“That would implicate the Chesapeake police.”
“Maybe not the entire department,” I said. “Maybe just Roche.
“If what you’re saying is true, he’s superficial in this, an outer layer far removed from the core. His interest in you is a separate issue, I suspect.”
“His only interest is to intimidate, to bully,” I said.
“And therefore, I suspect it is related.”
Wesley got quiet, looking out the windshield, and for a moment I indulged myself and stared at him.
Then he turned to me. “Kay, has Dr. Mant ever said anything about being threatened?”
“Not to me. But I don’t know if he would say anything.
Especially if he were frightened.”
“Of what? That’s what I’m having a very hard time imagining,” he said as he started the car and pulled out onto the street. “If Eddings were linked to the New Zionists, then how could that possibly connect to Dr. Mant?”
I did not know, and was quiet as he drove.
He spoke again. “Any possibility your British colleague simply skipped town? Do you know for a fact that his mother died?”
I thought of my Tidewater morgue supervisor, who had quit before Christmas without giving notice or a reason.
Then Mant suddenly had left, too.
“I know only what he told me,” I said. “But I have no reason to think he is lying.”
“When does your other deputy chief come back, the one out on maternity leave?”
“She just had her baby.”
“Well, that’s a little hard to fake,” he said.
We were turning on Malvern, and the rain was tiny pinpricks against the glass. Welling up inside me were words I could not say, and when we turned on Cary Street I began to feel desperate. I wanted to tell Wesley that we had made the right decision, but ending a relationship doesn’t end feelings. I wanted to inquire after Connie, his wife. I wanted to invite him into my home as I had done in the past, and ask him why he never called me anymore. Old Locke Lane was without light as we followed it toward the river, and he drove slowly in low gear.
“Are you going back to Fredericksburg tonight?” I asked.
He was silent, then said, “Connie and I are getting a divorce.”
I made no reply.
“It’s a long story and will probably be a rather long drawn-out messy thing. Thank God, at least, the kids are pretty much grown.” He rolled down his window and the guard waved us through.
“Benton, I’m very sorry,” I said, and his BMW was loud on my empty, wet street.
“Well, you probably could say I got what I deserved.
She’s been seeing another man for the better part of a year, and I was clueless. Some profiler I am, right?”
“Who is it?”
“He’s a contractor in Fredericksburg and was doing some work on the house.”
“Does she know about us?” I almost could not ask, for I had always liked Connie and was certain the truth would make her hate me.
We turned into my driveway and he did not answer until we had parked near my front door.
“I don’t know.” He took a deep breath and looked down at his hands on the wheel. “She’s probably heard rumors, but she really doesn’t listen to rumors, much less believe them.” He paused. “She knows we’ve spent a lot of time together, taken trips, that sort of thing. But I really suspect she thinks that’s solely because of work.”
“I feel awful about all of this.”
He said nothing.
“Are you still at home?” I asked.
“She wanted to move out,” he replied. “She moved into an apartment where I guess she and Doug can regularly meet.”
“That’s the contractor’s name.”
His face was hard as he stared out the windshield. I reached over and gently took one of his hands.
“Look,” I said quietly. “I want to help in any way I can. But you’ll have to tell me what I can do.”
He glanced at me, and for an instant his eyes shone with tears that I believed were for her. He still loved his wife, and though I understood, I did not want to see it.