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Macy seemed to appreciate my new attitude. He smiled and pulled a notebook out of the leather satchel he always carried. He settled in at Hollis’s desk, not thinking twice about reorganizing Hollis’s papers.
I went to the bathroom and washed my hands. I didn’t want to lie.
Then I left the office. I decided it would probably be a good idea to finish my visits with the other businesses before I went back to the hospital.
I smiled as I drove away, wondering how long Macy would sit quietly at the desk before he started asking about me.
Chapter 77
The people at Manhattan Family Insurance, where victim Elaine Anastas had interned, were pleasant and tried to be helpful. They all spoke highly of her.
Not that I’d expected anything else—most people only seem to recall a homicide victim’s positive qualities, although someone’s bad traits are more likely to have led to their death. Not that that necessarily applied when we were talking about a serial killer. Still, I tried to hide my impatience when I heard on endless loop: “Elaine was so bright.” “Elaine was so driven.” “Elaine came from someplace upstate but managed to make it in the city.” High praise from fellow New Yorkers.
About the fifth person I spoke to was a man named Luis Munoz. Munoz was dressed in a black suit with a yellow tie and acted more like he owned the place than managed it. He also made sure to tell me that he’d gotten his MBA at Columbia.
We sat at adjoining empty desks. After Munoz went on and on about what a good intern Elaine had been, I said a little harshly, “C’mon. It’s just us. I’m not going to make any notes. And I promise I won’t remember who tells me what. But this bland information about Elaine won’t help me capture her killer. I need to understand who she really was. Can you help me?”
Munoz considered my position and finally said, “Okay. Truth is, I knew Laney reasonably well. I even met one of her two roommates at an office happy hour. I can’t remember the girl’s name, but she interned with the Yankees. She loved baseball.”
I had spoken to that roommate. It had been her bobbleheads I’d first noticed.
Munoz continued. “Laney was highly social. Almost had, like, a phobia of loners or of being alone.”
I asked a few more questions and was impressed by how forthright Munoz was being. He even admitted that Elaine had once turned him down for a date. Not that, as her supervisor, he should have been asking, I thought, keeping the future working lives of my daughters in mind.
As I started to wrap things up, I noticed a sticker, then saw that duplicates had been applied to the frame of every computer monitor and landline phone in the office. The stickers showed a cartoon computer, its long arms holding a radio in one hand and a telephone in the other. Underneath it was a company name: Computelex.
The branding struck me as unusual so I took a picture of it with my phone.
I thanked Munoz and decided it was time to head over to the hospital.
Chapter 78
The nurse caring for Brett Hollis recognized me from this morning, nodded, and waved her hand toward his room.
I opened the door quietly. Mrs. Hollis looked up at me from where she sat by her son, holding his hand.
As I stepped farther into the room, I saw Hollis was awake. He even managed a smile. His face didn’t look too bad, though he was back to bandages across his nose. I guess I was used to it. He also had one arm in a cast, and one leg as well. He didn’t look very comfortable lying in the bed.
Hollis managed a weak, “Hey.”
“Hey,” I said back.
Mrs. Hollis stood up. She said, “Brett’s been through a lot. They set his pelvis late last night. The doctor seems happy with his progress.”
“I’m just here to say hello,” I assured her.
She gave me a stern look. “Three minutes. That’s it. When I come back from the bathroom, you’ve got to go.”
I nodded my agreement. I liked her. I could see where Hollis got his smarts.
I sat down in the same chair his mother had been in. I wanted to chat with Hollis. Cheer him up. But the truth was, I had an agenda.
I leaned in close and asked, “Remember anything?”
Hollis smiled. “All business. I respect that.” His voice faded out. I handed him the cup from his nightstand and helped him sip some water. Then he started again. “A guy tumbled into Kelly and I just reacted.”
I remembered Harry Grissom telling me that Kelly Konick was the pretty girl in the yellow skirt who’d been there with Hollis. “Can you remember anything about the guy?”
