Spiral

anything.
    The Skipper nodded. ‘You find it a bit odd that my wife’s tennis instructor would be attending her husband’s birthday party, don’t you?”
    After a moment, I said, ”Yes.”
    A crooked smile, only the left side of his face changing. ”I’m glad you still have the capacity for speaking awkward truths, Lieutenant. But in fact, it was Veronica who insisted that Mr. Radescu be invited to my party.”
    ‘Your granddaughter?”
    ”Cassandra had been taking Veronica to tennis lessons at the club we belong to, and Veronica had grown to like Mr. Radescu enormously.” A pause. ”When you meet him, I think you’ll see why.”
    ”No other family at the party?”
    Now sadness. ”David, briefly.”
    When Helides didn’t continue, I tilted my head toward the man standing next to him. ”And Mr. Tranh.”
    The Skipper grew a little stem. ”In fact, Lieutenant, I do consider Duy ‘family,’ but we’d already mentioned his attendance.”
    I let that leach from the air for a minute before saying, ”Colonel, what happened here is a tragedy. If you’re right about the security aspect, the killer does have to be somebody invited to the party. But since that’s a finite list, I still don’t see what I can do for you that the police can’t.”
    Justo said, ”Everybody has lawyered up, John.”
    I looked at him.
    Helides said, ”My ‘guests’ took their lesson from the Ramsey case in Colorado, Lieutenant. Everyone has hired an attorney, or refuses to speak to the police without one.”
    ”And that’s... working for them?”
    Justo shook his head. ”The police cannot force any of people here that day to speak with them, because each can reasonably claim to be a suspect.”
    ”Lieutenant Vega, I find the use of the word ‘reasonably’ to be offensive in this context.”
    ”Sorry, sir.”
    ”Colonel,” I said, ”offensive or not, if the police can’t crack the circle, what makes you think I can?”
    Helides came back to me. ”There wasn’t a man, woman, or child at that party who isn’t beholden to my fortune for a significant part of his or her well-being. I’ve offered each a simple choice: Speak with my chosen investigator privately, or have the resources at my disposal devoted to the destruction of the person involved.” Not bitterness now, nor irony. Just determination, a force of will that transcended the physical limitations imposed on him by the stroke.
    I said, ”Colonel, I’m not licensed in Florida, and even if I were, the police wouldn’t tolerate my having access denied to them.”
    ”Lieutenant, those resources of mine put a United States congressman and three state senators in their seats. Behind the scenes and quietly, but they know who buttered their bread for them. Mother Goose, if they can’t hand-carry the application for a private investigator’s license through the bureaucracy, I’ll see to it they don’t get to take home with them so much as a paper clip when they lose the next election.”
    Quietly, I said, ”That still leaves the police problem.” Helides grew still, almost serene. ”The police ‘problem’ is that in nearly two weeks, they have not found diddly, because I’ve received personal briefings every other day. We were MPs together in Saigon, Lieutenant Cuddy. You know what the passage of so much time does to the odds of their ever determining who killed my granddaughter, much less being able to prove it in a court of law.”
    ”Colonel, at best the police would wait till I’d gathered information they want themselves, then subpoena me to provide it.”
    ”Lieutenant Vega can protect you in court, though I’m not sure I’d mind your sharing what you’ll have learned with the police. And we have ten thousand in cash for you, plus a credit card in your name and a cellular phone. Duy?”
    How Tranh brought the things into his own hands without my noticing, I don’t know, but there were the stack of bills, the card, and a tiny black object with a corded socket adaptor, held out in his palms like the proverbial horn of plenty.
    ”I don’t think I—”
    ”Lieutenant.” The Skipper cleared his throat again.
    ”Please?”
    A word I’d never heard Colonel Nicolas Helides use before.
    I looked from Justo Vega to Duy Tranh before returning to the Skipper. Watching his eyes, I thought of standing at Beth’s graveside the night before, about her thoughts on my being spared from Nancy’s flight for a purpose.
    Helides just watched me