“I’ve got to verify that you haven’t made any large withdrawals of cash in recent Months.”

I remained silent.

“Doc, you haven’t; have you?”

I got up from the table, my pulse pounding.

“You can talk to my attorney,” I said.

After Marino left, I went upstairs to the cedar closet where I stored my private papers and began collecting bank statements, tax returns; and various accounting records. I thought of all the defense attorneys in Richmond who would probably be delighted if I were locked up or exiled for the rest of my days. I was sitting in the kitchen making notes on a legal pad when my doorbell rang: I let Benton Wesley and Lucy in, and I knew instantly by their silence that it was unnecessary to tell them what was going on.

“Where’s Connie?” I asked wearily.

“She`s hoping to stay through the New Year with her family in Charlottesville.”

“I’m going back to your study, Aunt Kay;’ Lucy said without hugging me or smiling. She left with her suitcase.

“Marino wants to go through my financial records,” I said to Wesley as he followed me into the living room.

“Ben Stevens is setting me up. Personnel files and copies of memos are missing from the office, and he’s hoping it will appear that I took them. And Roy Patterson, according to Marino, is a happy man these days. That’s the update of the hour.”

“Where do you keep the Scotch?”

“I keep the good stuff in the hutch over mere. Glasses are in the bar.”

“I don’t want to drink your good stuff.”

“Well, I do.”

I began building a fire.

“I called your deputy chief as I was driving in. Firearms has already taken a look at the slugs that were in Donahue’s brain. Winchester one-fifty- grain, lead, unjacketed, twenty-two- caliber. Two of them: One went in his left cheek and traveled up through the skull, the other was a tight contact at the nape of his neck.”

“Fired from the same weapon that killed the other two?”

“Yes. Do you want ice?”

“Please.”

I closed the screen and returned the poker to its stand. “I don’t suppose any feathers were recovered from the scene or from-Donahue’s body.”

“Not that I know Of. It’s clear that his assailant was standing outside the car and shot him through the open driver’s window. That doesn’t mean this individual wasn’t inside with him earlier, but I don’t think so. My guess is Donahue was supposed to meet someone at Deep Water Terminal in the parking lot. When this person arrived, Donahue rolled down his window and that was it. Did you have any luck with Downey?” He handed coke my drink and settled on the couch.

“It appears that the origin of the feathers and feather particles recovered from the three other cases is common eider duck.”