“She supposedly had headed north to visit a sick sister.”
“Her car should be damaged,” he said.
“And if she’s the one who did this, you can bet she’s already getting it fixed. In fact, it may already be fixed.”
“Even if it is, the paint left on my car could be matched back to it,” I said.
“We’ll hope so.”
“You sound doubtful.”
“If the paint job on her car is original and has never been touched up since it came off the assembly line, we could have a problem. Paint technology’s changed. Most car manufacturers have gone to a clear base coat, which is a polyurethane enamel. Even though it’s cheaper, it looks really rich. But it’s not as many layers, and what’s unique in vehicle paint identification is the layer sequence.”
“So if ten thousand Bamboo Mist Infinitis came off the assembly line at the same time, we’re screwed.”
“Big-time screwed. A defense attorney will say you can’t prove the paint came from her car, especially since the accident occurred on an interstate that’s used by people from all over the country. So it won’t even do any good to try to find out how many Infinitis painted that color were shipped to certain regions. And she’s not from the area where the accident occurred, anyway.”
“What about the Nine-one-one tape?” I asked.
“I’ve listened to it. The call was made at eight forty-seven p.m.” and your niece said, “This is an emergency.” That’s as much as she got out before she was cut off by a lot of noise and static. She sounded like she was in a panic. ”
The story was awful, and I felt no better when I called Wesley at home and his wife answered.
“Hold on, and I’ll get him to the phone.” She was as friendly and gracious as she had always been.
I had weird thoughts while I waited. I wondered if they slept in separate bedrooms, or if she simply had gotten up earlier than he had and this was why she had to go someplace to tell him I was on the phone. Of course, she might be in their bed and he was in the bathroom. My mind spun on, and I was unnerved by what I was feeling. I liked Wesley’s wife, and yet I did not want her to be his wife. I did not want anyone to be his wife. When he got on the phone, I tried to talk calmly but did not succeed.
“Kay, wait a minute,” he said, and he sounded as if I had awakened him, too.
“Have you been up all night?”
“More or less. You’ve got to get back out there. We can’t rely on Marino. If we even try to contact him, she’ll know.”
“You can’t be certain it was her who called your pager.”
“Who else could it have been? No one knows I’m here, and I’d just left the hotel number on Marino’s pager. It was only minutes before I got called back.”
“Maybe it was Marino who called.”
“The clerk said it was a woman’s voice.”
“Dammit,” Wesley said.
“Today ismichele’s birthday.”
“I’m sorry.” I was about to cry and didn’t know why.
“We’ve got to find out if Denesa Steiner’s car has been damaged. Someone’s got to go look. I’ve got to know why she was after Lucy.”
“Why would she go after Lucy? How could she have known where Lucy was going to be that night and what kind of car she would be in?”
I recalled Lucy telling me that Marino had advised her on her gun purchase. It may have been that Mrs. Steiner overheard their telephone conversation, and I voiced this theory to Wesley.
“Did Lucy have a time when she was going to be there, or did she impulsively stop there on her way back from Quantico?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” I began to shake with rage.
“The bitch. Lucy could have been killed.”
“Christ, you could have been killed.”
“The goddam bitch.”
“Kay, be still and listen to me.” He said the words slowly and in a way that was meant to soothe. “} will get back down to North Carolina and see what the hell’s going on. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise. But I want you to get out of that hotel as soon as you can. How long are you supposed to be in Knoxville? “