affair? And the bedroom smelled of disinfectant.”
“Masking the smell of love,” he said. “You didn’t see anyone?
Pass any cars speeding away?”
“Just the pool man pulling out of the driveway next door- Oh, shit, you
don’t think?”
“Sure I do.” He laughed. “I see the worst in everyone.” More
laughter. “The pool man. Now there’s your basic SoCal thang.”
“He was next door, not at her house.”
“So what? It’s not unusual for those guys to service several pools on
one block-that far out øof town, he might do the whole damned
neighborhood. More ways than one. Do the Joneses have a pool?”
“Yes, but it was covered.”
“Get a look at Mr. Chlorine?”
“Young, tan, ponytail. The sign on his truck said ValleyBrite Pool
Service, with an I-T-E.”
“He see you pull up?”
“Yup. He stopped short, stuck his head out the window and stared, then
gave this big grin with the thumb-up sign.”
“Friendly, huh? Even if he’d just screwed her, he may not be the only
one. Back in the army she was no nun.”
“How’d you find out about it?”
“Wasn’t easy. The army buries stuff just on principle. Charlie spent
a lot of øtime trying to get into her file and couldn’t. Finally, I
swallowed my pride and called the colonel-only for you, bucko.”
“Much appreciated.”
“Yeah . . . To his credit, the asshole didn’t gloat. Hooked me right
up with an unlisted military number in D.C. Some kind of archive. They
had no details just name, rank, serial number, and her EIS designation,
but I was lucky to get a records officer who’d done rice-paddy duty
same time as me, and I convinced him to call South Carolina and find me
someone to talk to. He came up with a female captain who’d been a
corporal back when Cindy was a grunt.
She remembered Cindy very well. Seems our gal was the talk of the
barracks.”
“It’s an all-female base,” I said. Are we talking lesbian
promiscuity?”
“Nope. She messed around in town-used to go on leave and party in the
local bars. It ended, according to this captain, when Cindy hooked up
with a bunch of teenagers and one of them happened to be the son of a
local big shot. She gave him the clap. Mayor paid a visit to the base
commander, and bye-bye. Sordid little tale, hub? Any relevance to the
Munchausen thing?”
“Promiscuity’s not part of the profile, but if you consider it another
form of attention seeking, I guess it would be consistent.
Also, Munchausens often report incest in childhood, and promiscuity
could be another reaction to that. What definiiely fits the profile is
early experience with serious illness, and v D. wasn’t her first. The
aunt who raised her was diabetic.” ø “Sugar screw-up. Interesting.”
“Wait, there’s more.” I told him about finding the Insujects and
showing them to Cindy.
“I thought it might be the confrontation we’ve been waiting f But she
didn’t show any guilt or anxiety. Just puzzlement about what they were
doing beneath the sink. She said they were leftovers from the
aunt-something she thought she’d gotten rid of when she cleaned out the
aunt’s house after she died. But there was no dust on the box, so
that’s probably another lie.”
“How long ago did the aunt die?”
“Four years. The doctor the samples were sent to was the aunt’s
physician and boss.”
“Name?”
“Ralph Benedict. Hell, for all I know, lies’ the mystery lover.
Who’d be better at faking illnesses than a doctor? And we know she
goes for older men-she married one.”
“Younger ones too.”
“Yeah. But it makes sense, doesn’t it-a doctor boyfriend?
Benedict could be supplying her with drugs and apparatus. Coaching her
in faking illness.”
“What’s his motive?”
“True love. He sees the kids as encumbrances, wants to get rid of them
and have Cindy all to himself. Maybe with some of Chip’s money thrown
in. As an M.D he’d know how to set it up. Know how to be careful.
Because two kids from one family dying, one right after another, is
suspicious, but if the deaths were different and each looked medically
valid, it could be pulled off.”