Invisible Prey

how you counted them. One was simply a note to Jane, telling her the status of investment accounts at U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and Vanguard, and noting that the second-quarter income-tax payments had all been made. Whether that was a suicide note, or not, depended on context.
    The other three notes were more clearly about suicide: about depression, about growing trouble, about the unfairness of the world, about the sense of being hunted, about trying to find a solution that would work. One said, to Jane, “If I don’t get back to you, I really loved you.”
     
    W YZINSKY AND W IDDLER talked for more than an hour, then Wyzinsky emerged from the den and said, “Mrs. Widdler has some information that she wants to volunteer. She says that she has to do it now, or it might not be useful. If any of this ever comes to a trial, I want it noted that she cooperated on this. That she was helping the investigation. I would like to make the point that she is not opening herself to a general interrogation, but is making a limited statement.”
    “That’s fine with me. We’ll record it, if that’s okay,” Lucas said.
    “That’s okay, though we don’t really need it,” Wyzinsky said. “This isn’t definitive evidentiary testimony, it’s simply a point that she wishes to make, a suggestion.”
    “Better to record,” Lucas said. “Just take a minute.”
     
    T HEY GOT a recorder from one of the crime-scene guys, and a fresh cassette, and set up in the den. Lucas turned it on, checked that it worked, started over, said his name, the date, time, and place of the recording, the names of the witnesses, and turned the show over to Widdler.
    Jane Widdler said, “I understand that I’m suspected of being an accomplice to my husband in illegal activities. I deny all of that. However, to help the investigation, I believe that the police must watch Amity Anderson, who has had a romantic attachment to my husband since we were in college, and which I thought was finished. However, I was told by Agent Davenport today that Amity Anderson figures in this investigation. I know Amity and I believe now that she is involved, and now that Leslie is…gone…she will try to run away. That is her response to crisis, and always has been. She wouldn’t even fight with me over Leslie’s affections. Once she is gone, she will be very hard to find, because she is quite familiar with Europe, both eastern and western. If she has money, from these supposed illegal activities, it could take years to find her. That’s all I have to say.”
    Lucas said, “You think she was involved?”
    Wyzinsky made a face, tilted his head, thought it over, then nodded at Widdler.
    “I don’t know,” Widdler said. “I can’t believe my husband was involved in anything illegal. Why should he be? Everything is going wonderfully in the business. We are the top antique and objets d’art destination in the Twin Cities. But I can’t explain how he was found this morning, where he was found, and I can’t explain the rifle. Agent Davenport said that he must have had an accomplice, and accused me of being the accomplice. I am not and never have been an accomplice. I’m a storekeeper. But Amity Anderson…I don’t know if she did anything wrong, but I think she must be watched, or she will run away.”
    “That’s pretty much it,” Wyzinsky said.
    Lucas peered at Jane Widdler for a moment, then reached out and turned off the recorder. “All right. Do not leave the Twin Cities, Mrs. Widdler.”
    “Are you going to watch Amity?”
    “We’re working on all aspects of the case. I don’t want to compromise the case by talking about it with a suspect,” Lucas said.
    “He’ll watch her,” Wyzinsky grunted. “Not much gets past Agent Davenport.”
     
    W IDDLER LEFT with Wyzinsky, and the crime-scene people continued to pull the house apart. Lucas got bored, went over to the Widdler shop, talked to the crime-scene guy in charge, who said, “More shit than you can believe, but none of it says ‘Bucher’ on the bottom. Haven’t found any relevant names in the files…”
    “Keep looking,” Lucas said.
     
    T HE ME, done with the autopsy late in the day, said that it could be suicide, or it could be murder. “Given the circumstances, we just can’t tell,” he said. “The gun was pointed slightly upward and straight into the temple, two inches above the cheekbone, and judging from the burns and powder content inside the wound, the end of the barrel