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“What happened to your stepfather?” asked Sean.
“He had an accident.”
“What sort of accident?”
“The sort where he stopped breathing.”
“And your father?”
“He and my mother divorced when I was a little girl. Haven’t heard from him since. Probably why she divorced him in the first place. Not the most caring man in the world.”
Sean said, “How did you get permission to hire a lawyer to represent your brother?”
“Eddie is a brilliant person. It wasn’t that he could sort of remember everything he ever saw, read, or heard. He could recall it precisely right down to the date and time he’d experienced it. And he could take pieces of any puzzle you gave him and spit out the solution in no time. He operated on a different plane than the rest of us.” She paused. “Do you know what an eidetic memory is?”
“Like a photographic one?” said Sean.
“Pretty much. Mozart had one. Tesla too. Someone with an eidetic memory can, for instance, recite pi’s decimal places to over one hundred thousand. All from memory. It’s a genetic thing coupled with a little freak-of-nature occurrence. It’s like the wiring in the brain is simply better than everyone else’s. You can’t learn to be eidetic—you either are or you aren’t.”
“And your brother obviously had an eidetic memory?”
“Actually something more than that. He never forgot anything, but beyond that, like I said, he could see how all the pieces of any puzzle went together. ‘This fact affecting that fact’ sort of thing. No matter how disparate or seemingly unrelated. Sort of like looking at an anagram once and knowing exactly what it’s really saying. Most people use about ten percent of their brain. Eddie is probably up around ninety to ninety-five percent.”
“Pretty impressive,” said Michelle.
“He could have achieved greatness in any number of fields.”
“I sense a but coming,” prompted Sean.
“But he didn’t have a lick of common sense. Never did, never will. And if something didn’t interest him he ignored it, regardless of the consequences. Years ago, after he forgot to pay his bills, renew his driver’s license, and even pay his taxes, I got a power of attorney from him. I couldn’t do everything for him, but I tried my best.”
“If you did all that, how could you remain in the shadows of his life? The press didn’t even mention that he had a half sister after he was arrested.”
“I’d been gone for a long time. And I’d never come back home for long. And I had a different last name. But much of the help I provided him could be done long-distance.”
“But still.”
“And I’m a private person.”
“Is that why you moved here?” asked Michelle.
“Partly.” She sipped her coffee.
“Hilary is dead, too,” said Sean suddenly. “Did you know that?”
CHAPTER
26
FOR THE FIRST TIME Kelly Paul did not appear to be in control. She set the coffee cup down, raised a hand to her eyes, and then put it back down. “When?”
The tone was one of curiosity mixed with anger. Sean thought he might have also gleaned a hint of regret.
“Last night, outside of Bergin’s house.”
“How?”
Michelle glanced at Sean, who said, “She was set up and shot.” He leaned forward. “Do you have any idea what’s going on here, Ms. Paul?”
