Big Sick Heart: A Detectives Seagate and Miner Mystery by Mike Markel Page A

story rings true to me. She’s
led such a crappy life for so many years, I see her as being numbed to it. You
know, it’s part of her job. And given what she’s had to go through on the
street, having to do Hagerty isn’t that bad in comparison. If he doesn’t beat
her up and doesn’t make her do anything more degrading than she told us about,
she might be okay with it. Sex is part of the job, but he gives her her own
room and she mostly gets to control her own time. It adds up, especially given
her relationship with Jon Ahern.”
    “How do you see that?” Ryan said.
    “Well, they’re in love. But since sex is one of
her job requirements, she’s not sleeping with Jon. She’s never seen sex as part
of a loving relationship. Sex is one of the things she does to get along. So
she screws Hagerty, like she does the bookkeeping and arranges the hotels.”
    “Okay, so what next?”
    “Why don’t we have another chat with Margaret? We
can tell her what Connie said about her relationship with her husband. She
might try to push us toward thinking Connie’s the one.”
    “Let me find out where she is,” Ryan said, getting
up and heading out to the uniformed officer at the reception desk. He came back
a moment later. “She’s in her room.” We took the stairs to 217 and knocked.
    Margaret Hagerty opened the door. She was wearing
the same expensive suit she had on this morning. “Detectives,” she said, with a
slight edge to her voice. Obviously a little annoyed at having to meet with a
couple of municipal workers twice in one day. She was holding her book, her
finger keeping it open to the page she was reading.
    “Ms. Hagerty, we’re so sorry to interrupt you
again, but some new developments have arisen we’d like to talk with you about.”
    She said, “Have you captured whoever did this?”
    “No, ma’am, not yet.” Apparently, she’d seen some
cop shows on TV. “But if we could just come in for a moment to talk with you.”
    She sighed. It was a mixture of disappointment
that the case had not yet been solved and skepticism that Ryan and I were quite
up to the task. She stepped back, allowing us to enter, and motioned with her
hand for us to sit as she settled into the soft chair. Ryan took the extra
chair that had been delivered this morning.
    “Ms. Hagerty, we’ve had a couple of opportunities
to interview Connie de Marco.”
    “I see.”
    “And we wanted to talk with you about something
she said, about a relationship with Mr. Hagerty.” Margaret Hagerty’s face was a
porcelain mask. I’d never seen anyone maintain her composure so well when she was
about to learn something truly embarrassing—or, at any rate, hear something truly embarrassing about her late husband. “I realize how painful
this whole episode must be, but for us to carry out this investigation we need
to ask you an embarrassing question.”
    “I understand completely, Detective. Proceed.”
    “Connie told us she had a long-standing sexual
relationship with Mr. Hagerty. Would you like to comment on that?”
    A hint of a smile broke the mask on Margaret
Hagerty’s face. “Is that the embarrassing question you wished to ask me?
Whether my husband had a sexual relationship with Connie?”
    “Well, yes, Ms. Hagerty. Yes, it was.”
    “Detectives, you can both relax. There is no cause
for embarrassment. I am aware that Connie had—what did you call it, ‘a long-standing
sexual relationship’?—with Mr. Hagerty. Yes, Arlen began his relationship with
Connie soon after she presented herself at Soul Savers. He had not yet
concluded his sexual relationship with Gail Something, which followed his
sexual relationship with Jackie Something, which followed more sexual
relationships than I can name. My memory for such things is not what it once
was.”
    “So, Ms. Hagerty, these relationships didn’t make
you jealous?”
    Margaret Hagerty laughed, her capped teeth white
and perfect. It was the first sign of joy we had seen from