My first thought was only of myself. I thought, If Martha’s dead, my chances of ever knowing the truth about Gail are frailer than ever. Worse, unless Martha had left some message for Gail—you know, “To Be Opened Only in the Event of My Death”—how would I ever be able to tell her or anyone else about the possibility that I’m her father? I wondered if Martha had let anyone else on earth know about this. Perhaps her brother, Gail’s beloved uncle Joe? But he was, where, in Germany? I found it hard to believe that Martha would have shared our secret with Russ, but even if she had, Culpepper was saying he was gone now, too.

My second thought was that I had, in the last dozen days, witnessed the death of Marie Prasquier, been stabbed in the arm by Martha Prentice, had a woman who called herself Adeline Head flee at the sight of me on three occasions, discovered the possible reincarnation of the aforementioned Marie, and now learned of the deaths of Martha and Russ. All of these people I’d only encountered because of Gail. There was much I could tell Culpepper, including the fact that my hotel room had been ransacked the night before, but I didn’t dare speak a word until I knew if the girl who might be my daughter was in some way connected to, or even at the center of, this atonal medley of events.

I sat on the bed and he pulled over a chair. “What happened?” I asked.

“Car accident. On Grizzly Peak.” He grimaced. “ Off Grizzly Peak, actually. There’s a piece of road where I’ve been trying to get a guardrail installed for six years now. Coming downhill about halfway between Tilden Park and Fish Ranch Road, there’s been a half dozen cars gone over the edge in the last five years alone. Now add another. His Studebaker went off the cliff, and there was nothing to stop the fall until four hundred feet later. Imagine that fall, Ray.” He was a tough guy, and trying to be professional, but I could see he was upset.

I asked him if he wanted me to order up some coffee. He looked like he’d been awake awhile.

“No thanks, I’ve had too much already. Got the call around three this morning. They found the plates belonged to Hewett, and the officer in charge knew he was an acquaintance of mine. Not a great friend, we knew each other from working on the island, but, you know, we’d had dinner more than once. I was over to his house, met his lady friend.”

“When did this happen?”