“Hold on. Let me finish giving you the rundown. What Sparkes is saying is that security was waiting for him the minute his plane landed at Heathrow at nine-forty-five the next morning—on Saturday. And we’re talking England time, making it four-forty-five A.M. back here. He was told about the fire and turned right around and caught a United flight back to Washington without bothering with his bags.”

“I guess if you were upset enough, you might do that,” I said.

Marino paused, looking hard at me as I set the soap on top of the sink and dried my hands.

“Doc, you got to quit sticking up for him,” he said.

“I’m not. I’m just trying to be more objective than I think some people are being. And certainly security at Heathrow should remember notifying him when he got off that plane?”

“Not so far. And we can’t quite figure out how security knew about the fire anyway. Course Sparkes has got an explanation for everything. Says security always makes special provisions when he travels and meets him at the gate. Apparently the fire had already hit the early-morning news in London, and the businessman that Sparkes was supposed to meet with called British Air to alert them to give Sparkes the news the second he was on the ground.”

“And someone’s talked to this businessman?”

“Not yet. Remember, this is Sparkes’s story. And I hate to tell you this, Doc, but don’t think people wouldn’t lie for him, either. If he’s behind all this, I can guarantee that he planned it right down to the fine print. And let me also add that by the time he’d arrived at Dulles to catch the flight to London, the fire was already going and the woman was dead. Who’s to say he didn’t kill her and then use some kind of timer to get the fire going after he’d left the farm?”

“There’s nothing to say it,” I agreed. “There’s also nothing to prove it. And there doesn’t seem to be much chance of our knowing such a thing unless some material turns up in forensic exams that might point to some sort of explosive device used remotely as an igniter.”

“These days half the stuff in your house can be used as a timer. Alarm clocks, VCRs, computers, digital watches.”

“That’s true. But something has to initiate low explosives, like blasting caps, sparks, a fuse, fire,” I said. “Unless you have any other cleaning to do,” I added dryly, “I’ll be heading out.”

“Don’t be pissed at me,” Marino said. “You know, it’s not like this whole damn thing is my fault.”