Sparkes frowned. ‘What Mercedes? I don’t own a Mercedes. I have always bought American cars.’
I remembered that this had been one of his policies that he had been quite vocal about.
‘There’s a Mercedes behind the house. It burned up, too, so we can’t tell much about it yet,’ Marino said. ‘But it doesn’t look like a recent model to me. A sedan, sort of boxy like they were earlier on.’
Sparkes just shook his head.
‘Then we might wonder if it was the victim’s car,’ Marino deduced. ‘Maybe someone who had come to see you unexpectedly? Who else had a key to your house, and your burglar alarm code?’
‘Good Lord,’ Sparkes said as he groped for an answer. ‘Josh did. My stable hand, honest as the day is long. He quit for health reasons and I never bothered changing the locks.’
‘You need to tell us where to find him,’ Marino said.
‘He would never . . .’ Sparkes started to say, but he stopped and an incredulous expression came over his face. ‘My God,’ he muttered with an awful sigh. ‘Oh my God.’
He looked at me.
‘You said she was blond,’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘Can you tell me anything else about the way she looked?’ His voice was getting panicky.
‘Appears to be slender, possibly white. Wearing jeans, some sort of shirt, and boots. Lace-up boots, versus Western.’
‘How tall?’ he had to know.
‘I can’t tell. Not until I’ve examined her.’
‘What about jewelry?’
‘Her hands were gone.’
He sighed again, and when he spoke his voice trembled. ‘Was her hair very long, like down to the middle of her back, and a very pale gold?’
‘That’s the way it appears at this time,’ I replied.
‘There was a young woman,’ he began, clearing his throat several times. ‘My God . . . I have a place at Wrightsville Beach and met her there. She was a student at the university, or at least on and off she was. It didn’t last long, maybe six months. And she did stay with me on the farm, several times. The last time I saw her was there, and I ended the relationship because it couldn’t go on.’
‘Did she own an old Mercedes?’ Marino asked.
Sparkes shook his head. He covered his face with his hands as he struggled for composure.
‘A Volkswagen thing. Light blue,’ he managed to say. ‘She didn’t have any money. I gave her some in the end, before she left. A thousand dollars cash. I told her to go back to school and finish. Her name is Claire Rawley, and I suppose she could have taken one of my extra keys without my knowing while she was staying on the farm. Maybe she saw the alarm code when I punched it in.’
‘And you’ve had no contact with Claire Rawley for more than a year?’ I said.
‘Not one word,’ he replied. ‘That seems so far in my past. It was a foolish fling, really. I saw her surfing and started talking to her on the beach, in Wrightsville. I have to say, she was the most splendid-looking woman I have ever seen. For a while, I was out of my mind, then I came to my senses. There were many, many complications and problems. Claire needed a caretaker, and I couldn’t be that.’
‘I need to know everything about her that you can tell me,’ I said to him with feeling. ‘Anything about where she was from, her family. Anything that might help me identify the body or rule Claire Rawley out. Of course, I will contact the university, as well.’
‘I’ve got to tell you the sad truth, Dr Scarpetta,’ my former boss said to me. ‘I never knew anything about her, really. Our relationship was mainly sexual, with me helping her out with money and her problems as best I could. I did care about her.’ He paused. ‘But it was never serious, at least not on my side. I mean, marriage was never in the offing.’
He did not need to explain further. Sparkes had power. He exuded it and had always enjoyed almost any woman he wanted. But I felt no judgment now.