“When her daughter’s Jeep was found, she asked if we’d recovered a card. And she called me about again after the bodies turned up.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why would she have known last fall? It sounds to me as if she knew the details of the other cases before Deborah and Fred disappeared.”
“She knew some of the details. Pat Harvey was interested in these cases long before she had persona; motivation.”
“You’ve heard some of the theories,” he said. “Drug overdoses. Some new weird designer drug on the street, the kids going out in the woods to party and ending up dead. Or some drug dealer who gets his thrills by selling bad stuff in some remote place, then watching the couples die.”
“I’ve heard the theories, and there is nothing to support them. Toxicology results were negative for drugs in the first eight deaths.”
“I remember that from the reports,” he said,” thoughtfully. “But I also assumed this didn’t necessarily mean the kids hadn’t been involved in drugs. Their bodies were almost skeletonized. Doesn’t seem there was much left to test.”
“There was some red tissue left, muscle. That’s enough for testing. Cocaine or heroin, for example. We, at least, would have expected to find their metabolites of benzoylecogonine or morphine. As for designer drugs, we tested for analogues of PCP, amphetamines.”
“What about China White?”
he proposed, referring to a very potent synthetic analgesic popular in California. “From what I understand, it doesn’t take much for an overdose and is difficult to detect.”
“True. Less than one milligram can be fatal, meaning the concentration is too low to detect without using special analytical procedures such as RLA.”
Noting the blank expression on his face, I explained, “Radioimmunoassay, a procedure based on specific drug antibody reactions. Unlike conventional screening procedures, RIA can detect small levels of drugs, so it’s what we resort to when looking for China White, LSD, THC.”
“None of which you found.”
“That’s correct.”
“What about alcohol?”
“Alcohol’s a problem when bodies are badly decomposed. Some of those tests were negative, others less than point oh-five, possibly the result of decomposition. Inconclusive, in other words.”
“With Harvey and Cheney as well?”
“No trace of drugs so far,” I told him. “What is Pat Harvey’s interest in the early cases?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he replied. “I’m not saying.’ was a major preoccupation. But she must have gotten tips back when she was a U.S. attorney, inside information, and she asked some questions. Politics, Kay “‘ I suppose if it had turned out that these deaths of couples in Virginia were related to drugs – either accidental deaths or drug homicides – she would have used the information to buttress her anti-drug efforts.”
That would explain why Mrs. Harvey seemed well informed when I had lunch at her house last fall I thought. No doubt she had information on file in her office because of her early interest in the cases.
“When her inquiries into this didn’t go anywhere” Wesley continued, “I think she pretty much let it go until her daughter and Fred disappeared. Then it all came back to her, as you can imagine.”
“Yes, I can imagine. And I can also imagine the bitter irony had it turned out that drugs killed the Drug Czar’s daughter.”
“Don’t think that hasn’t crossed Mrs. Harvey’s mind, Wesley said grimly.
The reminder made me tense again. “She has a right know, Benton. I can’t pend these cases forever.”
He nodded to the waiter that we were ready for coffee “I need you to buy me more time, Kay.”
“Because of your disinformation tactics?”
“We need to give that a shot, let the stories run without interference. The minute Mrs. Harvey gets anything from you, all hell’s going to break loose. Believe me, I know how she’ll react better than you do at this point. She’ll go to the press, and in the process screw up everything we’ve been setting up to lure the killer.”
“What happens when she gets her court order?”
“That will take time. It won’t happen tomorrow. Will you stall a little longer, Kay?”
“You haven’t finished explaining about the jack of hearts,” I reminded him.