Blow Out
Page 69

Mr. Harper opened his mouth, then shut it. He studied Savich’s face and slowly nodded. But when Mrs. Harper spoke, her tired voice was full of anger. “How could this have happened, Agent Savich? We knew Danny, we liked him. He was a fine young man—a law clerk for the United States Supreme Court for heaven’s sake—and you let a Supreme Court Justice get murdered in the Supreme Court Building itself where there must be a hundred police, and what did they do? Nothing. And now everyone is saying that Danny was killed because he was involved somehow in Justice Califano’s murder or knew something about it. I’m telling you, Danny liked Justice Califano, do you hear me? Liked him, respected him, and yet everyone is saying he did something wrong! This can’t be true.”
Annie Harper answered her mother, and Savich was pleased to hear some vitality in her voice. “Mom, I loved Danny, but the thing is, we don’t know what’s true. I want to know, don’t you see? No matter how it turns out, I’ve got to know.”
Savich said, “It’s possible the murderer assumed Danny knew something.”
Annie Harper shook her head, and looked down at her hands. “That’s kind of you to say, Agent Savich, but I know you don’t believe that.” Her voice was tired. There was no anger in it, only infinite weariness.
Savich said, “I understand your frustration, Mrs. Harper. We will find out who did this and we will find out exactly why it was done.” He held her eyes until finally Mrs. Harper sagged against her husband’s shoulder. Mr. Harper put his arm around her and hugged her close to him. “Speak to Annie, Agent Savich. Her mother and I would feel better staying, if that’s all right with you.”
“That’s not a problem.” Savich turned back to Annie, who’d pulled the nightgown back up over her shoulder. Perhaps her eyes were a little brighter now. He wanted to take her mind off her parents, who were standing only six feet away, get her to focus on him, so he took her hand to give her comfort with the feel of human contact. He saw from the corner of his eye that her mother was watching his hand, holding her daughter’s. He positioned himself between them and their daughter, and turned his back to them. There was another bed in the room. Thankfully it was empty.
“I understand you picked Danny up from the Supreme Court on Friday evening.”
Annie nodded. “Yes, he was stuffing some things into his briefcase—it was a Gucci, I gave it to him for Christmas, just last month.” Her breath hitched, and she fell silent. Savich wondered how many drugs were still in her system. But her words had seemed coherent, so he waited.
“Danny loved that briefcase, always carried it around with him even though usually he’d have nothing of any importance in it. We took my car, and he locked the briefcase in the trunk. We laughed about how he shouldn’t take it into the movie theater with him—you know, a bomb, something like that.”
Savich saw Mrs. Harper make a move toward her daughter, but Mr. Harper held her in place.
“We went to dinner first, at Angelo’s over on Spreckels Street. Danny loved the olive, onion, and anchovy pizza there. Angelo’s was his favorite restaurant in Washington.”
“Where was the movie playing?”
“At the Consortium, over in Georgetown, you know, that arty theater that’s usually half empty.” She looked at her hands, and he felt hers move in his, burrow in a bit. “Whenever I said that, Danny would say no, it’s half full.” Good, she’d given him a small joke, and that meant she was beginning to trust him. Her other hand lay open on her lap on top of the thin sheet that covered her, her fingers curved inward, a bit like claws. “I didn’t want to see the film. I didn’t share his enthusiasm for them, but—” She sighed. “Danny had been talking about it for a week and a half. I kept putting him off, hoping the thing would close, but it was still playing and I couldn’t put him off any longer. We went to the nine o’clock show. The film was in Croatian, with subtitles, and the translation was so bad the dozen or so people in the theater were laughing. Danny didn’t, though. It was like he was watching a different film, sitting forward, his eyes glued to the screen. It was filmed in Split, that city on the Dalmatian Coast where that Roman emperor built this huge palace that’s still used today.”
“When you were at Angelo’s, did you talk about your day?”
“Not really. Danny didn’t want to. He was always talking about Justice Califano, about Eliza and Fleurette, but Friday night, he just ate, listened to me talk mostly, or so I thought. You know what? I was jealous. I was thinking about Fleurette and how he thought she was so cool, and I was jealous. I wasn’t very nice to him. I was going through the motions. I wanted to drive away with that Gucci briefcase I spent nearly a week’s salary on, and throw it in a dumpster.”