CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Elaine looked from one detective to the other. Retelling that awful night was beginning to wear her down. “Tasia told me later at the hospital that she cut her left wrist so deep, she couldn’t feel her fingers anymore. It’s not much better now. She’s lost about half the use of that hand.”
Detective Connery sat back in his chair, nodding his head.
“I do feel guilty for not trying to help her when I had the chance. I should’ve talked to her instead of leaving her alone to wallow in self-pity.”
“But?”
“But I was tired and didn’t want to take the time.” Elaine looked remorseful. “Being around people who don’t seem to care is no excuse for me to act the same way.”
“You didn’t know what to do for her. I’d say you were pretty much at a impasse.”
“I suppose,” she said, appreciating his effort to make her feel better.
“You mentioned that Tasia used Carl’s straight razor to cut her wrists,” Connery said.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And you also said that you found her in one of the servants’ bathrooms.”
“Yes. The one reserved for women.”
“Carl kept the razor in his office bathroom, right?”
“That’s right.”
“So how did she get it? You said she never answered Carl’s call.”
Elaine hesitated, fully understanding Connery’s question but not sure if she should answer. Connery seemed to be a decent man and more than that, one that she could trust. She had to trust somebody.
“Tasia told me sometime later that she’d gone into Mr. Kastenmeier’s office to talk to him that night,” she said, “but he shunned her for being wasted. All the drugs and alcohol were definitely taking their toll. Why, she’d been abusing the stuff for three days straight. Betty and I were told to do all the cooking.
“Anyway,” she continued, “Mr. Kastenmeier told Tasia she looked like hell, and that she should go and clean herself up. He was so mad, he pushed her around some, bruising her arms and legs. When she got angry at him for being rough with her, she went into his bathroom, got the razor, and thought about using it on him. But she decided to use it on herself instead.”
Connery checked his notes. “I had the file on the McAvoy case sent over from downtown. Lab tests confirmed that cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol had been in Tasia’s blood the night of her attempted suicide, but when the police checked the house, no drugs were found. All they found was an open pack of cigarettes. Can you explain that?”
“Carl ordered Betty to clean the room and get rid of the drugs before the police showed up. The doctors at the hospital were so involved with saving Tasia’s life and reattaching her left hand, they didn’t discover the drugs in her bloodstream until several hours after she’d been admitted. When the police questioned Carl about the cocaine and heroin, he said he didn’t know anything about it. He said she must’ve gotten the drugs somewhere else. They checked her apartment and found drugs there, so they stopped bugging him about it. However, he did use his money and influence to keep her out of jail.”
“Are you suggesting that law enforcement officers had been bribed?” Slye asked, looking mean.
“I don’t know what went on between Mr. Kastenmeier and the law,” she told him. “All I know is, Tasia never went to jail. Check the file if you don’t believe me.”
“Had she gone anywhere that day,” Connery asked, “to her own apartment, or anywhere else?”
“No,” Elaine said. “It was all just a lie. You see, Mr. Kastenmeier was good at seeing to it that she never wandered but so far away from him on any given day.”
“Who went to the hospital with her?”
“Cameron and I did, and Heather went with us. Zach came as soon as he found out what had happened. Mr. Kastenmeier made Betty stay and clean up the place. She flushed all the drugs.” Heaving a sigh, she added, “If the police had tested that toilet bowl for traces of hard drugs, they would’ve found enough to lock Tasia up for years.”
“Did Carl go to the hospital?”
“Yes, and John went with him. Mr. Kastenmeier seemed very upset, actually.” Elaine hesitated. “He should’ve felt responsible for it, if you ask me.”
Connery sat forward in his seat. “You’ll get no argument from me,” he said.
“All hell broke loose when Zach showed up. Can you imagine two men coming to blows in the middle of a hospital? John even jumped in. Together, he and Mr. Kastenmeier beat Zach up pretty good.”
“How was the situation neutralized?”
“The police came and threw Zach out of the hospital.”
“And Carl?”
She shook her head. “They never even touched him. He’s a big contributor, you see. County General will probably name a wing after him someday.”
“He’s helped out a lot with the police fund as well,” Connery admitted. “Did the police reprimand John?”
“No, they didn’t.”
“Did anyone else show up at the hospital?”
Staring at Connery for a moment, she didn’t know whether to answer or not. “Vic Kastenmeier came.”
“Had he been at the house that night?”
“No, he found out about it later.”
“Are he and Tasia close?”
Elaine looked down at her hands, stalling for time; she was afraid to be honest with him. “They’re closer than I had thought.”
“Were they also having an affair?”
“No, no,” she said, rubbing her hands together because they were getting sweaty. “Vic was called because Tasia asked for him.”
“They’re good friends, then?”
“Tasia asked Mr. Kastenmeier to call her father,” Elaine said, “and Vic showed up.”
“Are you telling me that Vic is Tasia’s father?”
“Yes,” she said, glancing out of a window. For some reason, she felt embarrassed. Even Detective Slye took an uncommon interest in this information, coming to the edge of his seat and looking like a boy who’d just discovered that Tonka toys weren’t real trucks.
“Carl was Tasia’s uncle,” Connery surmised.
“That’s right,” Elaine said, looking at him again.
“Who else knew that?”
Shrugging, she raised her hands for a moment. “Everybody did except me.” She paused. “Tasia told me a lot of things about her private life while she was hospitalized.”
“What things?”
“That Mr. Kastenmeier had never planned to marry her because they were so closely related. Her getting pregnant was also out of the question because he was afraid the child would be an idiot or deformed or something.” Elaine sighed again. “The only reason he married Mrs. Kastenmeier was because she bore him a healthy son. I guess he figured she was from good stock. Her father is an astrophysicist and her mother, a physical chemist in Germany. After Silas was born, Mr. Kastenmeier really didn’t have any use for her anymore. Still, he’d been thoughtful enough to see to it that his son didn’t stay a bastard all his life.
“Tasia also told me that having an intelligent son was important to Mr. Kastenmeier,” Elaine continued, “and he measured intelligence by how capable Silas was of memorizing facts. Maybe it was a blessing that Silas had been born a genius. I’d hate to imagine what his life would’ve been like had he not been able to live up to Mr. Kastenmeier’s expectations.”
“As smart as he is, I still don’t envy him.”
“Neither do I.”
“Did Tasia tell you anything else?”
“Yes. She confided in me that she’d gotten pregnant once, but Carl made her have an abortion. He told her he didn’t want a moron running his business.”
Connery sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He stared up at the fresco on the ceiling and thought about that. “Carl must have been a real sweetheart,” he said, shaking his head. “I wonder why he insisted on taking his niece for a mistress?”
“O
h, that’s easy,” Elaine said, and so Connery looked at her again. “Tasia told me that he chose her because she was his only niece, and he didn’t have any daughters.”
“Jeez,” Slye said, unable to contain his disgust any longer. Shaking his head and furrowing his brow, he tossed his notepad down on his lap and rubbed his hands together. “That Carl was a real head case.”
“Was being related to him a prerequisite for the position?” Connery asked, just as surprised as Slye was over the revelation.
“Sounds like it to me. But I’m afraid only Mr. Kastenmeier could’ve answered that for sure.”