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.She went around to branch offices of the bank.She evidently wanted to accumulate cash without attracting any kind of attention.And it worked.""What do you think was going on?" Meyer asked."Take a guess."Windham went back to his chair and slouched into it, leaning his chin on a steeple of long fingers."My bias comes into the answer.Where did this Evan Lawrence come from? Maybe she married some kind of con man, or somebody given to harebrained schemes to make a million.Even though Norma wasn't interested in money for its own sake, she was a very smart woman.She had a good mind.Could she have been cheated?""Probably," Meyer said."She was deeply in love.Trust becomes very important then.You suppress doubts for fear of offending the loved one.Her man and her work they were the important things in her life.If he asked for a loan, made a plausible sales pitch, she would have given it to him.""But why such stealth?" Windham said."If she had doubts, she knew she could come to me for advice.""Tell him, Travis," Meyer said.I didn't want to, because I knew it was going to have a very ugly effect on Roger Windham."It was a very violent explosion," I said to him."I read the reports.I know.Explosions are the big thing lately.How many school kids can you kill with a car bomb?""There were no identifiable remains.In fact, there were no remains at all.None recovered.Not of anybody aboard.""I read that-at least a hint of it-and I couldn't believe it.Or understand it.""Nobody aboard ever knew what happened to them.Existence suddenly stopped," I said."Her friends," he said, "decided we'd have a memorial service for them in a week or so.For there to be a funeral, there has to be something to bury.""We had a little ceremony in the Atlantic off Lauderdale, out off the sea buoy;" Meyer said."The other boats were there because of Captain Jenkins.But we brought our own wreath and floated it out on the tide at the same time.Our wreath was for Hack Jenkins and Norma and Evan Lawrence.""I'm glad that happened," he said."But now," I said, maybe too loudly, "Meyer and I are ninety-nine percent certain only three people were blown up out there-Norma and Hack and a harmless little guy who worked mate part-time."Windham shook his head and knuckled his tired reddened eyes."What are you trying to tell me?""Evan Lawrence had some time to work it all out The happy couple were living aboard Meyer's boat.In the Miami area you can buy anything in the world.Anything.A bazooka and a case of antitank grenades.Russian land mines.Persian whores.Chinese poisons.All you need is enough cash.He had access to Meyer's professional files aboard the Keynes.He could have picked up enough about Chile to be able to fake the terrorist claim on the phone.We have identified the third person on the boat as the hired mate.Evan was handy enough so that Jenkins would never have hired the mate if Evan had been along to help with Norma's tackle and bait.When they gassed up, Norma paid the hundred and something in cash out of her purse to the man at the pumps.Had Evan been there, she would have given it to him to give to the man.Had Evan been aboard, he would have been up on deck when they went out past the buoy into the wind and the chop.And what is more conclusive, Roger, is the way the money fits into the whole pattern."He didn't say anything.He did a strange and touching thing.He bent over slowly, all the way over, to rest his forehead against the shiny dark wood of the conference table.His red hair was thinning at the crown.It gave him a vulnerable look.We said nothing.In time he straightened up."I guess I knew it somehow," he said in a flat voice."Maybe I knew it when he shook my hand.After the wedding.He pumped my hand and beamed at me and told me how happy he was.All that great warm grinning.She was right there, his big left paw resting on her waist in ownership.He looked at me in… in a jolly way, as if we shared some kind of joke together.I guess he was laughing on the inside at the way he'd gotten Norma to spirit the money out of the trust without letting her faithful old adviser know about it.Or laughing about how it was all going according to plan."Meyer said, "Maybe at that time he already planned to kill her in such a way it would look as if he had died too.But he wouldn't have had the details worked out.They didn't know they were going to live aboard my boat while I gave talks in Toronto.""But they seemed to be so much in love.Both of them," Roger said wonderingly."Do the police believe any of this?""There's nothing yet to tell them," Meyer said."We've got no basis on which to try to trace Evan Lawrence.No personal papers.No fingerprints.Nothing.Just some little stories he told about his past.We're going to look into his past, provided those stories weren't lies.""If only Mr.Dexter hadn't loaned her to Pemex," he said."You know, when I found out about the money, about her taking it out of the trust account, that's when I knew why she was avoiding me after she married Evan Lawrence.I'd told her that she ought to come in and chat about the changes that ought to be made in their wills.But she was elusive.It wasn't a matter of any great urgency, I thought.I just wanted to see her and talk to her.She was an honest person.She was doing something without telling me, taking that money out.She really didn't have to tell me.It was her money, after all.But she didn't want to come in and not tell me.Sorry about nattering around like this, thinking with my mouth open.I just have the crazy feeling I lost her three times, when she got married, when she died, and-now-finding out maybe she was killed.I really think she liked me.We always found a lot to laugh about together.I just didn't make a move when I should have.And she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there was Evan Lawrence, grinning away, putting those big hands on her."Meyer said gently, "I never really got to know her.I should have made the effort.But she had a very busy life.We all think of the inconvenience of making an effort.We're all going to do the right things a little later on.Soon.But soon slides by so easily.Then we vow we'll try to do better.We all carry that little oppressive weight around in the back of our mind-that we should be living better, trying harder, but we're not.We're all living just about as well as we can at any given moment.But that doesn't stop the wishing."We went down into the tunnel system and found the underground garage and paid the ticket on the way out.He was silent on the way back to Piney Village, apparently concentrating on his driving, but I sensed that things were moving about in the back of his head, where his little personal computer works on equations.As soon as we were inside, he announced his return and the voice of the security office made its metallic acknowledgment.I stretched out on the couch near the fireplace.Meyer stood by the glass wall and looked out into the little garden.Finally he came over and sat near me."Once Windham arranged for me to stay here, he asked me to go through all the papers and documents I could find to see if I could learn anything about Evan Lawrence.The only traces of him were some old clothes, a pair of work shoes, and some love letters from Norma to him.""With addresses?""Without envelopes.From the contents I think they were sent back here from some field trips she went on.All the rest of her papers were professional documents, in those files there in the office alcove.Reports, surveys, daily drilling reports.Field maps.Computer printouts.All apparently in good order.How do we look for him?""We can start with a picture of him.""There isn't one here.Not one.I thought there would be wedding pictures at least.""There probably are.She would have invited her friends from the company to the wedding.People who go to weddings take their little cameras and take shaky shots of the happy couple
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