the apartment building in Huntington, get everyone in strike formation, and then execute the search of Mary Ann Stoddard’s apartment.
I ask Tom, “Have you had a chance to think about whether you might have seen Sergeant Petty?”
“Yeah, I mean—well, the video will be good to see. But I told you some of the people who’d listen to Lew in the courtyard weren’t patients?”
“Right. You said others would come. Other veterans.”
“Yeah. I mean, a guy who’s bald and in his forties—I wouldn’t say he was one of the regulars. But there was a guy who came around sometimes, and he might be the guy you’re talking about. He was very serious. Like, this was all just guys sitting around talking politics, y’know? Lew was definitely doing most of the talking, but it was, like,