“We’re just trying to find out who might have convinced Jon to act the way he did. Sometimes if you threaten someone that a person cares about, you can get him to do something he would never otherwise do.”

The senator didn’t look happy, but at last he agreed. However, he told me unequivocally, “I don’t appreciate you prying into my personal affairs.”

Alright.

Well, here we go.

“Were you aware that your son was using illegal substances?”

“The Selzucaine in the tox screen?”

“Yes.”

“My son was not a drug user.”

Rather than argue, I simply said, “We need to find out who supplied him with the drug that was in his system the night he died.”

The senator set down the coffee mug. “I don’t know anything about that.”

Mannie had told me that Jon was talking about his father when he said his final words, “This is for you.” Mannie hadn’t been forthcoming on how he knew that, but I believed he was telling me the truth, or at least what he believed to be true.

Even though I’d established that the senator couldn’t have been present when the other suicides occurred, I still didn’t know about the death of his son.

“Were you there, Senator?”

“What?”

“Behind the door, watching when Jon died.”

“You’re blaming me?”

“I’m not blaming you. I’m asking you.”

He shook his head angrily. “I’ve done all I know to help you find the identity of that person, and I have to say I’m insulted that you would even ask me a question like that.”

It wasn’t lost on me that he hadn’t given me an answer.

“Good day, Agent Bowers.”

Before I could reply, he spun on his heels and left the kitchen.

Okay.

That went well.

After taking my mug back to my office, I found a message waiting for me from Angela that Lacey couldn’t locate any matching names that corresponded to those dates and locations from air transportation involving any commercial airlines.

My immediate thought turned to private planes.

Someone who could afford to pay the Matchmaker for the opportunity to watch others die might not fly the way most of us do.

I called Angela. “Let’s look at private aircraft. The observer traveled to those locations somehow, and I want to know who it was and how he got there.”

71

12:02 P.M.
2 hours left

While Christie was listening to Calvin recount anecdotes about Pat’s time in graduate school, the doctors came by to wheel him out for his CT scan.

“Would you like me to stay?” Christie asked him.

“Ah, and see, here all of that talk about truth earlier gets put to the test. I would very much like for you to stay, but I do not want to intrude on your plans for the day.”

“No intrusion whatsoever. I’ll wait here.”